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“I told you it was a really good day.”
“So the two of you are yelling and jumping?”
“Yes.” Tansy ran to him, leaped, and nearly knocked him over with a hug. “I’m engaged. Look, look, look at my ring!”
“Very nice.” He eased her back, out of his personal space, and smiled. “Congratulations.”
“Oh! I’ve got to go show Mary. And Lucius. Well, mostly Mary.”
When she ran off, Lil just gri
FAMILY CAME FIRST, Lil reminded herself and tried not to worry as she sat at her parents’ dining room table. Her mother wanted-insisted on-a celebrational family di
But her mind kept turning back to the refuge. Security system up and ru
Everything was fine. They were fine, her animals were fine. But if something happened when she wasn’t there…
As conversation buzzed around them, Coop leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Stop worrying.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder.”
She lifted her wineglass and made sure she had a smile on her face.
Late summer wedding. She tuned in. And here it was already April, so much to be done. Debates ran on the venue. The farm, the refuge. On the time. Afternoon or evening.
Did he know she wasn’t there? Lil wondered. Would he try to hurt someone just to prove he could?
Under the table, Coop took her hand and squeezed. Not supportive and lover-like, but cut it out.
She kicked him, but pulled herself back. “If I get a vote, it’s for here at the farm, afternoon. That way we can party right through the evening. We’ll close the refuge for the day. There’s more room here, and if we have any sort of bad luck with the weather-”
“Bite your tongue,” Je
“Well, the house is more accommodating than the cabins.”
“Close for the day?” Tansy pushed that single point. “Really?”
“Come on, Tans. It’s not every day my best friend gets married.”
“Oh, boy, we have to shop!” Je
“We were thinking to keep it kind of simple,” Farley put in.
To which Joe muttered, “Good luck, son.”
“Simple’s no problem. But simple still has to be pretty and perfect.” Je
“There’s no stopping her. She’s called three times since I told her, and already has a stack of bride magazines.”
“We’ll have a girl trip when she comes. Oh, this will be fun! Lucy, we have to have a shopping safari.”
“I’m already there. Je
“Simple.” Sam rolled his eyes at Farley.
“Before you women get too far along and start talking about releasing a hundred doves and six white horses-”
“Horses.” Je
“Just hold on, Je
“All he has to do is show up. You leave the rest to us,” Je
“Meanwhile,” Joe said, pointing a hushing finger at his wife. “Je
Farley stared. “But… the land should go to Lil, by rights.”
“Don’t be an ass, Farley,” Lil said.
“I… I don’t know what to say or how to say it.”
“It’s something you’ll want to talk to your bride about,” Joe told him. “The land’s yours if you decide you want it. And no hard feelings if you decide you don’t.”
“The bride has something to say.” Tansy rose, went first to Joe, then Je
“I’d say that’s settled.” Joe reached up to close his hand over the one Tansy had on his shoulder. “First chance we get, we’ll go scout out that acreage.”
Too overcome to speak, Farley only nodded. He cleared his throat. “I’m just go
“Now we’ve got something interesting to talk about.” Sam rubbed his hands together. “We’ve got a house to build.”
Je
He’d gone straight through and stood on the porch, his hands braced on the rail. The rain Lil had scented that morning pattered the ground, soaked the fields waiting for plowing. He straightened when Je
“Ma.”
She made a little sound, weepy pleasure, as she pressed him close. He rarely called her that, and usually with a kind of joking tone when he did. But now that single word said everything. “My sweet boy.”
“I don’t know what to do with all this happy. You used to say ‘Find your happy, Farley, and hold on to it.’ Now I’ve got so much I can’t hold it all. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You just did. Best thanks going.”
“When I was a boy they said I’d never have anything, never amount to anything, never be anything. It was easy to believe them. It was harder to believe what you and Joe told me. Kept telling me. I could be whatever I wanted. I could have whatever I could earn. But you made me believe it.”
“Tansy said she’s the luckiest woman in the world, and she’s pretty damn lucky. But I’m ru
His grin came back. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“You say that now. Wait until I’m nagging you brainless. Are you ready to go back? If you’re out here too long Sam and Joe will have designed your house before you get a chance to say whoa.”
“Right now?” He swung an arm around her shoulders. “I’m ready for anything.”
26
Wicked, windy thunderstorms pounded through the night, hammered into the morning. Then it got nasty.
The first rattle of hail spat out like pea gravel, bouncing on the paths, chattering on the rooftops. Well-versed in spring weather, Lil ordered all vehicles that could fit under cover. She maneuvered her own truck through the mud as the golf balls began to ping.
The animals had enough sense to take shelter, but she watched some of the interns racing around, laughing, scooping up handfuls of hail to toss. As if it were a party, she thought, and the slashes of lightning cracking the black sky were just an elaborate light show.
She shook her head as she caught sight of Eric juggling three balls of hail, like a street performer while the ca
Someone, she thought, was going to get beaned.
She cursed as a clump the size of a healthy peach slammed into the hood of her truck. Even as she squeezed the truck under the overhang on the storage shed she snarled at the new dent.
Not laughing now, she noted, as interns scrambled for the nearest shelter. There would be more dents and dings, she knew. Shredded plantings and an unholy mess of ice to scrape and shovel. But for now, she was warm and dry and opted to wait it out in the truck.