by Vivian Arend
“Wanna see our goats?” Emma asked.
“Yes, but say that again, please,” Ivy instructed.
Emma frowned for a moment as if she didn’t realize what she’d said. And she probably didn’t, because she was so used to keeping her sentences short and sweet, contractions were still absent at times.
“A lot of the ranch hands say wanna,” Sasha offered. “Kelli says that’s because they’re being lazy.”
“Not lazy,” Emma snapped before saying it again with clear enunciation. “I’m not lazy. I’m learning.”
“Course you are,” Sasha said firmly as if that was the end of the conversation.
Ivy hid her amusement, but sometimes she wondered why she was even there. Emma was a charming little girl, and so was Sasha, but it was obvious whatever had caused Emma’s speech delays was well and truly dealt with.
It was a bit like being paid to have fun—getting to come out to visit the Silver Stone ranch—but Ivy wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity.
They headed over to the goat pen, the occupants of which Ivy had already had the auspicious pleasure of meeting. Only this time, instead of being greeted by a trio of decidedly debonair-looking goats, with their grey coats and upright ears, the pen was partly open. One guilty-looking animal was caught by his collar on the latch of the gate, his back leg stuck in the metal railings.
Sasha hurried forward to set the beast free. Ivy grabbed hold of her arm to stem her enthusiasm. “Go slowly. I’m sure he’ll be happy to be free, but he might kick while you’re trying to help him.”
“Look, there’s Meany.” Emma was pointing toward the barn.
Sure enough, both of the missing goats were playing some kind of a goat’s game that involved hopping into the horse arena then up on top of the nearest gateposts.
They looked like strange yard decorations. Instead of reclining lions, Silver Stone had goats.
Sasha glanced reluctantly at the goat caught in the gate, then at the two that were running free still. “Maybe we should leave Eeny trapped until we get back. Three goats are hard to handle at once.”
Emma was already headed toward the arena, and Ivy gestured Sasha after her. Keeping the two girls within arm’s reach seemed like a good idea.
She pulled out her phone and hit Walker’s number.
He answered just as they reached the fence. “Hey, Snow.”
“Are you at the ranch right now? Anywhere near the main barn?” She spoke rapidly, getting a hand on Emma before the little girl could topple over the gate and race after her pets. “Because we’re having a goat incident.”
Walker chuckled, and she immediately heard a whistle in the background. “Count to five, honey. We’re just inside. Tell my nieces to hold their horses.”
She hung up and rapidly assured the girls help was on the way. “Uncle Walker will be right here.”
Sasha looked a little disgruntled. “They’re our goats. We know how to take care of them.”
“I’m sure you do, but are you allowed in those arenas without supervision? And I don’t count because I’m not a cowboy,” she added as Sasha’s mouth opened.
He had to have been literally steps away on the other side of the barn wall because Walker’s laughter echoed on the open air. “Sasha, someone’s got your number, little girl.”
Emma snickered, slipping her hand into Ivy’s fingers and tugging to get her attention. “Sasha’s always trying to get closer to the horses.”
“I bet she really loves them,” Ivy said in return.
Emma took a glance at her sister then back to Ivy, obviously considering sharing something before changing her mind and staying silent.
Ivy made a mental note to pass on that bit of intel to Tamara.
Meanwhile, Walker had caught hold of the first of the goats and had the creature pinned under his arm. Caleb was there, talking Sasha through trying to coax the second animal close enough they could grab it by the collar.
Emma’s gaze was pinned on her sister and her father, so Ivy kept hold of her fingers but let her attention wandered to the tall man damn-near strutting his way to her side.
“Hail, conqueror of goats,” she teased.
Walker winked. “Good to see you. You sticking around for a while?”
She checked her watch. “Another hour or so. You?”
The look he gave her was scorching hot. “About the same. And then I have plans.”
Oh Lord, she truly hoped those plans were what she thought they might be. “It’s always good to have things to look forward to.”
She wasn’t sure how he could answer in a way that was appropriate for little ears to hear, because she was certain that Uncle Walker wasn’t about to break out the dirty talk around his niece.
Unfortunately, they were interrupted in the best possible way.
“Hey, what’s a girl got to do to get a hug around here?”
Caleb and Sasha turned from where they’d finally gotten a hand on Meany. Ivy, Walker and Emma rotated on the spot to find a somewhat familiar face marching toward them.
“Auntie Ginny,” Emma shouted, breaking free from Ivy’s grasp and rushing forward to throw herself into the young woman’s arms.
Sasha arrived next. She must’ve flown through the railings because she was covered with dirt, but still right there in the middle of the pile wanting a hug.
Walker’s little sister didn’t look exactly how Ivy remembered, but that was because her hair was short and bleached a shocking white with a band of pink at the very front. Ginny looked happy, and as she untangled herself from her nieces, she glanced at Ivy with curiosity,
While Ivy had been watching the reunion, Walker had stepped in closer and slid his arm around her waist. Ginny’s brows rose, but she didn’t say anything, just moved into Caleb’s arms as he offered a hug.
Walker squeezed Ivy then let go to offer a hug as well. “You’re early.”
“Ha. I thought the complaint was that women are always late?” Ginny said happily. “I decided to come home a month before the wedding instead of sticking around after. That’ll give me lots of time to catch up on everything that’s happening here at Silver Stone.”
She eyed them again, her expression full of questions. Ivy laughed inside.
So much for a quiet afternoon visit with the Stones.
11
Walker shouldn’t have been so entertained by the tableau playing out in front of him.
Then again, he shouldn’t have been surprised when Ivy took it all in stride and opened her arms, stepping forward with a welcoming hug. “Good to see you, Ginny.”
The women stepped apart, Ginny still tossing glances between Walker and Ivy. “Good to see you, as well.”
She opened her mouth to ask something else, probably something provocative knowing Ginny, when the girls were back, tugging her excitedly toward the house.
“Mama wants to meet you right now,” Emma insisted.
Ginny raised a brow, obviously pleased at Emma’s outspokenness. “Well, I suppose you’re right. I am a very exciting person to meet.”
Emma giggled, and Sasha snorted, and the whole lot of them moved in a wave to the ranch house with a brief stop at the goat pen to free Eeny and lock up the other two escapees.
Walker spoke softly as he walked at Ivy’s side. “You ready for the bedlam?”
“Nothing says I have to stay,” Ivy pointed out. “She’s your family. You should take the time to get caught up.”
Screw that. He caught her by the hand and slowed his stride until they were at the back of the pack. “My choice is to say hi, and do the family thing for a bit, but then I want time with you. Something that’s an appropriate follow-up to your little toy-shop trick.”
Her face told him exactly what she thought of his plans. One hundred percent on board looked good on her.
“Tamara’s been talking about having you join us for supper, anyway,” he offered. “And I have a feeling neither of the girls will object.”
She squeezed his fingers. “Your nieces are adorable. I look forward to teaching Emma this coming year.”
He suddenly realized how tangled the summer could become. It was one thing for them to say they were adults, and getting involved shouldn’t affect anyone else. But the truth was they were part of two families who weren’t about to ignore them, which was both a blessing and a curse.
But at least if he did end up leaving, and this thing between them was just a brief white-hot fling, Ivy would still have a connection to the Stone family. Hell, she’d always been a part of their family.
He didn’t want Emma or Sasha hurt again.
They walked in the door, the volume in the living room going up as the body count rose. Tamara was talking earnestly with Ginny while Sasha and Emma raced around in circles laughing and dancing.
Caleb pushed a beer into his hand then gestured outside. “You’re on barbecue duty. Go get the grill warmed up.”
Walker nodded, turning to Ivy, but it was too late. Caleb had already recruited her to do some other task as if he had every right to boss her around.
Come to think of it, this wasn’t the first time. She’d always been willing to join in any time they’d had a family event. His earlier thoughts about her fitting in with the family were so true. Back then she’d been so shy everyone had worked to gently ease her along. It seemed Caleb hadn’t forgotten, as he sent her off to a moderately quiet corner of the room to work on a salad.
Taking the summer to be with her was one of the best moves Walker could’ve made, for his own sake. Selfish as that might seem.
He scrubbed at the barbecue grill, content in the mindless action. He waved at Luke as his brother walked by, an armload of steaks probably nabbed from the bunkhouse cook’s walk-in refrigerator.
JP wouldn’t even miss them.
Dustin wasn’t around, since he was still off with Ashton, but Tamara had put speed dial to good use. Cars full of people were pulling into the parking area, including Ivy’s sisters.
Kelli came up from the barns, dressed from head to toe in denim with her long, dark braids hanging on either side of her head.
“You dressed up for the party,” he teased.
She stuck out her tongue. “I put on new boots.” She eyed him a little harder. “Which is more than you can say. Go change, Walker Stone. Those are the same clothes I saw you in an hour ago.”
Oops. “Good point. I’ve got something in Caleb’s closet I can use.”
She took over for him at the grill, whacking him on the butt with the back of the scrubber before he could get out of range.
He slipped around the back way so he didn’t interrupt the party going on in the living room, stealing into Caleb’s old room and grabbing the set of clothes hanging in the closet.
He slipped into the shower and scrubbed up quickly, his thoughts jumping all over like a bull on a good day. His sister being back, Ivy being there, the goats, Kelli teasing him like usual…
There was another one who fit in well with the family. She had been around the ranch for a long time, but she’d shown up after Ivy left. Nobody was even sure who’d hired her, but after Ashton had agreed to keep an eye on her, she just carried on and did her job.
The only thing Walker thought suspicious about the situation was that there was no way on earth that girl was in her late twenties. Oh, he knew sometimes people looked young but had the age on their driver’s license to prove otherwise.
Kelli was one of those souls who seemed simultaneously old as the hills and young as a newborn foal. Sometimes innocent and sometimes weary, but he’d never been able to get out of her where she came from or why she’d shown up one day out of the blue.
The girl could keep secrets, that much was true.
He was doing up the buttons on his shirt when the door to the bedroom opened and he glanced up, somewhat surprised to find his sister stealing into the room and closing the door behind her. “Running away from your own party already?”
“Oh, we’ll be partying till the wee hours, and this is just the beginning. I’m here for the whole month. Try the veal.”
He snickered. “Your standup comedy hasn’t gotten any better while you’ve been out of the country.”
Ginny dropped onto the bed, her blonde hair bouncing up before landing in a tousled mess most women would pay a fortune to achieve. “And you’ve become intriguing while I’ve been gone. I thought I’d gone through a time warp when I came around the edge of the barn and spotted you and Ivy Fields all cozied up together.”
“She’s just back,” Walker said. “And we don’t cozy in public.”
Ginny made a rude noise. “Please. You could hardly keep your hands off the woman back in the day. And don’t try to lie, because Dare and I were fourteen when you and Ivy officially started going out, so it was like the romance of the century to us.”
“I’m going to gag,” Walker warned her.
“What? Because I pointed out how vividly I remember thinking that someday I wanted to have a special someone like my big brother had?”
He paused for a moment, because—wow, that was a pretty powerful statement to take in fast. “It was pretty neat. And Ivy and I have good memories from that time, but then we both moved on and did the next thing.”
“Or she went off to do something, and you kinda stayed here and did nothing.”
And there it came—that wicked tongue of Ginny’s that could cut like a knife.
He made his tone go a whole lot colder than he wished, considering it was her return to the family day and all. “Thanks so much for your vote of confidence in my life choices.”
Ginny’s eyes widened, and she suddenly looked very apologetic. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I wasn’t talking about rodeo. I meant how you’ve never had another sweetie after she left. Honestly.”
Walker looked at her for a moment, but it seemed Ginny was sincere. Still, it was an uncomfortable truth he’d had tossed his way.
“It’s okay. I just wanted to point out that was a long time ago, and while I’m glad you and Dare built such romantic dreams based on my teenage love life, we’re here at a different point in time. And you’re visiting for the summer, so don’t go interfering.”
Ginny drew an X over her chest with her finger followed by pretending to turn a key between her lips then throwing it over her shoulder. Which he assumed meant she was going to keep her mouth shut or some such nonsense.
Then she leaned forward with a gleam in her eye. “Okay, fine. But on a different note, I want to gossip about Tamara.”
Good grief. “No.”
She looked downright pained. “But Walker,” she whined. “Dare’s not here for me to gossip with, and you always were my favourite brother.”
He finished tucking in his shirt and looked down at her, putting as much force into the word as possible. “No.”
“It’s not bad gossip. I like her, but pleeeease.” She dragged out the last word so it had about five syllables.
He kept the smile off his face with difficulty. “No.”
“Hmmph.” She let the sound out with enough force it ruffled her bangs, but then she bounced to her feet and came over and squeezed him in another tight hug. “I love you, big bro.”
“I love you, little brat.”
She snickered. “I hear you’re in charge of the steaks. Just to let you know, I want mine extra-rare.”
“Did you become a werewolf while you were in London?”
They were entering the living room, and she threw back her head and howled. It took Tansy all of three seconds to join in, the two of them sounding as if a demented wolf pack had invaded the house. Yet by this point with the number of people around, it wasn’t as if the howling added a lot more chaos to the room, but somehow it still did.
As he made his way outside to resume his appointed duties as barbecue chef, he caught Ivy’s eye. She’d found a quiet spot just outside the door and was sitting with Emma. He offered a smile and a promise for later.
Right now it seemed they were immersed up to their neck in family, his and hers. And that was just fine.
* * *
The sweetness of the evening continued long after the dessert had been consumed. Ginny was a born storyteller, and while she’d been keeping in touch with her family, all the rest of them were an eager audience for the new adventures that Ginny had been involved in over the past nine months.
“But you’re going back?” Tansy asked. “You’re just here for a month?”
Ginny nodded. “The place I’m staying in Italy extended my program for a month so I could take the time now and come out for Dare’s wedding.”
“That was generous of them,” Caleb said.
Walker’s sister made a face before smiling broadly. “Generous, but I’m pretty sure they’ll find something terrible for me to do when I get back. Trust me, I’m not sitting back and sipping the choicest of wines. I’m grunt labour, and lots of hours of it.”
She was obviously loving every minute.
Ivy was enjoying herself immensely as well, catching up with people who had lived in Heart Falls for a long time, all of whom wanted to have a brief moment with Ginny before she vanished again. She was coping with the wild and rambunctious gathering by staying to the edges and keeping her focus on small conversations. And so far, she’d been successful in avoiding being overwhelmed by the crowd.
But when a certain cowboy slipped his hand around her waist and tugged her back into the shadows from where they were standing by the bonfire listening to stories, Ivy went willingly.
Linking their fingers together as they strolled toward the lake was another tug at her heart’s memory strings. She glanced down at their joined hands, a smile rising easily. “Sounds as if Ginny’s found something she loves.”
He didn’t answer, just sighed softly as he brought her farther from the revelry. “I’m glad,” he said finally. “She’s a hard worker. When she’s done, she’ll come back and run the greenhouse again. That extra money will be a lot of help to the family.”