“It’s perfect.”
“C’mon now, I haven’t produced a single piece that you haven’t had something to say about.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
He hummed. “You can tell me if you want something different. I don’t mind.”
She turned her head to look up at him, feeling her throat tighten at the earnestness of his stare. And for the first time, she was honest with herself about this thing that was happening between them. Nash wasn’t perfect. He was the last thing she needed, and he sure as hell wasn’t part of her plans. But damn if she wanted to let him go.
Pressing her lips to his stubbled jaw, she said, “I don’t want anything different at all.”
After fourteen voice mails and too many texts to count, Rory had given up on getting her pain-in-the-ass sister there for Gran’s birthday. Nothing pissed her off more than not being able to accomplish something she’d set her mind to, and she hated her sister a little bit for ruining what Rory had planned.
But just because she couldn’t give Gran the one thing she wanted for her eightieth, that didn’t mean Rory couldn’t still throw her one hell of a party. It’d been a challenge, fitting party prep in between juggling her job at town hall, school bake sales and PTA meetings, not to mention all the design work with Nash… Though, if she were honest, it wasn’t tackling the clients with Nash that took up so much of her time. And energy.
Their time together hadn’t waned. If anything, it’d grown more frequent. While he kept his overnight stays to the days the girls were at Sean’s, he’d taken to coming by on her nights with them, too. Bringing the girls’ favorite takeout and hanging out while they all crammed on the couch and watched a movie.
Ava and Ella both loved him, and while she’d never introduced him as anything more than Nash, Aunt Nat’s best friend, she was relieved at how much they liked him.
While she wasn’t looking, he’d slipped so easily into her life, and it scared her.
But that was something she could dissect later. Right now, she was on a mission to throw the best surprise birthday party Havenbrook had ever seen.
“Mac, would you mind grabbin’ some more of those pale pink votive candles, please? I want the backyard to look like it’s lit up by a thousand stars.”
Mac dropped her head back on her shoulders and groaned. Shopping with her was nearly as bad as dragging Ella along—who, thankfully, was getting up to trouble at Mimi’s with her sister. Unfortunately, Will, Rory’s usual shopping partner, was busy and couldn’t get away.
Rory tapped her chin, picturing the placement of them in the backyard and calculating how many she’d need. “I’m debating if we should get one or two…”
“Dozen?”
She shot Mac a horrified look. “Hundred,Mac. One or twohundred. What’s the matter with you?”
Mac stared at her in silence for a full ten seconds before she shook her head, snagged a buggy, and strolled off in search of candles without a word.
“If they don’t have enough pink, ivory will work, too!” she called after her sister’s retreating form.
Mac lifted a hand in a wave without turning around. Rory was pretty sure she’d been holding up her middle finger while she’d done it. Her sister, always a lady.
Rory rolled her eyes and ran a nail down her list, scanning everything she had left to pick up. She’d already gone into Parkersville earlier in the week to get the majority of the things, but there were always last-minute items she’d forgotten about or changed her mind over. Now that they were only a couple days away from the party, she was getting down to the nitty-gritty.
The food was being catered by The Sweet Spot—a local business owned by family friends that had, thankfully, recently expanded to also include lunch fare instead of strictly desserts. Back in high school, the owner’s son, Hudson, and Mac had been best friends. Though the two had seemed to lose touch after Hudson had enlisted and moved away, Mac had kept up a relationship with the Millers. Thank heavens, too, because the connection had given Rory a little leeway in planning this party on such short notice.
She pushed her buggy down the aisle, scanning the shelves for what she needed. When she finally found the section all the way at the end, she nearly sagged with relief. She wasn’t sure they’d have the tiny lights in stock and had worried she’d have to make another long trip to purchase them.
She tossed one box into her cart and reached for another before someone said her name. She glanced up to a still-empty aisle and twisted around to find where it was coming from. When she realized they weren’t speakingtoher butabouther, she narrowed her eyes and craned her neck to hear. If this was Carol Ann again going on about her, Rory couldn’t be held accountable for her actions…
“Poor thing,” one woman—definitely not Carol Ann—said. “I don’t think she’s taken this whole situation well atall.”
“Do you blame her? Her husband was off gettin’ up to no good while she was home raising those babies.” The second woman—Verna, maybe, from town hall? Rory wasn’t sure based on voice alone—tsk-tsked. “Wouldn’t blame her one bit if she was chumming up thisworkin’relationship with Little Nash to make Sean jealous.”
Rory could barely keep in her groan and was almost positive her eye roll could be heard for miles. Yes, she had nothing better to do with her life than try to make her ex-husband jealous.
“I was thinkin’ the same thing,” Not Carol Ann said. “I have a hard time believin’ the rumors that they’re really together. She’s a beauty for her age, but she’s so much older than him! And she can be a little…well, you know.”
Maybe Verna hummed in agreement. “Hard to keep a man around with all those demands and expectations weighin’ him down. And if she couldn’t keep that no-good, cheatin’ sack of bones happy, she doesn’t stand a chance landin’ Little Nash.”
Rory blanched even as her body lit on fire from the inside out. The words landed like knives in her chest, and she gripped the handle of the buggy just to keep herself upright.
