Good Enough (Meet Me in Montana #3) - Kelly Elliott Page 0,108

was a long time ago, so I wasn’t sure what was going on.

“You know, I’m not sure,” my mother stated. “Dirk, do they still grow trees?”

“What?” Dirk asked as he glanced up from the strawberry he had been staring at.

“The Eden family, do they still sell Christmas trees?”

“I’m not sure. Last I heard, their son Michael was running that part of the farm.”

There was a moment of silence in the kitchen and I turned to look at my mother. She wore a smile on her face that said she was about to go in for the kill.

Oh, holy hell.

“I know when I talked to Lori Eden—” She looked at Kaylee and Timberlynn. “She’s the mother.”

They both nodded to show they were keeping up.

“When I talked to Lori, she mentioned that Merit was back in Hamilton for good. She’s working on the farm, but I totally forgot to ask about Michael.”

I couldn’t hide my smile. My mama was good. Damn good. Dirk stared at her with a befuddled expression. I made a mental note to ask Brock about Dirk and Merit, and then let it slip to Kaylee. She’d bug the hell out of Dirk about it.

“Merit’s back in town? For good?” Dirk finally managed to ask, his voice sounding a little off.

Kaylee turned and looked at him, as did Timberlynn.

“Did y’all date?” Kaylee asked, clearly noticing his reaction.

Dirk dropped his eyes down and laughed. “Why would you ask me that?”

“Your tone changed.”

His brows crinkled. “What do you mean, my tone changed? Nothing changed.”

“It did change, I noticed it too,” Timberlynn said with a grin. I couldn’t hold it in. I laughed out loud, and Dirk shot me a look that said I needed to stop, or he was going to throttle me. I held up my hands in defense and looked at my mother.

She wore a huge smile on her face as she started mixing together some kind of dough.

Clearing his voice, Dirk stated, “Nothing changed, you’re both insane.”

“Normally when you talk about girls you went to school with, your tone is normal. But when you talked about…what was her name again, Stella?” Kaylee asked.

“Merit,” my mother and I said at the same time, neither of us missing a beat. Dirk shot me another dirty look.

“When you talked about Merit, your voice went slightly higher,” Kaylee said.

Dirk laughed. Hard. “Your pregnancy brain is playing tricks on you, sweetheart.”

Then my mother really went in for the kill. “I do believe you were her first kiss, at least that is what her mama always says. Dirk Littlewood was the first boy to ever kiss my little Merit back behind the chicken coop! Imagine that, a pro bull rider kissing my little Merit!”

Everyone in the room laughed…everyone except for Dirk. “We were ten, for fuck’s sake! How does that count or even matter?”

My mother chuckled. “She always did think you two would end up together. You always were like peas and carrots. I imagine she’d probably talk about the whole barn incident, if given the chance.”

Dirk’s face went pale. “Wh-what? How do you even know about that?”

With a wink, my mother answered, “Roger told Ty Senior. Said he was about ready to rip your head off the night he caught the two up there in the hay loft.”

Dirk gave her a smug grin. “I’d imagined he was a bit pissed, considering we had been…doing more than kissing.”

My mother huffed. “Lori might be happy to brag about that early on kiss, but Roger isn’t very keen on his daughter losing her virginity to a bull rider who was supposed to be like a brother to his daughter.”

“Oh. My. Gawd!” Kaylee gasped.

“What!” Timberlynn shrieked as she turned and looked at Dirk. “You were ten when you lost your virginity?”

Kaylee reached over and smacked Timberlynn on the back of the head.

“Ouch! What in the heck, Kaylee?!” Timberlynn said as my mother and I both laughed.

“He was ten when they first kissed, fool, not when he popped her cherry!” Kaylee corrected as only she could.

Timberlynn’s mouth made the cutest little O as it all settled into place for her. Damn if she wasn’t the sweetest thing. Her gaze met mine and she half shrugged as I laughed.

“You lost your virginity to the…to the girl next door! How romantic is that!” Kaylee busted out, then fell into a fit of laughter.

“Ha ha. She was hot, and just to be clear, Timberlynn, we were both in high school when we had sex, and she was the one who lost