Chapter 15 #2
“My daddy says I’m never, never allowed to learn how to drive,” Rosie said, and she rolled her eyes. “But I started working with a new horse a couple of weeks ago, and Gypsy is amazing. I think we’re going to win everything next rodeo season.”
Harry had no doubt that she would, because all of Rosie’s fire and sass melted away whenever she got on a horse. It transferred to them, and they performed well for her in barrel racing.
Eric raised his hand halfway. “I’m going to apply to be the FFA president at school.”
“Oh, you’ll be perfect for that,” Liesl said kindly. Harry nodded along with several others, though he thought Eric might accidentally light the agriculture wing of the high school on fire just as easily. The boy seemed to bring a windstorm with him everywhere he went, in everything he did.
“That just leaves you, Cole,” he said.
“And us too,” Belle said.
Harry turned to her. “Do we have news?”
“Well, we sold a couple of songs last week.”
He grinned at her and took her hand in his.
He lifted it to his lips and said, “Yeah, we did sell a couple of songs last week. That’s how we’re paying for your burgers.
” He laughed, because everyone in the room knew he had plenty of money.
He’d made three professional albums with a major country music studio in Nashville, and done two huge world tours and then a third online.
“How’s Adam doing with Country Quad?” Bryce asked, and Harry’s gaze flew to him.
“He’s doing great,” he said. “And Cole, don’t think we’ve forgotten about you, but I wanted to ask you guys about Adam.”
He cleared his throat and looked over to Joey.
“He’s my best friend who doesn’t have the last name Young, and I’ve thought about inviting him to these movie nights several times.
I’ve never done it, though, because until very recently, I was also his boss.
But now that I’m not….” He let the words drip there and end, and Joey simply folded her arms and looked at him.
“I mean, if there were any other announcements….” He didn’t look away from her either, and that brought several other people’s eyes to her.
“Yeah, Joey, we haven’t heard from you,” Rosie said, picking up on all of the things Harry put down.
“I don’t have much news,” Joey said. “I got stuck at my mother’s on Halloween during that big snowstorm. And while I love Grams and Gramps, it reminded me that I want to get my own place, so I’m going to be doing Thanksgiving pies to earn some extra money for my security deposit.”
“Oh, that’s awesome,” Harry said. “I can share on social media.”
“Would you?” Joey’s whole face lit up. “I’d really appreciate that, Harry.”
“I can too,” Bryce said. “Just let me know all the details.”
“Aunt Faith is finishing up with my website today,” Joey said. “And she’s going to text Joe about posting on the Hole in One page as well.”
“Is your mom going to post on the bookstore page?” Belle asked.
Joey nodded. “And Hilde said she’d put flyers at all the registers in the furniture store.”
Harry’s family did have an amazing network of people, especially because his daddy, along with all of his uncles, had married small business owners in Coral Canyon.
Aunt Sterling could post about the pies on her massage studio’s social media, and Aunt Ev could also put flyers at the dance studio.
Aunt Dani worked at a florist shop, and Harry was sure that Joey had asked every person possible to help her.
“I didn’t see that on the family text,” he said casually.
“That’s because I didn’t put it there,” Joey said. “I’ve just been texting the aunts to see what they could do to help—and Adam said he would talk to the band members to see if they could put it on Country Quad’s social media as well.”
Her voice gave nothing away about any relationship with Adam, though Harry knew they had been out on Saturday. He wished he didn’t feel like dying such a slow death by not knowing. Joey would not appreciate him asking, so he simply swallowed all his questions and looked over to Cole.
“You’re up, bud.”
“I think I just need prayers to make it through the last five months of school,” he said.
“Six,” Rosie corrected him. “There are six months of school left.”
He looked at his sister, while Corinne chuckled. “I actually think there are seven, Cole,” she said.
He rolled his eyes and said, “I don’t get why it matters at all, but I promised my daddy I’d graduate. He said he’d fillet me alive and never allow me to go into the rodeo if I didn’t.”
Harry grinned and grinned, because that so sounded like Uncle Jem. He totally understood not wanting to go to college, as well as the senioritis, because Harry had had quite the bad case of it himself.
The doorbell rang, stealing their attention, and Harry let Boston, Rosie, and Cole go to get the food. He managed to get himself next to Joey and he leaned in even closer. “Really? You’re not going to give me a single thing about Adam?”
She looked at him and said, “I could invite him to movie night next time you have it.”
He grinned and grinned. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Joey ducked her head and tucked her hair. “Yeah, we had a great date, and we’re going out again.”
Harry whooped and reached to toss up his cowboy hat, only realizing at the last moment that he had already put the movie titles in it and set it on the counter. Still, plenty of attention came to him, and he bustled over to the counter and picked up his hat.
“Let’s pick a movie. Liesl, it’s your turn to draw.”
She moved over to the hat, reached inside, and fished around. She pulled out a slip of paper and opened it. “Twilight,” she said, and half the crowd groaned, and the other half cheered.
Harry didn’t much care what they watched that night, and he stood a pace away as everyone crowded around the burgers being set on the counter by Boston and Rosie.
He loved cousin movie night, and he loved his cousins, and he quickly pulled out his phone to send a text to Adam to let him know that he was well loved too.