He’d just stepped outside to set up the food tables when Dean and Cody arrived in Maggie’s truck with a big, manly grill strapped down in the bed. Crammed in with the grill were two oversize armchairs wrapped in plastic. Jim’s van pulled in behind them, hauling a trailer with a matching couch.

Maggie Nichols was nesting.

Silas ambled over, thumbs in his pockets.

“Whenever you’re done flashing that shit-eating grin around, you can help us unload,” Dean joked.

Silas carefully wiped said shit-eating grin from his face. “Looks like you gentlemen have been busy,” he observed.

“Where do we start?” Cody asked, eyeing their haul.

“The grill,” answered the men.

Less than two hours later, the beer was cold, the grill was fired up, and there were theater-like rows of camp chairs in the front yard facing the movie screen. Bluegrass music poured forth from wireless speakers, and nearly two dozen men and women who’d put in a good day’s work ate, drank, and shot the shit with enthusiasm.

“Here you go, Sy,” Cody said, handing him a plate of uncooked burgers and dogs. “They’re starting to slow down on the food.”

Silas fist-bumped the kid and held out the tongs. “You feeling up for some grill mastering?” he asked.

“Me?” Cody looked like he’d just been handed the keys to a Porsche. It made Silas want to make sure this kid got every rite of passage his parents hadn’t been around to give him.

“Yeah, you.” He was explaining the finer points of the grill and meat cooked over a flame when Maggie fluttered by, nervously checking the coolers.

On her third pass of the food table, Silas snagged her and reeled her in. “Take a breath, Mags.”

“Everything’s fine. I don’t need to breathe,” she insisted.

“Everything is not fine,” he countered. “It’s great. Everyone’s having a good time. The food is awesome. And you bought enough beer to last the summer. There’s not a single thing that requires stressing over right this second.”

She didn’t look convinced, so he hauled her into his chest. It took her a beat, but he finally felt the tension drain out of her on a long sigh.

“I’ve never thrown a party like this before,” she confessed.

“What about all those grand reveal parties?” he asked. Every season of her show ended with a big reveal-day party.

“That’s all event planners and caterers. All I have to do is show up with my hair done and say stuff on camera. And after your family thing yesterday—”

“What family thing?”

“The cookout at your mom and Morris’s?”

“What about it?” he asked, baffled.