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“Yeah.” I blow out a breath.
“Don’t sweat it if it takes you a while. What do you do?” he asks. Thankful for the conversation to break this awkward standoff, I answer, “I manage a bakery, but I’m planning to open my own artisan coffee shop in the next year or so.”
“How long have you two been dating?” another one of them asks.
“Uh. It’s pretty recent.” I look to Boone and he gives me a soft smile.
“About two days,” he says to his brothers, and two of them hoot.
“Two days! You move quick,” Finch says, his face creasing in a smile that would have panties dropping left and right in Felt.
“So that’s why we’ve never heard of you. Not that this one calls or texts very often anyway. He sure as fuck never comes home,” says the serious one in some sort of sheriff’s uniform. Out of the whole group he seems like the harshest and his stare is intense. He and Boone trade message-filled looks until I say, “Yeah,” with a nervous laugh.
“Har,” Boone says on a sigh.
Harlan slashes a hand through the air. “Not the time, baby brother.” If his tone is anything to go by, their silent conversation is far from over. He turns his back on us and moves toward the fridge before pulling out a beer and using the counter to pop the top off of it.
The noise is enough to have the other brothers moving toward the fridge, and soon everyone has a drink in their hand.
“Rhett, Duke, set the table,” Hal calls from where he’s stirring something on the stove.
I lean toward Boone. “Well, this isn’t awkward at all.” Shooting him a wink I step forward and ask, “Is there anything that I can help with?”
Hal turns around and waves me toward the table. “No, you go and sit. We’re having spaghetti. Sorry it’s not fancier, but it’s the only thing that I had on hand that would feed this bunch.”
“Spaghetti sounds delicious. Thank you.”
The men move back and forth through the kitchen in synchronized chaos, each of them weaving around the others with the skill of a lifelong dancer, and I can’t help but wonder if this is what it was like growing up in their house. Always having dinner together. Each person chipping in until the steaming pasta and sauce is on the table along with thick slices of crusty garlic bread and a fresh salad.
Growing up, I ate most of my meals out of the church food boxes that Mom picked up, and my adult Lunchable dinners are usually eaten standing in my kitchen, so the actual sitting down around a table and eating a hot meal with others is weird.
Sure, I’ve gone to Ally, Kate, and Liv’s houses for dinner, but those were always more informal barbecues or pizza on game nights.
This? This is homey in a way that I’m not used to.
Conversation pings across the table as we all pass dishes.
“How’s the Felt station?” Hal asks Boone.
Boone finishes chewing and swallowing the mouthful of food before he says, “Good. We just brought in two rookie rangers. Jackson and Connor are getting them trained.”
“That makes seven rangers at that station now, right?” Finch asks.
“Including me, yeah.”
I know Boone told me what his brothers do for a living, but putting the faces to the names to the jobs that float around the table is a lot, so I content myself with stuffing my face and listening as the family chats.
“You mind coming by the station tomorrow?” Hal asks Boone when the conversation dies down a little bit.
He nods. “Sure. I can do that.” He looks at me. “Uh…do you want to come with?”
“If you want me to. Otherwise I was just going to explore town.”
Jedd, who seems even quieter than the stern-faced Harlan, says, “You could take her to Ma’s Diner for breakfast if she wants to explore town.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” I say.
There’s a lull in conversation as everyone eats. Bits and pieces of chatter float around the table as we all work on clearing our plates.
