Page 17 of Penny & Royce

The family meeting droned on without incident. It was one of the shorter meetings, and when Lincoln told everyone they were free to go, Royce jumped to his feet, fully intending to head to town and check a few things off his list so that he could give Penny her day.

“Not you,” Lincoln muttered, placing a hand on Royce’s shoulder.

Groaning inwardly, Royce turned to face his brother. No one else lingered, not even their father—though he rarely came to these meetings anymore. “What do you want, Lincoln? I kept my mouth shut like you asked.”

“Not good enough.”

He lifted his brows. “Not good enough? What more did you want?”

Lincoln sighed, and for the first time, he actually looked tired. He dragged a hand down his face. “You’re the second oldest. You need to start taking this seriously.”

“What?” Royce laughed out the word. “What exactly do you need me to take seriously? We operate a large family farm. It’s not like we’re responsible for saving the planet or something. We produce food for local grocers.”

“This farm is our family’s legacy. And we have a competitor right next door who is bent on sabotaging us.”

“What, because of the goats? You know there’s a fix for that, right? Taller fences. Heck, electrify them.”

Lincoln leveled him with a flat look. “That’s not our responsibility. Besides, that woman next door would just figure out how to bypass anything we try to install.”

Royce laughed again.

“Will you stop that?” Lincoln demanded. “Do you realize we have ten mouths to feed here? One bad season, and we could go destitute.”

“That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?” Royce folded his arms in an attempt to hide the glance at his watch.

He had a good excuse to head to town, but Lincoln wasn’t going to let him go if he didn’t think it was good enough. And the longer this argument took, the less likely Royce would be the one to go.

“Going somewhere?”

Shoot. Lincoln noticed.

Royce cleared his throat. “Was going to run some errands. Lucy wanted me to grab a few things from the grocery store for dinner.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. His stepmom had told him she wanted a few things, but they weren’t urgent.

Lincoln’s eyes narrowed. Royce looked away, hating the way that stare could make him say things he wanted to keep private. It was like a superpower.

“When are you going to grow up, Royce? You’re getting closer to your thirties, and there are no signs that you’re ready to settle down.”

Royce scoffed. “Speak for yourself. Your birthday was last week. How old are you now?”

“I don’t see anyone else taking up the mantle to run this farm.”

It took a great deal of restraint for Royce not to point out that getting married and having kids was also important. Without a stable relationship, Lincoln’s bloodline would end with him.

Thankfully, his thoughts of Penny kept him from causing more problems. For her, he’d make sure to be on his best behavior. The last thing he needed was to get Lincoln to start paying more attention to him.

Then it hit him.

Lincoln had just given him the perfect excuse to spend less time at home and more time around town.

More time he could spend getting to know Penny.

Royce relaxed his stance and rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually, now that you mention it, there is someone I’m interested in.”

Lincoln relaxed too. “Really? Why didn’t you say anything?”

Royce shrugged. “You’ve been keeping me pretty busy around here. There’s a lot to do, and you’re piling on even more lately.”