Page 24

Was that what he thought marriage should be? No, of course not, but still. Watching a very imperfect one play out over his childhood hadn’t made him yearn for his own shot at it.

And then there’d been Rayna.

Weston locked that door in his brain.

Jude tapped the cruise control on the truck now that they were on the interstate. “Tate and Stephanie seem crazy happy, and they sure started out with a ton of challenges.”

Hadn’t they, though? Tate had custody of his toddler nephew and hired Stephanie to be Jamie’s nanny. They’d quickly decided to marry to stabilize the kid’s life. From where Weston sat, things had looked mighty bumpy for a few months there, but Jude was right. They seemed to have overcome those early hiccups, at least if their loving glances revealed the truth.

Not that loving glances were everything.

Yeah, tell that to Weston’s heart. Deep down inside, he wanted someone to look at him the way Stephanie looked at Tate. The way Cadence looked at Graham. Truth was, Paisley kind of did.

Why was he so set against allowing himself to fall for her? It wasn’t just her bubbly personality that grated him wrong. It wasn’t just the memories of Rayna knifing him when he least wanted them to.

But Weston wasn’t worthy of lifelong love. Rayna had seen it. Paisley would, too. And if he’d allowed her in, the realization, when it came, would cause more pain for both of them.

He was protecting her. That’s all it was.

“I love when Eli preaches.” Kaci slid into a booth beside the window at the Golden Grill after church.

Paisley settled beside her. “Pastor Marshall is good, too.”

“I’m with Kaci,” Cadence announced as she and Graham claimed the padded bench on the other side. “Eli is more relatable. They announced a Pot of Gold event at church. Is that an annual thing? I don’t really remember it from last summer.”

Paisley laughed. “You were totally preoccupied dancing around your feelings for Graham last summer. No wonder you didn’t have a clue about anything else.”

Graham and Cadence made eyes at each other.

Aw, look how adorable they were.

More people from Creekside Fellowship surged into the Golden Grill. A table created from a row of smaller tables ran down the center of the restaurant. Now the Cavanagh clan crowded around it, all swaggering cowboys and their beautiful wives and charming kids.

What must it be like to marry into a big, close family like that?

Because everyone there belonged. Paisley had never really belonged anywhere. Not with an absentee father and a mother who struggled with addiction, leaving three little girls to fend for themselves.

Paisley glanced at Graham across the table. He was an only child, but he was part of the Sullivans. He’d always belonged… but Cadence said he hadn’t always felt like it.

And Weston had made enough snide comments Paisley knew he didn’t feel part of his extended family, either. Maybe the Cavanaghs weren’t as perfect on the inside as they seemed from the outside, either.

Kaci cracked open her menu. “What’s good here?”

“Everything,” Cadence said at the same time as Paisley. “Seriously, you can’t go wrong.”

“What are you having?”

“The Reuben, I think.”

“Hmm.”

Paisley’s attention snagged on Weston following his mom and Jude into the crowded diner. The hostess seated them at a booth in the back corner. If Paisley shifted a smidge to the right, she could see past Adam Cavanagh to Weston settling into his seat.

“What are you ordering, Paisley?”

“Um.” She tore her gaze from the cowboy, who hadn’t seemed to notice her yet, and looked down at her menu. “Burger and fries, I guess. It’s always good.”

The middle-aged server took their orders, and Kaci relaxed against the seatback. “Whew, we got our order in before the crowd.”