Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“Thank you!” I said, throwing up my hands and letting them slap down on my thighs. “I said the same thing!”
Jacob leaned toward his wife, reading what Lynn had just read. Then he looked up at Colt. “It wasn’t my fault?” He seemed shocked. “It wasn’t my fault…”
Colt reached for his father’s hand. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault, Dad.”
I sat silently as Jacob buried his face in his hands and cried. Colt moved to the other side of him on the sofa, and all three of them embraced one another.
It was such a personal and private moment, I felt as if I was intruding. I slowly made my way out of the living room and to the kitchen, where I quickly got to work on making tea and something to snack on. Anything to keep my mind busy.
All while holding in my own tears over ten long years of everyone feeling like they were to blame somehow and recalling all the loss we’d each endured.
Colt
A few days had passed since Ensley and I had cleaned out Grady’s room. The box of his things had been stored in the attic, along with his journal and the medical papers. My mother had gone into Grady’s room and decided all the furniture should be donated to the orphanage in town, which gladly accepted everything. A new bed, side table and dresser, as well as a desk, had been ordered for the room.
I could already see a certain lightness to my mother. In all of us, really. It shouldn’t have been a surprise. We’d gotten the answers we’d needed for ten years, though there was also the pain of knowing Grady hadn’t even given us a chance to help him deal with his diagnosis.
“What do you have planned for your second first date?”
I glanced up and saw Gatlin leaning against the doorjamb of my office in the barn, black cowboy hat shadowing his eyes as he smiled at me.
Standing, I held out my hand. “Gatlin, good to see you.”
He pushed off the jamb and reached for my hand. “Good to see you, too.”
“Honestly, it’s been a crazy few days; I haven’t had time to plan anything.”
He raised his brows.
“Are you here to help me?”
Gatlin just laughed.
I sat on the edge of my desk. “Let me guess. Ensley sent you.”
He pointed to his nose. “I’ve been sent on a very important mission to ask why in the hell you haven’t planned anything yet.”
It was my turn to laugh. “I sure have missed your sister.”
“You say that now.”
I let out a long breath. “I heard all about Caden’s first date with Lilibeth, and I’m not gonna lie, I’m not sure I can top that.”
Gatlin sat in the chair in front of my desk and removed his hat. Then proceeded to stare at me for at least two minutes.
“You staring at me isn’t going to make me come up with an idea any faster, Gatlin.”
He cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s think about this for a bit.”
“I have been thinking. I’ve been racking my brain to try to remember if she ever mentioned wanting to go somewhere specific.”
“We didn’t go on many vacations growing up because Dad was always working at the store or needed on the farm. We went on a few, but nothing that had Ensley declaring she loved it so much she wanted to go back.”
I folded my arms over my chest, my brow furrowing in thought.
“I’m not good at this kind of stuff either,” Gatlin huffed.
Giving him a look, I replied, “Yet your sister sent you on the mission.”
“A reconnaissance mission, nothing more.”
I shook my head and laughed again.
“Okay, so you can’t do a dinner-and-movie thing because Caden did that.”
Nodding, I said, “What about a picnic under the stars?”
He snarled his lip slightly as he bounced his head from side to side. “That’s okay, but I think you need to go bigger.”
“Hot air balloon to watch the sunrise?”
His head rearing back, he asked, “Have you forgotten she’s afraid of heights?”
“Fuck, I did forget.”
“Let’s see…she loves horses, the stars, mountains, lakes, anything outside.”
“You’re basically describing River Falls Ranch.”
Gatlin grinned. “I guess I am.”
Then an idea hit me. “Banff. It reminds me a lot of River Falls. One of the reasons I went was because Grady wanted to go, and the only reason he wanted to visit was because Ensley mentioned it years ago. What if I plan a trip up to Banff? Picnic under the stars, a beautiful hotel suite overlooking the mountains? A sleigh ride on the shores of Lake Louise.”
“Now that would be a first date,” Gatlin said with a wide smile. “What about your clients? And Ensley’s?”
“I think we can manage to slip away for a long weekend. I might even be able to plan it for this weekend, if I can contact everyone without her knowing.”