“Okay,” she said, but before Susan could disappear into the back, Emery called her name.
Her employer turned.
“Thank you. I can’t tell you how much...how much your support helps right now.”
She nodded. “No problem. Next time you see Tobias, tell him he has taught me something,” she added with a wry grin.
“I’m not sure what that means,” Emery admitted.
“It means everyone makes mistakes.”
That didn’t explain what had gone on between her and Tobias, but when Susan went to do her baking, Emery knew it was all she planned to say on the matter.
“You’re in a good mood.”
Aiyana focused on Cal, who was dusting off his hands after rearranging lawn furniture. “I am?”
“You were smiling a second ago, while staring off into space,” he said.
“Oh.” She laughed as she watched Dallas, Bentley and Liam set up an outdoor bar under the shelter of an open-air barn. “I was thinking about this morning.”
Cal, his silver hair combed off a face weathered from the many years he’d worked outside, squinted at her. “Something happen that I’m not aware of?”
Once again, she recalled the many covert glances she’d noticed between Dallas and Emery this morning at breakfast, the way Dallas seemed to mark wherever Emery was at in a room and how quickly he’d come to her defense at the bar last night. He liked her; Aiyana could tell. “It’s Dallas.”
“What about him? Don’t tell me you’ve finally convinced him to give up climbing without safety gear.”
“Sadly, no. He’s as stubborn as they come. As stubborn as you are,” she joked. “But I’m hoping he’ll take more care if he finds someone he loves so much he can’t bear the thought of not being with her.”
“Like I have?”
She cupped his cheek. “Yes.”
A twinkle entered his blue eyes. “Who might that be?”
Emery had been there earlier, helping right along with the boys, until she’d had to leave for work. “My houseguest, of course.”
“I thought that might be the case. Anytime she started to lift something, if it was heavy, he hurried over to do it for her.”
“He’s definitely watching out for her,” Aiyana agreed.
Cal folded his arms across his button-down work shirt and plaid wool overshirt. “I can see why he might like Emery. She’s smart, she’s nice and she’s beautiful. Not quite as smart or nice or beautiful as you, but...close,” he added with a wink.
She took the gnarled hand she’d come to know so well and studied the veins tunneling under the sun-spotted skin, the thick calluses on his palms, the heavy silver and turquoise ring he always wore because she’d given it to him. “You’ve loved me since the moment you met me,” she said, remembering the day twenty-five years ago that he came to her aid in a city council meeting and, as one of the largest landowners in the area, helped advocate for her to be able to start New Horizons. “Haven’t you?”
“I have,” he confirmed without hesitation. “And I will love you till the day I die. There’s never been anyone else for me.”
Never in her life had she expected such devotion, never had she dared rely on it. She was embracing his love now, and part of her was far happier for doing it. But there was still another part that was frightened and waiting for it all to go bad. “I’m a lucky woman.”
“I hope I make you feel that way.”
“I can’t believe we’ve been together for so many years.”
“This has been a long time coming,” he said, obviously referring to their marriage.
She pursed her lips. “I don’t see any need for a ceremony, not at our age. A piece of paper doesn’t change anything between us.”
“It’s important to me.”
“Which is why I finally agreed, but I’m yours regardless.”
He took off his cowboy hat—used to shade his face, not to make a fashion statement—and wiped his brow. “So you think Emery might lasso Dallas?”
She smiled at his terminology. She was marrying an old cowboy and not only the hat proved it. “I’m hoping she will—or someone else who’s deserving. All I want is for him to be happy.”
“Eli and Gavin got lucky. He could, too.”
“Not everyone has what we have. Look at Seth.” Her fourth-oldest son had lost his wife of only a few weeks to an infection from a cat scratch, of all things, and she feared he might never get over it.
“You never know what might happen as the years go by. It took us a while.”
She looked around at all they’d done to prepare for the big event. “Yes it did.” Her phone went off and she glanced down.
It was Eli. Planning to call him back later, she silenced the ringer. She wanted to finish their work first.
But then she received a text from him that read:
Call me ASAP.
“Mom? Cal? Where should we put this?” Dallas called out, lifting the handle of an old, rusty plow. “I’m guessing you don’t want it around the wedding party. Someone could fall and get hurt on it, especially a child.”
“You’re right,” Cal said, and since Bentley and Liam already had their hands full planting poinsettias all along the edge of the barn, he walked over to help Dallas drag the old plow to a safer part of the ranch.
Aiyana, meanwhile, couldn’t budge. She felt as though her feet were encased in concrete as she stared down at the words on her screen.
ASAP. Eli wasn’t easily excitable, so she couldn’t help the terror that rose up inside her.
Before she could call him, however, he called back.
“Hello?” she said, answering immediately this time.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Still at Cal’s with some of your brothers, getting ready for the wedding. Why?”
He didn’t offer to come over and help. She’d already told him she preferred he spend the weekend with his wife and kids. He put in long hours at the school—they both did—and she had enough help on hand with his single brothers. She’d told Gavin the same thing when
