Chapter 16
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Boston Simpson climbed the steps at the nondescript house and rang the doorbell. “I hope this is it,” he muttered to himself, because this place didn’t look at all like where he imagined someone as charismatic and powerful and capable as Adam Harmon to live.
“Come in,” a man yelled, and it sounded very much like Adam.
Boston didn’t see any other vehicles parked in the driveway, but he found the door unlocked and the heat welcome as he stepped inside.
“It’s me—Boston,” he called, and he moved through the tiny foyer and hallway into the back of the house.
Adam had piled boxes on the dining room table, and he stepped around from a tower of them, confusion ripe on his face.
“Boston, what are you doing here?”
“I came to help you move.” He tucked his hands in his leather jacket, also confused. “Where is everyone else?”
Adam wore a frown between his eyebrows as well, and he approached and shook Boston’s hand. “I don’t know what the others are waiting for.”
“Joey texted us all and asked us to come help you move,” Boston said.
Recognition and surprise marched across Adam’s face as he lifted his eyebrows. “So that’s who she got to help me move.”
Boston grinned at him. “Pretty sure Harry will be here, as well as Cole and Rosie and Eric. Corrine had a cello lesson, and Liesl is on the driving range today, so I don’t think they’ll be here.”
The front door opened again, and both he and Adam looked that way to see Joey entering. “Boston, you found it,” she said.
“I found it, all right.” He raised his eyebrows at his cousin. “You didn’t tell him we were coming?”
She grinned with all the radiance of the sun. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“I’m pretty sure he was surprised,” Boston said, and he looked between Adam and Joey, trying to put the pieces of them together. She had said nothing about him at cousin movie night only a few days ago. But they definitely had a vibe going on.
“Howdy, ma’am,” Adam said.
And Boston narrowed his eyes. “Why are you coordinating his move, anyway?”
“Why, indeed,” Adam asked, and then he zeroed in on Boston again. “You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about.”
“Oh, sure.” Sudden nerves ran through Boston.
He wasn’t sure why. He’d worked with Adam on the summer concert series, and he knew him quite well.
“I’m applying for a bunch of jobs around town,” he said.
“Mostly event centers, like wedding venues and high-end lodges, where they do parties and conferences and have concierges—stuff like that. I kind of feel like it goes along with some of the coordination and details that I learned during the concert series, and I was hoping that I could put you down as a reference.”
Adam, in his business-like way, simply nodded. “Yes, of course. That would be fine.”
Boston nodded too, hoping he wouldn’t have to be as serious as Adam to work at a cowboy lodge in the Teton Mountains.
At the same time, he knew plenty of rich people came to Wyoming to escape the bigger cities and the pressures of their busy lives, and they probably did want a concierge wearing a suit and tie, who could give them all the luxuries of country living.
“I’m just looking right now,” Boston said. “I haven’t seen anything come up yet, but I just wanted to make sure it was okay.”
“Yep, it’s okay,” Adam said, his eyes glued to Joey as she moved into his kitchen and opened his fridge. That felt like such a personal thing to do, and Boston volleyed his gaze between her and him, finally stepping closer to Adam. “What’s going on with you two?”
“Nothing,” Adam said quickly. “What makes you think there’s something going on with us?”
Boston grinned at him. “Your high-pitched question to my question makes me think there’s something going on,” he said. “Is there?”
Tension radiated off Adam while Joey bent to slide a tray into his oven, and he was saved by the doorbell ringing. Instead of yelling, “Come in,” again, he glared at Boston and walked away.
Cole and Rosie had arrived with Eric, and Adam welcomed them to his house. When they’d all arrived back in the great room, Joey looked up from her phone. “Harry says he’s five minutes away with the truck. You have everything packed?”
Adam folded his arms. “Do you think I would not be ready for a nine a.m. moving time?”
Joey tipped her head back and trilled out a laugh unlike anything Boston had ever heard before. Oh, this was flirting at its finest, and though Boston hadn’t had a girlfriend since high school, he suddenly knew exactly what kind of vibe was going on between Adam and Joey.
They liked each other.
“Can I have one of these kolaches?” Rosie asked, and Boston whipped his attention to a tray that now sat on Adam’s kitchen counter that had not been there before.
“Where did those come from?” he asked.
“I just heated them up,” Joey said. “You didn’t seriously think I’d ask you to come move someone without feeding you, did you?”
Rosie picked one up and handed it to Boston. “Ooh, they’re just a little bit warm.”
“They won’t be all the way hot,” Joey said. “I only put them in the oven for five minutes.”
Kolaches went around, and then Harry came in through the garage entrance. “Truck’s here and the wind’s picking up, so let’s get this done.”
Adam moved to stand next to Harry, and he raised both hands to get everyone’s attention.
“Thank you all so much for coming. I don’t actually own any of the furniture here, so we don’t need to take any couches, tables and chairs, or the bed.
I have boxes and one trunk that belonged to my grandfather in the bedroom. I marked it.”
Joey moved to his side and added, “We’ll get everything loaded up here, and then we’ll drive to Dog Valley and unload there.” She looked up to Adam, her expression so…open and full of something Boston could only identify as adoration.
“You’ve got furniture we need to move and put together, right, baby?” she asked.
“Baby?” Rosie screeched, and all activity, conversation, and eating of kolaches came to a sudden halt. Adam’s face reddened, but Joey simply ducked her head, looking sheepish.
Harry started to laugh, and Boston knew why. He grinned, because he liked Adam a lot, and maybe if he started dating Joey, she would finally realize how amazing she was. Boston knew she suffered with self-esteem issues—because he did too, and they talked about it.
“Yes, I ordered furniture,” Adam growled at the group. He glared over to Harry. “What is so funny?”
“I think you two better start comin’ clean,” Harry said. “There are a whole bunch of us here.” He scanned the crowd, grinning and grinning and grinning. “And some of us can’t keep a secret.”
Joey cleared her throat. “I don’t expect anyone to keep a secret.
Adam and I are dating, and I’m going to put it on the family text after we get him moved into his new house, where he has new furniture that might need to be placed, as I believe Aunt Hilde was delivering it last night and this morning. ”
“That’s right,” Adam said, practically clipping the words out in a yell. “All the boxes are labeled as well.”
Boston wouldn’t expect anything less. Joey laced her fingers through Adam’s and squeezed. He visibly relaxed, and Boston found the two of them just so cute. He also wanted someone in his life who could hold his hand, say nothing, and calm him down.
“Adam was able to get into his house last night,” Joey said. “And he stocked the freezer full of pizza, so we’ll feed you guys before you leave as well.”
“There are a couple of pieces of furniture I bought online,” he said. “Bookcases and a nightstand and TV stand. I’ll need help putting those together.”
“I brought the power tools,” Harry said.
“If you have to leave early, that’s fine,” Joey said. “But we’ll take as much help for as long as we can get it.”
Boston had nothing else to do, and he certainly wasn’t going to return home to his parents’ house earlier than he had to. He really needed to find a job, because he really needed to get out of his parents’ basement, and he closed his eyes in a long blink and said a quick prayer.
Please, God, I just need something to open up for me.
“Harry, someone saved you some kolaches,” Joey said.
“Oh, thanks.” He moved over to get the last couple, and Boston figured now was as good as any time to pick up the first box and get this moving day started. He did, and that spurred others to do the same.
Since they didn’t have to move any furniture out of Adam’s house, it took less than a half an hour to load the truck. It would take forty-five minutes to drive to Dog Valley from his rental, and though Boston had just eaten a kolache, he couldn’t wait for the pizza buffet feast.
“What about you?” Cole asked as Boston climbed in the truck with him and Rosie. “Are you seeing anyone secret we should know about?”
Boston laughed and shook his head. “Absolutely not. You?”
“Sure, I need my daddy riding me about finishing school and having a girlfriend,” Cole said, and that made Boston laugh all over again.
“Rosie, what about you?”
His cousin turned beet red, and even her brother turned to look at her.
“Rosie,” he said, shock and scandal in his voice. “You are fourteen years old.” He leaned closer as if her age were a massive national secret.
“I’m not dating anyone,” she bit out. “There’s just this boy in my French class that I like, and he seems to like me too. Shocking, I know.”
“Why is that shocking?” Boston asked at the same time Cole said, “Of course, he would like you.”
She rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “Oh, come on, everyone knows I’m not the type of girl that boys like.”
“What does that mean?” Cole asked.
“I’m mouthy,” she said. “And smart.” Her face turned bright red again. “And I look like a boy.”
“You do not,” Cole said. He looked in the rearview mirror and met Boston’s eyes.
His heart hurt for Rosie, and he said, “Yeah, I never seen a boy look like you, Rosie.”
She twisted and looked at him. “Really, Boston?”
“You got real pretty hair,” Boston said. “And those freckles across your nose are super cute. And Rosie, boys like smart girls. Don’t ever feel bad about that.”
“Why do they act like they don’t like me, then?” Rosie asked. She sounded small and vulnerable, which were two words that Boston would never, ever use to describe her.
“They’re just scared,” he said. “I know, because I was really intimidated by girls when I was younger. Heck, I still am. It’s not that boys don’t like you, Rosie, it’s that they do, and they’re afraid that you’ll think they’re the idiots.”
Cole nodded, and he pulled away from the curb once Harry had driven the moving truck past them. “I know Spencer liked you.”
“Oh, Spencer’s an idiot,” Rosie said with a scoff.
Boston tipped his head back and laughed again. “That’s exactly why boys are afraid of you, Rosie. They know you’re going to see right through them to who they truly are. It’s going to take someone special to capture your heart.”
“Is that who this guy is?” Cole asked, looking at his sister out of the side of his eye. “What’s his name, anyway?”
“I am not telling you,” Rosie said. “The last boy I told you about, you marched up to him the very next day and scared him off.”
“So has something started between you two?” he asked.
“Well, I’m going to be fifteen before Valentine’s Day,” Rosie said. “And Daddy and Momma said I could go to the dance this year. So yeah, we’ve already talked about him taking me.”
Cole nodded, his jaw tight, but Boston beamed at Rosie. “That’s great,” he said. “You should go out with a lot of boys, Rosie—as many as you can. Then you’ll get to know what kind of guy you like.”
She twisted to look at him again, and Boston simply gave her his best smile. “Don’t worry about your momma and daddy either,” he said. “You’re a good girl, and they know it.”
To his utter surprise, she sniffled and turned around, and Rosie had never been known to be quiet, but Boston could barely hear her as she said, “Thank you, Boston.”
He looked out the window, feeling like he finally belonged in this family. It might only last for a moment, but for right now, Boston sure liked being a Young.