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That did it. Colt had gotten his fill of family bonding time, and the urge to mend old hurts had passed for the moment. “Thanks. Since she agreed to love Ben and Abby like they were her own, I’m guessing she won’t be leaving them like Mom left us.”

“Good,” his dad said resolutely. “Thanks for calling.”

The guy had to already be on his way to comatose to have zero reaction to the news of Mark’s death. “Talk to you later.”

Colt tossed the phone down on the bench beside him and rested his forehead in his hands. He would bet on a meteor hitting him in this very spot before he’d expect to see his dad later this week at the service.

“Colt!”

He looked up to see Abby running toward him, holding a dripping ice cream cone high above her head.

“I got rainbow!”

Colt stood and met her in front of the fountain, sweeping her into his arms and holding her tight against him. “It looks magically delicious.”

“It looks like a sugar coma waiting to happen,” Remi said as she walked up holding her signature Rocky Road cone.

“Look at this!” Ben said, holding up what looked like chocolate chip cookie dough.

“They all look good. Who’s gonna give me a bite?”

Abby and Ben pulled their cones away at the same time, and Remi burst into an awkward laugh with a mouthful of ice cream.

The tension from the phone call with his dad was gone. It was okay to move on if his dad didn’t care about them. The family he was born into was gone, but he had a new family now. One he planned to cherish for the rest of his life.

Chapter15

Remi

Adull pain ached on the side of Remi’s head. She lifted her head and blinked rapidly. She’d fallen asleep against the side of Abby’s car seat where the little girl still snoozed. Ben was slumped against Remi’s other side, breathing in a quiet rhythm of sleep.

Remi craned her neck to see out the window of the back of Colt’s truck. They were on the road leading to the ranch, and she’d never seen a better sight in her life. After a week in Newcastle, the homesickness had taken root.

Home. That was something she’d never really had before, but Wolf Creek Ranch fit the bill. Funny it had taken her over twenty years to find it.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty,” Colt whispered from the driver’s seat.

Yeah, she probably looked the part of Sleeping Beauty. Her ponytail was skewed, there was bound to be a red spot on the side of her face where she’d leaned against the car seat, and there may have been drooling going on.

The five-hour drive back to the ranch had taken more like seven with all the stops along the way. Abby needed a bathroom break every hour and a half, and Ben complained of hunger in between Abby’s potty emergencies. After the last stop, Remi decided to move to the middle back seat to break up the kids from bickering.

“Morning,” Remi said as she stretched her neck.

“It’s afternoon.”

“Well, you drive like a grandma,” Remi said. Aside from the frequent stops, Colt was the slowest driver in existence.

“I’m transporting precious cargo. I have no regrets.”

Why did he have to be so sweet? Between the two of them, Colt definitely got the bigger helping of consideration. He never thought about himself first, and it was unsettling. She’d never met anyone so selfless, and the stark contrast between Colt and ninety-nine percent of the world population threw her off. No one was really that good.

Except Colt, apparently.

Colt turned onto the drive leading to the ranch entrance. “You want to wake them up so they can see the ranch?”

Remi brushed a hand over Ben’s hair. “Hey, bud. We’re home.”

Ben inhaled a deep breath and raised his head. With narrowed eyes, he looked around. “Where?”