The second Amos spotted her, his whole face broke open into a grin, and he crossed the space in three long strides before pulling her into a hug that lifted her slightly off her feet.
She laughed and patted his back, then pulled away and planted a kiss on his cheek, her hands cupping his face for a moment.
And something in my chest tightened.
I wasn’t used to seeing him light up like that for someone who wasn’t me.
It was just enough to remind me I didn’t have any real claim on him.
Not outside our little agreement.
But she was so mucholderthan him.
I’d seen Amos go after all kinds of women over the years. But I’d never seen him with an older woman. At least not one that wastwentyyears older.
“Do you think that’s his mom?” I pondered.
Kelly gasped softly. “Maybe! I don’t think I’ve ever heard him mention her.”
“He doesn’t talk about family much.”
He’d mentioned his family exactlytwicein all the years I’d known him, in the quiet dark of that night at the logging camp, his voice stripped of its usual swagger. And once more at the spring festival, when he’d confided that he hadn’t been close to his dad.
“Go say hi,” Kelly urged, nudging my arm.
My stomach flip-flopped. “I don’t know. That’s a big step, isn’t it?”
Kelly pushed me in their direction and hissed, “Go!”
Feeling awkward, I pushed the cart back toward him.
Amos looked up when he heard the wheels squeaking, his face lighting up.
He growled, “Come meet my mom.”
With nerves in my belly, I said, “Hi, I’m Shelly. I’m a fr—”
The woman turned to me with bright, sharp eyes and a smile that was pure Amos.
“Oh, I know whoyouare, Shelly-Rae,” she interrupted. “Amos has been talking about you foryears. You’re my only hope for grandbabies.”
My breath caught.
That wasn’t fake-dating territory anymore.
That was… something else entirely.
I looked at Amos, my brows shooting to my hairline. “Really?”
A light flush crept up his neck and into his wooly beard.
“Ma,” his voice came out pained. “Don’t scare her off.”
His mother raised her eyebrows at him, unbothered. “Is it true you two are dating?”
“Where’d you hear that?” he asked.
She gave him a look that suggested the question was beneath her. “Thewholetown. You think I could have heard it from my own son first.”
