Forever Summer - Melody Grace Page 0,31
agreed. “You have to admit, you set tongues wagging with that PDA last night.”
“It was all just pretend,” Noah protested. “To get Marisa off my case.”
Wes snorted. “Sure. That kiss was all for show.”
Noah looked around at his friends’ expectant faces. “Is this a dinner party or an intervention?” he asked, only half kidding.
“OK, OK,” Poppy said, patting him on the shoulder. “Everyone back off. No more harassing Noah for the rest of dinner.”
But just as Noah was breathing a sigh of relief, she grinned. “You’ll have to hold it for dessert.”
After a couple of beers out on the back deck and a stack of Cooper’s famous smoked ribs, Noah was finally relaxing. It was a warm evening, the food was good, and the group had quit bugging him about his love life—and moved on to speculating about Cassie and Wes’s instead.
“You aren’t really going to elope, are you?” Poppy asked in disbelief, . Their toddler, Emma, dozing in her arms. “You love designing things. Isn’t a wedding the ultimate event?”
“I know,” Cassie sighed. “But my brothers have first dibs. Can you imagine if we snuck in and got hitched before Luke and Natalie—or Jackson and Alice? They only just got engaged.”
“I thought they were keeping things small?” Mackenzie asked. “At least, that’s what Alice said.”
Cassie laughed. “A Kinsella wedding, small? Ha! You think we’re a big family? You haven’t even met my cousins yet. There are dozens of them. It’ll take months to plan. And since I doubt they’ll do a double wedding, that’s the next couple of years off the menu. And you know I’m not the patient kind,” she added with a grin.
“What do you think about all this?” Noah asked Wes. They’d known each other since they were kids, and Noah would have thought Wes would be the first to want a big, flashy affair.
But Wes just gave an easy shrug. “I don’t mind. Whatever makes Cassie happy.”
“Great answer, babe.” Cassie grinned, leaning in to drop a kiss on Wes’s lips.
Noah smiled. Wes must really be smitten to compromise so easily. He was the most stubborn person around—at least, he was until Cassie had claimed that crown.
“Aunt June will shed a tear, all of you Kinsellas going off the market at the same time.” Poppy grinned. “I swear, you kept her in gossip for a good couple of years between you. What’s next?”
“Don’t you mean, who?” Cassie said with a smirk. And suddenly, Noah found all eyes on him.
Again.
“We had a deal,” he protested, holding up a fork of food as evidence. “Dinner’s not over yet.”
Mackenzie grinned. “It’s a good thing you’ll keep them talking with this firehouse fundraiser,” she said. “That ought to give Aunt June a consolation prize.”
“A sweaty, wet consolation prize,” Poppy agreed.
Noah groaned. “You do realize when I say ‘car wash,’ I mean a regular old soap-and-bucket affair, not some strip show?”
They laughed. “Keep thinking that way,” Mac said, sipping her wine. “But we both know the fastest way to big bucks is for you and your hunky firefighter friends to put on a real show.”
Noah shook his head, rueful. What had he signed himself up for?
“I don’t know what you’re smiling about,” he told Jake. “As our newest volunteer, you’ll be the first in line.”
But Jake didn’t seem to mind. “Bring it on. It’s all for a good cause.”
“And he’s the biggest show-off around,” Mac added with a laugh. “And as for you—”
“I’m organizing the damn thing,” Noah said. “That gives me a free pass from public strip shows, thank you very much.”
“There’s nobody you’d like to impress?” Poppy asked. “Say, a certain innkeeper you couldn’t keep your hands off the other night?”
“Aaaand, that’s my cue.” Noah got to his feet and grabbed some dirty dishes. “I’ll be back when you can keep your nosy questions to yourselves.”
A chorus of disappointed laughter followed him into the house. And so did his pesky cousin.
“Touchy, are we?” Mac asked with a smirk, trailing him into the kitchen. Noah set down the dishes and turned his attention to a bowl of leftover mac and cheese.
“I don’t know how many ways there is to say it,” he replied. “Nothing’s happening with Evie. And if you keep badgering me, I might have to give them something else to talk about. Like that time you entered that Britney Spears sing-along contest …”
She gasped. “You wouldn’t! You promised!”
Noah folded his arms. “Try me.”
“Fine.” Mac sighed. “I promise I will never speak of it again—”
Noah cheered. “Finally!”
“—if you just