“I got… I got tear stains… on the page.”
He put an arm around her shoulders. “Happy tears.”
“Uh-huh. So h-happy.”
Lani’s throat tightened. She glanced over at Andy, who’d taken off his glasses to wipe his eyes with a bandana.
Tucking the bandana in his hip pocket, he gave her a soft smile. “Good stuff.”
“The best.” Such wonderful people. No matter what the future held for her and Rance, this moment would stay with her forever.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rance gave his mom a big hug and stood. “I should probably check with Clint about whether he’s opening the Buffalo at eleven this morning. If so, I need to take Lani back home so I can give myself plenty of time to drive that two-lane.”
“I know what I’ll be doing for most of the day,” his mom said. “I’ll be reading your book.”
“That makes two of us.” Andy stood. “Time to build up this fire and get cozy.”
And now Rance had himself a problem. His foolproof excuse for spending time with Lani tonight had a fatal flaw. If he told his mom and Andy that Lani had suggestions for improving the manuscript, they’d be looking for flaws instead of reading for pleasure.
Andy might be able to ignore that information as he read. But his mother wouldn’t be able to. She’d dive into the story with one goal — to find the issues that Lani had identified. Her reading experience would be completely altered.
He needed another excuse and he needed it fast. Tonight had become more critical than ever now that his worthless father would be in town tomorrow.
“I’m finally putting all this together.” His mom tapped the manuscript. “This was the manuscript you took over to Rance’s last night to get Granny’s opinion on some Irish dialogue.”
“It was.” Lani glanced up at him. “How much should I say?”
“I don’t think we’re giving anything away by admitting the book has Irish dialogue and you wanted to have Granny confirm that it was accurate.”
His mom laughed. “Great minds, son. I’m putting an Irish character in my next book. Listening to Granny inspired me, too.”
“That’ll be fun, seeing how each of us handled it.” Okay, he had a potential plan. “Oh, and Granny made her famous Irish pound cake for dessert last night, and Lani fell in love with it.”
Andy adjusted the fireplace screen on the hearth. “She does a good job with that.”
“Anyway, Lani’s coming over again tonight so Granny can show her how to make it.” He flashed her a smile and said a little prayer that she’d go along with his off-the-cuff brainstorm.
Her eyelids quivered for a nanosecond and then she was off and running. “I am. Our family’s big on homemade Christmas gifts, so this’ll be the perfect thing to give my folks.” She avoided looking at him, though.
“I’m a fan of homemade gifts, myself.” Andy returned to his seat. “A homemade gift is what brought Dez and me together.”
“Oh, yeah?” Lani turned to him. “Who made the gift, you or her?”
“We made it together. We built a playhouse for Maverick.”
“What fun!”
“It was that.” His mom sent Andy a fond glance. “But I confess I didn’t know what I was getting into.”
He grinned. “With the project or me?”
“Both, but at least with you I didn’t need instructions. What you see is what you get.”
“That’s Andy, all right.” Rance loved that about the guy. The same couldn’t be said of him. He’d always been a shapeshifter, a secret-keeper.
He’d planned to send a group text about his book, not because he couldn’t wait to tell his siblings, but because it was part of an elaborate plan to buy time with Lani. He’d been forced to use pound cake production instead.
