“Nothing yet,” Trace said.
“Nothing on the family text either,” Daddy said.
“Well, he’s done two interviews now,” Joey said. “Surely he’ll get the job.”
“He’s moving to Jackson no matter what,” Uncle Luke said. “Mav told me that last night.”
“Really?” Uncle Morris asked. “I hadn’t heard that.”
“That’s because Mav just told me last night,” Luke said, twirling up another fork full of spaghetti and putting it in his mouth. “Him and Blaze are moving Boston to Jackson Hole this weekend.”
“Wow,” Uncle Morris said. “I’m surprised we haven’t heard that.”
“They’re not gonna need any help?” Uncle Tex asked.
No one said anything, and Joey looked around at the uncles. “I imagine it’ll be a lot like me,” she said. “I can fit everything I own in my car, so how much help could Boston possibly need?”
Luke pointed his fork at her. “That. Mav is taking a bed, and they’re getting everything else in Jackson.”
“I’m not super happy about it.” Adam put a plate of fettuccine Alfredo with Joey’s Italian sausage and a breadstick in front of her and pulled out the chair beside her to sit down.
Surprised, she looked over to him. “You’re not happy about Boston moving to Jackson Hole? Why not?”
“Because I wanted him to help me run the concert series,” he said.
“You’ve got Uncle Morris to help you with the concert series,” she looked over to her uncle. “Right?”
“I just thought it would give him something to do,” Adam said. “He was real good at it with Harry.”
“Well, if he doesn’t get this job at the lodge,” Uncle Trace said. “I bet you could entice him to come back for a couple of months.” He looked around at the other members of the band, and they all nodded, which meant they had just agreed to pay Boston if he didn’t get a job at the lodge.
“I got four new pie orders for next week,” Joey said, feeling her chest balloon with pride. “And you guys are the first to know that I only needonemore order to hit my goal of one hundred pie orders to make an extra thousand dollars to move into my own place.”
“That’s incredible, Joey,” Uncle Tex said, smiling widely.
“Yeah, way to go, Roo.” Daddy reached out and patted her hand. “And you’ve still got two weeks till Christmas.”
“I’m not doing any orders next week,” Joey said. “I’m going to push everybody off until Christmas, and I’m hoping I’ll get a bunch of orders then, like I did for Thanksgiving.”
“I know Ev wants pies,” Uncle Trace said. “I’ll tell her to get on your website.” He gave her a warm smile too, and Joey liked this feeling of doing something good with her life.
“It really helped that Uncle Shawn posted it from Pork and Beans,” she said, watching Uncle Trace. “I didn’t ask him to do it last time, but do you think I should this time?”
“Yeah,” Uncle Trace said. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Joey said, ducking her head as a round of foolishness moved through her.
“She doesn’t like asking for help,” Adam said.
Irritation blitzed through Joey, and she glared at him out of the corner of her eye.
Daddy started to chuckle. “No, she does not. You’re right about that.”
“I am sitting at the table,” Joey said, lifting her eyes to her father’s. “Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to do that,” Adam said. “I wasn’t making fun of you.” He looked at her earnestly as if they were the only two people in the room. “Okay?” He slid his hand over hers and squeezed.
With his touch, she did feel like they were the only two people in the room, and she worked to remind herself thatshe absolutely could not lean toward him and kiss him in front of the other five members of her family. Instead, she nodded and dropped her head as part of that motion. “Okay,” she said.
