He finished a second hand pie and nodded toward the door as Finn Ackerman arrived. “That’s Finn.”
Lenny nodded and turned toward him in her seat. “I just—are you going to tell everyone I’m your girlfriend? Or your boss?”
Brandon looked over to her, trying to contain his smile. He couldn’t quite do it, and he chuckled as well. “You tell me, Len. What do you want to be?”
Her jaw jumped as her expression stormed. “I kinda liked how you told your family you’d invited me to Thanksgiving as your girlfriend. I haven’t been anyone’s girlfriend for a while.” She pointed sharply at him. “Though, I have to say, you have never actually asked me to come to Thanksgiving dinner with you.”
“Mm, haven’t I?” He opened his door and dropped to the ground. Link and JJ had just arrived, and Brandon didn’t want to be the last one into the meeting this time. He went around to the passenger side of the truck and opened Lenny’s door.
Instead of offering her his hand and letting her slide to the ground, he crowded into the opening, sliding one hand across her lap to her opposite hip. “Lenny, my sister-in-law can be a bit much, but she’s a great cook. She and Duke have four amazing kids, and they keep bugging me about having you come to Thanksgiving dinner at my family ranch. My parents will be there, and my other brother and his wife and family too.”
He shook his head as Lenny’s smile curved those pretty, pink lips. “It’s going to be nutso, but we’re trying to live on a piece of land without water or power, so…I think we’re kind of used to nutso.”
She giggled and reached up to tuck her ponytail back over her shoulder.
“Would you come to Thanksgiving dinner with me?”
“I suppose I could,” Lenny said. “I mean, I don’t have anything else going on.”
“Great.” Brandon leaned in and touched his lips to hers. He let his eyes drift closed and truly take a moment to experience her. He’d never fallen in love before, but his feet slipped a little, and he caught himself the way he did when he’d started to fall asleep and got jolted awake.
He pulled way, this warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest. “You ready to go in?”
“Just waitin’ for you to get out of my way, cowboy.”
He chuckled and stepped back. “No moreB, huh?”
“What?” Lenore caught his eye and held it as she got out of the truck.
“You called me B last weekend.”
“I did?”
“Yeah, and I liked it.” He swung her door closed and took her hand in his. “I just—this is a big deal for me. You know that, right?”
“I do not know that,” Lenny said. “What do you mean?”
Brandon reached to open the side door that led into a hall that fed into the conference room. He paused, though the winter wind had decided today was a great day to blow out of control. It threatened to take his hat, and he braced the door with one leg while he pressed his cowboy hat to his head.
“Normally, I don’t even tell anyone who I’m dating until I’m eight or nine dates in. So…bringing you to this is a big deal.” He glanced into the dimmer depths of the building. “These are my best friends, and I can’t remember the last woman I introduced any of them to. I guess I’m a little nervous about it.”
He looked at her, feeling like he’d just split open his chest and let her see everything. Lenny watched him for a moment, and then she reached up and cradled his face in one palm. “It’s so nice to know you get nervous about things,” she said with asoft smile. “I’m nervous too, and you know what’s better than being nervous alone?”
Brandon simply waited, because he didn’t think she really expected him to answer.
“Being nervous but having a partner with you. A friend.” She dropped her hand and looped her arm through his, facing the open doorway. “So let’s do this, because they’re your best friends, and of course they’re going to support you no matter what.”
Lenny looked up at him. “Right?”
Brandon grinned, his anxiety dissipating in that moment. “Yeah,” he said. “You’re right.” He let her enter the IFA first, and he followed, wishing the nervousness didn’t rush right back in and try to make a nest in the middle of his chest.
But it did.
18
Finley Ackerman left the conference room he rented for the small ranch owner’s meetings, glancing down the hall toward the side door, which most of his friends used. He saw a pretty blonde entering, with Brandon Rhinehart right behind her.
“Hey,” he said, indecision raging inside him. “I’ll be right back.” He turned to the left and headed for the front of the IFA. “Colt’s here, and he just texted to say he can’t find the conference room.”
