Georgia refused to smile, matching him tit-for-tat. "Okay, then. Starting over."
She brushed off her hands and picked up the tray. "How are you, Lakeland Dear? Can I offer you some sweet tea?"
"Would love some, Georgia Snow." He followed after her as she sashayed back to the living room.
The early portion of the meal was surprisingly enjoyable, despite Georgia’s mother sending glaringly forthright comments at Lake and Evan over dinner in relation to her daughters.
“Georgia, that lavender sweater is so lovely on you.” Her mother dove head on into flattery the moment Georgia took a giant bite of warm chicken pot pie. Which also happened to coincide with the moment she truly regretted her choice of Southern winter wear, and felt a layer of sweat begin to seep through herlovely lavender sweater.
She’d been seated next to Caroline who fanned her face similarly with the heat of the room becoming more apparent as steam from their meals drifted off their plates. Meanwhile, Evan, Dakota, and Lake sat across from them inhaling their food like teenage boys, seemingly unaffected by the heat.
“Thanks, Mama,” Georgia managed to say under her breath and with a flush across her cheeks.” She pulled the sweater away from her chest discreetly, pulsing the fabric back and forth a few times.
Air flow. She needed airflow.
“Man, this is good, Mama.” Dakota shoveled a giant spoonful into his mouth.
“Thank you, sweetheart.” She beamed with Dakota’s praise, but then quickly turned her attention to the unsuspecting Lovett brothers. Both, presently inhaling their pie with the gusto ofgrowing boys. “That may be good, but I bet y’all didn’t know my girls are the best cooks this side of the Mississippi.”
Caroline choked discreetly on the bite in her mouth.
She continued, giving no notice to her daughters on the opposite side of the table. “Mmmhhh. Yes, siree. They are excellent cooks. And, whew, Georgia Snow makes a cinnamon scone that will bring tears to your eyes.”
“Because of the choking… dry choking, Mama,” Dakota said, despite the huge bite in his mouth. “Georgia’s scones could dry out an overflowin’ river.”
Georgia rolled her eyes, though she smiled at her brother’s ridiculousness. “That’s not true! You’re just spoiled with Mama’s scones.”
“Amen to that!” The Colonel lifted his fork in a salute against his head to his wife at the other end. “Keep spoilin’, babydoll.”
She merely swatted his compliment away, like a fly flew briefly in front of her face, then rested her hand on Lake’s hand, beside her. Until that moment, the Lovetts had taken the family dynamics in stride, answering and laughing when appropriate. But with her mother’s hand gently lying atop an unsuspecting Lake’s, trapping it on the table, Georgia knew he was in for it.
“Lakeland, dear," Joan began.
Georgia raised an eyebrow at Lake and mouthedDearwith a syrupy sweet smile.
Her mother, completely oblivious, continued, "Tell us all about your life nowadays. We sure are happy you’ll be ‘round for a while, but don’t ya have a girlfriend who’ll be missin’ ya back west?”
Lake’s eyes seemed to grow twice their size, shifting back and forth across the table of witnesses and then resting for a moment on Georgia. She bit her lip, fighting a laugh and all too willing to allow Lake to drown in a sea of her mother’s questioning.
“Um. No, ma’am. I’m… I’m happy to be back and… I don’t… I don’t have a girlfriend.” Thegreat Lakeland Lovettmumbled under his breath as if embarrassed by his personal truth.
Evan placed a firm hand on his younger brother’s shoulder.I got ya, buddy,the gesture said. “Lake hasn’t had a girlfriend inYEARS.”Georgia made a small mental note of this particular emphasis. “Not since–”
Before Evan could finish his very intriguing sentence, Lake interrupted with a jab to his brother’s rib cage that did not go unnoticed by anyone except Georgia’s mother. “Evandoeshave a girl he's interested in, though. Molly. He met her out in Utah, visiting Griffin and me last month. He’ll be heading out to visit right after the holidays. Right, Ev?” He turned to his brother, who rubbed a hand across his sore ribs and nodded in confirmation.
“Long distance… well, isn’t that sweet?” Georgia’s mother said, but anyone familiar with her tones would know she did not, in fact, think it was sweet at all. One of the Lovett brothers was off the market. “Butyoudon’t have any attachments. How very, very interesting…” She patted the hand of Lake’s she’d kept trapped to the table, but eyed her two daughters.
Georgia’s heart pattered. She knew her mother. Knew how she loved to meddle like an old, retired lady at a beauty shop with nothing better to do. Georgia’s instincts screamed,STOP HER!,but the sheer panic she felt began to exacerbate her already overactive sweat glands.
She looked to her brother who smirked with knowing eyes. Her father held back his own grin, and she knew he wouldn’t interfere with the impending regency era matchmaking. Caroline looked like a panicked deer in headlights, battling her fight or flight instinct in the face of oncoming traffic. Which one of them would be the roadkill their mother—with the best of intentions—would plow over to see one of her cooking savant daughters auctioned off to this fine suitor?
So, Georgia did what any sane person would do. The old nervous energy that had always seemed to manifest in Lake’s presence bubbled up from the ground where she’d been bouncing her foot into an anxiety-filled frenzy beneath the table. She launched that foot as hard as she could into Lake’sinterestingly singleshin.
“Ow! What the–!” Lake jumped out of his seat, along with every other man at the table, ready to fight the threat that had attacked him from below.
Mrs. Remillard grabbed her neck as if her nonexistent pearls would detach there at the table with the sheer force of surprise. Caroline ducked under, finding only Georgia’s eerily unmoving legs clenched together and then looked up to see her sister’s guilty face peering down at her.
Do something!Georgia silently mouthed at Caroline in a wordless exchange, unnoticed in the chaos unfolding around them.
