Four songs. Buddy had counted four songs since Maude and Lucy had gone to the restroom. Bailey had trailed behind them, thus letting the two girls feel grown up but ensuring their safety. But now, as the fifth song ended, Buddy grunted and went off in search of the girls.

He made his way into the main dining room and headed toward the restrooms, all the while scanning the space for Bailey’s curly, burnished locks because, despite her small stature, Bailey’s wild curls were generally the most noticeable thing in the room.

He was almost to the restrooms when he saw Bailey standing by one of the tables in the center of the pub, holding hands with Maude and Lucy. Lucy was talking animatedly, making wild gestures with her hands, a sure sign that she was enjoying herself, and Bailey and Maude both had grins on their faces. After laying eyes on them, he was about to turn around and head back to the patio when he caught Lucy’s eyes and she waved to him excitedly, so he had no choice but to go over to the table. He was glad he did, because as he stepped up to the table, he saw Miss Mayhew.

“Daddy! Look who’s here! It’s Miss Mayhew!” Lucy skipped up to Buddy, grabbed his hand, and began to tug him over to the table. “And she’s got her mama and daddy with her.” So distracted by Miss Mayhew’s bright eyes and flashing grin lighting up the table, he almost missed that there were two other people sitting with her.

“Hello, Miss Mayhew. It’s nice to see you again.” He bobbed his head at her. Real smooth, Buddy. Real smooth. Not that he should be worried about being smooth with his daughter’s teacher, but still, he couldn’t quite resist smoothing his shirt and worrying if his beard had crumbs stuck to it.

“Hello, Mister—Buddy,” Molly said, catching herself. “Please, call me Molly outside of school.”

“All right, I can do that.” He felt his mouth turn up into a grin, and when her smile grew, he found himself responding in kind.

Molly introduced her parents to Buddy, and Buddy could feel Barbara Mayhew studying him. He wasn’t quite sure what to think about that. He made small talk with all the people at the table until Bailey excused herself to get back to the baby, leaving Buddy with the Mayhews and the two kindergarteners.

“Oh, it’s Mister Toby! He’s playing tonight. We have to go dance, Lucy.” Maude tugged at Lucy’s hand, pulling her toward the small stage, where a huge bear of a man was setting up a pedal steel guitar. “Come on, Lucy!”

“Daddy? May I?”

“Well, uh . . .”

“One song, little babydoll. And then we gotta pack it in.” Colin had stepped up to the table, and Lucy and Maude took off to the dance floor. “Oh, Miss Mayhew, it’s nice to see you.”

“I’m going to tell you what I told Buddy—please call me Molly when we’re not in school.”

“Sure thing, Molly.” Colin bobbed his head and then huffed a laugh. “My girls are dancing fools when it comes to Tobias Harper,” he said with a nod to toward the small dance floor, where Bailey was shimmying with baby Nora on her hip. Lucy and Maude danced next to her, holding hands and swinging around. Bailey crooked a finger at Colin, who grinned and made his way to the dance floor.

Buddy watched everyone dance until Lucy ran over to him and tugged on his hand.

“Looks like I’m wanted on the dance floor,” Buddy said while Lucy pulled him toward the clear area in front of the stage. “It was nice meeting all of you.”

He danced with Lucy and Maude, doing line dances and silly made-up moves for longer than a mere one song. In fact, they danced until way past the girls’ bedtime, only stopping when Tobias took a break and Colin put his foot down and insisted they go home. Bailey murmured something in his ear, and he gave her a serious look and then jerked his chin up in agreement and took the baby.

“Maude has been asking for Lucy to sleep over again. Why don’t we take her home, especially since it’s so late, and you can have some adult time and pick her up tomorrow morning?” Bailey looked at Buddy expectantly. “I know they’d both love it, Buddy.”

Buddy looked at his daughter and niece, who were still dancing even though there was no music, and nodded. “Sure. But she doesn’t have any . . .”

“Oh, please, Buddy. Like we don’t have a million nighties? She’ll be fine.”

“Okay, Sis. Thanks. She’ll have a blast.” Buddy gave Bailey a smooch on the cheek. “In a few weeks, it’s my turn, okay?”

“Okay.” Bailey did a little clap. “Maude, Lucy, guess what?”

Buddy laughed at the girls’ squeal of delight when Bailey told them about the sleepover, but he also felt a small pang at the fact that she wanted to be somewhere he was not. Last year, he couldn’t have convinced Lucy to spend the night without him for all the cupcakes and unicorns on the planet. Bailey and Colin were stable and sensible, though, and he didn’t think twice about letting Lucy stay over.

But “adult time”? What the hell was he going to do? Have wild monkey sex? Drink copious amounts of booze? Run with scissors?

As if reading his mind, Colin leaned over to him and said in a low voice, “Miss Mayhew is unsupervised and drinking alone at the bar.” Colin did a very unsubtle head nod toward the bar, and Bailey just shook her head as if in complete befuddlement of how Colin could be so socially awkward in some situations.

Sure enough, Molly Mayhew was sitting at the bar. She had a pint and a shot in front of her and was obviously trying not to laugh at Meghan and Jason Richards’s bickering. Jason’s twin brother, Ryan, who was sitting next to Jason at the bar, didn’t bother hiding his laughter. Ryan was laughing so hard he was almost doubled over, hanging on to his boyfriend, Junior, who had tears of mirth running down his face.

After Buddy kissed Lucy good-bye and sent her on to her cousin’s house, he joined the group at the bar, where Jason and Meghan were still arguing and Ryan and Junior were still laughing.

“And another thing, Jason Richards,” the raven-haired, tattooed beauty was saying, “you are the most stubborn person I’ve ever had the misfortune of coming in contact with.”

“I’m stubborn? I’m stubborn? Oh my God. Hello, pot. Ryan, she thinks I’m stubborn.” Jason gawped at his brother. “Back me up, Bubba.”

Ryan stopped laughing for a moment, his face serious. “Jase, I can honestly say . . . that she is absolutely correct.” And then he started laughing again.

Jason shook his head. “See what bullshit I have to put up with? Oh, and thanks for having my back, Matchmaker,” he scoffed.

Buddy held up his hands. “Man, I do not get in the middle of sibling shit.”

“Sibling shit? This is not sibling shit. Though, this is getting ready to be some sibling shit if Bubba doesn’t—”

“If Bubba doesn’t what? Hmm?” Ryan snickered. “Oh, you’re just mad because you have to cook and take out the garbage now that I’m not living with you anymore.”

Jason repeated Ryan’s statement in a mocking voice and then drank a big gulp of beer. His brother planted a big, smacking kiss on his cheek.

“You know I love ya, you big baby. I gotta go. I’ve been up for thirty-six hours, dude. I gotta get some sleep before Family Sunday. Ready, Junior?”

Junior, who had wisely kept his opinions to himself, nodded and slid off his barstool. “Yep. Come on. Let’s not make this a half-hour good-bye session. Come on, chulo.” Junior grabbed Ryan by the back of the neck and planted a kiss directly on his mouth. Ryan seemed to melt against him until Junior broke the kiss and whispered something in his ear.

“Oh yeah. We’re outta here. Bye, guys. And gals. Molly, it was nice meeting you. Meghan, hang in there, babe. Call me if you need anything.”

More good-byes were said, and Jason decided he needed to go as well. Soon, only Buddy and Molly were left. Meghan was serving another customer at the other end of the bar, and Molly and Buddy sat next to each other, a pint and a shot in front of both of them.

“So . . . .” Buddy began but then stopped because he couldn’t really think of anything that didn’t sound lame or a like a pickup line, or even worse, a lame pickup line.

Molly surprised him by laughing. “Yes, exactly.” She stuck out her hand. “Hi, I’m Molly, and I don’t really know how to talk to grown-ups.”

Buddy took her hand, and little zings of electricity zipped where his skin made contact with hers.

“Hi, I’m Buddy, and I’m the same.” Exactly the same.