Page 52 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)

CHAPTER

THIRTY-FOUR

B ryce Young walked through the pumpkin patch when the shrill of his phone broke the silence. He knew who’d be on the other end of the line before he even looked at the screen, because he’d given Bailey her own ringtone.

“Howdy, Bay,” he said, though she certainly didn’t call all the time, and he couldn’t imagine what they possibly needed to talk about now.

“Bryce, hey,” she said, the words almost like missiles coming across the line. “Do you have a minute?”

Bryce stopped and looked down at his pumpkins.

“Sure do,” he said, though something had started ringing in his mind—an alarm that Bailey was in a heightened emotional state.

He could just see her pacing in her apartment or office, though he had no idea where she lived.

Perhaps she’d bought a house in Butte, for all he knew.

It wasn’t like she ran her major life decisions past him.

“You know how I was just there?” she asked.

“Yep,” Bryce said. He’d spent an afternoon horseback riding with her and OJ, and he turned back the way he’d been walking to see where the boy was.

He came out to the Rising Sun Ranch every Saturday to help Codi with the weeding in the garden.

He’d kept the front yard dandelion and weed-free too, and Kassie and Reggie had hired him to do the same thing at their place.

When he finished with that, he usually followed Bryce around, chattering his ear off about all the things he’d done that week and all the things he was looking forward to for the next week.

Bryce had told him he wanted to walk the pumpkin patch to see how things were coming along, as they’d probably need to get their frost prevention gear out soon.

He’d lost plenty of plants by planting them too early or thinking he had more time to cover them in the fall.

Really, he only had another month to get ready, and he’d expanded his pumpkin patch to a full acre this year.

All of the cousins loved to come help him harvest it, and he and Codi had been doing a spooky Halloween walk for a few years now that even the adults liked.

With the additional funding he’d gotten from the Country Quad concert series last Christmas, Bryce had been able to improve his stables and move some of his red horses onto family farms where they could simply graze out their days.

That had freed up more stable space for horses he could rehabilitate and resell, and he definitely felt that he’d made a lot of progress, even though only seven months had passed.

That money had literally saved him and the Rising Sun Ranch, and he thanked God for it every morning during his toaster-prayer.

“You still there?” he asked when Bailey didn’t say anything.

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous about this. I’m not even sure why I called you.”

Bryce watched OJ as he chased a butterfly down at the end of the next row over. “Well, I’m here if you need me,” he said. “If you don’t want to tell me what’s on your mind, that’s fine too.”

“I’m just—” She cut off. “Oh, this is just dumb.”

Bryce waited, because Bailey had never been one to second-guess her decisions. She’d been driven and ambitious and talented in college, having a clear vision of what she wanted and going after it. Nothing, not even their unwanted pregnancy, had stopped her.

“When I was in Coral Canyon,” she said. “I went around and looked at various properties.”

Bryce’s breath fell out of his body, and he couldn’t have said anything even if he’d wanted to.

“I’m thinking of moving my veterinary clinic there,” she said. “Obviously, I would be living there too. I’ve already talked to my daddy about having him help me buy a place, and there’s one on the market right now that I think would be perfect.”

“Wow,” Bryce managed to say.

“Yeah.” Bailey gave a nervous laugh, and she certainly wouldn’t be standing still the way he did. No, Bailey was a bundle of energy when she got nervous, while Bryce shut down. He ran, he hid, he escaped. But Bailey charged forward.

“I’m just wondering if you think it’s going to be too weird.

If you think having me there is going to be too hard on you, or Codi, or OJ, or anyone else in the family, I won’t do it.

” She heaved another sigh. “I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea.

So many people have asked me when I’m going to move there, and I’ve always put them off, but somehow it got in my mind, and it’s been burrowing away, and it won’t let go. ”

“Okay, Bailey,” he said. “Take a breath.”

“Don’t tell me to take a breath.”

“Okay, sorry,” he said, squinching his eyes closed. “I get what you’re saying.”

“Do you?” she asked. A long pause came through the line. “Every time I come there, it feels like a major event, and I’m tired of it. I don’t want to be this side-show that everyone stares at, and I have to arrange all these meals and visits with everyone.”

“And if you lived here,” Bryce said slowly, putting the pieces together. “You’d just be here. It wouldn’t be novel or exciting.”

“Exactly,” she said. “But I’m also afraid that it’s going to upset some Young…family…space-time-continuum there that I don’t know about, because I do only come into town a couple of times a year.”

Bryce chuckled at the hilarity of what she just said, amping up into a full-blown laugh.

“The Young family space-time continuum.” He laughed again, and this time, it drew OJ’s attention.

Bryce watched him come back to the pumpkin patch and then start down the row the way he was supposed to be doing.

“Oh, Bailey, I think you give us too much credit for what goes on in Coral Canyon.”

“Oh, no, I don’t,” she said. “There’s a dynamic there with you guys, and I don’t want to disrupt it.”

“I’m sure you won’t,” he said easily. “You’ll just add to it.”

“I don’t even know if I want to do this,” she whispered.

“Sometimes it’s not about what we want to do, Bay,” Bryce said. “But about where God wants us to be.”

“Yeah.” Bailey didn’t argue with him, and she didn’t sigh in that exasperated way she had twelve years ago when he’d tried to give her advice or tell her that God loved her. Heck, he himself hadn’t felt lovable for years.

He turned his back on OJ and kept walking down the row of pumpkins. “OJ is here with me,” he said. “We’re just checking the pumpkin patch. He’s a distance away.” Bryce lifted his head into the sunshine. “So he doesn’t need to know it’s you on the phone.”

She paused and then said, “That would be great, Bryce. I don’t need to talk to him about this right now.”

“All right,” Bryce said. “I think it would be fine if you moved here, Bailey.”

Though now he was starting to wonder how that would impact him and OJ, the boy he’d given up for adoption but worried about constantly.

“I think you’ll see it just settles into regular life,” he said. “And maybe you’ll get to come to our New Year’s Eve parties at the furniture store and see us all act like idiots on a mechanical bull.”

That made her laugh, and Bryce was glad for that. He could talk to Codi about everything else that might come from this.

“Okay, I’ll keep you updated.”

“If you want to,” Bryce said. “You don’t have to. You don’t owe me any explanations, Bailey.”

“You’re right,” she said. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I don’t know why I called,” she said. “I just started panicking.”

“I’m sure your parents are real glad that you’ll be coming back,” he said.

“Yes,” she agreed. “They are happy about it, and I’m happy that the perfect property sits on the other side of town.”

They both laughed then, and Bryce said, “It’s nice to have a buffer, that’s for sure.”

“Okay,” she said, “I guess I’ll let you know more when I know more, if I feel like it.”

He chuckled. “All right, good to talk to you.”

“You too,” she said, and the call ended.

Bryce tucked his phone away, a tiny frown appearing between his eyes. He had asked Bailey when she’d be returning to Coral Canyon, but it had been more of a joke, more of a way to let her know she was welcome here. Now, Bryce had to pray that that would be true.

“Uncle Bryce!” OJ called, and Bryce turned around to face him.

“What’s up, bud?”

“Come see this praying mantis.”

Bryce smiled as he retraced his steps and stepped over the plants to get to the aisle OJ was on. He loved animals of all kinds, including insects, and Bryce didn’t want to squash his spirit in the slightest.

That was why he didn’t want Harry to invite him to the cousin nights, and Bryce wasn’t going to feel bad about it or back down.

OJ had not exhibited any signs or behavior that he felt left out of the family.

In fact, he was the most well-loved person in the entire Young family.

He’d brought them all together, reunified them and made them stronger.

The last thing Bryce wanted was for him to be told that he should feel left out.

“Wow,” he said, as he approached. “That thing’s huge.”

“They can turn their heads all the way around,” OJ said. “It’s how they watch for predators.”

“How do you know that?” Bryce asked.

“I did a class at the library,” he said. “Momma takes me and Ana almost every day.”

“Oh, I bet she does,” Bryce said.

“Next week I get to help her in the storeroom,” he said. “She’s getting a bunch of new books, and I’m going to help her unbox them and put them on the shelves.”

He made this chore that Bryce was sure Aunt Georgia didn’t want to do sound like a great adventure, and Bryce needed to live his life more like that. He chuckled and said, “Come on, bud, let’s go back to the farm and see if Aunt Codi will let us make frozen root beer floats.”

OJ cheered and galloped down the row yelling, “Root beer floats! Root beer floats!”

Bryce wanted his energy and his spirit, and he wanted OJ to stay as innocent for as long as possible. He followed at a slower pace, enjoying the sunshine on his arms and the wind as it brought fresh air across his face.

He loved Wyoming and this ranch and being close to his family, and he prayed that Bailey would too, and that her move here would not cause too much of a disruption for anyone, but especially him and Codi, and Otis, Georgia, and OJ.