Max’s eyes widened. “Whoa.Hand write?”
Connor shrugged. “It’s a nice detail that goes a long way. Weddinginvitations should be personal. It’s an important day.”
“We mostly do it by word of mouth around here,” Max said. “But Iget that this is different.”
Connor was also starting to fall in love with Hope Springs.Everything he learned about it charmed him right down to his soul.
“This is different,” Connor agreed. “I’m winning thiscompetition.”
Max smiled at that. “I believe you,” he said.
The bell over the door interrupted Connor just as he was about torespond, another customer coming in and making a beeline for the coffeecounter.
“I’ll take a seat,” Connor said. “Thank you for reassuring me thatwe’re okay.”
“We’re more than okay.” Max smiled at him, then turned hisattention to the woman who’d just walked in.
Connor retreated to his favorite comfy armchair with his coffee,relieved that he and Max were fine. More than fine.
Possibly at the beginning of something exciting.
He could hardly wait to find out where this was going to go.
Chapter Eighteen
“You know, you really don’t need to paint this barn for us,” Maxsaid, taking the paint can and screwdriver Riley was holding out to him. He setit on the ground to lever it open, pushing until the lid came off with asatisfying, metallic pop.
“We’re both painting it,” Riley said. “Besides, I had to do itsometime.”
Max smiled down at the barn-red paint, imagining the whole thingpainted in it, the details picked out in white.
“This is gonna look, uh…quaint, in red and white.”
“Charming,” Riley corrected. “This is first and foremost a giftfor Brent, anyway. We’re gonna have an actual roll in the hay.” He grinned.
“I don’t… need to know that. At all,” Max said, though he didn’treally mind. Riley had every right to enjoy his happily married life.
“You’ll live,” Riley said. “But then we’re gonna clean this up andput in solar fairy lights, ready for you and Connor to do your thing. And thenI’m gonna convince Brent to let me hire it out on the weekends as a weddingvenue.”
“You’ve got this all planned out, huh?”
“Yep,” Riley agreed, passing Max a paint roller. “See if you canreach the top of the wall with that roller.”
Max tugged on the handle to extend it to its full length, reachingup as high as he could. The roller just barely made it to the top. It was justas well the barn wasn’t huge, the walls maybe ten or twelve feet tall. Rileyhad already said he planned to leave the roof restoration to a professional.
“Perfect.” Riley clapped him on the back. “See, this is why I needyou. I’m too short for manual labor.”
Max laughed at that. “They make ladders,” he said.
“Yeah, but you’re tall enough to reach, so we’re good. Let’s pourout some paint and get started.”
Max leaned the roller against the wall of the barn and bent downto pour paint out into the tray. “Hey, uh… what made you think I was gay?”
The thought had been bothering Max since Riley said it, andconsidering recent events… if Riley had noticed something about him that Maxdidn’t realize, he would have liked to know what it was.
Disappointingly, Riley shrugged. “Dunno. Guess I’m used toassuming everyone is. I mean, everyone youknowis…”
That was true. Everyone who was looking after him right now wasgay, or bi, or something.
