Jericho stopped what he was doing, as he always did, and came to kiss her and Jacob. “Nap time?”
“You got it.” She kissed him back, breathing in the familiar scent of her husband. Jericho always laughed at her when she did that, but to her it was the scent of comfort, love and belonging, and she wouldn’t give it up.
“See you at dinner.”
“You bet.” She kept going and ducked into her tiny house with a sigh of relief. As usual, Jacob had other ideas about nap time, especially because he could hear so many voices outside their home, but he fell asleep at last in his crib, and she climbed up to the loft and pulled her electronic keyboard onto her lap. With earbuds in, she could play without waking Jacob and work on the song she’d been writing these past few days. Once she’d rediscovered her love of singing last year, she’d begun to catch herself humming snatches of tunes and bits of melodies and had started to write them down. It had been some time before she reached the point where she was willing to share her efforts with anyone. When Samantha had offered to put her in touch with her parents, who were part of the famous cover band Deader Than Ever, she firmly said no, but one of the new Base Camp recruits, Martina Lovatt, turned out to be a backup singer for several garage bands and was familiar with the process of cutting a demo and even selling music directly online. She had helped Savannah secure studio time locally, and her folk-inspired children’s album was making a tiny stream of income.
Savannah was so delighted anyone was listening to her at all, she pocketed her tiny paychecks with more glee than she could have imagined doing if she’d cut a classical piano album, although she wasn’t ruling out anything at this point. When she had filled out her current melody and whisper-sung it into her phone to send to Martina to listen to, she lay back on the pillows and let herself daydream about the years to come.
Tomorrow, when they were surrounded by Jericho’s family—hers now, too—she would break the news about her new pregnancy, knowing this time Jericho would be overjoyed. When they got home from the Cook family picnic, she’d announce her pregnancy to everyone at Base Camp and knew they’d be just as happy.
She’d never expected what would come about when she first arrived at Westfield two years ago, and she wouldn’t change a thing—not even the sad parts, knowing how much she’d learned and grown along the way.
She’d been daring the night she seduced Jericho into making love to her in the Russells’ fancy bathroom two years ago, and she meant to be daring for the rest of her life. Her days would be full of music and children. Her nights spent in her husband’s arms.
Nothing could be better than that.
“This is it, folks, the test-kitchen and stage set for my SEALs Making Meals show.” Kai ushered a group of people into the bunkhouse’s new wing. It had been added on last fall to the original building to make cooking for a crowd easier as well as for filming his hit show. As Avery had once predicted, the minute he started airing episodes, streaming services fell all over themselves to option them, and now he could afford the production quality of a traditionally produced show like the one he’d walked away from during his first year here. Byron, who was working his way up in the business quickly, still helped out, taking a producer role as well as directing most of the episodes. Avery liked to be involved, too, as a recurring cohost who didn’t know much about cooking but loved to learn. The episodes she appeared in were some of his most popular ones.
“How do you get your ideas for your recipes?” a young woman asked.
“I look at what’s available in the garden or greenhouse or my cold storage and work from there. It’s fun to take three or four ingredients, put them in a search engine online and see what recipes come up. Once I get some inspiration, I veer off on my own tangents, adding herbs and spices and seeing what I can come up with.”
“Are you going to publish another cookbook?” an older man asked.
“Definitely. I’ll keep putting them out until no one is interested anymore. My next one takes its inspiration from the kinds of dishes pioneers to Montana would have cooked. They knew a lot about getting by with whatever they had on hand. I’ve taken their classic recipes and updated them for our tastes and ingredients.”
“Sounds great!”
“Are you going to do more episodes where you make your friends cook something for you?”
Kai laughed. Those episodes were popular, too. “You bet. I’ve got Boone on tap for an upcoming show. I’m going to make him cook a bison lasagna.” In those shows, he handed his guest a recipe and gave a running commentary on their cooking skills as they attempted to follow it, allowing guests to call in and give advice, too. Those episodes were messy but a lot of fun.
“Where’s your daughter?”
“She should be here any minute. Wait—there she is!”
Addison appeared with a yawning baby girl in her hands. “Can you take Felicity? I’m due at the manor. Some of the other women have been covering for me.”
“Absolutely.” Kai took the baby to a chorus of “oohs” from his audience and gave Addison a quick kiss. “Knock them dead up there.”
“I hope I can secure bookings for all of next year in one fell swoop,” she said, nuzzling Felicity one last time before she hurried away again.
Named for Addison’s sister, Felicity was a precious little girl with red-gold hair and big eyes. At eight months old, she was one of the Contingent, as they’d named the group of babies that had come one after
