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As they talked, it became clear that these couples were an accepted, even beloved, part of a town that had grown and diversified even more than I’d realized in the past fifteen years, and for a split second, I almost wished I lived here so I could spend more time around the fire with them.
Almost.
Because while the town might be thriving, it still couldn’t hold a candle to Chicago in terms of career opportunities, at least in the field of logistics. And I liked my “boring” logistics job. I enjoyed the challenge of creating and optimizing distribution and logistics strategies. Granted, it wasn’t as fun doing it for a large corporation mired in regulations and red tape, but using my brain to increase company profits was rewarding. What could I possibly find to do around here that would—
“Charlton, honey?” Cindy Ann called, jolting me back to the party. “Get a move on if you want ribs!”
I shook my head to scatter my ludicrous thoughts. Had I really been thinking of moving back to the Thicket? Seamus would die laughing.
I jogged back to the house, where the food tables were set up, and took a swig of spiked sweet tea from a red Solo cup someone handed me. My eyes roamed around the grouping of people before I realized what had been niggling in the back of my mind since arriving.
“Where’s Hunter?” I asked Brooks before thinking it through.
Brooks’s eyebrows shot up, and a smirk teased the corner of his mouth. “Why you asking? You planning some turkey costume payback?”
“No! Jeez. I just know you’re good friends because your moms are good friends, and he lives across the street, and…” I clamped my mouth closed to stop myself from talking, noticing for the first time how many people around us were not-so-stealthily listening in. “Never mind.”
“Hunter stayed home, Charlton,” Hunter’s sister Alana called from the other side of the table, making sure that anyone who hadn’t already been listening before couldn’t help hearing now. “He said he was whipped. I took that to mean he was tired. From all the sanding.”
Her eyes twinkled in the warm light, and I glanced away, my eyes bouncing over every person standing around the table and every item on it before looking back at Alana.
“Oh,” I said. “Right. Good.”
She bit her lip and hesitated before speaking. “You know, he seemed a little…” She waved a hand. “Off.”
“Off?” I repeated. “Off, like upset?” I couldn’t stand the idea he might be angry about what had happened between us earlier.
“Tetchy,” her cousin Pete interjected around a mouthful of bread roll from further down the buffet. “Extra tetchy.”
Alana shot him a look. “I would have said… well, he admitted he hadn’t slept well last night, and he wasn’t feeling so good this morning, so I worry he might be…” She bit her lip again, and her eyes went sad.
I thought I heard Brooks snicker next to me, but I was too focused on Alana to wonder what he was laughing about.
“Sick?” I supplied. “You think Hunter might be sick?”
She sighed. “Yes. I really do. But you know how stubborn Hunter can be, and he wouldn’t thank me for making a big deal of it.” She waved her hand in the air again and summoned a brave smile. “Never mind. I’m sure he’s fine. I’ll check on him tomorrow if he doesn’t show up for dinner. Boy, these ribs look amazing.”
My gaze bounced around the table again, this time accusingly, but no one met my eyes. Hunter was ill while his so-called “friends” and family members had been standing around having fun? Not a single one of them had missed the party to stay with him?
I didn’t care how stubborn Hunter was, the poor man lived by himself in a house he’d built near his greenhouses on his family property—my cousins had supplied me with that tidbit of knowledge the night before—and it didn’t seem right that he was all alone.
My back teeth squeezed painfully together, but I forced myself not to volunteer. Hunter’s welfare wasn’t my business. Lurleen had always doted on Hunter, and Alana adored him. If they knew he’d stayed home from an event he normally would have attended, they’d look in on him before tomorrow. Surely. And, in any case, I was the last person he’d want to show up when he wasn’t feeling himself.
But even after Alana began chatting to Quinn about the event barn project and everyone had moved outside with their food, I couldn’t let go of my worry.
Three hours later, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I threw the blankets on my bunk bed back and snuck out of bed, tugging on my clothes and tiptoeing out of the house.
When I got to the side-by-side, I silently thanked Uncle Amos for trusting his neighbors enough to leave the keys in the vehicle. At least when I embarked on my ridiculous midnight run to check on Hunter Jackson, I did it stealthily.
