Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Roxie had shut down the clinic early for the party at Evie’s house, and she had hired two of the techs from a nearby tech shop in Gatlinburg to watch over my charges for the afternoon and evening shifts.
There was no way I was getting out of going.
Plus, I was Miss Laverne’s ride. There were going to be a couple of Magills sprinkled in with a shit-ton of Averys.
Hell, it sounded like the entire town of Jasper Creek was going to be there.
“I still don’t understand why you’re insisting on wearing that shirt and shorts. The bathing suit you showed me was a knockout,” Miss Laverne said for the twenty-seventh time.
I grinned over at her. “I told you. I didn’t want to outshine you in your pretty dress.”
“You’ve been spending too much time with your young man if you can come up with such pretty lies. Now, Trenda told me to park close to the house; she’d make sure there was space for your car.”
Miss Laverne was right, there was plenty of room right close to the house, and I slipped right on in.
“Everybody’s going to love the cakes you baked,” she told me. That, too, was another phrase that was on repeat.
“I promise, I’m not nervous anymore.”
“Then why are you still sitting there, since you turned off the engine three minutes ago?” the older woman asked.
“Did I ever tell you that you notice too much?”
“You might could have once or twice,” she said with a smirk.
I laughed. “You wait there, I’ll open your door, and we can each walk in carrying a cake.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Before I even had the passenger side door open, the back gate was open, and Graham came outside. He’d volunteered to set up early, and I was running late on the baking so that was why he couldn’t pick us up.
“It’s about time you got here, Doll. Miss Laverne, you look pretty as a picture.”
Graham swept in and kissed her on her cheek, and she gave him a soft slap on his chest. “You are good for an old woman’s ego.”
“Everyone’s been asking for you.”
“Well, we’re here now. You’re going to have to convince your young lady that this is a pool party. She is covering up her swimsuit.”
Graham gave me a heated look, and I found myself blushing.
“Are you wearing a bikini?” he asked hopefully.
I shook my head.
“It’s better,” Miss Laverne piped up.
He looked at me, intrigued. “I can’t wait to see it.” He took my pineapple upside-down cake from my hands, and I carried in the chocolate marble fudge cake. Miss Laverne walked in between us. As soon as we made our way through the back fence, a chorus of cheers erupted.
I saw two Avery sisters descending. Trenda reached us first. She was the oldest sister and the tallest. She embraced Miss Laverne. “You made it!”
“Don’t hog her,” a shorter woman said as she hip-checked her sister. “Miss Laverne, my boys adore the quilts you made for them.”
“Evie, dear. You’re good for an old woman’s ego.”
Trenda sidled up to me. “Piper is around here somewhere. She is so excited that you’re going to be here today. You were in the same class in high school, weren’t you?”
“Joy!” Piper Avery ran toward me. She stopped suddenly. “Somebody take the cake from Joy’s hands so I can give her a hug.”
Two large men, one bigger than Graham, walked up to me. One was blonde, the other had the unmistakable look of an Avery stamped on his features. “I remember you,” the Avery man said. “You’re JoJo.”
I blushed. “You must be Drake.”
He pulled the cake out of my hands. “I am. I’ll put this in the kitchen. Now hug my baby sister before she explodes with anticipation.”
Piper grabbed me up in her arms, and we both started babbling to one another. We hadn’t seen each other since graduation. We tried to fill in six and a half years' worth of information in five minutes. Then we started laughing.
“Come to the kitchen, I’ll introduce you to everyone,” Piper finally said.
Evie and Trenda were now in the kitchen, peeling, chopping, and putting out trays of munchies for the horde of people.
“You probably don’t know Karen, do you?” Piper said as she pointed to a graceful woman with beautiful eyes who smiled at me. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Joy. Little Grandma has been singing your praises.”
I blushed. “She does like to talk up her kin.”
“Karen’s married to my brother Drake, she has a monster named Andrew running around here with my nephews.”
A blonde man walked in through the sliding glass door. He was holding a wiggling, wet boy under each arm. “That’s my brother-in-law Aiden O’Malley. He owns this house and is married to Evie. Those boys are named Holden and Zephyr.”
“I want to go back to the pool, Dad,” one of the struggling boys insisted.
“Bathroom break first, pool second.” Aiden walked down the hall with his two rascals.
I turned when Trenda called my name. “Everybody’s happy you moved back to Jasper Creek. It’d be nice if my little sister would consider it.” She threw Piper a pointed look, which she ignored.
“Not everybody is happy,” I interjected. “My overprotective brother Seth is pissed because I didn’t move back in with my parents.”
All the women in the kitchen groaned. “Ah, the scourge of overbearing big brothers,” Evie shook her head. “I need a margarita.”
“Joy! Piper! Oh my God! This is fabulous!”
Piper and I spun around at the same time and were almost toppled over as my cousin Emmie hurdled her small body into us.
“I never thought I’d see the day all three of us would be back together again,” she screeched in delight. “Piper, I haven’t seen you in years.” She pulled her in for a long hug, finally releasing her and looking at me.
“What are you doing dressed in shorts and a shirt?” Emmie demanded to know. “You better have your swimsuit on underneath those clothes.” She gave me the stink eye.
I looked at Emmie’s bikini, she hadn’t been kidding.
Her bikini was gold, and it did have tassels on each hip.
Meanwhile, Piper’s white one-piece made her look like a model with her dark hair and California tan.
Looking around the backyard, I saw at least six people in the pool, and almost all of the women wore swimsuits that showed off their bodies.
“Where can I change?”
“Strip down here,” Emmie waved her hand at me.
I blushed.
“The powder room is down the hall. You can take off your clothes there and put them on one of the kitchen stools,” Evie told me. “Don’t worry, Aiden took the boys upstairs.”
I headed down the hall, found the bathroom, and closed the door. After I undressed, I looked in the mirror one more time and took a deep breath.
Here goes nothing.
As soon as I hit the kitchen, I realized the population had doubled.
Great.
But the only person I really noticed was Graham Wallace. He stopped mid-sentence in what he was saying to Trenda’s husband, Simon. He stared at me. Just like I’d been afraid of. This was totally inappropriate.
“What a cute suit,” Trenda cooed. “I think I’ve seen Emmie wear something just like it.”
“I love it,” Piper concurred.
I looked over at Graham, wanting to know his opinion. He was still not talking, just staring. Drake looked over at him and laughed. “I think Graham is in shock.”
“Looks like,” Trenda agreed.
He shook his head and started to grin. “Really like the suit, Doll. You look dangerous.”
Dangerous? What the hell did that mean?
“Come outside. Let’s get you some food,” he said as he held out his hand to me.
I took it and followed him outside to a table groaning under the weight of the food laid out on it, buffet-style.
Graham picked up two plates from a stack at one end and handed one to me.
As we went down the line, he asked me what I wanted and filled my plate for me, as well as his own.
It was nice not having to balance my plate and scoop up food at the same time.
After we were done, we meandered over to a picnic table, where Roxie and Hart were sitting together next to Brent and Ava.
As we sat down, Trenda sat down holding her baby named after her older brother Drake.
Her husband Simon sat down next to her with two plates of food and set one in front of her.
Piper and Emmie sat down opposite Graham and me.
Graham looked around. “Where’s Bella?” he asked Simon and Trenda.
“Drake and Karen are watching her, their son, and Evie and Aiden’s two boys. Ava’s helping,” Piper explained.
“Three people for four kids?” I asked.
“Someone has to keep Bella in line. She tends to boss her boy cousins around. Since she’s older than them by a few years, she thinks she gets to tell them what to do,” Simon grinned with a proud look.
I giggled. “Do they listen to her?”
“Only when she tells them something they want to do,” Trenda laughed. “The time she told them to take one whole pie to the kids' table and just start eating it with spoons, they listened to her just fine.”
Graham and I both burst out laughing. Simon winced. “Yeah, she was mad at them for getting her dress dirty, so she wanted to get them in trouble.”
“So, she’s sneaky and smart,” Graham grinned. “My kind of girl.”
Trenda sighed. “Don’t encourage her.”
“Sounds like she’s going to be a handful when she gets to be a teenager,” I commented. Emmie, Piper, and I exchanged glances and giggled. Emmie might have been the soloist in the church choir, but she’d definitely been a hellion.
“You better start eating if you want a chance at any of the desserts,” Graham said, pointing to my plate.
“I saw a pineapple upside-down cake with my name on it. Trust me, I’m not going for thirds today, just so I make sure I have room for two pieces,” Hart said as Roxie elbowed him.
“My Joy made that,” Graham put his arm around me.
“It looks awesome,” Piper said.
“Joy is one hell of a baker,” Roxie chimed in. “She bakes up a storm and brings in treats all the time to the clinic.”
“Very cool.” Piper nodded, then she turned to me. “What do you do?”
I grinned. “I’m the night tech. I basically get to play with the animals.”