She pointed to that one, even though it blipped up as more messages came in. “He’s asking that because he knows I’m in Dog Valley a lot to see my momma.”
“Hmm,” Adam said, humming somewhere deep in his chest.
I’m sure it’s not a boy, Uncle Gabe, Bryce said.Joey’s twenty-two, so I’m sure she’s dating a man.
It’s definitely a man, Harry said, with a laughing emoji.
She tilted her phone toward Adam so he could see Harry’s text. “He and Belle asked about us. I told them we went out last weekend.”
Adam grunted. “He’s texted me a couple of times too.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing.” Adam pulled her closer, keeping her warm and safe under the protection of his arm. “I ignored him.”
Well, I’d like to know who it is, Mav said.Unless you’re not telling.
She’ll tell when she’s ready, Aunt Faith said.
She has to tell, Uncle Tex said.She’s bringing him to dinner in a week. A FULL FAMILY dinner.
Besides, she wouldn’t have texted on here if she didn’t want to tell, Boston said.
More and more messages poured in,and Joey giggled with each one. Adam scoffed and said, “Look how many there are.”
“Oh, and here comes Grams,” she said, as the first message from her grandmother came in.If it’s who I think it is, I’m thrilled, she said.
She looked over to Adam. “She’s saying that, so my daddy won’t be upset.”
“He hasn’t answered yet at all,” he said. “Do you think he hasn’t seen it?”
“Oh, he’s seen it,” Joey said. “He’s probably talking to Georgia about it, and she’s probably calming him down, and he’s going to be dying.” She trailed off, trying to decide if she should give her father five minutes or one.
“Are you going to tell him privately?” he asked.
“I bet Daddy’s waiting to say anything until I do,” she said. “He grew up here, and he knows a lot of people here. He’s been raising his family here for a long time. He’ll definitely want to know who it is.”
“So does everyone else,” Adam said, gesturing to the phone. “Even your cousins who saw us are asking.”
“That’s because they’re trying to thread the needle,” Joey said. “That’s what we do for each other in the Youngfamily.” She looked over to him, suddenly insecure. She lowered her phone. “My family is huge, Adam, and you’re used to being by yourself.”
He searched her face, and she wondered what he saw. “I’m a people person,” he said softly. “I can handle your family, because at other times it’s just me and you like this.”
She softened into his side and kissed him gently. That gave her the strength she needed to say, “Okay, I’m gonna tell them.”
She leaned her head closer to his and said, “With picture evidence. Are you willing to be on my family text?”
She prayed with everything inside her that he would say yes, and she tapped on her camera app, and held her phone out to take a selfie.
Adam pressed his temple to hers and smiled. Joey snapped the picture and could not stop grinning at it. “We’re so cute,” she said. “Look at us.”
“Well, one of us is,” he said.
Joey nudged him with her shoulder, and then navigated back to the family text string so that she could upload the picture. Below that, she captioned it.This is him. In parentheses, she added,(It’s Adam Harmon, by the way, for any of you who don’t know him.)
Her thumb hovered over the arrow that would send the text to the sixty-five-plus people on the string.
“My daddy will call within thirty seconds,” she said.
