“Really?” Sebastian raised a dark brow. “Because it looks like you’re trying to understand quantum physics.”
Pretty fucking close! He was trying to understand a woman.
Colt shook his head and lined up his next shot. Another miss. “Where’s Penny?” he asked, trying to change the subject.
The girl kept crazy hours, but nine times out of ten she was behind the bar or cooking in the back.
“Rocco is covering this afternoon,” Ryder answered. “She said she had stuff to do to get ready for tonight.”
“What is there to get ready for? It’s a bonfire in the woods,” Sebastian said as he struck the cue ball. Unlike Colt, the attorney had no problem sinking his shots.
Ryder shrugged. “I think Penny is just excited we’re all getting together. Pretty sure she’s baking something special.”
Yeah, Colt was looking forward to tonight. It would be just like the old days when they all took their trucks out to the edge of Diamond property by the lake and spent all night drinking beer by the bonfire and talking about what they wanted to be when they finally grew up and got out of there.
Penny and her friends were several years younger and had never been allowed at the bonfires in the past. But none of them were kids anymore. Colt knew Lily was coming tonight and hoped JJ would too. He imagined the teacher strutting that perfect ass out in the meadow and throwing a few back with the rat pack of Diamond.
Not that she’d show up. Wouldn’t look good for her reputation.
Great, even his inner thoughts were sounding like a little bitch.
“Uh-oh,” Huck said. “Mr. Big Bull rider looks like someone just kicked him in the nuts.”
Colt threw a fry at Huck and hated that a boot to the groin was exactly what it felt like.
…
Jenna watched Lily dart back and forth across her house, shoving things into a small backpack.
“Alex, you want to take your binoculars to Michael’s house?”
“Yes, please!”
Jenna smiled. “Summer’s finally here.”
Lily nodded. “Yep. First sleepover. He’s so excited.” Alex might be excited but poor Lily was nervous.
“He’ll be fine. Michael’s parents are really great and the boys get along well in class.”
Lily nodded. “I know. He’s just growing up. And I…” She put her palms on the kitchen counter. “Michael’s dad is setting up a tent in the backyard and they’re going for a hike in the woods.”
Jenna nodded and patted Lily’s hand. She was an amazing mother. But lately, that same guilt and sadness she wore when Alex was a baby had started creeping into her eyes again.
“One of these days, he’s going to want to know about him, Jenna.” Jenna hated that her strong best friend had tears in her eyes. “What am I going to tell him? What do I say when he asks about his father?”
“Tell him the truth.”
Lily scoffed. “What? That I was stupid, shacked up with a city boy who blew into town, knocked me up, and left right after he found out?”
A lump settled in Jenna’s throat. Lily did everything fiercely, right down to the way she loved.
It must be a McCade thing…
Lily had fallen in love with an asshole. She wasn’t the only woman in the world to have done that.
“Lily, you stepped up when you were young and scared and that man left you with the best thing in the world. And Alex is lucky to have you. Because you’re his mama and his daddy. And you’re damn good at being both.”
Jenna had only one parent herself, and Miranda Justice never gave half a thought about Jenna, unless it was to knock her out of the way. Lily was a hero to mothers and women everywhere.