Page 26 of Boston
“It’s a blessing and a curse,” Harry said, finally unleashing his smile.
“Do you live here?” Cora asked.
“Sure do.”
Harry put his hand on Adam’s arm as he moved around him. “Dude, you’re not my bodyguard anymore.”
Adam looked at him, and his face colored slightly. “You’re right. I’m not.”
Harry chuckled and hooked his thumb at the taller man. “He used to be my manager.”
“Personal assistant,” Adam said. “I nevermanagedany part of Harry’s career. I got the man his milk and eggs.”
“That too,” Harry said. “He manages Country Quad now.”
“I actuallydomanage them,” Adam said.
“Joey’s daddy is Otis,” Boston said. “He’s in the band. Harry and Belle are retired from the country music scene as artists, but they write songs from their house in Coral Canyon.”
“That’s great.” Cora reminded herself that she’d met plenty of celebrities in Miami, and that they were just people too. “Well, I don’t know what Boston promised you,” she said, smiling over to him. “But I’ll take whatever help I can get.”
“I can get these guys to do almost anything for food,” Boston said.
“It was the steak for me.” Adam chuckled. “I’ve never had anything as good as the T-bone here at your Carver’s restaurant.”
Joey beamed at him and linked her arm through his. “It’s one of the reasons we decided to get married here.”
“Meat and potatoes,” Boston said. “It gets them every time.”
Cora grinned along with everyone else and bent to pick up one of the buckets. Boston promptly took it from her—a gesture that seemed small, almost nothing, but that spoke volumes about his character.
“The door’s not locked,” she said. “And I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
“Only forever,” Harry said. When Belle bumped him with her hip, he simply grinned, picked up the second bucket of supplies, and turned toward the house.
Boston’s family didn’t need to be invited twice, and they didn’t wait for Cora to go first. In fact, they left her alone with him as the four of them moved, chatting, up her front steps and into the house.
“They’re great,” she said.
“I thought you might like to meet them before cousin night,” he said. “In a smaller crowd.”
“My place is a mess,” she said.
“Don’t worry, Cora-Cat. We’ve all moved before, and no one’s going to judge you.”
That made Cora’s soul swell and sing, and she took Boston’s hand in hers and led the way up to her porch.
“Hey,” she said when she got to the top of the steps. “You’ll be back on Saturday night, right?”
“Yep.”
“Do you want to come here and have dinner with me when you get back?”
Boston crowded closer and took her in his arms, his hands settling easily around her and landing on her waist. “I absolutely want to do that.”
“I mean, I can’t promise an amazing T-bone,” she said. “But I’m not bad in the kitchen.”
“I’ll take anything I didn’t have to cook over a fire.” He chuckled gently. “But it probably won’t be until seven or eight.”
