“What’s the man got to do with it?”
Molly chuckled. She hadn’t been expecting this conversation. “Takes two to tango. But, really, if I met the right guy and having kids was important to him, I’d be open to it. If I met another guy, and he didn’t want kids, that’d be fine too. I’m going with the flow on this one. But I haven’t foreclosed the possibility.”
“Does your brother have kids?”
“Three girls and that’s probably it. Lisa only wanted two. She had the third to give Mack his son and instead got a third daughter. I think that’s the end of that line.”
“You close with your brother?”
“I wouldn’t say close. I’m five years older. We get along okay. We don’t go out of our way to keep in touch, but they invite me for the holidays.”
“You’re buying him out of the resort.”
“Yeah, he wanted the money and I didn’t want him as a partner. Wouldn’t have been good for the relationship. He’s getting $5,000 a month for eight years, three down, five to go. He inherited the family ranch and has taken over my father’s auction business. He’s a good guy. We’re just not close.”
“But you want me to be really close with my family.”
She chuckled. “Sorry about that. It just came out today.” She paused, wanting to shift the conversation to him. “You never said anything about Brett and his military service.”
“He served and served well. He saw some action, but his unit had a completely different assignment than mine. His was more into planning and staging. It was just the luck of the draw that landed him there. My unit got placed right in the middle of the hottest fighting. And, because our unit got familiar withthe terrain and the villages and the enemy, and got good results, they just kept us there. Luck of the draw.”
“Or bad luck of the draw.”
“Whatever.”
“So you raised the topic of kids. How do you feel about them?”
“I’ve always assumed I’d have kids. I grew up in a family with four. The lady I was with wanted a big family. When Megan died in the car wreck, it just blew all that up. Now, I can barely manage a jenny mule, a hunting falcon, a wayward lynx, and a purebred dog. I can’t imagine having kids. I have no idea how to factor the PTSD into kids. The federal government doesn’t think I’m capable of holding a job. Wonder how they’d feel about me raising kids. Maybe like you, it will depend on whether I find a lady and if she’s interested. If she is, I’d want to support that.”
Molly decided to leave the conversation right there. It was a little early to be talking about kids. The sex and companionship had been fantastic. The fling was going really well. But how wise was it to get involved with a man with serious mental and emotional issues who’d killed a lot of people and only stopped by once a month?
The lasagna made for a filling dinner.
“Do you eat with your family in the mountains?”
“Pretty much. I typically cook a big pot of something at night. Bear, Bella, and I each have a bowl. Beryl gets her ration of grain at night after grazing all day. Blitz is usually on a branch nearby picking at a bone I put out for her.”
“Nice image. Is Bella domesticated?”
“I’m trying to keep her wild, although she does get a bowl at night. She sleeps outside in a shelter I built for her away from the cabin. She spends the day hunting. Lives off snow rabbits. Big population of snow rabbits and lynx in the Pasayten.”
“Does she come inside in the winter?”
“When she was a kitten, but I discourage it now. I want her to remain wild. Bear has a swinging door into the cabin from the woodshed, and Bella knows about it. But she doesn’t come in anymore.”
“I can picture you reading your Kindle on a cold, wintry day by the stove with Bear and Bella at your feet.”
“It was a nice scene when she was a kitten.”
After, they settled by the fire pit with the bottle of cognac.
She finally had to ask, “When are you heading back to the mountains?”
“I usually stay two nights, just long enough to provision and take care of business.”
“So tomorrow?”
“That’s been the plan. Are you okay with that?”
