A Family for a Week

by Melissa Senate

She didn’t respond to that one.

  He sure hoped his breakfast would be ready soon. He needed to be out of here before Sadie and her family arrived. Luckily, a minute later, Fran called out his ticket number in her booming voice, always good when there was a crowd here, and he got his tray. Mmm, the pancakes and bacon looked and smelled amazing.

  He sat and drizzled maple syrup on the pancakes, but after taking all of three bites, Sadie, Danny and family came in—sister, mother, aunt, grandmother and great-grandmother. Everyone was chatting and happy so she clearly hadn’t told them yet. He got it—she didn’t want to ruin their appetites.

  Sixty-year-old Cowboy Joe, who never took off his Stetson, came out from the kitchen making peekaboo faces at Danny. “Peekaboo, I see you!” Joe said, covering and uncovering his face.

  “Dada!” Danny said, reaching for Cowboy Joe with a big smile.

  Axel’s mouth dropped open. He glanced over at Sadie and hers had done the same.

  Cowboy Joe grinned and took Danny, hoisting him high in the air. Danny gave his grizzled brown-gray beard a yank.

  Vanessa laughed. “He’s been calling every man with dark hair Dada since we got here. Couple of days ago he called out to a ranch hand who couldn’t be more than twenty, and the guy almost fainted.”

  Sadie’s face brightened. She looked at Axel, who gave her a “phew” smile and she smiled back.

  It was a phase. A toddler phase. Calling men Dada. Danny had a mama and applied that to only Sadie but he didn’t have a dada so all men were that.

  You’re not special to him, after all, Axel told himself, but suddenly his pancakes were turning into cement in his stomach. What the hell was this? Wasn’t he supposed to be elated that he wasn’t special? That he wasn’t anyone’s dada?

  False alarm, he texted Sadie. He could hear her phone ping. He watched her reach for her phone and read the text. She glanced at him.

  I should still tell, she texted back.

  Let Evie be. Let Izzy have this time. Let your mother be overjoyed. You’ll fix it when you get home. You’ll tell them I ended the engagement, that I couldn’t commit after all, and everything will be fine—no one will be mad at you that way.

  Except she didn’t look fine as she read the words.

  And he didn’t feel fine.

  Sigh. He really didn’t know what the heck was going on with him. Or her. Or them.

  * * *

  “Why is your handsome groom-to-be sitting all by his lonesome?” Izzy asked after placing her order for scrambled eggs and toast. She didn’t wait for an answer as she made her way slowly to his table with her red cane.

  Sadie watched as Axel stood and took her great-grandmother’s arm. Izzy leaned forward to offer her cheek for a kiss, and Axel obliged with a warm smile, then helped her into a chair. Sadie’s heart physically moved in her chest, and she put her hand over the spot. My word, did she love this man.

  Oh, God. She really did love him.

  Once the whole group was seated and awaiting their tickets to be called, Axel stood behind Sadie and put his hands on her shoulders. How could someone so anti-marriage be so good at this faux engagement? He was ridiculously believable as her fiancé.

  “Pick you up at four to head into town, Sadie?” he asked.

  For a second she had no idea what he was talking about. Until she’d walked here and Danny had called Cowboy Joe Dada, she’d thought she was going to come clean to her family during breakfast, just blurt it out, rip off the Band-Aid. That and her time with Axel at an end had made her miserable last night, and she’d thought of little else. But now that she felt better about the Dada thing—clearly a phase—she didn’t feel so panicked. What he’d texted made sense to her, and yeah, gave her a huge out, and she thought he was right. Let her family have this week instead of making everyone upset and uncomfortable—especially Evie after all her sister had opened up about. Viv had three wedding-related meetings set up for Evie this morning. Evie, Sadie, Viv and Tabby were all going. That was another thing Sadie didn’t want to mess up—if Tabby was coming, that meant the two elder sisters had at least talked to declare another temporary truce for the week.

  The afternoon meeting was about the letter from his father, she realized—the list of addresses. Sadie was so curious. One coincidental visit to Manuela’s and he’d learned so much about his parents—particularly his father. Some very nice things. Things that had actually gotten him thinking. Let him open that letter after almost nine months.

  She liked his hands on her shoulders. The warm weight of them was comforting—and a nice touch.

  “Danny and I will be there,” Sadie said. She’d be spending the day with her family and could feel the relief radiating that she wouldn’t have to tell them the truth about her and Axel just yet.

  Not that she was happy about it. Saying Axel had dumped her once they got home would be adding another lie to the mix. But then again, it would finally be over, just like they’d be over, and she would be heartbroken and could use the familial support and boxes of Puffs tissues and Ben & Jerry’s. That heartache would not be fake.

  “Danny, too?” her mom asked. “Why don’t you let me and Great-Gram and Great-Great-Gram take our precious boy today. We barely got to see him the last two days, didn’t we,” she said, giving her grandson, beside her in a high chair, a soft tap on the nose.

  Danny giggled. “Gram. Gray-Gram. More Gray-Gram!” He couldn’t say “great-gram” and referred to Vanessa as “gray-gram” and Izzy as “more gray-gram.” The family cracked up every time he said it. Only Izzy actually had gray hair since his gray-gram Vanessa kept hers an ash blond.

  “And Gray-Aunt Tabby,” Sadie’s aunt put in, staring down Viv.

  Good for you, Tab, Sadie thought. She narrowed her eyes at her mother. Tabby was fierce in staking her claim on spending time with her family, whether wedding-related or enjoying the ranch. Don’t you dare tell her no when you already agreed she was joining, Sadie yelled in her head.

  Viv lifted her chin but didn’t say anything, which meant a huffy fine. Luckily, their order tickets were called and everyone stopped talking.

  “Allow me,” Axel said, bringing over two trays at a time until everyone was served.

  Could the man be more gallant? She had chosen her faux fiancé well.

  “Anyhoo,” Viv said, cutting into her cheese omelet, “Sadie and Axel, you two go off and wedding plan or whatever you’re doing in Bear Ridge at four o’clock. We’re happy to have our darling boy for as long as you need.”

  Sadie sipped her coffee. “Thanks, all of you. He sure is getting lots of great family time this week.”

  She’d miss her son—and she always felt like something wasn’t quite right in the world when she was away from Danny—but she knew it was good for her relatives and for Danny to spend a lot of time together. Back home, during the week, Danny went to the excellent day care at work for hospital employees, and she got to stop in several times a day to see him. She always had lunch with him. Her mom would be retiring from her own job as a librarian later this year and she said she wanted to watch Danny full-time until he started preschool. Sadie liked that he was getting this early exposure to different kids and adults, but it would be nice for his grandmother and great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother to spend time with him.

  “Well, see you later, then, Sadie. Bye, all,” Axel said. He smiled and waved and then was gone.

  “Such a handsome one!” Izzy said with a twinkle in her eyes.

  “And such a gentleman!” Vanessa said. “Like my daddy was.”

  Aw, Sadie wished her great-grandfather could be here with them but he’d passed away four years ago. The male relatives, including Sadie’s dad and grandpa, were spending a lot of time fishing and riding horses, neither of which Sadie’s crew was interested in. Viv and Vanessa always thought of the family reunions as “girl time” since
they got “quite enough” of their husbands at home.

  Izzy gave a firm nod. “Got that right.”

  That got breakfast off to a good start, so they turned their attention to eating and complimenting their entrées and the coffee. When everyone was done, Sadie dropped Danny off with her cousin, Vanessa and Izzy went to wilderness yoga for seniors, and Sadie and her sister, mom and aunt got in Evie’s car for a trip to Prairie City, where Viv had made appointments at a florist, a caterer and a party store that had everything from Halloween costumes to elegant candlesticks.

  Evie wanted a rustic-elegant simple wedding for her and Marshall’s eighty-two guests. According to her long chat the other day with Daisy Dawson, who’d organized a few weddings at the ranch so far, thirteen centerpieces were all they’d need to doll up the ballroom on the second floor of the ranch’s lodge. The grand white building, which had been recently built, had been made to look antique. There were arched floor-to-ceiling windows across one entire wall, a gorgeous chandelier, a polished wood dance floor and a large deck that would be festooned with white lights. Evie explained how the room would be arranged for the reception. The ceremony itself would be held outside behind the lodge, and the ranch would provide the arbor, red carpet to create the aisle and chairs. The weather for Saturday evening was supposed to be low seventies and not a drop of rain in the forecast. The reception would be in the lovely ballroom and spill onto the stone deck.

  “That all sounds absolutely perfect,” Aunt Tabby said as Evie drove down the service road that led to the freeway. “I never got married, of course, but if I had, I would have wanted the wedding you’re planning.”

  “Did you just never fall in love?” Evie asked—daringly since their mom had always told her daughters that Tabby Winston viewed her singlehood as a failure that she didn’t like to talk about.

  Tabby didn’t respond right away. “Actually, I did fall in love. With a wonderful guy and he proposed.” She glanced out the window as though it was still painful for her. Sadie’s heart went out to her aunt. She’d never heard this story before.

  “Oh no,” Evie said. “Please don’t tell me he left you at the altar.”

  “Worse,” Tabby said, tucking her auburn hair behind her ears.

  “What could be worse?” Sadie asked, thinking of how she’d overheard that the father of Daisy Dawson’s baby had left her at the altar when she was nine months pregnant. A guest had happened by and helped deliver little Tony right on the side of the road—and now they were married.

  “I left him at the altar,” Tabby said, shaking her head. “What an idiot I was.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up,” Viv told her, turning slightly to look at her sister in the back seat. “You did what felt right at the time. That’s all you can do.” Clearly, Viv knew all about this, and that made sense, since the sisters had always been so close.

  Sadie looked at her mom in the passenger seat. That had been kind of Viv to say. Maybe there was hope here after all.

  “I guess,” Tabby said. And it was clear that Viv and Tabby had talked a lot about the subject over the years.

  Evie pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and put the car in Park. “Wait a minute.” She turned around to face her aunt. “You called off the wedding at the last minute? What happened?”

  Tabby sighed. “Some other guy turned my head around and made me think he was the real one, the real Mr. Right. He swept me off my feet, and suddenly I thought I’d found the man I was truly meant to spend my life with. And ooh boy, was your gram mad at me. She thought I was nuts to throw away a good man for a whirlwind romance. I was so in love, though, and no one could tell me anything. But—”

  Uh-oh.

  “He dumped me after three weeks,” Tabby continued. “I realized what a horrible fool I’d been, but my fiancé wouldn’t take me back. I don’t blame him. He married someone else six months later. Kudos to your gram for not once saying I told you so. You, too, Vivvy.”

  Viv leaned over and put a hand on her sister’s arm. That was nice to hear, that Viv had been there for Tabby—and that Tabby remembered and brought it up. That was the kind of thing that cemented a relationship, that had to matter more than a silly argument.

  Sadie gave her aunt’s hand a squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Aunt Tabby.”

  “Didn’t you start dating eventually, though?” Evie asked, pulling onto the road since their appointment was in fifteen minutes with the caterer.

  “I did, but I never fell for anyone again. I liked some of the guys very much, tried to love some over the years, but I couldn’t imagine marrying any of them. And I must have gone on a thousand dates since then. Here I am, still single.”

  “Eh, not everyone has to get married or have kids,” Viv said. “You’ve had a fun and interesting life. You have a career, you have a big family you help out with, you travel, you volunteer. Girls, did you know your aunt Tabby volunteers at the NICU twice a week? The sickest babies, too.”

  Sadie knew Tabby volunteered at the hospital because she’d run into her there a few times, but she didn’t know about the NICU. Her aunt had always said she was on a rotation of departments.

  “Well, I missed out on the chance to have a baby of my own, so I figured I’d help out with those sweet infants,” Tabby said. “And besides, I hope I’ve been more than just Aunt Tabby to you two girls. You know you’re like daughters to me.”

  “We know, Tabs,” Evie said, reaching her right arm out to rub Tabby’s shoulder.

  “We certainly do,” Sadie added. Tabby had always been like a second mom to her and Evie. The older she got, the more Sadie realized how careful Tabby had been not to overstep on their mother’s ways and style when it came to her nieces, even when Tabby thought Viv was dead wrong about something. They were lucky to have her.

  If Aunt Tabby wanted a boyfriend or a husband she could certainly get out there and find herself one. She was lovely and vibrant.

  “Do you all want to know a secret I’ve been keeping?” Tabby asked with a shy smile. Tabby was never shy about anything. So what was this about?

  Viv turned around. “Now you’re keeping secrets, too?” she snapped.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Tabby asked.

  Viv glared at her sister. “We said we’d try to put aside our issues for the sake of the reunion. But now you have a secret from me?”

  Oh, Mom, Sadie thought. Why are you so dramatic? Viv was the older sister and could be a lot less mature than Tabby.

  “Well, we haven’t exactly been talking,” Tabby pointed out, her hazel eyes flashing.

  “Your fault as well as mine,” Viv insisted, crossing her arms over her chest, her signature move. “But a secret warrants talking!”

  “Fine,” Tabby said. “I’ll tell you now. I have a date tonight.”

  Viv’s mouth dropped open, and the energy in the air instantly changed from tense to pure curiosity. “A date with who?”

  “Cowboy Joe,” Viv said. “That handsome devil who runs the ranch kitchen in the caf. He’s a widower and asked me out, and I said yes.”

  Sadie burst into a grin. Cowboy Joe was around sixty, she thought, tall and rangy with a full head of gray-black hair, a grizzled beard and squinting brown eyes. He reminded her of the actor Sam Elliott. Apparently, he’d been the chef at the ranch when Axel’s grandparents had owned it, but he’d had to leave when Axel’s dad ran the place into the ground. Noah Dawson had rehired him once he rebuilt, and Cowboy Joe had said he loved being “back home.”

  Sadie couldn’t stop smiling. “That’s great! He’s quite handsome. Looks like a real cowboy.”

  “And he’s so charming and nice,” Evie said. “Did you see the way Danny ran right to him in the cafeteria and Joe picked him up and played peekaboo with him? He’s a doll.”

  “You could have told me you were looking to date,” Viv said. “I would have set y
ou up with my endodontist—he’s divorced and looking.”

  “He’s my endodontist, too, and has bad breath,” Tabby pointed out.

  “Ew,” Evie said, shaking her head and grimacing in the rearview mirror.

  Sadie laughed. “Where are you guys going on the date?”

  “Joe is taking me into Bear Ridge to a steakhouse that has a dance floor. You know how I love to dance.”

  “Well,” Viv said, “do you want my opinion, not that you asked?”

  Sadie rolled her eyes. Her mother was too much sometimes.

  “Sure,” Tabby said, clearly bracing herself for judgy Vivian.

  Viv lifted her chin. “I think Cowboy Joe is a real catch and that your date sounds wonderful.”

  And sometimes Sadie’s mother was just right. Go, Mom.

  Tabby grinned. “I wonder if he’ll try to kiss me. I hope so. He’s been widowed for three years. He said he hasn’t done much dating but there was something about me.” She was beaming.

  Sadie was so happy for her aunt. If only Axel Dawson would feel that way about Sadie—that there was something about her and fall madly in love...

  “We’re here!” Evie said, pulling into the little parking lot behind Calista’s Catering.

  Now Sadie would spend hours helping her sister plan a wedding she wished were her own—with a groom who never would be. At least Sadie was still faux-engaged, she thought, not that it really helped.

  Chapter Eleven

  “So what happens when the Winstons leave on Sunday?” Noah asked in the big barn after the staff meeting.

  Axel kept his focus on straightening out the tack area, despite its being perfectly tidy and the ranch hands’ job. “What do you mean?”

  “He means,” Daisy said as she tightened her long ponytail, “are you and Sadie going to keep up the pretend engagement, or are you going to break up?”

  Actually, Axel knew what Noah had meant but was procrastinating answering. The sun caught on both his siblings’ wedding rings, and Axel found himself staring at the gold bands. Even Noah, who’d been a wild child, had settled down and had never been happier. That had caught Axel by surprise. But Axel had never been a wild type, except for the lone wolf part. He did like sitting out on mountain ledges and taking in the panoramic views of such natural beauty and quiet and perfection. Lately, though, when he felt he needed one of those ledge sits, he kept envisioning Sadie beside him. A little conversation, a little silence. Just having her there, next to him.