Kennedy, the incoming mayor, waved that away. “The whole city council agreed it’s awesome. The award was Knox’s idea, not mine.”
Knox was the city planner. He was a great guy. He’d grown up in Autre as well, hunting, fishing, and climbing trees with the Landry boys. Knox was a big, outdoorsy guy and the last one that any of them would have expected to turn into a guy who worked in an office and worried about things like stoplights and traffic patterns. But he had a nerdy side. And he got shit done.
“Knox likes me. Not the enclosure,” Mitch said.
“Everyone likes you, Mitch,” Kennedy said with an eye roll. “That doesn’t mean you’re not good at things and deserving of recognition.”
He didn’t respond to that. Because that was really nice. He was proud of the enclosure. He had to admit it looked amazing.
“And now that Maddie’s posted it on our social media, that animal park outside of Galveston wants you to come help them expand their enclosure. And you got that grant, Mitch!”
He had to admit the email they’d gotten from the animal park in Texas had been pretty cool. He was happy to take a trip over there and consult on how they could add to what they had. It was crazy that anyone really wanted him to consult on anything, but he’d take the road trip and the fee they’d offered him. And yeah, the news that they had been awarded five thousand dollars from an otter protection organization was amazing. Tori had just told him two days ago. Then it had promptly gotten lost in all of the wedding hoopla.
“Tori got that grant,” he said.
“Tori sent the paperwork in,” Kennedy said. “Your work got that grant. This is a big deal.”
“Well, so is a wedding.”
Kennedy blew out an exasperated breath. “Paige wants to be here with you for big things like this. Hell, she wants to be here for the little things too. She talks about your hammock all the time. At first, I thought it was an innuendo for something else. But she actually likes your hammock.”
Mitch felt himself smiling at that. Paige really did like his hammock. His literal hammock.
They had way better innuendos for the other things she liked.
“If she was asked to plan a wedding in Galveston because of a social media post or was offered a grant to do more otter yoga, you’d be thrilled for her and would want to celebrate that with her, right?” Kennedy asked.
He swallowed. “Definitely.”
“And you also love every second of being in that hammock with her, right?”
“Yeah.” His voice sounded gruff now.
“Yeah.” Kennedy gave him a soft smile. “That’s called being in love. She wants to be a part of your life, Mitch.”
He wanted that to be true. He certainly wanted her here. He knew that she would be excited about the otter enclosure. He knew that she would make a big deal out of the grand opening. But it wasn’t really his grand opening, and she needed to go to Appleby. He wanted her here, but he couldn’t take her away from the other important things in her life. “I guess we’ll see about that.”
“Meaning?” Kennedy asked.
Mitch shrugged. “If she comes back.”
“Oh, she’s coming back.”
“Maybe. If she doesn’t remember that she was pretty set on being alone for a while. She might have had some fun here and enjoyed the hammock and the otters and the weddings. But she definitely hasn’t been alone.”
“Well… I mean, she’s definitely coming back. She’s getting on the road tomorrow.”
He straightened and turned to face Kennedy. “What?”
“I told her about the grand opening, and she said she was going to be here.”
He frowned. “You should’ve talked her out of that.”
Kennedy didn’t look a bit apologetic. Not that he’d expected her to. “She loves you, Mitch, and when a headstrong woman falls in love, no one can talk her out of that.”
His frown deepened in spite of the way his heart squeezed hearing that Paige loved him. He knew she cared about him, but love? That’s what she needed to figure out.
“You shouldn’t have asked her to come back.”
“Oh, I didn’t ask her, she insisted.”
“It’s a long drive from Appleby. She shouldn’t get right back on the road.”
“Well, she didn’t make it all the way to Appleby anyway. I don’t know how far it is from Peoria to here, but at least it’s a little closer.”
Mitch’s frown turned into an outright scowl. “What do you mean she didn’t make it all the way to Appleby?”
“She got stuck in a snowstorm in Illinois.”
“What?” Mitch shoved a hand through his hair. “What the fuck, Kennedy? That’s the kind of thing you should’ve told me first.”
“Why? What can you do about it?”
“Go to her. Help her.”
“She’s fine. She got help, and she’s holed up in a bed and breakfast until tomorrow morning.”
“She got help? From who?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. I assume someone with a tow truck or at least a shovel?”
Mitch’s heart was hammering, and he felt tension climbing up his spine. “Fuck. I should’ve gone with her.”
Kennedy tipped her head. “Yes, you should have, but I’m not sure what that has to do with the snow.”
“I would have been there with her. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal for her to be stuck.”
Kennedy shook her head. “I didn’t say it was a big deal. She couldn’t go any further because of the roads, so she stopped and is spending the night in Peoria at a bed and breakfast.”
“But she was alone in bad weather, on bad roads, and is now stuck in between here and home.”
Kennedy nodded. “And she’s fine.”
“But she’s alone.” His words hit him in the moment after he said them out loud.
Alone.
Alone was exactly what Paige wanted to be. It was what she liked most in the world. It was what she was looking for when he met her and what her plan was for when she left Louisiana in August to go to Colorado.
He blew out a breath, trying to calm his heart rate. He looked at Kennedy. “She’s fine?”
“Well, she’s upset that she’s not here for the grand opening. She’s sad that you didn’t tell her about it. And she’s eager to get back.”
He shook his head. “She’s really coming back?”
“Yep. She’s really coming back.”
For some reason, that time Kennedy said it, it actually sunk in. Paige was coming back for the grand opening of the otter enclosure. Yeah, okay, it was kind of a big deal. They were getting some great attention from the area for it, which would no doubt help the family business. They had gotten the grant money. And above all, the otters were happy and safe. But, in the overall scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal. It was just a big deal to his family. To him.
It wasn’t such a big deal that someone should skip their best friend’s wedding and drive twelve hours back, alone, in bad weather, to be there for it. Especially someone who wasn’t really that into being involved in other people’s business.