Page 77 of Make it Real
“I figured. I might have to find something else to do so I don’t go out of my skull the whole time you’re up there.”
I examined him a little closer. “Are you afraid of heights?”
“No. Just afraid of you falling from them.”
The sweetness from this man had no end in sight. I patted his back and slipped away from his arms before I could be tempted to write up a change of address form and stay there permanently.
Back in the barn, nobody remarked on our absence, but every person inside shot us secret looks. A couple of raised eyebrows, and a smirk from Wade, but nothing too outrageous.
“How about I go get us sandwiches for lunch?” Jed said.
Ty looked down from where he sat perched on his ladder, screwing in a bracket. “I can take care of that.”
“No big deal, I don’t mind. I, uh—” His eyes cut to me. “I need the distraction while the lights are going up.”
Wade laughed, but nobody else reacted as Jed left the barn. Outside, he tossed one last look back at me, raising his hand in that casual little wave I loved, before he got into his truck and drove away.
Booker looked up from where he was putting the brackets for June’s fabric swag contraption together to pass up to Ty. “Now that is a man who has learned a lesson.”
“We had a talk,” I said, climbing back up my ladder.
Below me, June caught my eye. She winked and nodded before carrying on sweeping the floor.
I went back to wrapping the rafter with fairy lights, my heart positively beating out of my chest with affection—for Jedandhis family. I didn’t want these last few days with any of them to end. It would, I knew that. But I was determined to soak up this togetherness for as long as I could.
TWENTY-SIX
jed
Probably timeI just threw out that theory I was a smart man.
I’d spent about twenty of the last twenty-four hours replaying how I’d turned into a control freak with Callie. Not one of my finest moments, and I had no good excuse for my behavior. I’d seen her up on that ladder, and the image of her getting hurt had stormed into my head. My instinct had been to protect her from harm, and I’d gone about it in the stupidest way possible. Ordering her around like she was my—
Well, even if she were truly myanything, giving her orders would never be the way to go. My logical brain knew it, however tiny that side of me might have been in the moment. But my fearful brain had taken over, and I’d behaved like an absolute jerk, thinking I knew best. Probably did not deserve the forgiveness she’d so readily handed me.
At least my family hadn’t given me a hard time about it.
No, wait, I must have been thinking of someone else’s family. Mine had been rubbing my face in my mistake every chance they got.
“Now, I just want you to know, I’m about to climb this ladder.” Wade patted the steel rung next to him, making it clatter. “You might want to cover your eyes.”
I socked him in the shoulder, but he laughed as he climbed up to arrange the fabric that now hung from the barn’s ceiling at intervals. June had been asking for tiny adjustments all morning as the rest of us scrambled to arrange tables and chairs down below. Earlier today, we’d ferried benches for the guests out to the ceremony site, and she’d confirmed the location looked good, but in here, she’d been tinkering.
Probably the beauty of where they’d say their vows overpowered any urge to change things up. A pretty little piece of Ty’s property beneath old growth trees and next to a babbling brook—not much to improve on out there.
June stared up at the ceiling, hands on her hips. “Bunch it up some more.”
Wade did as she said, pulling the fabric together, waiting for further instructions.
“I’m okay up here,” he called down to me, smug as all get out. “No need to worry, Jed.”
“I hope you fall,” I called back.
His chuckling grated on my nerves. Didn’t really need the constant reminder I’d behaved like a moron yesterday.
“I thought it was sweet.” June eyed the way the fabric hung as if lives depended on getting just the right look. “A little bit of an obnoxious overstep on your part, sure, but adorable to see you so worked up over her.”
“Thank you, truly. It’s great that we’re all still talking about it, I’m really loving this back and forth. I hope it never ends.”
