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Her eyes rounded and her jaw dropped slightly open, slammed shut, then dropped open again, only no words came out.
“It will be fun for everyone. And who knows, maybe David will make friends with the next generation of Farradays. We all sure had fun together when we were kids.” Grinning himself, he did his best to cajole a smile out of her. “Remember the time we had horse races across the field and not till you’d won on Shadow did Adam tell us that he didn’t like having a rider on his back?”
“If I hadn’t been so excited from winning, I might have passed out.” She chuckled. “Shadow was a sweet horse.”
“And only you could ride him.” About to offer more thoughts on improving David’s ball playing, her mother entered the dining room.
Standing in the doorway with David in tow, her mother beamed at them. Anyone could see the woman was delighted to have her family close by again. “We ready to eat?”
“Starved.” Sandra’s smile seemed to reach her eyes once again.
That made him happier than it should. He approached the back of her seat and pulled out her chair. The even brighter smile she tossed his way as she sat down made him so very glad his mother had taught him manners, despite his arguing that girls could pull out their own chairs as easily as boys.
Reaching for his hand to one side of her, and David’s on the other, she bowed her head.
Her mother snagged Paxton’s other hand to complete the circle. “Sandra, would you say grace tonight?”
Paxton listened to every heartfelt word. The Farradays still said grace before every meal—they had for as long as he could remember—but somehow, in such a small family setting, it felt different.
“Amen.” Sandra lifted her gaze.
“Amen,” the table echoed.
“Please pass the cornbread.” David stuck out his arm. Apparently manners mattered to David’s mother too.
“You can’t eat just cornbread.” Mrs. Baker passed the dish to her grandson.
The kid gave a momentary pout before nodding at his grandmother as she added a slab of meatloaf to his dish. “I also made your favorite. Mac and Cheese.”
That totally changed the child’s disposition and Paxton had to bite back a grin.
“Is that all you’re serving yourself?” Mrs. Baker shook her head. “Don’t be bashful at my table.” Without asking, she took a large scoop of mac and cheese and plopped it on his dish.
Thankfully, he was hungry enough to eat it all, but his mama had raised him to always leave the table a little hungry when invited to a family’s home for dinner.
David’s eyes went wide. “You’ll eat all that?”
“Hardworking men—and growing boys—need lots of good food.” His grandmother smiled down at the young boy.
“Even the vegetables.” Paxton stabbed at the broccoli and shoved it in his mouth, rubbing his tummy as if he’d just eaten a banana split. He had a feeling that Sandra would appreciate a little outside vegetable encouragement. “Someday you’ll eat all this. Especially when you’re on a growth spurt.”
“I can’t imagine what it must have been like cooking for all those Farraday boys,” Sandra’s mother added broccoli on David’s plate.
Pausing his fork, midair, Paxton nodded. “The Farraday women can pack it away too.”
Sandra’s mother just laughed. “Oh, I bet those dinners were a sight to see.”
Thinking back on family dinners, Paxton couldn’t help but smile. “When we were all young and getting too rambunctious at dinner, my mother used to get frustrated and tell us we were more feral than the six younger brothers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Of course, she was exaggerating.” Instantly his mind flashed back to the time that Ryan threw a biscuit to Quinn and the next thing he knew, all six boys were tossing bread around like a baseball in a triple play. That was probably one thing Sandra would most definitely not want him to teach her son. Too bad, it was an awful lot of fun when he was five years old.
So much was going through Sandra’s head as Paxton and David talked sports, dreams, and horses. Her mother laughed at way more than she should have but it was obvious to anyone watching that the woman was more than happy to have her only daughter and grandson home again. This is what family should have always been like. Why had she waited so long to make a change? Maybe because deep down she didn’t want to admit her parents had been right and she had been a deluded young adult?
“Y’all go on into the other room. I’ll clean up here.”
Paxton pushed away from the table and standing up, lifted his empty plate and glass.
“None of that.” Her mother shooed him away. “Guests don’t clean up in this house.”
“I don’t mind.”
