“I’m at a great place to stop,” he said. “I’ll text Link and Misty that I’ll be there in an hour.”
“All right,” Dawson said, not arguing that it really took ninety minutes to get from the homestead to Hidden Hills. “I’ll keep you updated.”
“Yep, go,” Brandon said, and he ended the call. He turned to face the homestead, a good hundred yards away and across the street. Lenny had been cutting and debarking the posts for the enclosure.
After a short five-minute walk, he waved his hand over his head to catch Lenny’s attention. She pulled her noise-canceling headphones off and cut the chainsaw.
“Caroline’s going into labor,” he called. “I’ve gotta head down to their place for a couple of days.”
Pure displeasure crossed her face, but she wiped it away quickly and nodded. “All right.”
He kept moving toward her, three tiny little words stuck on the back of his tongue. “You’ll be okay here?” He ran his hands up her arms, and then back down to her waist.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Lenny looked up at him and gave him a tight smile. “Willyoube okay alone with those kids?”
He chuckled. “I amsogood with kids, and you know it.”
He leaned down and kissed her, glad when she seemed to melt into him in the normal way. “I probably won’t be back till Monday,” he said.
As it was Friday, near noon, and if all went well with Caroline’s delivery, they might let her come home on Sunday.
Lenny looked over to the goat enclosure. “I’ll keep working on the poles, I guess.”
“If you can rent a skid steer,” he said. “You’ve got my sketch for where to put the rocks.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” she said.
He nodded, because when he came back on Monday, he’d only have three more weeks here at the homestead. And while he had accomplished a lot, he still had plenty of projects he wanted to do.
The turkey enclosure was done now and connected to the chicken palace, but he wanted to finish up the home for the goats, get a bunch of acreage plowed and ready for planting, put in the storm shelter/cold storage underground,andthey’d added a smokehouse to his list. If Lenny could offer smokedturkey and chicken—and maybe ham, if she could get a few pigs on the property—that would be a lot of income.
“I know it’s not great timing,” he said.
“It’s fine,” Lenny said. “We talked about it. There’s nothing we can do about timing anyway.”
Brandon thought of Pastor Glover’s sermon, leaned down, and gave Lenny another firm kiss, and then turned toward his cabin. He had a bag packed, all ready to go, just in case Caroline had gone into labor this week. The thing that took him the longest was convincing Dumpling to get in the cat carrier.
He finally managed it, and as he got behind the wheel of his truck, he looked over to where Lenny worked, admiring her strength and fierce spirit, before backing out and driving off the homestead. “Itisbad timing though,” he said to himself.
His parents were just a little bit too old to take on a four-year-old and a not-quite-two-year-old for a few days, and Arizona and Duke had planned a family trip to Baylor to drop Dwayne off for college. They’d taken all of their kids, too, and since Caroline’s family didn’t live in town, that left Brandon to help with his niece and nephew.
He’d been thrilled, of course. He loved Colt and Joy, and he’d be able to stay at Dawson’s, where Caroline was sure to have the fridge full of food, plenty of hot water for showering, and cold soda pop.
Brandon made the drive as quickly as he could, pulling up to Link and Misty’s cabin on the southern edge of Shiloh Ridge Ranch only eighty minutes later. He jogged up the front steps and knocked on the door.
“Misty, it’s me,” he called, and he walked into the house the same way he did at Lenny’s.
He found all the kids—including Misty’s two-month-old baby—in the living room. She sat on the couch reading a book to Joy, and she looked utterly exhausted.
“Sorry it took me so long,” he said. “I came as quick as I could.”
“We’re fine here,” Misty said with a smile, though Brandon suspected it was nap time, and not just for the children.
Joy wiggled off her lap and came over to Brandon. He scooped her up and planted a kiss on her cheek. “How are you, little miss? Ready to go bye-bye?”
“Bye-bye!” Joy said, and Brandon chuckled. “Did Dawson bring a bag or anything?” he asked, glancing around.
“Nope. Just the kids,” Misty said.
