“You’re right. But you see, I don’t care about her. I care about you.”
“I know.” Elise gave her a warm smile. “That’s why I called you first. Where were you when you called back? I heard a lot of road noise.”
“I was...” She opened the front door and heard a familiar sound, her mom on the phone and her dad commenting animatedly in the background. “Oh, boy.”
“It’s been like this all day, except for brief lulls when they both want to discuss what Aunt Fran suggested or Uncle Sid thinks I should do. Then there are Mom and Dad’s recommendations.”
“I’m surprised you’re not twirly-eyed.”
“Ah, I shrug it off. But it’ll be nice not to listen to it for a few days.”
Drew had only been home once since moving to Sheridan and that had been over Easter. Now she was reminded why. She reached for Elise’s arm to pull her back so they could take the food and sneak over to Elise’s apartment, instead. She’d have another pizza delivered to her parents. But she didn’t move fast enough.
Elise breezed into the kitchen carrying the pizza. “Drew’s here.”
“Thank God!” Her mom quickly disconnected the call with “Drew’s here” and hurried over to hug her. “You’re just the person we need. Your sister has so many options now that the internship is down the drain, and she needs to narrow the list and pick something before the semester starts. Talk some sense into her.”
Drew gazed at her dark-eyed mother, who kept her hair the same ebony shade it had been when she was twenty-five. Plump and vivacious, she had an Italian ancestry to rival her husband’s. They were perfectly matched. They both loved food and a juicy emotional crisis. Now that the pizza was here, they could have both.
Drew adored them but never cared to live within a hundred miles of her folks ever again. “What do you say we have dinner first?”
“Excellent plan.” Elise plopped the to-go box in the middle of the kitchen table.
Drew headed for the cupboard. “I’ll get plates.”
“I’ll get wine.” Her father bounded down the basement steps to the little wine cellar he was inordinately proud of.
“So we’ll talk and eat.” Her mother got out napkins and silverware. “But taking Elise down to Sheridan isn’t a very good idea right now. If she stays in Billings she can start following up on some of these leads. Sid thinks he can pull some strings and get her an internship at an art gallery in the LA area. It wouldn’t pay anything, but he knows a family over there who would give her a room for next to nothing.”
“Or I could live on the beach.” Elise started dishing pizza onto plates. “And pick oranges off people’s trees. That sounds like fun.”
Their father returned with a bottle of wine. “I don’t think you’re taking this seriously enough, honey.” He plucked a corkscrew from a drawer and opened the bottle with the ease of a master.
“Drew thinks I shouldn’t give up on Florence.” Elise glanced over at her. “Right?”
“At least not for a few days. I mean, you’re the runner-up. Until you know for sure the other person is all set, you—”
“Of course that person is all set,” her mother said. “Who wouldn’t be? Elise needs to move on, locate a similar position somewhere else, and the sooner the better. Serena is checking on possibilities in New York and Al has a connection with a very prestigious gallery in Cincinnati.”
“But Elise needs to intern at a museum, not a gallery.”
Elise pointed a wedge of pizza in her direction. “Exactly. And a European museum has far more cachet. So maybe I should book a flight to Italy and hang around Florence looking pitiful. They’ll feel sorry for me and decide they need two interns.”
Her mom looked aghast. “You wouldn’t actually do such a thing, would you?”
Elise shrugged and turned to Drew. “I might. What do you think I should do?”
“I think you should finish eating so we can leave for Sheridan.”
Her mom put down her wineglass. “Hold on a minute. I—”
“She just found out today.” Drew laid her hand on her mother’s arm. “She needs time to get her head around this so she can make a responsible decision.”
Her mom glanced at Elise. “Do you?”
Right on cue, Elise’s face grew solemn. “Yes. Yes, I certainly do.”
“All right, then. We’ll brainstorm while you’re gone. I’ll text you if anything comes up that you need to know about.”
Drew shook her head. “That won’t work, Mom. She’ll be busy helping me with this wedding. It’s a big deal and I don’t want her to be distracted.”
Her mother didn’t look happy but she nodded. “We’ll just get right on it the minute you get back, then.”
“Sure.” Elise gave her mom a quick smile.
Drew sighed in relief. Her mercy mission to rescue her sister from a weekend of hell had succeeded. That felt good.
Chapter Thirteen
Austin had looked forward to Cade’s bachelor party as much, if not more, than the wedding. At Cade’s request, the foster brothers had gathered around the fire pit in the meadow a short walk from the house. For many years, the meadow and the log cabins forming a semicircle behind the fire pit had been their sanctuary.
When Austin had come to live at Thunder Mountain, only three cabins had been here. He’d stayed up at the ranch house the first year because he’d been so young, but then he’d graduated to the cabins. Recently a fourth cabin had been added to expand the sleeping space for the academy students. Normally the teens would be living in the meadow, but the wedding had been scheduled during the break between the summer and fall semesters.
The menu for the night was simple—steak, baked potatoes, beans and beer. Cowboy chow. Austin had been part of the two-man team cooking the steaks. The other chef was Jake Ramsey, a firefighter who’d learned to fix hearty meals for a bunch of guys while on duty at the station.
Finn O’Roarke, who’d flown in from Seattle with his wife, Chelsea, made sure an iced tub of beer remained stocked with his signature brew, O’Roarke’s Pale Ale. Several brothers had chopped enough wood to keep the fire going all night once the food was cooked. Now that Drew had other plans, Austin was willing to turn the party into an all-nighter.
The wives and fiancées were up at the house having their own event, leaving the meadow to the men. It was like old times, with their foster father, Herb, rounding out the group to an even dozen. And just like old times, the talk was mostly about women.
Everyone who wasn’t in the know wanted to hear Zeke Rafferty’s story. Of all of them, he’d been the least likely to marry and settle down. Yet tonight his fiancée, Tess, four months pregnant with their son, was up at the house with the other ladies. The wedding would take place next month and Zeke looked like he couldn’t wait.
“I never thought I’d say this out loud, but babies rock.” Zeke took a swallow of his beer. “I can’t walk past a display of stuffed animals anymore without buying one.”
“I hear you, bro.” Damon Harrison’s daughter had just turned eight months. “We finally bought a hammock for Sophie’s room so we had a place to put ’em all. We’re way past the teddy bear stage. Or the mammal stage, for that matter. She just got a plush tarantula from her uncle Zeke.”
Finn shuddered. “Way to traumatize the baby, Zeke.”
“Are you kidding?” He laughed. “She loves it. Nothing scares Sophie.”
“I won’t let her bring it to the wedding, though,” Damon said. “Wouldn’t want Finn to run screaming out of the barn.”
“No, no, have her bring it,” Austin said. “I guarantee Drew would love a video of that little cherub scaring Uncle Finn with a stuffed tarantula.”
“Yeah, I wanna see that,” Jake said. “Definitely YouTube worthy. I can’t wait to have a kid
. What kind of pregnancy kit is the best?”
Recommendations started flying around, and Austin wondered if he should be taking notes. He’d need to know this eventually. No worries. He’d ask when the time came.
He had plenty of other questions, though. Cade might need this info, too, come to think of it. So he forged on for Cade’s sake. “What’s the recommended time to wait before having your first baby?”
“Whatever it is,” Zeke said, “we blew that call. We got pregnant by accident and didn’t figure out until later that we were meant for each other.”
“That’s called divine intervention,” Jonah said.
Zeke laughed. “Don’t pull that preacher talk on me. I knew you when you were a hell-raiser.”
“Exactly why I asked him to officiate at my wedding,” Cade said. “It seemed fitting. But I’m interested in Junior’s question. Why do you want to know, little buddy?”
Austin had consumed enough beer that he didn’t bother objecting to being called either Junior or little buddy. “I was asking for you. I thought you might want to know.”
“I don’t need to know.” Cade gazed at Austin. “I freely admit that Lexi is in charge of that program. We’ll start trying to get pregnant when she says so. She has to do the heavy lifting.”
Finn raised his bottle in Cade’s direction. “Wise decision, bro. Let me get you another brewski and we’ll toast that comment. It’s brilliant.” He headed off to the tub of iced beer. “Who else needs a libation?”
“I do,” Grady said. A chorus of requests followed Finn’s progress over to the tub.
“I wouldn’t mind another beer,” Cade said, “But I want to dig a little deeper into Junior’s question. He’s way too focused on this topic considering he doesn’t have a fiancée, let alone a wife.”
“I don’t have one now, but I have a hunch I will soon.”
Cade groaned. “I was afraid that would be your answer.”
“Never fear, old buddy.” Austin gave him a light punch on the shoulder. “She’s perfect. Yesterday she took me out to Bighorn Canyon to see the wild mustangs and we got along great.”
“But wasn’t that, like, your second date?” Jonah thanked Finn for the beer and opened it.
“Yeah,” Austin said. “But when you go camping with someone you see the real person.”
“There’s some truth to that.” Cade gazed at Austin. “But here’s a bigger truth. Three days ago you didn’t know she existed.”
“So? Sometimes lightning strikes.”
Brant Ellison, the only cowboy in the group who was bigger and more muscular than Austin, cleared his throat. “I know a guy who was actually struck by lightning. He was addlepated for days.” Brant smiled at Austin. “You might want to rethink your metaphor.”
“Or extend it.” Ty Slater and Brant had been best friends while they lived at the ranch and still kept in close touch even though Ty was now a lawyer working in Cheyenne. “Let’s say you were hit by lightning and she’s the one for you. But it works two ways. She’d have to feel that lightning strike, too.”
“She likes me. I know she does.”
Damon sighed. “I hope you’re not basing that on a few rounds of mattress bingo.”
“I’m not! We have way more going for us. She wants to help me get my trail ride business going. She’s offered to give me tips on the website design and do a video for it. She said I make her video expeditions easier because I carry most of the stuff. She likes my cooking.”
Cade lifted his beer in Austin’s direction. “You’re ahead of me there, bro. But you’re making me mighty nervous with this ‘I have a hunch’ talk.”
“I’m crazy about her and I’m pretty sure she’s crazy about me. I see no reason why we won’t be engaged within a month or so.”
Jonah choked on his beer and Cade groaned.
Austin glanced around at his brothers and they were all staring at him like he was one doughnut shy of a dozen. “What? When it’s right, it’s right. Life’s short, so why waste time? Look at Rosie and Herb. Met, fell in love, got married, bam. That sure worked out okay.”
Liam had been silent through the interchange but he finally spoke. “That’s a good point, but Ty’s right. You have to make sure Drew’s on the same page, and I—” He paused. “Well, never mind. I shouldn’t poke my nose in.”
Austin felt a prick of unease. Liam had spent several days with Drew on that rafting trip and the guy had good instincts about people.
“Please poke your nose in,” Cade said. “The rest of us have tried and we’re getting nowhere.”
“It’s just that I got to know Drew fairly well on that rafting trip, and this afternoon on the porch I could tell you were over the moon, but I wasn’t getting that level of intensity from her.”
“That’s because she wouldn’t show it in front of everybody.” But she had acted somewhat distant after his comment in the truck about spending a lot of time with his family in the future. “When it’s just the two of us, she’s very...um, affectionate.”
Damon came over and put an arm around his shoulders. “I get that. I’m sure you had a rockin’ good time in Bighorn Canyon. But you can’t jump from that to a proposal without some indication she’s thinking along the same lines as you.”
“What sort of indication?”
Damon turned to the rest of them. “Indications. What you got?”
“She invites you over to help her trim her Christmas tree,” Ty said. “That’s what Whitney did. I loused it up, but that was her way of hinting she wanted to take things to the next level.”
Damon nodded. “Any invitation into her space is a good sign. Phil invited me to stay at her house, although I didn’t handle that opportunity well, either.”
“See there?” Austin felt better. “She let me go along on her camping trip to see the mustangs.”
Cade gazed at him. “Did you ask to go?”
“Well, yeah, but she was fine with it. Then today she said I was welcome at her place anytime.”
“But whose idea was it to go over there?” Cade skewered him with a glance.
“Mine, but—”
“It really does need to be her idea,” Jake said. “And even then, you can get your signals crossed, misinterpret what everything means. Has she taken the initiative on anything?”
Austin thought back over the past two days. He’d asked her out to begin with and then invited himself along on the camping trip. He’d suggested going over to her apartment after the bachelor party. “Maybe not. Oh, wait. She volunteered to go along when I bought hiking boots. That was totally her idea.”
He considered it a positive sign, but when he took inventory of how it was being received by his brothers, several of them looked ready to bust out laughing. “Well, it’s something, right?”
“It’s something, all right,” Damon said. “But I wouldn’t go lining up a preacher based on a potential shopping trip for hiking boots.”
“So you’re all saying I should back off a little.”
“Or a lot,” Cade said. “Hell, Junior, your plane landed four days ago! I’ll bet you’re still jet-lagged.”
“I have to back off for the rest of the weekend anyway. Drew’s sister will be in town through Sunday.”
Jonah clapped him on the back. “Divine intervention.”
Austin considered it more of a monkey wrench in his plans than divine intervention, but he respected Drew’s need to comfort her sister. Maybe it was a good thing he and Drew were forced to take a break this weekend. They’d be all the more eager to get together next week. But he might let her make the first move.
* * *
Drew ate two slices of pizza and then extricated herself and Elise from the house. She and Elise spent most of the drive talking about the wedding and Thunder Mountain Ranch.<
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“So let me get this straight.” Elise scooted down and propped her feet on the dash, something she loved doing whenever she was in the passenger seat and her parents weren’t around to chastise her for it. “First this couple took in foster boys and now they’re running a coed equine academy for teens. They must be saints to want teenagers around all the time.”
“I can’t imagine it, either, but they seem to thrive on the constant activity.”
“And I thought our family was crazy.”
“Our family is crazy. Remember that these academy students aren’t related. I think that makes a huge difference in the drama quotient.”
“Yes, but you said the foster brothers consider themselves semirelated and quite a few of them are part of the mix, right?”
“They are.” Drew pulled into her parking space at the apartment complex. “Which brings me to another subject. But let’s wait until we get inside to talk about it.”
“Is it top secret?” Elise sounded thrilled with the idea.
“Actually, yes.” She unbuckled her seat belt and opened her door, which switched on the dome light. She turned to look at Elise. “Before I say anything, you have to pinkie-swear that you won’t tell Mom and Dad.”
“Ooh, sounds juicy. Are you pregnant?”
“God, no! Bite your tongue.”
“It wouldn’t be the end of the world. You’re twenty-eight and you’d make a great mom.”
Drew stared at her. “What makes you say that?”
“You’re always taking care of people, like bringing me down here to cheer me up, as if you thought they were driving me nuts with their crazy-ass suggestions.”
“Weren’t they driving you nuts?”
Elise laughed. “Sort of, but it’s like a game to me. They get all serious about my future so I tell them I’m going to be a beach bum. I like going for the shocking statement.”
“You pull their chain on purpose?”
“Sometimes.” Elise grinned at her. “When the devil in me can’t resist. Family drama can be a spectator sport.”
Do You Take this Cowboy? Page 11