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“You two know each other?” Joe asked, clearly done with just watching.
“Not really,” she said, turning to face Joe.
Ford managed to drag in a breath and her scent with it.
“He looked after me in a hotel one night. I’d fallen ill and knocked on his door by mistake.” Her voice was a little gruff. Probably from emotion.
“My hero,” Joe said. “For that, your drink is on the house. Anyone who looks after my niece’s teacher is pretty awesome in my book.”
“Teacher?”
“I’m the new teacher at Ryker Falls Elementary,” Autumn said, looking at him over her shoulder.
“She has to teach Gracie, and while I love that kid, she’s not what you’d call malleable.”
“Are you insulting my daughter, cousin?” asked a voice among the crowd.
Piper Howard stepped up beside Ford, classy in a deep red dress and black sandals with enough straps to confuse him. She was a beautiful if scary woman. Married to an ex-FBI profiler, she and her husband were another couple who seemed to get each other, like many in this town.
“Grace is wonderful. I love her spirit,” Autumn said with a smile that lit all the corners of her pretty face.
“All true, but my cousin knows what her daughter is capable of,” Joe said.
“She’s headstrong.” Piper sighed.
Ford took the beer Joe handed him. “Nash wants one too, Joe, and one of whatever Luna is drinking.”
“No worries. I’ll run a tab and bring them to the table.”
“See you round, Autumn,” he said.
“Thank you again, Ford.”
Autumn was a dangerous combination of vulnerable and sweet. Kryptonite for Ford. He was a born protector according to his mother. He walked away before he could come up with any more reasons to like Autumn Harris, the new Ryker Falls Elementary schoolteacher.
Nash slapped the hand Ford held out to him. “I saved you a seat.”
He bent down to kiss Luna’s cheek.
“Did he bully you into coming, Ford?”
Luna had been a model, then a social media influencer. She now ran her business from here. She owned the local florist and had a face-care line plus other stuff. Tall, beautiful, and the perfect match for his brother. Ford and his family liked her very much.
Nash nodded. “Hello, big brother.”
Next for a hug was his little sister, Maggie, a dynamic package of sass and spunk. Maggs was a fiery redhead who had come home from her big overseas adventures with her own demons to fight, which she had battled with the help of the man at her side.
“Fin.” Ford acknowledged him with a handshake after his sister let him go.
“So he’s got a good memory for trivia,” Nash said, waving Ford into a chair. “We should have all bases covered. Especially now that we have Autumn and Miss Marla. Schoolteachers are meant to be intelligent. I should imagine that’s a rule written somewhere.”
Ford watched Autumn Harris walk between the tables to reach theirs. She sat in the empty chair to his right. He dragged his eyes away as she sat and crossed those lovely legs, then settled his gaze on one of the Robbins sisters. He tried to work out which one.
“Hello, Ford.”
“Miss Marla.” He was pretty sure he’d gotten it right, and her smile told him he had. He looked around for her sister. They were usually together. “Miss Sarah’s not here tonight?”
“Sarah is looking after Ritchie, Autumn’s son.”
