Honeysuckle Summer (The Sweet Magnolias #7)(48)
The other men groaned at the comment and Carter winced. “Okay, so it sounds sexist. The point is that I’m seeing them in a whole new light now. There’s a rare kind of loyalty at work, isn’t there? And it extends to you guys, too.”
“It does,” Ronnie confirmed. “And now that you’re with Raylene, you’re a part of it.”
Walter studied him with a narrowed gaze. “You are with Raylene, right? This isn’t just some macho need to protect her just because it’s what cops do? You really do care?” The genuine note of concern in his voice proved how deep his own caring for Raylene ran.
“I care,” Carter confirmed. He was far more certain of that than he was of his readiness to act on his feelings…or Raylene’s ability to handle the kind of relationship he might someday want.
The Fourth of July dawned with a hard rain that left the ground steaming the second it ended and the sun came out. By the time the parade started, the skies were blue and the streets had dried off, though there were still enough puddles that most of the kids in town had managed to get soaked along the sides of the parade route down Azalea Drive and onto Main Street.
Carter stood on the town green with Carrie and Mandy to watch their first big event since coming to Serenity. Carter had heard people talking about how much the residents of Serenity loved their holidays, and they were about to see that firsthand.
“This is so lame,” Carrie grumbled as a ragtag group of veterans marched by, some in uniform, some out, waving small American flags.
“It’s not lame,” Mandy said indignantly. “Those men fought for our country.”
Carrie flushed at the criticism. “I know that. If we were in Columbia, though, they’d all be wearing uniforms and marching in time to the music.”
“Who cares what they’re wearing?” Mandy retorted. “Look how proud they are. And look at how everybody’s clapping for them. I think it’s awesome. Show some respect.”
Standing behind them, Carter sighed. He’d hoped the parade and the town’s Fourth of July celebration might help Carrie to see the advantages of living in a small town where events like this brought people together as a community. Instead, it seemed she was going to judge everything in comparison to Columbia, and Serenity was going to come up short. He hoped to heaven her attitude improved before they walked over to Sarah’s for the barbecue. Otherwise it was going to be a long afternoon.
“Oh, look,” Mandy exclaimed. “Tommy and Libby are on the float for the radio station. Don’t they look adorable?”
Even Carrie smiled when she saw them sitting in a replica of the station’s studio, wearing headsets the way their mom and Travis did. Walter sat nearby operating the controls, though he was more likely there to keep them from tumbling off the flat-bed trailer. Country music filled the air as the float went by. When they spotted their mom in the real station studio, they nearly fell off their chairs waving. Walter snagged them and sat them back where they belonged.
“You have to admit they looked pretty cute,” Carter said to Carrie.
She frowned at him, but there was a twinkle in her eye. “Okay, yes,” she admitted grudgingly.
There were another half-dozen floats from local businesses, a marching band from the high school and several antique cars before the parade finally wound down.
“Can we check out the booths on the green before we go to Sarah’s?” Mandy asked Carter. At his nod, she tugged on her sister’s arm. “Come on. I saw some really cool jewelry when we were walking over here.”
“Don’t take too long,” Carter told them. “I promised I’d help get the grill going for the hamburgers.”
“You can go ahead. We know the way,” Mandy told him. “We’ll be there in a half hour. I promise.”
Pleased to see that Carrie was at least willing to go along with her sister, he nodded. “Thirty minutes,” he warned. “I don’t want to have to come looking for you.”
He watched the two of them walk off toward the booths, Mandy skipping along excitedly and chattering a mile a minute, while Carrie walked more sedately behind her. At least her mood had improved slightly since returning from their weekend in Columbia, but he didn’t trust it to last. Maybe all teenage girls had mercurial mood swings, but Carrie’s seemed to him to be off the charts.
At Sarah’s, he found a few of the men already in the yard. Raylene was in the kitchen supervising what looked to him like barely organized chaos. She spared a grin for him before giving several other guests their marching orders.
When everyone except her had cleared out of the kitchen, she motioned for him to come in. “Or are you afraid I’m going to put you to work, too?”
He dropped a kiss on her flushed cheek. “You don’t scare me,” he said.
“I probably should. There’s a lot to be done before we can eat.”
“Tell me, and I’ll help. I checked in with Erik and he doesn’t need me to help with the burgers yet, so I’m all yours for the moment.”
She shook her head. “Erik’s never going to need your help with the burgers. The man is a control freak when it comes to his grill or a kitchen. I swear, if Dana Sue didn’t own Sullivan’s, he probably wouldn’t let her in the kitchen there either. I heard stories about Helen pitching in over there before she and Erik got married that made me wonder how they ever made it down the aisle. Can you imagine Helen letting anyone boss her around?”