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Kolby chuckled from behind them. “Hey, you weren’t on your own, and I think we can be forgiven for expecting the worst. Every single one of us has had to fight off some asshole or another who was trying to hurt the people we love.”

“True,” said Luke. “But I think Tanner was right; in his case, the threat was eliminated before it could hurt them, we just didn’t dare believe that might be true.”

“Better to be prepared for the worst than to dismiss a possible threat,” said Ty.

Tanner was only half-listening to them. He was watching Travis and Ace in the back seat. Now that he knew who they were, it was easy to tell that the two of them were chatting and laughing with Ashton, who had to be sitting between them.

As he followed them down East River Road toward the ranch, his phone rang. He hit the button on the steering wheel to answer it.

“Hey, Zeke.”

“It’s not Zeke, it’s me, Deacon, on Zeke’s phone. Are you following us by any chance?”

Tanner had to laugh. “Yeah. I didn’t know that you guys were going with him. I was in town anyway, so I swung by the school to follow them home.”

“Fair enough. We’ll see you in a few minutes.”

When they parked behind the big house, they piled out of both trucks. Tanner let the others do the explaining, all he could think about was getting to Ashton.

The little guy grinned at him as Tanner held his arms out. “Thanks for letting Grandpa come to get me. And isn’t it awesome that he brought his buddies with him? Did you know that Deacon’s the sheriff?”

Tanner nodded; he still didn’t have any words. When Ashton reached him, he scooped him up and hugged him tight. He finally felt like he could breathe properly again when Ashton wrapped his skinny little arms around his shoulders, and Tanner felt his warm breath against his neck.

“I love you, Ash.”

Ashton hugged him even tighter. “I love you, too, Dad.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Everly smiled when she saw her dad’s truck coming down the driveway, followed closely by Tanner’s. She loved the way that this had worked out. She hated feeling that she was keeping her dad and Ashton from growing their relationship because of some irrational fear – the trouble was, she didn’t know if her fear was rational or not. She loved Tanner even more for having come up with this solution.

She hurried to the kitchen to go out to meet them, but hesitated when she saw how many people were out there. It wasn’t just Tanner, and her dad, and Ashton. There were three of her dad’s friends as well, and Ty, Kolby, and Luke were with him.

She gave Ford and Wade a puzzled smile when they came out of the office. “Is there a party that I don’t know about?” she asked.

Wade chuckled, and Ford winked at her as he said, “I think there might be soon.”

She looked out the window again and laughed when she saw Travis swinging Ashton up onto his shoulders. She loved seeing him making new friends, at the same time, she was surprised that he wasn’t with Tanner or her dad.

The two of them were standing slightly apart from the others. Tanner was holding something up, showing it to her dad. She had to wonder what they were up to.

Wade caught her arm and spun her around to face him. She gave him a puzzled smile. “What’s up?”

He glanced over her shoulder, and it almost felt as though he didn’t want her to see outside.

“What’s going on?” she asked warily.

“Nothing.” Ford winked at her. “We all just get a little crazy around here on Friday afternoon sometimes.”

“Okay.” She knew there was something going on, but she had no idea what it might be.

“You know that party I was talking about?” Wade asked. “I’m going to ask if everyone wants to head over to the bakery for a mini party.”

She gave Ford a puzzled smile as they watched Wade hurry outside to join the others. “Is there anything I need to know?” she asked.

“I don’t know, honey. But whatever’s going on, I know you have nothing to worry about.”

“Shall we go see, then?”