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I weave my arm through Pawpaw’s and peer at Micah. He watches with a tenderness in his gaze. “Joey will be in the box to look after the both of you. So, say yes?”
“She hasn’t said yes yet?” Pawpaw exclaims. “I love you dearly, Raeann, but if you ruin my chances to see the Wildcats in the flesh at my old age…”
A laugh pours from my throat. It’s the complete indignation on my grandfather’s face that does it. “Yes,” I say. “I’ll go to your game.”
Micah draws in a deep breath, then lets it out, his dimples finally coming out to play. “You’ve made my day, but I have to go. Game days are busy, but I’ll see you after? Bring Athena.”
“I guess we’ll stay here,” Tab says loudly. “Working…”
Micah peers up. “You wanna come?”
“Oh, me?” she asks, like she didn’t just beg for a spot. “That would be awesome.”
“And Jace,” Joey announces.
Micah takes a long, hard look at our new employee. Jealousy burns in his gaze, and the energy coming off him is nothing to mess around with. Poor Jace. He probably doesn’t understand why he’s being looked at that way.
Micah nods once, then leans over and takes me by surprise by kissing me on the cheek. “Later,” he promises.
The butterflies of all butterflies erupt in my stomach. Rabid and intoxicating. I swear my skin burns where his lips met my skin.
He strides from the store, and I watch him walk away, heart pounding. I’m so distracted that I don’t notice that Pawpaw has slipped away from my grasp. He swings his hips from side to side. “My granddaughter is going to marry a Wildcats player.” His head bops along in the same direction with his hips, and then he hooks his arm with mine while he walks me in a slow circle before reversing the other way.
“Pawpaw!”
“What? I’m celebrating! And you better get married before I die!”
I give his veiny arm a soft slap.
“Preferably somewhere where Marg can take the private plane.”
“Okay, seriously, you’re not riding on that again. And neither is Granny!”
“Well, except to go home,” Joey states.
“Not even then.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“Then how am I gonna get home?” Pawpaw challenges.
“I’ll drive you.”
“No, thanks. I’m safer in the plane.” He points at Joey. “You’ll make that happen, right?”
“It’s my job, sir.”
Pawpaw raises his brows at me. “I like the sound of that.”
I wrap my arms around him again. It’s been at least six months since I’ve seen my grandparents. Time flies. A surge of homesickness hits fast and hard. He smells like home. Like the detergent Granny uses and the smell of the country breeze from where she hangs her laundry out to dry. “Granny didn’t want to come?”
Pawpaw pats my back. “Marg is feeling a little under the weather. But she’s fine,” he reinforces.
Before I can respond, Joey gives us the logistics of the day. His head is in a tablet as he does so, tapping the screen with a stylus.
“We’ll have to close early,” I tell Tab afterward, seeing as everyone is invited.
“I’ll close up,” Jace says. “I don’t think Micah likes me.”
Joey chuckles to himself. We all peer at him, and it takes him longer than a normal person to realize we’re all staring, waiting for him to elaborate. “Oh, I mean, it’s not your fault,” he tells Jace. “According to Micah, it’s entirely my fault because when he asked me to find an employee to help out Miss Gorman, he shouldn’t have had to specify that he wouldn’t want another man vying for her attention.”