Page 80 of Feel It in the Air

My heart squeezes again, the acceptance from these women meaning just as much as it did from Gus. Moving to Hickory Hills was a risk, one that I knew was worth it professionally, but I was not expecting it to pay off so quickly on a personal level.

“Then I’m in. Just let me know who I owe what.”

“Oh, puh-lease,” Alice scoffs, waving off my comment. “This is all expenses paid. Hux is covering it.”

My ears perk up. My list of questions keeps getting longer and longer. “Hux is paying? For everything? That whole group?”

Dolly nods, blushing. “He insisted. He’s my Man of Honor, but thinks it’d be weird to come on the bachelorette⁠—”

“Which it would,” Alice cuts her off. “Love the guy, but…”

Dolly acquiesces. “So, he insisted on covering the whole thing. Told me to book and plan whatever I wanted, for whomever I wanted, and he’ll cover all of it. I think he’s just really happy to not have to deal with any more wedding planning stuff. He’s been a great sport these last three years.”

I freeze, unable to hide how dumbfounded I still am by that number. I was the first time she said it and I am even more now. Dolly doesn’t seem to notice, but Alice and Emily don’t miss it. “That’s a long engagement.”

“We didn’t want to rush it. Well, Jeff didn’t. I would have gone to the courthouse had he agreed,” she replies, turning to check the oven.

I look at Alice and Em, my eyes wide. They both nod, silently confirming so much. I have a lot to learn about living in a small town.

“Enough about me!” The declaration startles me, Dolly’s blonde ponytail flying as she whips back around to face me. “What’s going on with you and Gus?”

Shifting, I try to find the best way to answer this. That there is something going on between Gus and me isn’t a secret—at least not in this kitchen, with these women. They’ve been helping us hide it, each one sworn to secrecy and promising they’ll take it to the grave. A promise that I’ve innately trusted since I met them.

Still, I don’t know how to answer. I know how I feel. That’s not in question. Whether I’m ready to put the words to it is a different story. But the actual feelings themselves? I’ve never been more sure. That doesn’t change the fact that Gus and I haven’t had a real chance to be a couple. That what we are, and what we’ve been doing, is still new.

“We’re…figuring things out,” I reply, hoping that will satisfy curiosities.

It doesn’t.

“The look on his face whenever you show up tells me you are long past figuring things out,” Dolly comments.

I smile, the prickle of heat returning to the back of my neck, my cheeks joining in on the party this time. There’s so much I want to say. A mess of emotions swirling inside of me that I have yet to fully make sense of. No, not true. I know them but I’m afraid to admit to them. There’s a difference.

“We haven’t had the most conventional start.”

“So?” Alice asks.

Shrugging, I look down, focusing on the chopping board and the brightly colored veggies I have strewn across it. All that does is send a pang through me though, making me think of cooking with Gus and the fun we had.

“If you’re unsure of your feelings, you can tell us,” Dolly says. “Please don’t think that because we’re his friends too that you can’t confide in us or that we won’t keep your secret anymore.”

“Oh no, this is Vegas,” Emily assures. “What is said here, stays here. And we’ll be your beard as long as you two need us to be—we won’t let Aunt Hattie and her rumor mill twist this into something it’s not. Even if this doesn’t go anywhere. Gus is like an extra big brother to me, and like Dolly said, you’re one of us now. Secrets are safe here.”

Aunt who?!

“Hattie Burch,” Dolly explains, reading my mind. Or at least my face, which I’m sure betrayed me. “Sister to both my grandmother and Em’s. Chief Hickory Hills busybody.”

I nod, processing this new set of information. That’s one member of their family I do know. And now that I’ve made this connection, Mrs. Burch’s comments while trying to set me up with Jake about how she’d “all but given up on Emily” make a lot more sense. At the time, I didn’t put two and two together that it was this Emily.

Oh, small towns.

Sighing, I decide it’s time to own up to it all. To be as fearless in this part of my life as I am on the professional side.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that I’ve had a crush on Gus Hayes since he asked if he could sit next to me at that bar at JFK.” Scooping up the pile of veggies in front of me, I dump them into the bowl and bring the cutting board over to the sink. I wash my hands quickly, then turn back to the island and the bowls of wet and dry ingredients for the hush puppies. “That has not changed since I arrived in Hickory Hills. If anything, it’s more than a crush now.”

I can hear the unvoiced squeals, the barely contained Cheshire cat grins taking over my friends’ faces more than enough to let me know the giddy feelings spreading through me as I say that out loud are contagious.

My heart swells, reveling in the excitement while trying to ignore the hesitation. I start to mix the wet and the dry, whisking quickly, pushing down my worry.