Page 52 of The Maverick’s Legacy

“Yeah, Nieve’s in good hands,” Shane added. “Remi made me promise.”

Carly relaxed before giving Nieve a kiss goodbye on his forehead. “I’ll be back soon, my sweet boy, and then we’ll put on a show.” She turned back to the brothers. “Thank you.”

“Go have some fun,” Shane said.

She waved goodbye and headed outside. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight. The town had gone all out with its dinosaur theme. There were stands selling dinosaur toys and fake bones. A food truck sold dinosaur-shaped cookies. In the distance, she could see people sumo wrestling in inflatable dino costumes. The streetlights had been turned into crepe-paper trees with cardboard cutouts of large eyes peering out.

A gunshot went off, and she whipped around with her hand over her heart. She heard a loud cheer go through the air, and she craned her head in time to see pairs of people rolling hay bales down a track, clearly racing each other.

Once she realized that was where the noise had come from and that she wasn’t in any danger, Carly walked toward where she was supposed to be meeting Jesse and Oscar. People waved to her as she went, and she recognized a few of them in return. It hit Carly in that moment that in the few months that she’d lived in Tenacity, it had become home to her.

“Carly,” a familiar voice called out. She swung around. Joy sent her hurrying toward the group approaching: Amy and Josh, who was pushing Josephine in her stroller, and, to her surprise, her parents.

She threw her arms around her mother and father. “I didn’t know you were coming to Tenacity.”

“We missed you girls,” her mom said.

“Plus, your sister told us you were participating in the rodeo today,” her dad added. “You know we’d never miss a chance to watch you girls perform.”

She beamed at both of them, taking in her dad’s weathered face, the new strands of gray in her mom’s hair. She really needed to make more of an effort to see her family—all her family.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Carly said. “I’ve missed you too.”

“During our last phone conversation you had mentioned a boy you were dating,” her mom reminded her. “We’d love to meet him.”

Carly’s lips quirked. “He’s thirty-eight, Mom. Hardly a boy.”

Her mom waved that away. “You’re all kids to me.”

“I hope we get to meet him while we’re here,” her dad said. “I’ve been planning what I want to say to him. After all, it’s every father’s right to give a boy his daughter is dating ‘The Talk.’”

Josh winced. “Maybe you should hold off on that, Arthur. I still have nightmares about the one you gave me.”

Amy cocked her head. “Do tell.”

Josh shook his head adamantly.

Arthur folded his large, muscled arms over his chest. “I made him promise to treat you right…or else.”

“It was the ‘or else’ that gave me nightmares,” Josh muttered. “Especially when he went into detail about how he’d cut off—”

“Just doing my fatherly duty,” their dad said.

“Well, I promise you that you can meet Jesse and his son later,” Carly told her parents. “Actually… I’m supposed to meet up with them now.”

“Go on, then,” her mom said. “We’re staying at Amy’s for the week, so we’ll have plenty of time to catch up and meet your fella.”

“I’ll see you later,” she promised. She hurried through the crowd and continued on her way to town hall. She spotted Oscar first, standing on one of the steps wearing his noise-canceling headphones. As a large man in front of her moved aside, she finally saw Jesse.

He looked better than ever in a blue-and-gray flannel, jeans that looked made for him, and his trusty cowboy hat.

“Hi, you two!” she said as she ran up to them.

“Hi yourself!” Jesse said. He bent down and gave her a sweet kiss on the lips. Someone gagged, and they pulled apart to see Oscar looking at them with a fake disgusted look on his face.

“Gross,” he said. “I don’t want to see my dad making out.”

“Get used to it, kid,” Jesse replied.