Cap’s willingness to mess with me might be one of his best qualities. Seriously? Pretending to be open to dating my sisters was a cruel, killer move. I was so ready to assume the worst about him. Cap knew I would be thinking negative shit too. As usual, he had my number.

I wish I could sit next to him rather than across the table. We could whisper to each other rather than having every word obsessed over by our fathers.

Cap fascinates me. There’s no way I can leave tomorrow. It’s too soon, and we haven’t even enjoyed a real date. I want to spend the entire day with him. Is he a morning person or grumpy as fuck before noon? I also have a creepy urge to watch him sleep. Nothing waiting for me in Ellsberg is half as impressive as the man sitting across me.

“What’s the rental market like around here?” I ask.

Cap answers quickly as if he was just waiting for me to ask. “Expensive, but we have a few houses you can stay at.”

“No,” Pop says, shaking his head. “You aren’t moving down here.”

“What’s the point of hooking us up if you don’t want us together?”

“He can drive up to Ellsberg to visit you. I’ll have someone drive down with you a few times too. Take it slow.”

“You knew Mom for like two weeks before you moved in together.”

“That’s an exaggeration,” Pop mutters and pokes angrily at his potatoes.

“Not much of one.”

“We’ll talk about it when we get back home, and your mom can join the conversation.”

“We have that contemporary rental,” Cap says while cutting into the second half of his steak. “It’s a weird layout and desperate for an aesthetic overhaul, but the ceilings and doorways are high enough that I won’t need to duck. I’ll take you out to see it tomorrow.”

“No,” Pop says again. “This is too fast.”

“I have some money saved up for the move.”

Gritting his teeth, Pop growls, “Enough.”

“I have nothing keeping me in Ellsberg.”

“What about your family?” he asks, trying to sound hurt by my comment, but his anger kills any chance he has at pulling the guilt move.

“This place makes more sense. It’s close enough for me to visit you often. There are plenty of places for me to work. And Cap lives here. I want to see him all the time, not just on weekends or after a drive.”

“We’ll talk about it later, Audrey.”

“Your father is right,” Cap says, and my heart sinks. “You should never have family squabbles in public. Well, unless you’re planning to turn the dial up to ten and add screaming to the mix. Maybe a food fight too. If you aren’t turning this disagreement into entertainment, why not talk about it later? Then before you leave tomorrow, I’ll show you the house. If you hate it, we have some others, and I’m used to ducking.”

Relieved to know Cap still wants me to move to White Horse, I return to eating. Pop pokes his meat with such intensity that I’m surprised he doesn’t crack the plate.

“The world is too fucking small,” Hayes says and orders a whiskey. “It caters to short people and their tiny needs.”

“Some tiny people are worth the hassle,” Cap replies to his father while his gaze finds me.

I smile at his compliment and keep smiling through my pop’s bitching.

“Would you want your daughter running off with a stranger after a day?” he asks Hayes.

“My daughter got knocked up by a stranger she knew for an hour. They’ve been together for over a decade. So don’t look to me for support on your fucking pity party, pal.”

Pop leans forward and growls, “Did you plan this out?”

“As if I knew what your daughter would do once she met my boy. Stop embarrassing yourself, Johansson.”

Pop shakes his head and leans back in the chair. “Audrey and I will discuss this when we get back to Ellsberg.”

“Yes, we will,” I say and smile at Cap. “I work as a barista in Ellsberg. I also know how to waitress.”

“I have a job in mind,” Cap says immediately.

“Of course, you do,” I murmur and my father pokes me in the rib cage.

“Knock it off.”

“You planned this entire thing,” I say, poking him in the arm. “Don’t pitch a fit now.”

Pop glares across the table at Hayes who doesn’t seem to notice anyone around him. He’s really into his steak and whiskey. Cap, though, only has eyes for me.

“We own a cool little place called the Kitsch Kitchenette where we serve tiny sandwiches and amuse-bouche,” the sexy giant says. “There are no menus for the food. Each day, we offer whatever the chefs want to make. People hang out and write books on their laptops or read books on their tablets.”

“Trendy hipster bullshit,” Hayes says. “Bianca Bella and Cricket got drunk and double-dared each other into creating the most pretentious twat magnet.”

“Yeah, so,” Cap says, after giving his father a quick frown, “we could use a barista.”

“Shut the fuck up about moving here,” Cooper says to Cap rather than me. “Nothing is settled until Audrey’s mom and I discuss the issue.”

I smile at Cap and shake my head as if to say, “Pop is talking through his ass. I’ve got this covered.”

My father notices my gesture and glares at me. I know he wants to scare me into behaving, but Pop raised me too well, and I don’t fear him. I know he’ll love me no matter what. I can move here and fail miserably with Cap and come crawling back to Ellsberg with my tail between my legs—and even a kid or two on my hips—and he’ll welcome me with open arms. Pop loves his family too deeply to cut any of us loose. If he had it in him, he’d have kicked Uncle Tucker to the curb when he dropped Rando on her little head.

No, my pop has a soft heart for his people. So he can huff and puff, glare and growl, and poke me under the table until my leg falls off, but I’ve got his number in the same way Cap’s got mine. That’s why I know Pop won’t stop me from moving to White Horse to give the colossal hunk across the table a chance to own my heart for good.