Chapter 39
CHAPTER
THIRTY-NINE
“Okay,” Joey said, as she led the way inside the furniture store. “I hope you’re ready for this.”
Adam simply grinned at her. “I survived that birthday party at Bryce’s house,” he said. “And that was after a concert too. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Joey was sure of it as well, because Adam was so good at coordinating details and handling dozens of moving parts that all of the concerts had gone off without a hitch. They had one more tomorrow for New Year’s brunch, and then one more on Monday.
God willing, Joey would be moving into her new apartment in three days, and part of her wondered why it mattered. Why had she felt so called to get her own place and move out?
She thought of the words Adam had said to her almost a week ago now: I’m hopelessly in love with you.
She hadn’t said it back to him, mostly because he’d taken her onto his lap and kissed her before she could, and partly because she wasn’t sure she was in love with him…yet.
She did love who she was with him because he inspired her to be a more confident version of herself. She’d started to see herself as smart and capable and wonderful—all of the things he’d told her many times.
“Oh, they’re line dancing,” Joey said as she opened the second set of doors into the furniture store and a rousing country music song met her ears. Sure enough, a loud stomp echoed through the store, followed by a whoop!, carefully timed to the dance and the music.
Adam took her hand, and she led him through the high-end living room section, and then curved through the bedroom area back to the more casual living area where Aunt Hilde staged their New Year’s Eve party every year.
Every year wasn’t quite true, as various aunts and uncles had hosted over the years, but Aunt Hilde donated the furniture store every other year, as it definitely had the most room for everyone in the family.
This year, they obviously had a dance floor set up.
Joey brought Adam right to the edge of the crowd, so that he could see the dancing.
Men and women danced alike, with Rosie and Aunt Ev calling the dance from the front.
Joey joined in clapping with everyone else, and a few moments later, the song ended.
Cheers raised the roof, and people streamed off the dance floor.
“Hey, you made it,” Jem said. “Tonight’s concert was fire,” he added as he bumped knuckles with Adam.
“Thanks,” Adam said. “I mean, not that I played or anything.”
“When are you going to play?” Uncle Tex asked, and Joey gaped at him, her look mirroring Adam’s.
“I’m not going to play,” Adam said.
“I heard you were taking guitar lessons.” Uncle Tex lifted a cup of punch to his lips.
“Yeah, for two months,” Adam said. “I’m certainly not going to get on the stage with professional musicians.”
“Oh, is that what they are?” Uncle Jem teased.
“All right, all right, all right,” Uncle Luke yelled, the last time into a mic.
The sound positively bellowed through the building and it did cut through the chatter that had broken out after the line dance.
“We have something pretty amazing this year,” he said, his whole persona shining.
“A New Year’s unlike any other New Year’s. ”
“Here we go,” Uncle Blaze said as he sidled up to Jem.
“Hey, you’re the one who called in a favor to Ralph,” Jem said.
“Because I thought it would be fun,” Uncle Blaze replied.
“Some of you may be wondering what’s over here behind this drape,” Uncle Luke said with plenty of gusto and drama.
“Well, you don’t have to wait any longer!
” He brandished his arm in that direction, and Liesl and Corinne, who both stood in the middle of the curtain, grabbed one side of it and ran toward the edge, parting the curtain and revealing what sat behind it.
Children started to scream and laugh and jump up and down, but Joey could only stare at the mechanical bull in the middle of her aunt’s furniture store.
A legit mechanical bull.
“Can I get Uncle Blaze and Uncle Jem over here?” Luke said as he walked toward the bull. “They’re going to be our mentors tonight, and anyone who wants to ride the bull has to talk to them first. Am I clear?”
He stopped in front of his own seven-year-old who said, “Yes, Daddy, I want to ride it,” in the most excited voice Joey had ever heard. Ryder vibrated with energy, and he glued himself to Luke’s side as he moved over to the bull.
She linked her arm through Adam’s as her uncles moved away from them. “Are you going to ride that thing?” she asked.
“Are you kidding?” he hissed back. “I don’t want to break my back.”
Joey giggled, though she didn’t really want to ride the mechanical bull either. “It’s got padding,” she said. “Little kids can do it. Look.” She nodded as Luke helped Ryder up over the padding and toward the bull.
“Little kids can do it?” He turned and looked at her, his expression half challenging and half teasing. “Are you going to ride it?”
“I mean, I don’t think there’s time,” she said. “The clock’s going to strike midnight in less than an hour. And look at the line already.”
He’d started smiling about halfway through her rejection speech, and he wrapped her up in his big bear arms, a full belly laugh coming out of his mouth.
“The line is too long,” he said, laughing all over again. “It’s an eight-second ride.”
He backed her out of the lights that had been shining down on the dance floor and those overhead the couches where people had clearly been relaxing. Abandoned paper plates and cups sat there from the pizza that had been brought in.
Not everyone attended every concert anymore, but Joey had been to them all, and she’d waited with Adam until everything was cleaned up at the ranch before they’d driven here for tonight’s party. Joey didn’t normally stay up this late, but she didn’t have to work tomorrow at all.
Lights started to flash over the bull, and cheering began as someone started to ride it—probably Ryder.
Joey couldn’t see for sure past Adam, and she decided she didn’t really care, because Adam looked down at her with an expression filled with love and desire.
“It’s going to be an amazing year with you. ”
Though so much chaos reigned around them, she definitely felt like her words would only enter his ears and that they were the only two people at this party. “You know I feel the same, right?”
He nodded as he lowered his head to kiss her. Joey could definitely lose herself inside the arms of this man, while bull-riding lights flashed somewhere around her and her family cheered like they were at the NPR Finals.
“All right, you two,” Belle said, and Joey ducked her head against Adam’s chest. “The ball doesn’t drop for another forty-five minutes.”
She and Harry joined them, and Harry grabbed onto Adam and gave him a hearty hug.
“You bought me that microphone off Kickstarter,” he said, laughing. “You dirty dog.”
Adam laughed too as he pounded Harry on the back. “It’s great though, right?”
“It’s the best thing ever,” Harry said. “The live stream tonight was twice as crisp with that microphone clipped to my phone. Un-be-liev-a-ble.” They parted, and Joey really liked their friendship.
“How’s everything going for the wedding?” she asked Belle.
“Almost there,” she said with a sigh. “My parents will be here next week.”
“Only ten more days.” Joey smiled at her. “When are you going to tell everyone where it is?”
Belle glanced over to Harry and Adam, who had moved on to another conversation topic. “Harry’s worried about an online leak, but I don’t get it. Even if people know where we’re getting married, they won’t show up.”
Joey watched her charismatic and super-popular cousin. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “Harry’s been immensely popular since he first started playing the guitar on his stairs as a teenager.”
“I suppose.” Belle leaned her head closer. “Things look like they’re going well for you and Adam.” She smiled at Joey, and it didn’t seem gossipy or teasing but simply kind. Interested, maybe.
Joey nodded, because things were going well, and she saw no reason to hide it. After all, she’d just been caught kissing him, and anyone in her family could have seen that.
“He’s amazing,” Joey said.
“You’re amazing, too,” Belle told her.
“Yeah, I know.” Joey grinned at her. “I’m excited to get to know him a lot better this year.”
Joey had never had a boyfriend on New Year’s Eve before, and she wasn’t sure if that was why moving into this new year with Adam felt so significant. But as Adam and Harry, and then Belle and Joey, joined the party again, Joey knew it was more than just having a boyfriend.
It was because of Adam himself.
He turned and reached for her, bringing her right back to his side as they moved over to the mechanical bull.
Jem’s son, Ladd, currently rode it, and he looked every bit the professional bull rider that his daddy had been, with his heels tucked back and his hand in the air as the bull bucked and bucked and bucked.
Joey found a clock ticking up toward the eight seconds directly across from her, and she joined her voice to those cheering for Ladd to make that eight-second ride.
He did, and the family went wild, Joey included. Adam’s voice was as loud as any of them, as he’d easily found his place among her family. Yes, Joey knew this year would be one for the books, and it had everything to do with Adam.
You might even have your own wedding this year, she thought, and the idea made her ridiculously happy—and terribly afraid at the same time. She didn’t like that feeling, and she pushed against it, because love was kind, and it didn’t have room for any fear inside it whatsoever.
So maybe she wasn’t all the way in love with Adam yet, but she knew this year held great possibility for her…and for the two of them.