Julian groans and buries his face in his hands as Bec and Ruby cackle.
“I don’t even know why I come to these,” Julian mutters.
“Because your wife makes you,” Connor calls back with a wink. “And because you love me.”
Bailey grins as she bumps shoulders with Julian. “Deep down, he’s proud. Aren’t you, babe?”
Julian stares at his burger. “I plead the Fifth.”
“Lame,” Bec and Ruby say at the same time.
Ansley saunters up to Lincoln with a drink in her hand, eyes glinting with mischief. “You gonna tell me I’m not allowed to sit on the bar again, sheriff?”
Lincoln sighs, pure exasperation threaded with concern, but his eyes track her the entire time she climbs onto the bar. “You’re gonna fall.”
“Catch me, then,” she says, leaning back dramatically.
“I swear to God,” Lincoln mutters, stepping closer just in case.
I find myself drifting toward Phoenix, not sure what I’m going to say, just knowing I need to say something. Phoenix catches my eye as I step beside him and Malachi. He doesn’t smile, but his gaze softens just enough.
“Quite the crowd,” he says.
“Yeah,” I reply, crossing my arms as I watch Ruby convince Frankie to join the dance line. Frankie rolls her eyes but doesn’t say no.
Frankie’s gaze flicks to me once, subtle, lingering, and in that brief second, I feel it. She sees something I haven’t named yet. She moves through the crowd with a kind of awareness that’s all her own. Intuitive. Her presence carries the hush that follows a storm.
“They yours?” Phoenix asks. “This crew?”
I think about that. About Maggie’s cinnamon rolls. James sitting on the porch, shelling peanuts like he isn’t listening to every word within fifty feet. About Sloane sliding me a drink earlier and muttering, “Don’t overthink it. Just enjoy it.”
“Yeah,” I reply. “I guess they are.”
Phoenix nods once. “Then I’m glad I came.”
McKenzie smiles warmly at me. “We both are.”
For a second, I feel something strange stir in my chest. Something like peace.
A loud yell cuts through the moment. “Salsa train incoming!” Ruby shrieks.
Frankie grabs Bec’s hand and pulls her into the line Ruby formed as they barrel past, dragging a laughing line of people behind them. Nash, somehow, is near the front, his expression deadpan despite the ridiculousness.
“Save yourselves,” East calls as Darla shoves him into the line.
Malachi slides an arm around my waist. The heat of his body hits first, then the weight of the gesture. Possessive, sure. But something gentler pulses underneath it. A quiet tether.
“You dancing with them or hiding with me?”
“Hiding.”
He kisses my temple. Lips warm. Gentle. A touch that melts something inside me.
“Good. I prefer it when you hide with me.”
I glance back at Phoenix. He gives me a subtle nod, recognizing something unspoken. Family doesn’t always show up the way you expect.
And sometimes, just sometimes, the person who makes you feel safest isn’t the one you run to first. He is the one who never stops watching the door until you walk through it.
