AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry, Macks,” Sarah says. “Who knows. Maybe something will happen or whoever buys it will sell it again in a few years.”
Hyla reaches over and squeezes Mackie’s hand. “One day you’ll have your cute little dream house with a garden.”
Mackie looks at Hyla with a mix of pain and wistfulness in her eyes. And maybe some hope.
A hush falls over the room until Rae suddenly jumps up. “Baby needs brownies.” We all laugh as she heads for the kitchen.
“Need any help cleaning up?” I ask Rae and Sarah, who are in the kitchen arguing—mostly because Sarah is trying to get Rae to sit and rest.
“You’re worse than my husband,” Rae tells Sarah.
“Because I love you and my little niece or nephew.” Sarah turns to me. “Thanks for offering, but I don’t think I’m allowed to help clean up.”
“How about none of us clean up, and Aaron and I can fight about that later?”
“Fair enough,” Sarah says with a laugh.
“Okay, so maybe I wanted to talk to the two of you away from everyone else,” I say.
“Ooh, intrigue,” Sarah says as Rae smacks her arm.
“What’s up?”
I look back toward the living room, where the rest of the girls are laughing and joking around. Emmie is asleep in a playpen in the corner.
“Well, when you started talking about that house down the road, it reminded me of something. Would you two ever be willing to part with a chunk of the property?”
“For what?” Sarah asks, but Rae just smiles brightly.
“Oh my god, you really are one of us.”
Sarah’s eyebrows shoot up. “Seriously?”
I nod. “It took me time to open up, but I love the community we have, and I always wanted more family than what I had growing up. Now I have it. And after going through what I’ve been through, I’ve come to like the ‘it takes a village’ mentality. Not right this second, but whenever we’re ready to build, if you’re willing to part with a few acres between here and the house up the road… we’d love that.”
“Was this your idea or Miles’s?” Rae asks.
“Mine. But he was definitely on board.”
“I bet,” Rae says.
“Well, whenever you’re ready, I doubt the boys will have any disagreement with letting you guys steal a few acres.”
Rae laughs, tears filling her eyes. “Our kids will get to grow up like we did. Just the country version.”
“Sounds perfect to me,” I say. “Love you two. Thanks for welcoming me into this big bag of crazy.”
Sarah laughs out loud. “The best kind of crazy there is.” We all turn and look out at the living room.
She’s right. It’s the best kind of crazy. Filled with love and laughter and the best tribe in the world.
Miles
“Hey, you’ve actually managed to get some good shape to it now,” Trevor says to Joel. “Proud of you.”
Joel rolls his eyes as the rest of the guys laugh.
Though we left the farmhouse right after dinner, we went for a walk around the property before coming back to the log cabin for guys’ night. Since then, they’ve mostly talked beards and bullshit.
