Chapter 29
twenty-nine
. . .
Archer
We’d dropped Melody off at my parents’ house because my cousin Emerson and her husband Nash were in town with my nephew Cutler. Melody and Cutler were close, and my dad and my uncle Keaton were taking the kids riding today.
“You sure you’re up for this?” I asked. I glanced over at Winnie in the passenger seat as we pulled into the parking lot at the Rosewood River Country Club.
The sun was shining today, though there was still a chill in the air.
“I thought this was just practice?” she asked.
“It is. But you haven’t seen Easton on a pickleball court.”
“I’ve heard he’s—intense.”
I climbed out of the truck and came around to open her door, then pulled her up against me and kissed her hard.
“That’s an understatement,” I said before reaching for her hand and leading her inside.
We’d stopped hiding our relationship for all intents and purposes. I kissed her in public. Held her hand. Kept her close.
We were only cautious when we were with Melody, because we didn’t want to confuse her.
“So what is this? A tryout?” she said with a laugh.
“Well, he wants you to sub for Henley this week, and then he announced a practice out of nowhere. My guess is that he’s going to see how well you play.” I pulled the door open, placing my hand on her lower back as I led her inside.
“I used to play back at home with some friends, but I’m certainly not a pro.” She blew out a breath, and I could tell she was nervous.
“Don’t even worry about it. It’s supposed to be fun. He takes it too far, and we just ignore him.” I laughed as we walked through the clubhouse and back outside toward the courts.
Winnie looked cute as hell in her white-and-green tennis skirt and matching jacket. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail with a matching bow.
Not everyone was here today, because it was tough enough to get everyone to show up for regular games.
But Easton had insisted we come out and have a practice, and I knew it was because he wanted to see if Winnie could actually play. He’d said that Henley had a big caseload coming up at work, and she wasn’t going to be playing as much.
“Hey, thanks for coming out today. Welcome to the Chad-Six,” Easton said as Winnie gave him a quick hug. Rafe and Bridger walked over, and neither looked happy about being there.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“It’s just the four of you playing, and I’m going to observe,” Easton said.
“You know you’re a prick, right?” Bridger said, his tone completely flat.
“So I’ve been told.” Easton smirked.
“Is this because I said Lulu isn’t going to be playing as much this coming season?” Rafe grumped. “I would also like to play less.”
“You joined the Chad-Six and you made a commitment. Chadwicks don’t just quit.”
“Is it quitting when you’ve played for years and you just don’t feel like playing anymore because your brother is an actual psychopath when it comes to pickleball?”
“Lulu isn’t playing anymore, either?” I asked. The girls loved to play, so it surprised me that neither of them were joining in this season.
“Yep. She’s got a busy travel schedule coming up,” he said, but he looked away when he said it, so something was clearly up.
“I, um, I’ve played a couple of times, but not competitively or anything,” Winnie said, and Bridger cinched his brows together.
“See what you’re doing? You’ve got everyone stressed out, dickfucker. How about you just let people play.” Bridger glared at Easton before turning and tossing a wink at Winnie.
“That’s what I’m doing. So how about you just go play, and I’ll chill out here.” Easton moved to sit at the tables beside the courts.
“Great. Order me a pina colada and some nachos,” Rafe called out before jogging down to the courts.
“And we wonder why you always have a stomachache,” I said.
“Yeah, Lu’s got me eating real healthy at home, so I can splurge a little when I’m out.” He gave us a look to make sure we were in place before serving.
And the next forty-five minutes were a little bit shocking.
I shouldn’t have been surprised because everything Winnie did, she did well.
But she was good. Damn good.
And nobody held back once they realized what a good player she was.
In fact, she kind of kicked our asses, though she seemed clueless that she was a strong player.
Easton was clapping his hands together when we stepped off the courts.
“We’ve got ourselves a ringer, boys.” He gave me a questioning look as if I’d known and kept it a secret.
“I didn’t know she could play like that,” I said with a laugh before wrapping an arm over her shoulder and kissing her hair.
“Thanks. It’s been a while since I’ve played, but I’ve always loved it. And come on.” She gave me a sexy look. “Who doesn’t love a good pickleball outfit?”
Everyone laughed as we chatted for a little bit, and we all shared Rafe’s nachos before getting ready to leave.
“Hey, B,” I said, turning to Bridger. “I need a favor.”
“Shoot,” he said as he walked out to his car with us. Rafe and Easton had stayed back, since they were deep in conversation when we left.
“Edith asked Winnie to see if she could fix Oscar’s laptop, and we have it at the house. I’ve tried rebooting it a few times, but it’s frozen, and even with a hard reboot, it’s not doing anything. I thought maybe you could take a look at it?”
“Yeah. No problem.” He shrugged. “I can follow you to your place now. Emilia is working late, so I’ve got some time.”
“Thanks,” Winnie and I said at the same time.
We made the short drive home and walked inside. Winnie grabbed us all glasses of sparkling water with limes as we settled around the farmhouse table in the kitchen.
Bridger opened the laptop, and Winnie handed him a piece of paper with the password on it, and he got to work. My cousin was a brilliant man, and he knew his way around a computer.
“I wanted to talk to you anyway, and I thought Winnie could help me with something,” he said as he opened the top, hit the power button, and then waited for things to turn on.
“Oh, this sounds exciting.” Winnie rubbed her hands together mischievously.
Bridger started typing on the keyboard, some sort of weird gibberish that was way beyond my skill level.
A window then popped up, and he continued typing before looking up.
“I’m going to ask Emilia to marry me. And we know my track record with gifts isn’t the best, so I thought maybe being a romance author, you could help me out. ”
I filled Winnie in on the fact that Bridger had owed Emilia an apology for accusing her of writing “The Taylor Tea,” and he’d sent her a toilet as an apology gift.
She winced. “Oh. That’s not really the best way to say ‘I’m sorry.’”
“Right. I know that now.” He rolled his eyes. “But I’m not really sure what the best way to ask someone to marry you is. She’s a sentimental lady. I want it to be special.”
“Well, the fact that you’re asking and you’re thinking about it is already the best start.” Winnie smiled.
I glanced over to see that Bridger had already gotten further along than I had on the laptop because it wasn’t frozen any longer.
“He’s got a shit ton of stuff on here, and I’m guessing he’s maxed on storage. Let me see if I can move things around a little. He should start saving things on the cloud.”
“Oh, that’s what I do,” Winnie said. “Can we get that set up for him, and I’ll put it on my account? He’ll never know how to do that on his own.”
“Sure, I can get that set up for him.”
“So, when do you want to propose?” Winnie asked.
“Yesterday.” Bridger laughed. “I’ve been ready to marry her for a while now. But I know this is an important part of it for her, and I don’t want to fuck it up.”
“Yeah, it’ll be something she remembers forever,” she said. “What are her favorite things?”
“Decorating. Books. Flowers. And me.” He continued typing on the keyboard like he was writing a novel.
“Okay, that’s easy enough.” She laughed.
“What about making a backdrop out of book pages that we string between the trees in your backyard. You’ve already got the perfect setting out there.
And on the backdrop, you could have large letters that say ‘Marry Me.’ You could have floral arrangements sitting in large baskets all around it, and you can have candles and lights if you do it in the evening. ”
He looked up at her. “I like this. How do I make a backdrop out of book pages?”
“I can make it for you,” Winnie said. “I’m sure the girls would help me.”
“And I’ll order a bunch of flowers. But how the hell am I going to get this set up without her seeing it?”
“With help,” I said, shaking my head with a laugh. “We get the girls to take her out during the day, and we’ll help you set it up, and then you can meet her for dinner, and we’ll get the candles and lights ready before you get home.”
He nodded. “This could work.”
“It’ll work. And she’s going to love it,” I said.
“I can be hiding before the proposal and then come out and take photos for you during the proposal. She’ll want to have keepsakes from this special day.”
“Oh. I wouldn’t have thought of that, but you’re probably right. Thank you. Can we pull it together by next weekend? I’m sick of waiting.”
Loud laughter bellowed from me. “Patience has never been your strength.”
“Agreed.” He stared at the screen as he typed some more on the keyboard. “I’m going to clean this up and organize it a bit.”
“Thank you so much,” Winnie said. “And we can absolutely pull this together by next weekend. I’ll get to work on the backdrop today. I’ve got plenty of books I can use to make the backdrop.”
“Just let me know the cost for anything you do, and I’ll get the flowers ordered today as well.”
“You’ve still got all those lights from Easton and Henley’s wedding wrapped around all your trees, and we can all help you set up lanterns with candles in the yard around the backdrop as well.”
“All right. We’ll do it next weekend. Saturday night.” His fingers froze on the keyboard. “What the fuck.”