And maybe, just maybe, they could discuss it over coffee and cupcakes.
CHAPTER
THREE
Now that she’d stormed out of the house, Joey wasn’t quite sure what to do. She wished she had an array of wigs the way Codi did. She could simply put on another one and disappear for a while. She could walk right past people in the grocery store, and they wouldn’t know it was her, wouldn’t ask her questions about her family, or what she was doing with her life, or what she hoped for her future.
For a few brief minutes against the side of the house, she’d fantasized about having someone tall and strong to take care of her. Then she wouldn’t have to know much more than she already did.
“He’s managing yourfather’sband,” she said with plenty of disgust in her tone. She walked over to a garden rake and picked it up. Clearly, those who had been outside unpackingthe yard tools had been called in for the announcement, as they littered the cement pad.
Joey’s stomach growled as she started putting away garden tools, children’s toys, and even a chainsaw in the big shed in the back corner of Uncle Morris’s yard. She wasn’t sure who had seen her stomp out of the house, and embarrassment swirled through her when she realized she’d have to face the group eventually. Her family very rarely let someone slip away, and surely someone had seen her leave the celebration early.
“Adam saw you,” she muttered to herself, because his eyes had been glued to hers during the announcement.
No one came to get her, so Joey simply continued to work. When she heard voices filtering into the backyard from the front, she left the lawn mowers and leaf blowers and went that way.
She found Shawn and Enid setting up for the family luncheon, and since working outside would be better than going back in, Joey approached her boss and uncle.
“Hey, Uncle Shawn, what do you need help with?”
He flashed her a quick smile. “Hey, Joey.” He gave her a side hug and nodded to the catering van. “You can get out the cart and start loading it. We should have the tables and tent done by then.”
Joey nodded and walked over to the van that she’d driven around Coral Canyon for other events. Shawn had brought two other employees with him, and the three of them got the tent set up in Uncle Morris and Aunt Leigh’s driveway. Enid covered the tables with ivory-colored cloths,and when Joey returned, she left the trays of smoked turkey, scalloped potatoes, and salad in the cart so she could help her aunt set up the heating elements that would keep the food warm.
A crisp October breeze ruffled the tent and kept extinguishing the flame that Enid got going. “Shawn,” she finally said, turning toward her husband. “Can we put those flaps down? I can’t keep this lit.”
She sounded more irritated than the situation called for, but Joey certainly didn’t know everything going on in her life.
“We’re working on it,” her husband said. Joey moved to try to shield the flame with her body. “Maybe if I stand right here,” she said. “It will help.”
Enid flashed her a grateful smile, got the burners lit, the tent flaps came down, and Joey helped Enid get the food on the tables. She didn’t have to be told what to do, as she worked for Pork and Beans in their catering department, and she returned to the van to get the utensils, plates, and cups. Another employee, a man named Robert, came over and grabbed the lemonade, sweet tea, and coffee.
“Howdy, Joey,” he said, tipping his cowboy hat at her. He smiled, a hint of a blush on his face, and Joey realized with a start that his simple cowboy greeting was actually him flirting with her.
“Hey, Robbie,” she said brightly. She’d entertained no romantic feelings for the cowboy, and she had no idea how old he was—definitely older than her.
She turned away with the bin of creamers,sugars, and stirring sticks for the hot drinks, and took it over to the table. She started setting everything out, refusing to look at Robbie again. She wasn’t sure why, though. If someone was going to ask her out today, she wanted it to be Adam and not a coworker.
You’re being delusional, she told herself. No one was going to ask her out today, not Robbie and not Adam. She’d known them both for months now, and neither had ever indicated that they wanted to be more than mere acquaintances.
Thankfully, the front door opened, and people began spilling out of the house. The garage door lifted, and more people arrived. Joey bustled around, finishing up with the catering, and then she fell out of sight again, standing next to Aunt Enid the way a worker would do instead of a family member. No one looked her way, and that only reinforced to Joey that she was invisible inside her own family.
She watched as aunts and uncles corralled their children and helped them pick up plates and start to load food onto them.
“You can take everything back inside,” Aunt Leigh yelled. “We have couches, and our dining room table too.”
That would still not be enough places to sit, and Joey wasn’t surprised to see some of the older teens and young adults taking their plates into the backyard instead of the house. That would most likely be her group with Rosie and Cole, Boston and Eric.
There were still too many people in line, so Joey didn’t move to get her food yet. She could wait until the crowdthinned a little bit. She looked toward the front door as one more person came out, and her eyes locked onto Adam. He chatted easily with Bryce on his right, and Harry followed them and pulled the door closed.
Adam looked up toward the crowd, and it took less than a second for him to scan it and find her. Joey wasn’t sure what to do with his attention. She only knew it made her warm from the inside out, and she wanted to smile and lift her hand to acknowledge him.
At the same time, his gaze felt too powerful for her to hold, and her earlier embarrassment at sobbing into his chest, ridiculously hoping for a relationship to start, and then fleeing the scene once she found out he was the new manager of Country Quad, had Joey looking away again.
He, Bryce, and Harry continued toward them, and Joey knew Adam wasn’t going anywhere. He did, somehow, manage to separate himself from her cousins, because she found them laughing in the food line without him. She looked up, hoping to locate him again, and flinched as she found him only two feet from her. He moved to her side effortlessly, now out of the way and almost out of sight.
Her heartbeat pulsed in the back of her throat, and she had no idea what to say. Besides, he’d come over to her, and surelyhewould start this conversation. She didn’t know how. She didn’t even know what she wanted him to say.
