“The Kings,” he said. “They’re a whole thing.”
“As far as I can tell every single one of you are a whole thing.”
“Well, they’re the most of it.”
She was then introduced to the McClouds. Angus, who went by Gus, and had scars covering most of his face. Lachlan, Tag, Brody and of course she already knew Hunter.
They went inside the barn, and she was dazzled. The place was lit up completely, lights strung from the ceiling, and draped down the walls. There were long tables set up, and all the food had gone there. Everyone took their seats—they all seemed to know exactly where to sit, and she found herself seated with the Garretts, and most closely to the McClouds.
It was Gus McCloud who took the lead of the meeting, talking about his expansion efforts with his equine facility. Up next was—she was informed by Elsie—Denver King, whose voice was deep, and his presence commanding in the same way a black hole was. It sort of just sucked you in, whether you wanted to be or not.
He was talking about quarters and profits. About new crops. He was fascinating even though the topic wasn’t. Not to her, anyway.
It seemed to be resonating with everyone around them. The meeting part was over very quickly, and then the food was unveiled, and the beer came out.
It was chaotic, but not in a bad way. And there was music, which she hadn’t expected at all.
“It’s basically an excuse to have a hoedown once a month,” Wolf muttered.
“Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves,” she said.
“A lot of it’s for the employees. They... They deserve it. They work hard for us.”
“You all seem like you know how to have a good time. Well, okay, some of you do.”
Other than Gus, who held himself slightly apart from the group, the McClouds seemed happy enough to get in and dance and flirt. Particularly Hunter, who exuded easy charm.
But Wolf didn’t. And he didn’t seem to enjoy the social aspect of...anything.
“Were you always like this?”
“Was I always like what?”
“Just... You don’t seem to like this. You don’t seem to like things like this at all.”
“Pretty much. I was always like this.”
He got up from the table then, went to get a beer and didn’t come right back. She noticed that he was talking to one of the Kings; she was fuzzy on who was who.
It was Quinn Sullivan who took the chair next to her. “So are you going to live here?”
“I guess so,” she said, her heart sinking.
That actually did make her sad. Because she had just been thinking about how much she loved Copper Ridge. How much she loved the ocean. And the idea of living a couple of hours away from her family was... Well, it was foreign and unsettling.
“You haven’t talked about it?” Quinn asked.
“It was kind of sudden.”
“Oh. That really does surprise me. I mean good. Good for you.”
“Wolf is... I know. I know that he’s...” She thought of his earlier words in regard to the Kings. “A whole thing.”
“He’s a good guy,” Quinn said. “At least, as far as I can tell. He’s hard to get a read on. He’s always been intense. For a while he was... He tried to sort of get along with everyone, but then he changed.”
“He did?”
She had just been asking him about this very thing, and he hadn’t said anything. She had given him a chance to explain whether or not it had always been like this for him or if he had grown to hate social gatherings, if he had become closed off. But then, she guessed people who were closed off were never going to take the first opportunity to tell you why.