Page 103 of Puck Me, Baby

“Do you normally see them for Thanksgiving?”

He nodded. “They don’t want to come.”

My heart shattered. I knew I was the reason they were staying away.

“Did you invite them?”

“No.” He shook his head and sighed. “I want them to know their grandchild, but they won't if they don’t treat you well. I won’t have Peanut seeing them disrespect you. So I’m starting now.”

“Jacq—”

“No, beautiful. I won’t have it. It’s the line that I won’t cross.”

His words were final. There was no persuading him otherwise. I hated being the one who came between his parents, but I loved him even more for the way he stood up for me.

“Please ask them to come. Maybe once they see us together, they’ll understand.”

Zeus perked up, his ears stood straight up, and he wagged his tail. When he barked his excited yip, Jacques smiled and gestured to the drive with a tilt of his head. “Trav’s home.”

“He doesn’t finish his shift for hours,” I said, moving to my knees.

Jacques was on his feet in a second and helped me up. My brow was furrowed and my lips pressed tight. Fear curled low in my belly.

“He’s okay,” Jacques reassured me. “He didn’t go to work. He was organizing something.”

There was a convoy coming—Trav’s truck, another, bigger truck loaded with trees, then Linc’s Jeep and Alec’s EV. What was going on?

“We needed a hand before we left for the game.”

They pulled up to the house, and everyone piled out as we walked to greet them.

The trees on the back of the truck were big, already well established.

“What’s going on?” I asked Trav as he got out of his old truck. I narrowed my eyes playfully at him as he swept me up in his arms and gave me a quick hug.

Trav chuckled and gestured to the trees. “We needed some shade down the drive.”

O-kay.It was going into winter. Why did we need shade? “So you got trees?”

Oh my God, were they—

He grinned. “Yeah, jacarandas.”

I squealed. They were jacarandas! I launched myself at him and hugged him hard. I loved them. They were magical in the springtime when they were flowering. I’d grown up in a house that had one in the front yard, and those few weeks were my favorite time of year. I’d planted one in the first house we’d lived in, and when we’d moved out, I was more disappointed leaving the tree there than the house.

Jacques placed his hand at the small of my back, and Cara grinned. “Pretty good surprise, hey, Mum?”

I hugged her hello, then did the same to Alec and Monroe.

“It is.” I snuggled into Jacques and smiled at him, then hugged Linc after he joined us.

“The driver needs you to follow him with the excavator so we can get the trees out with the sling,” he told Trav.

Trav nodded and grinned at me. “Surprise!”

“Why don’t you go inside and get ready for the game while we do this?” Jacques suggested.

I linked arms with Cara, and we walked inside.