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Dani's shoulders slump and her hands drop from her hips. "Really? You think it could hurt her?"
I'm an asshole. Seriously, a huge asshole. "I was just—"
"Caber tossing!" a woman with stripes of black paint under her eyes yells. "Six to a team. We start in five."
Dani has already turned away from me and, before I can get her attention again, a large hand claps me on the shoulder. "Grant Holiday. I want you on my team."
I turn to George Gregory and try to give him one of those half hugs men do, but George wraps both arms around me and hugs me hard, lifting my feet off the ground and covering me in mud. "Good to see you, friend." He pats my back like I'm a grown baby before setting me back on my feet.
"It's good to see you, too." I look down at my now mud-covered body. "Though I'd be happier to see you without the mud."
"You say that. But you keep turning down my invitations to dinner. I'm starting to think you're avoiding me on purpose." He leans in conspiratorially. "Are you still embarrassed about walking in on me naked last spring?"
My cheeks warm. "Who walks around naked at home in the middle of the afternoon?"
"Naked Thursday, Holiday. I warned you."
"You didn't."
George rubs his clean-shaven chin. "Didn't I? Well, you know now, and it's no reason to avoid me. I promise I won't be naked the next time you come over. Just make sure you knock."
"I did knock, you didn't hear me over the caterwauling—"
"That's my wife you're talking about," George says before glancing around. "Not all of us can be blessed with a golden singing voice."
"You were the one singing, George." I love the guy, but he can be seriously obnoxious. "And I haven't been avoiding you. I've been busy with work and the new resort going in."
George frowns. "I've been hearing some things about that." He leans in closer. "My dad's got friends in all kinds of places and he says—"
"Time's up!" the woman in war paint announces. "Teams line up next to the small barn."
"The small barn?" I ask.
"Aw, shit," George says. "We need to find four more team members."
"George," Sam Oakley shouts. "You and the ranger are on our team."
George grins. "My brothers are the best." Then he sobers and faces me, gripping my shoulders in his muddy hands. "I don't know if you've noticed, but the Westons and the Oakleys and all these people here are next level competitive. I'm talking stealing candy from babies and laughing when they cry level competitive. Are you up for this?"
Everyone around me is as serious as professional athletes in the middle of a game. I'm competitive in my own way, but I've never been willing to hurt someone else to win. "I can only promise to do my best."
George nods and slaps my shoulder. "That's all I can ask, man. That's all anyone can ask."
We walk over and join the group. George introduces me around to his brothers-in-law Noah, Cody, Sam, and Jared, all of whom I've seen around town and know in passing. Except for Sam, who I knew when we were kids and learned to avoid when he moved back to town and became the resident asshole. He's lightened up since he got married, but I don't see us being besties any time soon.
Before we have a chance for small talk, the game begins.
"What the heck is this game?" I ask George as two women lug a small tree with branches and dead leaves still attached, but no roots, toward the small barn.
"Caber tossing," George says. "Sam's cousins all came out to help Dani and Honey get a fence and barn built for their sanctuary farm and decided they needed a day of Scottish Highlands games to break up all the hard work."
We have to go through the wire fence to get to the small barn. "They did good work," I say. "How did they all get time off for this?"
George shrugs. "They're just that kind of family. They drop everything to help a cousin out."
As we step up to the small barn, the wood frame of a much larger building a few hundred feet away comes into view. "That's a big barn. She have a permit for that?"
"Seeing as how it's been less than a week since Dani found that cow and set this entire plan into motion, I'm gonna guess it's none of my business."
