“I know you kept girls in other cities when you traveled and you’d call to visit them, but there wasn’t anything exclusive about it.”

“Mom.”

She spoke over me, gripping my arm, “I know this because Kathryn Meomeuooux met one of those girls, and do you know who Kathryn Meomeuooux is?”

God, no.

“Do I want to know is the real question you should be asking me.”

She ignored me, giving my arm a jerk. “Kathryn Meomeuooux runs a crafting Etsy shop in Pine River. She’s across the river. I hold the market in Pine Valley, but not across the river. That’s her. She’s my competitor, Cutler. And she found out all about your girls and it wasn’t a fun scene when she tried to lord that over me at one of our sales events. She had a booth across from me.” She let go of my arm, giving it a soft pat and stepped back. Her voice turned cheerful and her whole demeanor brightened. “But, that’s all done for now because you met Cheyenne. You realized you’d be absolutely stupid to do anything to lose that girl, because she’s one of a kind. I didn’t raise you to be stupid. She’s nice, and smart, and she doesn’t have an ego.”

I grinned at her. “Ask Cheyenne about her wavy train.”

“That’s healthy confidence. You want that in a woman, too. Do. Not. Lose. Her.” A pause. A mean glint showed in her eyes. “Ever.”

I was a little scared of Killer Mama Alice myself now. “Not planning on it, Mom.”

“Good.”

Another pat on my arm and she lifted up on her toes. She pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Now go and make your momma proud on the ice. Fucking reap, Cutler. Fucking reap. Named you that for a reason, I did.”

Yes. Still scared.

“Got it, Mom.”56CheyenneThe crowd was beyond tonight.

The crowd was always beyond, but it was a playoff game and so the crowd was beyond beyond.

You feel me? Good.

I was golden.

I’d embraced my new lease on life, and that was the life of loving and being loved. Not that I hadn’t loved before. I had all sorts of golden goodness love for Sasha and Melanie, but being loved by someone like Cut and then his family? That was deep and something I never thought I’d get. But I did. I got it. That was the cherry on top of everything. The goose egg of all eggs, and I was loving life right now.

“Girl.”

That was JJ. She, Maisie, and Otis were up in Margo’s box with me. Sasha and Melanie were enjoying their seats instead, because they now came to the games a lot with me. In an unofficial way, Margo had taken me under her wing. She wanted all sorts of goodness for me, and she kept wanting me to write a book. I wasn’t a writer. I was barely a typist. I could do what I needed for Come Our Way, but that shindig was it for me and writing. Talking. Doing our podcast. Laughing with my girls, that’s what was the easiest so I was getting my story out that way.

I turned to JJ. “Girl.”

“Gurl.” She was beaming at me, and she grabbed my arm. “I am so glad I took that phone call for you.”

I laughed, because it was true. I grabbed her arm. “I am, too.”

Maisie came on my other side, a beer in hand. She was already flushed, her cheeks all red, and that was just from laughing. They only stepped into the owner’s box two minutes ago.

“Otis is tickled pink by this.” Maisie’s eyes were shining. There might’ve been some moisture there. “He’s been telling his buddies all week he’d be watching the game from the owner’s box. They’re all green with envy.”

Otis came over, a pink drink in hand with a little umbrella sticking out of it.

He was shaking his head, the tops of his cheeks almost matching his drink. “You tell her about my buddies?”

He was asking Maisie, and she nodded. “I sure did. All week.”

He focused on me, a somber look coming over him. “We’re loving your new friends and all, but in all seriousness, Cheyenne, we’re just real happy to see you happy. We’re also real glad to have met your friends, the Tits owner and Melody—”

“Melanie.” From his wife.

“Melanie, but I swear she told me her name was Melody. I made a joke that it’d be easy to remember, I just needed to sing a tune and she was all for it.”

Knowing Melanie, she might’ve gone with it.

We were all staring at him.

He blinked, and his head popped farther up. “Anyways, moving on to the meat of what I mean to say. We’re just happy for you. It’s not that you weren’t happy before, but you deserve everything good that’s coming your way and I’ve a feeling there’s more coming.”