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“I’m jealous. Have fun.”
“You should sneak away and join me,” Maggie said. “We can have a trail side rendezvous.”
“I wish I could. Before I forget, my brother invited us over tonight. He’s getting settled with his sons and wants you to meet them.”
The last thing Maggie wanted to do was to take the baby out at night, and her mother had just babysat for her. She’d have to get creative with Rhonda so she’d stay, but it might not be worth giving up an afternoon trail ride.
“We’ll have to take Tina.”
“I know. Do you mind?”
“Justin, yes, but I guess I can’t say no.”
“Can you ask Rhonda to stay over? We should be home by ten.”
“I guess I could let her go home now so she could come back later. I don’t want Tina to get used to being out after bedtime.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
“It means I have to give up my horse ride.”
“Aw, I’m sorry, babe,” Justin said.
“Right. I’ll see what I can do. Is Annie going to be there?”
“Jeez, I didn’t ask, to tell you the truth. He couldn’t dare to have a get-together without her, would he?”
“I think he might, from the sounds of things. I was just with her and Stevie is sick.”
“Oh, yeah, she should stay home. Stay in touch. My patient is kicking the door.”
“Ha! I’ll talk to you later.”
In the kitchen, she fixed a cup of tea and took it out on the porch so she couldn’t hear Tina’s cries of protest, then she keyed in Annie’s number.
“How’s Stevie feeling?”
“He’s fine. No fever, not even a sneeze. Calista is being too picky about the kid’s health, if you ask me. We were only out for two hours and she couldn’t wait?”
“Yeah, I’m not sure what that was all about. Anyway, Justin just called and Chris invited us over tonight so I can meet the boys. Are you going to be there?”
“Not that I know of. I just talked to him and he said he’d shower and head over to see us in a bit, but no mention of a get-together.”
“Hmmm. Well, if you’re not going to be there, I’m not going.”
“Oh, you know what? I told him the kid was sick. So, yes, he was probably going to invite us and the ill kid put the kibosh on it.”
“Ugh, I think I’ll tell Justin to go without me then. I want to ride Dale while Tina naps so I’ll say goodbye and we’ll talk later.”
“Okay. Later it is,” Annie said.
Stevie had curled up next to her after falling asleep. Carefully picking him up, she laid him in his crib. The Tylenol Calista gave him had definitely worked.
At the kitchen table, she organized her papers, ready to study. After an hour, her back began to ache so she stood up and stretched, twisting from side to side. There was a knock at the door and she opened it to Chris and his sons.
“Aw, you brought the whole family.”
“We came to you if you couldn’t come to us. How’s Stevie doing?”
