Twenty

Julia

“Why the hell am I awake this early?” I asked, squinting blearily into the hot West Texas sun.

It was only eight o’clock, and already, it was ninety-five degrees outside. The weather was hot and dry and dusty. I could already see the characteristic red haze on the horizon that meant this Fourth of July weekend was doomed.

“Maverick is in the marathon,” Sutton said next to me. Her son, Jason, was passed out on a blanket on the parade line, and I seriously considered joining him. “I had to be here before seven. Be glad you got to miss the opening and all that. I barely got a kiss before he took off.”

“Why would anyone want to run a marathon in this Texas heat?”

Sutton shrugged. “He’s obsessed. This is his third this year. He’s constantly training. He runs, like, a hundred miles a week. Ten to fifteen every morning before he goes to work.”

My eyes rounded as large as plates. “Um…that sounds horrible.”

“Doesn’t it?” she said with a laugh. “But I like him sexy and sweaty. Jason usually naps when Mav gets back before work. Very convenient.”

I laughed. “Oh, I bet.”

“How long does it take for Heidi to get waters?” Sutton grumbled. “It’s so effing hot out here.” She fanned herself with her hand and sighed. With warmth, her eyes drifted down to her sleeping son. “At least he’s happy.”

“Where’s everyone else anyway?” I asked. “I didn’t think that I would be the first one here or else I would have slept in.”

“As if Heidi would have let you sleep in.”

“Truth.”

“All the guys and Mor are bringing in the first interview candidate.”

“For the CFO position?”

Sutton nodded. “Some guy from California.”

“Why the hell would he come here for the Fourth of July?”

“No idea. I’m only half in the know since I’m not working for the company.” She flipped her head over and pulled her ombré’d brown-and-blonde hair up into a ponytail. “Not that I want to work for the company.”

“Well, you have Jason.”

“Even if I didn’t,” she said swiftly.

“I didn’t want to work with my family either,” I said softly. Not that it was even remotely relatable to what her family did.

“It’s just…they all expect it, you know?” Sutton said with a sigh. “It’s not enough that Mav works there. Mor looks down on me because I want to stay home. There’s nothing wrong with loving babies and wanting to raise a family!”

“I think you should do whatever makes you happy. It’s your life.”

Sutton grinned wickedly. “Oh, I do.”

“Here you go, bitches,” Heidi said, tossing each of us a water bottle.

I glanced around at all the children in the vicinity. “Language?”

“Eh, they’ll hear it one day.” She shrugged. “So, I heard from Landon, and he should be here soon. They just found a parking spot. And Emery is coming with her sister’s family.”

“Oh, Jason will be so happy that Lilyanne and Bethany are here!” Sutton said, referring to Emery’s sister, Kimber’s, kids.

I downed my water bottle while we waited for everyone to show up. It was supposed to get up to an unspeakable one hundred twelve degrees today. I was already melting, and it was only going to get worse.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about the interviews for the CFO position. Austin had been doing so well. It was one thing to know that interviews were going to go on. To know that he wasn’t going to get the job. It was another thing entirely to see the interviews happening and have the person in his space. I really didn’t want anything like that to make him relapse.

Emery and Kimber along with her husband, Noah, and their two kids showed up first, waking Jason up from his nap in the process. He didn’t seem to mind after he saw Bethany. She was only six months older than him, and they got along great. Lilyanne was the oldest, bossing them around like oldest siblings did.

The first marching band was coming down Buddy Holly Avenue when the rest of the Wrights showed up. Jensen was in the lead with a guy to his right, who was somehow even taller than Jensen. Didn’t see many guys like that. Morgan was dwarfed on the other side of the new guy. Landon, Austin, and Patrick followed in their wake.

It was like the Cullens entering the high school cafeteria. People stopped and stared at the gorgeous, untouchable Texas royalty. They seemed oblivious to the attention. Of course, they probably were used to it.

“Hey, everyone,” Jensen said when he reached the spot Sutton had been saving for all of us for over an hour. “I’d like to introduce David Calloway. He’s here all weekend, interviewing with the company. You’ve already met Emery, but this is her family. This is my little sister, Sutton, with her son, Jason, and Austin’s girlfriend, Julia.”

David held his hand out and shook with everyone. “Pleasure to meet you all. Thank you for letting me crash your family holiday.”

“That’s all right,” Sutton said. “The more, the merrier.”

We all said our own welcome, and then the formalities dissipated since we were overtaken by the marching band.

Austin moved to my side and kissed me full on the mouth. “Fuck, I missed you,” he said against my lips.

“I missed you, too. How are you doing with all of this?”

He shrugged and tugged me a bit further from the rest of his family. “It’s fine.”

“You say that, and I don’t believe you.”

“Okay. It fucking sucks. The entire thing feels utterly ridiculous. This guy is some big shot from Silicon Valley. What the fuck does he want to do with Wright Construction? For that matter, what the fuck does he even know about the business? He’s never been in construction before. I know he’s qualified, but we’d have to train him from the start. I already know the job. I’ve always known the job. The whole thing could be avoided so easily if they just went back to the board.”

It was the first time I’d heard Austin talk so frankly about wanting the job. I knew that he had been mad and had been trying to stop drinking to make himself look better for the company. Also, for his health and me, and I was sure a million other reasons in his head. But he really sounded like he cared here.

“You really appreciate this company, don’t you?”

“Yes,” he said automatically. He ran a hand back through his hair and glanced off to see the kids rushing the brick-lined street to grab candy. “I feel like this was an eye-opener.”

“How so?”

“Like I’ve just been getting by. I didn’t really care what happened as long as I could continue my life the way it was. Now…that doesn’t feel like enough.”

It was probably because he was thinking clearly for the first time in years. With a depressant clogging his system, it was no surprise that he hadn’t given two fucks about what happened in his life. And, now that he was pulling way back, he was seeing all the mistakes he’d made.

“What are you going to do about it?” I asked.

He shrugged. “What can I do?”

“Anything you set your mind to.”

“I can’t get the CFO position.”

“Do you really want it?”

He opened his mouth and then closed it. “No one’s ever really asked me that.”

“Well?”

“I do want it. But I don’t know if I want it because it was always the position I thought I would get or if it’s because that’s what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

“Then, maybe figure out what you do want to do with the rest of your life and go from there.”

He swept an arm around my waist. “What would I do without you?”

“You’d be lost,” I assured him.

“Probably true.”

“So, what do you think of this David guy besides the fact that you don’t think he should get the position?”

“I didn’t say that. I said that we’d have to train him.” Austin sighed and rolled his eyes dramatically. “I kind of like the guy.”

“So begrudging.”

“I really want to hate him.”

“But you don’t?”

“Nah. He seems like a good guy, smart as a whip, and charming. It’s kind of not fair.”

“As if any of you Wrights know about what’s fair.”

“Watch it, babe,” he said with a grin.

I laughed and dragged him back over to his family. We sat on a quilt to watch the parade pass us. Austin grabbed us breakfast biscuits at the halfway point. I chowed down, enjoying the ease with which I now fit into the Wright family unit. It was crazy to me to think that, during Memorial Day weekend, I had been an interloper on their festivities, and now that I was dating Austin, I fit right in. It had been a long time since I felt like I was part of a family. And the Wrights were above and beyond.

I found myself really relaxing for the first time in a long, long time. Austin made me feel safe. As if it wasn’t me versus the world for once. I wanted to keep my guard up, but I couldn’t seem to do it. Despite my past, I wanted to get lost in Austin. After our art classes, it was hard not to see how sincere he was about our relationship. And even better was there hadn’t been any more Maggie sightings. No more room to second-guess our newfound happiness.

Once the parade finally ended, the first of the marathon runners started to come to the finish line, which had been erected only a dozen yards from where we were seated. Sutton had clearly picked this spot on purpose.

“It’ll probably be another hour before Mav comes through,” Sutton explained to the rest of her family. “These people are insane with their times.”

“Watch out, Sutton. You might need a twenty-six-point-two sticker for the back of your car soon,” Morgan teased.

“Mav already has one,” she said, not taking the bait.

“I know how much you love running.”

“Adore it. My favorite thing ever.” Sutton gagged. “I like it as much as you like babies.”

Morgan cracked up. “I like Jason.”

“He doesn’t count. You have to love him.”

“Fair.”

“You both are ridiculous,” I said with a laugh.

“Truth,” Morgan said. “I don’t like babies. Sutton hates running. What about you?”

“Heights. I’ve never liked them, but a couple of years ago, I…” I trailed off. What the hell had I been about to say? I couldn’t tell them that story. “I don’t know. They just freak me out.”

“Understandable,” Sutton said.

“I don’t mind heights. It’s the falling that would bother me,” Morgan said.

Sutton laughed and pushed Morgan. “They go hand in hand!”

“Yeah, they do,” I said softly.

I was glad when they changed the subject.

David came and sat down on our blanket. He was dressed comfortably, like the rest of us, in khakis and a cerulean polo. He and Morgan seemed to hit it off right away. I found that most people got along with Morgan if they had a real personality and didn’t threaten her family. She would cut you faster than you could blink if you did anything to her family. But seeing her with David made it very obvious that they could work together well.

“And you work for the company, too?” he asked.

I nodded. “I do. I’m head of HR.”

“Wonderful to meet you. Did you grow up here as well?”

“No, I’m the only transplant. I moved here from Ohio.”

“That must have been a big change.”

“It was,” I agreed. “I would assume as big as coming from northern California.”

He laughed easily. “Yes. Though you have snow.”

“True. It doesn’t snow that much here.”

Morgan rolled her eyes. “It snows enough for me.”

“I’m glad I never have to shovel another driveway in my life.”

“I could see that,” David said. “Things seem…slower here. California is always go, go, go. Do you love it?”

“Well, I would say that Wright is still go, go, go,” I told him. “But Lubbock is definitely a slower pace. It has that nice small-town vibe in a bigger city.”

“I’ve noticed that. I like it so far. Different than I expected.” His eyes turned to Sutton. “And you don’t work for the company, right?”

“I’m the only one,” she said, though her eyes were glued to Jason where he played with Bethany and Lilyanne.

“He’s adorable. Yours right?”

She nodded. “He looks just like his dad though. I had to carry him for nine months, and he came out looking like someone else. Not exactly fair.”

David laughed boisterously. It was the first completely genuine look I’d seen on his face. I could see why everyone liked him.

I turned to Austin and found him joking around with Patrick. Their bromance was pretty ridiculous, but at the same time, I enjoyed it. I liked that Austin wasn’t a loner. I liked everything about this situation right now.

I had just about had as much heat as I could handle before the Wright barbeque this afternoon. I turned to tell Austin that maybe we should head out when Sutton jumped to her feet. Someone was breathlessly screaming her name.

My eyes shot to a girl wearing a marathon number and flagging as she approached Sutton.

“Annie,” Sutton said, “what’s going on with you?”

“Mav,” Annie got out. “Mav…Mav, he collapsed.”

“What?” she gasped. Her body was so still. As if she couldn’t process what had just been said. “Is he okay? Where is he?”

“About a mile back. They were going to send an EMT, but I just took off to come get you. They’re taking him to the hospital. I don’t know what’s wrong. We had almost made it all the way. One minute, we were joking about hugging you with how sweaty we were. The next, he was on the ground. You…you need to get to the hospital right away.”

My jaw dropped open at her words. Maverick had collapsed while running, and they had to rush him to the hospital. That wasn’t normal. And Sutton was as white as a ghost.

“We’ll take care of Jason,” Kimber said at once, shuffling him in with her kids.

“Thank you,” Sutton gasped out before dashing from the parade route without another word.

Morgan chased after her.

I offered her friend Annie a bottle of water. She gratefully took it in her shaky hands and downed it.

“You can come with us, Annie,” Jensen offered.

“Thank you,” she said, abandoning her number, so close to the finish line.

“We should all probably go to the hospital to find out what’s going on,” Jensen said. He began apologizing to David, who immediately fended him off.

But fear pricked at me. “Do you think he’s okay?” I asked Annie.

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. “I don’t know.”