Beau shook his head. “I don’t know how Emma does it.”
Chase opened his eyes. “Right? I was thinking the same thing.”
Dad rubbed the back of his neck and sat up. “You know, we can’t let on that the little guy tuckered us out this much, or we will never hear the end of it.”
He and all four of his brothers groaned at the truth of the statement.
“Coffee? Energy drinks? Sugar?” Cade said looking at each of them.
“Not coffee or energy drinks, caffeine lasts too long. Sugar is the best bet, it will give us some energy, but not enough we won’t be able to sleep,” Adam said.
Cade nodded. “True. Cookies or ice cream?”
Drew stood. “Both. I’ll dish up the ice cream. Cade, you get the cookies. The rest of you drag your butts to the kitchen.”
The ice cream and cookies did start to revive them and as they ate they laughed about the events of the day. Tony had been thrilled to be allowed to ride his own horse. Cade had led the gentle mare by the reins as Tony perched on top. He’d always only ridden with another adult, so he’d been in hog heaven, all alone. Chase had been on one side with their dad on the other so either one could catch him if something went wrong. But it hadn’t, and Tony’s grin was huge when they got to the river.
The fishing had been a hoot. Tony loved playing with the worms they’d dug up to use so they had resorted to using salmon eggs. Drew and Adam had brought along their fly fishing rods, so they would be certain to have some fish for dinner. Chase and Cade were so busy with Tony they didn’t really have time to fish at all.
They stopped for a while and had a picnic lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, apples and water. After lunch Tony did manage to catch one fish and as far as he was concerned he was the best fisherman ever. When he pulled the fish in, he’d gotten a little too close to the river and ended up wet from his knees down. Fortunately, that incident was toward the end of their fishing time, so they could get him home without being too cold. It was a warm day, but it was still in the mountains of Colorado and the water that fed the river was made up of snow melt, so it was icy cold.
When they got back to the ranch they made Tony take a bath. The water was practically black from the little guy digging in the dirt and playing with the worms. Then he took a short nap on the couch with Grandpa K, while the brothers put away all the fishing equipment, brushed down the horses, cleaned the fish and set up the camp fire. Travis made some corn bread and Grandpa K doctored up some pork and beans. They set up some logs to sit on by the fire and brought out the pie tins to use as plates.
When Tony got up from his nap he was raring to go. They played Cowboys and Indians around the campfire and eventually got around to cooking over the flames. Tony declared it was the best meal he’d ever eaten. Once they got some real food in him they let him roast marshmallows to make s’mores. He ended up just as dirty from the playing in the dirt, being near the fire, sticky marshmallows and gooey chocolate as he had from fishing, so he had to take a second bath and then they all went into his room to see his tent bed.
He was so excited he bounced all over the room. They finally got him calmed down enough to read him some stories.
He was almost asleep when he cried out, “But mommy can’t kiss me if I’m in the tent, she won’t be able to reach me when I’m asleep.” His chin started to tremble and all six of them panicked not wanting him to start crying.
Grandpa K heard the commotion and came into the room to ask what was wrong. Tony explained with tears forming in his eyes.
Grandpa K calmly said, “We can fix that easy as pie, don’t you worry one bit. Chase get a piece of paper and a marker. Drew get some scissors or a sharp knife. Chad, there’s twine in the mud room, grab a couple feet of it. Adam there are safety pins in Meg’s sewing kit. Beau read the boy another story while we fix up his tent.”
When they all returned with their assigned items. Grandpa K said. “Chase, write Mother kisses here. Drew, cut two nice long slits in the tent right where Tony’s pillow is to make a flap. We’ll pin the sign above the flap and tie the twine to the bottom of it, so Emma can lift it easily in the dim light.”
Tony had stopped listening to the story and was watching them work to fix his dilemma. When it was ready he went over to look at it. He pulled on the string and saw it lift the flap. When he saw his pillow right behind it he grinned and hugged Grandpa K. “You’re the smartest Grandpa ever.”
Grandpa K patted the boy on the back. He cleared his throat. “Now get on in your bed and we’ll try it out to make sure it works.”
Each one of them gave the boy a good night kiss through the tent flap and he drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face. The men walked silently out of the room knowing they had dodged a bullet. Happy, but exhausted.
As they laughed about the day while eating ice cream and cookies they discussed how much to tell Emma and the other women. They certainly didn’t want to tell them that the little guy had run them ragged. They weren’t sure they wanted to mention him getting wet at the river or the fact that they’d had to give him two baths.
Adam was sure Rachel would get a kick out of the pictures they’d taken with their phones. Rachel? Why was he thinking about her? The pictures were of Tony, so Emma would love them. Actually, all four of the women would enjoy the pictures, but he wondered why his mind had gone straight to Rachel, bypassing his sister.
Chapter 21
Every day more RSVPs came in for the wedding, nearly all of them affirmative. Rachel thought Alyssa was going to have a breakdown. She on the other hand was not at all surprised, Alyssa was a favorite in their small town. If Rachel was getting married she didn’t think nearly as many people would be driving for two days each way to attend. In fact, Rachel thought it was kind of silly for them to be getting married in Colorado, but she had to admit just as many people from Colorado were planning to attend.
Rachel was logging the responses while Alyssa opened the envelopes. After they finished with the mailed cards, they would check the online responses.
Alyssa gasped. “You are not going to believe it.”
Of course, Rachel was going to believe it, since Alyssa had been saying that very same thing for the last twenty minutes. And every day before that when they went through the mail, and the bridal website.
“Who is it this time?”
“Mrs. Erickson.”
Rachel raised her eyebrows. “Now that one is a surprise. She’s gotta be in her eighties.”
“Yeah, she retired from teaching the year we would have been in her class, and I think she was nearly seventy then. We were eight, so fourteen years ago, yep eighty at least.”
“I hope the trip doesn’t kill her, that would not be good.” Rachel shivered.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that, my friend, that woman can run circles around all of us.”
Rachel nodded. “You do have a point. Do you know she joined the yoga class, and my mom said she put everyone to shame?”
Alyssa laughed. “I don’t doubt that for one minute.”
“Does it say how she’s getting here?”
Alyssa scanned the return and then burst out with a loud guffaw. “It says her plus one is Greg Jones. So, I’m guessing he’s bringing her, or escorting her if they fly.”
“For all his bad to the bone exterior, he’s really a nice guy.”
“I don’t see him as bad to the bone, more super intense. I think running the bar is what makes him appear bad, but he’s also the assistant fire chief, so not really bad in any way.” Alyssa pointed at her.
“I had a terrible crush on him when we were younger.” Rachel admitted.
Alyssa rolled her eyes. “No. Really? Is that why we had to walk by his bar every day after school and just happened to go by the fire department on Saturdays when they practiced? I saw right through you, girlfriend.”
Rachel shrugged as she felt her face heat. “It was my first real crush. I wonder why no woman has e
ver snatched him up.”
“There’s a lot of good-looking guys in our town still fighting the wedding ring.”
Rachel nodded as she thought about it. “True, there’s Greg, Terry, Kyle, even pastor Scott.”
“Exactly. That’s the last of the paper responses, let’s check the website.”
As Alyssa booted up her computer and logged into the website, Rachel thought about men avoiding commitment and wondered about the fact that all the Kipling men except Beau were still single with no girlfriends. Well, Cade kind of had a girlfriend. She didn’t seem very nice and bossed him around a lot. Which surprised Rachel because he was such an easy going flirty guy. How did the nice ones always end up with the bitchy women?
She shrugged and then thought about she and Adam, they’d had sex a half dozen times, but they had no relationship outside the bedroom. Sometimes they would exchange greetings, but that was about all. He was still planning to help her take all the pictures for Beau’s college presentation after all the wedding hub-bub had died down.
Alyssa whacked her on the arm. “You aren’t listening to me. Are you mooning over Greg or Adam?”
Rachel frowned. “No. I am not mooning over anyone, just thinking about the pictures Beau asked me to take for his presentation.”
Alyssa nodded smugly. “Uh huh, with Adam helping you find each animal.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “I’m listening now, let’s get on with it.”
“Fine. Amber and Jeremy Scott are coming. Seriously they are just going to have to shut down the town, there won’t be anyone running the restaurants with your mom and Amber both coming. And Greg’s bar and the amusement park, although Chris has a lot of staff running it, so maybe it can stay open. And the big hotel on the lake is run by the corporation so it has restaurants.”
Rachel said, “Some people might be planning to fly in for the day and fly out at night. They can catch a flight out of Spokane or drive to Seattle. That would only be a day or two away from town.”
“Oh look, Sandy is coming!” Alyssa crowed.
“That one is not a surprise, she was our baby sitter until she went to college. I imagine the rest of the Anderson’s will come too.”
“Yeah, you’re right Sandy is accepting for her, Terry and Mayor, I mean, former Mayor Carol. I can’t get used to someone else being the mayor even if it is Chief MacGregor or Mayor MacGregor… now that Nolan Thompson is police chief. What a tangle.”
Rachel said smugly, “Not for those of us that didn’t leave town right after the elections. We’re all used to it.”
“But she did not accept for Janet, Brett’s probably going to be on the road and she’s probably not allowed to go anywhere without him. Plus, Nolan and Kristen are not coming. Not a big surprise since someone has to stay and be the police chief and Kristen is not the most outgoing person on the planet. Although I’ve always liked her.”
Rachel nodded. “Yeah she’s been good to me with having my pictures in her art gallery. But I don’t think she would be too thrilled about being in the middle of your ginormous wedding. She barely let Chris and Barbara attend her marriage to Nolan. Her own sister. No wedding shower, no reception. The woman is still pretty much a recluse even though she lives in town. But I’ll bet she sends you some killer piece of jewelry as a wedding present.”
Alyssa’s eyes lit up. “Oh, do you think so? That would be awesome.”
“Yep and if I know her, it will be here in time for the wedding and will go perfectly with the dress her sister is making for you.”
Alyssa squealed. “Oh, you’re probably right. I can’t wait!”
“Can’t wait for what?” Beau asked as he came into the room and kissed Alyssa on top of her head.
Alyssa jumped up and wrapped him in a hug. “It’s a secret. For the wedding day.”
“Sexy lingerie?” he asked hopefully.
“No silly, although I might be able to find something like that, too.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “I think the town ladies will have you covered for that at the shower.”
Adam cleared his throat. Why? Why had he followed Beau into where the women were working on the wedding stuff? He didn’t need to hear about sexy lingerie, because that got him to thinking about Rachel draped in scraps of lace. And that was not a good idea because his body liked that image a lot. He ignored the thought and his reaction. He cleared his throat again, shifting his stance a bit to make himself more comfortable and less visible to the women.
“So, we came in here for a reason, ladies.” He nudged Beau to get his mind back on track.
Beau shook his head, like he was coming out of a trance. “Right.”
He shook his head again and looked at Adam. “But I can’t remember what it was now, all my brain cells melted.”
Adam folded his arms and glared at his brother.
Alyssa grinned, and Rachel rolled her eyes as they all looked expectantly at Beau.
Beau frowned as he looked back at them. Adam couldn’t believe his brother, he’d been yammering all morning about his plans. Until Adam wanted to punch him in the mouth, to shut him the hell up. Rather than resorting to violence, he’d suggested taking the girls out on the horses to get their opinion, instead of guessing what it would be. Beau had liked that idea and both of them decided the girls could use a break from wedding planning.
Adam finally gave up and said, “We’ve got horses saddled—”
Beau interrupted, “Oh right. Can you tear yourselves away from wedding planning for a little while? I’ve got something I want to show you.” He hopped from foot to foot like a little kid would.
Alyssa smiled. “Sure, we were just logging the RSVPs, but we’re done now.”
Beau grabbed Alyssa’s hand and dragged her with him, toward the door. “Perfect.”
Rachel looked at Adam. “Camera?”
“Oh yeah,” he said.
She nodded. “Be right back.” And dashed off toward her room. He thought that this was the first time he’d seen her outside of her room when it wasn’t in her hand.
She hurried back, and they went to get boots and a light jacket—just in case. Beau and Alyssa were in the yard with a saddle bag of first aid supplies, bottles of water and apples. Adam decided that was a good idea, taking something to munch on.
“Smart to bring some fruit.” He stuffed his water and apple into a saddle bag and tied the jacket to the saddle, as everyone else did the same.
Rachel swung onto her horse and looked down at her jeans. “Oh, maybe I should have changed, these are kind of worn out. I didn’t plan to leave the house. They are my comfy staying at home jeans.”
Adam shrugged. “A tear in the knee isn’t going to matter, we’re staying on the property, so not a big deal. Other than you might get a sunburn.” He gave her a lopsided grin.
She laughed, and the sound shimmered through him. He just loved her laugh, and she was so free with it. He was going to miss that laugh when she went back home or off to art school.
Chapter 22
Rachel was happy to be out in the sunshine. Colorado had the prettiest days. It was almost always sunny, the air was so fresh and clean, the sky so blue it almost hurt to look at it. It was still slightly cool out this morning, but it felt like it was going to be a warm day. They’d been so busy lately they hadn’t had any time outside in days. But things were starting to come together and not a moment too soon.
They would be leaving for Chelan in a little over a week for the bridal shower and dress fittings. Tony was going with them and he could hardly wait for the road trip. The first few hours would be easy, but after that he might get bored. They’d all been thinking about ways to keep him entertained for two days in the car. A tablet loaded with movies and games would go a long way, but they needed some other alternatives, too.
Her musings came to a halt when Beau and Alyssa turned into the trees. She and Adam followed them on a path and stopped their horses in a pretty little clearing. She could hear the river but c
ouldn’t see it. Adam looked at her and mouthed camera so she quickly got it out of the bag.
Beau slid off his horse and the rest of them followed suit. He tied his horse to a nearby tree, so they did too. Then he walked a little further into the clearing.
Rachel started snapping pictures, assuming Adam knew what was going on.
“What is this?” Alyssa asked.
Beau looked at her and grinned. “My land to build a house on.”
Alyssa screeched. “Really? Our own house?” She clapped her hands together and then frowned. “Not that I mind living with your parents… but it’s so beautiful.”
“I think so. Each of us have a location on the property to build our own house. This lot’s big enough for a house, a garage and a small barn. Maybe a kitchen garden or flowers.” Beau went over to Alyssa and took her hand. “I wanted you to see it, so we can decide how soon we want to start building, or at least designing what we want.”
“Oh today, no yesterday! I’m so excited.” She started chattering about ideas and walked around pointing. Beau laughed, clearly delighted with her enthusiasm.
Rachel continued to document her happiness, while wondering where Adam’s house location was.
Adam walked up next to her. “Let’s go over by the river and give them a few minutes privacy.”
She nodded. “That’s an excellent idea.”
Beau and Alyssa were so caught up, she didn’t even think they noticed her and Adam walk into the trees, on the other side of the clearing.
When they got to the river Rachel took some pictures of it. “So where is your land?”
He pointed. “See that speck of red down there on the other side of the river bend. It’s behind that.”
Rachel used her telephoto lens to zoom in on the speck of red and saw it was some kind of bench. “What is a bench doing way out here?”
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