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“No!” I lied.
She knew it, too, and I held my hands up in a silent promise to be done.
Tucker shook his head beside me, and I could’ve sworn I heard a low chuckle just beneath the sound of Phoebe telling Austin all about her best friend—of the four-legged variety.
“Where is Gertie, anyway?” I asked, looking around for the mischievous goat.
Phoebe pointed, and we all turned to look. When he spotted her in her perch on top of the china cabinet, Tucker actually flinched.
To be fair, I would, too, if she had that angry stare focused on me the way she was zeroed in on Tucker right now. It was creepy.
“What’d you do to the goat?” Austin asked his brother.
“I have no idea.”
“Probably nothin’,” my dad said. “That’s just her face.”
“Is it, though?” I asked, cocking my head. “She never looks at me with that expression.”
“You should’ve brought your friend,” Momma said as she passed Tucker the dish of cornbread. “We have plenty of room at the table tonight with everyone else doin’ their own thing.”
“We’d make room even if we didn’t,” Georgia promised with a wink. “Our usual Sunday suppers have grown quite a bit over the years. Now we have to set up tables outside.”
“But we do it fancy, of course,” Momma added quickly. “You should come to one of those when the whole crew is in town. It’s really somethin’ else.”
“It’s notthatfancy,” I whispered. “Jeans are still the uniform around here.”
“Thank you, that’d be nice,” Tucker told my momma, shooting me a tight smile.
“And don’t worry,” Momma continued, “we’ll keep your little cover story to ourselves.”
Tucker and I looked at each other while the parents all nodded in agreement.
“What cover story?” I asked, straightening in my chair.
“The one where y’all pretend you’re datin’, of course,” Georgia supplied. “It’s believable—I mean, look at the two of you. You look like you’d make a beautiful couple. But we know it’s all for show.”
Again, I looked at Tucker, who shrugged.
“Why would you think that?” I asked, still trying to play it off.
“Oh, sugar, it’s just… Well, we know you’d never date someone…” Georgia trailed off, looking to the rest of the table for help.
When it seemed like none would come, I prompted her. “Someone…?”
“You know, sweetheart,” Momma said.
“A grumpy private investigator?” Austin supplied, earning himself a scowl from Tucker.
Momma laughed, and Georgia patted my leg as she looked around me at Tucker. “We’re not sayin’ anythin’ offensive aboutyou, honey. You’d be quite the catch for anyone but our girl, here.”
I felt my cheeks growing warm, but when I felt Tucker shift next to me and turned to see the storm brewing in his eyes, I became more focused on him and what he was thinking about all of this than on myself.
Not that I expected him to voice what he was thinking, private as he was. But was it bad? Were they saying something bad about me, and did he agree with whatever it was?
“It’s because you’re basically a tourist,” Phoebe cut in, breaking the tension as all eyes turned to her. “I mean, I know you’renota tourist, but you’re not a local. You’re leaving.”
“And that means I wouldn’t date him?” I asked, still confused but also a little miffed by that.
