Page 59 of My Three Hometown Hard Hats

Evelyn’s head tilts to the side. “Yeah, she does.”

“What do you mean?” Austin asks, setting her back down on the ground.

“She has a seat for me in her car. It was there when she picked me up from school.”

His eyes snap to Hadley. “You bought a booster seat for her?”

She hesitates but nods.

The thoughts flashing through Austin’s mind are as clear as if they were my own. He wants to pull our beautiful girl into his arms and kiss the crap out of her for doing something so sweet for his other girl.

“Hey, Evelyn,” I hold my hand out for her. “I think I left one of my batting gloves in the dugout. Can you come help me look?”

She slides her hand into mine, skipping alongside me all the way back to the field. We look around for my glove that’s “missing” for a few minutes.

From the dugout, I can’t see much, but I can see a part of Austin’s back near the side of the truck.Kiss her once for me, too, brother.

After giving up the search for the glove, we make our way back over to everyone else. Grayson walks over. He’s talking to me, but all I can think isfuck, fuck, fuck.

Austin hasn’t budged from the position I saw him in earlier, so I can only assume they’re still going at it over there.

Not knowing what else to do, I start making a loud “caw” noise. Grayson looks at me like I’m the biggest dumbass he’s ever met.

Evelyn, on the other hand, thinks I’m awesome and starts cawing along with me. A few more caws and Hadley sneaks around to the opposite side of the truck and away from Austin, who very much looks like he just sucked face with someone.

Luckily, Grayson is too busy staring at my brilliant ass to figure out that his best friend just had his tongue in his little sister’s mouth.

Crisis averted. For now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Conrad

“We’re all done,”I tell Maggie as I step into the kitchen.

We finished the final touches on the new railing for the stairs today, which was the last thing we had to work on. Austin and Brooks left a few minutes ago to get all our tools back to the warehouse.

Austin thought maybe I would have a better chance of convincing Maggie she doesn’t need to pay us a dime for everything we did. We would have done it for free before, but now, with the way we all feel about Hadley, it feels almost criminal to charge her mom.

She pops her head out from the fridge, turning in my direction. “Did you get all your crap out of here?” she says. A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth.

“Yes, ma’am,” I say with a nod.

Her face softens. “Thank you all for what you did. I appreciate it.”

“Of course.”

She holds her hand out toward me. “I need a bill for everything.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“Yes, it damn well is,” she says, stepping closer to me with a finger pointing right at my chest.

“No, it…” I trail off when I get a whiff of strawberries.

Hadley’s here.My whole body becomes aware of her presence even when she’s in the next room over.

She walks into the room. “Hey, Mom… oh, hi Conrad,” she says when she glances to her right and sees me leaning against the kitchen table.