Page 36 of Pumpkin Spice Promises

“You catch the game?” I asked him.

Hunter nodded. “Barely worth watching.”

“Highlights are on tonight,” Jax said. “Are you staying?”

“No,” Clover answered.

Hunter glanced at her. “I might.”

“No, you might not.”

Dad looked personally offended. “You can’t deprive a man of football.”

“I can when that man watches the same play seventeen times while all of you argue over what the quarterback should have done.”

“That’s analysis,” Jax said.

“That’s obsession,” she replied.

Hunter’s mouth curved on the unscarred side. “She has a point.”

Jax pointed his fork toward him. “Marriage ruined you.”

Clover looked pleased. “Marriage improved him.”

“I was fine before.”

“You lived alone in the woods and spoke to approximately three people a month.”

“I liked those people.”

“One of them was the mail carrier.”

“He was dependable.”

The table erupted in laughter, including Hunter’s quieter one.

Mom waited until everyone settled before looking toward Jax and me. “How was the shop?”

“Busy,” Jax answered around a mouthful of potatoes. “And Beau adopted a stray.”

I kicked him beneath the table. His knee struck the underside hard enough to rattle the silverware.

Mom’s gaze sharpened. “A dog?”

“No,” Clover said eagerly. “A woman.”

“I did not adopt anyone.”

Dad lowered his thermos. “That would be illegal.”

“Thank you.”

“Unless she agreed.”

“Walter,” Mom warned.

Jax grinned as he reached for the gravy. “Carson Rome walked into the shop looking like she’d swum there from Tennessee.”