Page 110 of The One With the Mountain Man

"And then she agreed to have lunch with me and I was a goner." Jackson squeezed my hip.

"That's just insane," Colin muttered. "How completely random."

Ollie shrugged while smiling at Ethan. "I'm certainly a believer in the universe bringing the right people together."

Jackson's lips grazed my temple. "I must've found religion because I'm a believer too."

We all sat down around the table as Scottie brought out trays of food. There was trout and fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and fried green tomatoes, two enormous salads, plus cornbread and rolls. Everything got passed around mostly clockwise until the plates were full, then conversation erupted.

I was honestly shocked at the volume of noise so few people could produce. "So, this is what you meant? Your family being loud?"

Jackson shook his head. "This is nothing. This is the tamer half of the family."

They talked over each other, conversations blending and splitting, when they couldn't be heard they got louder. Sometimes they shouted across the entire table, sometimes two of them leaned closer and loudly whispered below the fracas. Jackson was quiet. He answered questions when asked but didn't otherwise engage. He poked at his food, disappearing inch by inch.

I understood. Everyone here clearly adored him and every scrap of conversation I could pick out of the melee was happy and good natured.

But it was a lot.

Fortunately, I had experience with loud crowds and how to control them. I stood up and clanked my spoon against my glass. All conversation stopped and every pair of eyes landed on me.

I didn't love that part. But it was worth it to dial down the noise. "Hi. Thanks for having me today. It's been amazing to meet all of you. I love your energy. But Jackson is about two seconds from bolting so I'd love it if we could try something different. Just for this meal. Ask me anything. I'll answer as much as I can. You will not get this opportunity to hear my unfiltered answers ever again." I winked so they knew I was just trying to lighten things up for Jackson. I would take all the attention if it meant he could relax and enjoy this meal.

After the Finns all traded a bunch of looks, Karis put her hand up. "I, for one, love this idea. Thank you. If Jackson bolted, Gus and I were following him out. Y'all, just take it down a notch. One conversation at a time. I'll go first. What's your favorite food?"

I loved her for starting with an easy topic. "I love food. I look forward to Friday nights when I can try Scottie's latest concoction. But if I had to pick one dish as my absolute all-time favorite, it's the blackened grouper sandwich at my favorite restaurant back home. The sauce is divine and the fries are incredible."

Ethan groaned, rubbing his belly. "That sounds so good. When I used to travel for work, I fell in love with a fish sandwich in Portugal. I've never had anything like it."

To my relief, that set off the Finns sharing their favorite dishes one at a time until it got around to Jackson.

He was much more relaxed now, thank goodness, drawing on my shoulder with his finger while he quietly ate his fish and salad. "Trout straight from the river is always my favorite but Marley makes a mean beef stew that made me fall in love with her, so that's my other favorite dish now."

"Wow," Colin said to his fried chicken. "Dropping the L-word already. With the family. All casually."

"Oh, the youths," Ollie teased. "You don't get a say in how fast you realize the truth."

Karis stared at her sweet tea and Eve fidgeted with her macaroni and cheese. It was time for a subject change. "Next question!"

Ethan took the next round. "Karis mentioned something about television?"

Karis was a vault. She hadn't told a soul about my real work and I jumped at the opportunity to keep them all in the dark. "Yep. I've been a writer on the last two seasons ofTaking Tampa."

Colin's eyes lit up. "Yo, I love that show."

Eve smacked the back of his head. "You love the women."

He punched her arm. "So do you, which is why we watch every episode together."

Eve shrugged. "He's not wrong. Wait, isn't that a reality show? What do you write?"

"All television is scripted to a certain degree, even so-called reality-based shows. For ours, we take the footage and create a through line, a story that connects different aspects of the team, their struggles, and life around the growing popularity of women's soccer in the United States. The director has a vision and pushes a lot of that agenda, but on the backend we have to make it make sense, tell a cohesive story that the audience invests in. Also, intro, outros, narration, it all has to be written by someone, and for the first two seasons that someone was mostly me."

"Who's your favorite player?" Colin asked.

"Charley. She's my best friend, actually. And she edits some of the shows."

Colin got a dreamy look on his face. It matched Eve's. "Does that mean she might come visit you and I can meet her?"

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