Bryce shook his head. “I thought we could tell them, if everything goes well.”
I nodded, not sure how I felt about that. If I should feel any way at all. The whole situation was messy, but messy didn’t seem to scare Bryce away.
As the Texas countryside blurred out the windows, Bryce went over the rest of the pages. He had four brothers who were all married. Two of his brothers had beautiful, blended families. One brother and his wife were child-free, and another brother was married to a stunning redhead and had two red-headed kids.
Looking at the photos, I noticed that one of Bryce’s brothers had a child I recognized. “Maya is your niece?” I gasped.
With a twinkle in his eyes, he raised a finger to his lips. “That’s our secret around the office. She goes by her mother’s last name and everything. We don’t want people thinking she gets special treatment because we’re related.”
“Does she get special treatment?” I countered, arching my eyebrows.
Bryce chuckled. “She doesn’t need it.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s the hardest worker in the company. If she were any good with tech, she’d have my job in a heartbeat. But her talent is seeing what’s needed and filling in the gap before you ever knew it was a gap. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
Then it hit me. “Is she going to be here this weekend?”
Bryce nodded.
“Why didn’t she ride with us?”
“She wanted to take her own car. Something about being young and staying with your parents makes you want to have an exit plan.” He chuckled.
I wished I understood. But I lifted my lips anyway.
Gen spoke up. “Here’s the B&B.”
My eyes widened, and I got closer to the window to look around. There wasn’t much to see, though. The hotel must have been in a more residential part of town because when I looked around, all I saw were smallish houses and a larger brick building with a school- or church-style letter sign that said Cottonwood Falls B&B.
Bryce opened his door and said, “Let me grab your bags and walk you inside, Gen.” Then he placed his gaze on me. “I’ll be right back. Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone.” He winked.
The wink made me release a noiseless chuckle. “I won’t,” I promised him.
Out the window, I watched him reach into the bed of the pickup and then haul a duffel bag over his shoulder. It struck me that she was his employee, yet he was serving her. Did Bryce treat everyone in his company with such respect?
Before I had too long to think about it, he was opening the door for me and saying, “Why don’t you ride up front with me on the way home?”
“You don’t want to be my driver?” I teased.
“Hard to hold your hand when you’re sitting in the back seat,” he replied, making butterflies dance in my stomach. I knew it was butterflies this time. Baby girl’s kicks seemed to be few and far between, or at least hard to notice.
I got out, sitting in the passenger seat as he drove out of the small town, showing me a few things on the way. The diner, a hair salon, even an old brick schoolhouse that had been converted into boutique senior living. It made me think of Glamma and how she’d gushed about Bryce after our evening spent wedding planning.
If you don’t marry that man, I will,she’d warned.
I just hoped his family liked me as much as Glamma liked him.
As we got out of town, I stared around at the empty fields—what little I could see of them in the headlights. And that’s when I realized, there were no lights formiles. “You grew up out here?”
He nodded.
“Tell me the spot where you’d pull off and fool around,” I ordered. “I need to get the full picture.”
The tips of his ears went red, which was so endearing I almost wanted to embarrass him more.
“There’s a tree row up there,” he told me, pointing at a stand of cedar trees. “If you park and turn off your lights, no one could find you at night.”
