Four Weddings and a Swamp Boat Tour - Erin Nicholas Page 0,84

been having more of that hottest-sex-ever sex since his family had realized it was a lot of work to keep them apart and clothed, especially when they lived together.

Or maybe they’d believed him when he said he and Paige were getting closer even if they weren’t sleeping together. He meant that. He was pretty sure Paige had realized it too. Sex was one thing, but they’d now been dating—he supposed that was the best word to use though it seemed weak—for longer than either of them had dated anyone in years.

They’d shared their stories. They’d spent time together working, having fun, hanging with his family, just relaxing in the hammock on his porch. The weddings and the tour office, and the yoga classes people kept requesting had kept her busy. The new barn and fences for the petting zoo, building an archway and installing a net under the one Boys of the Bayou dock, and getting Ellie’s into shape for the reception—though Paige insisted that it was perfect as is—and his usual job duties kept him busy. But they ate lunch together a couple of times a week, and he’d taken her to New Orleans twice for their Saturday night dates.

It felt so right, so I-could-do-this-for-the-rest-of-my-life, that he’d caught himself three times before he told her he loved her.

It was too soon. It was too much. It was definitely not what she wanted.

So he kept it to himself. Though he knew that his entire family knew. They’d known the before-Paige Mitch and now the with-Paige Mitch. They were two different guys.

Thankfully, she didn’t know that.

“Okay, so you know my Aunt Hannah and Uncle Jerry, Josh and Sawyer and Kennedy’s mom and dad,” he said, pointing at a table across the room. “The people sitting with them are Owen’s mom, Cassie, and my dad, Sean.”

Paige sat up straighter. “That’s your dad?”

“Yep.”

She looked from Sean to Mitch. “You haven’t introduced us.”

“Do you want to meet him?”

Paige frowned slightly and glanced back at his father. “Maybe.”

Well, that wasn’t a yes. But it wasn’t a no.

Mitch’s heart kicked. His dad knew about Paige. The men saw each other at least twice a week at Ellie’s, and Sean had already heard about Paige before Mitch could tell him a thing. But his dad had clapped him on the shoulder over bowls of gumbo and had said, “You know what you’re doin’, havin’ her move in?”

Mitch had nodded. “Sure. She needed a place to stay. That’s what friends are for.”

“Ellie says she doesn’t want to be tied down.”

“That’s right.” Mitch had worked to seem nonchalant. But his dad knew him.

“You gotta respect that.”

Mitch had nodded again.

“You don’t push yourself on people, son. You know that.”

Mitch had swallowed hard but nodded again. “Yes, sir. I know that.” It was what Sean had taught him all his life.

Be helpful. Make yourself useful. Be grateful. Make people happy you’re around.

He’d been brought up to always think about the people around him before he thought about what he wanted. It was why he was a jack-of-all-trades. He wanted to be able to help anyone with anything they needed. He was the guy they all knew they could depend on, and he felt a lot of pride and satisfaction over that.

But that meant being whatever Paige wanted him to be. And nothing more.

“Okay, then,” Sean had nodded and turned back to his gumbo. “You’re a good man, son. You always do the right thing.”

That night Mitch had almost told Paige he loved her while they were swinging in the hammock. But he’d swallowed it as his father’s words came back to him. He wasn’t going to push himself on Paige. He’d said that from the beginning. He’d promised her he wouldn’t push. So, he could keep his feelings to himself.

He pointed again, moving Paige’s—and his—attention away from his father. “That’s Andrew. Tori’s best friend from childhood. The one who was getting married when she and Josh got together.”

Paige’s eyes widened. “I thought he ended up declaring his feelings for Tori and breaking up his wedding.”

“Yep.” Mitch grinned, as he always did when thinking about Tori as a heartbreaker.

She was so sweet and a little awkward and had, evidently, gone through high school and even most of college without a boyfriend or even dating much. But she’d been the cause of his cousin becoming celibate for a year after meeting her, and she had broken up the wedding of the season between Andrew and Senator Darbonne’s daughter Paisley. At the wedding. In