Chapter 45
CHAPTER
FORTY-FIVE
“Ihope they have those pistachio croissants again,” Joey said as Adam pulled into the Sip and Stay. He grinned over at her, wondering how much he should tell her.
It would all come out in the end, and he wanted it to be a surprise, so he simply said, “I hope so too.”
But he knew they would. He’d asked Louisa specifically to make them for today and to make sure that she didn’t sell out before they arrived for their mid-afternoon coffee date at two-thirty.
He didn’t expect the place to be busy at this time of day, and the parking lot didn’t have very many cars in it.
His pulse pounded at him because he knew there would be a lot of trucks around the back, and he knew Joey was observant enough to pick up on them if they’d parked out in front of the coffee shop.
He cut the engine, glared at the gray sky, and sent up one more plea for sunshine, though it technically wasn’t necessary for a proposal.
He got out of the car, his hand automatically sliding into his left pocket where he kept the diamond ring he’d bought.
He and Joey were flying to Tennessee tomorrow, and she’d meet his momma in another twenty-four hours.
Adam did not want to take home a girlfriend. He wanted to take home a fiancée.
He glanced toward the coffee shop, didn’t see anyone, and proceeded to open Joey’s door for her.
“It’s freezing out here,” he said.
Joey smiled as she rose from the SUV. “You’ve even got your winter coat on, baby.” She gripped his collar and leaned in to kiss him. “Maybe that will warm you up,” she said.
“A peck?” he asked. “That doesn’t warm anyone up.” He chuckled and took her hand.
They started toward the coffee shop as she said, “Well, I’m not gonna make out with you in the parking lot.”
“Maybe the Sip and Stay will be empty,” he said.
She gave him a dry look. “We’re not making out in there either.”
He grinned at her. “I knew I should have just made coffee at my house.”
She giggled again, quickly sobering. She’d been doing that a lot this week, and Adam squeezed her hand. “Are you nervous about meeting my momma?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’ve never been to Tennessee, and I’ve never met anyone’s momma.”
“She’s going to love you,” Adam said. “I guarantee she’ll cry.”
“Is she gonna be worried about how old I am?” Joey asked.
“I don’t think so,” Adam said. “When I first told her about us, I told her you were young, and she didn’t seem to care—as long as you weren’t eighteen.”
He grinned and reached for the door, holding it open as Joey walked in and Adam quickly followed her.
A single couple sat in the corner, their pastry wrappers empty, indicating that they’d been here for a while.
Adam didn’t truly care, though he had hoped to do his proposal only for friends and family.
Joey went right up to the counter where Louisa pushed out from the swinging black door that led into the back.
“Oh, you’ve got the pistachio croissant,” she said.
“Yes, we do.” Louisa looked at Adam, so much knowing in her eyes. “You want that, dear?”
“Yes, please,” Joey said. “And I think today I’ll take….” She trailed off as she looked up to the menu. “I don’t know. You order, baby.”
Adam cleared his throat. “Extra-large Americano, please.” He glanced over to Joey. “Didn’t you want hot chocolate?”
“I did,” she said. “But now that we’re here, the coffee smells so good.” She brought her hand up to her mouth and bit her nail, and Adam felt like doing the same, his own nerves rioting through him in an unkind way.
“You know what? I want a flat white latte,” she said. “No, no, I don’t.”
He pulled his wallet out and waited while Joey looked at the menu again. “You know what? I want the hot chocolate with marshmallow cream.”
“You got it, sweetie.” Louisa put the order in, and Adam paid. She set the pistachio croissant on a plate, and Joey picked it up and turned to face the café.
Adam didn’t care which table she picked, as the whole place held about fifteen of them, and he was planning to fill the space with people and music before too long.
“Right here by the window?” Joey asked. “Look, the sun’s come out a little bit.”
“Look at that,” Adam said, and he pulled her chair out for her before he sat down across from her.
Their drinks came quickly, including the agave packets that Adam liked, and he stirred them into his coffee, wondering how to start this conversation. He’d never proposed to a woman before, and he, Harry, and Bryce had been over several ideas before he’d landed on this one.
“Back to the site of our first date,” Joey said.
Adam looked up at her. “Oh, so you’re counting this as our first date now?”
“Yes, silly,” she said, her smile infectious and her eyes so bright. “I told you, we can’t have kissed before our first date. So that means the coffee date was our first date.”
“Coffee and cowboy hat shopping,” he grinned at her.
“It’s not a bad first date, right?” Joey asked. “So let’s make sure we get the story straight for your mom. I don’t want her thinking that I just kiss everyone who manages to make it out of a snowstorm.”
She giggled, and Adam chuckled with her.
“Speaking of my mom,” he said, though that wasn’t what he wanted to talk about at all.
He cleared his throat, his hand migrating to his thigh, where he felt the distinct outline of the ring in his pocket.
He leaned back, because that was the first clue for those watching, and then he paused as the couple in the corner got up and started to leave.
He sat forward again as Joey’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Speaking of your mom, what?” she asked. “Is there something else I need to know not to say?”
He’d told her about how she loved steamed broccoli and made a lemon-mayo sauce to go over it. Joey had blinked and said, “Wow, I’ve never heard of that.”
“Try to act as normal as possible when you see her eat it,” Adam had advised, and that had launched a whole series of questions from Joey about what she could expect about his mother.
“No, nothing like that,” Adam said, as the couple finally finished cleaning up and walked by them. He looked up at them so as not to have to say something else. The very moment he heard the bell on the door chime, he leaned back again.
“I’ve just been thinking,” he said, raising his voice. “It would be way better if I could take home a fiancée instead of a girlfriend.”
Joey blinked, “I…what?”
Adam grinned at her and stood up. He heard footsteps behind him, and Joey glanced that way about the same time that Harry said, “Here you go, buddy.” Adam turned and took the guitar from his best friend, the man who had literally changed his life by bringing him to Coral Canyon and introducing him to the Young family—including Joey.
Adam positioned himself next to Harry on his right, while Bryce came up on his left.
The fact that Adam thought he could play the guitar as well as either one of them was a complete joke, but Joey had been asking him if he would ever play for her, and he figured a proposal was as good a time as any.
He’d only been taking lessons for three months now, but he knew enough to pluck out a few chords and sing a few lyrics.
Harry had written the song for him, and it was only thirty seconds long, and Adam told himself he could do anything for thirty seconds if the prize was kissing Joey at the end with a pink diamond ring on her finger.
“We’re waiting on you, buddy,” Bryce said jovially.
Adam swallowed, took a deep breath, and looked Joey straight in the eyes—hers were wide and impossibly blue—and he reminded himself that he loved this woman and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
That got his fingers to start moving, and he plucked through the simple notes like the novice he was.
Joey smiled, and that only encouraged him to keep going.
“Meeting you changed my life,” he sang.
“In this small town, you’re my light,
With flour-dusted hands, we bake our dreams,
Side by side, through the highs and extremes.”
Bryce and Harry joined in on the chorus, their three guitars and three voices suddenly stronger and better together. Adam’s confidence grew when he wasn’t singing alone, and he really belted out the words.
Oh Joey, my sweet Roo,
My heart beats only for you.
Through fields of gold and skies so blue,
I promise, baby doll, I’ll always choose you.
When the days are hard and nights are long,
Together, our love makes us strong.
When they reached the end of the chorus, Harry and Bryce backed off on their playing once again, showcasing Adam as he sang the second verse.
From cupcakes to sunsets, I’ve found my home,
With you, I know I’m never alone.
We’ll face the snow, the wind, and rain,
‘Cause a love like ours will always remain.
Then they all three started to play toward the chorus again, and then again, and then pure relief rushed through Adam as more guitars joined them.
He watched only Joey, his own fingers forgetting to play as her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open, and her hands came up to cover it.
Luke, Gabe, and Morris came in the front door of the coffee shop, while Tex, Trace, and Otis came up from behind with Mav, Blaze, and Jem stumbling out of the restroom, where Adam hoped they hadn’t been hiding for too long.
They all started to play the intro to the chorus again, but none of them started singing as Joey’s aunts and cousins started to fill the space.
The front door opened again, and Adam somehow heard the chime above all the guitars twanging through the space, and he glanced over as Cecily escorted Jerry inside, and Gloria shuffled along with Lauren.
He nodded to a table across from Joey, where they all sat, except for Jerry, who took a guitar from Mav, looped the strap over his shoulder, and started to play with them.
Joey cried openly now, and Adam joined back in on the intro to the chorus as Otis himself stepped forward and led them all into singing it.
Oh Joey, my sweet Roo,
My heart beats only for you.
Through fields of gold and skies so blue,
I promise, baby doll, I’ll always choose you.
When the days are hard and nights are long,
Together, our love makes us strong.
With only a couple of words to go, Adam stepped away from this group of good examples of how to be husbands and fathers and men. He handed his guitar to Georgia, reached into his pocket, and pulled the pink diamond out. He dropped to both knees in front of Joey, glad her eyes stayed glued to his.
“I love you,” he said as the voices faded and the guitars quieted.
“I love you with everything I have and everything I am. I love your sense of responsibility and duty, and I love your hard-working spirit and how you set goals for yourself and go after them. I love how you take care of those around you, and I love having you in my life. I love the things you cook for me, and I love your love of pink, sparkly things.”
He held up the diamond, which was pink and sparkly. “I hope this is the most amazing, bestest, brightest pink sparkly thing you’ll ever own, and I would love it if you would be my wife. Will you marry me?”
Joey’s eyes dropped to the ring, where her smile only widened, and when she looked at him again, she raised both fists into the air and said, “Yes!” Then she leaned right over that pink pear-shaped diamond and kissed him.
Her family started to cheer, with cowboys clapping against their guitars and making hollow, discordant sounds to go with their voices.
Adam laughed, the kiss sloppy, and he took Joey’s left hand and steadied it in his before he slid the ring on her finger.
He kissed the knuckle above it and below it, and then inched a little closer to her so that he could kiss his fiancée properly.
“I love you,” he whispered against her lips.
“I love you too,” she said back, her smile wonderful and glorious. “You staged this whole thing?”
He grinned. “The Sip and Stay is ours from now until closing, and Louisa made a half dozen pistachio croissants for you.”
She grinned. “The mob is pressing in,” she said. “So kiss me one more time before we get separated.”
Adam did, and then Joey stood and got swept into her mother’s arms while Adam let Harry and Bryce help him back to his feet. The first person he came face to face with was Otis, who grinned and grabbed him, pulling him into a hug as he said, “You take good care of her.”
“I will, sir,” Adam promised. “I love her.”
“Yeah, I know,” Otis said. They both looked over to where Joey held out her left hand for Rosie, Liesl, and Corrine to admire the diamond. “And she loves you too.”
Read on for a sneak peek at BOSTON, the next book in the Young Brothers series. Oh, something is going to go down at the Silver Sage Mountain Lodge and Resort…