Page 28 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

“ I have good news!” Harry Young bellowed as he walked in the front door of Adam Harmon’s house. “I found the best candy in the world.”

Joey appeared around the corner that led into the kitchen. “You did? Did you get those sour grapes?” She hurried forward as Harry triumphantly held up two bags of the super-sour grapes that no one in the Young family could ever eat more than two of.

“Cleaned ‘em out,” he said.

Joey squealed and danced the last few steps to him before taking the bags of candy. “This is so great, Harry. Thank you so much.”

“He thinks he’s conquered the world now,” Belle said, and Harry turned back to his wife, some of his joy fading.

“I did,” he said. “We had to go to four stores to get those. This is a big deal.”

Belle grinned at him and shook her head. “I just brought the boring chips.”

“Oh, you got the All Dressed?” Joey said. “Those are anything but boring.

“Harry doesn’t like them.” Belle linked her arm through his, and mm, he loved his wife.

“That’s because they’re gross,” Harry said. “Who wants a potato chip with fifteen different flavors on it? No, thank you.” He only liked the sour cream and cheddar, and he saw no reason to mix it with salt and vinegar, barbecue, and onion flavoring. Disgusting.

He followed Joey into the kitchen, but he didn’t find Adam there either. “Adam must be in the backyard,” he said.

“Yeah,” Joey said. “He and Rosie are getting the fire going.”

“I saw another truck out there too,” Harry said, and it hadn’t belonged to Bryce or Cole or anyone else that Harry knew.

“Oh, yes,” Joey said, interest coming into her voice. “That’s Wells Farmer, Corrine’s boyfriend.

“Hoo-boy, I can’t wait to meet him.” Harry clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

“We’re being nice to him,” Belle said.

“I’m going to be nice to him,” Harry said. “I’m always nice to everyone.”

He wasn’t sure why Corrine wanted to pal around with her high school boyfriend, and he couldn’t believe that Uncle Luke thought it was a good idea, either.

But Harry had had a girlfriend in his youth too, and he hadn’t cared much what his daddy thought.

So maybe Corrine was simply following that path.

“No one else is here yet?” he asked. Just then the doorbell rang, and then the front door opened.

“I’m walking in.” Harry recognized the voice of Boston, and he turned around to go greet him.

“Hey, man,” he said, noting the way his cousin held hands with a gorgeous brunette who turned back to close the door behind her.

Harry continued forward because he’d met Cora before, and while Boston hadn’t said that they were dating, Harry had definitely gotten the vibe that they were moving in that direction.

“Hey, Cora,” he said, approaching them both and opening his arms and hugging them as one. “Welcome to Adam’s house. He’s in the backyard.”

“Oh, you’re in a much better mood than last time I saw you,” Cora said. Boston started to laugh, and even Harry joined in.

“I told you he was hot and cold,” Boston said, his voice and demeanor and personality a much more muted one than Harry’s. He told himself he wasn’t on a country music stage, and he didn’t have to hog the spotlight tonight.

“I was just headed out to help with the fire,” he said.

“Bryce and Codi just got here,” Boston said. “And someone else was pulling up to the curb, but I didn’t recognize the car.”

“Was it a car or a truck?” Harry asked, moving into the office where Adam worked, and peering out the window. “Oh, that’s Lynnie and Matthew.” They didn’t live in Coral Canyon, but they had come for a visit.

“Wow, she’s gotten big,” Harry said, and he looked over to Boston. “When is she due again?”

“I think in November,” Boston said. “November fifth.”

“I don’t know how you remember that, brother.” Harry grinned at him, nodded at Cora, and then went back out the front door.

“Hey, guys,” he called just as Matthew took Lynnie’s hand and they started up the front walk. “You found Adam’s house.”

“It’s enormous,” Lynnie said. “How could we miss it?”

Harry grinned at them. “I don’t know, but people have.”

“Oh, no one has.” Lynnie laughed as she jogged up the steps to Harry and hugged him. She didn’t have a big belly, but she was definitely showing, and Harry put his hand on her baby bump. “How you doing? You look so good.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I’m feeling good.”

“Do we know if this is a boy or a girl?” Harry asked. He looked over to Matthew, and then stepped into him and hugged him. “How you doing, brother?”

“Good,” Matthew said. “It’s good to see you, Harry.”

“You too.”

“We don’t know yet,” Lynnie said, and she shot a glance over to Matthew. Harry suspected they did, but simply weren’t telling, and he didn’t press the issue.

“You can come inside, or I guess some of us are heading around back to help with the fire,” he said, though at this point, it would already be lit and no one would need Harry’s help.

“Howdy-ho,” Bryce called, and Harry looked toward the corner of the driveway where he found the man he loved most coming toward him.

Bryce carried his little boy in his arms, and Harry wanted to run to both of them.

He settled for laughing and going down the steps and cutting across the lawn diagonally to get to them quicker.

“Hey, man, you made it,” he said.

“Finally,” Bryce said.

“We got two Matthews.” He took Bryce’s son from him and gave the little boy kisses all over his cheeks and neck until he started to giggle.

“Oh, so you’ll laugh for Uncle Harry,” Codi said. “I see how it is.”

Bryce put his arm around Codi and grinned at Harry. “She’s been trying to get him to laugh, and he won’t. He just stares at her like she’s an alien.” Bryce chuckled. “I walk in the door and neigh like a horse and he’s giggling for the rest of the night.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Miss Codi,” Harry said, though he grinned and had never felt happier in his life than when holding Bryce’s baby. “I won’t make him laugh.”

“Yeah, see that you don’t,” Codi said. She stepped away from them and said, “Lynnie, come tell me everything about your pregnancy.”

They all went inside, leaving Harry with Bryce on the front lawn. “I’m headed around back,” he said.

“You are?” Bryce raised his eyebrows. “You’re not gonna stay out here and be the Welcome Wagon?”

“What does that mean?” Harry asked.

“Oh, come on, brother,” Bryce said with a chuckle. “These little events wouldn’t exist without you, and you work like a dog to make sure everyone knows how welcome they are.” Bryce bumped him with his hip. “Tell me you don’t.”

Harry couldn’t really deny it, but he also didn’t see the problem with anything he did.

“Kassie and Reggie are two minutes behind me,” Bryce said. “And I heard that Liesl is bringing one of her friends, so she’ll definitely need a big ole cowboy welcome out here.”

He thumped Harry on the bicep. “Oh, and I know you don’t check your family cousin texts, but Rosie said Cole got a job today, and that we need to make a big deal out of it.”

“Isn’t he on the cousin text too?” Harry asked.

“He’s worse at checking them than you are, brother.” Bryce grinned at him and then turned and went to the corner of the garage and down the sidewalk that led into the backyard.

Harry should follow him, but Kassie and Reggie pulled up in that moment, and fine. He could admit that he wanted everyone to feel extremely welcome at cousin night.

Reggie got out and opened the back door, where Harry expected him to bend in to get out their darling little girl. But instead, he emerged with a giant, three-foot tall bag of buttery popcorn.

“I got the good stuff,” Reggie said.

“Oh, man.” Harry mock groaned. “Now my sour grapes aren’t going to be nearly as special.” He moved over and gave Reggie a hug with Matthew between them. “Where’d you get that?”

“We stopped by Michelle’s coffee shop and got it,” Kassie said. She unclipped their baby and came around the front of the truck. Savannah and Matt were only a month apart, but Kassie and Reggie’s baby looked to be about half the size of Matthew.

“She called us and said we could stop by and get it if we wanted for tonight,” Reggie said. “I stopped for that.”

“Reggie said he was going to leave it in the truck.” Kassie gave him a look and continued toward the house.

“Liking popcorn is not a crime,” he called after her.

“Eating seventy-five gallons of it is,” she called back.

Harry couldn’t help laughing, and he looked at Reggie. “Seventy-five gallons? Do you think that’s how much is in that bag?”

Reggie shook his head and laughed. “I have no idea, but I love movie theater popcorn.”

“You and me both, brother,” Harry said. “I think everyone’s headed around back.”

Reggie nodded, and he took his popcorn in the same direction that Bryce had gone.

Another sedan pulled into the driveway and Harry waved, then picked up Matthew’s hand and waved it for him at Beth who drove, and Liesl, who rode in the passenger seat, and another teenage girl with reddish brown hair in the backseat.

They all waved back, and then Beth jumped out and came toward him.

“Can I take him?” she asked. “He is just the cutest baby alive.”

“Sure,” Harry said, and he slid Matthew into Beth’s arms. “How you doing, Beth?”

“Good.”

“You’re surviving a Wyoming summer and not being in Maryland?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Beth said with a sigh. “It would be easier to be there, I think, in some ways, but they don’t pay my housing, and I can’t really afford to live there without it.”

Harry was pretty sure her daddy would pay for anything she wanted, but Beth had always been practical and down to earth, even as a little child.

“Howdy, Harry,” Liesl said, and Harry drew his quieter cousin into a tight hug.

“Hey, Liesl, what have you been up to this summer?”