A Family for a Week

by Melissa Senate

  “The more I learn about him, the more I don’t think I knew my dad at all,” he said. “And I thought I did. I thought I had him all figured out.”

  “People are that way. Even the ones closest to us.”

  He buckled up and then looked at her. “There’s one more address but I’ve been shocked enough for one day. Why don’t we drive into town and go get coffee and walk around?”

  “Perfect day for it.”

  So they did. They got iced coffees from Java Jamboree and walked along Main Street, stopping at the dog park to watch the little dogs yip and sniff each other.

  “Suit for Evie’s wedding or a tux?” he asked as a tan pug stared at them.

  “No doggy treats, sorry,” she told the cute little pug, and they resumed walking. “Evie said anything goes for the dress code. No one came here expecting to attend a wedding on the final night, and no one came to a dude ranch with a fancy outfit. Though none of us live all that far away, she doesn’t want anyone having to drive home and back. It’s come as you are.”

  “I’ll wear a suit since I don’t have that excuse. My fancy clothes are at the dude ranch.”

  She could see him all dressed up. At least her final night at the Dawson Family Guest Ranch would be amazing. Her dear sister married. Axel beside her in his suit. The next morning she and Danny would go home, back to real life, and this would all seem a dream. The fake engagement and the one incredible night she’d shared with Axel.

  Maybe it was all just a fantasy she had to let go of instead of trying to make Axel see his sister was right—that when you found love like this you grabbed it and never let it go.

  Who said anything about love?

  Was she flattering herself that he felt about her the way she did about him? She knew he adored Danny. And the way he’d been with her on his couch, in his bed—that hadn’t been just sex.

  I’m saying something about love, she thought as he stopped in front of Bear Ridge Ice Cream and Candy, so good that she often drove out of her way to come out here.

  “I could go for a double scoop of mint chocolate chip and maybe coffee chip or chocolate peanut butter,” he said. “In a waffle cone.”

  “Don’t tell Danny we stopped here. He loves this place.”

  “I wish he were here,” he said. “I’ve missed him terribly the past couple of days.”

  “He’s gotten to you, huh?” she asked even though she was the one who’d said they shouldn’t talk about them. Danny counted as them.

  Please say, Yes, I love that kid like he’s my own flesh and blood, and in fact, I love you, too.

  “He got to me on Badger Mountain. Just like you did.”

  “And this week?” she asked, practically holding her breath.

  “This week has been scary as hell,” he said. “I’m engaged, about to become a dad.” He smiled.

  Oh. He was kidding about the scary as hell. When he’d said that, she thought, Yup, this man loves me like crazy. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  He held her gaze for a moment, everything he was flashing in his blue eyes. She wanted to kiss him, wrap her arms around him, hold him tight and never let him go.

  But a group of teens were trying to exit the busy shop and the moment was gone in a snap, ice cream choices their biggest concern.

  Ice cream was a lot easier than figuring out how he felt. She knew that was true as she studied the sign announcing the flavors and looked at the big containers in the display case.

  “I’m thinking double fudge brownie,” she said, eyeing the delicious-looking ice cream. “You set on what you’re getting?”

  Silence.

  She glanced up and Axel was standing ramrod straight, the color blanched from his face.

  “Hello,” a woman said stiffly, looking at Axel, then at Sadie, then at the door. The woman was in her early thirties, tall and slender, with shoulder-length auburn hair. She held a dish of ice cream in her hand; the cute little girl at her side, maybe three or four years old, licked a scoop on a cone. The woman took the girl’s free hand and hurried her out.

  Axel still didn’t move.

  Sadie glanced out the window; the woman and girl were gone. Oh, she thought. Ohhh. I certainly know who they were. The ex who’d left him and her daughter, whom he’d been so attached to and never seen again.

  Till now.

  “You okay?” she asked. “We can skip the ice cream if you just saw a ghost.”

  He glanced at her. “How’d you know?”

  “Because I know you.”

  “I’m fine,” he said and glanced up at the teenager behind the counter. “Sadie, what’ll it be?”

  His forced smile didn’t fool her. He wasn’t fine. One of the biggest reasons that kept him insisting marriage and a family weren’t for him had just walked out of the shop.

  Either running into the woman and her daughter would give him some kind of necessary closure that he’d been lacking or he’d brood on it and it would make him retreat further behind that brick wall he’d built around himself.

  Which was it?

  Please be the former, she thought, suddenly having no appetite for ice cream.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Well, I think we should all go,” Aunt Tabby said, staring at Viv.

  “I think you should go if you want to,” Viv snapped. “Count me out.”

  The guest cabin wasn’t big enough for all these women and their arguments. Aunt Tabby stood in the arched doorway to the living room, glaring at her sister on the window seat. Sadie and Evie were on the sofa, and Vanessa was knitting socks—Sadie was pretty sure they were for Axel, unfortunately—on the rocker near where Danny sat piling his beloved blocks.

  Viv and Tabby had been arguing all morning about whether or not the group should go on the wilderness tour up Clover Mountain, an easy mile loop without steep inclines. Izzy would be going on the bird-watching adventure along the creek with another group of relatives since a hike would be too much for her. Today was the last day for a guided hike since tomorrow was Evie’s wedding and they’d spend the day preparing for the big event after sunrise yoga.

  Sadie certainly wouldn’t mind the forced proximity to her fake fiancé, who’d be leading the tour. He’d made himself scarce since they’d returned from Bear Ridge yesterday. On the drive home, he hadn’t mentioned the ex and her little girl, and Sadie hadn’t either, though she was full of questions. Did you want to marry her? Had you proposed? Had the ex been The One and no one else could compare?

  Those kinds of awful questions had kept her up last night. She hadn’t heard from Axel since or seen him around the ranch.

  “This is our family reunion,” Tabby pointed out, her voice nearly breaking. “We should all go on the family hike!”

  Sadie looked at Evie, who was sitting on the other end of the couch, going over the seating arrangements. Sadie could tell her sister was trying to ignore the bickering.

  “Been there, not doing that again,” Viv said, crossing her arms over her chest. “End of story.” She glanced at Evie. “Honey, remember not to put Grandpa next to Uncle Robby. They always argue about politics. Separate tables.”

  “Oh, right,” Evie said. “If only I could concentrate while my mother and aunt are arguing loudly.” She shot each woman a pointed look.

  “Your mother is the queen of obstinate!” Tabby said.

  “Says the princess without a country!” Viv countered.

  “How dare you,” Tabby snapped.

  “Mom, Tabby, please,” Sadie said. “Danny can hear you.”

  At the sound of his name, Danny glanced up from where he was piling a tower of blocks.

  Both women looked chastised but tossed each other a final scowl.

  “Besides,” Evie said, turning off her iPad and stretching, “as the bride, I decide everything the twenty-four hours before my we
dding, right? It’s a new Bridezilla tradition. And I say we all go on the hike.”

  “But—” Viv began.

  “Mom, listen,” Sadie said. “Maybe all of us going on another hike with Danny, seeing him safe, not getting lost, will help you and Aunt Tabby put the past behind you. Until you deal with it, since you won’t talk about it, you’ll never get past it.”

  Evie nodded. “Exactly. And you have to both go. It’s what I want as a wedding gift. I mean that.”

  Viv eyed her younger daughter. “Oh, fine.”

  “Fine,” Tabby snapped.

  It did sound fine to Sadie. She had a feeling Evie was right and that their mom and aunt would work out their issues on Family Hike 2.0.

  She also had to admit she liked the idea of knowing she’d see Axel later. Even for an hour and shared with many of her relatives.

  * * *

  This morning, Axel was riding parallel to the pasture trails to make sure not a single Winston fell off their horse. Now that the family reunion was winding down, many in the group wanted to try activities they hadn’t earlier in the week. Horseback riding was one.

  He was glad to be on horseback himself, his mind on patrol and safety. Last night, seeing his ex and her daughter, now a little girl instead of the baby he knew, had played over and over in his mind like a recording. Lizzie’s stiff hello, the girl, whose name was Jolie, enjoying her cone, the hurry out the door. He was grateful for that last one.

  Interesting thing was, Axel hadn’t felt anything for his ex. He always thought if he ran into her, he’d be brought to his knees, but he’d felt nothing, except for the shock of actually seeing her. Even her daughter hadn’t really registered, most likely because she looked nothing like the baby she’d been. There was no connection.

  What he did feel was a strange sense of reinforcement, the reshoring up of his complete lack of interest in going through that again.

  Sadie wanted him to set himself up for the possibility.

  He couldn’t. He’d taken the advice of the mountain man who’d told him to be the boss of his emotions and run with it, so far and wide that Axel himself wasn’t the boss. Or that was how it felt, anyway. He knew he had serious feelings for Sadie and her son. But something even more powerful was keeping him back.

  He could hear Daisy yell up a storm if she got wind of that. And you’re gonna let whatever that is win? she’d demand.

  He turned Goldie around and stayed in line a good hundred yards from three teens on quarter horses, keeping an eagle eye on them. They were talking and laughing and having a good time, but not so focused on the land or their horses. They weren’t far from the stables, but Axel would keep his mind on his job and not on Sadie. Hard as it was.

  He was leading a wilderness tour later today and he wondered if she’d show up. He wanted to see her so bad he couldn’t stop picturing her beautiful face. Then Danny’s sweet face and mop of blond hair, Zul waving around high over his head, would pop into his mind.

  Axel thought about what Sadie had overheard: Who said anything about love? The pain it had caused her, the change between them.

  When he thought about the word love and Sadie and Danny Winston, something in him shuttered. Closed up, closed off.

  For a guy who was in charge of safety, should he be this damned scared?

  * * *

  Axel sure knew his wild berries and trees and leaves and worms and caterpillars, Sadie thought as the group walked up Clover Mountain, which was just a flat wooded trail with ever-so-slight inclines now and again. He had the entire group hanging on his every word as he pointed out which berries were edible and which would give you the stomachache from hell. They’d been hiking for about forty minutes and would turn around at the hour mark, taking a break for water and cereal bars. Danny sure would sleep well tonight. He’d done a lot of walking. Right now, they were in a clearing surrounded by dense woods, and there were so many birds and butterflies that Danny was constantly entertained.

  A western meadowlark with its yellow belly flew to a low branch were Danny was standing, and Danny shouted, “Yell bird” and went racing after it.

  “Danny!” Sadie called after him. “Always wait for the group!”

  Danny kept going, but this time, Axel was near and scooped him up.

  “Gotcha!” he said. “Wilderness hiking means staying with your group, right, buddy?”

  Axel had given a three-minute prehike talk about exactly that and hike safety before they’d started walking. He managed to look incredibly sexy in his staff shirt and khaki cargo shorts. And with Danny in his arm, he looked like a dad.

  She wished Axel could see himself the way she saw him.

  “But yell bird,” Danny said.

  “You can see the yellow bird if you look up in the trees. See, there’s one!” Axel said, pointing.

  Danny flew his superhero lion around in circles where Axel was pointing.

  “This is exactly what happened last time,” Viv said, hands on hips as she glared at her sister. “I asked you to keep an eye on Danny not thirty seconds ago so I could have my cereal bar early. And what happens? He goes racing off to who knows where!”

  Sadie froze. What was going on here? Danny was fine. And this hike was supposed to make things better between her mother and aunt—not worse.

  Tabby’s eyes misted. “He didn’t run off this time. He was right ahead of us and Axel was there.”

  “He could have run in any direction,” Viv said. “Luckily, Axel was up ahead and paying attention.”

  Tabby burst into tears and dropped on an uncomfortable-looking rock. “I feel awful about what happened on Badger Mountain. I’ve apologized a million times for not paying closer attention. I can’t possibly feel worse, Viv.”

  Viv’s expression remained stony. She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Mom, seriously?” Sadie said.

  Evie was shaking her head.

  “Danny was lost for two hours!” Viv said. “Just like—” She clamped her mouth shut and turned away. “Just forget it,” she added, throwing her hands up in the air.

  Evie stepped closer to Viv. “Just like who?”

  “Just like Tabby, that’s who. When we were kids, she ran off when I was supposed to be watching her. She was missing until close to midnight.”

  Vanessa gasped. “Oh, Vivvy. You can’t possibly blame yourself for that. You were a kid. You were only nine! Tabby was five.”

  “Wait a minute,” Sadie said. “Why don’t I know this story?”

  “Or me,” Evie asked.

  “My mother said that Tabby and I could pick flowers,” Viv explained. “But there was a butterfly and Tabby chased it and I got tired of running after her so I kept picking flowers. But she never came back.” Their grandparents’ house abutted woodlands. Sadie and Evie used to love playing in there as kids, annoyed that their mother always insisted on coming with them, keeping them in sight. Now Sadie knew why.

  Tabby looked incredulous that Viv remembered this. “Well, I did. Because I’m right here fifty years later.”

  “It was my fault,” Viv said. “I didn’t pay attention to where you were, that you weren’t close by anymore. It was the most sickening feeling not to know where you were.”

  “Viv, I don’t remember that,” Tabby said. “I mean, I remember it coming up a few times, Mom and Dad reminding me to stay close. But I don’t remember being lost.”

  “I do,” Viv said, her brown eyes teary. “Mom does.”

  Vanessa put a hand on Viv’s shoulder. “I remember being scared, like any mother would be. Like Sadie was when Danny was lost. But I certainly didn’t blame you, honey. I wouldn’t have blamed you if it had happened when you were ten or twenty or now. People run off when you’re not looking sometimes. Danny getting lost wasn’t Tabby’s fault. Just like it wasn’t your fault when she got lost.”

&n
bsp; “I guess the whole thing brought all that up in me,” Viv said. “Such an old event. But so close to the surface, I guess. That fear, I can still remember it so vividly.”

  Evie nodded. “So Danny going missing reminded you of it and maybe these past three months, you’ve really been mad at yourself.”

  “Sounds like you’ve never forgiven yourself, Viv,” Axel said.

  Viv glanced at all of them, then turned to her sister. “I’m sorry, Tabby. I’ve been awful the past few months.”

  “You sure have been,” Tabby said with a smile. She opened her arms and Viv embraced her, the two sisters hugging tight.

  “Oh, you,” Viv said, wiping under her eyes.

  Sadie smiled. “Well, turns out this hike was a good idea.”

  “Snack?” Danny said and it was the perfect icebreaker to a lighter mood. Everyone laughed and there were hugs all around.

  “How about we have our snack right here on this special location forever known as Sister Make Up Point, and then we’ll turn back,” Axel said.

  “Ooh, our own point!” Viv said, her eyes lighting up. “Will that be added to the guidebooks?”

  She was serious. Sadie sent Axel a smile.

  Axel grinned. “It might be unofficial but important nonetheless.”

  “Snack?” Danny asked again.

  Gram and Gray-Aunt Tabby had his strawberry cereal bar and water bottle, so he ran to them, and they sat on rocks and chatted about the walk. The sight of the three of them, the feud over and done, lifted a big weight off Sadie’s chest.

  A phone buzzed, and Sadie glanced around. It was Evie’s. Her sister smiled at the phone in her hand and walked a few feet away to answer. That smile meant it was Marshall—or Marshy as she liked to call him.

  “Oh no, you didn’t!” Evie yelped into her phone. Her expression was pure fury.

  Uh, what?

  “No, you are not inviting your ex-girlfriend to the wedding,” Evie said, “and that’s final! Do you see me inviting my exes to the wedding? No. Because it’s not done.” She listened. “Oh, really? Well, I guess the wedding is off, then!” She shoved her phone in her pocket and burst into tears.