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“It’s okay. I’m fine.” I look at Rhett. “Though your delivery could use some work.”
“On the kiss or the apology?” he deadpans, and I laugh harder.
“Both,” I snicker.
“Sunshine,” Harlan asks when my hilarity dies down enough to hear him.
“Harlan.” I try to straighten my features out to match the seriousness of his tone, but my smile tugs at my lips.
“You sure you’re okay?” He stands in front of me, his hands resting on my shoulders. His forehead falls to mine.
“I didn’t panic. Before, I would have. But I didn’t.” I let the awe of that saturate my words.
I have no idea who has my daughter, I’ve officially made it to almost first base with my — boyfriend’s? — brother and we’re all about to eat dinner together.
And to think. I was worried about meeting his dad.
A man who looks eerily like Harlan pushes to the front of the crowd. “Nice to meet you, Maisie. I’m Hal — these hooligans’ dad.” He cuts a glare at Rhett and Finch. “Sorry about that, they’re apparently still learning their manners. You okay?”
I wave a hand as I lose it to giggles again. “Right as rain over here, nice to meet you,” I say between laughs.
He smiles at me, warm and friendly. “Good. Come on, let’s feed you.”
Dinner is a much more subdued affair. As predicted, I haven’t held Audra since we got here, and we’re all gathered around a big ass table on the back deck. Chatter flies over the table, at least four conversations going strong as I eat chicken, potato salad, and corn on the cob.
Harlan’s brothers entertained me with the exploits of his youth for a solid hour before he started threatening them with not fixing their traffic tickets — which I highly doubt he actually does — and I’ve laughed way more than I thought I would.
“You get enough to eat, darlin?” Hal asks as he stabs at the potato salad on his fork with Audra balanced on his lap.
“Yes. Everything was delicious. Thank you for having me.”
“My pleasure.”
“Maisie,” Harlan says my name quietly, and I look over at him.
“Yeah?”
“What do you think. You want to go?”
“What?” I ask, having lost the thread of the numerous conversations that have gone on as we’ve eaten.
Jem laughs. “Boone and I have a couple of tickets to tomorrow’s lineup at the Country Crossroads festival. It’s the last day. I asked Harlan if you two would be interested in going?”
I can’t remember the last time I went to a concert.
“You could bring Audra, the daytime concerts are tamer, and they sell those baby headphones at the concession stand so her ears would be safe,” Harlan interjects.
“Sure. That’d be fun.” New hair. Dinner with the parents, and now a concert.
Who is this new and improved Maisie, and how do I keep her?
“Yay! We’ll keep it super low key, and we’re going as a group, so there will be lots of familiar faces.”
“Yeah and I’m not on duty, unless they need me for something,” Harlan adds.
“Okay. Sounds good.” I’m mentally tallying my bank account to figure out what I can reasonably spend at the event when Harlan’s elbow nudges me.
“You can say no if it makes you uncomfortable.”
