Page 31 of Take a Chance (Blue Creek Ranch #1)

Malachi

I woke up to movement. For a second, I forgot where I was and who I was with, thinking that Payton had climbed into bed with me. Then I reached toward the movement and my hands met with a bigger, adult body. Crew.

“Go back to sleep, babe,” he murmured, so I did.

The next time I got woken up, it was by the cabin door opening with a creak and a happy Payton babble filling the space.

I was in my bed—we’d moved there at one point for more space—and sat up quickly enough to get a head rush.

Crew was gone. It stung, but it made things easier to explain, or not to explain, to my son.

“Daddy! You up yet?” he hollered.

“Well, I am now,” I grunted and grabbed my phone.

There was a text from Crew.

Demi texted that they’re on their way because the kids woke up early. See you later.

I blushed.

Payton knew better than to climb onto my bed in his “outside clothes” so he did an improvised peepee dance type thing next to it. “Daddy why aren’t you up yet? I’m going to Mrs. Jenn’s but I need some stuffs.”

“Because you’re early, bud.” I ruffled his hair as I prepared to get out of bed. “Go get your stuff. Is Demi with you?”

He ran around the wall and yelled, “Auntie Demi is on the porch with the baby!”

Chuckling, I went to the bathroom, pulled on some clothes, and went to find the ladies.

“Morning.” I looked at where she was sitting with a sleepy looking Aria on her lap. “Thanks for the heads up.” I didn’t blush. Much.

Her eyes twinkled, and she asked, “What heads up?”

I snorted softly as I reached to pet Aria’s fine baby hair. She wasn’t that young, but she still held a hint of the essence of baby Pay had lost long ago.

“How was Payton?”

Demi smiled. “He’s great. The only snag was that at bedtime, he was a bit sad, so I sat next to him and told him stories until he fell asleep.”

I frowned. “Sad?”

“Yeah. He was missing you, clearly, but he put it like that instead. Or well, he said Mr. Raven was feeling sad.”

“Ah.” I squeezed her shoulder. “Thank you for being good to and with him.”

Pay exploded out the door with an offensive amount of energy. “Auntie Demi? Do you think Mrs. Jenn has time to bake today?”

“I don’t know, munchkin. We can ask. You guys have Aria today, too, because I need to do work things.”

“Oh, okay!” Pay grabbed my hand, then looked up. “Do you want to come have breakfast with us in the house?”

I glanced at Demi. I normally had breakfast for myself and Pay at the cabin, but apparently there was a preexisting plan.

“I called ahead and Mom has breakfast ready. I’m sure there’s enough for you, too, given that everyone else will be there as well.”

Everyone else. I couldn’t help the way my gaze was drawn to the cabin across the space between.

“I’m sure he’s already at the stable and will come eat, too,” Demi murmured, her eyes filled with warmth.

“Yeah, okay. Let me put on my boots and I’ll be right after you guys.”

“Yay!” Pay jumped off the porch steps, and it occurred to me that this was one of the first times I’d seen my son this excited to just start the day. He’d always been pretty easygoing, but he was more animated now, as if someone had injected happiness into him.

Demi glanced at me knowingly, but with Aria in her arms, she followed Pay without saying anything.

Once I was ready, I walked toward the main house. I inhaled the morning air, smiling at what my senses told me. It was going to be a nice, sunny day, which meant that Hawk and I could continue building the “horse agility course” as it was now called by everyone.

As I took off my boots on the front porch and walked into the louder than expected house, I realized it was pretty much the normal breakfast time. There was a lot of family around, which suddenly felt a bit overwhelming.

Hawk got up from his seat next to Crew. “Morning, Mal. You can take this one; I’m going to go do some paperwork before we start.”

“The course?” I confirmed, while trying not to think about sitting next to Crew around the crowded table.

“Yeah, I think we can finish most of it today and the weather seems good,” Hawk replied as he took his plate to the sink.

“It does look good. Knock on wood,” I said and rapped my knuckles on the table.

“See you there!” Hawk kissed Jenn’s cheek in passing as she lifted the coffee pot at me.

“Coffee, Mal?”

“Yes, please.”

I sat and glanced at Crew, who smiled at me. I smiled back, then started to doctor my coffee.

Speaking of doctors, Emery walked into the kitchen and took a seat next to his twin. They put their heads together for a moment, Demi telling him something that made Emery chuckle.

Pay sat next to Mike and they were having a conversation about something or other. Mike took it very seriously, even though his expression held the fond amusement of any parent or grandparent who had heard a child this enthusiastic about something.

“They’re talking about corvids,” Crew told me, being closer to Pay’s end of the table.

“Ah. His favorite birds.” I smiled. I could see Mr. Raven on the end table nearby where Pay must’ve placed him for safekeeping while he had breakfast.

As if on cue, my son’s eyes went wide. “No way!”

“Yes way,” Mike replied, chuckling. “We can do that if your dad says it’s okay.”

Pay’s head whipped to look at me, his expression filled with excitement. “Daddy can we? Mr. Mike says there’s magpies living by the event barn. Can we try to be friends with them?”

“Befriend them,” I corrected, knowing that was what he’d been trying to say.

“Of course you can. You should research what magpies consider as high value food and start from there.” I lifted a hand when he almost fell out of his seat in excitement.

“But, I don’t have time to do much with you unless it’s my day off, so you should try to pace yourself with this project. ”

Mike cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, Mal, I have time. I’m going to be helping Fern at the event barn this week anyway, so when I’m not too busy….”

Not too busy to keep an eye on a kid.

“Yeah, that’s fine. It’ll be good for him to go out a bit more, too.” I stuck my tongue out at Pay who was making a face at me for my statement. It wasn’t like I ever forced him outside if he didn’t want to, but it was also a conversation we’d always been having.

Crew snickered next to me, as did a few of the others who saw my expression.

Pay opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. “First, breakfast. Then research. Then talking to Mr. Mike about your schedule.”

Pay looked at his plate, then nodded. “Okay, Daddy.”

As the conversations around us went on, I leaned closer to Crew. “So, your sister gave you a heads up because she somehow knew we’d be together this morning?”

“Educated guess.” He looked amused.

“Not that I minded, by the way. Just… it’s a lot.”

A wrinkle between his eyebrows became more pronounced. I realized it was his worried face.

“Not too much, though?”

I moved my hand to his knee and squeezed once. “No.”

Then I pulled my hand away and continued to have my noisier-than-average breakfast while trying my best to feel just the right amount of whelmed.

For the next week, I got pretty much daily reports on how Operation Befriend the Magpies was going. It wasn’t, yet, but all the food was gone and Pay had even seen a crow flying over the event barn one day.

Mike had assured me he was having a blast with my boy.

Something about having an enthusiastic kid hanging around almost daily being something he’d missed.

Jenn had also told me basically the same thing, then she’d added that while Mike was the nicest guy, he wouldn’t just humor Pay if he had other things to do.

After another check by the vet, Ezio was gelded, which meant a couple of more weeks of his solitary confinement while he healed.

Then he could go in with geldings for the first couple of months, because there’d been enough cases of freshly gelded horses impregnating mares even without the equipment intact. Biology and all that.

Luckily Ezio was an easygoing colt and didn’t mind being in the small sand paddock attached to his quarantine stall, as long as he had hay to eat and things to watch.

Whoever had planned these spaces had had good foresight into the horse psyche. There were two stalls on each side of the aisle that had these tiny paddocks attached to them. One side gave a much calmer view, while the other had the hustle and bustle of a working ranch.

Ezio was on the side where he could watch people and horses go by, and with a couple of enrichment toys, he was doing well.

Crew and I…. There’d mostly been a lot of quick glances and smiles whenever we crossed paths during the workdays. There’d also been a few touches and one quick kiss, but that was two days ago.

Payton, despite being very active and outdoorsy with Mike on most days, had endless energy in the evenings that didn’t let me get away for a moment.

I was doing groundwork with one of the young horses in the arena, when Russ ambled over.

I had the filly following voice commands like a dream, and when she got interested in him, all I had to do was cluck my tongue and she returned her attention to me.

After two more circles, I let her relax and walk for a bit, before calling her to me and gathering the lunge line as she approached. Then I unclipped her, patted her, and told her to do her thing for a moment.

She shook her whole body, then whinnied and bounced away from me like someone lit a fire under her hooves.

Chuckling, I walked over to Russ.

“She’s doing well,” he commented.

“Learns fast, this one. Much like Jaina did.”

“That mare of yours is one of the best horses I’ve ever seen. You did good. And Hawk did good to snatch you to our side.” He grinned, then snorted at the filly who was bucking for no particular reason.

I waited him out, knowing that he wouldn’t have come over for no reason.

“Tonight, once you get the kid settled. I’ll come sit on your porch if you want.”

Ah. I blushed. “Oh?”