Page 37 of More Than My Hometown

“I should head out before she sees me,” he says, cutting me off. “Ewan, we should do lunch next week.”

Oh, he knows…

“Yes, sir.”

He turns on his heel with a nod, disappearing as quickly as he appeared.

“Okay, hard to really know anything without X-rays, so a trip to Tifton is in your immediate future,” Maisey says, pushing to her feet. Kate rises with her, holding Kendall on her hip. “Judging by what I can feel, I have no doubt something is broken. It’s just a matter of what and how broken.”

“Just what we need,” Kate sighs.

“Could be worse. At least it’s not her face,” Maisey jokes.

“Very true.”

“Give me a few minutes to find a replacement chaperone and—” Chet starts.

“Nope,” Kate cuts him off. “You go. This is the highlight of your year, taking these kids out on this thing. We’ll be fine. It’s only a couple of days.”

“I’ll go with you to the hospital, if that’ll help,” Maisey offers.

“See? We’re all good. Get the kids in the buses and into the woods,” Kate instructs.

Chet looks to me and shrugs. “You heard the woman.”

“I sure did.”

We gather everyone up again, starting a new round of goodbyes with parents. This time it’s faster, at least a little bit, since most of the bags are already loaded.

Wandering over to Maisey, I gather her in my arms, trying to sneak in one more kiss before we take off.

“That was the most impressive thing I’ve ever witnessed,” I tell her, capturing her lips with mine. “Serious fucking turn-on.”

“If that does it for you, you should see me when someone needs stitches.”

“Don’t tease me; I just got my dick calmed down.”

Maisey giggles, kissing me thoroughly, and I’m hard all over again. So much for that.

“We’re back Saturday. See you then?”

“Without question.”

I lean in, kissing her one more time. It’s risky, all the kids around, but I don’t care. The floodgates have been opened and there’s no going back. She’s an addiction—a habit I don’t want to break.

“Ewan!”

Now, that’s a voice I wasn’t expecting.

Maisey and I step back, turning in unison to face my mother.

Where did she come from?!

“Mama…”

I know that I am a fully grown man and I have done nothing wrong—okay, almost nothing wrong—but I still can’t help but feel like a little kid who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar and is about to get that hand slapped.

“Don’t y’all have the environmental science trip?”