us all to the fireworks show.”
“Your mother told me he had the whole thing set up so that you’d have food and treats and a great view,” Laurie chimed in.
Bless her heart, she was always there to help, Mary thought.
“What a sweetheart,” Laurie added.
The smile that curved her daughter’s lips made her look smitten indeed. “He seems to get along really well with Caden,” Autumn said as she came toward the register.
“Caden likes him, too,” Mary pointed out.
Laurie shifted on her stool. “How’s Taylor taking you getting involved with another man?”
Autumn’s smile disappeared. “She’s a bit more...remote, a little harder for him to reach than Caden. I know he’s worried about it.”
Mary knew Autumn was worried about it, too.
“She’ll warm up,” Laurie predicted.
“She seemed to be friendlier toward him at the end of the evening, after the fireworks were over,” Mary said. “Didn’t you notice?”
Autumn shoved her hands in her pockets as she leaned up against the counter. “Sort of. Everything will be all right, I hope.”
Mary touched her daughter’s arm. “Of course it will. Who can resist him?”
“Certainly not her,” Laurie said, indicating Autumn with a laugh.
Autumn made a face, but she laughed, too.
Seeing her daughter happy and excited about love again helped ease some of the nagging worry Mary had been wrestling with since Tammy came back into her life. She’d figure out this thing with her past, she told herself. She just had to get to Nashville and back without Autumn discovering she didn’t really go to Richmond.
* * *
“You don’t like me very much, do you?”
Taylor froze the second Sierra’s father pinned her with that question. He’d come home early from work carrying a bag of groceries in one tattoo-covered arm, a six-pack of beer in the other, and said he was going to grill some burgers, including a veggie burger for Sierra.
Typically, Taylor tried to scoot out of the house if he appeared, but today he’d invited her to stay and eat with them, and Sierra had seemed so glad that her father was in a good mood that Taylor hadn’t had the heart to leave.
“W-what do you mean?” she stammered.
His belly, which was as big and round as hers would be in several months, jiggled as he put down the groceries and laughed at her response. “Just what I said.”
“Of course I like you,” she argued, but she didn’t sound convincing, even to herself, and that made him laugh even louder.
“You’d better get used to me. This old bastard could become your father-in-law one day.” She could smell alcohol on his breath as he leaned closer. “Ever thought of that?”
“Dad!” Sierra said, obviously embarrassed.
He grabbed a can of beer from the six-pack and popped the top. “What? You telling me you two little lesbians aren’t a couple?” This time he got right in Sierra’s face. “Have you found the balls to kiss her yet?”
Sierra surprised Taylor by shoving her father away. “You just said we were going to have a barbecue. And now you’re trying to ruin it?”
Afraid this was about to turn into another fight, Taylor edged toward the door. “Actually, I don’t think I can stay,” she said. “I just remembered that my mother asked me to...to help with something.”
Instead of continuing to argue with Sierra, as Taylor expected him to, Dennis scowled at her. “Oh, stop. Don’t be such a little pussy. I’m just messing with you.”
Taylor didn’t know what to do. She wanted to leave, but she’d already said she’d stay, and she hated to disappoint Sierra.
“He doesn’t mean anything by it,” Sierra said. “Stay.”
Sierra had been so good to her throughout all her drama that Taylor decided she could hang out with Sierra’s old man for one evening. “Okay,” she said. “Why don’t I start cutting the lettuce, tomatoes and onions?”
He downed several more beers while grilling the burgers, but they managed to eat with only a few uncomfortable moments. As Taylor helped Sierra carry everything inside from the screened-in porch so they could clean up the kitchen, she thought they were in the clear. But before they could finish the dishes, Dennis came in from where he’d been sitting and drinking on the patio, and just by the way he let the screen door slam, she knew they were in trouble.
“Wasn’t that the best burger you ever ate?” he asked, his voice overloud.
“It was really good,” Taylor said.
“Now what are you two going to do?”
Noting the slur in his words and the hurt and embarrassment in Sierra’s eyes,