Jack lost count of all the people about an hour into the shindig. There were aunts, uncles, cousins, and second and third cousins. There was more food than anyone could eat, and the beer and moonshine flowed freely.

“Jack Avery, get over here and give me some sugar.” Harley, his cousin by marriage, stood with her young nubile arms stretched into the air, opening and closing her hands. He had a sneaking suspicion that Harley didn’t have familial intentions when she hugged him and grabbed his ass.

“Ow!” she squealed.

He turned to see Luanne with his cousin’s fingers bent backward.

“Hands off, Hurley,” his personal bulldog said.

“It’s Harley.” The I-have-no-boundries woman rubbed her fingers.

Luanne plastered on the fakest smile he’d ever seen. “Hands off, Harley, he’s taken.”

Harley slid her purse higher on her shoulder. “I was only being friendly.” She gave him a coquettish wink.

“Okay, you’ve been friendly, time to move along.” Luanne made a shooing motion with her hands.

He bit back a laugh. She was taking her duty as his guardian very seriously. He slung his arm around her shoulders. “Thanks, Thumbelina, she was a bit handsy.”

“Sadly, I don’t think she knows that the concept of kissing cousins is wildly inappropriate.”

He laughed. “Come on, let’s see if we can get some food.”

“Yes. I’m starved. Was that a pig they were roasting? How did they throw all this together so fast?”

“Leslie said they get together like this once a month. This was supposed to happen next weekend, so they moved it up.” They dodged a couple of boys fighting over a football.

“How many people do you think are here?” She took a plate and handed him one.

“No idea. Maybe forty?”

They filled their plates with barbeque brisket, roasted ham, potato salad, baked beans, and coleslaw. Once filled, they made their way to the table where Mimi sat. His heart squeezed and flipped when she smiled like the entire solar system revolved around him. How had he grown up without this woman in his life? It seemed very unfair.

“Did you come to sit with me, Jack Avery?” She sipped something from a mason jar.

“Yes ma’am.” He looked around the table at the faces he didn’t know, but all similar to the one he saw in the mirror every day. “If there’s room.”

“Of course. Luanne hardly takes up any space. Clyde, scoot.” Mimi made a shooing motion to an older man with gray hair that stuck up all over his head. “Jack, have you met my brother, Clyde?”

“I don’t think I have.” He went to shake the man’s hand, but realized his hands were full of food. “Nice to meet you.”

“It’s good to finally meet you. Sit, sit.”

They took their seats on the bench and dug into the food. It was the best thing he’d tasted in forever. “This is fantastic.”

Luanne said something around a mouthful of food and nodded in agreement. He ran a thumb along the side of her mouth and caught a drip of barbeque sauce. When he slowly licked the spicy goodness from the digit, her face flushed and her pupils dilated.

“Damn, son, get a room.” Clyde laughed.

“Uncle Clyde, leave them alone.” Leslie said and sat next to Jack.

“All’s I’m sayin’ is those are bedroom eyes if I ever saw ’em.” He smiled, revealing that he was missing a tooth.

“You dirty ol’ coot,” Mimi chastised, but there wasn’t any heat in the words.

“Hehe. That I am.” He swigged something from his own mason jar. “So Jack, Mimi tells me you’re in the music business.”

Jack wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Yes, sir. I’m a talent manager, and Gavin Bain and I have our own recording label.”

“Mm-hmm. I’d heard that. You need to hear my boy Beau sing. He’s about the best singer I ever heard.”

Great. Now his relatives were going to line up their ‘young ’uns’ and make him listen to them all sing. “Well, I’m not sure I’ll be in town long enough to hear him.”

“Oh, he’ll be here in a bit,” Clyde said. “He wouldn’t miss one of Mimi’s get-togethers.”

Mimi nodded while she swatted a fly. “Beau is always part of the entertainment.”

“Entertainment?” Luanne took a sip of her drink.

Leslie pushed her plate away and wiped her hands. “Oh, yes. We have music and dancing. You city folk only think you know how to party.”

“I’m not a city girl. I grew up in Zachsville, Texas. You don’t get much more Podunk than that.”

Clyde shoved a toothpick into the corner of his mouth. “So anyway, what I was sayin’, Jack, you need to listen to my Beau and give him one of them record deals.”

“Well…I…um—”

“Jack, do you still play the guitar?” Mimi asked.

Thanks for the save, Mimi.

Luanne’s head whipped around so fast he was worried she might fall off the bench. “You play guitar?”

“As I understand it he sings too. Or at least he used to.” Mimi beamed with pride.

He took a minute to digest the fact that this woman knew of his secret talent. If his mother was alive they’d be having one serious conversation. “Yes, Mimi, I still play, and I can sing a little.”

“What? Why haven’t I ever heard you sing?” Luanne had forgotten about her food.

“You probably have. I sang backup on Gavin’s last record. Our backup singer got strep throat and I had to fill in.” He shrugged and continued eating. He didn’t like talking about this subject.

Mimi clapped her hands. “When Beau gets here you two should do a duet.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“Yeah, Jack. You and Beau should definitely do a duet.” Luanne’s cat-like smirk told him she was loving his discomfort.

“We’ll have to ask Beau.” He pushed his plate away.

“Ask Beau what?” A guy a few years younger than Jack walked up to the table and squeezed Clyde’s shoulders. He extended his hand to Jack. “Beau Callen.”

“Jack Avery. And this is—”

“Luanne Price.” Luanne reached for Beau’s hand, and be damned if she wasn’t wearing the goofiest grin he’d ever seen. Sure the guy was pretty, but come on. Have some pride.

“Oh, Beau, you’re here.” Mimi smiled.

Beau bent and kissed Mimi’s cheek. “Hey, Aunt Beulah.”

Everyone at the table laughed, except Jack, Luanne, and Mimi.

Jack’s grandmother gave her great-nephew a squinty glare. “Boy, if I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times. You can call me Mimi, sweetie, or good-lookin’, but if you call me Beulah one more time I’m gonna jerk a knot in your tail.”

The table erupted in laughter again.

“This is the oldest-running feud in our family,” Leslie said. “She’s threatened to jerk a knot in his tail since he was nine years old and found out her real name. It hasn’t done one bit of good.”

Beau nuzzled Mimi’s cheek. “I’m still your favorite, though, aren’t I, Mimi?”

“Go get on that stage and sing for your supper, before I change my mind about allowing you to live. Unless you’re hungry now?”

“Nah, I’ll eat later. Let me go set up.”

Clyde began cleaning his teeth in earnest with a toothpick. “You’ll listen to my boy sing and then we’ll talk.”

“Sure.” Jack wasn’t sure what he was answering. His attention was on Luanne, who was following Beau’s progress from their table to the makeshift stage. “Really?”

The dreamy and unrepentant look she gave him caused an unfamiliar feeling to take root below his breastbone, and it wasn’t at all pleasant. If he had to name it, he’d have to call it jealousy. But that was ridiculous. He didn’t get jealous. Other men were jealous of him.

“He’s pretty,” she said with a giggle.

“Get a hold of yourself, it’s embarrassing.”

Leslie leaned into their space. “He is the best-looking of us all.” She glanced at Jack. “Present company excluded.”

“Whatever.” He did his best to pretend he didn’t care.

Leslie and Luanne laughed.

* * *

She’d been busted ogling Beau Callen, but come on. The guy was hot damn on a stick. Tall like Jack, and wiry, he had that long, confident walk of a man who knew his own sex appeal and would use it at will. His eyes, aged whiskey in sunlight, were the same color as Jack’s, and they had the same jaw, but that was where the similarities ended. Beau’s hair was blonde and the longish curls that stuck out under his cowboy hat did nothing to soften his strong, masculine face. He was rougher somehow, like life had ridden him hard and put him up wet. Sure, he joked with Mimi, but whereas Jack’s charm was an extension of him and flowed off him in waves, Beau’s was a mask he pulled on and took off at will. Maybe. Hell, what did she know?

Clyde was telling Jack that he was Beau’s manager, and he’d be negotiating his son’s contract with Jack. She took pity on the guy. “Walk with me, Jack. You don’t mind, do you Clyde?” She gave him her best Miss Corn Harvest smile.

“Um…” For a moment she worried that she might’ve poured it on a little too thick—the old guy seemed to have trouble forming words, But then he rallied. “No, that’s fine. You should get closer to the stage anyway, so you can get a good look at Beau.”

“We’ll do that. My new goal in life is to get a good look at Beau.” She winked and everyone laughed. Everyone except Jack, who pinched her arm. “Ouch.”

He took her by the hand and led her behind an old garage. Once they were out of sight he put her back to the worn boards of the building, anchored her with his body, and kissed the ever-lovin’ shit out of her. “So you want to get a better look at Beau?”

“Yes—ahhh…”

His warm fingers traced the skin above the v-neck of her tank. Goosebumps danced along the swell of her breast. His soft lips were at her ear. “I can think of better things for you to do with your time, Luanne.”

“Oh, really?” She’d meant the words to sound sassy, but they came out on a needy moan as, one torturously slow kiss after another, he made his way along her jaw to her mouth. The fragrance of the azaleas and rhododendrons that circled Mimi’s yard, combined with his wicked tongue, made it hard to think, let alone be sassy.

His hand moved to cradle her face, and his mouth hovered just above hers. “Want me to show you?”

Control. She needed to wrestle back control. Her hand went to the back of his head and she grabbed a handful of his hair with the intent of guiding his mouth to hers. He resisted her attempts to pull him closer, lingering a hair’s breadth away from her lips. With each stroke of his thumb on her cheek she found she didn’t much care who was in charge as long as he kissed her. “Yes.”

“Now, who do you want to get a better look at?”

She tilted her head up to try to reach his lips. “I don’t know. I think I need to be taught a lesson.”

He pulled back with a triumphant look. “I think you do too, but one of these eighty-nine kids will probably be running around that corner any minute. So later.”

“You’re an ass. You only wanted to get me all hot and bothered to show me you could.” He didn’t deny it. “You’re the worst.”

He flashed that grin that turned her insides to goo. “And the best. Never forget it.”

Instead of anger, lust slammed into her like a bull on a rampage. “Stop saying things like that. This isn’t the time or the place.”

“You’re right, sorry.”

His quick admission of wrongdoing threw her off. “Okay, what’s up? This is about more than that good-looking cousin of yours.”

He rested his forehead against hers. A sigh slipped through his lips. “Mitch paid for most of my college and some of law school. My mother told me the money for college was from a teacher fund she’d set up when she went to work for the district, and I had no reason to question her.” He straightened and stared out at the large oak trees dotting the yard. “I had scholarships that covered a lot of my school, but not all of it, not to mention my living expenses after I moved out of the dorm. That all came from him.”

“Really?”

“That’s what Mimi said. I can’t get my head around any of it. Am I just being a…pussy-man?”

She gave a half-hearted laugh, but she couldn’t get her head around it either. His father had contributed thousands of dollars to his education, anonymously. Asking for nothing in return. In fact, except for a weird twist of fate, Jack would’ve never have found out.

Who did that? What kind of love must you have to make that kind of sacrifice? Before she could spend too much time pondering those questions the music fired up, and a voice like she’d never heard before filled the air. “Oh, my.”

* * *

Jack stood there with his lids lowered and let the sound sink into his pores. Raw and gritty with a dirty southern rock vibe, Beau’s voice punched him in the gut, made him want to cry and grab Luanne and kiss her until she didn’t know her name. “Damn. He’s good.” He looked at her and grinned. “I want him.”

She grinned back and winked. “So do I.”

His arm went around her neck and he growled into her ear. “Not a chance. Come on, let’s go see my next client.”

While they’d been behind the shed, Mimi’s backyard had filled up with half the town. Some were dancing, some were in lawn chairs, and some were milling around by the food tables. White carnival lights strung in the trees had been turned on and fireflies flickered on the edge of the yard. The whole scene looked like a Mumford & Sons music video.

Beau was set up on a flatbed trailer with his guitar, a mic, a bass player, and a drummer. And good Lord, could he sing, but more than that he had the crowd eating out of his hands. His stage presence was like a seasoned pro. His interaction with the women standing in front of the stage was what most entertainers work their whole careers to cultivate. In fact the only other person he’d ever seen as good with a crowd was Gavin, and this guy might be able to teach his best client some tricks.

Luanne elbowed him. “Somebody’s trying to get your attention.”

She nodded to the other side of the yard, where Clyde stood alternately waving at him and pointing to Beau.

“This is going to be painful.”

“Yep.”

“I’ll pay you to go deal with him.” He reached into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a hundred-dollar bill.

She held up her hand to stop him. “Your money’s no good here, mister.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“Not on your life. This is your family. You may as well learn to deal with them now. I’m going to stand next to the stage with the rest of the groupies.”

“You’re going to throw yourself at him, aren’t you?”

“No comment. But if you see a pair of underwear sail through the air, know that I tried but failed to control myself.”

“You’re embarrassing.”

“True, but I feel good about it.”

He laughed. “You’ll be back.”

She gave him a finger wave without turning around.

She’d be back.