Page 113 of My Three Hometown Alphas

I desperately hope we can get the votes to make her dream a reality. I want that for her and for the whole town.

With any spare time, I’ve run over to the booth on a different side street where the Kingston family is giving out free books to all the kids in town. I guess they’ve done this for years as a part of their afterschool program.

It’s easy to forget how wealthy they all are. None of them act in a way that would indicate how loaded their bank accounts are. The way they help this community doesn’t go unnoticed, though.

They are the main sponsor behind Hadley’s campaign. I didn’t know how I felt about this in the beginning, but they all assured me they would have been backing her whether I was involved or not. That, I believed.

“Are you going to the dance tonight?” Hadley asks me when the group of people we had been chatting with walks away.

“I think so.” The plan is for Lyla to spend the night with her grandparents so the guys and I can go out. “Are you and your gaggle of men coming?”

She doesn’t even get to answer before Austin wraps his arms around her from behind. “Yes,” he says as she yelps. “We’re going.”

She grins at him. “Oh yeah?”

“I think you should wear that white dress again,” he says.

I know I’m missing something here, but I love how much he loves her. It is blatantly obvious how much all her men love her.

Austin lifts his head, looking at me. “I’ll stay with her for a while if you want to go explore with your family.”

Warmth blooms in my chest. It might be new, but the Kingstons are every bit my family.

“Alright,” I say, standing from the uncomfortable folding chair. “I’ll be back later to help take all of this down.” I gesture to everything we have set up.

It only takes me a few minutes to wind my way through the groups of people to get to the other booth. I smile, watching Lyla dance to the Taylor Swift song playing over the loudspeakers.

Owen is standing at the edge of the booth, so I slide in next to him.

Without even glancing at me or breaking his conversation with his dad, he wraps his arm around me. When there’s a lull in their conversation he leans down and gives me a quick kiss.

Shana is talking to a woman who seems to be about her age on the opposite side of the pop-up tent. Her eyes light up when she sees me sitting there. “Oh, honey, you’re back. Come here.”

Giving Owen’s waist one last squeeze, I walk to his mom.

“This is the lovely lady I was telling you about,” Shana tells the other woman. “Avery, this is Ellen Sanders. She’s the dean at the community college here in town.”

“Oh, hi. Nice to meet you,” I say, holding my hand out in her direction.

Her handshake is firm. I can assume she’s had to have a no-bullshit attitude to get to this point in her career. It’s impressive.

“Nice to meet you, Avery. Shana told me you just graduated with your master’s in political science.”

“Yeah, I did.”

She smiles. “Have you ever thought about teaching in that field?”

I’m slightly taken aback by the question. “Not really, but I’ve recently discovered that a lot of what I wanted career-wise doesn’t match who I am anymore.”

Her smile only broadens. “Well… it just so happens that my political science professor decided at the last minute to retire instead of teaching this year.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say.

“He will be greatly missed, but I know this is what’s best for him,” she says. It’s obvious she cares about the people who work for her. “Do you think it’s a position you might be interested in?’

Oh…

I really shouldn’t be surprised by her question based on the trajectory of this conversation, but it still takes me a little off guard.