Tex nodded, though he didn’t know every aspect of Adam’s life. “Well, you’re always welcome here.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Where is your family?”
“Tennessee,” Adam said, turning as Joey came up beside him. He smiled at her and handed her the plate of pie. She took the fork and then a bite, her eyes rolling back in her head as she moaned. “The twins still live there.”
“Twins?” Tex asked.
“Mm, yeah.” Adam nodded. “I’ve got two younger siblings—a brother and a sister. They’re twins. Both married. Both with one little girl.”
“Wow,” Tex said, his eyebrows going up. He glanced over to Joey, who swallowed.
“Grams’s pecan pie is the best food in the whole world.”
Tex grinned at her. “How you doin’, Roo?”
“Peachy, Uncle Tex.” She moved into him and gave him a quick hug. “Thank you so much for having us today.”
“Of course.” He stepped back and watched her fit herself right back against Adam’s side. He slid his arm around her, and Tex would never, ever tell his brother he thought they were a super-cute couple. “Are you two going to Tennessee for Christmas or anything?”
Adam blinked and shook his head. “No, we have the Country Quad concert series.”
“Oh, duh.” Tex chuckled as his son yelled from thebasement. He nodded that way. “If you really will indulge my boy in listening to his song….”
“There’s nothing I want more,” Adam said, and he dropped his hand to Joey’s as they both turned to head out of the galley kitchen and around the corner to the stairs that led down.
Tex watched them for a moment, then met his wife’s eye as Abby joined him in the narrow kitchen. “They’re really cute,” he said. “I don’t get why Otis and Georgia don’t like them together.”
“I think they like them together just fine,” Abby said, also watching as Adam disappeared around the corner after Joey. “I think they’re worried about what happens if they’renottogether.”
“Daddy!” Carver stomped up the last of the steps and came skidding around the corner. “What are you doin’? Bring that pie down with you so I can play.”
Abby grinned at their son. “You better get going.”
“Yep.” Tex swiped a plastic fork from the counter as he went, because he actually loved listening to his son play the guitar—and he could keep an eye on Adam and Joey at the same time.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
Joey pulled up to the light blue house, finding big wooden numbers that were almost the ones she had been given. A quick look to the right, and she found the basement entrance to the apartment with the address on it that could become hers. A quiet excitement built within her as she put her car in park.
“It looks nice,” Belle said from the passenger seat, and Joey blinked over to her.
“It does, right?” she said. “The pictures online looked really good, too. They’ve remodeled it, so even though it’s a basement, it looked nice.”
Joey had been looking at apartments for rent for the past month, and since she’d been saving since she moved back to Coral Canyon a year and a half ago, she hoped that even though she hadn’t made her one thousand dollars fromRooelle Pies, she’d still be able to get into a place starting in the New Year.
“Let’s go,” Harry said from the back seat, and his seat belt clanged against the plastic of the door, because the retractor in that one didn’t work. He didn’t comment on it and got out, and Joey’s pulse hammered at her as she did the same thing.
The sky around and above her held only gray, and it felt ominous and dangerous as she rounded the hood of the car and joined Belle and Harry on the sidewalk. “It’s going to snow,” she said.
“Supposed to,” Harry said, as he led the way down the sidewalk with the pale brown grass bordering it on both sides. “This is nice, Joey,” he said. “Easy access to the street.”
“Yeah,” Joey said.
She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t wanted to look at apartments alone, but she hadn’t. She could have asked Boston to come with her, but he’d gone to Jackson Hole this week, as he’d expanded his radius for jobs and had applied to a few places there and gotten interviews.
