CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE Ginger
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Ginger
“ Y ou’re getting slow in your old age, are you?” Papa Dean says to me as I try to keep up with the seventy-nine-year-old man kicking my ass in a game of video tennis.
Jo grins over at us as she and Mabel mix salads, chatting away in the kitchen, and Wade prepares the meat ready to grill. Cole and I came to pick up Mabel after our date, but you can’t enter this house without Jo stuffing a meal into you. It just so happened that Nash and CeCe were here to talk about this year’s festival to help raise money for the underprivileged hockey teams in the surrounding area. Last year, they hosted a very successful Sunset Festival, which raised thousands of dollars and secured the Laurel Creek Lightning’s season for another two years. This year they want to go bigger and better, and plans are well underway. This year it’ll be called Harvest Fest.
“She didn’t pop a Viagra and a Red Bull before dinner,” Nash snorts from behind us on the couch, as “ You beat the high score ” sounds from the TV and Dean pumps his weathered fist.
“Still got it.” He winks at me before tossing Cole the controller. He points around the room. “And hey. You don’t need Viagra if you do it right, fellas. Let that be a lesson to you all.”
All three men start guffawing at him but, judging by the way he just rolled over me in this game, I wouldn’t doubt the old fella for a second.
“If I’m still single when I’m forty, Papa Dean, we’re getting married,” I say to him.
“Nah honey, you’re too good for me,” he calls as he heads into the kitchen to pour himself a bourbon. Nash follows.
“He’s kicking!” Ivy says animatedly from her seat, motioning at Wade to come and feel her bump. I turn and take a seat on the couch beside CeCe and watch them. It’s truly amazing to see Wade smile so much.
“ She is kicking,” Wade corrects as he crouches beside her to rest a hand on her stomach.
“We’ll see.” Ivy winks at him.
They chatter for a few minutes about the baby before Wade heads out to start the grill.
“You’re very tanned,” CeCe says from beside me.
“I’ve been out in the garden with Mabel a lot,” I remind her. “My skin is always sort of a little golden, even in the dead of winter.”
“Ugh. I’ve always been jealous of that. Seriously though, you look relaxed and happy,” CeCe says, gripping her chin as though she’s a detective and looking to the sky. “I wonder if that has anything to do with my brother. You know, the one you’ve always had a crush on and are now living with.”
I nudge her shoulder with mine.
“This meat’s ready for Sarge.” Nash tells us as he picks up the platter of steaks he was just seasoning.
We all stand. It’s an unwritten Ashby rule. The griller never grills alone.
Nash’s declaration couldn’t have come at a better time, saving me from discussing mine and Cole’s situation with CeCe. Good thing too because, at this point, I have no idea what to tell her. That I’m having incredible sex with the man that I’ve secretly been friends with for years? The only man on earth that truly has my back? That I’m terrified that what we’re doing will somehow change everything? But that I’m in too deep to stop? And, oh yeah, that we’re married? Thank the universe for meat needing a grill.
We make our way into the yard. The Ashbys’ patio is wide and seats at least twenty. It’s always been a hive of activity, and Wyatt and Jo used to regularly host dinners here when we were younger.
It still somehow doesn’t feel complete without Wyatt nattering at Jo, or going back and forth with the boys. Even the fact that Waylon Jennings or Willie Nelson isn’t playing on a night like this serves as a giant reminder that he’s gone. When I look over at Cole, I see him glancing around the yard and sense that he feels the loss of his dad in this moment too. I make my way over to sit down beside him and squeeze his knee under the table. He looks at me, and the connection of his eyes with mine drowns out the chatter around us.
“So, y’all are going to help with the festival this year,” CeCe tells us, pulling me from my thoughts.
“I assume we don’t get a choice?” Cole replies with a grin.
“Where I come from, that was always called being volun-told. ” Dean says as he sips his drink in the evening sun. I grin at him. He’s such a cool old man in his golf shirt, sunglasses and a fedora-style hat. I wish my own dad was as laidback as he is.
Nash chuckles. “Welcome to my life, old fella.”
CeCe backhands him.
“Ow … You didn’t wait for me to add how much I love it,” Nash backpedals, kissing CeCe down her bare arm.
“You’re planning a festival and a wedding at the same time?” Ivy asks. “I don’t know how you do it.”
Nash reaches behind his back and into his bag and fetches a binder that he drops onto the table. It’s about two inches thick and chockful of all sorts of papers.
“This is for the festival,” he deadpans. “The wedding version is more than double this size.”
“Jesus, CeCe Rae,” Cole scoffs.
CeCe shrugs. “I’m nothing if not organized. The wedding will be over in less than a month. And then I’ll have lots of time to focus on the festival.”
“Well, I’ll be either very pregnant or a new mom, so you’ll need to have some grace with me,” Ivy says. “If it’s option A, I’m open to help any way that keeps me off my swollen feet.”
CeCe nods. “You can work the ticket counter if you’re still pregnant.” She flashes Ivy a grin. “And if you’re a new mama by then and feel up to it, you can just show up and parade my new niece or nephew around.”
CeCe rests her chin in her palm before turning to me. “We’ve got a few big events lined up already, but we want to book one more thing that will bring people in. Whatever it ends up being, I’ll have you and Liv help with it. And you can both make sure the hockey players know where their dressing rooms are this year when they play the townies. We have some new faces this time around. Chris got permission to play.”
She talks at a hundred miles per hour as she takes notes for her binder. This woman is a machine.
Nash lets out a laugh. “Last year, Ginger just used that to pick her next victim. Pretty sure I heard you went out afterwards with Rod Bordeaux.”
Rod did, in fact, take me out. He also took me home and asked me to call him “The Moose” during sex because that was his hockey nickname. It was weird. I did not get off that night.
“Yep … you don’t need to remind me,” I say, feeling Cole’s eyes burn into me. I lean back in my chair and sneak a glance at him. He’s doing that thing he does when he’s jealous—jaw set and flexing like he’s trying real hard not to say something he might regret.
“Back in my day, if we wanted to make money, we hosted a car wash or a wet t-shirt contest.” Jo winks at me and CeCe from across the table. “But I guess that’s not allowed in this day and age.”
I smile at her. “Sex sells,” I say, sipping my bourbon. I look beyond Jo to check Mabel is still out in the yard playing with Harley. After spending every day with her for the last few weeks, it almost feels like second nature to check on her now.
“This isn’t the eighties anymore. But you have a good idea there, Mama …” CeCe says, tapping her pen in front of her.
Cole grunts as he stands and makes his way to the outdoor counter for more bourbon. My eyes flit over to him. So do everyone else’s.
“It’s a family event,” he barks defensively as he pops the plug out of the glass decanter.
CeCe looks at him as if to say are you fucking kidding me? He pours himself a hefty measure and makes his way back to his seat as CeCe chews her bottom lip.
It’s her thinking face.
I grin.
“Obviously … We could do something fun, though. What about a kissing booth?” She turns to me, her eyes wide. “You and Liv would bring in a fortune!”
I laugh and shake my head, about to protest. But, before I have the chance to say anything, Cole’s chair scrapes against the concrete as he slides closer to the table. I flinch.
“Absolutely fucking not,” he says.
“Fucking Apollo Creed over there. Settle down,” Nash says with a chuckle.
“Well …” Cole scrambles. “It’s not appropriate. It’s a family event and … germs and shit.”
He swallows a sip of his drink. I swallow down a smile.
Nash’s laughter grows louder at Cole’s outburst. “Germs? Really? That’s what you’re bringing to the table?”
CeCe swats at him and turns to Cole. “It will be a family event. I was thinking a kiss on the cheek, you perv.”
Cole shakes his head. “I just don’t think it’s right. I’m trying to save the girls from kissing a bunch of horny old men.”
He wipes the condensation off the side of his near-empty glass as he sets it on the tabletop.
“Kissing booth … Christ,” he mumbles, scrubbing his jaw as Mabel comes bounding up behind him.
“Dollar, Daddy.” She pats him on the arm.
I grin at her. Then at Cole. She really is the best.
“Okay, Captain Valiant. I’ll take that into consideration.” CeCe looks between me and Cole and I don’t miss the pointedness of it; the way her mouth falls open as if, somewhere in that pretty head of hers, a lightbulb just went off.
Sure as shit, forty-five minutes later—“So … things are going well over there at the Ashby-Danforth house then?” CeCe asks after dinner as the boys play ladder golf with Mabel. Jo has headed to her unfinished projects club with Glenda, and Papa Dean is snoozing in the den.
I look into CeCe’s questioning eyes. In some ways I know this woman like I know myself. She nods her head toward Cole and waits patiently, as though it’s been killing her to hold this question in all through dinner. I turn and note how close the boys are to us, eyeing Cole up as he takes his shot. I don’t know how it’s possible, but he’s even more gorgeous now than ever: casual and in full dad mode. He’s wearing sage-colored shorts, a white t-shirt that clings to his muscular chest and arms, and his damned backward hat that does me in every single time. He’s tanned after our day in the sun and, right now, he’s got his game face on. He takes his bottom lip between his straight white teeth and tosses the two golf balls attached with a piece of rope toward the ladder. It lands on the “5” rung. The highest point he can score. He high-fives Mabes, who jumps up and down, elated at the fact they’ve taken the lead against Wade and Nash. Cole grins down at her; he looks relaxed, and his jaw is scruffy with a five o’clock shadow. He’s fucking perfect really, not too—
“Um … Hello!” CeCe says, waving her hand in front of my face. “You’re completely zoned out staring at my brother. Stop making sexy eyes at him.”
She crumples her pretty face in disgust. I look from her to Ivy.
Ivy backs her up. “You totally are.”
I put my head in my hands. “I just …”
“Oh my God,” CeCe says, gasping so no one will hear. “Something is actually going on between you two!”
I pull my head out of my hands and eye her over my fingers. I can’t lie to her anymore. She’s my best friend. I’m sure Liv already knows, although she’s been MIA lately with inventory and staff shortages at her boutique.
“Wow. Ginger Danforth takes her own advice,” Ivy quips, already an integral part of our friend group after less than a year. I look over at her.
“What?” I ask.
“You know,” she giggles. “Save a horse ride a—”
“Cole is not a cowboy,” I say to them both, remembering how he looked this afternoon riding through the woods.
“Save a horse, ride the sheriff?” Ivy grins.
“It’s not like that. This isn’t just a hookup …” I start.
“Wait, is this serious ?” CeCe asks, her voice hitting a higher octave. I shrug and look at Cole and his full megawatt smile as he jokes with Nash about something. My core aches at the sight of those dimples every damn—
“You’re doing it again,” Ivy snickers.
“I have so many questions. I’m half so happy, half so grossed out.” CeCe wrinkles her nose but immediately reaches over to squeeze my hand, and I breathe out a sigh of relief. “I love you both and, God, there’s always been something strong between you.”
CeCe looks out at Cole and watches him for a second.
“Be careful though, Ginger,” she continues in a warning tone. “I don’t want to know the gritty details, and I have no idea how serious this is or what you’re expecting out of it. But I don’t want anything to hurt the close-knit friendship we all have if this goes south at the end of the summer.”
“Neither do I,” I say honestly, “and we are being careful. Too careful. We haven’t even talked about how we feel.”
She nods, and I hope that, if she finds out the whole truth someday, she’ll be just as understanding as she is now.
Ivy smirks. “CeCe might not be able to handle the gossip about you and Cole, but I want it all. You better call me.”
“Deal,” I tell her.
CeCe lets out a laugh. “I’m happy to talk, but details? Not a chance.” She turns back to me. “Just take my advice, babe. Cole isn’t the serious type. We all know that.”
I know she means well but the sentiment irks me. So I don’t answer, and I turn my attention to Cole instead. I know him probably better than anyone, and I sure as hell know he’s capable of a lot more than they think he is.