“Thank you, but I can call Clinton or—”
Quincy butted in before she could finish. “Oh, honey, Clinton would be very upset with me if he had to leave Taryn and the baby behind on this fine evening when I can feed my ego by rescuing you.”
“Where were you headed?” she asked.
“To have a cold beer and maybe a shot of Jameson over at a bar in Erick, but”—he took a step forward—“do you have cold beers at the farm?”
“I do,” she answered. “Would you like to sit on my porch, have a beer or two, and swap funny stories about Clinton with me? Seems like that isn’t nearly enough to repay you for missing an evening of dancing and—”
“I’d rather go home for a peaceful visit, but if you’ve got a mind to dance, we could always put on some music and do some two-steppin’ by the light of the moon out in the yard.”
She hadn’t expected Quincy to be so good looking, to make her heart flutter, or to flirt with her upon first meeting—but she loved it all.
“Will it be all right if I take off my boots and prop my feet up on the railing?” Quincy asked as he headed back to his truck.
“Absolutely,” she answered and wondered how much more he would be willing to take off before the evening ended.
Oh, no!the voice in her head screamed.You do not need a one-night stand, and if this little flirtation goes wrong, it could cause all kinds of problems. You are going to take whatever this evening produces even slower than Jorja and Forrest.
“Lead the way out to your farm,” Quincy said.
She waved at him, got into her truck, and headed back toward home. When she started her playlist again, Mary Chapin Carpenter was belting out “I Feel Lucky.”
Taryn heard the vehicles coming down the lane before the headlights actually appeared. “Sounds like we’ve got company,” she said, and leaned forward in one of the rocking chairs on Amos’s front porch. Someday she might stop thinking of the place where she and Clinton lived with Zoe as Amos’s and think of it as theirs, but that would be later.
Clinton reached across the few inches from his rocker to hers and covered her hand with his. “Yep,” he agreed. “But I’m being selfish and hoping they aren’t coming here.”
“Why?” Taryn asked.
“Because I only get a few hours in the evening with you, and I don’t like to share,” he said. “I miss the flower shop, where we got to sit beside each other all day.”
“But we weren’t the only ones in the shop,” she told him.
“In my mind we were, darlin’.” He grinned.
“That is pretty romantic for someone who declares that they aren’t,” she reminded him.
“You bring out the best in me,” Clinton said. “Looks like we don’t get company after all—that’s Anna Rose. Wasn’t she going out dancing tonight?”
“Yep—and who is that behind her?” Taryn asked.
“Looks like ... Quincy?” Clinton stood right up.
“Your friend that is going to help with the vet business?” Taryn was surprised, not only to see him but also to see her cousin back from the bar that early.
Anna Rose parked and got out of her truck, waved at Taryn and Clinton—who sat back down—and yelled across the rose-covered picket fence, “I had a flat tire.”
Quincy was parked behind her and already out of his vehicle. “And I was the knight in shining armor that saved her.”
“Y’all want to come over and visit with us?” Taryn asked.
“No, we’re going to stay over here on this porch and have a couple of cold beers,” Anna Rose answered. “See y’all tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Jesus,” Clinton muttered under his breath.
“Amen,” Taryn agreed and grinned. She and Clinton were enjoying a quiet moment after Zoe was asleep on the porch where Amos used to live. Jorja was back behind the two houses, sitting on the swing on the porch of Forrest’s trailer house. Anna Rose and Quincy were about to have beers on Ora Mae’s porch. The future sure looked bright—and it was all because of the Lucky Shamrock.
Epilogue
