Dad’s face looked as if it had become carved in stone and Mom made a strangled noise but I just looked down at Molly.
“Would you like that?” I asked.
“Yeah!” she cried, jumping toward me, grabbing my hand and tugging me to the hostess station.
I went but turned my head as I did so, asking Cody, “What about you, kiddo?”
“Cool,” he stated nonchalantly.
I threw him a smile, went to the hostess station and changed Hop’s table request to a six top. I got the bad news a bigger table was going to take ten minutes and headed back to the crew. Mom and Dad were clearly uncomfortable, but Hop was just Hop, hot and casual. Cody was swinging his legs, oblivious to everything.
“We’re in,” I announced. “But it’ll take ten minutes or so.”
“Bummer, I’m starved,” Cody muttered.
“You’ll live,” Hop rumbled, looking down at his son and smiling.
“I’ll do it starving,” Cody returned.
“But you’ll do it,” Hop retorted.
I grinned at them.
“So, how do you know our daughter?” Dad asked a question he was being purposefully obtuse in asking because he knew the answer and Hop’s eyes went to him.
“She’s Chaos,” he answered, and that warmth gathered around my heart again.
“I’m sorry?” Dad queried.
“Chaos. She’s Chaos. Her girl, Tyra, is married to a brother of mine,” Hop explained. “Known Tyra years, known Lanie years. Both of them are Chaos.”
“Right. Of course,” Dad said, sounding like he didn’t think it was right at all. “I had heard that Tyra had…” He trailed off then to me, “I haven’t asked yet. How are Tyra and her boys?”
He pointedly did not ask after Tack.
I ignored this. “She’s great. Over the moon happy. Tack’s good, too. The boys are good kids even though they’re hooligans.”
“They aren’t hooligans,” Cody contradicted and I looked down at him. “They’re awesome.” He looked at my dad. “They’re younger than me but I hang with them because they got good ideas.” He lifted his hand and tapped his fingertips to his head. “Genius.”
“Genius at getting in trouble,” I put in and Cody looked at me.
“Mister Tack doesn’t mind.”
“Miss Tyra does,” Hop stated and his son looked up to him.
“Girls do that, not likin’ the way boys act,” Cody retorted.
“They do that when boys act like idiots,” Hop returned.
Apparently Cody couldn’t argue with this because he shut up.
I started laughing.
Molly leaned into me and she laughed too.
I slid my arm around her and pulled her closer. Hop trained eyes to his daughter then to me and the warmth in them, the soft around his mouth, made the snug feeling around my heart gather closer.
“What are you doin’ today, Miss Lanie?” Molly asked and I looked down at her.
“Don’t know yet, honey. My parents are here from Connecticut so just visiting, I guess,” I answered.
“You can’t just visit in Vail!” she objected and looked from Dad to Mom. “You should hang with us. We got all sorts of fun things planned.”
I decided in that moment I loved Molly Kincaid.
“I don’t think—” Dad started but I was faster than him and jumped at Molly’s innocent offer.
“What a fantastic idea!” I cried and looked to Mom and Dad. “Isn’t that a fantastic idea?”
“Darling, we don’t even know their plans,” Mom noted logically but slightly desperately.
We didn’t but I knew whatever it was would be a lot more fun than visiting with Mom and Dad.
“Kids make everything fun,” I declared.
“Can’t argue with that,” Hop put in, then looked between the elder Herons. “You’d be welcome and my kids would love it. They think the world of your daughter.”
That was well played, an out and out invitation no one could politely refuse coupled with a compliment to their daughter that was clearly genuine, making it additionally impossible to refuse.
It was so well played, it took a mammoth amount of effort not to smile huge at Hop or, say, throw my arms around him and kiss him hard. Instead, I just caught his eyes and hoped he read what was in mine.
He did and I knew it when his eyes flashed and a wave of goodness surged from him and crashed into me.
Hop’s remark was met with silence. Through the wave of goodness I noted this and I looked to my mom and dad.
Mom rallied first, too Southern not to.
“We’d be delighted, of course. Any friends of Lanie’s and obviously, children do make everything fun.”