“I’m not dignifying that with an answer,” Will said.
“Ah, but you just did, my sweet sister.” Mac tossed her arm around Willow’s shoulders and tugged her close. “Is Rory meetin’ us there?”
“I don’t think so. She said she’s gonna be swamped this week, gettin’ The Sweet Spot’s reno started. I guess they’re tryin’ to minimize the demolition so they can keep the shop open as long as possible.”
Mac glanced at the bakery across the Square that she knew almost as well as she knew her own home. She’d spent more hours inside those four walls than she could count, keeping her childhood best friend, Hudson, company while he did all he could to help his momma run her new business after her husband had died in combat. It’d been a long time since Mac had been over there to help. Even longer since Hudson had been home.
The familiar pang in her chest at the thought of him kept her company as the three of them walked to The Willow Tree—Havenbrook’s first and only bar, and an homage to Willow herself, courtesy of her fiancé—and ducked inside.
No matter how many times she’d seen the space—and since this was where she received a steady paycheck, she saw it a whole shit-ton—it never failed to impress her that Rory had made it come to life. Though Mac and her eldest sister hadn’t seen eye to eye on a lot of things over the years, it seemed time had healed some of those old wounds. They still weren’t as close as Mac and Will were, but they were getting there.
She couldn’t be happier for her sister’s success—in life and love. And if Mac was a little jealous about both of those things, well, she’d just keep it to herself.
“If it ain’t three of my favorite girls,” Finn called as he strolled out from behind the bar.
“Oh, sure, lump your fiancée in with the other two,” Will said, resting her hand on her hip.
“C’mon, Willowtree, you know you’re my favorite. And you also know…” Finn’s words were muffled as he whispered them into her ear, but from the look on Willow’s face, Mac could guess what he was saying.
“For shit’s sake, you two, get a room.” Mac walked around them, plucked three menus from behind the hostess stand and a few sets of silverware, and led Avery to a table against the wall of windows. She had half a mind to punch in so she could at least get paid for doing Finn’s job.
Some people might not want to eat lunch at the place they saw most evenings until at least midnight, but when the restaurant pickings were as slim as they were in Havenbrook, there wasn’t much choice. Besides, the burgers here were spectacular.
“I wonder if that’s going to die down after the big day.” Avery tipped her head in the direction of where Finn and Willow stood, right in the middle of the bar, making out like they were a couple of teenagers.
“Unlikely.” Mac placed the menus and silverware on the table. “They’ll be eighty and still goin’ at it like bunnies.”
“It’s making me jealous as fuck. Is it so much to ask to get some new single men in this town?” Avery gasped and leaned forward over the table, her eyes dancing. “I almost forgot to tell you! When I was out on my run this morning, I saw one of the finest men I’ve ever seen in mylife.”
“You sure you weren’t hallucinating? Five a.m. is awful early, and you’re bound to start seein’ things.”
“Hallucinating about what?” Will asked as she slid into the seat next to Mac.
“The absolutely gorgeous guy I saw this morning, and no. I’m one-hundred-percent certain he was real. And I’m equally certain he’s not from around here. Plates were from Tennessee. But—” she hummed and fluttered her lashes “—he wasdelectable. Super tall. Well built. He was wearing aviators, so I couldn’t see his eyes, but he definitely had a military feel to him, know what I mean?”
A frisson of awareness zinged up Mac’s spine, and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. It was probably nothing. Just like every other mention of a military man over the past decade had been nothing. After this many years, she should’ve been used to it. She should’ve been able to ignore it. But sometimes, when you got so little of someone, you scavenged for crumbs. Even when those crumbs ended up having no correlation to the person you’d been missing.
“Once in a while, guys pass through from Fort Shelby, so that’d make sense,” Mac said. “Was he at the gas station?”
“No, actually, he was at—”
“There y’all are!” Rory yelled, the front door banging against the wall as she came tearing in, her heels clicking on the polished concrete floor. “Been lookin’ for you all over this damn town.”
She was the most put together of all of the Haven girls, but even she was looking a little unkempt today. Probably nothing that could be discerned by passersby, but something Mac picked up on immediately.
“Well, we definitely weren’t in Nash’s bed, which is clearly where you came from,” Mac said.
Rory rolled her eyes and pulled out the chair next to Avery before taking a seat. “I’m in this state because I need to speak to you immediately and didn’t think you’d appreciate me takin’ time to freshen up.”
That feeling in the pit of Mac’s stomach grew, the handful of butterflies that had come to life from Avery’s explanation transforming into a swarm of bees being swept up by a tornado. Without conscious thought, she reached under the table and gripped Will’s knee, needing something—anything—to anchor her.
“Edna must have some good gossip today,” Mac forced out through her dry throat.
“Every day, which you know better than anyone,” Rory said. That was true…Havenbrook’s mail carrier and Mac were two peas in a pod, despite their more than forty-year age difference. “But I’m gonna need you to shut up for a second, honey, andlisten to me.” She punctuated the last three words with slaps of her hand against the table.
“Calm down, Rory,” Will said. “I’m sure Edna will fill Mac in later today. You didn’t need to make a trip out here, especially if you and Nash were having your special, grown-up time.”
Rory raised a brow. “We’ll see if you think the same thing when you find out just who arrived in Havenbrook this morning…”
