Darcy picked a plate with fried chicken strips and a scoop of mashed potatoes, then followed Ford to one of the tables by the big windows that overlooked the park.
“I think I should have salad,” Rhomi said.“But the baby wants chicken.”
“Gotta listen to the little peanut,” Darcy said with a chuckle.
“Heck yeah.Fried chicken it is.”She and Mercer joined them at the table with their plates.“At first Reagan said she’d come, and then she said something came up.”
Darcy sighed.“I think she’s just scared to run into Indio.”
“I think so too,” Rhomi said.“She’s being really cagey about everything.I can’t figure her out.”
“I’m sure she’ll change her mind in time,” Ford said.“The soulmate bond is hard to ignore.”
Darcy couldn’t imagine running from Ford the day they met.She’d been enchanted by him since the beginning.“I’ll reach out to her when we’re home and see if she wants to come hang out at the farm for a while.She may just need a chance to decompress and relax.”
“And spill the tea,” Rhomi said.“I want to know what happened between them that spooked her so bad she doesn’t want to see him.”
“Uh yeah, I want to know too!”Darcy said.It couldn’t just be that her other bestie was embarrassed they’d hooked up right off the bat.There had to be something else going on, but whatever it was…only Reagan knew right now.
A door at the back of the room opened, and a woman walked in carrying a tray of drinks.“Hi, everyone.”She approached them and set the tray on the table.
Darcy had met Sera at the baby shower, and now she knew that she was a jaguar shifter and mated to the alpha lion, Caesar.“It’s nice to see you all,” Sera said.“I wanted to congratulate the two of you on your engagement, so I brought you some of my homemade blueberry sparkling water.”
She set the pretty purple drinks in front of everyone.
“It’s nice to see you again,” Darcy said.She took a sip.“Oh, this is amazing!Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.When we get the new café open next to the safari tour, you’ll have to come by for the specialty drinks and treats.”
“We’ll definitely do that,” Ford said.
The alpha female said goodbye and Darcy took another sip of the drink.
“Oh my gosh, could you imagine having Sera come to the farm for your wedding and having a coffee and drink bar?I bet she’d make you a personalized drink for the wedding too,” Rhomi said.“And she makes amazing sweets, maybe she’d even do the desserts.”
“I like that idea,” Darcy said.
Ford nodded with a smile.“Any thoughts on the date?”
Darcy knew they hadn’t had much time to chat about when they’d get married, but he’d told her last night, after rocking her world more than once, that he was happy for whatever she wanted when it came to the timing of the wedding.So she went with the plans she’d always thought of when she was a kid wearing a pillowcase as a veil and pretending to marry one of her stuffed animals.
“Spring for sure, maybe April.In the field, with the trees and split-rail fence as the backdrop.Some roses and ivy around the wood slats, and oh!Daisy the goat as a flower girl.”
“Don’t you mean flower goat?”Rhomi asked.
The two stared at each other for a long moment and then burst out laughing.
She saw Ford and Mercer shake their heads with smiles, and she leaned over and kissed Ford’s cheek.
“You’re a hoot and a half, darlin’,” he said.“But you’re all mine.”
“You’re mine too.”
When their double date ended and they said goodbye to their friends, they headed back to the farm.Her mind was on Reagan and wondering if her friend was okay.But she was also thinking about her own future.So she decided to give Reagan a call when she got home to the farm, but in the meantime, she wanted to talk to Ford about something that had been on her mind.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said.
“Should I be worried?”he asked with a chuckle.
