Everyone laughed, except Holden.
“Oh, I like her,” Peyton said.
“I can’t believe you told her that.” Uncle Holden scowled. “Y’all need to let that die.”
“Never.” I grinned. “The only way I’d enjoy this more would be if my dad were here to act even more disgruntled than you.”
Ashton and Tally’s daughter, Emily, cried, “Do me next!”
“No,” Addie, Ford and Peyton’s youngest, jumped in front of her. “Me! Me!”
Jules grinned. “I’ll let Griffin pick.”
“Let me see.” I extended my arm and let it drift in lazy circles, like it had gone rogue. Then, suddenly, I made my arm stiff straight, my pointer finger aimed directly at… “Bronco.”
And that’s how it went. I’d point to someone, and Jules would recite their name and everything she knew about them. She didn’t get a single person wrong.
“Dang.” I turned to her. “Do you have a photographic memory?”
“I’m just good with faces.”
“I’d say.”
She glanced around. “I think the only people I missed were Theo and Liam.”
Like she was announcing their arrival, they sauntered in from the hallway that led to my dad’s childhood bedroom.
Theo shoved his black-rimmed glasses up his nose. “Hey, guys. We didn’t know you were here yet.” He walked over and offered Jules his hand. “I’m?—”
“Theo,” Jules said with one decisive nod. “Ashton and Tally’s oldest. You love LEGOs, Star Trek, and pretty much everything geek. You speak fluent Klingon, you’re in love with Nova, Bowen’s ex?—”
“I’m not in love with Nova.” Theo blanched.
Bowen snorted. “You absolutely are. And I don’t care.” As if to demonstrate how much he didn’t care, he pressed a kiss to the top of Maggie’s head.
But Theo, the tannest of the family, turned beet red anyway.
Jules finished her assessment, “And you’re working on an app called Recallio, which helps people recall things on the tip of their brain. Very cool, by the way.”
Theo didn’t acknowledge the compliment. He just dove behind Ashton, probably trying to hide in case she wasn’t done.
“She’s good,” Peyton said.
“She is good.” Liam stepped in front of us, his tone anything but impressed. More like suspicious and guarded. “Too good.”
Jules tensed next to me.
I put an arm around her. “Ignore him. He’s just butthurt that I moved out west and he can’t get over it.”
“Oh, I’m over it.” He looked Jules up and down slowly, like he was cataloging everything wrong with her.
What the…?
I was about to ask what his problem was when Jules’ hand shot out. “Hi, I’m Juliette.”
Liam crossed his arms and shoved his hands under his pits. “I know who you are.”
“Liam!” Holden said at the same time that Christy said, “Where are your manners?”
