Page 50 of Bailey

“What are we going to do when she goes on the circuit?” Morris asked.

“I don’t know,” Tex said, because he really didn’t.

His oldest was only fourteen, and he and Abby sometimes left their two younger kids with Melissa if they were just running next door to Cheryl and Wade’s. Otherwise, Tex wanted someone a little bit older, though Melissa had started to complain that she didn’t need a babysitter. Pippa, on the other hand, had been born with spit and whiskey in her soul, and while he loved her fiery personality, she could be a lot to handle sometimes.

Morris’s phone rang, and he dove back into it. “That’s Leigh now.” He swiped it on and said, “Hey, baby. Tex just said he didn’t think they were going to be finalizing anything, so I’m going to come home early.”

Tex had started to turn back toward the studio, but he stopped when he heard Leigh talking a mile a minute. He glanced over to Morris and found his face white and turning slack.

“How far apart?” he asked. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. I’m coming right now.”

With that, he headed for the door, and Tex sincerely hoped he already had his keys and wallet in his pocket.

Tex had just finished with the morning feeding when his phone chimed with the special notification he’d given to the family text. Sometimes the messages flew so fast he had to silence it, but it was still fairly early, and he leaned up against the fence of his northern paddock where he’d just put his horses to feed and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Morris had texted, It’s a girl! and joy filled Tex’s whole heart.

He and Leigh now had three boys and three girls to match, as they hadn’t found out the gender of this newest baby before now.

Morris: She’s beautiful, and came at about four-thirty this morning. A picture followed of him, Leigh, and the darling little girl, all crowded into Leigh’s hospital bed. Momma and daughter are both doing well, but we’ve had the hardest time coming up with a name for her.

He expected Blaze to make some joke about the number of kids they had in their family, and how all the good names had been taken, but it was probably still too early for his brother to be awake.

Gabe: So you don’t have a name for her yet?

Tex wasn’t surprised at all that he was up. In fact, because Gabe was Morris’s twin, he may have already been over to the hospital to see the baby.

We finally decided on Daphne Cecily, Morris said.

Tex drew in a breath, his spirit soaring now. “Momma will like that,” he said aloud to himself. Congratulations, you guys. She’s beautiful, he typed into the family chat.

Off the brothers’ thread, he quickly sent a text to Morris. Abby will want to bring a gift and come see the baby. How long are you going to be in the hospital?

At least through tomorrow, Morris said. I’m sure you guys can come this afternoon, if you’d like.

I’ll talk to her, Tex said. And I’ll text you before we come.

After all, if Leigh or their new baby didn’t have a good day, he and Abby could postpone their visit.

Texts continued to come in as the morning wore on, and Tex kept up with them as he sipped a cup of coffee and ate a bowl of cereal. Abby got the kids ready for school, and Tex went out to the truck to drive them. He waited for Wade and Cheryl’s three kids, and when he had everyone, he started the drive toward town.

He dropped off the kids, and then pulled out his phone as it had been beeping for several minutes now. He backed up to the conversations he’d missed and saw that Bryce had started this round of texting with, I guess now’s as good a time as any to tell everyone that Codi and I are going to have another boy.

Tex’s whole heart expanded with more love than he thought possible. He’d felt such loss at being unable to be OJ’s grandfather, but the Lord in His infinite goodness and wisdom, continued to bless Bryce with more boys, and Tex knew he hadn’t missed out on anything.

That’s wonderful news, Momma texted. I’m so excited for your new baby girl, Morris, and of course Harry and Belle’s too.

But we’ll take boy babies as well.

Tex smiled at his mother’s message, because Momma and Daddy had tried and tried to have girls, and they’d ended up with nine boys. Thankfully, they all had good wives now, and she had plenty of female grandchildren to spoil rotten.

He read through the other congratulations, and just when he was about to put his truck in gear and head home, another text came in from Joey.

We told our parents last night, she said. So I suppose I can add this to the family group chat, especially with all the baby talk.

Tex pulled in a breath, and it seemed to take forever before another message from Joey popped up.

Adam and I are going to have a baby in September, but we won’t find out the gender for another couple of months.