If she hadn’t told them about her manager, then I wasn’t going to. “I’m not a shit stick.”
Teller sucked his teeth. “You will be if you break her heart.”
Again, I wasn’t intimidated. I chuckled. “Have you thought up more threats in the years since she’s been gone?”
“Definitely thought of more since the first day I busted you at the cabin with her.” Teller lifted his chin toward Tate. “They thought they looked so innocent.”
Aw, hell. “Yeah, I did.”
Tate snickered. “I thought Dad was going to give himself an aneurysm when he couldn’t catch them.”
We crested a hill. The pickup with the gooseneck was visible. Jonah leaned against the front of the pickup, his glittering gaze on us. Since he and Summer had gotten together, the guy had cleaned up. He hadn’t been dirty before, just rumpled. His beard was a lot shorter, his hair trimmed, and he no longer wore an expression that saidleave me the fuck alone. And I saw him more often. From what I’d heard the Baileys say, this was one of the first times he’d helped move cattle since the accident.
I glanced at all the brothers. “I hope the girls are all up in your love lives. I know Tate already got the Kerrigan treatment.”
Tate grunted again, but a smile played along his lips. “They got in my business all right.”
Teller snorted. “Tate has two more kids to show how much in his business they got.”
“You were in on it too, Teller,” Tate said.
“Yup,” Teller replied.
I grinned to myself. It used to be like this. Back then, I would think about how lucky my kids would be. They’d grow up in a big, vibrant family. People would surround them with love and excitement. They’d never feel like a burden. No one would tell them they were the reason for their parents’ failures.
But now it was up to just me and Wren. Kirstin’s absence made the girls question their worth, but so far, we were making it work. And we would keep making it work as long as I stuck to my plans.
June
When was the last time I’d had this much fun?
Probably not since the last time I’d been with my family, which meant not since I’d been in Montana last.
Mama and my siblings, and Daddy before he’d died, had come to performances over the years, but they had their lives and I had mine. We did little more than meet for a meal.
There’d been nothing like this. Sitting around a firepit. Tate and Scarlett sat side by side, the armrests of their camp chairs nearly overlapping. Tenor sat on a square straw bale. Teller perched on a bale too, but he couldn’t leave the fire alone, adding sticks and moving logs around.
Gideon was in a camp chair by Mama. He had his legs stretched out with his boots crossed at the ankle. Autumn was in his lap. I’d barely recognized him whenhe’d shown up dressed like my brothers, a cowboy hat stuffed low on his head and scruff all over his jaw. No wonder Autumn glowed like she had a Roman candle inside her.
Summer and Jonah were sitting closest to Teller. She wasn’t on his lap, but her head was on his shoulder and their hands were entwined.
Kids played in the yard, intermittently running to the picnic table to get a marshmallow. One of the adults would help them roast a marshmallow until eventually my oldest nephew, Chance, took over helping them. He was very serious about his s’mores. The kid reminded me more of his dad every day.
I’d laughed more today than any time over the last year. My brothers cracked jokes. Myles and Jonah had loosened up, which sure was something. I’d been back for their weddings, and the guys had been ecstatic on those days, but they’d never shaken their underlying solemnness.
Only tonight, Myles had been out on horseback all day, he was with his wife and daughter, and he was surrounded by his brothers and in-laws—and all of us in-laws had been his foster family at one time.
As for Lane and Cruz, when they’d first started working for Mama, they’d been slightly older than me when I’d left home and they had the immaturity to show for it. But under Mama’s care and my brothers’ tutelage—and with my sisters to keep them in a straight line—they’d flourished. Both brothers had Myles’s serious nature, but tonight they were as relaxed as the rest of us.
Mama sat on my side. Wynter and Myles’s daughter, Elsa, was asleep on her chest. Rhys was sitting on the other side of me. Lane had been peppering him abouthis ranch and the animals he grew. The guys marveled over Rhys running a one-man operation compared to the comprehensive Bailey ranch.
Lane leaned forward, looking past Rhys to me. “You gonna join us this week?” He feathered his shaggy dark hair out of his face.
Tate planned to continue moving cattle. He usually kept the weekends free, but today had been an exception. We’d had an impromptu family reunion.
“I’ll have to start charging my brothers if I do,” I said in a snotty tone, a grin pulling at my lips. “And they can’t afford me.”
“Wanna try that again?” Tate said from across the fire. “Tell me who to make the check out to.”
