“Oh my.” Mrs. Gardiner is scandalized.
“The courthouse has a lot of history,” Miss Mullins allows. “But, oh, dear. It’s not the prettiest. There was a roof leak a few years back and the stain is still there.”
“A big stain,” Miss Bright echoes.
“I tried to tell them to spend at least some of it on a reception. But noooo.”
“There’s a lovely ballroom at Hawthorn,” Mrs. Gardiner says.
Grandma hits the tabletop with her palm. “That’s where I live. I told them!”
“And they don’t want to do it there?”
“No!”
They all turn dubious gazes to me, except for Grandma, who studies the three of them. “Did you have kids? Are they married? Where?” she barks out.
And I spend the next half hour listening to four elderly ladies explain to me just how fabulous a small-town wedding in Here could be.
Morgan
* * *
By the time I get home from my shift Rory’s in bed with the lights out. She and her grandmother stayed at the bar for a couple of hours, Rory eventually leaving Mrs. Patterson talking with the women while she sat back at the bar near me. Apparently, they found some common ground—Rory said a shared enemy, whoever that might be. She shifts when I crawl in beside her after brushing my teeth and showering.
“Aren’t you exhausted?” she asks after a big yawn.
“Bone-dead.” Sunday Fundays are long ones, but I wouldn’t give up that time with my friends for anything. “What did your grandma think of the bar?”
“She called it a dive.” I hear amusement in Rory’s voice, her words clearer as she sloughs off her drowsiness.
Well, if she’s awake now . . .
I lean in and capture her lips with mine. She makes a noise of surprise but responds quickly, deepening the kiss. I’m too tired to go further, but her lips taste sweet and her body is soft and pliant right now.
We lie facing each other, just like the first night we shared this bed, but the inches between us have shrunk enough that with a tilt of my chin, I can kiss her again.
“Did you drink one of your beers?” I ask.
She smiles against my lips. “No, not yet.”
“I’m jealous,” I say. “I’ve never even had one of those. Jared and his dad guard them like the Crown Jewels.”
Rory rears back. “Huh. I thought you were going to try to win them for me.”
“Oh I totally was.”
“If you’d won you could have had them all yourself.”
“Eh, I would have shared it with you.” I pause. “Maybe.”
She chuckles. “Well, lucky for you I’m in a sharing mood.”
“A sharing mood, eh?” I laugh into another kiss and slide her leg up my hip. Her skin is hot and soft, and my fingers trace lazy circles while we make out.
When we finally break apart enough to talk again, Rory continues. “Do you have to work tomorrow?”
I sigh. With leaves approaching peak fall colors, the rentals are fully booked out over the weekends. “Yeah. Another early morning with Kit. Three houses to clean, but I’ll be done in the afternoon.”
