CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CARLY

We drove in complete silence the entire way to the event. Luckily, it was less than twenty-minute drive to the location. The radio station did a fantastic job setting things up. It’s like a winter wonderland as we pull into the parking lot. I turn the car off and the first thing I hear is hard rock versions of one of my favorite seasonal songs playing through the speakers of the van parked just a few feet up ahead, marked with the GRIT logo and radio call letters.

“There’s Devon,” Adair points through the windshield. “The rest of the guys are probably just over there.” He lets the seatbelt thump against the frame as he pushes his door open. “I’m going to go catch up to them.”

That’s probably the best idea I’ve heard all day. A little breathing room would be nice. I pull out my phone and swipe the screen to send a text to Ainsley.

Carly: We made it.

Ainsley: I heard the show. Are you okay?

Carly: I’m fine. I just shouldn’t have let myself hope things were changing.

Ainsley: Don’t think like that. You deserve to have hope and happiness and all 

the good things.

Carly: He had a woman tip-toeing out of the house this morning.

Ainsley: Oh. I’m sure it was something else. Give him a chance.

Carly: I’ve given him nothing but chance after chance. I can’t keep letting myself get hurt by him.

I push myself out of the car and take a deep breath of the cold winter air trying to get my mind back in the right place. This is important and I can’t let anything distract me. The band is counting on me.

I’m counting on me.

Bo Bose and the rest of the production crew is gathered around the guys with Devon standing guard to make sure everything stays calm. “Dude, she was hot though,” I hear Travis just as the music winds down. It sounds like he’s giving Adair crap about the girl who left the house this morning.

“You’re hopeless,” he says with a snicker. He’s so passive about it, it makes my nerves clench in my stomach even more.

“Can I have her number?” Travis asks.

“No way,” Adair shakes his head. “She left knowing you lived there. If she wanted you to have her number, she could’ve left it.”

Let it go, I remind myself to keep my focus on the task at hand and not the brotherly spat over some girl. “Wait.” I tried to keep my mouth shut. It never really works for me; I don’t know why I thought it would this time. “How can you be okay with your brother trying to steal your new girl?”

Adair’s eyebrows crash together as he turns to look at me, his mouth still open from whatever he was going to say to Travis before I interrupted. “What?” he asks.

“And we’re live in three… two…,” The producer interrupts before I can answer throwing his fingers up in the air counting down. “One… and go.” He gives the signal to Bo who doesn’t miss a beat despite the fact my face feels like it’s going to melt off from the heat rising through my cheeks. I should’ve kept my mouth shut.

“Welcome back to the Grit. We’re out here with Amaryllis spreading some love and planting some roots.” He puts one arm around me and pulls me in toward the microphone. “We’ve got Carly here who’s going to be leading our first team of tree planters. What’s your goal for today, Carly?”

“I just want to see the community come together and do something to help the environment here today.” I would also like to know what is going on between Adair and Miss Prissy Pants, but that will probably have to wait until another time. Ugh.

“Adair,” he motions him over to the microphone, “what would you like to accomplish here today?”

Bo waves his hands over his head calling everyone to gather round. “It’s time to break up into teams. Carly, who do you have with you?”

“I call Nash and Griffin,” I jump out there before he can even put the mic in front of me. I can’t risk Adair’s team getting the muscle.

Adair shakes his head and groans. “Are you telling me I’m stuck with Travis?”

“And me,” Bo says. “All right, each team has exactly two hours to plant as many trees as they can. We’ll meet back here at the sound of the bell for the official count. The winner gets to air all their dirty laundry on our New Year’s Eve show. Sound good?”

The crowd bursts into cheers.

“The timers are set,” Bo says, flicking his finger in the air. “It’s time to get gritty. Go!”

Nash and Griffin grab the biggest flats completely full of barely sprouted tress. I can only guess how heavy those are. “I’m going to just use this little trolly, because I cannot do that.” I say, pointing to the bundles they’re balancing on their shoulders.

Griffin chuckles and nudges Nash in the side. “He’ll drop his first. Watch.”

“Whatever,” he groans. “I’ve got this.”

I hold my camera up in front of them. “Ainsley needs proof.”

Carly: *Image uploading*
Eye candy for you.
BTW he totally flexed harder when he knew I was taking the picture for you. Just saying.

Ainsley: *swoon*

---

The timer goes off and a sound like an old school bell chimes through the field where we’re planting as an all too familiar voice comes over the speakers. “And that’s the time, folks,” Bo announces. “It’s time to come back so we can declare our winner.”

Adair is pushing a trolly full of empty flats… and Travis who is draped over the side waving his hands in the air like a kid on their first carnival ride. Adair drops the handle and lets Travis keep rolling toward the radio station van.

I bust out with laughter. “Aren’t you going to stop him?”

“He’ll be fine,” he says as Travis realizes he’s free rolling down the slight incline and scrambles to jump off.

“I could’ve died you know.” He throws his hands up over his head.

Adair shakes his head. “Nah, the van would’ve caught you.”

“I hate you,” he grumbles as a cute blonde catches his attention. “But I’ve got other matters to attend to.” He checks his teeth in the side mirror attached to the offending van.

“I don’t know how you live with him,” I admit.

Adair’s smile disappears as he takes a step closer to me. “Can we talk about what had you so upset on the way over here?”

I shake my head. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“I know you better than that.”

Does he? “We need to get over to the judging circle, so we can wrap this up.”

He grabs my hand as I try to turn and walk toward where Bo is waiting for us. “They’ve got to count the number actually planted. We’ve got time. They just sent the judges out a few seconds ago.”

Great.

“You don’t have to hide it. Whatever it is. I want to help.”

For some reason, I actually believe him. I’ve never seen so much sincerity in his eyes before. I don’t want to make him feel like he’s in the wrong for trying to find happiness. “I really don’t know. I got a little upset when I saw the woman you flew in from L.A. leaving this morning.”

“You got jealous?” That signature cocky grin of his returns almost immediately.

Nope. My jaw clenches as I shake my head in response. “I just thought you were going to be distracted and we might have to put Travis in the spotlight instead of you today.”

“That would have been a disaster,” he says, rubbing his chin with one hand and stuffing the other one in his pocket. “What makes you so sure I flew her in though?”

“She said she was in a hurry because she didn’t miss her flight back to L.A., since that’s where you live and she said she wasn’t there to see Travis, I just kind of put two and two together.”

“Uh-huh,” Adair mumbles under his breath. “She’s a real estate broker.”

“Oh,” I try to sound interested. “How long have you two been seeing each other?”

“We’re not seeing each other.”

Huh? My face must be priceless because he’s trying not to laugh at me right now.

“I got an offer on my house out in California, so she came here to get my signature on a few things. Apparently, my digital signature wasn’t good enough for the final closing papers.” He shrugs and steals a glance at me out of the corner of his eye. “The deal should be final in a couple of days.”

“Adair…” I’m an idiot. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”

“It’s fine.”

“No.” I drag my hands down my face. “It’s really not. Even if there had been something going on between the two of you, I had no right to react like that.”

His expression changes from amused to strained. “You don’t?”

“No.” I have zero claim on him. Even if sometimes I wish that wasn’t the case.

“Well,” he says in a low tone that sends a shiver down my spine. “I haven’t done much to give you any reason to think otherwise. For that, I’m sorry. But—”

I open my mouth to tell him that he doesn’t need to apologize, and we can just move on, but he puts one hand over my mouth and shakes his head.

“Let me finish, please,” he asks, slowly removing his hand from my mouth. “There is only one woman who has my attention one-hundred percent of the time. I hope you know that even if I am an insufferable idiot more than half the time.” He leans in, his lips close enough I can almost taste them against mine.

“The final counts are in,” Bo’s voice booms overhead. “It’s time to call our winners.”

“I guess we better get to the circle, huh?” I say with a smirk.

His jaw clenches as he nods in agreement. “I guess so.”

“Here’s our two team leaders now,” Bo says, running up to us. “We’ve been looking for you. Come on. It’s time to call the winners.” He leads back to the center of the commotion with the crowd growing just on the other side of the barriers set up by the security team. “Team Adair has won with four-hundred-twenty-seven trees.” He holds Adair’s hand up in victory as the crowd cheers. “Team Carly gave them a run for their money though with three-hundred-ninety-eight trees.”

“Thank you, Bo.” Adair leans over into the microphone. “We couldn’t have done all this without the amazing community team effort. Both teams are winners today.”

“Speaking of winners,” Bo interrupts. “When will you be announcing the winners of the Amaryllis holiday packages?”

“Keep an eye on our social media. They’ll be announced within twenty-four hours.”

“All right, you heard it here folks. Stay tuned,” Bo signals his producer to cut the audio. “Great job, you guys. This was a lot of fun and you did a great thing for our community here. I’m looking forward to the New Year’s show.”

Right. That. Groan. I’m not sure I’m prepared to find out what Adair has up his sleeve for that one.