He swallowed, the amount of pepper absolutely right. “It’s amazing.” He cut into his egg and let the yolk run out. “You’re incredible.” He beamed at her, really liking the way her face pinked up and she ducked her head over her own plate of biscuits and gravy.
Adam was definitely falling for Joey, and he reminded himself that they were still new. This was technically their first date, and he’d always been cautious when it came to the big things in his life.
But Joey made him want to jump on the nearest horse and spur it into a gallop. Full-steam ahead. All the way. So he let himself slip and slide and get a little more comfortable with the idea of having Joey in his life long-term.
And that felt like pure perfection too…though it did cause a slip of fear to settle in the back of his throat that he couldn’t quite swallow down.
Long-term with Joey meant long-term in Coral Canyon, and while Adam was here for now, he certainly didn’t know if he could commit to more than the three years of his contract with Country Quad.
He pushed the troubling thoughts away. Three years was a long time, and Joey had already proven she could leave Coral Canyon to try different parts of the world, to experiment with doing different things with her life.
He simply had to figure out how to be the man that she loved more than this small town where she’d grown up…and all of her family.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
Harry Young finished writing down the last title of tonight’s movie. With so many different personalities in the Young family, and all of them somewhat opinionated, he’d learned early on to have a system where one person’s preferences were not put above another’s.
In the days leading up to cousin movie night, he would take any suggestions for movies, write them on little slips of paper, and put them in his cowboy hat. A different person got to pick every month, and Harry tapped on his phone to get to the list to see whose turn it was tonight.
“Liesl,” he muttered. Then he got up from the desk, collected the slips of paper, and went out into the main living area of his house. Belle had already arrived because they spent most of their days together, and Harry couldn’twait until they woke up in the same house, in the same bed, and truly merge their lives together.
In the New Year, when she would become his wife—and Harry’s mind blanked there. He’d never been married, and he actually had no idea what life would be like after January eleventh.
He had told her Belle could move her cats in at any time, as they would be living in his house once they got married.
“Popcorn,” she said, turning from the small counter next to the microwave.
“Smells great,” Harry said. “Salty and sugary at the same time.” Belle loved white chocolate popcorn and had been making it for cousin movie nights for the past couple of months. “They should start arriving any minute.”
“Did you put in the order for the burgers?” she asked.
He shook his head and sank onto a bar stool to do that.
“Did you invite Adam?”
He looked up, his eyes locking onto his fiancée’s. “I couldn’t make myself do it.”
“Bryce and Codi come, right?”
“But Bryce and Codi are married,” Harry said. “We don’t even know if Joey is dating Adam, and I’ve never invited him before.”
Harry had no problem with his cousins bringing their significant others, but only he and Bryce had them—that he knew of. Cash lived in Jackson Hole and would not be attending, though Joey, Beth, and Boston had all confirmed. Cole and Rosie would be there with Corinne, Eric, and Liesl.
All of the other cousins were under the age of twelve, and Harry didn’t invite them. Of course, at this point, he could have invited Melissa and almost OJ, who would turn eleven next month.
At the same time, Harry wasn’t sure he would ever invite those cousins. He loved them, and they loved him. He enjoyed his time with them, but in reality, he’d been inviting the older kids who’d come from their daddy’s first marriages, and that did not include Melissa or OJ or Lars, who had just turned twelve very recently.
“Do you think I should start inviting OJ?” he asked.
Belle turned back to the fridge with a sigh. She started pulling out twelve-packs of soda and bottles of lemonade and sweet tea. “I don’t know,” she said, a bit of grumpiness in her tone. She started making coffee and kept her back to him, which was her way of telling him she didn’t want to talk about this. Her family lived far away, and Belle still struggled to spend a lot of time with a large group of people at all. In the end, Harry liked it best when it was just her and him, and he knew Belle did too.
She sighed again and faced him. “I don’t see how you can invite OJ and not invite Melissa. Her feelings will be incredibly hurt.”
“I know.” Harry looked back at his phone to finish up the burger orders. “I’m getting a ton of fries,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll get eaten.”
Belle rounded the island and sat down next to him. “Harry, baby?” she asked in a gentle voice. “It’s not your job to unite them.”
