Forever Surprised

by Kathleen Brooks

  “I’m going to miss William and Betsy,” Paige said sadly. “What are you going to do with the main house?”

  Will sat down next to his wife and rested his hand on her thigh. All these years and she was still madly in love with her football-obsessed husband. “Since Will has taken to playing owner and general manager of the Lexington Thoroughbreds’ football team, Carter has had to step up and manage the farm. He’s been commuting every day from the house he owns on the other side of Keeneston. Not that it’s far, but we thought we’d move into the main house and let Carter move into ours. Ryan and Sienna are already settled and maybe this might encourage Carter to do the same.” Kenna thought about her son. It would be hard leaving the house that she and Will had raised their children in, but Carter was a man now. His thirtieth birthday was coming up. It was time he settled down and started a family. Sienna and Ryan hadn’t started their family yet, and she didn’t think Carter would be the kind to skip to the head of that line.

  “Yeah, Mom and Dad found a great house down the street from Judge Cooper, Edna, and Tabby.” Will tried to sound upbeat about his parents moving, but Kenna knew it was bothering him.

  “They’ll have a great time there,” Mo said, nodding his head. “What is Carter up to on that farm of yours?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “He’s breeding his first season of mares all on his own and has a couple of two-year-olds he’s really optimistic about,” Will said of their son. Kenna was so proud of their boy. He’d taken over managing the farm with ease. Now if only his personal life would run as smoothly. “How’s your brood doing?” Will asked Mo and Dani.

  “Don’t get me started on that son of mine,” Dani complained.

  Cole snickered. “Which one?”

  “Gabriel.” Dani shook her head. “I swear he purposely finds paparazzi when he has the bimbo of the day on his arm.”

  “We hope he’ll settle down once he’s given more responsibility,” Mo explained. “My brother, the king, will be at the charity ball in a couple weeks with an assignment for him.”

  “Sounds ominous.” Will smiled at the their longtime friends.

  “It won’t be easy. But hopefully the effects of his behavior will be eye-opening,” Mo explained.

  “And Ariana? How is she enjoying D.C.?” Paige asked about Mo and Dani’s youngest.

  “She loves it. Abby is showing her the ropes around town,” Dani said with joy clearly showing on her face. “I know Jackson is off with the FBI. What is Greer doing this summer?”

  “As you know, she graduated from college last month. She will travel for part of the summer and then we don’t know. She says she’ll work something out. I’ll message them both to see if they can fly in for the party.” Paige pulled out her phone and sent a text to her children.

  Cole grinned proudly. “I think Greer is being recruited by the FBI.”

  Paige rolled her eyes. “Can you imagine? All of my children in the FBI?”

  “Well, you did teach them to shoot, and your husband was the head of the FBI here until he retired and Ryan took over. At this point, it’s a family tradition,” Kenna pointed out.

  This time it was Paige who grinned proudly. “I did teach them to shoot. Greer can outshoot her brothers and her father.”

  “Cole should have more time to practice now that he’s retired,” Will taunted.

  “Ha!” Paige smacked her husband’s arm. “He’s not retired. He’s decided to help me run my shop. He bought a barcode scanner to, quote, ‘help me with inventory’ for Mother’s Day.”

  “It was top of the line,” Cole defended before getting smacked again. “What? Your store is still going strong, and you even have a television crew coming at the end of the year to see how you start making hats for the Derby.”

  “Wow, that’s great!” the group all said to Paige.

  “Yup, now all I need is a grandchild,” Paige said longingly.

  “Don’t we all?” Dani agreed. “But back to the Rose sisters. We need to call in reinforcements to pull this off. And invitations have to be sent out via text since we’re running short on time.”

  Kenna nodded her head in agreement. “And because the postman is one of their informants.”

  “He is?” Cole said, surprised.

  “Duh. How else did the Rose sisters know you got a vasectomy? The postman told them about the bill you got in the mail.” Paige was still mortified about them announcing to the entire café that Cole had been snipped and that was almost two decades ago. It was still the same postman who delivered mail, so texting was their only option.

  “Then let’s get to work,” Kenna said, rubbing her hands together and pulling out a notebook.

  3

  Cade Davies looked across the dinner table at his wife and smiled. He’d spent the day with his brothers at his parents’ farm mending fences. During that time they’d talked.

  “I told them my son-in-law was the biggest badass in town. Deacon and Matt are good men, but Nash—he’s a badass.”

  Annie made an hmmm sound in agreement as she chewed her food. It was a common discussion around their dinner table.

  “Miles then said Layne would never get married, and we teased him that was because no man could stand up to a Miles glare. But Nash could. I made sure to point that out.”

  Annie made her hmmm noise again so Cade continued on. “Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, but all the brothers decided on another guys’ trip. I think we’re going to go camping. Do a little fishing. That kind of thing.”

  “Hmmm,” Annie said again as she took a sip of her wine. “Good. Bridget and I were thinking of a spa weekend anyway. Just let me know when you plan on going and we’ll make our plans.” Annie thought about telling her husband she knew their brothers’ trips were code for him, Miles, Marshall, and Cy going on missions for the government, but then she might have to tell Cade her spa weekends with Bridget were working with the DEA and decided against it.

  Cade, Miles, and Marshall were retired Special Forces while Cy had been a spy. Other men’s midlife crises involved buying a sports car or dating a twenty-year-old, so in the grand scheme of things, going on missions for Special Forces, or the CIA, or whoever needed them, wasn’t a big deal. Especially when Annie herself was back working undercover for the DEA. Not that she didn’t feel fulfilled as a sheriff’s deputy, but she got to shoot more people with the DEA.

  “Why don’t you take Colton and Landon?” Annie asked, just to mess with him. Their sons would be less interested in going than Cade and his brothers would be in having them cover up the fact they were working with the government again.

  “Uh, they wouldn’t want to hang out with us old guys. I’m sure they’re busy with their last real summer together now that Colton has graduated from college. Before we know it, Colton will be training at the National Fire Academy and Landon will be in his last year of college,” Cade said, knowing it would get his wife talking about their sons.

  “I can’t believe Colton has done so much already. By the time he’s twenty-five, he’s going to be in charge of FEMA’s emergency response team for our area and probably the fire station as well,” Annie said with wonder.

  During college, Colton realized he excelled at quick thinking and the ability to organize people just as quickly after he’d evacuated the science lab when it caught on fire. He wanted to join FEMA or become a firefighter. When he looked into it, he discovered Keeneston and neighboring Lipston had no emergency coordinator, even though there was a hundred-thousand-acre forest in the counties. There was also no full-time fire department in Keeneston, only a small volunteer one.

  Taking charge, Colton pleaded to the Keeneston town council to open a fire department. They couldn’t afford it but gave Colton their blessing to start one if he could find the funding and become certified. He agreed to get the training and to form an emergency response team along with the fire department. The reasoning was the federal forest had no fire department to service it. After a fire had bro
ken out the previous summer, they realized they needed protection for the campers and hikers who were regularly in the forest. As such, he bid on a contract to be the civilian fire department for the forest and won it along with a construction grant from the federal government. In return, when the Keeneston Fire Department was up and running, they would be on call for FEMA emergencies as well. He was given one year to get a fire station in operation. So far, he was recruiting people from the area and all over the country to fill the department.

  “We did good on the kid department.” Cade winked. “When does Sophie get back from her honeymoon?” he asked.

  “Tomorrow at five,” Annie answered as she reached for her phone and read the incoming text message. “Oh my goodness.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s from Kenna. In two days it’s the Rose sisters’ hundredth birthday, and they’re going to throw a surprise party for them at William and Betsy’s house. She’s asked for you and your brothers to provide the meat for the town and for all the sisters-in-law to bake desserts.”

  Cade nodded. “We can do that. Each brother can provide a steer. That should feed the town.”

  “Apparently I am in charge of apple pies.”

  “It’s because your ass is shaped like an apple. I can’t wait to take a bite out of you tonight.” Annie rolled her eyes. Married thirty years and he was still as randy as a college man. Not that she was complaining . . . at all.

  * * *

  Marshall tossed his dust-covered cowboy hat on the kitchen table and kicked off his boots, sending dirt and dust onto the floor. Who knew retirement was more work than when he was sheriff? He was thinking of asking Matt for his job back if it got him out of running multiple farms.

  Walking through the kitchen, he gave his vizsla, Robert, a scratch behind the ear and a bone for his long day of work beside Marshall and his brothers at their parents’ farm. Robert took his bone and plopped onto the couch to enjoy it as Marshall headed for the shower.

  He heard the water running when he entered his bedroom and smiled. His wife was home. And naked. And wet. Quickly stripping, Marshall strode into the bathroom. He watched Katelyn soap her body through the glass door and grinned. He was one lucky son of a bitch.

  Katelyn didn’t even look surprised as he slid into the shower with her. “Hey honey. How are things at your parents’?”

  “Good. The fences are all fixed, and I didn’t kill Cade when he said Nash was a bigger badass than Deacon.” His son-in-law was an investigator. While he didn’t kill as many people as Nash, he kept their daughter Sydney safe and happy. To Marshall, that was a win. Okay, it wouldn’t hurt if he shot a couple more people, but he was still young and in Keeneston. You never know what might happen next.

  Katelyn rose up and pressed her soapy body against his and kissed him until all thoughts of the battle of the sons-in-law were gone.

  “How was your day?” Marshall asked, taking over washing his wife’s body.

  “Good. Had to help Wyatt this afternoon with a foal that was stuck. It was a nice change from delivering puppies. But way messier. And smellier.”

  “Good thing I’m here to help then.” Marshall spun her around and began to soap her front.

  “I don’t deliver foals with my breasts, honey,” Katelyn teased until her laughter turned to a moan of delight. Marshall smirked. He still had it.

  * * *

  Thirty minutes later they were both clean and dressing when their son, Wyatt, called to report the foal was doing well. Katelyn was a small-animal veterinarian and their son had chosen to become a large-animal vet. He was a damn good one, too, but since they were the only doctors in their practice, sometimes they helped each other out. It made his wife happy to work with her son after spending his younger years traveling so much with Sydney when she had modeling shoots. But Sydney had left modeling behind just as Katelyn had. When Katelyn went into veterinary medicine, Syd had gone into business. She owned a fashion house offering clothing, furniture, and accessories.

  Their phones buzzed before Marshall could tell her about Miles saying his daughter Layne would never get married. Marshall looked at the text. “Did you get this about the Rose sisters?”

  “Yes, I’m supposed to bake cupcakes.”

  “I’m bringing a steer.”

  “What a great idea. I thought the Rose sisters turned a hundred years ago.” Katelyn shrugged. “We’re meeting at Kenna’s house tomorrow afternoon to start decorating after we bake.”

  “The guys and I will transport the steers to the butcher in the morning and then start smoking the meat. This should be fun if we can pull it off, but you know the Rose sisters,” Marshall said over his shoulder as the two of them headed downstairs for dinner.

  “We can do it. They’ll never see it coming,” Katelyn grinned mischievously as her mind was already running through the list of things she needed to get.

  * * *

  “We’ll never pull this off,” Morgan Davies told her husband, Miles, as they sat on the couch.

  “If I can plan a secret rescue operation of an American hostage, then I can plan and execute a surprise party for the Rose sisters,” Miles told his wife as he pulled her to him. She rested her head on him and absently ran her fingers over his chest. Her dark hair was now streaked with silver, but Morgan was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  “When did you plan that?”

  Damn. She was also a very clever wife. That rescue mission was done after his supposed retirement from the Special Forces. But after their daughter, Layne, moved out, he needed a hobby.

  It turned out his brothers felt the same, so they’d called up their old commander who happened to be their friend Bridget’s dad. They worked out like madmen and two months later took their first guys’ trip was to Fort Bragg in North Carolina to show those young men a thing or two. They passed their physical and mental evaluations with flying colors and were certified as Army Civilian Contractors. They took the assignments they wanted and turned down the ones they didn’t. It was the perfect job, even if Miles was still running his farm co-op company and his brothers were still working the farms. It was something to do on the weekends.

  “Hmm, a lifetime ago now. I’m sure I told you that story,” he told his wife before describing the hostage rescue he and his brothers organized and assisted with just a couple of years ago. Speaking of Layne, Miles grabbed his phone and pulled up the app to check on her whereabouts. He wanted to make sure she was home safe and sound. He wasn’t sure if his wife believed him or not, but then she looked up and caught him checking on Layne and all talk of hostage rescue was forgotten.

  “I thought you promised to stop spying on our daughter! Miles, she’s a grown woman.”

  “She’s my little girl,” Miles defended.

  Morgan pushed off his chest and looked over at him. “Miles, you taught her twenty-five ways to kill someone with her bare hands. I’m pretty sure she’s safe.”

  “You didn’t see the way I took that boy down at Sophie and Nash’s wedding. It was beautiful. Him thinking he could dance that closely to my daughter and then minutes later shaking as he ran from me. She still needs me to protect her.”

  Morgan shook her head. “She’s lonely. She’s lonely because you’re scaring all the men away.”

  Miles grunted. He didn’t want his baby lonely, but he also didn’t want her stuck with some wimp she couldn’t respect either. “She has us. Besides, if he runs screaming, he’s not the right man. When one comes along who doesn’t run, I’ll welcome him to the family. And then I can finally shove it down Cade’s throat that my son-in-law is the biggest badass.”

  Morgan smiled radiantly as her hair curtained his face. “That’s the sexiest thing I have ever heard.”

  “That I want my son-in-law to be a bigger badass than Nash?”

  “That you want a son-in-law. Oh, think, Miles. Layne as a mother and our grandchildren running around the farm. I could retire from the PR company and stop managi
ng crises in order to help babysit for Layne while she’s at work. We tried for so long to have another child and it just wasn’t meant to be. But to have grandchildren—” Morgan sighed.

  Miles wanted to growl. Didn’t she know how grandbabies were made? Although, a sweet little girl with hazel eyes and bouncing curls whom he could teach self-defense . . . maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

  4

  “Pierce!” Tammy cried as she read the text from Kenna. “Did you get a text about the Rose sisters’ birthday party?”

  “I don’t have my phone, sweetheart,” Pierce called from his workshop. He was tinkering with a new idea to help keep soil full of nutrients so crops would grow bigger, better, and faster. He heard his wife’s footsteps hurry through the kitchen and out into his workshop.

  His wife rushed into the large room filled with countless tools, building materials, and everything in between. Pierce and Tammy could have retired a long time ago. The amount of money he made on his Cropbot was enough to live a lifetime on. However, his inventions weren’t about money. They were ideas that came to him to improve farming so farmers could grow better produce and live a more financially secure life. And when it came down to it, he and Tammy weren’t made for retirement. At least not yet.

  However, they’d begun to plan. She was still working for Henry Rooney part-time as a paralegal. They’d talked about stepping back a little in order to travel the world. He and Tammy had always focused on work and raising four children. Now that the youngest, Cassidy, was off at college, it was time for him and his wife to have some new adventures.

  “What was the text?” he asked as Tammy held out his phone to him. She pulled the phone back and started talking. She was so excited she was practically bouncing.