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“Ian, this is Cal Conner.”
Ian nodded. He was olive-skinned like Cal, but had a leaner build, and his eyes were light green. “Great to meet you. Welcome. Have a seat anywhere and make yourselves comfortable.”
As they moved farther into the yard, Steph introduced Cal to those he hadn’t met. When he said he’d find Pops a seat and keep him company, Steph joined Brandy and Lori at the potluck table, where they were arranging the food. Julie wasn’t there because she was staying home with her family, but Everly and Austin had shown up with his daughter, Jessica. Lydia had come with an older man Steph didn’t recognize. He was about Lydia’s height and had dark hair peppered with silver, which set off his copper skin tone. Was he a date?
“Who’s your mom with?” she asked.
Brandy’s eyes went comically wide. “He’s from the senior group that she’s been going to a few times a week. Name is Jorge.”
“So he’s from here?” Steph thought she knew most of the old-timers, but maybe not.
“He moved to Everly Falls last year to retire. Looking for small-town life, I guess. Lost his wife about a year ago.”
“He looks like a nice guy,” Steph said. “Not like that creeper Greg Makin.”
“I like Jorge so far,” Brandy said. “Although it is kind of weird for my mom to go from never dating to all of a sudden, she’s looking.”
“Not totally surprising, though,” Lori said, her gaze turning to Steph. “She has a lot of vibrant years left—why spend them alone?”
“Why are you both looking at me like that?” Steph asked.
“How are we looking at Steph?” Everly asked, joining the group. Her sandy-blonde hair was tied back in a turquoise scarf that matched her flowy jumpsuit.
“They’re talking about your mom’s plus-one, but giving me the stare down.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Everly said, a smile growing on her face. “You show up with that hunk of a man while you keep telling all of us that you’re just friends.”
“We are friends.”
“Notjustfriends, though,” Lori said in a leading tone.
“Believe me, we’ve hadthe talk,and we’re friends only.” Steph knew her face was likely red. Brandy was the only one who knew about their kiss. Well, the first kiss. She didn’t know about the second kiss in the parking lot after Julie’s baby was born. “You guys know my record. In the past, I’ve jumped into things too fast. Cal’s a friend, and it might have potential to change, but not for a long time. I’m trying the friendship thing first.”
“Mm-hmm,” Everly mused. “Well, since we’re all together—I wanted to see who can come wedding dress shopping with me next weekend.”
“What?” Lori said. “I thought you had your dress.”
“I thought I did, too,” Everly said with a scowl. “The wedding planner I was working with closed down her business suddenly. Just found out this morning. And she never put in the order for the dress with my requested alterations, so I’m out a dress, too.”
Steph stared at Everly. “Are you serious?”
“Yep. So I’m starting from scratch, which means I have ten days to pull this thing off. I’m going to find a dress on Saturday and buy it off the rack.”
“Oh, so sorry,” Lori said with a grimace. “What a pain.”
“Yeah, but we’re just going to keep things super simple now,” Everly said. “So maybe that will be better anyway. Who wants to come with me on Saturday?”
Steph wanted to go with her friends, but she didn’t know how work would play out this week with Pops’s appointments. “I’ll have to see how Pops is doing first. We’re doing physical therapy this week, and I need to reschedule a bunch of my clients. What time are you thinking?”
Before Everly could answer, Brandy said, “Here’s the thing, Steph. Cal told us all about your crazy schedule, and we’re helping you this week. We’re each taking a day to spend with Pops and take him where he needs to be. We’ve already decided on the rotation.”
“What?” Steph stared at her. “You can’t each take a day off from your jobs.”
“You’ve got Monday,” Brandy told her. “Lori’s Tuesday, I’m on Wednesday, Everly is Thursday, and my mom is Friday. It’s all worked out. You can get your time in at the salon. On Saturday, we’ll go with Everly dress shopping while Cal takes that day with Pops.”
Steph opened her mouth, then shut it. She looked over at Cal, who was sitting next to Pops. Austin was on their other side and his daughter stood in the mix of everyone, telling some story that was making them all laugh.
“When did Cal do this?” Steph asked.
