Free Welcome Back to Apple Grove by C.H. Admirand

salad.”
    “Looking for me, gorgeous?” Jack Gannon set a large bowl on the table behind the sisters and wrapped his arms around his wife and their niece. Deidre was babbling a mile a minute but stopped when he kissed his wife. From the way she giggled, Grace knew the little one was used to getting her share of her uncle’s kisses too.
    Jack pressed his lips to Deidre’s forehead and snagged the little one from Cait’s arms. “My turn.” Settled on his hip, the two walked over toward the group of men—tall and small—standing around the grill.
    With Meg in the middle, the sisters linked arms and listened as Cait caught them up on the latest news from Honey B. and Rhonda.
    “So we’ll have even more donations for Love Locks.” Grace couldn’t be happier. “I’m so glad Kate talked me into making that appointment with Honey B. to straighten out the mess I’d made of my hair.”
    Cait snorted. “That’s what you get for snipping while you were sipping.”
    Once she started giggling, Grace couldn’t stop. She ended up brushing away tears from the laughter. It feels so good to laugh like that.
    “Did you check out the town website this morning? The pics turned out great.”
    Grace heard Cait’s question but was distracted by the deep rumbling of male voices again.
    ***
     
    Pat watched the way the sisters linked arms and started talking all at once. They made a solid unit—like he and his brothers. Now he sounded like the oldest of his brothers, Tommy . Not gonna go there. He shoved those thoughts deep.
    The ladies’ laughter floated toward him and, like a tantalizing scent on the breeze, distracted him. They were quite a trio, heart-stoppingly beautiful. Cait and Grace were tall, with the same gorgeous green eyes and strawberry-blonde hair, and although they used to have the same slender figures, Grace’s had filled out to bodacious proportions while she’d been living in Columbus. The petite firebrand in the middle, Meg, had auburn hair and bright blue eyes.
    It was crazy to think a blind date with Honey B. had brought him here. How he let Snelling talk him into signing up for that online dating service he couldn’t really remember. It might have been an ARI—alcohol-related incident. Whatever the case, Honey B. had been his intended date that night. To his surprise and approval, she’d shown up with reinforcements, Dan and Meg, to watch her back, and he’d ended up making new friends that had filled in part of the gap leaving New York City and his family had caused.
    “My girls are gorgeous.” Joe’s voice broke through Pat’s train of thought.
    Patrick answered without thinking. “Yeah.”
    The older man’s laughter caught Pat off guard. He turned toward Joe and asked, “Did I miss the joke?”
    But Joe just smiled, turned the steaks, and sent the boys over to their mother to grab the bowl of potato chips. “Don’t run,” he warned them as he tossed a few burgers for the kids onto the grill, “or you’ll spill your share of the chips.”
    Enjoying their antics, Pat watched Danny and Joey walk back with the bowl between them like it was TNT and about to explode. “You always know just what to say to those two.”
    Joe smiled. “They’re a lot like my girls were growing up.”
    “Your girls were that wild?”
    Joe’s deep laughter had Dan and Jack breaking off their conversation. “Did you just ask if the Mulcahy sisters were wild when they were younger?” Dan asked.
    “Just wondering,” Pat replied.
    “Did you hear about the time Meg climbed up to the crow’s nest?” Dan asked.
    Patrick just had to ask, “At the top of the mast in McCormack’s field?”
    Dan nodded.
    “Or the time Cait tried to dye her hair blue with Jell-O?” Jack asked.
    Pat shook his head, asking, “What wild stuff did Grace do?”
    Joe sighed. “She was always the one to quietly rebel.”
    “So she wasn’t as obvious as her older sisters?” Pat filed that information away with what else he’d