“How recent?” Josh asked.
“Two days ago. At her sister’s wedding reception.”
Josh’s brows shot up. “She was just with you at the festival. Well, me. Everyone saw us there. We were holding hands and everything.”
“You were holding Paige’s hand?” Kennedy asked her brother. “Where was Tori?
“Pretending to be Mitch’s fiancée,” Josh said with a grin.
Mitch sighed as the group’s attention swung back to him. Yeah, this all seemed simple when he thought about it, but explaining it made it seem convoluted.
“I showed up in Appleby to surprise Paige,” Mitch said. “Everyone wanted to know why. Paige panicked and told them I was there to repair her furnace. And that I was her friend Tori’s fiancé. Then Josh and Tori came over to the festival the next day and, obviously, I had to play that part. That left Josh as the extra cousin who had tagged along and who was then flirting with Paige on the impromptu double date.”
Everyone took a second to process that.
“Anyway,” Mitch said. “I guess her having a blind date to the Apple Festival didn’t faze this guy at the wedding reception.”
“Wow, deep and abiding love there,” Juliet said dryly.
“For obvious reasons, she’s a little skittish about the ideas of proposals and weddings and settling down,” Mitch said. “So, I offered her a place to get away to for a while and—” He shrugged. “She took me up on it.”
“But you have no intention of getting serious?” Kennedy asked.
“Nope.”
But only because Paige doesn’t want that.
The truth was, proposing to her didn’t seem that crazy to him. For him to do. Not some Iowa jackass.
“You’re just going to be… what then?” Kennedy pressed, “Just friends?”
“Well… yeah.”
Sure. They could just be friends.
He was pretty sure.
6
“Uh-huh.”
“Sure.”
“Okay.”
Those were the general reactions around the table to Mitch’s claim.
“What?” He scowled at them. “Paige doesn’t want anything serious, so I’m not going to get serious.”
It’s not like he got serious with women anyway. This shouldn’t be so hard to believe. He dated very casually. More often than not, he just hooked up. Sometimes more than once with the same woman, of course, but they never made promises.
Finally, Ellie spoke. “So, Paige came here because she needs an emotionally safe place to be until her job in Colorado starts. She trusted Mitch to be a friend and not put expectations or pressures on her. She clearly feels comfortable staying with him, and he’s now here asking us to support him and have both of their backs.”
Mitch nodded as his grandmother summarized the situation.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” she said. “We will help you and Paige have exactly what you want—a friendship that is safe and supportive and happy without anyone getting hurt.”
Mitch nodded again. He felt everyone’s eyes on him, but he focused on Ellie. “That’s what I need from you all.”
“Then that’s what you’ll get.” She gave him a smile that was full of love. “Whatever you need.”
“Thank you.”
Ellie looked around the table. “Everyone got that?”
Everyone nodded, though not many looked totally convinced.
“Do you really think she should be living with you then?” Sawyer asked from the end of the table.
Mitch frowned. “Why not?”
“Just seems that living with a woman you’re crazy about for seven months isn’t the best way to keep things casual.”
“I’m not going to push her for more than she wants to give,” Mitch said, his frown deepening.
“But it will be hard on you,” Juliet said. “You are being her friend, giving her a place to go when she needed to get away. That’s great. But there’s plenty of other places for her to stay.”
There were nods around the table.
Of course, there were. There were multiple houses in the family, and none of them were full to the brim.
“What? She’s gonna come stay with you and Sawyer?” Mitch asked.
“No,” Sawyer said immediately. “Juliet and I need the whole house to ourselves.”
Owen snorted. “You can’t have sex in one room with the door shut?”
Sawyer, who had been a grumpy asshole a lot of the time before Juliet had shown up, shrugged. “Not for seven months.”
Juliet blushed.
“Why not?” Owen countered, his grin huge. “It’s kind of what bedrooms are for.”
“It’s not what my bedroom is for,” Cora said. Cora had been widowed for years and didn’t date. Her late husband had been the love of her life, and she wasn’t interested in being with anyone else.
“And you and Maddie were sure using your kitchen in ways that went beyond cooking the other day when I stopped by,” Fletcher said from the next table.
“You ignored the t-shirt on the door handle,” Owen said with a shrug. “That’s your own fault.”
“I wasn’t complain’ about the view of Maddie’s bare ass I got as she ran upstairs,” Fletcher said, shooting Maddie a grin. “Just sayin’.”
Maddie shook her head. “I’m not sure if I should be blushing right now or saying thank you.”
“Thank you,” Fletcher assured her. “Nothin’ to be embarrassed about.”
“Then thank you very much, Fletcher. What a lovely thing to say,” Maddie told him, her tone dry.
“What, no compliments for my ass?” Owen asked. “You got a pretty good look at that too.”
“And a lot more,” Fletcher agreed. “But dude, I have a mirror. I mean, it’s not really fair to you to compare, I know, but I can’t help it.”
“You tell yourself that,” Owen said. “I don’t want to hurt your pretty boy feelings.”
Mitch couldn’t help but grin. His family shared everything. Which meant they often over shared. There were very few filters and very few topics that were considered out of bounds.
“Pretty boy?” Fletcher asked. He stretched tall, making his muscles bunch and ran a hand through his hair. It hung to the top of his collar, and Maddie and Tori both complained that he had better hair than they did.
Zeke and Zander had longer hair too. They wore it pulled back in ponytails a lot of the time or sometimes “man buns.” At least that was what Kennedy called the style. They both had tattoos too, and Zeke had a few piercings.
Owen and Josh both had tattoos as well, but nothing like the younger Landrys. They were all just a touch wilder. Owen had done some pretty stupid shit in his time. He loved women and loved a good party and raised hell growing up. He and Maddie had been pretty wild together, as a matter of fact.
But Fletch, Zeke, and Zander were just a bit more. It was hard to put his finger on it, but Mitch always knew that going out with Owen meant he’d have a really good time. Going out with the others meant he’d have a really good time and possibly need bail. Or stitches.