knew she wanted that. And yes, he was going to give her as much of that as she wanted. But he didn’t think she actually wanted to be alone in a town where she knew no one and had to rely on strangers for help. He didn’t think she actually wanted everyone she knew to be an hours-long road-trip away. He didn’t think she actually wanted to rely on phone calls and video chats and texting to stay in touch with the people she cared about.
She wanted to make her own choices and have those respected. She wanted to be a part of projects and groups, but she wanted to contribute her talents and interests, not just do what people thought she should do. She wanted to take care of other people as much as she wanted to be taken care of.
And yes, she wanted to, sometimes, go off alone and just be by herself. And sometimes, she wanted to party at a crawfish boil and get drunk and loud. And sometimes, she wanted to cuddle in a hammock on a front porch.
And she could have it all with him.
He needed to finally tell her that.
“Besides, once you get to Paige you’re not gonna want to be in two different cars for the trip back to Louisiana, are you?” Kennedy asked.
Mitch had to admit that that was a very good point. “Nope, you’re right.”
“I keep telling you people that, and yet, it doesn’t ever seem to completely sink in,” Kennedy muttered.
Mitch laughed and reached out to tug on the end of Kennedy’s ponytail. “Thanks.”
“Of course. Anything for my favorite cousin.”
Mitch cocked his brow. “You like me even better than Charlie?”
“Are you kidding? Of course, I like you better than Charlie. In the summers, Charlie was always competition for all the boys’ attention down here.”
“You wanted the boys’ attention? I figured you knew that you were too good for any of the guys here.”
“I was always too good for the guys here,” Kennedy agreed. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t want their attention.”
Mitch laughed and shook his head as he shifted his truck into drive. He was pretty sure that Kennedy was his favorite cousin too.
He swung by his house, threw a few things into a bag, and was back in his truck ten minutes later. He’d text Griffin at some point from the road. He knew Griffin would take care of the cats even without a text, so Mitch didn’t have anything much to take care of before heading out of town. He pulled into the parking lot at Ellie’s and didn’t even shut off the engine when he went inside.
Chase, Josh, and Owen were standing at the end of the bar talking to Ellie, looking as if they were waiting for something. Or someone.
“You driving first, or am I?” Mitch asked Chase.
“I’m up first,” Owen answered.
“You?” Mitch asked.
“You don’t think we’re gonna let you head out of town with just Dawson looking out for you, do you?” Owen asked. He looked at Chase. “Hell, this guy doesn’t even know how to pop a dislocated thumb back into place.”
“I do,” Chase said, rubbing a finger up the middle of his forehead as if his head was aching. “I just don’t do it quite like you all do.”
It was true that a lot of the “real” medicine Chase was learning in medical school didn’t line up exactly with how they did things down here on the bayou. He liked Cora’s creams and salves, but he got a little green around the edges when they talked about removing stray bullets from thighs and giving each other stitches. They embellished the stories, of course, because it would never not be fun to tease the guy who’d made the very big mistake of telling them that he got manicures and had never broken a bone. It was open season on rich fraternity boys down here. Chase knew it. And accepted it. Kind of. It was the payment he had to make for Cora’s etouffee and time with Bailey.
“Do we really need a whole posse?” Mitch felt obligated to ask.
“Yep,” Owen said.
Josh nodded. “Yep.”
“You both just got married.”
“That was yesterday,” Ellie said, leaning onto the bar. “This is what’s happening in the family today.”
Yeah, that was how things went here. Whatever needed to be done just got done. If someone needed something, the rest of them stepped up. Period.
Mitch knew he should argue. His newly married cousins didn’t need to come to Iowa with him. Especially