Grayson’s first instinct was to protect her. He put his arm around her waist and pulled both her and her chair as close to him as they could get. Instead of answering her brother’s question, she turned to Grayson and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth.
“It’s okay,” she reassured him, before finally turning to her brother. “All of you warned me for almost two years about what a scumbag Victor was. Now’s your chance to say I told you so.”
“None of us wants to say that, Lor,” the brother with the radio turned down low on his belt said. Just a little bigger than the others, he had to be the firefighter. “What we want to do is kill him.”
Grayson agreed wholeheartedly with her brother, but Lori shook her head. “Victor wasn’t worth my time, and he definitely isn’t worth any of yours.” Grayson caught the look that passed between Sophie and her husband. He owed them big time for avenging Lori. “And, honestly, it wasn’t even what he did that was the last straw,” she admitted. “It was realizing I didn’t want to dance anymore, because all the fun had been squeezed out of it. So I walked out—not just on the show, but on all of it.”
“You? Not dance?” Judging by the baby girl happily rattling her soft toy on his lap, Grayson guessed this came from Chase, the photographer. “That’s crazy, Naughty.”
“Don’t worry,” she told him, before turning back to Grayson with a smile. “I’m not quitting after all, because Grayson helped me realize that I do love it—while I’ve spent the last couple of weeks on his farm being a farmhand.”
He hated the way she was being put on the spot, but when she looked at him like that, with such trust and love, how could he do anything but forget that they weren’t the only two people in the world, and smile back?
“You have been working as a farmhand?”
Grayson didn’t like the note of disbelief in her brother Zach’s voice, even if it was exactly the same reaction he’d had when she showed up that first day in her rental car. “My CSA customers love her, and so do the chickens and the pigs.”
Lori looked adorably smug. “They really do, don’t they?”
“Yes, they really do,” he said with a quick kiss to the tip of her nose. He knew her family was watching them closely, but he didn’t care what anyone else thought. Either they’d like him or they wouldn’t. But her family wouldn’t be the reason he and Lori didn’t work out.
No, the two of them had plenty of other reasons already stacked up against them.
Leaning into his chest, she contentedly laid her head against his shoulder as she told them, “The country community is really cool and it’s so incredibly beautiful out there. You should see the stars and the moon at night.”
He stroked his hand over her hair and upper arm as she spoke and as the conversation slowly turned from Lori’s last two weeks to baby milestones and budding vines and movie sets and concert tours, Grayson was surprised to realize that he was enjoying being part of the large group, even if it was only temporary. The women, for the most part, were far more welcoming as they asked him questions about his farm, while her brothers continued to treat him as though he was on probation.
He couldn’t blame them for that. Not when he completely agreed that their sister was precious beyond measure.
And that she deserved nothing but the very best.
* * *
Lori was trying not to be frustrated with her brothers. It was just that they were being so unreasonable! Especially her oldest brother, Marcus, who hadn’t yet said a word to Grayson. If anyone should have something in common, it was the two of them, since they both earned their livelihoods from working with the land, and she and Nicola both had very public careers as a singer and a dancer.
She’d been glaring at Marcus all throughout lunch, trying to make it clear that she expected him to bend a little and accept the man she was in love with. But when all he did was ignore her in the most irritatingly big-brother-like way, she shoved out her chair and said, “Marcus, we need to talk.”
Grayson pushed his chair back as if he planned to come with her, but her mother quickly held out her arm and said, “Grayson, could you take a look at my vegetable bed? I’m having some trouble with my artichokes.”
Lori and Marcus had always been especially close, and she loved and respected him for all he’d done to help raise her when their father had died, but she refused to let him act like he knew what was best for her.
“I love Grayson,” she said to Marcus as soon as he walked into her childhood bedroom and closed the door. The room that had held the contents of her and Sophie’s entire world as little girls now seemed so small. And yet, it was still comforting. “You’re not even trying to get to know him.”
“You met the guy on the rebound, Lori, and you’ve only known him two weeks. Less than that. How can you actually believe you’re in love with the guy?”
“His name is Grayson,” she growled, “not the guy. And are you seriously saying that to me?” She raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t what you just described exactly what happened with you and Nicola in way less than two weeks? You didn’t tell any of us about her, either, not until you showed up at Sunday lunch and declared your love to her in front of everyone.” Lori was a foot smaller than Marcus, but that didn’t stop her from facing him down, toe to toe. “We all accepted her. We all made her feel welcome. Why can’t you do that with Grayson?”
“Because I love you and I can’t stand to see you make another mistake!” His booming voice cut through her frustration like a foghorn.
She could easily read between the lines of what he was saying: He was not only worried about her heart being broken, he was also worried about her giving up her own career and dreams for the man she’d fallen in love with.
“You and Nicola have made it work, being on the road for her music and also having to take care of the vines and your winery. Don’t you think Grayson and I can, too?”
“Even if he loves you and you love him, it’s obvious that he’s damaged, Lori. Badly. We can all see it.” He drew her into his arms. “I know how softhearted you are, that you want to take care of everyone and shower them with love. But sometimes love isn’t enough to heal a person. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”