CHAPTER NINETEEN
Haden
An hour later, myself and Dusty push open the door to the big house. The other guys were too busy to make brunch but we promised to bring them some food afterwards.
“Come on in!” Jo, aka Mama Jo to everyone here, calls out. She’s in the kitchen at the back of the house with Ivy and Cassie’s mom, Glenda, cooking up a storm. My stomach growls at the smell of the promised bacon and eggs as I toe my boots off.
“Morning,” I call to the group as I hang my lined flannel jacket under my hat on the bank of hooks in the entryway.
“Smells damn delicious,” Dusty says as he does the same.
“You aren’t even in the kitchen yet and you already owe me a dollar!” Mabel, Cole’s daughter, says. That little nugget just popped up right out of nowhere.
“Shoot,” Dusty says, reaching into his wallet. “Shouldn’t you be at school?”
Mabel smiles a toothy grin at him as she takes his dollar happily. “Professional development day,” she says.
I chuckle and ruffle her hair. “Where’s your dad?”
“In the kitchen with Ginger,” she answers, moving past me to get to Billi when Ivy, Wade and Cassie come through the door.
“Hey girl!” Dusty says to Cassie. “Good to see you!”
I side-eye her because I just can’t help myself.
Her cheeks are rosy with the cold, and as she smiles at him, I look away.
I focus on the back of the house as Cassie and Dusty start catching up.
Jo is humming along to Billy Strings as she fries bacon on a huge griddle, and CeCe is behind another working on a mountain of sausage.
The whole Ashby family is here, including Nash, Ginger and even Olivia Sutton, the third friend in CeCe and Ginger’s Not Angel’s group trio.
I pull up a stool beside Nash as he and Cole bicker about plays from last weekend’s Super Bowl.
“See this? A full-out pornstache on this fucker?” Nash says, patting me on the back, checking to make sure Mabel is out of earshot.
“Coffee, Pornstache? I mean Haden?” Ginger smiles sweetly from the other side of the counter while she works on toast duty. I nod to her with a smile and nudge Nash with my shoulder, before running my thumb and forefinger over my stache then down into the scruff of my jaw.
“Jealous?” I ask Nash.
He chuckles. “Not a chance. If I wanted to look like Kentucky’s version of Smokey and the Bandit, I would.”
Jo’s almost eighty-year-old father, Dean, chuckles from the other side of the island. “Don’t listen to him, Haden, he is jealous.” He leans on the island on his forearms and picks up his coffee mug with a mischievous crinkle around his eyes. “You know what they call a man without a mustache?”
Cole shakes his head and laughs before Dean even spills the punchline and Ginger hands me a cup of steaming hot coffee.
“What?” I ask with a grin.
“A little boy,” Dean says, pointing to the other men around the island while waggling his own white stache at us.
“Eat shit, old man!” Nash smiles wide.
Dean looks at me, shaking his head. “They never like the truth.”
It’s easy chatting for another twenty minutes, and I do my best not to wonder where Cassie is or who she’s talking to as Cole talks my ear off about his new deputy sheriff’s house reno.
“Let’s eat!” Jo calls to the group as she uncovers a huge tray of scrambled eggs.
“Ladies first,” Cole says, reaching around Ginger from behind and kissing her neck.
“Brunch, Cole,” CeCe says, wrinkling her nose. “We said none of this where food is concerned.”
“It’s payback, Rae.” He calls CeCe by her middle name as he pulls Ginger to his side. “And I can’t help it if I can’t keep my hands off her.”
Ginger reaches up and pats him on the jaw. “Come on, baby, control yourself. Mama needs to eat.”
“We all need to eat, Ginger,” Cole fires back.
“Fucking Christ,” Wade mumbles under his breath as CeCe swats at Cole in disgust. Cole and Ginger laugh. They obviously think they’re hilarious.
The large island is full of food and the large crowd piles up their plates.
After serving myself, I turn back to grab some pepper and almost run right into Cassie.
She looks up at me and her startled eyes lock with mine.
I notice it again—the lack of fire there.
I let my gaze trail over her pretty features, noticing the way her hair being pulled back enhances the size of her eyes.
“Fruit, Cassie?” Dusty asks on the other side of her, breaking our stare. He’s holding a plate of mixed berries. Fucking kiss-ass.
“Thanks,” she says, as he drops some fruit salad onto her plate and then heads for the orange juice on the other side of the island.
I move closer to Dusty when she leaves the line.
“Aren’t you gonna offer to scoop my fruit?” I ask him with a mischievous brow-waggle.
Dusty grimaces, but dutifully drops a scoop on my plate too. “I’m just trying to be nice.”
“Make sure that’s all it is,” I warn. “She’s Ivy’s little sister. I’m sure Wade would say she’s off-limits.”
I instantly hate myself for making that comment, because what the fuck do I care if they flirt?
Dusty nods in understanding as I pour myself another coffee and follow everyone into the dining room to find an empty seat at the massive harvest table.
Of course, the only one left is directly across from Cassie.
This day just keeps getting better and better.