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“I second that,” Noelle said.
Her sisters looked at Sweetie expectantly and she said, “All those in favor?”
Four hands went up quickly.Liberty’s took a little longer, but she finally raised it.
Sweetie smiled.“The motion passes unanimously.”
Once the meeting was over, they stayed in the hayloft and continued to drink wine and reminisce.It was obvious that they would all be sad to see the ranch go.Once the wine was gone, Noelle glanced out the door of the hayloft.
“Hey, y’all.It’s a full moon.”
Sweetie turned and saw the moon hanging like a beautiful golden disk in a sky filled with glittering stars.When she moved to Tennessee, she discovered the stars didn’t shine nearly as brightly.Obviously, it was much harder to be a star in Nashville.
The thought made her laugh.Or maybe it was Mimi’s elderberry wine.Whatever the reason, she couldn’t seem to stop.Her sisters joined in.Soon all the Holiday girls were leaning against each other in a fit of giggles.
Even though it was January and the temperature couldn’t have been more than sixty degrees, Sweetie got to her feet and yelled,
“Last one to Cooper Springs is a rotten egg!”
ChapterFifteen
“Okay ...this ...was definitely ...a bad idea.”Decker stopped running and rested his hands on his knees as he gasped for air.
Rome, who was a good ten yards ahead, ran back to him.It was annoying that he wasn’t even out of breath.“You okay?”
“I’m fine.”He wasn’t.The five beers he’d drank were threatening to come back up.
“Deep breaths, buddy.”Rome patted him on the back.“I won the bet, by the way.”
“Only because I’m wearing cowboy boots.”
“I’m wearing cowboy boots.”
“Yeah, but you came out of the womb wearing boots.You do everything in them.”
“Not everything.”
Decker straightened to find Rome grinning.Normally, Decker would have smiled or laughed at the sexual innuendo.But tonight, he didn’t find it funny.Something Rome noticed.
“So are you ready to tell me what’s going on with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the entire competitive thing that happened tonight.I’ve been to your house hundreds of times before and not once have you even pulled out a deck of playing cards.Tonight, you wanted to play checkers, washers, and Jenga, and then you forced me into racing you.So what’s going on?”
What was going on was that Rome was one of two men Ms.Mimi thought worthy of her granddaughters.That stuck in Decker’s craw.It was like Rome and Casey had been offered a free pass to court Sweetie.A pass Decker desperately wanted.He knew his jealousy was ridiculous and childish, but damned if he could help it.
Nor would he admit it.
“Can’t a man just want a game night with his best buddy?”
Rome squinted at him.“Not a guy who has never shown any signs of being competitive.Which is one of the reasons you and I get along so well.Competition is everything to my father and I’ve spent my entire life having to compete for everything I got.I thought I didn’t have to compete with you, Deck.”
Talk about feeling like a real jerk.“You don’t.”He shook his head.“I’m sorry.I’ve just felt a little out of sorts lately.”
Rome studied him.“It’s Sweetie, isn’t it?”When Decker started to argue, he held up a hand.“I know you have a huge sense of honor, Deck.It’s another reason I like you.But you can’t help how you feel.And any fool can see that you feel something for Sweetie.”
“It’s just leftover feelings from my teenage crush.”
