Page 4 of When It Reins (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #5)

juniper

One of my favorite parts of owning a restaurant and bar with my sisters is the hours before we officially open and the time we get to spend talking during it.

I use the time today to distract myself. Things have been going well lately. Bottle Grounds—our bar—has been thriving thanks to the amazing community that surrounds us.

When we first moved here all those years ago, after having been through some seriously traumatic stuff, we weren’t sure how this town would welcome the news of a family moving in and starting a business. But I was thankful that they had embraced us off the bat.

Some of the Cash brothers were the first to help us out. Logan, my now brother-in-law whom I assumed was sweet on my sister, Thea, since the moment he saw her, was a huge help with renovations, and his younger brother, Stetson, was too.

It’s only been the last couple of years that the other two Cash brothers even came home, and since then I’ve gotten to know Jax really well since I am good friends with his wife, Felicity.

Then there is Mitch, who, despite being gone for over eight weeks, still manages to find a slot in my brain.

“Another one? Are you insane?” Annmarie’s shocked voice grabs my attention, and I see her looking at a smirking Thea.

“What? Isn’t Colter cute?” Thea says, referencing her son, who is currently with her mother-in-law, Didi.

“Colter’s the cutest kid ever. Don’t tell Dani or City,” Annmarie retorts, slumping in her seat. We are currently going over projections for projects we want to add to the bar, seeing how we can financially make that happen. “But you just had one.”

“Are you having another baby?” My voice pitches at the end of my sentence with shock, somehow having missed the entire conversation.

“No.” Thea smiles and rolls her eyes, reaching for her water. “Not yet, anyway.”

“You are insane,” Annmarie says, shaking her head. “Two kids under, what? Two?”

Thea shrugs. “It’s not like we’ve already started trying. We just know we want more.”

“You’re brave,” Annmarie says. “Or crazy.”

“I think it’s great,” I say, smiling at my big sister. “The two kids you got are already great. Why not add more?”

“Suck up.” Annmarie coughs into her hand, grinning when I nudge her shoulder, her long brown hair swaying behind her.

“Shush, you,” I scold, looking back to Thea. “Logan’s on board?”

“Yup. For eventually, not for right now. Colter is making some seriously amazing baby strides, like walking.”

I squeal, remembering the video she sent last night of my nephew taking his first steps. He is seriously the cutest little nephew.

“What about you? Staying safe, missypoo?” Annmarie directs the question at me, and for a moment I frown before I realize what she’s implying.

“A baby? With David?” I scrunch my nose, before I realize I probably shouldn’t act like that at the thought of having a baby with my boyfriend.

But…no. It does not sound appealing right now.

“Not a chance,” I reply, not wanting to go into details.

“Are you guys okay?” Thea asks in a sweet voice, folding over some paperwork and setting it aside.

“Oh yeah. We’re great.” I smile at her, but something in her expression doesn’t seem to buy my answer.

“Great as in, ‘I think I’ll marry the guy one day,’ or great as in, ‘This is fun…for now?’” Annmarie’s question is innocent, yet loaded.

I’m not quite sure how to respond.

“We’ve only been dating for five months. How soon do you know you want to spend your life with someone?”

The question is rhetorical, so I’m surprised that both sisters answer, “Not long.”

I glance back and forth between them, uncomfortable for some reason. “Well, maybe I’m wired different.”

“Maybe,” Thea says, but doesn’t sound sure.

“Or…” Annmarie starts with a flip of her hand, and I can tell by the look on her face that I’m probably not going to like what she has to say next. “Just maybe, you’re not with the guy you are supposed to be with.”

Lead settles in my gut at her words, and I frown. “I don’t know if that’s true.”

“Annmarie! Don’t put that in her head.”

“What? We all know—” A thud cuts off her sentence, and she yelps, reaching down to rub her leg and glaring at Thea.

“What’s going on?” I ask, settling back into my seat.

“Nothing,” Thea responds, smiling warmly at me. “We just want you to be happy.”

“Yeah.” Annmarie nods. “Of course that’s all we want.”

I open my mouth to question them more, but Annmarie interrupts. “All right, down to business. We have an hour before opening, and I want to chat about how to expand the back patio for more space.”

The conversation starts to flow about work, and I have to push aside all the doubt and unease from my sister’s words earlier. Somehow, I have a feeling she was going to say something I wouldn’t like, which, of course, is something Annmarie has a knack for doing.

Now, they’ve seamlessly moved onto other topics, and my brain is divided between listening and worrying about what she was going to say.

“Okay, this sounds like it could be feasible. Do we want to get a contractor out here to get it started?”

Thea’s question pulls me back in, and I clear my throat. “Should we ask Graham Trevors? It’s not his usual, but he did redo Felicity’s house and did an amazing job.”

“Good idea. I’d rather hire local, anyway.”

We jot down everything in our notes and compare what kinds of things we want to see this year. It is February, so there is still the chance of snow to come until at least May up here, sometimes even June at our elevation, but having a plan makes the work easier.

“Are we expecting a crowd tonight?” Thea asks. Since having Colter, we’ve rarely made her work weekends, and especially not as many nights.

“Not too bad, though I did hear from Amelia there is a decent sized group on a business retreat at The Lodge,” I say, referring to the manager of the large resort a little further up the mountain. It was slowly but surely becoming a must-see destination.

“Okay. Well, we should have Mitch back tonight, so that will be good timing,” Annmarie says, and I feel my heart stop cold.

“Mitch is back?” My voice is almost monotone, but I can’t help or stop the question from spilling from my mouth.

“Yep. He texted he would be back to work tonight.”

The girls keep chatting, but my mind checks out completely. Thoughts run through my brain faster than I can keep up.

I can’t keep having this reaction to the man who doesn’t want me.

This has to stop.