Page 15 of Forever Country (Forever Bluegrass #24)

H olt was already at the door before she could open it. “What did Cassidy want?”

“She wanted to help me with the stalker and invited me to girls’ night. What’s that?”

“Girls’ night?” someone asked, and several women stood up to swarm her as if they were meerkats on the savanna.

Annaleigh felt her eyes widen as every single one had their hands on their stomachs. Stomachs that all had a small bump to them. “Do I have to be pregnant to join girls’ night?”

“It was a happy accident that we all got pregnant around the same time,” a woman said as she smirked at another woman who looked to be her twin. “Hi. I’m Riley. And this is my twin sister, Reagan.”

“Annaleigh Astore. Nice to meet you. How was it a group accident?” Annaleigh couldn’t figure it out. Right now, she was thinking girls’ night was code for group orgy.

“Hi, I’m Stella. I think it might be easier to show you.”

Annaleigh took a step back. She was not going to have an orgy in the middle of a café. “Look, I’m just not into that. And please, tell the stripper priest to keep his clothes on.”

The stripper cleared his throat and ran a finger under his collar. “Yeah, I’m not a stripper. I’m an actual Catholic priest.”

“Yeah, and these women aren’t pregnant from either an orgy or a cult leader.”

A woman snorted as she tried not to laugh. “I’m Sienna. I work with Holt’s brother and father. I like her, Holt. She’s fun.”

“Hi,” another woman said. “I’m Layne. Give me one second.

Can you lean right here against the door frame?

” Annaleigh almost jumped when the pineapple-loving swinger touched her and moved her a couple of steps back.

“Great. Now.” Another woman grabbed the ballcap from her husband and handed it to Layne. “Thanks, Kate.”

Layne whispered something to Holt who looked confused, but then he shrugged. He put the ballcap on backwards, raised one arm to hold on to the top of the doorframe, placed his other hand by her head and leaned down as if he were going to kiss her.

Everyone in the café disappeared. The cult was forgotten. There could be a wild orgy or the stripping priest could be spinning on a pole and Annaleigh wouldn’t have noticed. Holt looked at her as if he wanted to feast on her as he both stretched out and caged her in.

“Oh my God,” Annaleigh whispered in awe, closing her eyes and lifting her lips to Holt.

“Just one of His messengers. Everyone always gets me confused with him. Stripper Priest is a new one, though.”

Holt cleared his throat and leaned back, breaking the pheromone spell. “Father Ben, meet Annaleigh Astore. My girlfriend. Annaleigh, Father Ben.”

Father Ben shook her hand, but speech was beyond her at the moment. Annaleigh was still trying to remember how to breathe. “Yeah, I’ll just go ahead and reserve the church for two weeks from now.”

“There was a demonstration of that when we were all together,” Stella told her. “Now do you understand how we all ended up pregnant at the same time?” Stella asked. Annaleigh could only nod.

“Sugarbear! Get your hat, I got the oils!” A woman barreled forward, pushing adorable sleeping twins in a stroller. “I was really looking forward to meeting you, but damn.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “I’m Aniyah and I’ll see you at girls’ night.”

“Me too,” Riley said, dragging a man in a sheriff’s uniform behind her as she bolted from the café.

“Kale! Leave the freaking food!” A woman bent down and whispered something and the man sprang from the table, leaving behind a half-eaten dinner. “I’m Delaney. Can’t wait to talk to you... later. See you at girls’ night.”

Kale slapped Holt on the shoulder. “Thanks, man.”

Plates clattered as silverware was dropped. Chairs scraped on the floor as they were shoved back and within a minute most of the café was empty.

“Hey,” the cook said, leaning out the window. “Where did my sister go?”

“She left with Lucas,” an elderly woman said with a big grin and a bigger spatula.

“What? Why would Poppy leave in the middle of dinner? Where is everyone?”

Another elderly woman used a broom to shoo a giant man to the kitchen. “Talon, why don’t you show Zinnia what Holt did.”

The giant man shrugged as he got to his feet. He pulled a baseball cap from his back pocket and walked into the kitchen and out of sight. A moment later there was a gasp. “Miss Violet, can you finish dinner service?” Zinnia called out from the kitchen even as the back door slammed shut.

The three elderly women smiled and held their hands to their hearts. “We’re going to be great-grandmothers.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re already great-grandmothers. I think this will make you great-great- great -grandmothers,” an older man with brown hair with a bit of gray at the temples said with a laugh. He wasn’t laughing when the broom smacked him on the head with a thwack .

“Will Ashton!”

“Just like old times, Miss Lily,” Will said with a wink. The woman next to him blushed as she began to eye him like Annaleigh was eying Holt.

“Looks like we won’t have to answer questions after all,” Holt said, putting his arm around her and leading her to a table.

“Oh, to be young and dumb,” the woman with Will said as the women and men left behind chuckled.

“This generation thinks they invented interrogation,” a man said shaking his head. “I am the Ahmed. I invented interrogation. They can’t even make people piss their pants with a glare. They’re getting weak.”

“Ah, the days of scaring dates to death,” a man with salt and pepper hair said wistfully. “I miss it.”

“Bullshit, Miles. You never scared me.”

Five men broke out laughing, Miles included. “Sure, Cole. Keep telling yourself that,” Miles said before dropping the smile and glaring at Annaleigh. “Are you going to make life hard for my wife?”

Annaleigh felt a shiver wrack her body from the look he was giving her. He’d gone from laughing to scary as hell in a blink. “N-n-no, sir. Wh-who is your wife?” Annaleigh managed to stutter.

“Miles, knock it off. Hi, Annaleigh. I’m his wife, Morgan Davies.”

Annaleigh relaxed, but it only lasted a split second. A scary-ass dude with a shaved head yanked a chair out next to Annaleigh and then grabbed her hands, putting his fingers at her wrists. “Taylor is like a little sister to me. We need to have a chat. Don’t think about lying. I’ll know.”

Holt rolled his eyes. “Cy, come on. Stop with the human lie detector stuff.”

The man didn’t look at Holt. “Who am I?” he asked.

“Um, Cy?” Annaleigh answered, guessing that was his name since Holt said it.

Cy didn’t respond. Holt let out a sigh. “The Godfather.”

“That’s right. I’m your godfather and as such it’s my right to interrogate this woman. Now, let’s begin.”

Holt sputtered as his godfather, retired CIA spy Cy Davies, fired question after question off for Annaleigh to answer.

Holt tried to interrupt, but the Davies brothers had intercepted him.

He’d turned to Morgan for help, but Morgan was taking notes on how Annaleigh answered questions ranging from her thoughts of Holt to her parents, money, what she wanted out of a relationship, and then finally about the stalker.

A wooden spoon smacked Cy after five minutes. “Here you go, dear,” Miss Daisy said, handing Annaleigh a big glass of ice tea. “I’m Miss Daisy. Come sit with my sister, Lily Rae, and me. Holt, be a dear and help Violet Fae serve dinner since Poppy took off with Lucas.”

Holt exhaled in relief as Miss Lily patted the chair.

He headed to the kitchen when he saw Annaleigh smiling gratefully at the Rose sisters.

“So young and dumb,” Kenna Ashton whispered to her husband who nodded.

It took Holt thirty minutes to deliver the dinner plates to the Davies brothers, their wives, some firefighters, and a couple of soldiers who worked for the Rahmi royal family and lived in Keeneston.

He kept an eye on Annaleigh, but she looked really happy.

Her eyes were shining, her smile was big, and she was laughing as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Here you go, Nabi. Grace,” Holt said to the couple at one of his last tables.

Nabi was head of security for the Rahmi royal family here in Keeneston and his wife was a teacher.

“How is Faith doing?” Holt asked of Nabi and Grace’s daughter as Kori, a new Rahmi soldier who also worked with Cassidy and Greer for the President’s Guard, entered the café.

Grace smiled warmly as they talked about their only child. “She’s doing really well. She just started her first real job after college. Unfortunately, it’s in Switzerland. But we’re going to visit her next month.”

“That’s really cool,” Holt told them turning to the table of Rahmi soldiers to take their orders.

“What’s cool?” Kori asked. He was third in command, behind Nabi and Nash.

“Faith’s new job in Switzerland.” Kori nodded, but didn’t look as if he really understood it. “Do you know Faith?” Holt asked.

“Not really. I only met her a couple of times since I’m pretty new to Keeneston and she was away at college when I moved here. The better question is why are you our waiter and who is the drunk girl the Rose sisters are interrogating?”

Holt looked over the table to where Annaleigh was talking to Miss Lily and Miss Daisy. “That’s my girlfriend, Annaleigh. And they’re not interrogating her. They’re just having some tea and chatting.”

“You’re right, Kenna. This younger generation is clueless, bless their hearts,” Paige Davies Parker called out to her friend.

“Holt, they just got your girlfriend to spill her entire dating history since you were talking to Nabi and Grace,” Kori said with a shake of his head. “I also heard her tell them she hasn’t seen you naked yet, but did see you shirtless and that made her”—Kori cleared his throat—“hoo-ha tingle.”

Holt practically dropped the plates on the table and hurried over to Annaleigh who looked up at him with rosy cheeks.

“I can’t wait to have sex with him,” Annaleigh said as her eyes dropped to just below his beltline.

“Based on how he kisses, I bet he’ll be able to give me an orgasm with that tongue.

Then look at his fingers. Those fingers are strong from playing guitar.

I can’t wait to see how he plays my body.

Thank God I didn’t say that out loud.” Annaleigh giggled and the Rose sisters tried to pretend they didn’t hear Annaleigh’s dirty monologue.

Holt was more than happy to show her just how good he could make her feel, but there was one problem. Everyone was around them right now and she was drunk. “Can I have a sip of your tea, sweetheart?” Holt asked her.

Annaleigh nodded. “It’s really yummy. It has this special ingredient in it, but I can’t place it and they won’t tell me what it is.”

Holt took a sip of the tea and coughed before he narrowed his eyes at the Rose sisters who sat sipping their tea as if he weren’t there.

“The secret ingredient is bourbon. A lot of bourbon.” And now his girlfriend was drunk, which meant he was going to say no to all those things she wanted him to do to her.

Their first time together would be one that they both could remember.

“I would totally pour bourbon over his body and lick it off.”

Miss Lily snickered.

Holt glared, but they didn’t care. Sure, he knew about the Rose Sisters Special Tea, but since they’d retired it wasn’t served as much. He should have known better. “Come on, sweetheart.” Holt reached down to help Annaleigh up.

“I’ll gladly come on your fingers, tongue, di—” That earned a muffled cough from Father Ben, cutting her off.

Annaleigh turned toward Father Ben, closed her eyes, and put her hands in prayer.

“Dear Sexy Stripper Priest, please grant my prayer to have Holt strip my clothes from my body, drop to his knees—”

Holt didn’t know how to make her stop talking, so he kissed her. Annaleigh leaned into him and kissed him back.

“So, I’ll just move that church date up to next week.”

Holt pulled back at Father Ben’s words. He needed to get Annaleigh upstairs before she realized she had just told her sexual fantasies to the entire café.

“Such a dear. I like her,” Miss Lily said as Miss Daisy nodded. Annaleigh had gotten their stamp of approval.

“We’ll help in any way with this stalker,” Cy told them as his brothers all agreed, which was the equivalent of the Davies stating they liked her.

“We’ll go out the back,” Holt whispered to Annaleigh not wanting to push his luck.

“Goodbye, lovely people!” Annaleigh sang out to the café patrons.

“Goodbye, Annaleigh!” everyone responded.