More Than Anything

by Kimberly Lang

  She grabbed Charlotte by the shoulders. “Do not embarrass me. Or Declan. In fact, I’m swearing you to silence now. I don’t need everyone in town knowing . . . well, anything.”

  Charlotte rolled her eyes. “You went to dinner last night. You’re taking him to the game tonight. People will talk, and there’s nothing you can do to stop that.”

  “True, but all they can do is talk. Unless you give them something meaty, talk is cheap.” She heard footsteps on the stairs. Declan was on his way up. “Behave and be nice,” she warned.

  “Of course.”

  Somehow Shelby wasn’t fully convinced, but she waved Declan in as he knocked.

  There was an awkward moment, as she wasn’t sure how to greet him. When she’d left him last night, there’d been a long, lingering kiss, but it was perfectly natural considering what they’d just done. Now, though, she wasn’t sure. A hug? A kiss on the cheek? A handshake? Lord, I’m losing it.

  But Declan seemed almost as unsure, his eyes flicking to Charlotte, then back to her. But then he smiled and briefly squeezed her hand. “Hey,” he said quietly.

  It was simple, yet it worked for her. A little too well. “Hey.”

  “Hi, Charlotte. Good to see you again.”

  “And you, Declan.” Charlotte’s tone carried a wealth of meaning that no one could misunderstand. “Ready for the game?”

  “I guess. I’ve never been to one before.”

  “A high school game or a homecoming game?”

  Declan smirked. “A football game.”

  Charlotte’s eyes widened. “Ever?”

  “I’m not big on sports in general.”

  “Well, don’t tell anyone else that. It’ll be easier for you if you just claimed to be an atheist.”

  Declan looked to Shelby for an explanation. “We’re a little fanatical about football around here.”

  “I’m aware of that. I do watch TV.”

  “Well,” Charlotte said dramatically, “I’m going to go powder my nose and then we’ll go.”

  It was an obvious ploy to leave them alone for a minute, but Shelby wasn’t going to object. Neither was Declan, it seemed, because the moment the door closed, he leaned in for a quick kiss. “I wasn’t sure if I should do that in front of Charlotte or not.”

  “She knows.”

  His eyebrows went up. “How much does she know?”

  She had to bite back a giggle. When had she gotten so giggly? It was terrible. “The important stuff,” she hedged.

  “Was it a good report, or do I need to hide in shame?”

  She couldn’t help grinning. “You got high marks across the board.”

  “Good.” He kissed her again, a little more thoroughly this time.

  Fighting the urge to fan herself, Shelby had to admit Charlotte might be right. Now going to the game didn’t seem like such a great idea. It actually sounded kind of stupid.

  “And seriously,” Declan asked, just before she decided to cancel the plan, “atheism will go over better than football neophyte?”

  You have no idea. Either way, Declan was going to stick out like a sore thumb. Although he looked yummy enough to set Shelby’s pulse pounding, a critical eye would see he was totally out of place. He wasn’t overdressed or anything or even wearing the other team’s colors, but there was something off—jeans a little too tailored, his hair a little too coiffed, even the way he held himself marked him as a “City Boy” better than a flashing neon sign above his head. “I wouldn’t bring either topic up. Just cheer when everyone else does, okay?”

  Charlotte danced right along the edge of needing a muzzle all the way to the school. Shelby barely felt the heat of one blush subside before the next double entendre sent the blood rushing back to her face. Thank goodness the darkness hid most of it. And while Declan seemed to take it all in stride, Shelby was really reconsidering the prudence of bringing him tonight.

  As they walked toward the entrance, Shelby pulled on Charlotte’s arm. “I hope you got all that out of your system on the way here. Don’t make me kill you in front of witnesses.”

  “I’ll be good. I promise. Hey, Lacey!” Charlotte sprinted ahead to greet her. Of course Lacey was in a crowd of folks, and they all turned at the sound of Charlotte’s voice, which put Shelby and Declan right in their line of sight, too.

  Wherever Lacey was, her husband, Howie, wouldn’t be far away, and since Howie was one of Adam’s closest friends, of course Adam was there, and because the universe was just messing with her, of course Eli and Jamie were right there, too. Along with half a dozen other people, all of whom seemed to find her arrival with Declan quite interesting.

  Yeah, maybe I didn’t think this through all the way.

  Chapter 10

  Every stereotype he’d heard about Southerners and football had been proven true in the last hour. Crammed into the stands with what seemed like the entire population of Magnolia Beach, Declan got the full effect: the marching bands, the cheerleaders, the sideline quarterbacking, all of it.

  And he was having a great time.

  It was surprising, yes, but crowd mentality was obviously a real thing, even for the less enthusiastic. Here was practically an entire town, turned out to support their youth. What could be more wholesome than that? Plus, their enthusiasm was contagious.

  And Shelby really did seem to know everyone and took the time to introduce him to people. It was a little disconcerting how many of them not only already knew who he was, but also knew about him—where he was from, what he did for a living, even what kind of car he drove. Shelby found it amusing that it seemed weird to him. “Slow news week in a small town. You’re the most exciting thing around,” she’d explained with a shrug.

  It was a beautiful clear night—he was beginning to think that Magnolia Beach only had beautiful weather—with a slight nip in the air that clearly said it was fall, even if the days were still pretty warm. While the locals were in jackets—a few were even wearing hats—it wasn’t nearly cold enough for him to need one. And packed into the stands like sardines, it felt warmer than it actually was.

  But when Shelby scooted close to him claiming to be chilled, he decided he liked the thinness of Southern blood.

  Shelby excused herself at halftime when the visiting team’s band took the field, leaving him alone in the crowd of her friends. They’d certainly been friendly enough, if overly curious for his comfort, making Shelby’s earlier assertion that this was a friendly place, welcoming to tourists, seem true.

  Then suddenly, he was surrounded by Tanners.

  Jamie took the seat recently vacated by his sister, and Eli took the other side, with Adam stepping in front of him, blocking his view of the field. There were two younger boys with them, their features the younger versions of the other three. More cousins. How many did Shelby say she had?

  It was a show of strength, obviously meant to put him on edge. He found it funny—mainly because they’d waited until Shelby went away to make this show. If Shelby wasn’t going to be cowed by them, he certainly wasn’t.

  But before any of them could say anything, a dark-haired woman pushed her way through. After one look at Jamie, he was vacating his seat for her, and she smiled at Declan as she sat.

  “Hi,” she said, sticking out a hand. “I’m Helena. Please ignore them.” There was bluster from the Tanners, but Helena ignored it. “You must be Declan.”

  He searched through his memory banks, but Shelby hadn’t mentioned a Helena. And she certainly didn’t look like any of the Tanners, even if she held the same amused and exasperated tolerance of the others as Shelby did. “Nice to meet you.”

  “I’m Ryan’s fiancée. Ryan,” she explained, “is Shelby’s cousin, and Adam and Eli’s brother.”

  He appreciated her mapping the family tree. “The one who’s mayor.”

  “Exactly. He also voluntee
rs as the assistant coach for the football team, so he’s in the locker room right now instead of backing up the rest of the Avengers. You know Jamie, and the JV squad behind him is Tucker and Joe, who should really be tucked away safely in their dorms at school instead of here annoying people.” She flicked her eyes in the general direction of the others and sighed. She leaned in as if she were going to share a secret, but then spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. “The Tanners can be an acquired taste. Don’t let them see you sweat, though.”

  He wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he stuck to a much safer topic. “Congratulations on your engagement. When’s the wedding?”

  Helena’s lips thinned to an invisible line as the Tanner boys howled with laughter. “Yeah, Helena,” one of the younger ones asked, “when is that wedding going to be?”

  “On a date when I’m sure you’ll be back at school, Tucker Tanner,” she snapped icily.

  “That’s a rather fraught topic,” Adam added unnecessarily—and a minute too late to keep Declan from stepping in it. “But we’ve got a pool going if you want in on it.”

  Helena’s mouth dropped open. “You do not.”

  That just made them all howl louder.

  Helena cleared her throat with some force, and turned back to him. “So you’re an architect?”

  “Yes.”

  “Magnolia Beach must feel like the Sahara of the Bozart to you.”

  Having already put his foot in his mouth once already about the wedding, he worried this might be a loaded statement. She was, after all, the mayor’s fiancée and a resident of the town. She probably thought it was great. “It has its charms.”

  Helena laughed at him. “How diplomatic of you. It is quite the definition of Mayberry Americana, isn’t it?”

  “And that’s its charm. It’s an eclectic mix of styles, yet it creates a pleasing aesthetic that the residents like. Ultimately, that’s what’s important.”

  “An eclectic but pleasing aesthetic,” Eli echoed. “You should put that on the website, Helena.”

  Since Helena was ignoring Eli, Declan did, too. “My taste isn’t what matters. Good design is about function and form that’s appropriate to the location and what it’ll be used for, and the tastes of people who hire me. If you come to me and ask for an office that looks like a spaceship with a tree growing out of the top, that’s what I’ll design for you.”

  Helena laughed. “Hopefully, you’d try to talk me out of that. But I know what you mean. I do web design work for people and they’re all ‘use nine colors and six fonts and make every third item move,’ and while I try to explain how downright ugly that would be—in the nicest possible way, of course—”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll still do it—knowing I’ll have to redo it when they decide it’s terrible. How do you—”

  Eli coughed.

  Helena sighed. “Oh, all right. You seem like a decent enough guy.”

  That was a rather abrupt change of topic. “I like to think so.” He didn’t know what else to say.

  “Good. Just don’t mess with Shelby.”

  His jaw nearly fell open. One of the younger Tanners laughed.

  Helena cleared her throat. “I mean, you can ‘mess’ with her—”

  “Hey now—” That might have been Jamie protesting, but Helena held up a hand.

  “Just don’t mess with her head. Be nice and don’t hurt her feelings.”

  Once again, he felt unfairly vilified. At the same time, this was her family, and they cared about her. Some leeway had to be given because of that, but still. . . . “I hadn’t planned on it.”

  “Good.” Helena smiled broadly. “Then these nice gentlemen will knock off the caveman crap and leave you two alone.” Again, there was muttering, but Helena spoke firmly both to him and them. “No need to worry about them now.”

  He wanted to say something snarky, but prudence—he was vastly outnumbered, after all—held his tongue.

  “Not that there’d be much of you left for them to fight over after Shelby was done with you,” Helena added.

  He nearly choked. Neither her chipper tone nor her polite smile had changed a bit, which somehow made the warning feel even more sinister.

  Helena patted him on the shoulder. “So we’re done here now. Enjoy the rest of the game.”

  “Oh, no, we’re not even a little bit done,” Jamie said.

  Helena held up a hand. “Don’t you dare start, Jamie. We agreed I’d handle this.”

  “You agreed, Helena, not me.”

  Helena sighed and rolled her eyes. “Behave.”

  “Let him talk, Helena.” That was from one of the younger Tanners.

  Helena turned on him with a killing look that had Declan pulling back out of the line of fire. “You may keep your lips zipped, Joe Tanner. It’s bad enough the others think they get some kind of say-so in Shelby’s business, but I will not let you think you get one, too. And wipe that smile off your face, Tucker,” she snapped. “Shelby is an adult, and you are not. You’ll treat her with respect.”

  Joe and Tucker wisely directed their attention elsewhere, but Helena wasn’t done. She turned on Adam, Eli, and Jamie next. “Do y’all not see what you’ve done? You treat Shelby like a child and now the Wonder Twins there think that they can, too. It’s appalling. I’m surprised she hasn’t killed you all in your sleep. God knows I would.”

  “Butt out, Helena—”

  Declan could tell he was witnessing a family issue, one that had depths he was completely unaware of. Whatever was going on, whatever it was Jamie wanted to say and had caused Helena to run interference before turning on the Tanners, went well beyond the general familial posturing of protectiveness. But he didn’t know what was going on, and the bickering he was witnessing now made no sense. It also made him a bit uncomfortable.

  “What the hell is going on?” Shelby’s arrival caught the others by surprise and silenced them pretty quickly.

  She sent a pointed look around the group and frowned. “Like I can’t figure it out myself. Deliver me, Lord, from my idiotic family. Sorry, Declan.” She sighed disgustedly and shook her head, waving Eli out of his seat so she could sit next to Declan. Intentionally ignoring the others, she spoke only to Helena. “Hi.”

  A whistle and a crash of cymbals welcomed the teams back onto the field, and just like that, the matter dropped. He did see Shelby throw an elbow at her brother once, though, followed by a low-pitched spat that culminated in another elbow thrown at Adam and some seriously threatening eyeballing of her other cousins.

  He seriously did not understand the Tanners. But Helena was marrying into the family, so they obviously weren’t too bad, even if she did say they were an acquired taste. And after that very strange conversation—for lack of a better word—with Helena at halftime, the Tanner boys seemed to place him somewhere on the spectrum between “friendly acquaintance” and “evil despoiler of virgins,” treating him nicely enough and including him in conversations, but maintaining a protective, if less in-his-face, presence, hovering around Shelby like a menacing yet oddly friendly pack of guard dogs. Their message was clear.

  Later, they—minus Helena, Adam, and the younger Tanners, but plus about a dozen of Shelby’s friends— somehow ended up in the middle of nowhere around a makeshift bonfire, drinking something called Firefly Tea out of red plastic cups. Declan had no idea such things happened outside of 1980s teen rom-com movies. But Shelby sat next to him—not too close, but her thigh running alongside his, barely touching—and offered the occasional whispered piece of backstory to explain who people were or what they were talking about.

  Someone named Justin, who Shelby explained was a cousin of the Howie he’d met earlier, was complaining about a speed trap he’d been caught in in Mississippi last week. It was a dramatic telling—although Declan couldn’t quite figure out why—full of big ar
m gestures and detailed descriptions of the blowhard deputy.

  Shelby leaned over. “We can leave if you want.” The firelight cast parts of her face into shadow, so it was hard to tell if she wanted to leave or was just giving him the out.

  “No, it’s fine. It’s nice here by the fire. Do you all do this a lot?”

  “Not a lot, but it’s not unique or anything. We used to go down to the Shore after football games, but that’s pretty much the turf of the high school kids and it makes me feel really old and a little creepy to do it now. What did you do on Friday nights in high school?”

  “Studied.” Shelby made a face that was somewhere between admiration and pity. “Yes, I was a big old nerd with few friends,” he confessed, “so I read a lot.”

  Her eyebrows went up. “Poetry?”

  “Sometimes.” He leaned in a little closer. “Why? Do you want to hear more?”

  Her lips twitched. “Maybe.”

  Touchdown scored for all lit nerds everywhere. Validation at last. “‘Shall I compare thee to a—’”

  “Right, Shelby?”

  Shelby’s head snapped around, and he looked up to see most of the circle around the fire looking at them both. He couldn’t remember the name of the guy asking Shelby the question.

  “What?” she replied.

  “Back me up here. It was your idea to go to Biloxi that time and nearly got us all arrested, not mine, right?”

  He heard her sigh. “Yes, it was my idea, but it was your fault you were nearly arrested because you couldn’t keep your big mouth shut.”

  “What was in Biloxi?” Declan asked.

  “Casinos,” Eli replied. “Shelby wanted to gamble.”

  He wouldn’t have guessed that. “Are high schoolers even allowed in casinos?”

  “No,” Shelby said, “Hence the nearly getting arrested part because Kevin mouthed off.”