Page 33 of Promise Me a Forever Texas Love

He had never seen anything more beautiful in his life.

But he knew the A-Sisters were watching. So instead, he only stared like a starving man at a bakery window as Adele yelled from behind the coffee counter.

“Absolutely not, Ar! There will be no giving lessons to Huck Hennessy. Have you learned nothing from Tully and Magnolia? Hennessy men make even strong women fall like a November acorn in a stiff Texas wind. And we are anything but strong where men are concerned.”

“Amen to that!” Ada’s voice rang out from the pass-through of the kitchen.

All the yelling drew Cadee and Camden’s attention. Cadee didn’t look happy at all to see him, but Camden’s face lit up. Which caused a warm feeling to spread through Huck’s gut.

“Hey, Huck! I didn’t know you were meeting us for breakfast.”

“He’s not meeting us for breakfast, Cam,” Cadee corrected. Yesterday, she’d worn her hair in two braids that Huck had wanted to tug. Today, her hair fell around her face in soft waves he wanted to run his fingers through . . . before he fisted it and drew her lips to his so he could see if the red lipstick she wore tasted like cherries.

But those sexual impulses were what had screwed things up between them before, so he pulled his gaze away from those Bing cherry red lips and looked at Camden.

“Your mama’s right, Cam. I came to breakfast with my sister.” Huck glanced at Poppy who was staring at Camden like she’d seen a ghost. Worried she was going say something in front of the A-Sisters, he quickly spoke. “Why don’t you order, Pops, while I grab us a table.”

Poppy finally snapped out of her shock and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

While she gave Arlene their order, Huck took off his hat and walked to the table across from Camden and Cadee and sat down. She still didn’t look happy, but he couldn’t have planned it better. He wanted all the time he could get with his son.

“So y’all always come to breakfast on Sundays?”

Camden’s smile faded as he grumbled. “Before church.”

Huck bit back his smile. “That’s nice. Church is good for the soul.”

Camden perked up. “So you’re going too?”

“Uhh . . . well . . . I . . . have an appointment this morning so I can’t.”

Poppy arrived with two cups of coffee and a greasy bag. She handed him one of the cups before she flopped down in the chair across from him and opened the bag.

“Don’t let me interrupt you, Huckleberry.” She pulled out a mini donut and ate it in two bites before sending him an evil smile. “I believe you were telling Camden about your appointment. What is it exactly? Funny, but I don’t remember you telling me about an appointment.”

He shot her an annoyed look. “Just an appointment I’m sure Camden isn’t interested in.” He quickly moved on to introductions. “Poppy, this is Camden Stockton, Cadee’s son. Cam, this is my sister, Poppy.”

“Poppy?” Camden tipped his head. “That’s as weird a name as Huckleberry.”

“Camden Stockton!” Cadee scolded, but Poppy just laughed.

“Are you kidding me? My name is way better than Huck’s. Poppy is a stunningly beautiful flower. Huck is just a character in a book who went on a dumb rafting trip.”

Camden lowered the cup of hot chocolate he’d just taken a sip of. Foamy whip cream covered his top lip. Again, Huck wanted to pull out his phone and take a picture. “A rafting trip? That’s not dumb. I would love to go on a rafting trip.”

Poppy rolled her eyes. “Figures. Well, if you like rafts, then you should probably come see the treeboat that Huck and my other brothers built.”

“A treeboat? What’s a treeboat?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. A boat in a tree.”

Camden looked like he was about to explode from excitement as he looked at Huck. “You put a boat in a tree?”

“It’s not exactly a boat,” Huck said. “Just a raft my brothers and I made that didn’t float.”

He had found the scarred ship’s wheel when he’d been playing hide-and-seek with Poppy and Dawson and had chosen to hide in the attic. As soon as he’d seen the wheel, it had brought up visions of him and his siblings cruising down the river aboard a magical pirate ship. With Huck at the helm.

But the ship he’d envisioned had turned out to be more of an unseaworthy raft. It sank the first time he, Dawson, and Jaxon had pushed it into the water. Luckily, the river had been running low that year so all they had to do was pull it back out.