Page 14 of The Marrying Kind
6
HONEY
Austen
“So, Jameson texted me something interesting this morning.” Noah’s tone was full of intrigue.
I’d known this was coming. Frankly, I was surprised he’d lasted a whole hour before interrogating me. Impressive, is what it was.
“Yeah? What’s that?” I asked, playing dumb. I was going to make him work for it.
He couldn’t answer right away because a customer was approaching our booth.
We probably didn’t need to attend these farmer’s markets anymore. They didn’t account for a large part of our sales, but at this point it was tradition.
The second we were alone again, Noah answered my question with a question. “You had a woman stay over last night?”
I snorted out a laugh. “Don’t sound so surprised, little brother. I’m a very charming man.”
It was his turn to laugh then. “If the girl is drunk at a bar, then I’d agree. But I also talked to CJ at lunch, and it appears that wasn’t the case. The woman just needed a place to crash.”
Of course he already knew. These were the hazards of living in a small town.
But he was wrong about one thing. I’d only ever driven girls home and walked them to the door. Sure, I might have called the next day and tried to start something, but I wasn’t into the sloppy one-night-stand deal, even on my worst day. Not that I was going to argue that particular point with Noah.
“If you already know everything, why are you asking?”
“A girl who just rolls through town isn’t going to fall in love with you and become your wife. Your wishes don’t have that much power.”
Noah was referring to Thanksgiving, when I snapped the bigger half of the wishbone from the turkey and announced my intention to the universe to find a wife.
“Don’t they? Ella just appears in town and needs a place to stay. It’s fate.”
He shook his head. “It’s dumb luck.”
“And I suppose our business growth was dumb luck too? I wrote down my goal two years ago to become a national name, and we’re well on our way.”
I didn’t want to mention the fact that ours was Ella’s favorite beer. That seemed like more than a coincidence too.
We paused again to help Mr. Davis, one of our neighbors.
“How’s your new granddaughter?” I asked as Noah rang him up for a six-pack of our new winter ale.
“Likes to cry all night, but look how precious.” He pulled out his phone and flipped through about a million and a half photos. The baby was adorable.
I felt a little pang of envy in my chest. That feeling was new, but it was getting stronger.
Of our friends who had stuck around after high school, almost all of them were parents now. I’d never thought much about that stuff because I was so focused on making a living and growing my business. But something in me was changing. That whole biological clock thing. I’d thought only women had that, but mine was ticking. Maybe guys just didn’t talk about it much.
As Mr. Davis walked away, Noah poked me in the ribs,hard. “Your success with the brewery was your business smarts. Not luck.”
I grabbed his finger and muscled his hand to his chest. “Well, just imagine me applying my business smarts to romance. I’ll be unstoppable.”
Noah laughed as if he wasn’t buying what I was selling. “The way Mom tells it, she’s the one who convinced Ella to stick around another day. That woman is going to leave any minute.”
Mom had played a crucial wingman role this morning. She was slick like that. Though I suspect she wasn’t actually trying to keep Ella around for the same reasons I was. Mom just generally liked people, and she actually wanted help baking for the hospital. She’d been pestering us about that for weeks.
I shook my head in protest. “Just wait and see. She’ll stick around.”
