“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.
“I don’t know,” she said, sounding ornery. “It was nice. They were nice. Everything was…nice. I’ve never been to a family thing like that before, and I just want to make sure everyone here has a…nice time.”
Between Cody and Maggie, Silas had his hands and heart full.
“You’re doing great, too,” he told her gruffly. “There’s just one more thing you need to do.”
“Napkins? I knew I should have gone with something more festive.”
He shook his head. “Not napkins, darlin’。” He leaned down and snagged a beer out of the cooler at their feet. “You’re gonna take this, you’re gonna get yourself a plate, and then you’re gonna go sit down with me and talk to people.”
“What about—”
He shook his head. “Uh-uh. You saw how it worked at Mom’s. Everyone pitches in. You’re officially off duty.”
She tried to pull away from him, her gaze already locked on the tray of cheese slices.
“Yo, Dino,” he called.
Dean appeared in the sunroom door, holding a huge mug of coffee. “You shouted?”
“You mind restocking the cheese while Maggie and I grab something to eat?” Silas asked.
“On it,” Dean said, disappearing back into the house.
“Now, let’s eat,” he said, steering her in the direction of the food.
Dusk fell around them as Silas watched Maggie relax, reluctantly, into both conversation and food. Newly minted grillmaster Cody joined them with his third plate and news that he’d earned a B-on the dreaded science test. She’d beamed at him and volunteered to help him tackle his trigonometry homework.
Dean appeared on the porch in front of the screen and clapped his hands for attention. “Five minutes, people! Get your refills now before you all become super famous and have to hire people to get your drinks for you.”
Silas grinned amid the ensuing mad rush for beers and second helpings.
Shaking her head, she leaned toward him. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“Me? What’s there to get ready for?”
“You can’t look like you look and act like you act without getting a lot of attention,” she warned him.
“I’m flattered, but the only attention I want is yours.”
“It can be overwhelming. Even for someone who doesn’t know what Twitter is.”
“You forget, darlin’。 Because I don’t have any social media, I’m well insulated from the spectacle.”
“Just because you don’t hear them doesn’t mean people aren’t talking.”
“Just because people are talking doesn’t mean their opinions matter,” he countered.
She grinned. “Well, before this episode goes live, consider me your first fan.”