They set up folding chairs around the fire pit.Music drifted over the fields, mingling with laughter, the scent of barbeque and beer on the air.
Chance looked as if he’d been waiting for this moment his whole life.Grinning, relaxed, surrounded by the people who’d become his own patchwork family.
Time for the working part of the evening, Cody decided.He rose to his feet, lifting his beer.
“To the demise of my brother’s imminent solo status,” he began, voice carrying on the breeze.“He’s the best type of brother.The kind I would’ve picked myself, but I didn’t have to because someone else in my family was smart enough to make that choice for me.”
Chance’s head dipped, a crooked smile softening his face.
Cody glanced around at the circle of faces, feeling the old ache in his chest ease.“So we have to thank our mom and dad first—for being smart enough to put us together.”
Chance cleared his throat and raised his glass.“To your Ma and me Da,” he agreed, accent thickening.“Best possible folks a man could choose.”His grin sharpened.“And a toast to the Fields family—brave enough to welcome not one, but two Gabrielle men into their fold.”
A ragged cheer went up, punctuated by a sharp crack of thunder overhead.
Lightning split the sky, bright as day for a heartbeat.
Then the wind came, rolling across the pasture in a wall of dust and cold.
“Inside!”someone yelled, and the chairs scraped over the grass as everyone bolted for the ranch house.
The storm hammered the roof in waves.Inside, though, the mood only got rowdier.Someone produced a deck of cards, and before long they were passing around whiskey and taking turns sharing stories about Chance.Most of them only half true, all of them hilarious.
Cody leaned back in his chair, feeling something he hadn’t in a long time.
Peace.
He caught Chance watching him across the table, eyes bright with mischief.
“You’re smiling,” Chance observed.“That’s suspicious.”
“I was just thinking,” Cody drawled, “that before you get legally tied down, you ought to shave off that ridiculous mustache.”
Chance spluttered, then narrowed his eyes.“You serious?”
“Dead serious.”Cody somehow kept a straight face.“Don’t you know that it’s tradition in Canada for you to be clean shaven for a wedding?”
His brother stared at him.
“Hey, ask anyone,” Cody insisted.He glanced around.Brilliant.“Hey, Zach,” he shouted across the noisy room.“Did you have whiskers on your wedding day, or were you clean shaved?”
“Which wedding?”some joker sang out.“The one where he was sober or the one when he was drunk?”
Zach flashed his middle finger at the guy before answering Cody’s question.“Clean shaved.For both,” he added with a grin.
“Thank you.”Cody raised his beer in the air.
Chance went solemn, rubbing his jaw as if he was pondering the question of the century.“Hmmm.That’s a decision not to be taken lightly.”
“You have until the morning,” Cody choked out, coughing lightly and rising to his feet.“Excuse me.”
He had to get away before he broke into outright laughter.God, if his brother followed through, Rose was going to kill them both.
An hour later, Chance caught up with him as Cody stood on the covered deck and watched the storm rage over the mountains.“You’re an eejit,” Chance announced, mock affront and fond exasperation all tangled up in his expression.Then he swatted Cody’s shoulder.“But I love you anyway.”
“Feeling’s mutual, brother.”
“I’m not shaving.”Chance’s eyes softened.“Now show me the ring.”
