“’Course not,” Nat said, rolling her eyes on-screen.
“What can we do?” Will asked, worry lacing her voice.
“Make sure he’s doin’ what he’s supposed to andnotdoin’ anything he isn’t,” Momma said. “Which, I’m sure you know, will be a full-time job for about ten people. Your daddy doesn’t like bein’ told no.”
Mac crossed her arms over her chest. “We can handle him.” In fact, it would give her great pleasure to boss her father around—it was just the cherry on the sundae that doing so would help keep him safe.
Rory nodded. “We can get the word out, too. Make sure everyone in town knows what’s goin’ on so he can’t slip anything past us.”
“That’s good thinkin’, because he’ll try to sneak anything he can, the little shit,” Gran said.
Momma cracked a smile. “Gran’s right.” The smile slipped from her face, and her tone sobered. “And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you girls, but your daddy’s the same age as Gramps was when he passed away from his heart attack.”
The table went quiet, and Mac met her sisters’ gazes, all of them radiating worry and concern. Mac had been young when their grandpa—Gran’s husband—had passed, but she still felt the hollow ache from his absence nearly two decades later. She didn’t share the same special bond with her daddy that she’d had with her grandpa, but she couldn’t deny she’d feel his loss just as painfully.
After a few moments of silence, Rory cut in, her tone all business as she picked up her phone and poked around, no doubt pulling up her digital calendar. “All right, then. Let’s figure this out. I could move some things around and hire out contractors to oversee the projects I’m workin’ on for King Haven. But there’s a ton of upcomin’ school activities this month, plus the girls’ extracurriculars.” She pursed her lips. “I’m sure Nash would help where he can because he doesn’t have any out-of-town projects this month.”
“I’ll do what I can at town hall, but I’m already there from sunup to sundown anyway since Daddy fired his latest assistant,” Will said. “I can delegate a few things to Avery to handle so I can take on more of Daddy’s work.” She bit her lip, her brow creasing. “Dammit, wait… I have wedding stuff lined up almost every day for the next couple weeks that can’t be postponed anymore. Unless…” She took a deep breath, her shoulders slumping. “Maybe Finn and I should push back the wedding?”
“Heavens, no. You’re not pushin’ it back,” Momma said, reaching out and resting her hand over Will’s. “Maybe Nat can—”
Nat shook her head on-screen. “Sorry, Momma, but I’m in Greece. I’m scheduled to be in Belize in two days, then I fly to Morocco for a week. These take months of plannin’. I can’t—”
“’Course not,” Gran said, cutting in. “And as much as I’d love to see Nat runnin’ this town, I think that’d send my son into an early grave.”
Mac watched the conversation volley between everyone else at the table, a hollow ache deep in her chest making itself known. She was the obvious choice to shoulder some of this burden—or maybe it was only obvious to her? She didn’t have an important career that ate up all her time. She had no kids, no husband, no wedding to plan. She wasn’t gallivanting all over the world—or even the state. She was hanging out in Havenbrook, gobs of unaccounted-for time as compared to the rest of them, but apparently she wasn’t a good fit.
She tried not to let her discouragement show, because heaven knew the last thing someone with her track record should be doing was filling in for the freaking mayor. If that happened, she’d probably have Havenbrook bankrupted before the end of the week.
“Wait a minute.” Will slapped her hand to her forehead. “We’re all idiots.”
“Speak for yourself,” Nat interrupted.
Will continued as if their youngest sister hadn’t spoken. “We’ve been thinkin’ too hard. The answer is right in front of us.” She rolled her eyes as everyone glanced around, then gestured to Mac. “Macis the obvious choice. Not only is she great at public relations—exactly what Daddy needs now durin’ these meetings—but I know Finn, Nola, and Drew can figure something out at The Willow Tree for a bit until Daddy’s back up and runnin’.”
All eyes snapped to Mac, and she swallowed down the nerves that suddenly swarmed her stomach. Shit, why had she put that stupid thought out into the universe in the first place? This was absolutely above her pay grade—so far above it, it wasn’t even a speck in the sky to her.
Failing at her own shit was one thing, but screwing up the entire town? She’d never, in all her years, live that down.
“That’s perfect,” her momma said, a smile lighting up her face. “OfcourseMac’s the best choice.”
Mac jerked back, shocked that her momma had agreed so easily. “But—”
“It’s settled, then!” Momma clasped her hands and relaxed back into the chair. It was only the look of relief that swept over her mom’s face that had Mac keeping her mouth shut.
A buzz of conversation started up around the table, but Mac couldn’t concentrate on anything anyone said. Not when she’d suddenly been put in charge of their entire town. At least until this business with Daddy got figured out.
She only hoped it happened sooner rather than later, because there was no telling how quickly she would fail at this.
Making that bet with Kenna was the best thing Hudson had done since he’d been home. Actually, scratch that. Kissing her had been the best thing he’d done since he’d been home, but making sure they got to do a hell of a lot more of it while he was there was close behind.
Now he just had to figure out how to get her in the same room as him again.
So far, his efforts had been futile, but he didn’t let that get him down. He might’ve been gone for years, but there was no way Kenna had changed the root of her being so drastically during that time. And Kenna, above all else, was a woman of her word. If she agreed on a bet, she intended to uphold her end. She wouldn’t even enter it in the first place if she wasn’t all in.
He’d called her yesterday and gotten her voice mail, before sending her a text to check in. Her response hadn’t come until nearly midnight, saying she was sorry for missing him, but she’d had a hell of a day. And then she’d gone radio silent—probably passed out from exhaustion if he read the tone of her texts correctly.
He wanted to know what had her so damn exhausted, and he couldn’t wait any longer to find out. Memory took him from the cabin—where he and Caleb had been staying while they worked on some of the necessary repairs—to the Haven estate. Thanks to his momma, he knew Kenna had moved out several years ago and was now living in a small guesthouse Richard had had built after Will came home from college.
