"So, we might as well get some brainstorming done or Miss Barton will have my hide."
Grace laid her head back. "My experience with being paid to kiss strangers and weird, animal sacrificing country fairs is fairly limited."
I scratched the side of my face. "You know, you might want to hold off on calling our traditions weird if you ever want to feel at home here."
She gave me a look. "Headless chicken festival? Come on. Don't tell me someone didn't choose that for shock factor. I'll call bullshit every day of the week."
"Fair enough," I agreed. "But it is a true story, and I tell you what, as soon as you taste some of the recipes from the chicken contest, you'll be a convert too."
"Convert or not, I have no plans to swap spit with every man in this town. So if you have any bright ideas, let’s hear it."
The sun over the mountains hit me square in the eyes when I turned toward Cooper Road Trail, so I flipped my visor down before answering. Grace did the same.
I shrugged. "Honestly, my dad was always on this committee, so I don't know a whole lot more than you do other than what I've heard second hand. Certainly nothing about a kissing booth, which I don’t particularly want to take part in, for a number of reasons."
"Blind leading the blind," she muttered.
"Seems like it."
The boot braced on the dashboard started tapping, even though the music in my truck was hardly loud enough to hear.
As I pulled into the parking lot by the trailhead at Cooper Road, I glanced at her. Grace's eyes were focused and sharp, her expensive-looking camera in her hands. My foot eased off the gas, and she lifted it to her face to snap something she saw. The trees towered over the truck when I turned slowly into an empty spot and slid the gear into park.
She was still quietly thinking when I reached behind her seat to grab the hiking boots I always kept in my truck.
"You're seriously hiking with my brother?" she asked.
I kept my eyes trained on my black dress shoes as I untied them. "Seems like it. I'd hate to leave another member of the Buchanan family alone in the wilderness on their first week here."
Grace snorted. "Grady can handle himself. He's moving here because of hikes like this."
"That so?"
"Yeah, he wants to start some outdoorsy business." Unaware of how that sharpened my interest, Grace kept talking. "He was chained to his computer at his old job in LA, absolutely hated it. When we were here for Connor's wedding, he talked to my Uncle Robert about how there's no company down here to guide people like him, or me, who want to do hikes and camping trips, rafting or whatever. You just have to hope you don't get lost, or that you have the right equipment to explore. So … he wants to start a business like that, I guess. Get paid to do what he loves."
My hands slowed as I pulled off one shoe, then the other. I felt a sharp pang of jealousy, buried deep in my chest, for a man I'd never even met.
"That's a good idea," I told her. "He have someone local he's working with?"
"Nope. One of the many reasons I think he's crazy for doing this."
I finished tying my boots and turned in my seat to look at her, my arm stretched along the back of the bench that separated us. "And yet here you are, moving across the country with him. How come?"
To my surprise, she didn't look away. It was the first time all afternoon that she'd met my gaze without irritation tightening her features or annoyance clouding her eyes. Instead, I saw confusion line her forehead, there and gone in a flash.
No answer came from Grace, and whatever tension had been missing at the beginning of the ride was tugged tight like a rope, from her right to me.
Why are you here? I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask it as much as I'd ever wanted to ask anything, and that made absolutely no sense.
My phone rang and I blinked away from Grace's direct stare.
"This is Tucker," I said, not even looking at the screen.
"How'd your meeting go?" Magnolia asked.
I almost smiled, but I couldn't. My face felt hot, like I'd been caught doing something wrong. With a quick glance at Grace, who was looking at her own phone screen, I took a deep breath and opened the truck door to step out.
"Maxine kicked me out."
"What?"
I stretched my back and smiled. "Not really. She assigned me something, didn't need me to stay at the meeting, so I'm about to hike Cooper Road before I head back to the office."
Magnolia sighed, a dainty little exhalation. "Skipping work all afternoon?"
"Not all afternoon. We haven't had rain all week, so the trail won't take longer than a couple of hours."
"All right. Don't get eaten by any bears."
I laughed. "I won't."
"Want to grab dinner tonight?"
"Yeah, dinner sounds good. What time should I pick you up?"
"I made reservations for six thirty."
That almost made me smile. Leave it to Magnolia to make reservations before she checked to see if I had plans. "Six fifteen it is."
"Love you."
I felt the words come up by rote, I'd been saying them for so long. "You too. See you tonight."
As I tucked the phone back in my pocket, Grace got out of the truck and stretched her arms over her head. With her hands visible above the roof of the truck, I caught a glimpse of a small tattoo on the inside of her wrist, and another up by the crease of her elbow.
"Was that the missus?" she asked dryly.
I shook my head and braced my arms on the bed of the truck while she did the same opposite me. Facing off with her like that gave me the same sensation as when I
