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When I reached the door, it opened before I could reach for the handle. Rose was half-hidden, giggling like a schoolgirl. When I walked in, she sped toward the dining room. I slowed as I spotted Bobby looking dreadfully uncomfortable in a black and gray flannel he had buttoned to the top.

Across from him, Edward wore a similar shirt—a first since I had arrived. Even Rose had put on a dress. Nothing fancy, just enough to say everybody had churched up. In a white t-shirt and blue jeans, I looked out of place.

“Grab yourself a chair. Open the wine and pour everybody a glass.” As I walked through the kitchen, Rose leaned in my direction. “Make mine a double.”

Rose always had a double pour to start. I couldn’t help but stop and smell the carrots in the pan.

Since coming to Firefly, I had gained ten pounds, and every one of them was thanks to Rose’s delicious cooking.

She’d walk into the kitchen, and the moment she put on her apron, she went on a mission. A very delicious mission.

“Pot roast,” she said. “And no, you can’t sample. Go sit next to your man friend.”

Man friend. It should sound more mature, but the way she said it, choking back a giggle, I felt like my man friend had come over to meet the folks for the first time.

“Bonjour, mon chouchou.” I didn’t know who I should give dirty looks to, so I spread them around. Everybody got a glare from me. “I won’t give away your secret, little cabbage.”

“You’re texting Gladys the moment I can’t see your hands.”

Edward nodded. “Guilty. And I’m not sorry.”

“You didn’t know they invited me?” Oh good, they ambushed us both. They might be an adorable couple, but make no mistake, they were equally diabolical.

“That’s on me,” Rose called from the kitchen.

“How’d your day go?”

Bobby’s question was meant as innocent small talk.

After the conversation with Tessa, I didn’t know how to answer.

The ink on our formal relationship arrangement hadn’t dried.

While we had a quick conversation about what it might mean in the long run, I didn’t want to put the biggest problem about us front and center.

“I was at Rita’s telling her about the ticket situation for the play. Is it true everybody just shows up?”

Bobby and Edward chuckled. Obviously, I had walked into small-town shenanigans.

Edward helped Rose as she placed dishes on the table, taking a whiff of the pot roast. His eyes continued to widen as more dishes came in—pot roast, baked potatoes, carrots, fresh bread, roasted potatoes. Yes, multiple dishes with taters, not that I was complaining.

“Nobody ever buys tickets. Used to drive the drama teacher insane. It’s the same for the swing concert coming up. Unless there’s late-breaking news on TV, the whole town will show up.”

“A swing concert?” On the outside, Firefly masqueraded as a sleepy town at the base of a mountain range. The longer I spent here, the more I discovered the interesting ways they brought culture to the tiny community. “We might have to check that out… chouchou.”

“Nope! Sounds wrong when you say it.” Despite protesting, Bobby gave my leg a squeeze under the table. “You find your own cute nickname.”

“Enough yapping,” Rose said. “Talk anymore, and you’ll waste away.” I adored her. At this rate, I’d have to switch to sweatpants and elastic waistbands.

“Bobby, are you still clearing?”

“Yup.”

“Tough work.”

“Always sore by bedtime.”

“Need a hand?”

The two of them went back and forth, barely speaking. Rose dropped a baked potato on my plate and then gave me a healthy dose of carrots.

“If it ain’t a bother.”

“I’ll call the guys.”

“Jimmy still have his backhoe?”

Edward nodded. “I’ll make sure he brings it.”

Rose clinked her wine glass against mine. “You get used to it. Now, when Edward speaks with his menfolk, my brain automatically fills in the gaps.”

“I’m waiting for them to grunt at one another.” Edward’s hand shot up in a silent aha! “Did I say something?” He jumped from his seat and ran into the kitchen.

“What’s going on?”

Bobby stood up. Rose gave a long sigh, rolling her eyes as she followed suit. Dinner had barely started, and now they were preparing to leave. This had turned weird, even for Firefly.

“I almost forgot.” Edward came back, hiding something behind his back. “It’s time.”

“For?” I grew worried. Edward bordered on giddy, and Bobby wasn’t far behind. Rose, on the other hand, with only a few sips of wine left, would be all smiles in twenty minutes.

“Christopher Wilde, it is time for your initiation,” Edward said. “It’s time we officially welcome you, not as a visitor, but as a member of Firefly.”

“I don’t think??—”

“Gladys and Gloria reminded us we had yet to perform the ritual.” Bobby’s face remained slack, void of any emotion. “Just as we performed it with Simon, it’s your time to become one of us.”

If the people of Firefly arrived wearing cloaks, I’d be out the back door in a heartbeat. “You’re making me nervous.”

“Just do it already,” Rose said before draining her glass. When she set it on the table, she picked up Edward’s wine. “This is so much foolishness.”

Edward walked around the table, and from behind his back, he revealed a plastic soda bottle with a bright orange label. He passed it to me, and I tried to figure out the secret behind the beverage. “Moxie?”

“It’s a Maine thing,” Bobby said. “With a single gulp, you’ll become an honorary Mainer.”

I knew a trap when I saw one, but I wasn’t going to upset this tradition. I took the bottle and unscrewed the cap. With a sniff, I could smell a mix of cola and maple.

“You just need to??—”

I knocked back the bottle, taking a big gulp. It tasted like every other soda. “I don’t get—ugh. What vile hell is this?” It started like soda but ended with a cough syrup chaser. While my face contorted, Bobby threw an arm around my shoulder. Edward quickly grabbed his phone and snapped a photo.

“That’s an abomination. You drink that stuff?”

Both Bobby and Edward laughed. Bobby gave me a swift smack on the ass. “Not on your life. It’s Maine’s wretched secret.”

“Big babies.” With a wine glass in one hand, Rose snatched the bottle away from me. She tossed it back, and all three of us watched in horror as she finished it off. She came up for air and then continued with a sip of wine. “Nectar of the gods.”

I snatched a carrot, chomping away in hopes I’d forget to put that nasty liquid in my mouth.

“Maybe if you drank more, you’d have some hair on your chest.” Rose sat down without missing a beat, grabbing the butter and dropping a dollop on her potatoes. “Are we done initiating him? Or do we have to feed him some red snappers?”

“Fish?”

All three laughed. I didn’t dare ask. I was sure there’d be another initiation, and they’d all stare. It’d be another adventure.

“Sit,” she demanded. Everybody scrambled. “Eat.” We grabbed our forks, and the men in Rose’s life shoveled their mouths full. “Now that’s a beautiful sound.”

Rose knew how to control a room.

“Chris, has Bobby asked you to the concert?” She swirled an empty glass. “Bobby, be a gentleman and ask your man friend.” God, I loved Rose. “My glass is empty. Edward, be a sweetheart…”

Bobby bumped into my shoulder. “Want to be my date for a high school dance?” It was possibly the cutest and dorkiest date request.

If he only knew what awaited him. “I’ve been known to get on the dance floor.” If he thought my skills ended with strip teases, he had another thing coming.

For the first time in my adult life, I felt connected.

Listening to Rose chide Edward for not taking enough pot roast..

. I could get used to this. If I stayed and made Firefly my home, it'd mean a lot of changes.

Tessa already wanted me to move to Hollywood to rub elbows with folks in the industry.

I might be growing more comfortable with the idea of Firefly, but it created friction with the rest of my life.

“Double date!” Rose said, a little too loud and perhaps a little slurred. “Edward, we’re going on a double date.”

Tessa wanted me to leave this? I’d use every tactic in the book if it gave me another day with Bobby and the strange folk of Firefly.