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Catching me looking at her, my mother smiled. Something passed between us. I placed my hand on my stomach, knowing that no one could see me beneath the table. Would I be as good a mother to my children as she was? I prayed so.
A light knock sounded on the office door. “Come on in,” my father called out.
I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Rip. A rush of tingles swept up my body and landed in the pit of my stomach. I stood and walked over to him, wrapping my arms around him. He hugged me back and whispered against my ear, “I missed you, Chloe Cat.”
I giggled. “It’s only been a few hours since I saw you last.”
He winked and then looked past me to see everyone else. “Family meeting?”
Gage was still sitting in his chair, shocked. Dad made his way over to Rip, reaching out his hand and shaking it. “Good to see you, son. How are things with the house? Chloe said you’re making good progress.”
“We are. We’ve got the kitchen, one bathroom and our bedroom finished.”
“Probably going to have to start working on the other bedrooms,” I said absentmindedly.
“Floors are next. I’m glad we had the second floors sanded first. We still have to stain them.”
Rip talked to my father about all the little projects in our adorable farmhouse. I looked up at Rip. Could he see the change in me, if I truly was pregnant? Maybe that was why he asked about kids the other day. I glanced over to my mom. She stood there intently listening to Rip. Gage had finally snapped out of shock and made his way over. He reached out his hand and shook Rip’s.
“I can help with the floor staining.”
“That would be great, but I don’t think we’ll be able to get to it for another week or two. You’ll be gone by then.”
Gage smiled. “I told them.”
Rip’s eyes jerked to my father. He simply nodded and that was that.
“You knew?” I asked Rip.
“Yeah, Gage came to me for advice. I told him to follow his heart.”
“You went to Rip before you came to me!” I said, my hands on my hips.
Gage lifted his palms in defense. “I need to head on out. Trevor is expecting me.”
I kissed Gage goodbye and my parents hugged him. I heard Gage say, “Thank you, Dad. I love you.”
Dad told Gage he loved him, and Mom and Gage left Daddy’s office together.
“You ready for that picnic?” Rip asked. “I thought we could go visit our spot on the ranch.”
I looked at Daddy and smiled. He laughed and shook his head as I said, “Yes, I’m ready.”
Rip
I TRIED LIKE hell to keep my hands from shaking as I wrapped my fingers around Chloe’s. We walked to my truck slowly.
“How’s your morning been?” she asked.
“Busy. Jonathon’s got a job here in Oak Springs, and I checked on it this morning.”
“Oh? What kind of job?”
“It’s a chapel.”
She gasped. “A chapel! Oh wow, is it for a venue?”
“No, it’s just a personal chapel, but could certainly be made into a venue.”
“You know I heard once about a guy who built his wife a small white chapel on their property. It overlooked the hill country. She wanted a place to go and do her devotionals each day, so he had it built for their anniversary.”
“That was nice of him,” I said, turning to look at her as I drove down the gravel road to our tree in the south pasture. When we were younger, we would saddle up horses and ride out to our tree. Once I got my license, we drove one of the ranch Jeeps. For that tree being so damn important to us, I don’t even remember how we stumbled upon it.
“Do you remember how we even found this tree?” I asked.
I could feel her eyes on me. When I peeked at Chloe, her mouth was gaping open.
“What?”
“You mean to tell me there is something that you don’t remember! I can’t believe it.”
Laughing, I said, “Tell me the story.”
“Gosh, we were little, maybe we had just turned six. Jonathon and Daddy brought us to the river to go swimming.”
The memory hit me like a bolt of lightning. “That’s right! We were in the water, and you pointed to the tree. I said it would make a great tree for a secret tree house.”
She giggled. “Yes, and I said there was no way I was letting my daddy put nails in it.”
“We asked your folks to bring us there so many times. Your dad finally put up the swing you kept asking for.”
“Yeah. How many times do you think we’ve been to this spot?”
“Hundreds.”
“We’ll have to bring our kids here.” Her voice cracked like she’d gotten emotional.
“You okay, Chloe Cat?”
She nodded as she looked at me and smiled. “It’s been a crazy morning.”
