Crew’s smile made a return and he gave me another kiss. “That sounds like a good deal, baby.”
Yeah, I loved it when he called me that.
Like I’d thought, Ezio and Jaina got along incredibly well. He clearly thought she hung the moon, and it didn’t take me long to start going on rides, ponying him while I rode her. He enjoyed every bit of scenery, was alert and interested, but took all his cues from her steady presence in a way that was amazing even to me.
One day, a couple of days before my mom was to arrive, I was out with the two horses and Payton on the back pasture.We’d gone to the creek and because I’d tested Ezio near the cows, I knew he wasn’t going to spook if we went to check on the herd.
Payton was pointing out things here and there, and talking about how excited he was about his Nana and Mimi meeting.
“Oh look, that’s a magpie!” He pointed at a bird flying overhead.
“Have you gotten more presents from them?” I asked, knowing it would set him off for a while.
“Yeah! There was a bottle cap near the feeding spot yesterday!” And off he went, recapping the handful of items he and Mike had gotten from the corvids.
Suddenly Payton stopped talking mid-sentence. “Oh no.”
“What is it?” I looked around but didn’t see anything, and the horses were calm, too.
“You forgot the stew.”
“Aw crap.” I rubbed my face with the hand that wasn’t around Payton, holding the reins and the lead rope.
“You could walkie-talkie to Crew?” Payton suggested before it even occurred to me.
I also found his use of walkie-talkie as a verb cute as hell.
“Good idea, buddy.” I unclipped the two-way and pulled Jaina to a stop.
Pressing the button, I said, “Malachi to CH.”
It took all of two seconds to get a response, which told me Crew was trying his best not to fret while we were out. “CH to Mal, over.”
“Can you pop by my cabin to turn the slow cooker to low? Over.”
Some people wouldn’t have minded if their stew was mush, but I sure did.
“Will do. Over.”
“Okay, thank—”
“You should say ‘I love you’ before you say over,” Payton piped up.
I laughed as at least three people joined the call with laughter and awws.
“I should?” I asked, letting everyone hear us.
“Yeah. That’s what people who love each other do,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“I suppose so.” I smiled and said, “Hey, Crew?”
I could hear the laughter in his tone. “Yeah, Mal and Payton?”
“I love you. Over.”
“I love you too. Over.”
“Press again,” Payton said, so I did. “Crew? I love you too. Oh. Over.”
