“Carrie, I just realized that I never asked you if you like Chinese food,” Josh said. “If you don’t, we have a diner that serves all kinds of food where we could go to instead of my parents’ restaurant.”
She turned to him. “I love Chinese food. It’s one of my favorites.”
Josh wore a Stetson, a black T-shirt, Levis, and boots, the picture-perfect multiracial cowboy. She’d learned on their ride that his father was Japanese, despite owning a Chinese restaurant. His mother was from Missouri, whose ancestry was Italian. The traits from his parents had produced one incredibly good-looking man. Jet-black hair. Dark, inviting eyes. Perfectly muscled body. A smile that had the power to overwhelm a woman.
As they turned off of West Street onto South Street, Jacob pointed to the building to their right. “That’s Uncle Hiro and Aunt Melissa’s place.”
She looked up at the sign, which read “Phong’s Wok.”
“We can hitch our horses here.”
“I didn’t know any towns still had hitches in business districts,” she said, looking directly into Jacob’s eyes.
Jacob was just as good-looking as Josh but from the opposite side of the spectrum. Same cowboy gear, but with blue eyes, wavy golden-brown hair, and a Greek-god body. The one thing they had in common was the same devastating smile. Unlike Josh, he hadn’t spoken about his parents during the ride. The only thing she’d gleaned was that Melissa was his mother’s sister. Nothing about his father.
They all dismounted and tied their horses’ reins to the hitches. She almost felt like she’d been transported to the past.
She turned around and looked at the park in the center of the square.
A few people were enjoying their lunches on the lawn. If Jena hadn’t told her about the strange customs in Destiny during their road trip, she would’ve thought it like any other sleepy little town
. Like Bronte, Texas. Her gut tightened, recalling what had happened there.
But Destiny wasn’t like Bronte, or any other town for that matter. People formed unusual families here. She glanced at one group on a blanket next to one of the largest trees. One woman with two men. Both men were holding her hands. A man wearing a sheriff’s uniform walked up to the trio. The lawman bent down and kissed the woman. Those four were definitely together.
Under another tree was another woman with long auburn hair. She held a baby in her arms and was surrounded by three cowboys.
Jena had been telling the truth. Destiny wasn’t like any other place on the planet. Jena was in the typical Destiny relationship. She was married to two men of her own. One who is my brother. Matt and Sean. What were they like? How did two men agree to share a woman? How did a woman make such a thing work? She had no idea, not that it mattered. Love was something that she couldn’t even dream about for herself. In fact, she’d never had anyone that truly cared for her. The closest thing to love she’d ever experienced was Mrs. Kearns in Bronte. But that had ended badly. Willie didn’t love her, despite his words. He’d only used her to help con his victims. Her parents were dead. Had they loved her?
Looking back at the happy faces of the families in the park made her heart sink. She had to keep running. Destiny was just a short stop of a long trip that would never end for her.
“What do you think of our town, Carrie?” Josh asked.
“It’s beautiful.” She glanced over at the statue that was on the southwest corner of the park, just on the other side of the street from Phong’s Wok. Several men were covering it in plastic. She saw that several buildings had plastic draped over their storefronts. “Was there some kind of storm?”
“No storm, though in the next few days it might seem like it,” Josh said with a grin.
Jacob turned to Josh. “We need to get the plastic up on the restaurant later today or Uncle Hiro and Aunt Melissa will try to do it themselves.”
“You’re right. After we get the horses back we’ll get the job done.”
Curiosity got the best of her. “Guys, I still don’t know why the whole town is covered in tarps and plastic. What is going on here?”
“In four days, Destiny’s Annual Paintball Extravaganza gets underway,” Josh said. “Over fifteen hundred participants will descend on the town for several days of gaming.”
She smiled. “Sounds fun.”
“Have you ever played paintball, Carrie?” he asked.
For some reason, she had no problem answering most of his questions. At least the ones that weren’t about her past. “No. I might be too old for that, don’t you think?”
“Not at all.” Jacob pulled out an apple from his saddlebag, slicing it into three pieces for the horses. “Two of the best players are two women, and both are over eighty years old.”
“You’ve got to be joking. That can’t be true.”
“But it is,” Josh said. “Ethel O’Leary and Gretchen Hollingsworth are on the top of the leader board year after year.”
She really would like to meet those women. They sounded a lot like Mrs. Kearns. “Why does the town host the tournament?”