Her Best Friend's Proposal #SYTYCW15 #Special Edition Suzanne Swartz

Chapter 10 #SYTYCW15 #Specialedition

"You're a dead man."

"Top of the mornin' to you, too, Jackson," Holden returned, grinning.

It was Wednesday, and they'd both just arrived at their grandparents' house for dinner. For as long as Jack could remember, Grandma had prepared a huge country dinner on Wednesday for any of the family who was able to make it. Everyone knew it was set on the table promptly at six

All of them weren't able to make it every week, but whenever they could, no one wanted to pass up Grandma's cooking. It was always a good old fashioned clog an artery meal where anyone who left hungry had no one to blame but themselves.

"I didn't expect you to be joining us this evening," Holden added, a glint in his Blackwood blues as his breath puffed out in the cold air.

"Shut up, Holden."

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. "Now, is that anyway to talk to you Mama's favorite son?"

"You're really full of yourself today, aren't you?"

"Well," he drawled. "I would have thought you'd be in a much better mood than you are, unless, of course, I put a little damper on things last night when I dropped by."

"Barged in unannounced, you mean?" Jack countered, wanting nothing more than to wipe that silly ass grin off his brother's too damned handsome face. "What the hell were you thinking anyway?"

Holden leaned against his shiny new pick-up. "I certainly had no idea I'd be interrupting anything quite like I did."
"Tess's car was in the driveway."

"Hell, Jack, if I waited for a time when Tess's car wasn't in your driveway or yours wasn't parked in hers, I'd probably never see you. The two of you have been all but joined at the hip for twenty years." His grin deepened. "Both literally and figuratively last night, I might add."

It took every ounce of willpower he had not to punch his brother in the throat. Instead, he took a menacing few steps toward Holden. "I told you to shut up."
Making a tsking sound, Holden pushed away from his truck. "Don't get all testy, Jackson. I said I was sorry."

Jack shook his head. "You can't un-ring a bell, Holden."

His features sobered slightly. "Honestly, Jack, I had no idea."

Jack raked a hand through his hair. "I know, but dammit, you were the one who saw us in the car on Sunday. That should have given you a hint not to just barge in unannounced."
"True."

"If you boys want dinner, your grandmother said to get your keesters in here," their grandfather shouted from the front porch.

Holden glanced at the gold watch on his wrist. "It is six o'clock."

Nodding, Jack followed Holden into their grandparents' sprawling red brick rancher. The delectable aroma of sausage and bacon combined with freshly baked biscuits and buttermilk pancakes fired up his taste buds to a whole new level.

Apparently tonight, they were having his favorite, breakfast for dinner.

No one cooked like Grandma. Not even their Mama. Nobody was brave enough to say that out loud when their mother was around, but Jack knew it was the general consensus.

"Everything all right, boys?" their father asked them as they shrugged out of their jackets and hung them on the pegs by the back door. "Looked like you were having a pretty intense discussion out there."

Jack shot Holden a warning look. Things might be moving forward between him and Tess, albeit slowly, but he didn't think an announcement at Wednesday dinner was necessary quite yet.