He knew that was a little messed up.Theylivedtogether.Went to bed every night in the same bed next to each other and saidI love youmore and more easily.They were in a functioning, supportive,positiveadult relationship.
But he wanted her to be alittlejealous someone was hitting on him.
“Not even if I admitted I’ve been jealous of literally every guy who looks at you twice, even though I know I shouldn’t be.”
She looked up at him in the falling light, something like humor in the slight curve of her mouth.“Everyone?”
“Every.Single.One.Want me to name them?”He tapped his temple.“Got a list right up here.”
Her mouth curved up even more.“So what if I was jealous?”
“My ego would be greatly soothed.”
She reached out, pressed her palms to his chest.“Your ego is just fine,” she murmured, then she pushed to her toes and pressed her mouth to his.
She kissed him, even when the sound of a car engine had him pulling away.A door slammed, and Cal’s voice cut through the quiet.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys?You have ahouse.You do not need to make out in front of this one.”
“We have great sex, Cal,” Sam replied cheerfully.“You should try it.”Then she bounced off the two-by-four and sauntered toward the house, clearly pleased with herself for sending Cal sputtering and makinghimuncomfortable.
“She’s got a screw loose,” Cal muttered passing Nate on the way up the walk to the front door.
Nate laughed.“Maybe,” he agreed.But he loved her, screw loose and all.
Enough, he supposed, to handle the handsy Mrs.Hyatt, one way or another.
Chapter Five
The Bennet Ranch
Aly didn’t liketo analyze why she was happiest when she had a big dinner to prepare.Why bustling around made her feel settled and needed andgood.
Some things were best not analyzed.
Besides, this was nice.She wasn’t making a dinner for everyone because there was something terrible going on.She was having everyone over for dinnerjust because.
She didn’t want more trouble.She didn’t want more pain.She wanted everyone to find some of the happiness she had in the darkness of this past year.She wanted spring to be a new start foreveryone.
She wanted them to be a family.
So she bustled around the kitchen even after Nate, Sam, and Cal showed up.She could hear the steady hum of conversation coming from the dining room.
There was something really beautiful about the Bennet brothers starting to get along.They’d spent their lives mostly at odds, thanks to their terrible father’s machinations.But they were finding ways to… be brothers now.No matter how different they were.No matter if they agreed on everything or not or understood each other or not.
They were family.Herfamily.
Aly could only be happy that after years of friction and separation, her and Sam were friends again.And that Sam and Nate had found each other and weren’t letting all the ways their childhoods and adulthoods had likely screwed them up stand in the way of love.
Aly was quite certain that was what Cal needed.Apartner.His brothers would always be there now,Aly herselfwould always be there for him, but there was something different about having a partner.Something different about falling in love with someone.It washealing.
He was too alone.Too separate.His career might have brought him success, but it had never brought himcontentment.Maybe there was something besides romance that could bring him contentment, but she didn’t know what it was.
And yes, no one was alone anymore, like Landon had said, but that didn’t mean Aly couldn’tseeif there was more Marietta had to offer Cal than just a job and a family.
So she’d invited Jill to dinner too.Maybe it was foolish to see if putting her best friend and her soon-to-be brother-in-law in the same room might offer some… romanticsparks, but Aly wasn’tforcinganything.She was just creating anopportunity.
Jill had a kindness and an empathy about her that Cal needed.Cal had that… swagger, that determination that Aly thought Jill could use.
