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Carrie’s chin shook, and she turned away from everyone. “Well, you’re early, but it just so happens that I have a batch of cookies ready already.”
Gerty stepped into Boone’s side, and he drew her closer and kissed her temple. “Give her some time to come to terms with the idea.”
“We need it to get that house fixed up,” Gerty murmured, and then she stepped away from him saying in a much louder voice, “Grams, are those the white chocolate cranberry ones? I love those.”
* * *
Keith Whettstein smelledthe evidence of the meeting he’d been invited to the moment he walked into the generational house. Uncle Boone looked over from the kitchen counter, where he hunched over something in front of him as if protecting it.
“Just me,” Keith said, because Uncle Boone was planning something for Dad’s birthday he didn’t want his brother to know about. The whole thing had been sketchy in Keith’s opinion, but he kept that to himself most of the time.
“Britt can’t make it,” he said. “Gloria is likewise preoccupied.”
Uncle Boone faced him fully. “The new gelding?”
“He’s not settling in at all.” Keith sank onto a barstool, instant relief sliding down his legs and into his feet. He wanted to kick off these boots and put on a pair of slippers, but he simply reached for one of the sandwiches his uncle had put on the countertop.
Uncle Boone sighed and sat down too. “Fine,” he said. “But this party is going to come together with only a prayer.”
“My dad doesn’t care about his birthday,” Keith said.
“Yeah, but it’s a big deal,” Uncle Boone said. “You and Britt can help with the cake?”
“Yeah.” Keith took a big bite of his sandwich and immediately regretted it. He wasn’t sure how, but he’d forgotten about his uncle’s penchant for peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Keith disliked honey with the strength of a raging wildfire. He gagged down the bite and got up to see what Gerty had in the fridge.
She wouldn’t be living in this house for much longer, and then Gray and Elise Hammond would move into it. Hunter was retiring from his position as Chief Executive Officer at Hammond Manufacturing Company, and Mike would be taking over.
Keith and Mike were best friends, and Keith wasn’t sure how he felt about Mike donning expensive suits and shiny shoes and working in the city. Keith had never been to HMC, but he’d seen the high rise during his time in the city for college.
Mike said he didn’t mind the work, and now that he’d been there for almost three months, he felt more settled. Mike was smart—far smarter than Keith—and he’d no doubt pick up anything put down in front of him.
Keith swigged several swallows of milk straight from the carton, telling himself he’d pay his cousin back if Gerty got upset. She probably wouldn’t, because Gerty didn’t get too uptight about groceries. Cross her horse or her dog, and she’d pound down the door in the middle of the night.
Keith actually smiled just thinking about it. Mike seemed to be able to handle her, and in fact, he’d mellowed her a little bit. Or maybe she’d grown up and changed while she wasn’t here on this farm.
Keith had only left for a few years of college, and then he’d returned. He’d gone to a junior college in the city and earned an agriculture degree. He loved this farm, and as he thought about Gerty and her new venture a few miles down the road, that familiar feeling of jealousy rose up inside him.
All he had to do was talk to his father, and he knew Dad would help him get started on a piece of land all his own. He’d also suggested that Keith do what he’d done—find someone who needed a foreman and run their farm. Dad and Gloria had done very well for themselves since coming to the Hammond Family Farm, and Keith wasn’t so prideful that he thought he had to have his own farm or nothing.
He simply wantedsomethingto happen in his life. The same thing day in and day out was starting to wear on him, and he couldn’t wait to go to the horse auction this weekend.
Both Mike and Hunter were coming with him, and Keith returned to the counter, determined to push away his feelings of inadequacy. It wasn’t exactly easy, not with both Mike and Hunter being billionaires. If they saw a horse they wanted, they could buy it, no questions asked.
Keith smiled as he thought of Molly and all the questions she’d actually have if Hunter brought home a horse from the auction. Buying horses was more her specialty, and Hunter the one who hugged her and told her she could buy whatever she wanted.
Unfortunately, Keith could not buy whatever he wanted, and after the meeting with his uncle to put together a ridiculously elaborate birthday party for his dad, Keith got behind the wheel of his truck and headed into the town of Ivory Peaks to get a few groceries.
He and Britt shared a cabin at the farm, and she wasn’t a bad cook. His overprotective streak of her had never gone anywhere, and he loved his sister to his very core.
Instant shock filled him when he saw her exiting the single market in town with her hand secured in that of a cowboy.
Keithdid the grocery shopping, so why did Britt have a plastic sack draped over her free arm? Why was she laughing with her head tipped back, her long, blonde hair spilling all the way to her waist?
Keith had lived in this town for almost seventeen years, and he didn’t know the man she was with. How was that possible?
His truck shrilled a series of beeps at him; his seat rumbled; the automatic brake got applied.
Keith’s adrenaline surged, and he tore his gaze from his younger sister to the windshield. A woman stood two feet from his front bumper, her green eyes wide with fear and surprise.
