His pinky touched hers, and Joey gasped right out loud. Her hand swung a tiny bit from where he’d bumped it, and then he took her hand in his in the next moment. Joey had not held hands with a man in a while, but that wasn’t whyshe suddenly felt like combusting. She knew she wouldn’t feel like this if Robbie held her hand, and Joey found herself leaning closer and ducking her head as Adam murmured, “I can explain everything. Maybe over coffee?”
Joey liked coffee. She drank it every day. While she scolded herself and told herself not to create any more fantasies that would only get her hopes up where they should not be, she nodded.
“Great,” Adam said, and he gently pulled his hand free. “I think I can get your number, and I’ll text you.”
With that, he stepped away, leaving Joey to wonder how he was going to get her number, and from whom.
CHAPTER
FOUR
Adam finished putting out the ice-cold cans of soda and frosty bottles of juice. He had a couple of lemonades still in the fridge that he could offer to the men in Country Quad when they arrived. His doorbell had already rung, and he hurried to answer it.
He needed a new house with a big front office where he could conduct his business, but for now, this rental would do. He opened the door to find Bryce and Harry standing there, both wearing big cowboy hats, blue jeans, and windbreakers.
“Howdy, fellas,” Adam said, stepping back and pulling the door with him. “Come on in.”
“Uncle Luke just got here,” Harry said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder. “He had everyone with him.”
“Great,” Adam said. Once Bryce and Harry had goneby, he stepped out onto the front porch to welcome his new team to his house.
He’d met with Country Quad previously, of course, and while technically they employed him and could be called his bosses, Adam never liked thinking of his clients that way.
Tex opened the back door and spilled from the truck, and then more cowboys simply kept coming out of it: Morris, Otis, Luke, and Trace. They all seemed to talk over one another, laughing and joking, even while Tex raised his hand in a welcome to Adam.
They definitely looked like brothers, though some of them had sharper features than others. Otis, in particular, came with a rounder face and shoulders, and Adam could see those same characteristics in his daughter.
You cannot be thinking about her right now, he told himself sternly while pasting a professional-manager smile on his face for her daddy. Never mind that he and Joey were meeting for coffee in only a few hours. He expected this meeting to run right up against it, and he hoped someone else would make an excuse to finish things up so that he didn’t have to. He could probably count on Bryce for that, as his wife was due with their first baby in less than a month now. He wouldn’t want to be forty minutes from her for very long.
The Young men arrived, and Adam started shaking hands and welcoming them to this, their first official meeting at his home. He entered last and pushed the door closed behind him, locking it as a habit of living in the city with celebrities. Country Quad definitely had achievedcelebrity status, though they lived in a tiny Wyoming town.
Adam joined them in the back of the house, where the dining room blended seamlessly into the living room on the left and the kitchen on the right. Harry had taken a seat at the table, and that had prompted others to do the same.
“I’ve got sodas and water and juice,” he said. “And there’s some lemonade in the fridge, if anyone wants it.”
“I’ll take a lemonade,” Luke said, and Adam detoured to get it for him. Once everyone had the things that they wanted, he joined everyone at the table, where he had put mini notebooks in the middle. He recorded all of his meetings with his phone and transcribed the notes later.
As he said, “Welcome, everyone,” he tapped on his phone to get to the app that would do that for him.
“Ahhhhh,” Otis said, really making a big show of drinking half his Diet Coke and acting like he loved it.
Trace threw Otis a dirty look, then folded his arms and looked at Adam. “Tell us why we’re here.”
Adam looked around at the men that had gathered there that day.
“Yeah,” Luke said, “I thought we wouldn’t have to have very many meetings.”
“It’sonemeeting, Uncle Luke,” Bryce teased. “The man just started working for you.”
“We had three before this,” Luke said. “I thought he would mostly be meeting with Morris.”
“I will be,” Adam said crisply, glancing over to the man who had come to him and offered him thisjob. Morris Young looked tired, and Adam didn’t blame him. He had just moved his large family into a much bigger house, and just because they had a lot of help for the initial transfer of items didn’t mean that everything was settled and going well.
“Yep, we totally are,” Morris said. “In fact, I thought one of the best ways to transition Adam into the role—” He paused, cutting off mid-sentence, and smiled.
“Oh, I don’t think I’m gonna like this,” Tex said, but he wore a jovial smile.
All eyes seemed to volley between Adam and Morris, but it was Bryce who said, “I told Harry here that I thought we should put on a charity concert series at the Rising Sun Ranch.”
