Page 56 of Love Songs

She snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Come on, kids,” Jaylin said, giggling under her breath. “I’m ready for breakfast.”

She smirked at me before marching ahead of us toward the inn’s restaurant. Dallas winked as I fell into step at his side. He mouthed, “Busted.”

I bumped my shoulder with his, then trailed my pinky finger down the back of his hand. He turned his hand over, grabbed mine and gave a quick squeeze, slanting a sexy smile my way before letting go as we entered the restaurant.

We sat at a table that overlooked Harmony Lake, and we all ordered the to-die-for French toast with cinnamon-infused maple syrup from Sam’s farm. There wasn’t anything better, as far as I was concerned.

“So. What’s your first impression of our little town so far?” I asked Jaylin while we waited for our meals to be served.

“It looks like something out of a Hallmark movie,” she replied, with a note of glee in her voice.

“I take it that’s a good thing?” I asked, having never seen a Hallmark movie before, but if it described Caldwell Crossing, then it couldn’t be a bad thing.

“Oh, yeah. That’s a good thing.” She brightened and leaned forward, her voice taking on a conspiratorial tone. “Love is always right around the corner, but the couples never realize it until the last fifteen minutes.”

Okaay. . . I shot a quick glance at Dallas, who grinned back at me.

Jaylin spent the next fifteen minutes regaling me on all things Hallmark, while Dallas watched her with so much affection, so much love, I couldn’t help but fall a little more in love with him myself.

Wait.Morein love?

My whole body jerked, the thought catching me off guard. Fortunately, our server chose that moment to appear with our food, so no one noticed.

Was I falling in love with him? I liked him a great deal. I couldn’t—and wouldn’t—deny that. But love?

I looked up to find him watching me with a sort of affectionate reverence that had my toes curling. The little crinkles in the delicate skin at the corners of his eyes were soft, and there was a gentle lift to the edges of his lips. This time, my heart and stomach joined forces, and my whole body swooned.

Shit. Iwasfalling for him. And strangely, even though the feeling had caught me off guard, it wasn’t unwelcome.

I didn’t know how we were going to work.Ifwe could, because it would figure that the first guy I went and fell for was someone with no roots. And I had roots. My roots were dug in deep and thick and fully entwined with everyone in Caldwell Crossing. My roots were twined so tightly with my three best friends, my chosen brothers, that they were inseparable, and they were growing deeper with each addition to our life tree. The fear I had of my best friends finding their people and leaving our small town hadn’t come to pass. Instead, our tight circle was only growing. But Dallas was different. Dallas was rootless, a rolling stone.

But even rocks found solid ground to settle in to . . .

I cleared my throat and picked up my utensils.

“So, what brings you back to Caldwell Crossing?” I asked Dallas, pushing my revelation away as we tucked into our tantalizing gourmet breakfast. “How long are you staying?”

“Daddy’s taking me to see—” Jaylin started but Dallas choked on a mouthful of food he apparently tried to inhale. She turned worried eyes on him. “Are you okay?”

My body kicked into firefighting mode on autopilot, braced and ready for action, but he nodded and washed down his food with a big gulp of orange juice. I released a quiet sigh and settled back into my chair.

“Just for the weekend,” he said with a rough voice and a nonchalant shrug that didn’t fool me. Not with the way he’d rushed to say something before Jaylin could finish her sentence. “I wanted her to see the infamous sight of the stage fire.”

Long way to go to see a stage.

She gave Dallas a funny look, not buying his act either, then turned to me and flashed a smile that I already knew meant trouble. “Did you know you went viral on the Internet after that?”

“Yes,” I said with a snort-chuckle. “Took a minute to figure out why I suddenly got a bunch of new followers online.” I shifted my gaze to Dallas and playfully added, “I got a ton of date offers, too.”

Dallas narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, and I fought back a grin. That was exactly the reaction I was hoping for.

“But I guess everybody found something shinier to follow when I never responded,” I added, my voice light and gaze still locked on Dallas. I took a bite of my maple syrup-soaked bread and moaned as I chewed.

Dallas pursed his lips as if to hold back laughter, or a snarky remark, and Jaylin tittered.

What could I say? It was moan-worthy French toast.

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