“Knock it off, Mike,” he warns, hitting his younger brother on the back of the head as he passes his chair.

“Nice to see you too, Jace,” Mike replies. “You bringing random girls home to meet Mom now?”

“Mich—” Mrs. Dawson starts, but Jace interrupts her.

“I brought one special girl home to meet all of you,” he tells Mike evenly. “Now, drop it.”

Mike scoffs, but doesn’t say another word. He does watch closely as Jace walks over to where I’m awkwardly lingering in the doorway.

“Sleep okay?” he asks

“Like a rock,” I inform him. “Lot less bumpy than the truck.”

Jace smiles. “Did you go running?” he asks, looking at my outfit.

I shake my head. “Your mom gave me a tour of the barn.”

Jace’s father appears in the kitchen, and the younger Dawsons follow closely behind, making me think they were waiting in the hallway for any conflict between Jace and Mike to blow over.

The kitchen becomes a hub of activity as everyone helps themselves to the steaming pan of scrambled eggs and the warm blueberry muffins.

As we’re all finishing up breakfast, I ask Mrs. Dawson what I can do to help around the farm today.

“That can wait until later. Jace, Vivienne wants to go for a ride. You two should take out a couple of the horses.”

Jace looks over at me. “I’m not sure it’s the best idea to subject a helpless horse to someone with your lack of coordination,” he says solemnly.

I let out an indignant scoff. “I can’t believe you’re still bringing this up. I collided with you once—”

“Twice,” Jace interjects.

“—And I don’t care what other people on campus say,” I add. “Your throws are not that great, especially the snaps or whatever they were called. I had no idea when it would come flying at my face or what the gibberish mea—”

I’m interrupted for a second time by the sound of giggles. I look over to see that Alden, Max, and Claire are all laughing, while Mike sports a wide grin. Jace’s parents also wear amused expressions.

I blush. “I can handle it,” I conclude lamely, embarrassed by my outburst.

“Jace taught you to play football?” one of the twins asks.

“Jace tried to teach me football,” I reply. I can’t tell if I’m talking to Max or Alden. “Tried being the operative word.”

“It would have gone a lot better if you’d been a more engaged student,” Jace remarks, finishing his eggs.

“Or if you hadn’t tackled me when I finally caught the ball. Talk about negative reinforcement.”

“I was trying to teach you how the game works and—” Jace begins, but is cut off by Mike.

“You tackled her?” he asks. “Smooth moves, big bro. Thought you could flirt better than that.”

“Mike, shut it,” Jace grits out. I notice his ears are red.

“He was smoother when the whole football team showed up,” I tell Mike unhelpfully. “Just stood there while I got him out of trouble.”