Page 15 of The Marrying Kind
“And how are you so sure about that?” Noah cocked a doubtful eyebrow at me.
“Easy. I’m going to learn everything about her and sweep her off her feet.”
I poured out another round of samples. Even though everyone in town had probably tasted our brew ten times over, it was always good to remind them how awesome it was.
With any brand, recognition was important. Familiarity. That’s what people gravitated toward. It was one of my main strategies in selling the beer. Whether that meant showing up at the same pubs over and over until I became a familiar face, or passing out sample cups to strangers who became regulars.
Did a little part of me think the same might apply to Ella? Absolutely. But I needed to get her to stick around long enough to get to know me.
She’d seemed genuinely intrigued this afternoon when I taught her how to treat the bees for mites. And now she was baking with Mom downtown. I wondered what they were talking about this very minute. Hopefully how good of a husband and father I would make.
Noah might think I was a jackass, but that’s because he was my little brother and that comes with the territory. But Mom knew what was in my heart. She saw me for the man I’d grown into. I was someone who had a lot to offer. Someone who was ready to settle down.
“If you could convince Rachel Tyson to move back to Kodiak Canyon and become your fiancée, I can certainly convince Ella to hang around for a week,” I reminded my brother.
Rachel had grown up here and left town as soon as she was eighteen. The fact that she came back was because of her grandfather’s passing. Ella came here because she wanted to see what our town had to offer, and I was sure as hell going to show her.
7
NEW BEGINNINGS
Ella
Learning to bake homemade lemon-blueberry muffins wasn’t on my bucket list, but it should have been.
Natalie was a beast in the kitchen, and I was feeling very grateful to learn. Her bakery was charming, the espressos were strong, and the muffins were bursting with the flavors of lemon zest and fresh blueberries. And there was something about being with a motherly figure, spending an afternoon focused on a new task I’d never done before, that was filling a little part of the gaping hole in my chest. But only a little.
Not only had the afternoon been an education in the sugary arts, but I’d also learned a good deal about Austen.
Like how he’d once searched for three days for a chicken that went missing, because Pinky was his favorite of the brood. How he’d cried when he found feathers that suggested a predator had got her. How he’d brought the feathers home and held a funeral in the backyard, and insisted everyone wear formal black attire. And how his chicken funeral was attended by no fewer than forty guests.
I wasn’t even sure my parents had that big a turnout.
This community was tight-knit. That much was clear to me. And I envied them for it.
My suburban hometown was impersonal. People kept their distance from one another. My family didn’t belong to a church, and almost everyone I knew from high school moved away the second they graduated. It was a town you left, not one you built up. That was probably because so many people worked in the mining industry there, and when your body became too broken for the labor, you’d move on someplace else. It was like no one there really cared to make the place enjoyable.
Kodiak Creek seemed to be the complete opposite of that. There were so many fun things to do around here. Natalie’s suggestions from today meant I’d already added a good number of items to my list. Things I could actually cross off, which was also super exciting.
Technically, I supposed I was about to do another new thing—attend a dinner with a family I’d just met. Not that it was probably worthy of being added to the list.
“This is Logan. And my mother, Dottie,” Natalie said as we walked into the living room of her house. She placed her hands on my shoulders. “Dottie, this is Ella. She’s visiting Kodiak Canyon for a bit.”
Natalie’s mom was adorable, and she greeted me warmly with a big smile. “Hi, sweetie.”
“Hello.” I gave her a little wave.
Logan looked up from his phone to give me a once-over, then went right back to whatever it is teenagers do.
The door opened then, and two more people arrived who I hadn’t seen before.
“Good, you’re here. Come meet Ella,” Natalie called to them. “This is my son Noah and my future daughter-in-law, Rachel.”
Noah looked strikingly like Austen, the major difference being the lack of the little dimple in his cheek as he smiled politely. He took my hand and shook it carefully, as if I were a live grenade.
Rachel, on the other hand, pulled me in for a hug with a laugh. “Sorry, I’m a hugger.”
When was the last time I’d hugged someone? It had been two years since my friend Cara moved from my hometown, and I hadn’t had a girlfriend in a long time.
