She searched the surrounding area for the moose, but with the trees so thick around her parents’ property, she couldn’t see him. “You didn’t see Ed, did you?”
“Ed.” Conner chuckled. “No, I didn’t. Wish I had, though. Seems like everyone has seen himbutme. I hear he’s a sort of urban legend around these parts.”
“He’ssomething, all right.”
“You coming inside?” Conner asked, shoving his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. Sadie didn’t mean to rake her gaze over his muscular body, but it happened anyway. He filled out a pair of jeans in a way that made her mouth water. Add that T-shirt whose sleeves were suffocating his biceps, and Sadie was in a whole lot of trouble. As if those dark brown eyes twinkling with kindness weren’t dangerous enough.
Thiswas exactly why she risked angering Mom by skipping out on dinner.
Stupid out-of-control-pulse.
“Yep. Coming inside. Don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Conner had been invited to every family dinner since he moved to town. Tonight was dinner number eleven. Not that Sadie was counting.
He was one of Marc’s good friends from veterinarian school. He’d moved on a dime from Houston when Marc asked him to take the place of the retiring vet earlier that spring. Part of her wished Conner had shown up with a wife and six kids. Part of her was really glad he showed up single. The secret part of her that would never tell another soul. Not even Cody, the brother who’d always understood her better than the rest of her siblings.
“What’s on the menu tonight?” Conner asked, completely unaware that she was desperate to avoid him. Oblivious to her pitiful crush. A crush she so did not want to have on theoneguy Marc forbid her from getting involved with. Add to that threat that she wasn’t healed from her last toxic relationship, and a crush was about the worst thing that could happen to her.
She’d made a resolution at the beginning of the year to stay single. For thewholeyear. A resolution she’d proudly announced to her entire family. Even if some of them had laughed, theyhadlistened.
“Mom made oven-roasted chicken.”
“Your family spoils me.”
Oh, that smile. That bone-melting smile. She’d gladly givebothher kidneys to know how well that smile could kiss.
Down, Sadie.
She had a lot of work to do before she let anyone get close again. She needed to prove to herself that when things went sideways, she could stand on her own two feet. Never again would she let a man destroy her from the inside out.
She didn’t trust her own judgment anymore. She was always drawn to the smooth talker who looked all tempting and shiny on the outside but was a total nightmare on the inside. She’d been gaslighted enough with Aaron in their three-year on-again, off-again relationship to last her a lifetime. It left her wondering what a world without anxiety attacks even looked like.
Sadie stepped onto the porch and Conner held the door for her. Just in time for Marc to pull into the driveway and see them.Just great.
Conner waved at Marc and lingered on the porch. “I’ll be right in.”
Without an option to escape, Sadie reluctantly headed inside. It was just one dinner. She could make it through a single meal without acting like a pathetic teenager with a high school crush. She’d find a valid excuse to miss next week. And all the Sundays to follow until Conner no longer showed up like clockwork.
“What were you doing outside?” Haylee, her youngest sister, asked three steps from the front door. Sadie ignored the raised eyebrow and instead turned her attention to her one-year-old niece on her hip.
“Hey, Melly.” Sadie tickled a soft finger beneath her chin until the little girl’s blank, sleep-stricken expression gave way to a shy smile. “You want to come to your Aunt Sadie?” The adorable girl turned a bashful face into Haylee’s shoulder. She definitely had Haylee’s goofy expressions. But her eyes belonged to a father no one knew. No one except Haylee. No amount of playing nice sister had earned Sadie that confidence.
“Nice try,” Haylee said, unamused. “You were trying to leave, weren’t you?”
“I was getting some fresh air.” Okay, so lying kind of went against the wholetrying to be a better personthing. But she couldn’t breathe a word about her stupid, annoying crush and how out of hand it’d gotten lately. If Haylee slipped up and said somethingnearMarc, he’d no doubt hear it with his bat-level ears.
“You’re allergic to fresh air.”
“Am not!”
“Every time I’ve asked you to come sit out by the fire pit with me, you’ve just laughed at me and plopped down in front of the TV instead.”
“I don’t like my hair smelling like smoke. Do you have any idea how many times I have to wash it to get the smell out—”
“Girls, can you set the table please?” Mom handed Sadie a pile of plates topped with silverware, cementing the fact Sadie wasn’t getting out of this no matter what she did now. Dinnerdidsmell delicious. Oven-roasted chicken with Mom’s homemade mashed potatoes was her favorite. Which said a lot about her determination to leave tonight, especially when leftovers weren’t guaranteed.
“I don’t get you,” Haylee said, following Sadie to the dining room.
