by Liz Isaacson
“You’ll have to,” Liam said, trying to smile in reassurance. “You know them all, Cal. You can tell them.”
She nodded and dipped the spoon into the cream of wheat. One bite later, she said, “Oh, this is good.”
“Tripp puts a lot of cream in,” Liam said. “And probably a ton of sugar.”
“Have him teach you how.” She grinned at him then, and Liam felt like he saw a glimpse of his wife for the first time in a week.
“Let’s go away after this,” he said, suddenly desperate to get away from the ranch, the computer, and Three Rivers. “The four of us. Let’s go to California and Disneyland and the beach.”
Callie took another bite of the hot cereal and looked at him. “Can you do that with your schedule?”
“I don’t care,” he said, putting both hands on her knees. “I want to. I want to get away with my family.”
Callie smiled at him, and Liam loved her so. “Book it, cowboy.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, what do I have keeping me here?”
“Well, Evelyn did just have triplets.” And Callie had gone to help a couple of times, but not much more than that. She’d spent days at her father’s house, cleaning out Gran’s room and belongings too. He’d worked as much as he could so he didn’t fall too far behind and helped at home; the girls had gone to whoever could take them for the day, usually Whitney.
Liam was thankful they had family so close to help, but he needed to get back to his core. And his core was Callie, Denise, and Ginger.
“Let’s give it a week,” Callie said. “I’ll make sure Daddy is all set, and I’ll make sure Evelyn is settled.”
Liam nodded, his excitement already growing. He stood up and said, “Great. We have to leave soon.”
“Yep.” Callie stood up too and handed him the cereal bowl. She’d only taken five or six bites, but it was more than she’d eaten in one sitting all week. “Liam…thank you. I know this week hasn’t been easy for you either.”
He reached out and ran his fingers down the side of her face. “I love you, Callie.”
She wrapped her arms around him, the best words in the world still, “I love you, too, Liam.”
Liam looked up as the stable door opened. An instant smile lit his soul when his oldest brother walked in. “Rhett,” he said, abandoning Pretzel to go give his brother a hug. Rhett smiled, and all the weight he carried disappeared.
“I’m last, aren’t I?” he asked, clapping Liam on the back.
“Yeah, but it’s fine,” Liam said, stepping back. “Jeremiah took Ollie out, and Tripp and Wyatt just barely left.” He hooked his thumb over to Pretzel and Memory, where Micah stood, still saddling him.
He came over and hugged Rhett too, as did Skyler, who was now ready with his horse, Red Velvet.
“Is Wyatt riding?” Rhett asked.
“He says he can,” Liam said. “Says it’s been over a year, but.” He shrugged. “Daddy’s not going to. He’s stayin’ here, and Wyatt said he might stay just to keep him company.”
“Yeah, because he shouldn’t be riding either.” Rhett stepped over to the wall and pulled down his saddle.
“No argument from me,” Liam said. “But he’s a little sensitive about being told what to do. Says he’s a grown man and all that.”
“And he is,” Micah said. “Let him deal with himself.” He clicked his tongue at Memory and led her down the aisle to the back door.
“You didn’t bring Conrad,” Skyler said.
“Not this time,” Rhett said. “He’s still too little.”
“He’s three,” Skyler said. “He can start to ride, especially tethered to you, and we’re just goin’ slow today.”
Rhett nodded and kept his head down as he saddled. Liam watched him for an extra moment, finally ready with Pretzel. “Let’s go, boy,” he said to the horse, and they followed Micah, leaving Skyler and Rhett to talk alone.
Liam didn’t need to be in the middle of everything, though he had been the one to initiate this riding expedition. He’d taken his trip to California, and it had filed down the ragged edges of his soul. He’d wanted to spend more time with his brothers—just the brothers—and this was their first riding outing.
“Gonna be hot today,” Daddy complained from where he leaned against the fence, and Liam looked up into the sky.
“Sure is.” April had passed, seemingly in the blink of an eye, and Liam was ready for warmer weather.
“Are they coming?” Jeremiah asked. “Sky and I still have work to do today.”
“They’re coming,” Micah said. “Give them a minute.” He seemed happier than he’d been previously, and Liam wanted to ask him how things were going with Simone, as well as with his new business. Though he lived only a half-mile from Micah, and their wives were sisters, he felt disconnected from the youngest brother.
He swung up into the saddle and moved Pretzel over to Micah, but he couldn’t think of anything to ask him. Everything sounded too prying in his own mind, and Micah had never been super forthcoming with things.
Rhett and Skyler emerged from the stable, and with everyone in the saddle, Liam couldn’t help grinning. Daddy watched them with an odd look on his face, finally saying, “Look at you boys. I wish I could come.”
“I’ll stay with you, Daddy,” Wyatt said, moving toward him.
“No,” Daddy said. “No, you go.” He pulled his cell phone from his back pocket. “But everyone line up right there. All in a row. I want to get a picture of y’all.” It took a couple of minutes to get the horses where they needed to go, and Daddy held up the phone. “Smile, boys.”
Liam did, feeling more like a cowboy in the saddle than anywhere else. And he didn’t get out to ride Pretzel as often as he’d like.
“I’ll send it to ya,” Daddy said, beaming down at his phone. “All my boys, riding horses.” He sounded so proud, and Liam wanted to live up to that for his father.
“All right,” he said. “Should we just head out to the west?”
“That’s the best spot for shade,” Jeremiah said, taking the lead. Liam didn’t mind. It was his ranch, and he knew every square inch of it.
Liam hung near the back of the brothers, watching them as they started conversations with one another, each a good cowboy, a good brother, a good husband.
“So,” he heard Skyler say to Micah. “How are things going with Simone?”
Liam inched up closer to them, because he wanted to hear this too.
“Are you asking about Simone?” Jeremiah called over his shoulder. “Hold up. I want to hear about that too.”
“Come on, guys,” Micah said.
“No, you come on,” Rhett argued back. “It’s been what? Six or seven weeks now. You admitted to everyone that you were going to try marriage and see how it went. So…how’s it going?”
Micah glared at Skyler, who didn’t care at all about the lasers headed his way. “I don’t ask you private things about your marriage.”
“I didn’t ask you private things,” Skyler said.
“Yeah,” Tripp said. “He asked you how it was going.”
Liam said nothing, and neither did Wyatt. He didn’t want specifics of anyone else’s marriage, and he knew his was as unconventional as they come.
Micah finally smiled, his stony exterior cracking. “It’s going fine. Great. I mean, she hasn’t moved out yet.”
Liam held back the laugh for as long as he could. Thankfully, it was Skyler who said, “Oh, my heck,” before laughing that broke the dam of tension. All the brothers laughed then, even Micah.
“I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way,” Jeremiah said. “In fact, every day I pray Whitney won’t move out.”
They laughed again, and Liam settled into the saddle, enjoying the hot sunshine, the clip-clop of horse’s hooves, and the time he got to spend with his brothers.
Chapter Seventeen
“What do you mean they want us to move there?” Tripp held Isaac in his arms, trying to g
et the little boy to hold still so he could wipe his nose. “To Tennessee? Ivory, that’s crazy.” He set Isaac down with only half the job done, because his wife had just hit him with some shocking news.
“They want to see the kids more,” she said, still staring at her hands as she sat at the kitchen table.
“Yeah, well, they can move here,” Tripp said, feeling grumpy and unreasonable. “We live here, Ivory. Our home is here. And Daniel still has rights to see Oliver.” He turned toward his son as Isaac slapped his little palms against the glass in the back door that led onto the deck. He stepped that way, trying to get his thoughts to line up.
He didn’t like arguing with Ivory, and this wasn’t really an argument. They’d gone to Tennessee for Thanksgiving, and the visit had been fine. Good, really. Her parents had been kind, and they’d been thrilled to meet him and Isaac, and see Oliver again. They hadn’t seen their grandson for years, something Tripp couldn’t fathom.
“Stay on the deck, okay?” Tripp bent down and tried to wipe Isaac’s face again, but the boy whined and turned his head quickly. Tripp abandoned the idea and opened the door for him. “Stay on the deck.”
Isaac took a very haphazard step down out of the house and onto the deck, going straight for the car he could sit in and pedal around. Tripp checked to make sure the gate was closed, so his son couldn’t accidentally pedal down the stairs, and it was.
He left the door open a couple of inches so he could hear Isaac if he needed help, and he turned back to Ivory. She hadn’t moved, and she must’ve had something absolutely fascinating on her hands, by the way she studied them.
Tripp sat down and took her hands in his, which brought her pretty eyes to his. He gave her a smile. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking I don’t want them to be disappointed,” she said.
“Okay,” he said. “And?” He already knew what would come after the “and.” Ivory wanted to do what they wanted her to, because she thought that was the only way to get them to keep talking to her. And she didn’t want to be the one to say no. And she didn’t want to hurt them. And she didn’t want them to think she didn’t want them around.
“And I don’t know,” she said, dropping her eyes back to their hands.
Tripp massaged her palms, trying to put the right words together. “I know what you want,” he said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” He looked at her. “You want them to be involved in our lives the way my parents are.”
She lifted her chin, but she wouldn’t admit it.
“I want that too,” Tripp said. “But it would be much easier for them to move here. My family is here, and are you saying you want to leave Three Rivers—and them—behind?”
She shook her head.
“No,” he said. “Because just last week, we were talking about buying a house closer to Seven Sons, because you feel left out of certain things the family does.” It was true that most of the family lived south of town, and that yes, Tripp and Ivory weren’t as involved with the happenings of the ranch. Five of Tripp’s brothers lived within a fifteen-minute drive of the ranch, and so did Momma and Daddy. Only Wyatt and Marcy lived farther than Tripp and Ivory did, and Wyatt was such a dynamic force that most things revolved around him anyway.
Tripp took Oliver to the ranch at least three times a week, sometimes more. He loved riding, and Jeremiah had started to give the boy some chores so he could earn some money.
“I know,” Ivory said. “You’re right. Of course you’re right.”
“Okay,” Tripp said, relieved and trying not to show it. “So call them and say we just can’t move there. I think they should move here.”
“Daddy won’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“The land is my great-grandfather’s. He wants to keep it in the family.”
“Destiny lives there,” Tripp said. “She doesn’t want it?”
“Would you?” Ivory pulled one of her hands away and wiped her face as she exhaled. “It’s not like my dad has taken care of the land. The house is falling apart.”
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” Tripp said.
“But it wasn’t good,” Ivory said, shaking her head. “No, Destiny has a nicer, newer house closer to town.”
Ivory’s parents did live out in the middle of farmland, with sprawling horse farms that were pristine. But her parents hadn’t kept up with the repairs on the land, and yeah, Tripp had seen the age of it. The wear and tear.
“So they can keep it,” he said. “They don’t have to sell it. They can just buy something here.”
Ivory rolled her eyes and cocked her head. “I love you.” She reached out and cradled his face in one hand, a smile spreading across her face. “I do, but you forget that not everyone has a bank account as big as yours.” She giggled, and Tripp smiled too.
“I do not. We’ll buy them a house. Heck, let’s buy us a house down by the ranch and give them this one.” Tripp liked that idea the moment he said it. Ivory looked at him again, and he’d sparked something inside her.
Just as quickly as the hope had entered her expression, it faded. “They’ll never do that.”
“Ask them.”
“They won’t let us give them a house.”
“Then they can rent it,” he said. “We’ll just say the real estate market is bad here, and we can’t sell it. Or that we want to keep it, and they can live in it or pay rent or whatever makes them comfortable.”
Ivory’s blue eyes blazed at him. “Tripp….”
“I’m going to call Fletcher right now.” He got up and checked on Isaac on the deck. The little boy made race car noises with his mouth and motored around happily. He reached for his phone and started tapping.
“Tripp.” But Ivory’s voice had no weight behind it.
“The line is ringing,” he said, lifting the phone to his ear.
“Fletcher Charles,” the man said. “Tripp Walker.” He laughed, and Tripp smiled. “What can I do for you?”
“We want a house,” Tripp said. “Down on the southern end of town. Somewhere down there. I mean, we’re open, but we want to be closer to Seven Sons.”
“All righty,” Fletcher said, and Ivory picked up her phone and started circling the island in the kitchen. “And are we selling your house first? You need to wait to do that before we buy?”
“Nope,” Tripp said. “We’re going to keep this house. We just want another one down there.”
Fletcher said nothing, and that was because Tripp had surprised him. The man always had something to say, so when he didn’t, Tripp knew he’d gotten him good.
“Size?”
Tripp turned toward Ivory, but she hadn’t made a call yet. He put the call on speaker. “Well, this place is a little too big.” He cocked his eyebrows at Ivory, and she nodded. “We just have the two kids, Fletch. I need an office. Ivory needs a craft room. It would be nice to have a guest bedroom. That’s four bedrooms and an office, or five bedrooms.”
“I’m sure I can find you something you’d like,” he said. “When do you want to move?”
“Whenever,” Tripp said, and Ivory nodded again. Tripp couldn’t believe they were doing this. He had the money; that wasn’t the issue. But they didn’t really need two homes in Three Rivers. Most people who had more than one house had one in a place they wanted to visit. A mountain home. A summer home on the beach.
But Ivory wanted to be closer, because she’d seen the relationships Momma had with Marcy and Mal, and she wanted that too.
“I’ve got four I can show you whenever you’re ready,” Fletcher said.
“Set it up for tomorrow,” Tripp said. “What time should we meet you?”
“Let’s do nine-thirty,” he said. “That shouldn’t be too early for anyone.”
“Nine-thirty it is,” Tripp said. “See you then.” He ended the call and looked at Ivory. “Are you going to call them?”
She held out the phone. “I want you to do it.”
&
nbsp; Surprise moved through him. He’d never talked to her mother or father on the phone. Even when she’d been in the hospital, fighting for her life, he hadn’t made the call. Rhett had.
“All right,” he said, stepping toward her and taking the phone. He’d looked at her phone several times, but it was different than his, and he still struggled with it at first. He found her mother’s number and tapped to get the call going. His heart thumped in a strange way, because he wasn’t sure how Joan and Will would take the offer.
The phone rang, and Tripp put it on speaker again so Ivory could hear.
“Sweetie,” her mother said, and Ivory held up her hand as Tripp pulled in a breath.
“Hey, Mama,” Ivory said, her voice a little higher than normal. She stretched up and kissed Tripp’s cheek. “I just couldn’t make the call.”
Tripp searched her face, warmth filling him.
“Are you there?” Joan asked.
“Yes,” Ivory said. “Listen, Mama, Tripp and I were just talking, and we can’t move to Tennessee.”
Tripp held his breath as a pregnant pause filled the house.
“I know,” Joan finally said.
Ivory exhaled at the same time Tripp did, and they looked at each other. He found strength in her he’d seen several times before. Strength he’d fallen in love with. “Instead, we want you and Daddy to move here.” She pressed her lips together but didn’t say anything else.
“Move there?” The shock in Joan’s voice came clearly through the line.
“Yes,” Tripp said when Ivory stayed silent. “Joan, we’ve got this big house that we’re going to move out of. We’d love for you guys to live in it, or rent it from us, or whatever. We’re looking for something a little smaller.” There. That wasn’t a lie.
“Well, I don’t know. We can’t just sell the land here.”
“You don’t need to sell it, Mama,” Ivory said, and Tripp realized this was a tag-team effort. “Keep it. Have someone live on it who can take care of it. But you don’t have to sell it.”
“You can live here without paying rent,” Tripp said. “Whatever is fine with us.” He threaded his fingers through Ivory’s, praying that the Lord would take the reins in this situation. If Joan and Will should be in Three Rivers, God would guide them here.
