The only reason it would be a big deal to Paige was if he was a big deal to Paige.
And the reality of that hit him hard. Directly in the chest. Right over his heart.
Instead of using the snow as a perfect excuse to stay put, or her friend’s wedding as the perfect excuse to avoid this a-little-silly-not-a-big-deal-to-anyone-but-the-Landrys event, she was getting back in her car after a twelve-hour drive, onto potentially snowy roads, to come back to him.
Damn, maybe she did love him.
“I’m going to Peoria, Illinois,” he told Kennedy as he started toward his truck.
Kennedy had to run to catch up to him, but she was already pulling her phone from her pocket as he rounded the front fender.
She lifted the phone to her ear. “Hey, Mitch is heading out.” She paused, listening. “Well, I assume he’s going to have to stop and get some things from his house or fill up with gas or something.” She looked at Mitch with an eyebrow up.
He wasn’t sure who she was talking to, but he put money down on it being someone with the last name Landry. He gave her a nod as he climbed into the cab of his truck.
“Yeah, I think that’s a great idea.” She paused again and gave Mitch a grin. “Okay, I’ll tell him.”
Mitch started the engine, but he waited for her to disconnect the call and tuck her phone back into her pocket.
“Who was that?”
“Chase.” Kennedy smiled. “He’s going with you.”
Okay, so he’d been wrong about the last name of the person. Still, Chase was definitely Landry-esque. Mitch frowned. “Going with me?”
Kennedy nodded. “To Illinois. To get Paige.”
“He doesn’t have to come.”
“Yeah, he does,” Kennedy said. “You probably slept like crap last night. Driving that far by yourself isn’t great even when you’re feeling good, but when you’re sleep-deprived, it’s stupid. And I know you’re Mr. Fix-it and can handle anything and everything, but if there really are bad roads and bad weather, it doesn’t hurt to have someone along. He’s already packed.”
“How’s he already packed if I just decided I’m going to Illinois?”
“I told him to pack when I told him where Paige was.”
“You knew I’d go after her?”
“When you found out someone you love was stuck somewhere they didn’t want to be, having trouble of some kind?” She gave a little pssst sound. “Of course, I knew you’d go. That’s who you are anyway, but this is Paige. It’s not like you’re going to sit here, all reasonable, and just wait for her to get back.”
“I just want to be sure she’s okay.”
“You can’t do that by phone?”
“She wouldn’t tell me if she wasn’t okay.”
“You mean, you need to see for yourself and then still fuss about her and her car and—”
“Did something happen to her car?” Dammit. He’d fixed the terrible noise her car had been making when she’d rolled into town—her brake pads had been shot—but what if something else had gone wrong? Or what if she’d hit something or ended up in a ditch…
“No! She’s fine.”
But she wasn’t. She was alone. And yes, he knew she wanted that. And yes, he was going to give her as much of that as she wanted. But he didn’t think she actually wanted to be alone in a town where she knew no one and had to rely on strangers for help. He didn’t think she actually wanted everyone she knew to be an hours-long road-trip away. He didn’t think she actually wanted to rely on phone calls and video chats and texting to stay in touch with the people she cared about.
She wanted to make her own choices and have those respected. She wanted to be a part of projects and groups, but she wanted to contribute her talents and interests, not just do what people thought she should do. She wanted to take care of other people as much as she wanted to be taken care of.
And yes, she wanted to, sometimes, go off alone and just be by herself. And sometimes, she wanted to party at a crawfish boil and get drunk and loud. And sometimes, she wanted to cuddle in a hammock on a front porch.
And she could have it all with him.
He needed to finally tell her that.
“Besides, once you get to Paige you’re not gonna want to be in two different cars for the trip back to Louisiana, are you?” Kennedy asked.
Mitch had to admit that that was a very good point. “Nope, you’re right.”
“I keep telling you people that, and yet, it doesn’t ever seem to completely sink in,” Kennedy muttered.
Mitch laughed and reached out to tug on the end of Kennedy’s ponytail. “Thanks.”
“Of course. Anything for my favorite cousin.”
Mitch cocked his brow. “You like me even better than Charlie?”
“Are you kidding? Of course, I like you better than Charlie. In the summers, Charlie was always competition for all the boys’ attention down here.”
“You wanted the boys’ attention? I figured you knew that you were too good for any of the guys here.”
“I was always too good for the guys here,” Kennedy agreed. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t want their attention.”
Mitch laughed and shook his head as he shifted his truck into drive. He was pretty sure that Kennedy was his favorite cousin too.
He swung by his house, threw a few things into a bag, and was back in his truck ten minutes later. He’d text Griffin at some point from the road. He knew Griffin would take care of the cats even without a text, so Mitch didn’t have anything much to take care of before heading out of town. He pulled into the parking lot at Ellie’s and didn’t even shut off the engine when he went inside.
Chase, Josh, and Owen were standing at the end of the bar talking to Ellie, looking as if they were waiting for something. Or someone.
“You driving first, or am I?” Mitch asked Chase.
“I’m up first,” Owen answered.
“You?” Mitch asked.
“You don’t think we’re gonna let you head out of town with just Dawson looking out for you, do you?” Owen asked. He looked at Chase. “Hell, this guy doesn’t even know how to pop a dislocated thumb back into place.”
“I do,” Chase said, rubbing a finger up the middle of his forehead as if his head was aching. “I just don’t do it quite like you all do.”
It was true that a lot of the “real” medicine Chase was learning in medical school didn’t line up exactly with how they did things down here on the bayou. He liked Cora’s creams and salves, but he got a little green around the edges when they talked about removing stray bullets from thighs and giving each other stitches. They embellished the stories, of course, because it would never not be fun to tease the guy who’d made the very big mistake of telling them that he got manicures and had never broken a bone. It was open season on rich fraternity boys down here. Chase knew it. And accepted it. Kind of. It was the payment he had to make for Cora’s etouffee and time with Bailey.
“Do we really need a whole posse?” Mitch felt obligated to ask.
“Yep,” Owen said.
Josh nodded. “Yep.”
“You both just got married.”