Page 49 of Calder Strong (The Calder Brand #5)

A S J OSEPH SURVEYED THE T HANKSGIVING TABLE, LADEN WITH TRA ditional food and surrounded by family, gratitude raised a lump in his throat.

The past months had been fraught with loss, heartbreak, and danger, but the people at the table had made it through.

With the roundup over and the last of the steers shipped off to eastern markets, it was time to celebrate.

The places at the table were filled except for the empty chair on Joseph’s right. Annabeth was busy checking last minute details in the kitchen. When she took her seat, the food would be blessed and dinner would begin.

Joseph sat at the head of the table. Mason and his wife, Ruby, sat on Joseph’s left.

As the oldest living Dollarhide, Mason had deferred to Joseph as host and head of the family.

His shoulder still pained him, but he was enjoying his new role as honorary grandfather to Lucas and Ellie.

The truth about the complex relationship would be left for the future, when the children were old enough to understand.

Kristin and Logan sat across from them. Logan’s offer to include Joseph in the horse business was still open. In the year ahead, Joseph had resolved to make time for the vocation he loved. He could still make it happen. He just had to want it badly enough.

Jake Calhoun sat in his wheelchair next to a glowing Britta, who was weeks away from the birth of their second child.

When Joseph had told Jake about the death of Lola—whose perfidy as Lucy Merriweather had led to his losing the use of his legs—he had taken the news with his usual calm acceptance.

“It was her boyfriend who pulled the trigger,” he said.

“I never blamed her. Not any more than I blamed you. And I don’t believe her death was any kind of payback for what she did.

She had a hard life, she did her best to survive, and now she’s gone.

To brood on it would only be punishing myself. ”

The children shared their own low table.

Lucas, Ellie, Grace, Kristin’s boys, and Britta’s little daughter and eight-year-old stepdaughter were squirming with impatience as they waited for the meal to start.

Only Forrest, who had volunteered to sit with them, kept the little group from breaking into chaos.

Forrest was now working for Mason, who’d needed the extra help. The boy was learning to be an honest-to-goodness cowboy. Mason had even confided to Joseph that, if Forrest continued to do well, he might adopt him. “Two rogues gone straight,” Mason had joked. “We’ll understand each other.”

The buzz of conversation fell to a hush as Annabeth came out of the kitchen. She was smiling, her lovely face flushed from the heat of the cooking. Joseph stood and held out her chair. She was his queen. His wife. His everything.

The family joined hands around the table while the meal was blessed. Then the happy feast began.

Joseph’s grandfather looked down from his portrait on the wall.

A scene like this was what he’d foreseen when he built the big log house and when he’d insisted that Blake marry pregnant Hannah to give her son the Dollarhide name.

It was the reason Blake had urged Joseph to marry and have children before time ran out. It was about family.

Amid the celebrating, Joseph’s thoughts wandered to Chase Calder in his huge house.

Today, if he bothered with dinner at all, Chase would likely be eating alone or with a few of his longtime ranch hands.

Joseph had always admired Chase, even envied him, with his self-confidence and the air of entitlement that came with the Calder name.

Calder strong. That was Chase. But as Joseph looked around the table, he realized that he had no reason to envy any man on earth. This was his strength—his family, here together.

Dollarhide strong.