Page 44 of Holden: Bucked By Love (Crawford Ridge Ranch #1)

Beau is up like a shot and after her. Landry shoves his chair back and follows, his jaw set and his face grim as his chair hits the ground from the force of it.

I exchange a look with Walker, who has finally tuned back into his surroundings.

He offers me a tight nod and stands to saunter after them.

It's not like we think our youngest brother can't handle himself, it's more that he seems as upset as the other two, and things might need to be diffused.

Who better to settle a situation than the great golden retriever himself?

Leni's hand lands on my thigh and I turn back to her. "Is everything okay?" she asks.

I shrug, and put my hand over hers. "Trouble in paradise, I guess."

Her look is playful. "Something we know a bit about."

I tip my head toward her and press a soft, affectionate kiss against her lips, our hats competing for space. "All in the past, Sunshine."

She kisses me back and murmurs her agreement, and when Mason groans we pull apart.

"This is all they've been doing for three straight days," he says, which has the adults around the table laughing audibly. "It's not funny."

But there's a look in his eyes that says he's glad. Grossed out, sure, but glad. And I am too.

We clear up dinner while Mason and Josi take turns pushing each other on the swing, and then we gather in the shade of the big tree to open gifts.

Everyone carries a chair over to make a semi-circle, and I take my place only to be surprised by Leni landing in my lap after she hands Josi a garbage bag and tells her she's on wrapping paper cleanup duty.

Leni looks down at me, tips my hat back, and smiles .

I smile back and wrap an arm around her waist to anchor her close. Her arm goes around my shoulders, and together we watch our boy get showered with gifts from the people in that circle.

"We lucked out with him," Leni whispers to me.

"We did." Then I add, "We lucked out with all of it."

The kids are in bed, and I'm so tired I could collapse, but I'm sitting on the back deck of our cabin, nursing a drink with one hand and holding my wife's hand with the other.

She's in the chair next to me, head tilted back, looking at the stars.

We've both changed into our pajamas, and Leni's face is free of make-up, her wavy hair pulled high on her head.

We should make our way to bed, but neither of us wants to break the spell.

"So, the Buck-It List, huh?" Leni says. "Who knew my silly ideas would be so transformational?"

I smile into the dark. "Truly inspired stuff," I reply teasingly.

She squeezes my hand. "Joke all you want, but I think there's something to it."

"Oh, yeah?"

"If we were to make a new bucket list, what kinds of things would you put on it?"

I let my mind wander to what kinds of things I would be willing to do that would be outside my comfort zone and keep the fun alive. The only problem is I'm not really a fun guy in that way, so I'm coming up short .

"We could enter the chili cook-off next July Fourth. Get the kids to help us," Leni says, sitting up slightly.

Her body language tells me she's into this, so I sit up a bit too and look over at her. "That could be good."

She grins, big, and I feel like I won the lottery. "I'll be right back."

She drops my hand and scampers into the cabin with energy that long ago leaked out of my body. I know my wife, which is why I'm not surprised to see her return with a pad of paper and a pen a few moments later.

"We could have made a list on our phones," I joke as she sits back down.

She shakes her head. "No way. Bucket lists are for paper."

"Not a Buck-It List this time?"

She taps the pen against her lips. "Nah. We already got bucked by life. I think this time we keep the universe from getting ideas."

I smile and nod. "Smart."

"What about a zipline adventure?"

"I don't like heights."

She points the pen at me. "You also didn't like cherry pie or singing karaoke or riding a tandem bike . . ."

I hold up a hand. "I take it back."

She writes it down. "Ooh, how about a hot air balloon ride?"

I shake my head. "None of these things sound like local items."

She shrugs. "We've already conquered Pinehaven. We need to expand our horizons. Keep things fresh, you know?"

"All right." Because am I really going to tell this woman no?

"What if we painted a mural?"

I've never painted a thing in my life, so I frown, confused. "Where? And how? "

She laughs. "We could do a family mural project on one of the walls of my yoga studio."

I grin. "Hey, it's your studio, if you want it to be stick figures and attempts at puppies that look like serial killers, that's your call."

"We can have someone draw the outline and we paint it."

"Always with the solutions," I say warmly. We pause while she scribbles on the paper, and an idea does come to me. "What if we each write a letter to one another to be dug up in ten years? I'll write one to you, Mace, and Jo-Jo, and everyone else does the same."

Her shoulders sag and her eyes grow large, and she nods. "I love that so much."

I swear my entire chest fills with helium in that moment. But it nearly bursts when she puts down the paper and moves to join me on my chair, snuggling into my lap and tucking her nose up against my neck. I hold her close and breathe her in.

We don't talk. The list is forgotten for now, but I have a feeling it's something that we'll talk about some more. And I'll support the new bucket list because I support her. I love the idea of including our kids too. Our family is, after all, the thing we've learned to fight the hardest for.