Page 143 of Over the Moon

“Beefcake, you’re breaking my heart,” Bridger grumped.

“I thought you didn’t have a heart,” Rafe said teasingly as Bridger chucked a dinner roll at him from across the table.

“Hey, knock that off. And for the record, Bridger has the biggest heart beneath that grumpy exterior.” My mother blew him a kiss.

“Okay, let’s hear it,” Easton said, passing the stuffing to Henley.

“All right. I’ll do the honors,” Lulu said as she glanced down at her phone and cleared her throat dramatically. “Hey there, Roses. It’s the Thanksgiving edition because we have so much to be thankful for. Booze and Brews is doing a Thankful Happy Hour on Friday and Saturday this weekend, with line dancing and two-for-one drinks. The Honey Biscuit Café has made a big announcement… They will be bringing honey biscuits to the menu.”

Easton fist-pumped the sky. “It’s about damn time.”

“This is really riveting literature,” Bridger grumped as he poured gravy over his entire plate and then poured a little bit on Melody’s mashed potatoes.

“Continue, I love this,” Henley said.

“But the most exciting news is that our favorite Rosewood River family seems to be very busy right now. Looks like we misread the hockey team owner and billionaire who came to town and appeared to want to sweep our favorite newcomer off her feet… because our favorite hockey star got the girl. Apparently, when she’s not training him or healing his wounds, she’s busy stealing his heart. Sorry, ladies, another bachelor bites the dust,” Lulu said dramatically. “Gahhh… I love this!”

“They’re talking about you two,” Cutler said over a mouthful of potatoes as he pointed at me and Eloise. “They must know that Uncle Clark is over the moon.”

Everyone chuckled, and Bridger folded his hands together. “Are we finished with the ridiculous gossip column now?”

“Nope. There’s a little more. Continue eating, and I’ll read the last paragraph,” Lulu said, taking a sip of her wine before setting her glass down. “Speaking of eligible bachelors who have flown the coop. We all know another member of the family fell hard for his lovely lady, who is famous for her style and jewelry.” Lulu squealed. “They are clearly talking about us, Rafael.”

“They sure are, baby,” Rafe said, as he leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Okay, last part.” She smirked at Bridger, and then her eyes moved back to her phone. “But word on the street is, this particular man was seen with several family members in the city at a different kind of jewelry store. From what I’ve heard from my sources, he purchased an exquisite engagement ring, and wedding bells are in their future.” Lulu paused, eyes wide as she turned to look at Rafe.

The table went completely quiet.

You could hear a pin drop.

“What? You bought a ring?” she whispered.

“Un-fucking-believable,” Bridger hissed, and my mother shot him a warning look, as did Archer and Emerson, but the fact that theTaylor Teahad just outed Rafe’s surprise engagement was more pressing than Bridger dropping an F-bomb at the dinner table, apparently.

“I, er, I—yeah, well, it was supposed to be a surprise.” Rafe took her hand in his and shrugged.

“You bought me a ring, Rafael!” she shouted and lunged forward on top of my brother, causing his chair to fall backward and hit the floor with her on top of him.

“Well, I guess the jig is up,” Rafe said over his laughter. “And if I can live without you causing me permanent injury before I propose, it will be a miracle.”

Laughter erupted around the table.

“Someone get this man another malachite stone,” I said, pulling Lulu to her feet and helping my brother up.

“You can still surprise her with the way that you propose,” my father said.

“Eloise, did you mention to Emilia that we’d all gone with Rafe to look at rings?” Bridger asked, not hiding his anger that they just shared this in the newspaper.

“I may have mentioned it, but I can’t remember,” Eloise said, glancing between Bridger and Rafe. “But I promise you, Emilia is not writing this column.”

“I agree,” Henley said. “And anyone could have heard about it. You guys do draw a lot of attention when you’re all together.”

“We were in the city. We didn’t shop here in town.” Bridger arched a brow, glancing around the table. “Start paying attention to all the information they have about us. It’s an inside job.”

“It isn’t Emilia because if it were her, she wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise for me, so that makes me 100 percent certain it is not her,” Lulu said. “And it’s fine that they wrote about it. We’ve talked about getting engaged. I just didn’t know you bought the ring yet. There’s still plenty of surprises to come.”

“Agreed,” my mother said. “It’s still a wonderful celebration, and we have so much to be thankful for.”

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