Chapter 4
Chapter Four
M ack had to admit that he felt more like part of the family once he’d changed into the same wedding shirt and vest that his brothers and grandfather were wearing. He was thankful Lorna had gotten his things back from Miss Mabel, and the older woman seemed glad too.
The pictures took close to an hour, so the reception was well underway by the time they made it to the giant white tent set up in the pasture on the other side of the barn.
The white chairs had been moved from the ceremony to circle round tables covered in silver tablecloths, and the lupine stalks had been transformed into centerpieces. Chandeliers of fairy lights hung from the tent’s crossbeams, and a head table had been set up for the bridal party with a banner reading ‘Mr. and Mrs. Lassiter’ strung behind it.
Animated conversation, laughter, and the scent of pulled pork and barbequed brisket filled the air, and long tables held massive bowls of potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, salad, grilled corn on the cob, and freshly made rolls. Huge coolers had been filled with ice and stuffed with beer, ciders, hard seltzers, soda, and water.
The wedding party got in line and filled their plates then took their places at the head table. Mack had been hoping to sit with Lorna, but her place as the maid of honor was already set next to Leni, and he had been assigned a seat at the end of the table next to Dodge. He was glad to get to catch up a little with his brother, but it seemed like half the town came up to the table to talk to the bride and groom and the rest of the family.
Mack lost track of how many people he’d been introduced to. Some of the neighbors, and the friends of his grandparents, he’d met when he’d been there the summer before, but a lot of folks were new. And many seemed curious about him, his mom, and how he’d come to recently join the Lassiter family.
He appreciated Dodge’s skills at evading the questions that got too personal and his knack for changing the subject and putting the focus back on the other person. Especially since Mack didn’t have good answers to some of their questions. Like why his mom had chosen to keep him with her when she’d abandoned the other boys with their grandparents and why she’d never told him about his half-brothers.
After the meal, he was happy to find an out-of-the-way spot to hold up the wall as he watched Chevy and Leni cut the cake and do the garter and bouquet tosses.
Duke had told him most of the crowd was either from Woodland Hills or the neighboring town of Creedence, and even though he’d heard he was from the area, Mack was still surprised to see NHL hockey legend, Rockford James and his brothers in attendance and tipping beers with his new brothers. He loved watching the guy play and was a fan of his team, the Colorado Summit, so he hoped to get a chance to get to know Rock and the James brothers better this summer since Duke said they occasionally helped each other out on their respective ranches.
Mack didn’t participate in the garter toss, and he was amused at the way Lorna didn’t even try to catch the bouquet, side- stepping the direction of Leni’s throw instead then laughing with a surprised Miss Mabel as the flowers landed in her arms.
He’d always been okay circling the periphery, watching others, and never needing to join in to whatever activity was going on. Especially since he hadn’t been invited to join much. And making friends and getting too close to people invited questions he didn’t want to answer, like about where his mom was and why they hadn’t seen her around.
He’d learned early on that answering those questions truthfully only brought trouble, so he’d become good at doing his own laundry to ensure he had clean clothes, learning to use coupons and make himself inexpensive meals, and forging his mother’s signatures on notes for school, so that no one suspected Brandy had taken off again, leaving her young son alone for weeks, and sometimes months at a time.
The band played a song for the couple’s first dance but skipped the father/daughter and mother and son ones, since neither the bride nor groom had either parent in attendance. Leni and Lorna’s father had taken off on them when they were young, and their mother had remarried and moved away the summer before and apparently hadn’t made it back for the wedding.
Mack didn’t think Brandi would have been invited, even if any of them knew where she was, and he was the only Lassiter son who’d even known his dad, although he sure didn’t consider himself luckier in that respect.
He still couldn’t believe this was all part of his life now. He’d spent his entire life wishing for siblings and grandparents, heck, he would have taken a distant cousin, just to know he had some other family out there. But he’d never imagined that he had three brothers and a grandfather on a ranch in Colorado.
Or that they would so easily accept him as one of their own.
They had accepted him, but standing there, on the perimeter of the party, he couldn’t help but still feel alone.
This ranch was his home now. He’d told the ranch foreman in Texas he wasn’t coming back again. But it was still going to take him some time to really adjust to this ranch being part of his legacy and to these people being his family.
He watched for a few songs then couldn’t turn down Elizabeth or Maisie’s requests to dance, even though he knew they were just asking him to be nice to their boyfriend’s little brother.
Lorna had been having a great night, enjoying the freedom of being able to eat a warm meal with other adults and knowing Izzy was home with a babysitter she could trust. She’d danced a few times with Max, then with Duke, then been hustled onto the floor by her sister for the group line dances. She was surprised she remembered the steps, but after a few mistakes, seemed to easily pick them back up again.
She’d been hoping to have a dance with Mack, feeling like this was her one Cinderella night out and at midnight she’d turn back into a single-working-mom pumpkin, leaving the memories of a pretty dress and a gorgeous updo behind like the lost glass slipper.
It was close to nine when Mack finally asked her to dance, but her pulse quickened when the music changed to a slower number as he led her out onto the floor and pulled her into his arms.
His hand rested gently against her shoulder blade as he guided her around the floor, but all she could think about was the feel of his fingers brushing over the bare skin next to the thin straps of her dress and how well she fit against his broad chest.
His breath tickled her ear as he leaned down to talk to her, making her laugh as he told her how Miss Bernie, an elderly local woman who Leni and Chevy had befriended the year before when they’d returned her lost cow, Babydoll, had walked over to the wedding so she could bring that same cow with her to attend the nuptials and then asked for a stall to keep her in, as if the wedding provided a bovine valet service.
She knew that the night wasn’t real, that in the morning she’d go back to her yoga pants, and never-ending piles of laundry, and dirty diapers, and pans of dried macaroni and cheese, but tonight was for pretending she was still beautiful and desirable to a hot cowboy with hard abs and a rakish grin.
Not that her life was all bad.
She loved being a mom and found joy in playing games with and reading stories to Max and singing endless rounds of silly songs to make Izzy giggle, but sometimes she got so tired and missed the feeling of simply being a woman.
And spinning around the dance floor in Mack Lassiter’s arms had her feeling not only like a woman but had her woman parts tingling and feeling sensations she hadn’t experienced in a long time. Since about nine months ago, around the same time she’d first met him.
They’d really had fun together then, and at times, had flirted shamelessly with each other. Then he left and essentially ghosted her. Although tonight she had felt like he was flirting again and there was no way she was imagining those looks he kept casting her way.
He must have caught her frown, because he pulled her closer and spoke into the ear. “What’s up? Your face just flipped through fifteen expressions in five seconds, like it was a Viewmaster on crack.”
A grin tugged at the corners of her lips. “Leni has always accused me of wearing my heart on my sleeves. She says she can always tell what I’m thinking.”
“Well, I don’t have that benefit, so you’re gonna have to tell me. What’s going on? You looked happy then sad then kind of mad.”
She peered up at him, loving that she could wear heels and still have him taller than her, and studied his face.
Did he really want her to answer honestly? Most men preferred to hear what they wanted to hear. But, even in the short time she’d known him, Mack had proved to be different than most men.
“I was just thinking about why you stopped texting me while you were gone. It felt like you were ghosting me.”
His brow furrowed. “I’m sorry for that. Life on a ranch is tough. Especially when you’re short-handed. I was working long, hard hours from sun-up to sun-down and most nights, I barely got my boots off before falling into bed. That’s if I had a bed to fall into. We spent plenty of nights in the pasture sleeping with the herd. I’m not making excuses, just offering an explanation. And honestly, I wasn’t sure you wanted me to keep texting you.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because when I was here before, it seemed like you were into me, then a few nights before I left, the night we had that big barbeque at the ranch, you told me you just wanted to be friends.”
Lorna tried to think back to that night. “I remember that barbeque and sitting out on the deck feeling utterly exhausted by the end of the meal. Izzy had been fussy and wouldn’t let anyone else hold her, and Max had missed his nap that day and dumped an entire bowl of barbeque sauce into his lap. And I’d been trying to get inventory done for the coffee shop that week, so I was feeling mad and sad and cranky that I had to do everything by myself.”
“I didn’t know any of that. So, did I make things worse by coming over to sit with you?”
She shook her head. “No, not at all. I actually remember you sitting down next to me and offering to take Izzy.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I can almost feel that sweaty warm spot on my chest where she’d been laying most of the night and the relief I’d felt as you took her, and she let you cuddle her on your shoulder. I don’t recall exactly what you said, but it was something flirty, and all I could think about was what a hot mess I was, going through a divorce, near tears, barely holding it together, and I think I responded with something like what I really needed was a friend.”
It was his turn to study her. “So, maybe I took your comment out of context?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe it was exactly what you were thinking. I know that I did need a friend then. And I still do.”
“I didn’t realize you were going through all that. But it sounds like I wasn’t a very good friend when you needed it.” He raised a questioning eyebrow. “Would you give me another chance to be a better one?”
She smiled, liking and respecting that he wasn’t making excuses or gaslighting her into thinking his ghosting her was all her fault.
“I’m still a hot mess,” she told him. “I get cranky and still cry for what feels like no reason but is usually triggered by someone vomiting or a poop blowout or too many freaking piles of laundry and never enough time to vacuum. But if you’re up for all that, I can always use another friend.”
He offered her one of those rakish grins she’d remembered so well. “Count me in. Hot messes are my favorite kind.”
He was smiling when he said it, but the look he was giving her was a panty-melting smolder. And she couldn’t tear her gaze from his.
Leaning closer, he lowered his voice as he spoke next to her ear. “Although I don’t know if I agree so much with the mess, but I’ll definitely go along with the hot part.”
She let out a laugh—she had to. It was either that or rip her dress off and yell ‘ take me now ’. His voice was like how she imagined warm whiskey mixed with honey would feel sliding down her throat—something sweet and sexy that she could get drunk on.
She let him pull her closer.
Words failed her, but she felt like she had to say something.
“I like that you make me laugh,” she told him.
There. That was sort of flirty but could also fit in the realm of friends, which is where she’d essentially just told him she wanted to stay.
But she also liked being in the circle of his arms and the way he looked at her. And that he offered her space—and friendship—when she told him that was what she needed. For now.
Quit analyzing everything, and just enjoy this feeling.
She let out a long breath and relaxed into him as he whirled her around the dance floor. She wasn’t ready for the song—or this fairy tale night—to end.
The band played the last chords then started right into another song, this one even slower and more romantic. Mack pulled her closer, swaying to the music instead of traveling around the floor. She laid her head on his broad shoulder, closing her eyes as she inhaled the woodsy citrus scent of him.
She’d just told him she needed a friend, but she didn’t have any other friends who made her heart race, and her palms sweat the way this man did.
A vibration hummed through her chest.
Mack peered down at her, a teasing grin on his face. “Is that your chest vibrating, or are you just happy to be with me?”
Dancing with him had a lot more than just her chest vibrating. She could feel the heat of him all the way to her bones and missed that warmth as she drew back. “It’s my phone,” she told him, pulling the device out from where she’d tucked it into the side of her bra.
Mack’s eyes widened as he dipped his head closer and peered down into her cleavage. “What else you got in there? I’m kind of hungry. Any chance there’s a snack?”
She was laughing with him, until she saw the name of the caller. Then panic filled her chest.
Why would Gertie be calling her this late at night unless something had happened to Izzy?