come back to hang with me and Brooks and Tucker? Huh? Huh?”
“Malachi, let it go,” Ava said firmly.
“But no! Remember we agreed that it would be so cute if—”
“Mal, honey, you remember the time we went to Coachella? Remember the guy who came with us?”
Mal rolled his eyes. “Your salon manager’s one gay cousin she wanted you to set me up with. Boris. Benny. Barney?”
“Jason. And remember the guy you met there? The one who explained piercings to you?”
“Pablo,” he supplied with no hesitation. “Oh.” He looked from me to Tucker, then to me and Diesel. “Ohhhh.”
“Uh-huh.” Ava patted his arm consolingly.
“But my matchmaking crown!” Mal complained.
“Maybe set your sights higher,” Brooks suggested with a sideways glance at Tucker. “I have some ideas.” He pulled Mal away from the group. “Come stroll with me and I’ll tell you all about it, and you can tell me about Pablo with the piercings. I feel like I have a lot to thank him for.”
“Literally crazy,” Stewie grumbled as he led us back toward the entrance.
But with Diesel’s arm wrapped around me, even temporarily, I was pretty sure Mal had it right earlier. For this one moment, it felt kinda crazy-perfect, and I just wished I could keep it.
8
Diesel
My brain and heart were fighting WWE style. On the one hand, my heart was mooning stupidly over kissing Parrish’s sweet mouth. Feeling his slender body under my hand and his soft lips against mine was one of the single best moments of my life. It was a dream come true.
On the other, my brain kept replaying those same lips on Tucker Wright’s mouth. I’d wanted to punch something, namely, Tucker Wright. But the look of horror on Parrish’s face when he saw me calmed me a little, enough, at least, to keep from getting arrested for assault right there at the Pickin’.
Marigold made a little sighing noise and shifted in the sling. Parrish scrambled to catch up with me in the parking lot.
“Is she okay? Is she upset? Did I squish her back there?” he asked worriedly.
I slowed down a little, not realizing how long my strides had become in my haste to get away from the awkward Tucker situation. “She’s fine. Still asleep.”
He walked next to me for a few more steps before clenching his fists by his side. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
I knew what he was talking about, but I played stupid anyway. “Done what?”
“Just… just… lurched at you like that. Attacked your face like some kind of… some kind of face attacker… thing.”
I took a chance and slid my arm around his shoulders, hoping like hell he didn’t shrug it off in disgust. “Well, you are my fiancé. So it kind of seems appropriate that I would be the one you’d kiss for Joyous Pickin’ Tidings.”
He groaned and turned into my side, burying his face in my shoulder. “I can’t believe I did that. I’m so embarrassed.”
I laughed and rubbed my hand up and down his arm. “Everyone loved it. Besides, how often does one get to claim the origination story for a new Thicket tradition as epic as that?”
His easy laughter was enough to release the final bands of stress from my shoulders.
“Come home with me? With us, I mean? We, uh…” I tried to come up with an excuse. “We have a lot more stuff to go over, in case the caseworker questions us.”
He pulled his face out of my shirt and smiled up at me shyly. “I’d like that. Maybe I can fix us dinner?”
I thought of the chicken dish he’d brought me. “You know what? This time let me cook for you. I have a little veggie patch behind the chicken coop, and I’ve just harvested a ton of fresh tomatoes and basil. I could make us a homemade marinara for spaghetti.”
“That sounds perfect,” he said. “I didn’t know you had a garden.”
While I tried transferring my sleeping girl to the car seat, I told him about Aunt Dot and Aunt Birdie forcing me to weed their vegetable garden every time I used a curse word when I was a teenager.
“And the funny thing was,” I continued, “those two curse worse than any Navy sailor you’d ever meet. But their point was teaching me control. I was so angry during those years, and I took it out on them with a pissy attitude.”
I finished clipping the straps and dropped a kiss on Marigold’s sweaty head before climbing into the driver’s seat and starting the engine. “Anyway,