“And Joel,” Brooke began, “will be giving me away.” She smiled before turning for the back door. “I’m going to go see if everything else is ready.”
“I’ll help,” Anna said and disappeared after her.
Chess pointed to the grill. “It shouldn’t be long before we’re ready to eat. I’ll go check on the steaks.”
Lynn looked from Nathan to Joel and back. Should she offer to go inside and help the other women? Mia laid her head on Lynn’s shoulder as though she had nowhere else in the world she’d rather be. Lynn’s heart turned over in her chest.
“You’re right,” Joel said. “Mia will be just fine with Lynn.”
Lynn patted the baby’s back. “So how do you two know each other?”
“That’s a long story.” Joel exchanged a look with Nathan that Lynn couldn’t quite read. “I consider Chess and Brooke to be my brother and sister by choice. And this guy,” he jabbed a thumb at Nathan, “was the buy two, get one free.”
Nathan gave Joel a good natured shove and laughed. He reached for Mia. “I’m going to go change this girl’s diaper before it’s time to eat.” He tossed Lynn a smile. “You do enough of that during the week. Grab a seat and relax.”
With that, he was gone.
Lynn awkwardly slipped her hands into her pockets. Joel moved a lawn chair forward a bit and motioned to it before sitting down in another one. Lynn joined him.
“This is a great place. The backyard is amazing.”
Joel nodded. “We all lived in Quintin until this last October. Brooke got an apartment a few blocks from here. Once she and Chess became engaged, they found this house. Now he lives here and once they’re married, she’ll move in and let the apartment go.”
“That’s awesome. And you and Anna plan to stay in Quintin?”
“We do. We own a diner there.” Joel looked up when the back door opened and both women came back through with bowls of mashed potatoes and corn, and a pitcher with gravy.
“Perfect timing.” Chess approached with a platter full of steaks. “I was thinking we could eat out here if there are no objections.”
Everyone placed food on the large picnic table nearby. Despite her nerves, Lynn’s stomach growled. “Everything looks great.” She glanced at the door as Nathan and Mia appeared. Nathan gave his daughter a kiss on the head that had Lynn suppressing a sigh. When Nathan put a hand to her back and escorted her to the table, finally taking a seat next to her, Lynn’s pulse went into overdrive. She grasped the glass of ice water in hopes the cool surface would keep her emotions from painting themselves all over her face.
~*~
Nathan passed the corn to Lynn. Conversation around the table was just as spirited as it always was when the gang got together for dinner. Still, Lynn seemed unusually quiet. She smiled and answered questions when asked directly, but she never really jumped in on her own. He wondered if she was always this shy and found himself curious as to what topics would inspire her to speak up more.
He used a spoon to try and control the amount of mashed potatoes on his young daughter’s face but quickly gave up. “Chess, I’m going to have to borrow your bathtub to clean this kiddo up before I can head home.”
That brought a round of laughter as Mia fisted more mashed potatoes and put them into her mouth, completely oblivious to the attention of the adults around her.
Brooke addressed Lynn from the other side of the table. “How long have you worked at the daycare, Lynn?”
Lynn wiped her hands off on a napkin before answering. “Right at two years.” She smiled at Mia. “It keeps me on my toes.”
“I can imagine.” Chess took a drink of his soda. “We watch my niece one day a week, and she about wears us out.”
When Nathan kicked him under the table, Chess laughed. “I’m kidding. I wish we had a way to keep her more often.” His eyes softened as he looked at Mia. “Seriously, though, hats off to anyone who can wrangle a whole room full of kids and live to tell the tale.”
Lynn shrugged. “I grew up helping with my little sister and volunteering in the nursery at church.”
That sentence snagged Nathan’s attention. If Lynn grew up in church, was she still religious? While Nathan didn’t go to church nearly as often as he should, there was no doubt how often God had guided his life. He was also surprised by the news that she had family. He’d had the impression she was on her own. “Where does your sister live?”
Lynn’s smile fell, but she tried to hide it by reaching for her drink. “I’m not really in touch with my family anymore.” There was a hint of sadness in her voice. To Lynn’s credit, she pulled herself together, managed another smile, and changed the subject. “I thought I’d drive by the church on my way home. After Nathan told me where it was, I looked it up online. It’s beautiful.”
Her segue was effective and had the ladies talking about wedding details for the remainder of the meal. Her ability to skirt around the question had Nathan curious about her family and her past. There was a lot he didn’t know about Lynn, and it surprised him how much he’d like to change that.
Lynn was the first woman he’d been interested in since Mia’s mother, and he wasn’t entirely sure whether he wanted to acknowledge it or not. Pushing those thoughts from his mind, he focused on visiting with everyone. After a while they all had dessert, and then people started to go their separate ways.
Brooke offered to give Mia a bath. Nathan handed her over and then walked Lynn out to her car.
