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I grin at him and go over my plans, the way I did with Remington just a couple of weeks ago.
And when I’ve finished, he’s nodding, and we walk over to where the others are standing.
“That shop’s going to be a honey,” Ryan says with a grin. “You need it.”
“I’m building that first,” I agree. “I’m doing as much as I can by myself, so the whole project will take me a while.”
“Why don’t you just let me make some calls?” Ryan offers. “I can have this built for you by next summer, at the latest. My gift to you, man.”
I shake my head. Leave it to my brother, the richest man in the state, to want to swoop in and handle things.
“I appreciate the offer more than you know, but I actually want to build it myself. It’ll be an adventure. In the meantime, I’m not exactly homeless.”
“If you change your mind, the offer stands,” he replies. “Man, that view.”
“I know.” The five of us stand, hands in pockets, looking out over the small lake. “It’s fucking awesome.”
“Let’s go.” Remington claps me on the shoulder. “The others are already at the barn, loading up to head out.”
“Let’s go.”
There are more people here than I expected there to be.
I didn’t realize that Erin’s dad, Will Montgomery, already flew out to help this week leading up to the wedding. Including Will, we have all the men in our family, the hands, Brooks and all three of his brothers, and a few other guys from town.
It doesn’t surprise me. Rem is well-liked in our community, and I know that everyone loves seeing him happy with Erin, especially since his first wife passed away when Holly was born. He hasn’t had it easy, but things sure have turned around for him.
He deserves every minute of happiness, and Erin makes him damn happy.
We’re deep into the property, in a clearing that’s surrounded by trees. We’ve come out here to camp since I was a kid. There’s a circle of rocks and dirt that make up the campfire, and there are stumps placed around for us all to sit on. Some of us brought folding camping chairs. Tents are scattered further out, already set up and ready for later.
We have a table off to the side that’s loaded down with coolers full of food and drinks.
No one will leave here hungry.
I’m staring into the fire, listening to Brady tell the group a story about Remington when Rem was in his early 20s and got caught with his hands down Mary Beth Anderson’s pants in the back seat of his car.
Ryan passes me a fresh beer and sits next to me.
“I don’t have any tales to tell,” I inform my brother, who just smiles.
“Well, we do, but we’ll keep them to ourselves.” He clinks the neck of his bottle against mine, taking a swig. “Jake starts at my place Monday morning.”
I lift an eyebrow and nod, still staring into the flames. “Good. He’s got a way with horses, and I know he’ll handle yours with care.”
“He’d better. When did his parents die?”
“Last year.” Grimly, I pull my hand down my face. “Fucking mess of a car accident, just outside of town. It was icy, and his dad was going too fast. I don’t know why, or what he thought he was late for. Anyway, they skidded into a tree, and both died on impact.”
“Jake wasn’t with them?”
“He was at school,” I reply, remembering that day clearly. I worked the scene all fucking day in below-zero temps.
“He doesn’t have any other family?”
“None that we’ve found. He’s in a foster placement.”
Ryan nods slowly and sips his beer. “Okay, well, we’ll see how this goes, then. The kid has a hell of an attitude on him.”
