“I wonder why Pop would go and do that.” Wade put a finger on his chin, miming deep thought.
“Maybe to take some of the heat off his lady friend y’all never told me about?”
“Sure, that tracks. So Ty’s just an ordinary neighbor, and this dinner means nothing at all?”
I sputtered and stammered over a smart-alec response that wouldn’t come while Wade grinned like I’d handed him a written confession complete with sordid details.
“I’m going to check on dinner.”
“I’ll help you.” Annie gave Wade a parting glare, but his knowing grin never wavered.
There wasn’t much for me to do in the kitchen besides escape. Jed and Pop had the barbecue out back going with ribs and chicken breasts on, and I’d made up a potato salad and coleslaw earlier in the day. A pot of water boiled away on the stove, ready for the pyramid of fresh corn waiting in the wings. I plucked stray silks off the cobs to keep up the pretense of checking on dinner. Not that it mattered. My brothers knew how to get my goat whichever room I was in.
Annie lowered herself onto a dining chair and glanced me over. “Are you ready for tonight?”
“As ready as I’m going to be. I might empty Dad’s liquor cabinet after everything’s over, though. I can’t believe he invited Ty.”
Her eyebrows twitched. “I was talking about having Marilyn over.”
“Oh. Right.” Another unforced error. I was getting good at them. “That’s going to be weird, too.”
“Your dad’s seemed happier these last few months. That’s got to count for something.”
It did count. I was just having a hard time reconciling that with my own happiness on the subject.
“It isinterestingyour dad invited Ty,” Annie said, a tiny smirk on her mouth.
“He probably feels bad about Ty being injured.” Awfully late to try for nonchalance, but I gave it a go anyway.
“Hmm,” Annie mused aloud. “That’s not what your blush in the living room said.”
“When did I blush?”
“As soon as Wade mentioned Ty.”
My cheeks heated all over again. I couldn’t find the right words to try to explain away something I wasn’t sure Iwantedto explain away. Easy enough to keep up a flimsy façade with my brothers—I’d had enough practice growing up—but I trusted Annie not to crow about my would-be love life. If I could even call it that.
“Things are...awkward between us.”
Her smirk turned sly. “How awkward?”
The half-shrug I gave must have said more than I intended. Her mouth dropped open, and she leaned both elbows on the table. “Are we talking kissing? More? He can’t be doing much more with broken ribs. I mean, maybe, if he kept perfectly still, but how much fun would that be?”
I waved at the air in front of me with a frantic glance toward the living room. “Keep it down. Wade and Jed can’t know a thing.”
That they suspected was bad enough. If they had any actual facts, it’d all be over.
She flicked her eyes toward the living room but didn’t abandon the conversation. “So, which is it? Kissing? Or more?”
“Kissing. One kiss,” I clarified. “But it was…”
Just thinking about that kiss made my lips ache for him to do it all over again.
“Oh, wow,” Annie sighed. “Thisisgoing to be an interesting night.”
The doorbell rang. A spark of excitement flashed to life in my chest, and my neck went strangely hot. My pop and Marilyn wouldn’t ring the bell. It could only be Ty.
Annie waved me toward the living room. “I’ll finish up. You’ll want to get to the door before your brothers do.”
