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"So, neither Everleigh nor I have any design savvy. We were hoping you'd take the lead on this place."
"Really? Oh, you have no idea the visions that have been running through my head these past few days. I'd love to."
Roxanne stepped toward her. "Are you sure Everleigh?"
Her head bobbed. "I’m certain. I don't know the first thing about designing a house."
"If at any time this gets to be too much, just let me know."
"I will. Then, I'll go out by the horses and let you do your thing. What you did at the HOG is amazing."
"Okay. Then, let's get the others in here and we'll get started. If you two want to go to the Evans’ place and work with the horses, we'll get to cleaning and arranging and organizing in here. I bought a bunch of things to get you started and it turns out, so did the others."
Her eyes rounded. "Oh my god, I certainly didn't mean you had to do all the work here. There's a lot."
Roxanne laughed. "You see all those people out there? I'm not doing all the work. I'm directing. There's a difference."
Henry laughed. "Trust me. It's better if we get out of the way. We can change anything you don't like."
"I can't imagine I won't like anything. I mean, I just can't imagine it."
Roxanne kissed her forehead. "Go on and help your horses. By bedtime tonight you'll have a bedroom, a kitchen, and at least a living room. Maybe more if we can manage it."
A clattering sounded from the kitchen and both she and Henry looked at each other. He began striding to the kitchen and she followed.
There was a woman in the kitchen cleaning.
"Helissa, I wondered where you were today."
"Your mama asked me to shop and prepare some meals for the two of you and to have a dinner planned for the crew this evening. But I had to clean the kitchen first. I'm almost ready to start cooking."
Henry began laughing and turned to his mom. "Anything else you've had in the works today?"
She shrugged. "I take care of my children. You go and do things you're good at, I'll take care of this."
Roxanne winked at her and all she could do was grin. It did relieve a ton of pressure about cooking and keeping a house. All things she was going to need to do.
Henry took her hand, and they walked through the dining room to the front door. Outside, the ladies were carrying in the buckets and cleaning supplies and mops and brooms and the sight was something she'd never witnessed before.
Once they'd situated themselves in Henry's truck, he started pulling out of the driveway but took her hand. "At any time you feel blown away with any of this, we can call it a day."
She chuckled. "Thank you. I was overwhelmed when we pulled into the HOG earlier."
He laughed. "Me too. It's been...surreal."
She nodded but smiled at him. At least they were overwhelmed together. Not that it was good that they were both overwhelmed, but good that they were in this together. At least there was that.
At the Evans’ farm she heard the horses whinnying and it sounded like they were stressed. She jogged toward the barn to see Tate and Hawk trying to subdue Harper. She ambled toward them and softly called out to Harper.
"Hey, Harper, it's all right. We're taking you to your new home with Henry and me. We're going to take care of you. All of you."
She slowly stepped closer, and Harper bobbed her head. Holding her hand out to Harper, it took a few minutes for the horse to calm.
Once Harper had calmed enough to have her bridle put on, Everleigh slowly fastened it on. She opened the stall door, and calmly walked with Harper to the first trailer. Harper balked slightly at the trailer, but she'd been prepared for this and braced herself until Harper was ready.
Slowly entering the trailer, she dropped the bridle and eased herself out the man-door on the side. Hawk chuckled. "How did you learn to do that?"
"In the Army they have programs that kids of the service members can enroll in. I enrolled in learning about horses. Every year it was a different course, but I learned a ton during my time there."
