“Oh no you don’t, Lily Rae,” John bellowed, his round belly bouncing as he chased after her.

John caught her by the arm and swung her around to attempt a kiss. Men. It worked one time so they think it’ll work every time. Lily grabbed hold of his suspenders, rose onto her tippy toes, and kissed him with everything she had. Right when he was leaning forward but before he wrapped his arms around her, Lily shot off down the street again, leaving him standing dazed on the sidewalk.

“Sucker,” she called over her shoulder as she ran toward the café. She passed the large windows and arrangements of bright flowers under them. Lily saw people enjoying lunch as she threw open the door and barged into her sisters’ restaurant.

The patrons all stopped and stared as she gulped in some air. Her sister, Daisy Mae, halted setting a plate of fried catfish in front of Judge Cooper. Violet Mae stuck her head out of the kitchen to see what was happening.

“Cy Davies is back in town.” She had done it. She had beaten John and had gotten the news out first.

The door burst open once again as John entered. “And he’s a stuntman in Hollywood,” John gasped as the restaurant groaned in response.

“As a cover for being a spy with the CIA,” Miss Lily hurriedly yelled out to make sure she beat John.

“YES! Yes, yes, yes.” Pam Gilbert leaped up from her chair and did a dance in the middle of the café in her soccer mom attire of khaki capris and a polo shirt. “I won, I can’t believe I won.” The restaurant groaned again. “I can take the kids to Disney for vacation,” Pam squealed as she jumped around some more.

“I thought for sure he was an mixed martial arts fighter,” old man Tabby mumbled before digging into his sandwich.

“I thought he was a professional skier,” Trey Everett said as he slid into a booth next to some of his friends.

Miss Lily smiled at the dear boy . . . well, man now. Trey was back for the summer after his first year in college. He’d grown two inches and packed on thirty pounds of muscle during his first season playing college football. In fact, he’d done so well, he was transferring to Vanderbilt to play.

Pierce Davies had hired him to work on the farms and Trey jumped at the chance to be back home and train with Will Ashton. Not every kid got to train with an NFL player. But Will and Cade were so proud of him for making it into the Southeastern Conference that they agreed to work with him every day. She didn’t even have to guilt Will into it—he’d come up with the idea all on his own.

“Why is he coming home now? Is he injured again?” Miss Daisy asked as she finally gave Judge Cooper his catfish.

“He’s in trouble and we need to help him,” Miss Lily said with a thump of her broom.

Gemma had been quiet for the last couple hours as the debate raged on. Cy had filled them in on what was happening, and she had answered some questions here and there. Quite honestly, she was still in a state of shock. Cy had a tendency to understate things. Such as, “My brothers were in the Army” turned out to be “My brothers were Special Forces with high-level security clearances.”

“Hey.” Cy had broken away from his family and had come over to where she was sitting. “How are you doing?”

“I’m a little in shock, but I’m ready to get to work.”

“Good. Then let’s get going.” Cy nodded toward the door and held out his hand to help her up.

“Go where?”

“To get some lunch and find us a place to stay.”

“Us?” Gemma asked as she stood up.

“Yep. Mom’s converted the old room I shared with Cade and Pierce into the grandsons’ room and Paige’s old room into the granddaughters’ room. Then she turned Miles and Marshall’s room into a scrapbooking room.”

“I thought you lived in Keeneston.”

“I do. I have two hundred acres of land here, but no house. I plan on building. It’s one of my projects for my retirement.”

“Retirement? You’re what, 33-ish? How can you talk about retiring?”

“Between the CIA and my job in Hollywood, I have enough to live a very comfortable life. But, I wasn’t going to just sit at home. Pierce has been taking care of my land for over six years. It’s time I take it over.”

“So, where are we going to stay then?” Gemma asked. This family was loud, sarcastic, and a little scary, but they were genuine and she felt safe. She didn’t really want to leave the comfortable couch and venture back into the real world.

“I have just the place. Come on.”

“Maybe he was burned. Is that what it’s called?” Daisy Mae asked Judge Cooper as she cleared his dishes.

“Just because I’m a judge doesn’t mean I know about spies,” Judge Cooper quipped.

“Oh, don’t be a sore loser. Your guess of professional bull rider was a good one.” Daisy patted him on the shoulder before making her way to the kitchen.

“Well, whatever it is, I want to know about this woman with him,” Henry Rooney, the local defense attorney, asked with a smirk.

“You do, do you? And why is that?” Neely Grace asked from her tableful of Keeneston Belles.

Lily cringed. If anyone could keep Henry in line, it was Neely Grace. Not only was she an attorney in Lexington, she’d whipped those snobby Belles into shape faster than a rabbit’s nose can twitch. They were now planning a charity event to benefit the arts program at the elementary school.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be negligent for not checking her out,” Henry said casually as he took a bite of his pecan pie.

Neely Grace rolled her eyes. “Miranda didn’t warn me about you.”

“Res ipsa loquitur, sweetheart. Your hot body speaks for itself. No need to be worried about some new woman in town.”

“For the love of the legal system . . . cut that out, you two.” Judge Cooper rapped his cup on the table as if it were a gavel and shook his head. “That’s just wrong. I’m going back to my chambers.”

Henry’s mouth opened and Miss Lily thwacked him with her broom. “Bless your heart, don’t go there. For all our sakes.”

Henry looked up at her and gave her a little wink before blowing Neely Grace a kiss. Oh, he was a cutie, all right, but there was only one man she was worried about fixin’ and it wasn’t Henry Rooney.

“Henry makes a good point. I haven’t heard a thing from the sheriff. I wonder if this has to do with the woman. Maybe she’s an international criminal,” Deputy Dinky said as he took a sip of iced tea.

“Or maybe it’s as simple as a girlfriend,” Noodle, Dinky’s partner, said.

“I like Dinky’s idea. I have twenty on international criminal,” Miss Daisy said as she pulled out her ever-present notebook and marked the newest bet.

“I’ll put ten on her being a spy from another country that he’s turned,” Pam said.

“Oh, that’s a good one,” Miss Daisy murmured as she took the bet.

Cy pulled the truck to a stop a block away from the café. The street was lined with cars. It was lunchtime, and since this was the only place to eat in the town, he knew it was going to be packed.  “It’s right down there,” he told Gemma, pointing to the umbrellas providing shade to the bistro tables on the sidewalk.

“It’s a cute town. This is nothing like L.A.,” Gemma said as she took in the old façades of Main Street painted in the historic colors of tan, white, dark red, and grayish-blue. Flowers were blooming in the baskets hanging from the old-style lampposts where American flags fluttered in the warm breeze.

“It is. I remember being a teenager and thinking it was horrible. Everyone knew all my business. I couldn’t get into too much trouble because someone would tell my mom. And then, of course, everyone had an opinion about who I was dating, what sports I should be playing, or what I should do with my life.

“I left and never thought I’d want to come back. Funny thing happened. About one year after leaving, I started missing the place. By three years out, I missed the place so much I started buying up property just to keep my connection to the town. I knew then my goal was to work hard enough to make it back here,” Cy told her as he pushed open the door to the café. He had never told anyone so much about this town. It was part of his secret life he hadn’t been able to talk to anyone about and it felt good to tell her about his life, goals, and desires.

Cy walked into the café and stood grinning like a fool. The place had gone silent in a heartbeat. Everyone turned and stared at them with guilty looks all over their faces. Strange how he had actually grown to miss this.

“Were you all talking about us?” He laughed.

“Cy, welcome home, sweetheart.” Miss Lily wrapped him up in a tight hug as her sisters hurried over. He gave each Rose sister a kiss on the cheek and shook hands with everyone else from the town. His good friend, Coach Parks, gave him a tight hug as everyone peppered Cy with questions.

Gemma stood slightly behind Cy and watched the scene unfold around her. They had already known he was back in town and needed help. They had already known she was there and, one after another, shook her hand, gave Fred a pat, and introduced themselves to her.

“Cy,” she whispered, getting his attention, “how did these people know we were here?”

“I told you they had an information system better than the government’s,” Cy said with a grin. “Miss Lily, we need a place to stay. Mom’s turned my room into a baby’s room and Paige rented her apartment out to Bridget.”

“Oh, I know, dear. Are you adding to that?” she asked with a quick look to Gemma’s belly. Gemma blushed and then for a second time got self-conscious. Why was everyone thinking she was pregnant? Did she look fat or something?