Hubert nods to me. “Madden.”
“Jefferson. What do you have going on this morning?”
“I’m waiting to meet a truck. Figured I’d drink a cup of coffee while I wait.”
“Are you shipping something?” I ask, just as Sharon delivers two big plates of breakfast.
“Bought a load of replacement heifers,” he explains as he makes room for the plates in front of Charlie and Max.
“Hi, Hubert. How are you?” Sharon asks as she walks back to the kitchen doorway.
“As good as I can be,” he mumbles.
“I’ll bring you a coffee. You want some breakfast?”
“Sure, it’ll be a good while before I can get home for lunch. I’ll take whatever today’s special is.”
Sharon disappears, and Hubert turns to look at me. “Saw your truck parked next to Bliss a couple of mornings back.”
From where, the moon?No one even drove by us on that road while we were talking that day. I would remember. Every detail of that conversation is etched into my memory.
“Oh yeah?” I take a long sip of coffee.
“What were you two sneaking around for?”
Sneakingisn’t even close to what we were doing. Negotiating maybe? “I saw her parked there, so I pulled in to say hi.”
“If you’re interested in my daughter, just say so.” He scowls.
Hubert Jefferson can be called many things, but warm and welcoming are not two of them. When it comes to his daughters, he’s especially protective. And I’m not about to get on his bad side by lying.
“I’m interested.”
Max immediately starts coughing, choking on a sip of his coffee.
Hubert looks as surprised as I feel. He must have thought he’d be able to scare me away with being abrupt.
I spin my coffee cup in a slow circle, keeping eye contact with Hubert, even though I’d love nothing more than to see Max’s face right now.
Sharon comes back right at that moment with another plate of food and sets it down on the table. Patting Max’s shoulder, she says, “Are you all right? I heard you coughing all the way in the kitchen.”
“Oh, I’m fine, choked on some coffee.”
“I really need to stop making it so thick,” Sharon bemoans, then walks back to the kitchen, and Hubert finally summons the words to speak.
“I like it when people don’t dance around. And since you’re being honest with me, I’ll do the same for you. I hope you’re good to my daughter.”
I lean back in surprise. “Of course I’ll be good to her. I like her.” And that’s the truth. I wouldn’t have asked her to marry me if I couldn’t stand her. “I don’t know that she likes me as much as I like her, though.”
And that’s the truth of it. She might have texted me and said she agreed to the marriage, but I’m not sure if she was joking or not. She has a dry sense of humor, so it’s hard to understand the tone of those brief texts.
Max snorts as he pulls out his phone and sends off a text. I don’t know who he would be texting this early in the morning since Charlie is right here.
Hubert shakes his head. “Don’t give up hope yet. Sometimes, she takes a bit to come around.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “You wouldn’t mind if I dated your daughter then?”
“I wouldn’t mind if you married her. But you had better not say that to her. Anyone her mother and I like, she makes sureto avoid. It’d be a mark against you in her eyes.” Hubert grins. “I know most fathers give the speech that if you hurt their daughters, they’ll come kill you. Luckily, I don’t have to make that speech to you.”
