“I have faith in you, Buck,” Julian stated. “And if she doesn’t listen, I can get some of the brothers together to sit her down and set her straight.”
“Thanks, Jules, but this has to come from me. I know that Mason and Kyle have dropped hints every now and then over the years when their paths have crossed with hers, but they say she’s pretty set in her head about what happened and she won’t listen to any of it.”
“That sucks,” Julian replied. “What do you have in mind, then? How are you going to get her to believe you?”
Buck responded grimly. “I have a few things up my sleeve, but she has to actually give me time to present my side of the story.”
“And if she refuses? What then? Or if she actually lets you have a few minutes of her time, then doesn’t buy into your story, what happens?”
“Then I’m screwed. For a very long time. We’re both going to be working in the same general area, and there’s no way we won’t be running into each other. So, if I can’t at least garner a truce, things are going to be damned uncomfortable. I just hope what I have to sayat leasttakes the edge off her animosity.”
In truth, Buck was looking for more than that. The attraction he’d once had toward Bobbie had clearly been reignited the minute he’d set eyes on her again. He couldn’t imagine being this close to her and not acting on his feelings.
“Boys!” Ellen Sothard’s voice cut into their conversation from a few feet away as she bustled up to them. “I’ve been looking for you. The photographer wants to do some family pictures before the wedding starts.”
Ellen was wearing a light blue, Grecian style dress, and Buck let her know she was rocking it.
“You look fantastic, Mom.” He dropped a kiss on top of her neatly coiffed head. “I hope you’re ready for the reception, because everyone is going to want to dance with you.”
“Right,” she laughed. “My husband, my father-in-law, and each one of my boys. But I’m not complaining. That will be more than enough to wear me out.”
“I don’t know, Mom,” Julian teased. “I think Spencer’s old shipmate Pietro has his eye on you.”
“Phht. That one,” Ellen scoffed. “He’s a charmer, for sure. I think between him and Vincent, all the single ladies should be locked up for their own safety.”
Buck laughed. “You might be right. But just wait. Mark my words. Those two are the ones who will fall hardest when they meet the right woman.”
His mother pulled back and gave him a scrutinizing look.
“And what about you?” she asked astutely.
Julian, off the hook for the moment, snickered.
Buck drew on all his patience.
He wasn’t going to be a jerk, but he wasn’t going to let his mother get away with her obvious manipulations, either. “Mom. I know you were playing hand-in-puppet by hiring Bobbie’s catering company for the weekend. You orchestrated it very adeptly so we’d finally be in close proximity to one another. I get it, and it’s okay…even though it would have been nice to get a heads up,” he admonished. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do. But don’t go thinking that everything is going to resolve instantly and we’ll have a fairytale ending just because you wish it to be so.”
He went on. “As Jules and I were just discussing when you walked up, Bobbie’s had years to keep her anger on ice, and it’s still damned glacial. Yesterday when I went to her place of business, I got one hell of a chilly reception.”
Buck’s mother laid a hand on his arm. “Don’t be discouraged, Buck. A lot of things in life that are worth having don’t come easily,” she told him. “I know that sounds trite, like?—.”
“—like something you’d sew on a pillow,” Julian supplied irreverently.
Ellen slugged him on the arm, and not lightly.
“Ow.” Jules rubbed his bicep. “Okay, Ma. I get it. I’m no longer a welcome part of this conversation.” Julian gave up, backing away. “So where does the photographer want us?”
“On the front porch,” Ellen told him with a roll of her eyes. “Let her know we’ll be there in a minute.”
“Will do.” Julian turned on his heel and began to walk off.
“Uh, thanks for sticking around to have my back, bro,” Buck called out after him sarcastically.
Julian flipped him the bird over his shoulder, and Buck pretended outrage.
“Ma! Are you going to let him get away with that?” he mock-whined.
She chuckled. “Seriously, Buck. The days of threatening you boys with my wooden spoon are over. And I appreciate that when a gesture like that is made, it’s oft-times warranted.”
