Chapter 28
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
Joey used the weight of the to-go bags she carried to push down on Adam’s door handle, then she opened the door with her foot and entered his house. She’d known he had meetings this morning, but she hadn’t realized that they wouldn’t be over by the time she arrived with lunch.
Now, she stood framed in the double-wide archway that led into Adam’s office, six grown men staring at her.
“Howdy, Roo,” Daddy said. “What are you doing here?” He cut a quick look over to Adam.
Joey didn’t think she needed to answer, what with all the food she carried. She still said, “I brought lunch, and I’m about to drop it.”
Uncle Tex and Uncle Luke stood the closest to her, and they lunged at her and took the food.
“Did you bring some for all of us?” Uncle Tex asked.
“No,” Joey said. “I didn’t know you’d be here.” She looked at Uncle Morris and Uncle Trace.
As the scent of the Italian food drifted away from her, she added, “But I did order a couple of family-size pans of pasta for Adam, so there’s probably plenty—if he doesn’t mind giving up his dinner for the weekend.”
“He doesn’t mind,” Daddy said, and he clapped Joey on the shoulder as he exited the office.
“We’re not done here,” Adam called after him, but Uncle Trace and Uncle Morris got up as well.
Uncle Morris hugged Joey and said, “Sure is good to see you, Roo,” before he continued past. Uncle Trace did the same, adding, “I’ll keep them back here in the kitchen for as long as I can, but I wouldn’t dawdle.
” He grinned at Joey and headed down the hallway that led into the rest of Adam’s mansion.
She faced her boyfriend and smiled. “And you didn’t think you needed those pans of pasta.”
He rolled his eyes as he shuffled some papers on his desk. “We’re really not done.”
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” she said. “I told you I’d be here at twelve-thirty.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said. “We’re having trouble…staying on task today.”
“Oh, you hate that,” she teased.
He got to his feet and came toward her. “I don’t hate seeing you.” He took her into his arms and kissed her quickly. “You can bring me some more pasta tomorrow, right?”
Joey grinned at him, enjoying the feel of his strong body in her arms. “Yeah, I’ll bring you pasta any day you want.” She nodded toward the arched doorway. “What are they having trouble with today?”
He took her hand, and they left the office together. “Believe it or not, clothing.”
“Oh, I believe it,” Joey said. “Have you met Uncle Luke?” She giggled. “You should watch some of the old Country Quad videos.”
“Oh, I’ve seen them,” Adam said. “He really is good at putting on a show.”
“He’s the one who organizes every detail of things like that,” Joey said. “It’s extremely important to him.”
“Which is why they were so popular,” Adam said. “But it’s wintertime, and I keep telling him they’re going to be performing outside. They’re already going to be dealing with instruments in varying temperatures, and we don’t need to be dealing with wardrobe issues too.”
“Why can’t he just wear one of his puffy vests?” Joey asked. “He gets a billion comments on posts where he wears the puffy vest,” she said, the last part as she entered the kitchen.
Uncle Trace waved his hand toward her. “There you go, Luke. The younger generation has spoken.”
“I told you we should wear those puffy vests,” Uncle Tex said.
“Really, the puffy vest?” Luke glared at Joey and then turned back and lifted an enormous tong-full of spaghetti onto his plate.
“Save some food for Adam, would you?” Joey said. “And me, seeing how I paid for it.”
“I can send you some money,” Daddy said.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Joey said, but had she known she was going to feed her father and four of her uncles, she would have expected them to pay her. “Are you guys really hung up on clothes?”
“Just a little,” Uncle Tex said.
“What else?”
“Otis needs to finalize the set list,” Uncle Luke said.
“The first concert is in two weeks,” Joey said, swinging her gaze to her father, who’d wasted no time loading his plate with garlic bread and spaghetti. “You don’t have the set list finalized?”
“We do,” Daddy said.
“Not in writing,” Luke said.
“We play the songs in the same order every time we practice,” Uncle Trace said. “I know the set list.”
“It needs to be in writing,” Luke insisted.
“He’s right,” Adam chimed in as he joined the line. He picked up two plates, and Joey smiled at his thoughtfulness. “I need to publish it online.”
“Well, you’ve been at practice,” Daddy said.
“Give the man a set list,” Trace growled as he took an Italian sausage with his penne pasta. “I saved one of these for you, Roo.” He turned and put it on one of the plates that Adam held. “She loves these.”
“She does?” Adam asked. “Huh. You learn something new every day.”
“Yeah, especially when you’ve only been dating for a couple of months,” Daddy said dryly.
“Yeah, we haven’t eaten at every restaurant in town yet,” Joey threw at him. “So of course, Adam wouldn’t know every single favorite of mine.”
“Oh, boy,” Trace said, glancing at Joey. “I didn’t mean to start anything. I just thought Joey liked the sausages.”
“I do, Uncle Trace,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Go sit,” Adam said, smiling at her. He sure seemed to know how to deal with her uncles—and her daddy. “I know what else you like.”
She wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself in a situation like this, but she did like being pampered and taken care of, so she went and sat down next to Uncle Luke.
“The puffy vest really is still cool,” she said.
“You guys could get new ones in matching colors—or an array of colors. Either way, it would be awesome.”
“You really think so?” Uncle Luke asked.
“Yeah,” Joey said. “It’s probably too late to get your logo on the chest, but you could call Mike and ask him.”
“I already called Mike,” Adam called from the kitchen. “We literally have to tell him today if we want the vests done or not.”
“I think we should do it,” Uncle Tex said. “Then I can still wear that long sleeve shirt I want and I won’t look like a sixty-year-old.”
“Brother, you’re sixty,” Trace said. “You look sixty.”
“Yeah, but a hot sixty,” Joey said. “With the vest.” She grinned at her uncle, who grinned right back.
“When are you moving into your new place, Roo?” Uncle Tex asked.
Joey sighed. “Not for another week and a half.”
“It was going to be this weekend,” Daddy said. “But then they had a leak upstairs, and the water went into the basement, and they’re fixing some stuff.”
“That’s right,” Joey said. “But I really appreciate all you guys helping me get furniture and stuff.” She smiled around at everyone, glad that they seemed to be enjoying the food too.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Uncle Tex said. “My whole basement is full of furniture we don’t use.”
“That’s not true, Uncle Tex.” Joey rolled her eyes and smiled at him. “Did anybody hear from Boston today?” She looked around, though Uncle Mav wasn’t there.
“Nothing yet,” Trace said.
“Nothing on the family text either,” Daddy said.
“Well, he’s done two interviews now,” Joey said. “Surely he’ll get the job.”
“He’s moving to Jackson no matter what,” Uncle Luke said. “Mav told me that last night.”
“Really?” Uncle Morris asked. “I hadn’t heard that.”
“That’s because Mav just told me last night,” Luke said, twirling up another fork full of spaghetti and putting it in his mouth. “Him and Blaze are moving Boston to Jackson Hole this weekend.”
“Wow,” Uncle Morris said. “I’m surprised we haven’t heard that.”
“They’re not gonna need any help?” Uncle Tex asked.
No one said anything, and Joey looked around at the uncles. “I imagine it’ll be a lot like me,” she said. “I can fit everything I own in my car, so how much help could Boston possibly need?”
Luke pointed his fork at her. “That. Mav is taking a bed, and they’re getting everything else in Jackson.”
“I’m not super happy about it.” Adam put a plate of fettuccine Alfredo with Joey’s Italian sausage and a breadstick in front of her and pulled out the chair beside her to sit down.
Surprised, she looked over to him. “You’re not happy about Boston moving to Jackson Hole? Why not?”
“Because I wanted him to help me run the concert series,” he said.
“You’ve got Uncle Morris to help you with the concert series,” she looked over to her uncle. “Right?”
“I just thought it would give him something to do,” Adam said. “He was real good at it with Harry.”
“Well, if he doesn’t get this job at the lodge,” Uncle Trace said. “I bet you could entice him to come back for a couple of months.” He looked around at the other members of the band, and they all nodded, which meant they had just agreed to pay Boston if he didn’t get a job at the lodge.
“I got four new pie orders for next week,” Joey said, feeling her chest balloon with pride. “And you guys are the first to know that I only need one more order to hit my goal of one hundred pie orders to make an extra thousand dollars to move into my own place.”
“That’s incredible, Joey,” Uncle Tex said, smiling widely.
“Yeah, way to go, Roo.” Daddy reached out and patted her hand. “And you’ve still got two weeks till Christmas.”
“I’m not doing any orders next week,” Joey said. “I’m going to push everybody off until Christmas, and I’m hoping I’ll get a bunch of orders then, like I did for Thanksgiving.”
“I know Ev wants pies,” Uncle Trace said. “I’ll tell her to get on your website.” He gave her a warm smile too, and Joey liked this feeling of doing something good with her life.
“It really helped that Uncle Shawn posted it from Pork and Beans,” she said, watching Uncle Trace. “I didn’t ask him to do it last time, but do you think I should this time?”
“Yeah,” Uncle Trace said. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Joey said, ducking her head as a round of foolishness moved through her.
“She doesn’t like asking for help,” Adam said.
Irritation blitzed through Joey, and she glared at him out of the corner of her eye.
Daddy started to chuckle. “No, she does not. You’re right about that.”
“I am sitting at the table,” Joey said, lifting her eyes to her father’s. “Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to do that,” Adam said. “I wasn’t making fun of you.” He looked at her earnestly as if they were the only two people in the room. “Okay?” He slid his hand over hers and squeezed.
With his touch, she did feel like they were the only two people in the room, and she worked to remind herself that she absolutely could not lean toward him and kiss him in front of the other five members of her family.
Instead, she nodded and dropped her head as part of that motion. “Okay,” she said.
She hadn’t been planning to talk about any of this during today’s lunch. She’d wanted to talk to Adam about coming to church with her. She went and he didn’t, but he’d told her last week he had grown up religious and that his momma still went to church every week and that he had started praying.
She didn’t want to rush him along his own journey, and they hadn’t really had time to talk in depth about their religion. There had been a few texts before he’d said, You have to get up in six hours. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, baby doll.
Joey cleared her throat as her uncles talked around her, and they continued their band meeting as if she’d simply brought catering for them.
She finished first and took her plate into the kitchen, where she rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher.
She started cleaning up the food and covering it with the aluminum foil lids and putting it in the fridge.
“We’ve gotta wrap this up,” Adam said. “I only get to see Joey a couple of hours a day, and she’s gotta go to work in a little bit.” He herded everyone back into the office, and fifteen minutes later, he managed to get them out of his house.
He sighed, ran his hand through his hair, and reseated his cowboy hat on his head as he sank onto the couch with her. She glanced at him and smiled. “They can be a lot.”
“You’re not kiddin’,” he said, and Joey liked how he dropped the G and sounded like a real cowboy.
“Thanks for lunch, Roo.” He reached for her and gathered her close and pulled her down with him as he lay on the couch.
She tucked her back against his chest, the weight of his arm along her waist heavy and comforting.
“I could get really used to you walking in the house with lunch every day,” he said. “Sure was nice.”
“You just like spaghetti and meatballs,” she said, not daring to raise her voice louder than he’d spoken.
He chuckled. “I think it’s more than that.”
Joey definitely felt like there was more to them as well, and she laced her fingers through his and held their hands close to her stomach. “I wanted to follow up with you on your conversation about prayer,” she said.
“Hm,” Adam hummed.
“Do you think you might want to come to church with me?” she asked. “Once I move out, I’m going to have to go by myself, and I think you know I’m not very good at doing things by myself.”
“You’re great at doing things by yourself,” he said. “You just don’t like doing it for the first few times.”
She had never told him that, and somehow, he knew it anyway. “Right,” she said. “So this week I’ll go with Grams, but the week before Christmas, it’ll just be up to me to walk in by myself, and I just thought if you wanted to come—then we could walk in together.”
“I’ll think about it,” Adam said. “Though I have really been considering my faith and where it is and what I need to do with it.” He tightened his arms around her, and let a few moments of silence pass.
“What if I don’t want to go to church?” he asked. “What if I’m just not super religious like you are? Do you think that would be a problem if we got married?”
Joey pulled in a breath through her nose. She had not started thinking about marriage with Adam yet, though as she lay there in his warm embrace, she realized that she really probably should
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I’ve never had a relationship as serious as this.”
“We’ll just keep talking about it,” Adam said. “I want us to be able to talk about anything, because in the relationships I’ve had in my life, the best are the ones where we have open communication, even if we don’t agree.”
“Okay,” Joey said. “We’ll just keep talking about it.”
“All right,” he murmured. “For right now, I just want to hold you and maybe take a nap.”
She giggled as he buried his face in her hair because she knew the mighty Adam Harmon did not nap. Just getting him to slow down long enough to relax on the couch with her was a major feat, and Joey congratulated herself for that.
She knew there would be no napping when he asked, “So what book are you reading right now?” as if he really cared—and Joey knew that he did.
Her heart warmed and her blood blazed through her veins as she turned in his arms and whispered, “I’ll tell you about it later,” just before she pressed her lips to his.