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“No, Atlas,” said Colton quickly. “No—”
Atlas jumped onto me for cuddles and I shrieked and went down, flat on my back with the bear on top of me. The shriek turned into a giggle and then I couldn’t stop. As Colton tried to wrestle Atlas off me, I just lay there on the linoleum, being thoroughly licked and laughing like I hadn’t done in a long, long time.
The next afternoon, I stood in front of the mirror in Colton’s trailer, my hair gathered up in my hands. I let it fall down onto my shoulders, then huffed and gathered it up again. I turned to Colton. “Up or down?” I asked urgently.
“Hmm?” He was staring at my chest. I’d arrived in Mount Mercy with literally the clothes on my back, so that morning I’d had to buy something to wear for this afternoon’s party. The town only had one small boutique and the only thing I’d found in my size was a deep green, stretchy dress that wasn’t really right for a barbecue. It hugged my curves in a va-va-voom way and featured a scoop neck that Colton couldn’t stop looking at.
“Eyes up here,” I told him, mock-sternly. “Hair up or down?”
“Down,” he told me. I nodded and let it fall again, then started second-guessing my make-up. What’s wrong with me? I’d met the Italian prime minister and the king of Lakovia and I hadn’t spent as much time getting ready for them as I had for this.
But deep down, I knew what the problem was. I wanted them to like me.
Colton showed me to his rusting wreck of a truck. I saw now why he’d replaced it but the new one was in an impound somewhere in Ohio and it would take time to arrange for it to be shipped to Colorado. The truck started on the fourteenth attempt and he drove us up a winding track to the base.
My eyes widened when we pulled into the parking lot. Colton’s grill was already up and running, with JD keeping a watchful eye on some pork steaks that were sizzling and spitting as they dripped fat onto the coals below, The smell was amazing and the table next to the grill was loaded up with enough food to keep the grill busy all night long: beef steaks and chicken legs, sausages, home-made burgers with melting cheese centers. And not just meat but tuna steaks, corn, vegetable kebabs...
Colton put his hand on my arm. “I know what you’re thinking, but don’t panic. We didn’t want to have all the food out in the sun, so that’s just the first batch. We’ve got most of it in coolers, in the base.”
“Oh. That’s okay, then,” I said in a small voice. How many people are coming to this thing?
Further along the parking lot was a table set up for burger and hot dog assembly: buns, onions, lettuce, ketchup, four types of slaw and three types of mustard. Then a table loaded with bowls of salad: avocado, chicken and mango; aubergine and halloumi with harissa; and a roast potato salad with chimichurri dressing that looked amazing. There was a table of homemade cakes, cookies and traybakes, which had the same effect on Colton’s attention as the neckline of my dress. Next to it was a bar, with cans of beer and soda packed in ice, a keg and tap for draft beer and an area for making cocktails, with olives, fruit slices and a wall of bottles.
Finally, there was an inflatable castle complete with pointed towers. Atlas, who was riding in the back of the pickup, sat up, excited, which made the whole truck rock on its suspension.
“No, Atlas,” warned Colton. “Not for you, buddy.” He patted the bear’s paw. “Claws. Remember the beach ball?” Atlas looked chastened.
Danny, Gabriel, Bradan and Kian had been put to work carrying tables and chairs and yet more coolers of food, but the women were all standing in a tight knot, discussing something. Why do they all have to be together?
I’d been dreading this. I’d shot Gabriel in the ear, left Danny with a red welt across his cheek that hadn’t completely faded and stabbed Cal. Not to mention being the cause of all the division in the team and the reason their men had been away from home for so long. If I was going to stay here, I needed them to accept me. But they had every reason to hate me.
I knew that my nerves were only going to get worse if I stalled for time. So, leaving Colton to take over the grill, I walked over there. As I approached, the knot spread out, becoming a defensive wall. Chyort, they were all in jeans and casual summer dresses and I was in this ridiculous, look at me thing.
