“Okay, competitors! On your marks, get set, go!” Cheyenne blew the whistle and the next few minutes were a blur of people yelling, tripping, running, and eggs falling.
In the end, it came down to Jimmy, Cash and I rushing back with eggs on our spoons. Billy’s team was disqualified after Nadia, who was a Firefly Island native and had gone to school with Reagan, tried to jump over Mark Lyons who’d been a star quarterback in high school and had dropped to the ground claiming a strained hammy in the first heat. Nadia’s leap ended with her egg flying in the air and landing on poor Sherlock’s head.
I tried not to let the fact that it was a dead heat get in my head and make me do something stupid. If I tried to rush it, I knew the egg would end up slipping off the spoon.
It wasn’t two seconds after I thought that that Cash’s egg dropped to the ground and Jimmy tripped over his own feet. By the time I made it back to my team they were already jumping up and down, celebrating our victory.
Luna jumped into my arms before Ashley grabbed her and spun her around. Next thing I knew Skylar had taken Luna’s place, hugging me around the neck.
I put my arms around her, lifted her off the ground, and spun her around just like Luna. She clutched me tighter as she giggled, and it sounded like the sweetest sound in the world.
“Momma! We won!” Luna cheered and I reluctantly set Skylar down. If it was up to me, I would’ve held her in my arms forever and never let her go.
CHAPTER 27
Skylar
Is this actually my life? I asked myself as I looked out over the same grassy field I’d sprinted across in search of my baby girl the first morning I’d arrived just a few weeks ago. I had to be dreaming. That was the only explanation that made any sense.
There were at least fifty people milling about. Music was playing from speakers that were sitting on the back of pickup trucks. Luna was having the time of her life jumping in a huge stork bouncy castle.
Before relocating to Firefly Island I’d thought my life was rich and full. I had Luna, a few friends, a great neighbor, and a job that I loved. I hadn’t felt that anything was missing.
I never dreamed that life could be like this.
“Is it in the water?” Ashley stepped beside me.
I tilted my head, my brows knitting in confusion.
She fanned her hand out like she was a spokesmodel and the field was a showcase. “Look at the meat market that is displayed on your front yard. They breed ’em hot and hunky in Firefly.”
My eyes scanned the area. Now that she mentioned it, I noticed that there were quite a few men gathered. And most of them were good-looking and built.
“Like him.” she pointed. “Who is that?”
I tracked where she was indicating.
“That’s Harlon Mitchell.”
She hummed suggestively. “He could get it.”
“Get what?”
“It.” Ash motioned up and down her body. “All of it.”
“He runs a fitness class called Farm Strong. Basically, you go to his farm and do manual labor.”
“I’ll do his manual labor any day.” Ashley had a special gift for making the most mundane things sound filthy.
“And what about him?”
“That’s Mark Lyons. I’m pretty sure he peaked in high school because his winning touchdown is all he talks about.” I’d only worked at the bar for a few weeks and I’d heard the story at least twenty times.
“He can do a dance in my end zone.”
I chuckled.
“And what about him?” She purred and pointed her finger. “He’s finger lickin’ good.”
My eyes shot to her next target and when I saw that it was Hank standing at the grill my head spun toward her.
I had no clue what expression was on my face, but it must have been the exact reaction my sister had been trying to get because she pointed her finger at me and said, “Gotcha!”
“What? I didn’t say anything.” My defense was weak, but it was all that I had.
“Maybe not with words, but you definitely told me exactly what you thought about me drooling over your man with the daggers you shot my way.” She reached up and felt her face. “Just making sure none of them broke the skin.”
“Ha ha. He’s not my man.”
“Riiiiiight.” Ashley nodded.
“He’s not!” Again, my defense was weak, but it was all that I had.
“Well, damn. If he’d do all this when he’s not even your man, think about what he’d do if he put a ring on it.”
The moment she said it I pictured Hank standing at the altar, wearing a tux, and me walking toward him.
“You are, aren’t you!” Ashley pointed at me accusatorily. “You’re thinking about him putting a ring on it.”
“Shh!” I hushed her as I looked around to make sure that my loudmouth sister’s outburst hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention.
“Did someone say, put a ring on it?” Cheyenne asked as she, Isabella, Reagan, and Reagan’s friend Nadia joined us on the porch.
“Thank you all for doing this.” I tried to change the subject, hoping that turning the attention onto them would work. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”
“It was all Hank,” Reagan stated.
“He called us over for an emergency family meeting and gave us our marching orders,” Cheyenne explained.
“But all of this…” Isabella gestured the same way that Ashley had. “Was him.”
I’d known, of course, that the idea was Hank’s. No one else would have known about Luna’s canceled party in Seattle. But he’d only found out about it a couple of nights before. There was no way I thought he put this together so quickly, I just assumed that he’d told his sister and Reagan and Isabella, and they’d ran with it.
“He planned all the games. Got the jumpy house. The food. Everything,” Cheyenne added.
“Really?”
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that Hank himself had done all of this.
“You look surprised,” Cheyenne correctly assessed.
“I am.”
“From what Billy has said, Hank will move heaven and earth for the people he loves,” Reagan stated as if it were a fact that I was someone he loved.
“He’s always been that way,” Nadia, who had grown up in Firefly shared. “People were always so scared of him because of his size, and he did have a pretty bad temper when he was a teenager. But I always thought he was just a big teddy bear. He was always doing things behind the scenes—that I’m pretty sure he hoped no one would ever find out about. But this is Firefly, and people talk. His good deeds aren’t a secret, but no one gives him credit. This town put him in box a long time ago. They only see him in one light, not a very flattering one at that. They see him one way and dismiss anything that doesn’t fit that narrative.”
We all stared at her and she began to give examples.
“Like when Mrs. Shaw’s salon flooded, he replaced all the flooring on his own time and his own dime. Pretty in Peaches was up and running in less than a week. Or when Sandy Marshall’s husband left her for a stewardess, he paid Mrs. Birch for her childcare for three kids for an entire year. Or when Mrs. B bought the B&B using all her life savings and didn’t have the money to renovate, he gave her a special rate, only charging her for materials. He did all the work for free. Or when he found Tanner Abernathy OD’d in the back of Southern Comfort, he got him into a treatment facility and paid for it out of his own pocket because Jennings didn’t believe his son had a problem. And Hank hates Tanner. He put him in the ICU their senior year.”