“It seems I’m going to need to study aviation next, in order to keep up with you.”

“You don’t have to keep up with me.”

“I think that I do.” She beamed.

CeCe rang a metal triangle, as if calling ranch hands to the chuck wagon.

Sebastian hid his disappointment at the interruption. He wanted, but wasn’t going to get, more time with Leah.

The noise outside immediately lessened. “Supper is served,” CeCe announced. “I don’t want any of you to dawdle because dawdling when the food is hot is one of my biggest pet peeves. If I see you doing it, I’ll take this to your backside.” She held up the metal rod she’d clanged against the triangle. “Make your way indoors, where we have two long tables set up with food. You can go down both sides of both tables. Understood?”

“Understood,” the guests answered.

CeCe pulled Herschel forward, and he blessed the food.

Ben returned for Leah, and the two of them were separated from Sebastian by the crowd.

Once he’d filled his plate, Sebastian purposely avoided Ben and Leah’s table and sat with Natasha and Genevieve. The sisters who’d been trapped belowground with him and Ben after the earthquake had become good friends. The two of them—plus Natasha’s husband, Wyatt, and Genevieve’s boyfriend, Sam—kept the conversation going so that Sebastian didn’t have to contribute much.

He was facing away from where Leah was seated, but he kept catching snatches of her voice and, if he was very lucky, her laugh.

After dinner the guests mingled and ate cake. Whenever he looked toward Leah, he kept his line of sight moving past her so that no one could catch him staring. Even so, she distracted him so much that he kept losing track of what people were saying to him.

It was brutal to be with her in a crowd of Colemans because her presence reminded him that, while he might be successful and busy . . .

Essentially, he was also alone.

CHAPTER SIX

Conversing with Dylan was somewhat akin to lugging a big, heavy tree branch to a dumpster.

Two nights after the Colemans’ anniversary party, Leah sat at her dining room table with her brother and Tess and Rudy Coventry, the couple who’d become their unofficial grandparents.

“How’s your math class going?” Tess asked Dylan. He was taking precalculus this summer because he hadn’t passed it last semester, despite having a built-in math tutor at home.

“Okay.” Dylan’s hair fell around his head more rakishly than usual. She suspected he’d donned his gray T-shirt after picking it up off the floor. Its neckline revealed his thin, pale clavicles.

Leah knew from his summer session teacher that he was doing a little less than okay. “When’s your next quiz or test?”

“Thursday.”

“You might want to start studying tonight.”