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I glanced at him, noticing the boyish smile and pleading look in his eyes. For a trained spy and killer, he had the youngest heart out of anyone I’d ever met.
“Fine.” I laughed. “You can set them up if you want. George and I moved all the horses and cattle to the far pasture so the fireworks don’t scare them.”
Henry beamed, then sipped his beer, setting it down with a thud on the table. “I gotta leave tomorrow. I have an assignment overseas and I’m flying out of Bozeman.”
“George told me he’s driving you to the airport.”
“Yeah, first thing in the morning.” He sighed, looking out over the pasture. The sun was nearly set, and the first stars were starting to shine. “You have quite a place here, Grant. Makes me want to put down some roots somewhere like this.”
“Why don’t you?”
He looked at me, giving me a knowing smile. “Because what’s the point if you don’t have someone to put down roots with?”
We both looked over at Moira, who was chatting with a few of the ranch wives who lived nearby. She was wearing a white cotton dress that brushed just over her knees, her thick red hair loose and tickling her elbows as she threw her head back and laughed.
Thank God.
I loved that smile, and I was worried I’d never see it again.
“You’ll find someone,” I replied, picking at the label on my beer bottle. “But I’m guessing that’ll be a challenge given your background.”
“It’s my personality that’s the problem,” he joked. “My mom said so.”
“She might be onto something.” I laughed.
Henry sighed wistfully, his gaze shifting to Day, who was running around with two boys roughly his age now.
“Looks like they’re trying to sneak off,” he said, a soft smile touching his lips. “The kid doesn’t have many friends, huh?”
“He hasn’t had much of a chance.”
A contemplative silence settled between us as we watched the boys run around the back of the stable and out of sight.
“Go easy on them for a while,” Henry said after a moment, his voice dropping an octave and eyes going dark. “Especially your old lady.”
I nodded, letting out my breath. “I’ve lived a privileged life, you know,” I admitted. “I’ve never felt like I was living in survival mode. Day and Moira have been living like that for years.”
“She’ll adjust,” he said wistfully, leaning back in his chair. “She’s strong. I’m sure you know that. When everything went down in the house, she was… well, I have a feeling this wasn’t the worst thing he ever did to her.”
I flexed my jaw, my gaze focusing on Moira again as my mind reeled over everything she’d told me about her relationship with Kirk.
“They’re my responsibility now,” I said after a long moment. I lifted my beer to my lips, smiling softly as Moira looked over at me, her smile widening as she waved. “My family.”
* * *
“If you shoot each other, it’s going to hurt,” I warned, even though I knew the boys weren’t listening to anything I said as I watched them dig through a box of Roman Candles. Jason, a nine-year-old who lived a few miles away on a small ranch, and Luke, a feral eight-year-old who lived in town, had become Day’s best friends over the course of the party. All three boys had a wild look in their eyes as George, Henry, and Pete, and I continued setting up the fireworks in the pasture. “Don’t tell you mom I gave you these,” I said to Day, who was jabbering away to his friends.
I was going to be inso much trouble.
Oh well. Little boys loved fire, fireworks, and being downright ill-behaved. Who was I to stop them?
George smirked as I walked over to him.
“You ready for those boys to tear your ranch to shreds over the years?”
“I don’t even want to think about it right now.” I chuckled. They’d already found a grass snake and put it under the dessert table, which caused quite a commotion an hour ago.
“I’m going to go find Moira. I think Henry wanted to do the honors.” I tilted my head toward Henry and Pete, who were arguing about the order of the fireworks and debating what needed to be lit first, and why.
