Bob huddled up with April Lynn and the girls. “What are we making this year?”
“A dinosaur!” Riley suggested.
“Bigfoot!” Raina said.
“Just a foot,” Renae said with a smirk.
Bob stood for a moment, waiting for Roxane to suggest something, but she was too busy snuggling up with Ciran to pay attention. “Fine. I like the idea of the foot. We’ll need five snowballs for toes. And a huge one for the ankle. We’ll mound up snow around the ankle for the top of the foot. Go!”
As the others scrambled off to make their snowballs and win the competition, Bob put his arm around April Lynn. “We sure do have a fine family. And Bobling is coming home.”
“I’m so ready to squeeze my boy, I can’t even express it.”
“I know how you feel.” He kissed her forehead, watching. “Ciran’s got good form on his snowball, but check out Chad. That man is running around like a crazy man. I think his snowball will need to be the ankle. If that’s the big toe, we’re going to have the biggest foot in all of Idaho!”
April Lynn smiled, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’ll go make some hot chocolate for when they get too cold. You keep yelling orders. And don’t do any of the work yourself. Remember your heart!”
“My heart is as fit as anyone’s!” Bob protested, but deep inside he knew otherwise. He’d had a stent put in over the summer, and he needed to be careful. Especially in the cold.
Grandma Gertie walked over and stood with Bob. “Chad is a good fit for our Renae, isn’t he? I was glad to hear he was back from the Army and ready to settle down in the valley again.”
Bob nodded. “I do think they belong together.”
As they watched, Renae fell on her rump in the snow, and though Chad was across the yard from her, he ran toward her and offered a hand up. After making sure she was all right, he ran back to his snowball and kept rolling.
Grandma sighed contentedly. “That just told me everything I need to know. He knows how klutzy she is, and he accepts it. That’s her worst flaw.”
Bob laughed. “Are you kidding? She’s a dreamer who walks around with her head in the clouds. She says things without thinking. And she thinks she can fix the world by rubbing people’s feet. And her klutziness is her worst flaw?”
Grandma kissed his cheek. “I love you, Bob. Watch over them.” With those words, she headed back over to where Grandpa stood, watching the entire competition. The rules were that they had to make all the snowballs during the two-hour time they were given for the contest, so they had to be watched to be sure no one brought in any extra snow or premade snowballs. You wouldn’t think it would have to be a rule, but the Quinns were mighty competitive.
The foot quickly took shape, other sculptures going up all around them. April Lynn came back out with mugs of hot chocolate for her team, and they all took turns drinking, immediately running back to the competition.
Chad was on his knees, building up snow around the big snowball he’d rolled, trying to turn it into an ankle. Renae dropped to her knees beside him, helping him pat the snow. “You all right after your fall?” he asked.
Renae shrugged. “Which one?”
“You fell more than once?”
“Well, I just fell onto my knees, but I made it look like I was just getting down to help you. I can disguise my clumsiness on occasion.”
“You worry me.” Chad kept working, not stopping to study her. “You okay from all your falls?”
“I’m doing just great. And our foot is starting to look like a foot. I’m so excited!”
“You’re not going to zone this foot, are you?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.
“Nope. Not this one. Just yours later.”
They were joined then by Roxie and Ciran, patting the other side of the ankle, and talk of foot zoning stopped. “Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?” Renae asked her sister.
“I don’t know. Ciran thinks we should have a boy first, but I kind of want all girls. I want our daughters to experience the kind of friendship among sisters we’ve always had.”
Renae stopped patting for a moment to gape at her sister. “Friendship? I always saw you as my biggest competitor.”
“I know. Isn’t it great? We pushed each other to be better people.”
Renae shrugged. “I guess you can look at it that way.” She got up and ran over to get the biggest of the other snowballs. “I’ve got the big toe.” Rolling it into place, she grinned. “This is the best foot ever!” She checked the time, and they only had thirty minutes. “Thirty minutes, guys! We need to hustle!”
She got back down on her knees and started making the marks for the toenails, thrilled with the work they’d done. Everyone always chose to do animals, and doing something so different would surely get them brownie points with the judges. And brownies would have gotten her points with her Grandpa. She wished she’d thought of that. He was a big fan of brownies with cream cheese frosting. She’d bribe him next holiday.
When all was said and done, each of the five teams stood beside their sculpture as Grandpa and Grandma Quinn, along with the three grandkids, wandered between them, looking at the different creations. They whispered to each other as they went.
When they were finally done, Grandma went into the house and brought out a trophy. “It’s time for the trophy to go to a new family! Usually Harold and Irene’s family pulls it off because of Robyn’s mad Pinterest skills, but this year, it’s going to Bob and April Lynn’s clan. That foot is amazing!”
There was a united scream of excitement from Renae and her sisters, all of their hands going straight up in the air in victory. “We did it!” Renae threw herself at Chad and knocked him down in the snow, landing on top of him. “You put us over the top!”
“Umm . . . you’re laying on top of me in front of the whole family.” Chad couldn’t believe how embarrassed he was.
“But we won!” She quickly rolled off of him and jumped back to her feet. She hadn’t meant to knock him down, but . . . well, she was clumsy.
She clapped with her sisters as her dad ran and got the trophy, holding it above his head. Every year someone got to take it home for the year, and this year it was her family. She wanted to stick her tongue out at Robyn, but she wasn’t about to be that juvenile. Not with Chad watching anyway.
They all went in to have some dessert, and then people started going their own ways. All the cousins made it over to congratulate Renae and her sisters. Robyn looked at Chad for a moment. “Too bad I didn’t see you first. I’d have brought you home just to win the competition.” She leaned down and hugged Renae. “Good going, cuz.”
Renae grinned, thrilled to have brought their ace in the hole with her. As soon as Robyn walked off, Renae grinned at Chad. “We can go now.”
“You were just waiting to talk to Robyn, weren’t you?”
“Well, yeah. She wins at all the creative stuff. It was nice to beat her for a change.”
Chad said nothing else as he got his coat and put it on. He had no idea what was wrong with the overly competitive Quinn clan, but he liked it. He liked it a lot.
On the drive back to Renae’s house in town, he asked her what she was planning to cook him for supper.
“Oh, it’s already in the crock pot. I made chicken and dumplings. I have some bread rising that I’ll throw in the oven as soon as we walk in the door.”
“You made fresh bread?” He was stunned that she’d had time. He knew it was a long process.
“Sure. I took it out of the freezer to thaw all by myself!”
“Freezer?” Chad had no idea what she was saying.
“Your mom is one of those that does everything the hard way. I do frozen bread the same way my mama does. I buy it from the frozen aisle of the grocery store, and put it in the fridge to thaw. After it rises, I stick it in the oven, and cook it. Then it’s done and yummy, and there was no real work involved.”
He grinned, shaking his head. “I should have known.”
“Why?
I do cook. I made the dumplings from scratch, but I didn’t want to have to get up at four to have bread ready when you got here. You’ll like it.”
He pulled into her driveway, and she got out, hurrying up to the door. Slipping on a patch of ice, she went down, cracking her wrist. “Ouch.” She lay in the snow, cradling her arm.
He sighed. “Do we need to call Brooke?”
“Let me think about it for a minute.” Looking down at her arm, it was already turning black and blue. “I think it’s just a sprain, but this is going to have me off work for a few days. My hands are my livelihood.”
He carefully helped her to her feet and led her inside. “I think we should call her.”
Renae groaned. “Probably. Just to confirm it’s only a sprain. She’s going to have something to say, though.”
“Do you have her number?”
She used her good hand to pull her phone from her pocket and pushed the button to activate Siri. “Siri, call Brooke.”
“Calling Brooke Quinn.”
Renae handed the phone to Chad, letting him do the talking. She didn’t want to have to hear her cousin tease her while she was still in pain.
“Brooke, this is Chad. Renae fell, and her wrist looks bad. All swollen and black and blue.” He paused for a moment. “All right. We’ll meet you there.”
“She’s going down to the clinic, and we’re meeting her there.”
“Of course. I could always just go to the hospital in Riston.” She wanted to scream. She’d rather go to Riston just to avoid the teasing. Why did she always fall on her face and hurt herself?
“No, Brooke is going to be at her clinic. She said she’d get there before we do. Come on.” He helped her to her feet. “Do I need to carry you?”
“My wrist is hurt, not my feet.”
“Yeah, but if you fall again . . .”
She sighed. “I’m not going to fall again. At least I hope I’m not. Just drive me to the clinic and let Brooke deal with it.”
He knew she was upset. More upset than she was hurt, it seemed, and he wasn’t sure why. Everyone had accidents. It wasn’t like she was the only one in the world. And he found her clumsiness endearing.
Helping her situate herself in the car, he buckled her in, and then drove to the clinic. When they got there, he helped her out, keeping one hand under her elbow. He didn’t want her slipping on the ice again.
Brooke was waiting there for them and opened the door immediately. She frowned as she looked at Renae’s wrist. “You’re not going to be doing any foot zones for a week or two at least.”
“I know.” Renae was furious with herself. She’d been seeing Chad for two days, and he’d seen her fall four times. That was a record even for her. She followed Brooke back into her X-ray room, a room she’d visited more than her share.
Ten minutes later, Brooke was wrapping her wrist with an Ace bandage. “I want you to use a sling for a week, and then come back and see me. I’m glad it’s not broken, but this is a bad sprain. You can’t be using this arm like you usually do.”
“I know the drill.” Renae had broken more bones and had more sprains than anyone she knew. She definitely knew how to take care of them, whether she wanted to or not.
“Good.” Brooke finished wrapping it and put it in a sling. “I’m writing you a prescription for pain pills. Don’t be afraid to take them if you need them. You should probably stay with Aunt April Lynn for a few days, so you can be taken care of.”
Renae wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to be taken care of.”
“I’ll call her and ask her to look in on you every day then. I’m sure between her and your sisters, you can have meals delivered every day.”
“Just call Roxie and have Ciran bring me tacos.”
“You cannot live on a steady diet of tacos for a week!” Brooke said, glaring at her.
“I can live on tacos and sopapillas. Now leave me alone. I don’t want to be around anyone in my misery.”
Brooke looked at Chad. “Stay with her for a while tonight, would you?”
“I will.”
Brooke offered him the prescription for the pain pills. “She won’t want to take these, but she might need to.”
He took the prescription and put his arm around Renae’s waist, helping her to the truck. “I’m staying with you or someone else is. That’s that.”
She sighed. “Let’s just have dinner tonight like we planned. It’s my left wrist, so I can still eat if you’ll serve us. And then I’ll call Riley to come stay with me. She’ll bring a couple of her healing crystals, and I’ll be good as new in no time.”
“All right.” He didn’t want to leave her with just a sister, but he knew she was stubborn. She’d obviously been hurt more than once or twice, and she seemed to know exactly what to do for it. He wasn’t going to argue with her.
When they got to her house, he took her phone and found Riley’s number. “Hey, this is Chad. Renae sprained her wrist pretty badly. Can you come and stay with her?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there in ten.”
“No, not yet. I’ll stay with her until about ten tonight. If you can be here then, I’d appreciate it.”
“No problem. Thanks for taking care of her.”
Chad ended the call and looked at Renae, who looked like she wanted to kick something. “Riley will be here at ten. She’s going to stay with you.” He rubbed his hands together, trying to make light of the situation. “Now, how do I make this great frozen bread?”
“Preheat the oven to three-fifty,” she said.
He followed instructions well, and they were eating forty-five minutes later. “Your chicken and dumplings are the best I’ve ever tasted!”
She smiled. “My grandma taught me to make them. Grandma is a wonder in the kitchen.”
“So are you!” He took another bite, a smile on his face. “I can’t believe you cook this well, and you’re not working for the pub!”
“Shh . . . I don’t tell them I can cook. They’d want me to work for them, and I like doing the foot zones.” She smiled at him. “Thanks for putting up with my crabbiness.”
“Hey, if I’d fallen like that, I’d be crabby, too.” He reached over and squeezed her good hand. “Do you want me to go see if I can find an open pharmacy to fill this prescription?”
“Nah. I’ll just take a couple of Advil, and I’ll be fine. At least until tomorrow. Riley will take care of me after that. And Grandma. I’m sure Grandma already knows about the whole thing and is making me freezer meals to make things easier until I’m completely recovered.”
“Does she do that?”
“Every single time I hurt myself. So every other day or so.” Her voice was full of self-deprecation.
“I hope you know I don’t think less of you for this. I just want to help you get better.”
“I think less of myself for it. Brooke was doing everything she could not to make fun of me. I could see it on her face. And Riley will tease me as soon as you leave.”
“Teasing is what being a family is all about.”
“I know it is, but I wish I wasn’t quite so teasable!” Renae said. “It’s always me falling on my face. Do you know that if someone sent Bobling an email right now and said that one of his sisters was hurt, he would immediately know it was me without even asking? It’s always me.”
“I think I’d be annoyed with myself, too, but it’s not like you do it on purpose. You’re just a little accident prone.”
“A little accident prone?” She shook her head. “Maybe that worked when I was little and I fell a couple of times. I do this constantly.”
“And it doesn’t matter. You’re all right now.”
She sighed. “Why are you even still sitting there? Shouldn’t you be running for the hills? I’m the crazy girl you met who falls over her own feet and can’t seem to even climb a flight of stairs without falling down them.”
Chad leaned forward, making sure he was looking her in the eye. “I’m not going anywher
e. So just move on.”
Chapter Five
Chad waited for Riley to arrive before gently kissing Renae goodnight. “Is there anything I should do to help before I go?” he asked. “I did the dishes and put the leftovers in the fridge.”
Riley shook her head. “Thanks for doing that much. I can take it from here. Raina and I will take turns with her all week, and Mom’s going to arrange for meals. Our family is big enough that we’ll make it work.”
“I’d like to come in the evenings, if I may. I want to help.”
Riley looked at Renae. “Well, isn’t my sister the luckiest lady in town? Absolutely. If you can be here from, say, four to ten, Raina or I will be here at ten to spend the night. Grandma’s going to come sit with her during the day.”
“I have a sprained wrist. I’m not an invalid.”
“Yeah, but I talked to Brooke, and it’s a really bad sprain, and she doesn’t even want you showering without help,” Riley said. “So you’re stuck with a babysitter for the next week or so.”
Renae frowned. “Well, lucky me.”
Riley grinned at Chad. “She always gets grumpy after a fall where she hurts herself. I’ve got it from here.”
Chad looked at Renae once more and decided to trust Riley. “I’ll be back tomorrow evening.”
“Good. You might want to bring some movies. That will keep her occupied.”
“Netflix?”
“That works, too. See ya!” Riley closed the door and turned to look at Renae. “You still have some pain pills left from when you broke your ankle over the summer. They’re in your medicine cabinet.”
“How do you know that?” Renae asked, frowning at her sister.
“The last time I was here, I had some food stuck in my teeth, and I dug through your medicine cabinet looking for some floss. So I was in there and saw the pills. I’m going to help you change, and then we’re going to get you loopy on Vicodin.”
“My favorite.” Renae sighed. She hated to be a burden on everyone, and she knew that’s just what she would be. Everyone would act like they didn’t mind taking care of her, but she felt like an idiot.
“I know they are. It’s kind of sad when you have a favorite pain pill, you know.” Riley went into Renae’s bedroom and riffled through the drawers until she found her pajamas. “I found your jammies, and we’re getting you changed. Do you need to use the bathroom?”
Daring Dreamer: Quinn Valley Ranch Book 7 Page 4