Shine Not Burn (43 page)

“What?!”
 
Guilt overwhelmed me.
 
Here I’d been sleeping all morning while everyone else worked.
 
What an asshole.

I heard laughter and then the voices of men shouting instructions to each other coming through the front door.

“Shit,” I said, going back to grab the dress and some underwear before running on tiptoes into the bathroom.
 
Time to shower, shave, and get with the program, Andie.
 
You can be an asshole and break everyone’s hearts later.

I caught a glimpse of Mack coming up the stairs as I closed the door.
 
I locked it and waited for him to come close.
 
When the sound of his footsteps stopped outside the door I spoke, using my most commanding tone.
 
“Don’t even think of sneaking in here again, Mack.
 
I know you’re out there.
 
I have to shower and shave so I can help.”

“I wouldn’t dream of interfering in that.”
 
He was messing with me, I could tell.
 
I held onto the lock just in case he was trying to jimmy it open.
 
“I just came up to see if you needed anything else.”

“No.
 
I’m fine.” I bit my lip, wrestling with myself, embarrassed and touched that he’d gone out of his way for me.
 
“And thanks for the dress.
 
And the shoes.
 
That was … very thoughtful.”

“I’m a thoughtful guy.
 
I’ll be downstairs waiting for you.”

“Don’t wait for me,” I said, resting my head on the door.

“Don’t make me wait too long this time,” he said, ignoring the double meaning in my words.
 
Or maybe he was giving me some of his own.
 
His mouth was just a door’s width away.
 
I could picture his full lips and the feel of his tongue on mine. I rested my hand against the wood, knowing I could just let him in and feel him inside me once more before it was all over.
 
The temptation was driving me insane.

“Why can’t you just let me go?” I asked, almost pleading.
 
This was the dumbest place in the world to be having this conversation, but that was just par for the course with me, I guess.
 
Careless does as careless is.

“I can’t let you go because you’re mine.
 
And because I can’t stand to see you sad.
 
I’m going to fix that.
 
You sure you don’t need me in there right now?
 
I could cheer you up real quick, I promise.”

I could picture the devilish smile on his face, and I couldn’t help but respond in kind.

“I might be wallowing in misery, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be dead-ass lame and not help with your family’s once-a-year family picnic.
 
Stop trying to distract me.”

“That’s the spirit.
 
Grandma Lettie’s coming with her beef brisket, you know.”

I giggled.
 
“So I heard.”

“Well hurry up, then.
 
Those tables aren’t going to put themselves out.”

My heart was soaring over the teasing we were enjoying together.
 
He made the atmosphere that had threatened to suffocate me ten times lighter, and his attitude made me believe that life could be so much simpler and uncomplicated if I just said yes to what he was offering.

I was tempted to open the door and yank him in with me, but the sound of his whistling near the stairs stopped me.
 
It was better that we didn’t do anything else to make my leaving any harder.
 
My hand dropped away from the door and I turned around, sighing.

Stepping into the warm shower, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.
 
I might be facing an apocalyptic event with Bradley showing up in the middle of everything and forcing a very public, very ugly breakup, but at least for now I had a pretty new dress to wear and a famous beef brisket to look forward to.
 
What the hell is a beef brisket, anyway?

Chapter Thirty-Nine

THE FIRST GUESTS FOR THE MacKenzie’s annual picnic and rodeo began arriving around eleven in the morning.
 
A party rental company had set up three large tents earlier to provide shade not only for the guests but also for the band that was in the process of setting up to entertain everyone with eighties rock classics.
 
The food was set out on a long banquet table, and as people arrived, they added their dishes to the offerings.
 
Nearly a hundred people stood in groups, laughing, smiling and talking

I found myself standing alone when several of the guests and family moved as one big group towards the front of the house.
 
Most of my focus was on Mack and the jeans that hugged his amazing rear end and the black t-shirt that stretched across his thick back.
 
He had his best cowboy hat on today, a light cream color with a thin black band around the top.
 
Just looking at him had me going warm in all the wrong ways and in all the most inappropriate places.
 
This picnic was going to last forever with him there torturing me like that, just out of my reach … the perfect male, so close and yet so far.

I took a deep breath to calm my libido down a notch or two. That’s all I could manage with him looking like he did today.
 
It was going to be a helluva long picnic.

A huge cadillac that looked like it was built in the sixties drove up to the front gate and parked before going all the way through.
 
Curious, I wandered over, keeping my distance from the MacKenzie clan and the many townspeople who’d already arrived.
 
The driver’s door opened and then shut, but I didn’t see an actual person getting out.
 
It wasn’t until she made it up to the front of the car that I realized why.

“Grandma Lettie, I presume,” I said softly into the empty air around me.
 
Maeve and Angus fawned over her, and she accepted their hugs and kisses with some of her own.
 
She stood less than five feet tall and had wispy bluish-gray hair that floated around her head like a cloud.
 
Ian took the car keys from her and moved the huge vehicle off to the side, parking it out of the way.

The group of welcomers moved with her in my direction, and I shifted off to the side to give them room to get by.
 
Mack was carrying a big oval pan with a lid on it that had come from her trunk, and I could tell by the way his muscles were bulging under his t-shirt that it was heavy.

As they drew near, Maeve leaned down and spoke in her ear.
 
The older woman’s head shot up and her eyes searched the area until they landed on me.
 
She pointed with a bony finger in my direction and the whole group shifted trajectory, no longer headed towards the banquet table but towards me instead.

My heart began beating faster and sweat beaded up on my lip.
 
I quickly swiped it away and stood as tall as I could before she got near.
 
I felt like I was going before the appellate court judges with a crappy case file in hand and no pants on.

“Who’s this young lady?” she asked when she was about four feet away, her watery blue eyes taking my measure.
 
Her expression gave me no clue as to what she was thinking.

I held out my hand and stepped forward.
 
“I’m Andie.
 
It’s nice to meet you.”

She took my hand in a surprisingly strong grip and squeezed.
 
“Nice to meet you, too.
 
I hear you’re part of the family.”

My heart stopped for a few seconds and then raced to catch up.
 
“Ummm … yes … I guess I am.”

I could feel Mack’s gaze burning into me, but I kept my eyes locked on the old woman.
 
Her baby blue housedress matched the white cardigan over her shoulders and white patent leather low-heeled sandals perfectly.
 
Her hair had obviously been done special for the occasion.
 
Even though she wasn’t much bigger than a hobbit and had more wrinkles than a year-old raisin lost in the back of the pantry, she was still intimidating as hell.

“How do you like it here so far?
 
I was told you’ve been here a few days.” She kept a grip on my hand, so I did the same with hers, not wanting her to feel like she was hanging onto a dead fish.
 
I kept my fingers wrapped softly around her delicate, birdlike hand, marveling in the strength I could sense there.

“I’ve been here two days, actually, and I like it a lot.
 
It’s gorgeous here.”
 
I wasn’t shining her on, either.
 
The beauty that Maeve had spoken of on my first night was obvious to me now.
 
I would miss it greatly when I left.

“This place gets into your bones and never lets you go.”
 
She continued to hold my hand as she turned.
 
“Come on over here with me and show me what you’ve done.”

“What I’ve done?”
 
My voice went up an octave, wondering if she was talking about what I thought she was talking about.
 
How does she know about me and Mack?

“The food, darlin’, the food.”
 
She gestured to the banquet table covered in dishes with foil on them.
 
“What’d you make?
 
What’s your specialty?”

I breathed out a sigh of relief.
 
“Oh, I didn’t make anything.
 
Maeve did it all.”

“Don’t you cook?” She looked a little bit outraged, and it was hard not to smile at her reaction.

“No, not really.
 
I never learned.”

“Well, what about your mother?
 
Didn’t she cook?”

I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. My mother didn’t do a whole lot of anything other than act as a human punching bag for life’s biggest losers, but I wasn’t going to tell Grandma Lettie that.
 
I had a feeling she’d ask why my mother hadn’t cut their testicles off.

“Not everyone comes from a family of great cooks, Grandma,” said Mack, setting her dish down on the table.
 
“Maybe you can teach Andie a few things.”

“Sounds like I’m going to have to,” she said, once again focused on getting to the table.
 
She took careful steps, but they were solid.
 
I had a feeling she didn’t need to hold onto me, that she was just keeping me close so she could conduct her interrogation.

I glanced at Mack to find him grinning at both of us, like he was enjoying some inside joke.
 
I stuck my tongue out at him but that only seemed to make him happier.

“Lift up the lid there,” she ordered, pointing at her pan.

I did as she asked.
 
The only thing visible inside was a big hunk of aluminum foil.

“That there’s a beef brisket.
 
Best one you’ll ever taste, guaranteed.
 
I don’t mess around when it comes to brisket.”

I nodded sagely.
 
“I can see that.”

She looked up at me with a frown.
 
“I don’t see how, since it’s covered in the tin foil like that.”

Ian snickered behind me, but I ignored him.
 
“But I’ve heard.
 
So I can imagine what it looks like.”
 
I smiled and nodded.

“You ever eat brisket?” she asked.

My smile fell off.
 
“Uhh … no. Can’t say that I have.”

“Then how are you able to imagine it if you’ve never even seen one?”

“I’m creative?”
 
My face went red as Ian busted out in guffaws.

She grinned at me, revealing perfect dentures.
 
“I like you.
 
You’re sassy.”

I grinned back, relief washing over me.
 
“I like you too. You’re kind of sassy yourself.”

She cackled.
 
“You’re dang right I am.
 
Life’s too short to be sickly sweet all the time, don’t you think?
 
Like that aspartame.
 
Nasty aftertaste.
 
Bah.”

I nodded.
 
“Absolutely.
 
I like the real stuff. Sugar all the way for me.”

She let go of my hand and squeezed my arm.
 
“Good. You and I are going to get along just fine.
 
She teetered in a circle and faced the clan.
 
“Now which one of my grandsons are you here with?
 
It better be one of my boys and not that Boog person, I’ll tell you what.”

Boog’s mouth fell open while everyone else laughed.
 
I dropped my gaze to the ground, too embarrassed to answer her question.
 
Mack stepped up beside me and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him firmly.
 
“She’s with me, Grandma.
 
She’s here with me.”

Grandma Lettie looked at both of us critically for a few seconds and then nodded.
 
“Good enough.”
 
Then she faced the crowd.
 
“Boog, get me a chair, will ya?
 
My feet are tired. I went to a barn dance last night and stayed up ’til one a.m.
 
Now I’m too pooped to piddle.”

Boog walked away grumbling, but he grabbed a chair and dragged it back anyway.
 
I wandered away with Mack as others closed in on Grandma Lettie, standing around her like she was visiting royalty.

“Well, that was interesting,” I said, the feeling that I’d just dodged a bullet soothing my frazzled nerves.