49. Cal
Chapter forty-nine
Cal
It was officially Pumpkin Patch Day. Something I indulged Khia in.
Okay, fine. I liked the hayride and corn maze. Sue me for being a kid at heart.
Khia and I picked Noelle up after lunch. (Carpooling was a real hardship when she lived at the end of the driveway.) She looked incredible in her jeans and pink flannel. Very festive. Wait a sec—her navy T-shirt had the number 22 on it.
I tried not to stare, but she caught me, lips twitching with a smile. Yeah, she knew what she was doing.
“Eyes on the road, Cap,” she teased.
I chuckled, giving my head a shake to refocus—hard to do with her enticing smile on display, but we had an audience.
While Khia chatted with Noelle, I did a double take at her hands. They were dry and cracked. That has to hurt. “There’s lotion in the glove box,” I said casually as we headed north on the highway.
Noelle shot me a curious look.
“Uh, your hands are acting up.” For as long as I’d known her, she’d struggled with chapped hands from the dry weather and every soap product known to man.
She rummaged in the glove box, holding up a pink bottle of Cherry Blossom Explosion. “You still carry lotion with you?”
My cheeks warmed as she stared at me. “I got into the habit and guess I never stopped. You never know when you’ll have a lotion emergency.”
“Ooh, I want lotion!” Khia piped in, her feet kicking the back of my seat.
“No kicking, please,” I said, glancing back at her.
“Sorry.”
Noelle squirted the product into her hand, and I was immediately transported to all the times she rode in my truck and that smell accompanied her. She was the reason I always carried it.
Hand on my seat, she reached back to squirt some into Khia’s hands. This close I caught the whiff of her tropical shampoo. It immediately made me want to take her on a beach vacation. Palm trees, coconuts, ocean waves . . .
“Thanks,” Noelle said softly, snapping me from my vacation daydreams.
And for once, I was completely out of words.
Greyson would call it a miracle.
I fumbled with the console for my sunglasses as the sun glinted off the road. Gum. Sunscreen. Napkins. Random receipts. No glasses.
“Sunglasses?” Noelle asked.
“Yeah. I left them on the counter.” I’d been engaged in a debate with Khia about the necessity of wearing a sweater in sixty-five-degree weather.
“Here, Daddy!” Khia tapped my shoulder, handing over her pink heart sunglasses.
“Thanks, Lovebug.” I slipped them on.
Noelle snickered, angling her phone at me. “Your siblings will appreciate this.”
“Don’t you dare,” I groused. If she sent it, I’d never live it down, but given the dancing amusement in her eyes, it might be worth it.
But I would absolutely be ditching the glasses as soon as we got to the farm.
Lavender Blue Farms was the go-to corn maze in the county. Add to that the hayrides, bouncy castle, a pumpkin patch, and the barrel car rides towed behind a tractor and you had a winning combo.
The Satterfield clan turned out in full force.
We really should be wearing matching T-shirts or something because there were officially enough of us to fill an entire tour bus.
Even Mama came with her crutches and bright ensemble.
Few women could pull off three shades of orange and crocheted leaves in their hair. Mama made it look classy.
We congregated inside the front entrance, and you’d think this was a ten-year family reunion with the amount of hugs and back slaps making their way through the group. Nope. We’d all seen each other three days ago for family dinner.
But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Especially if I took the contract to head back to Seattle.
Moments like this would be rare. And how would that work with Noelle?
I hadn’t given it a ton of thought yet. We were still in the early stages of our relationship, but she deserved to know the whole picture.
For now, I was happy to hang on to them a little tighter.
Shawna grabbed my arm. “Hey, can I steal Khia for the kids’ hay maze?”
“Please, Daddy!” Khia swung my hand.
“Sure. I can come, too.”
Shawna scooped Khia up and gave me a shove. “Nah, I’ve got her. The couples are doing a corn maze race. You have fun.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me?”
She smirked. “Is it working?”
All my sisters-in-law were matchmaking meddlers, and I loved them for it. I draped an arm around Noelle’s shoulders. “There’s no one else I’d rather get lost in a carefully curated picture of corn with.”
Noelle flushed, and Shawna grinned, tossing a “Have fun!” over her shoulder.
Greyson and Paisley were waiting with Myles and Juliet at the entrance. And surprise, surprise—Brooks and Jamie.
“You joining us?” Myles asked.
“Yeah, what’re the rules?” I said.
“There are three acres,” Juliet said, motioning to the corn maze. “Each pair picks an entrance and first one out wins.”
“You sure you’re up for this?” Myles asked her with a frown puckering his forehead as he eyed her.
She smiled up at him softly. “I’m okay, really.”
Myles’s concern was more than just first-time-parent jitters. Juliet had been super sick in her first trimester and well into the second. And she only had six weeks until her due date.
“Maybe you should—” I started, but Juliet cut me off with a withering glare.
Okay then. Don’t tell the pregnant lady what to do.
Myles chuckled and kissed her forehead. “All right, but if you’re just being stubborn, we’re talking about this later.”
She smirked. “Can’t wait.”
I mimed throwing up, and Noelle elbowed me. “They’re cute. Let them have a moment.”
Grinning down at her, I nuzzled her nose. “We’re also cute, so can we have our moment in the corn maze?”
A soft blush bloomed in her cheeks. I went to steal a kiss, but she stopped me with a hand to my stomach, and sue me if I flexed just a tiny bit. That blush deepened. Score. “How are you with a map, Romeo?”
“Better than Paisley.” I winked at my sister-in-law.
Paisley adjusted her glasses with a sigh. “Everyone is better than me, but I married a regular Lewis and Clark, so I’d say I have the upper hand now.”
Greyson chuckled. “Let’s go, love.”
“You two competing as a team?” I eyed Brooks and Jamie.
“Yup.” Jamie slung an arm around Brooks’s shoulders. “And we’re gonna win. I can feel it.”
Brooks snorted, giving his best friend a shove. “No, that’s me poking you in the ribs. Unless destiny has bony fingers.”
We took our exits and pulled out our phone timers.
“You ready for this?” I asked Noelle.
“Bring it on.”
“On your mark, get set, go!” Juliet hollered, and we all plunged into the maze.
There was something invigorating about testing your survival skills.
True, we were never more than ten minutes away from fresh water and deep-fried snacks, but those tall corn stalks were a veritable jungle.
And we were a tall bunch. Even Myles, the tallest of us all at six-six, couldn’t see over the scarecrow wannabes waving in the wind.
“This way.” I tugged Noelle down a path to the left.
“You’re leading us in circles!” a disgruntled Jamie grumbled from somewhere to our right.
“Well, if someone had learned how to read a compass, I wouldn’t be! Did they not teach you geography in Canada?” Brooks retorted.
“All right, Wonder Boy, you try reading the compass.”
Noelle slapped her hand to her mouth, shoulders shaking in laughter. “Can you read a compass? Or are you too chicken to ask for directions?”
“Real men don’t need to ask for directions.”
She groaned. “Not again. You got us lost in Seattle that one time, and we nearly ended up in British Columbia—without passports.”
“It was an adventure, Holiday.” I grinned. “I use GPS when needed.”
“So mature of you.”
“Thanks for noticing. Now”—I urged her forward—“we have a contest to win.”
She ducked under a drooping, top-heavy stalk. “I didn’t catch the prize.”
“Bragging rights.”
“That tracks. Your sibling rivalry is unmatched.” She hip-checked me to the right when we came to a fork. “We’re heading south.”
Rustling steps echoed behind us, and Greyson and Paisley stumbled out on the path we’d just come from.
Greyson scowled at me, his eyes narrowing in concentration. “C’mon, Pais, we got this.”
Paisley scampered after him as they took the opposite path we did.
“You’re on!” I hollered after them, and hurried down the dirt path. We would totally beat them.
“Cal, wait!” Noelle panted behind me. “I can’t—”
I instantly slowed. “Aw, man, Elle, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” Was she limping? Had I pushed too hard? “Do you need a break?”
She paused to catch her breath. “Sorry, running jars me. Just give me a minute, and I can speed-walk.”
“Hey”—I nudged her chin up—“we’ll take it slower. I don’t want to win that badly.”
“Liar.”
“Elle,” I said seriously. “Would I love to cream Grey? Absolutely. But not if it hurts you, okay? We go at your pace.”
She reached up and squeezed my wrist. “I hear you. But I wanna win, too.” She tugged me down the path.
It took another ten minutes before we found the exit. And we weren’t the only ones.
Greyson and Paisley’s excited chatter came from one path over, and from the sounds of it, they were closer than we were.
“C’mon!” Noelle dashed towards the exit, dragging me behind her.
“Grey!” Paisley shrieked, and a moment later we saw why.
He’d scooped her up and was bolting towards the exit at a dead run. The dude was fast while carrying a full-grown human, even if Paisley was small.
Note to self: Try that with Elle and see if I could beat him.
We exited the maze first, and I dropped down on the grass, tugging Noelle into my lap and breathing hard.
Two seconds later, my twin stumbled out, his eyes landing on us. Greyson scowled, and Paisley laughed, clinging to him like a barnacle.
“Too slow, old man,” I taunted.
Greyson growled, but it was quickly cut off by Paisley cupping his cheeks and pulling him into a kiss. When she leaned back, he smirked. “I’ll take that as a win, Mrs. Satterfield.”
“You good?” I asked Noelle.
She reclined against me in the grass, dark eyes shining up at me. “I haven’t had that much fun in a long time.”
“We all need to let go every once in a while. It’s good for the soul.”
Myles and Juliet exited ten seconds later, and Juliet exhaled a sigh. “Rats.”
“Ya snooze, ya lose, sis.” I winked at her, but my humour was short lived.
Juliet’s face was unusually pale, pain pinching around her eyes as she rested a hand on her stomach.
Noelle scrambled upright, and I was right behind her. “Jules, are you okay?”
For once, Juliet didn’t have a snarky reply. She squinted, leaning heavily against Myles. “Migraine. I need to sit.”
Someone call 911. My sister was willingly asking for help without biting someone’s head off.
Myles and Noelle led her away towards a shady sitting area. Greyson set Paisley down, and she scampered after them.
Greyson’s forehead crinkled with worry as they walked away. “She works too hard.”
“Jules?” He wasn’t wrong. “High ambition is a Satterfield curse, but Myles takes good care of her.”
Greyson nodded, but the concerned wrinkle didn’t leave his face.
“Did you happen to see my players in there?” I motioned to the maze.
He smirked. “Several times and always heading the wrong direction.”
Figures. “Time for a bit of Marco Polo then.” Turning to the maze, I hollered, “Jam-Jam, Brooksy, get yourselves out here.”
“Cap? You there?” Jamie called from a distance. “Thank goodness! We’re saved.”
“Can you get us out of here?” Brooks added.
I glanced at Greyson. “Can you handle them, Lewis and Clark?”
“Oh, I’ll handle them.”
I grinned. That he would. Jamie and Brooks would have no idea what hit them. Leaving them to their fate with my Marine brother, I hurried towards our people.
Juliet didn’t want to ruin our fun, but Myles insisted on taking her home. The fact she only put up a half-hearted fight chilled me to the bones.
“Need anything, cream puff?” I asked.
Her glare held no heat, which made me want to hug her. But she would not appreciate that. So I draped an arm around Noelle instead. Let’s call it a hug by proxy.
“I’ll stop in and check on you later,” Noelle promised.
“Don’t worry about me,” Juliet huffed, but she didn’t protest as Myles half carried her back to the parking lot.
Paisley moved back towards Greyson, who was still barking orders into the corn maze.
“Your left or my left?” Jamie called back after one set of instructions.
Greyson pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. “Pais, you’re a genius with a map compared to these hooligans.”
Noelle and I laughed quietly.
“So, we won bragging rights,” Noelle said, smiling.
“Yup.” I winked at her. “But I can think of another prize.”
“Oh yeah?”
I leaned down till our lips were a breath apart.
“What do you think you’re doing?” a reedy voice demanded from behind us.
Mrs. Gulliver.
What was she doing here? We were thirty minutes away from Serenity Springs. Which meant she didn’t have jurisdiction here with her public-indecency tickets. Not that we’d been indecent. We hadn’t even kissed. Yet.
“There are children around, Mr. Satterfield.” She fixed a frown on me.
“Ma’am,” I said with a sharp look. “Respectfully, I’ve been waiting thirteen years to do this, and I have lost time to make up for. Avert your eyes if you must. This will be a PG-rated kiss, but I’m kissing my woman now.”
Greyson whistled, and given the amount of times Mrs. Gulliver had harassed him for kissing Paisley goodbye when he dropped her off at work, I was taking one for the team now.
“Cal!” Noelle squeaked, pinks flushing her cheeks.
I grinned at her mischievously. “We won.” And I kissed her, carefully. Firmly. Intentionally. It was a promise and a hope. I felt it down to my bones as her coconut shampoo and floral perfume wrapped around me. Her hands teased the hair at my neck, and she sank into the kiss.
Mrs. Gulliver might have left. I didn’t check. The woman in my arms was the sole object of my attention, and I focused on kissing her thoroughly so she had no doubt of where we stood.