Blackhill Ranch (20 page)

When I pulled back, her
eyes were also filling with moisture so we let out a little laugh.
She looked over at Chloe and gave her a tight hug as well. Wyatt
was being shy and kept his head buried in his mom's shirt, but I
finally bribed him to look up when I said I had a lollipop for
him.

I stopped and smiled when
I saw his sweet round face. He looked just like Sarah. The Native
American gene must be a strong one because he had her dark raven
hair, and the same exact skin tone. His eyes were almond shaped,
just like hers. The only thing he must have gotten from his dad was
his eye color, they were bright green, instead of chestnut like his
mommas.

“Hi, Wyatt. I'm Lexi,” He
smiled and took the sucker from my hands. Sarah told him to say
thank you but it just sounded more like, “Nk ooo”. I laughed and
asked her how her flight was.

“Really good. Wyatt was
great and slept the entire flight. Well, except when we landed.
Thank you again, Lexi. I have been waiting for this for a long
time.” We hugged again and Chloe grabbed their backpack and small
bag as we headed back to my car.

Sarah had brought a car
seat, which was great because I didn't even think about that, and
we strapped Wyatt in. He was quiet all the way to the ranch and
Sarah, Chloe, and I caught up on our past year. Sarah told us how
Josh had broken her heart, but it ended up okay because she was
better off with just her and Wyatt. I told her how great she looked
and Cole wasn't mad at all that they were coming out, maybe nervous
but not mad. She shook her head and started talking about how maybe
this was a mistake but I had faith it would work out in the
end.

When we arrived back home,
Rhet and my dad were sitting outside of the lodge waiting for us.
Sarah looked over at me with a panicked look, and I grabbed her
hand for reassurance and told her she would be okay.

Rhet greeted us first and
gave Sarah a hug and tickled Wyatt under his chin. Sarah and Rhet
had become good friends, and I know he was happy to see her, even
though he was really upset with her as well. He seemed to be ready
to move past that one stupid night she had.

“Sarah, looking good!”
Rhet whistled and she blushed a little and slapped his arm. He
picked up Wyatt like they were long lost friends, and started to
pretend he was a little airplane. Wyatt giggled and screamed, which
made him spit a little all over Rhet's face. We all quietly laughed
as Rhet grabbed his shirt to pull it up to wipe off the
slobber.

I looked over at Chloe as
she spotted the infamous chest I was always talking about. I gave
her a wicked smile and she looked at me and mouthed, “Ooooh yeah.”
I put my hand over my mouth to stop the loud giggle trying to
escape, and turned my attention to my dad.

“Sarah, it's nice to see
you again, dear,” he said and reached over to give her a small hug.
She put her head down on his shoulder and squeezed him gently, and
whispered a 'thank you' into his ear. Rhet grabbed their bags and
we walked her over to the lodge to get her settled into her
room.

Wyatt seemed like he was
getting a little hungry, and since Tina had the day off and was
rekindling her friendship with Carol, we decided we would go into
the kitchen and find something to whip up for lunch.

Just as we were all about
to head out of the lodge, Cole walked in and stopped dead in his
tracks when he saw Sarah. Wyatt looked over at him and said, “Hi!”
really loud which made us all chuckle.

Cole tore his eyes away
from Sarah and looked over at Wyatt. “Well hi, yourself,” Cole said
and walked straight to him. Wyatt immediately reached out for him
and Cole took him in his arms. Wyatt put his hands on Cole's face
and said something that sounded a little like Chinese, but it made
Cole laugh and he gave him a gentle kiss on his cheek.

We all swooned and I felt
like it was time for us to go, so I shot a look over to Chloe and
nodded my head towards the door, and she caught my hint right away.
She coughed loud, which made everyone jump and they looked over at
her. “Well I am famished. Who wants to come find some lunch with
me?” she asked and looked over at my dad and Rhet.

I chimed in right away.
“Me, come on guy let's go give these two a minute to catch up,” I
said quickly and smiled over at my brother. His eyes looked misty
and I reached my arms out for Wyatt, who apparently loves me as
much, or the fact that I was associated with lollipops, because he
squealed and jumped right over to my arms. My dad and Rhet walked
out first leaving Chloe and me in the back. I turned around to see
if my brother was okay and my breath stopped when I saw him and
Sarah in a tight embrace, with tears running down her
face.

I gave Wyatt a hug and
said a silent prayer in my head that they would be able to work
things out, I was more than ready to forgive Sarah and hoped my
brother was, too. It would be so nice to have Sarah and Wyatt back
home with us.

“Me, down.” Wyatt said
with the cutest little voice I have ever heard.

“You want down?” I asked
making sure I was translating his toddler talk into real English.
He shook his head yes and pointed down to the ground. “Okay, but
you have to hold my hand.” I laughed when I let him go and he took
off in front of me giggling.

I finally grabbed his hand
and led him to the kitchen where the others had already made it in
and were pulling out some left overs from yesterday's
BBQ.

“Does he eat food yet, or
mushed up stuff?” Chloe asked and looked down at Wyatt. “Do you
like hot dogs and hamburgers?” she asked and he shook his head yes
and then hid behind my dress.

“They start eating real
food around a year,” Rhet said and chuckled under his breath. Chloe
stopped and stared at him suspiciously. “I have two nephews,” Rhet
replied quickly, and shrugged his shoulders.

My dad walked over and
picked Wyatt up into his arms. “Hey, buddy. Man you are big. I bet
you have huge muscles like Hercules, huh?” he said and barked out a
huge laugh when Wyatt flexed one of his arms, but then got
embarrassed and covered his face with one of his hands. “Come with
me, let's go get a table ready.” He was still chuckling when we
walked out of the kitchen.

I looked over at Chloe and
Rhet, “Man, I hope this ends well. I don't know what time will be
harder to say goodbye to them, now or a year ago,” I said sadly and
started to grab some condiments out of the fridge.

“I know, I can't imagine
Cole letting her leave a second time, but I don't know what's going
to happen. I don't think he knows what's going to
happen.”

We all were quiet for the
rest of lunch, except for laughing and joking around with Wyatt.
Once he let his guard down a little he was a hilarious kid. My
brother and Sarah never came down for lunch and we were all hoping
they were having a long much-needed conversation.

Chloe's phone went off
after lunch and she broke out in a huge shit-eating grin and winked
over at me. I mouthed, “Camden?” and she shook her head and excused
herself from lunch. Wyatt started yawning and kept trying to lay
his head down on my dad's shoulder.

“He seems tuckered out, I
may go lay him down back in my room for a little while. It's nice
and dark back there,” he said and smiled when Wyatt climbed up into
his arms and instantly nuzzled his face into his chest. “Let Sarah
know he's with me okay?” my dad told us and headed out the door
with the cutest little boy tucked up into his arms.

Rhet and I stared at each
other for a little while before he grabbed my hands and whispered,
“I love you.”

I smiled and whispered it
back. “Are we really engaged?” I said and he burst out laughing. “I
know I'm amazing, but you have got to quit proposing to me, it's
going to be like the boy how cried wolf. I'll never know when
you're serious.” I said with a hint of sarcasm in my
voice.

“You'll know when it's the
real deal.” He said quietly and I squeezed his hand.

Rhet and I sat there for a
little longer until Chloe came back in from her phone call. She had
a huge grin on her face, and sat down and clapped her hands
together. “Just tell us, I know it's killing you,” I teased as she
let out a little scream.

“Camden bought me a plane
ticket to Denver! I'm flying out next weekend, he wants me to come
see the city. Maybe I'll fall in love with it as fast as I did with
him.” She blushed and didn't ignore that we heard her now say the
'L' word too.

“See, Chloe. I knew it
wasn't over.” I smiled and hugged her gently, but whispered, “And
yes, I heard the big love word.”

She sighed in my ear and
whispered back, “I do.”

“Well, this girlie thing
you have going on has been fun, but I'm going to go let the horses
out for a while. It's supposed to be a really nice evening,” Rhet
said while putting his cap back on. He tipped it to us, and gave me
a quick wink.

“I better go tell Sarah
that my dad has Wyatt, just in case she comes looking for him and
I'm not here.”

“Cool, I'll clean up.” She
smiled and started picking up our plates and the rest of the left
overs.

“You are really a great
friend Chloe Rachelle. I love your face.” I said and gave her a big
kiss on the cheek. She laughed and slapped my butt when I turned
around.

As I was walking down the
path towards the lodge, I stopped and thought about all the things
that had changed since I had been back at the ranch. I had met my
love, Chloe had met hers, Cole was back with his, hopefully, and my
dad found Tina. I smiled and looked up at the sky and said 'Thank
you' quietly. When I stepped in the lodge and peeked in Sarah's
room, it was empty. '
Hmm... Maybe they
went to his cabin to talk
?' I thought and
decided I would go and check.

When I got to Cole and
Rhet's cabin, I grabbed the door-knob and twisted it open. I
thought I heard some voices in his room, so I knocked lightly and
went to open his door. It was locked, but I heard a few cuss words
and a rustling sound. I pulled my eyebrows up and thought, 'Isn't
this interesting?'.

Cole finally opened the
door about thirty-seconds later, and was just pulling his shirt
over his head. He looked at me with a surprised look and I
instantly blushed, realizing what I was interrupting.

“Hey, so yeah I just came
down to tell Sarah that dad has Wyatt, and he's napping in his
room.”

Cole nodded his head,
“Yeah, sounds good. I'll tell her.” He said and tried to close the
door behind him so I couldn't see Sarah sitting in his bed with a
sheet up against her.

“Okay cool.”

“Yeah cool.”

“This is awkward,” I
laughed and he started to laugh too. I turned to leave, but then
looked over my shoulder. “I'm glad you forgave her.” I said with a
wink and his cheeks started to show a red glow as he went back into
his room.

I skipped out his room,
fist pumping, and saying ‘yes’ repeatedly in my head.

Chapter 18

That evening when Tina and
Carol returned from their day trip, we decided it would be fun to
start a bonfire and roast marsh-mallows and tell scary campfire
stories. Wyatt stayed up with us for the roasting part, but crashed
soon after. We had a playpen that worked perfect for him to sleep
in, and Sarah set up some monitors and was able to come back out
and join us.

We laughed and joked about
how bad our scary stories were, and we all were having a great
night until a red pickup pulled in quickly to the ranch, barging
through the parking area and coming straight to our bonfire. Carol
screamed and yelled that is was Chris’s, her ex husband,
truck.

My dad stood up and told
Tina to go call the cops, so she ran over to the dining hall as
fast as she could. Cole yelled at Sarah to go into her room and
stay with Wyatt, and he would come and get her when this was
over.

Rhet, my dad, and Cole
stepped up to see what this was all about as very drunk man
stumbled out of his truck and tried to focus on who he was looking
at, “Which one of you assholes is sleeping with my wife?” he
stammered and Rhet walked up first telling him to calm down. “Fuck
you! I'll kill each one of you motherfuckers!” He said and swayed
to his left while trying to punch in the air.

Carol put her hand over
her mouth to contain her whimper, but it was too late, Chris
spotted her immediately. I grabbed her other hand and pulled her
into me. “You fucking bitch!” he yelled and started to move towards
us.

Cole jumped forward and
pushed against his chest, “No sir, you are not getting close to
her. You get back in your truck and get the hell out of here if you
know what's good for you.”

He laughed and had a nasty
snarl on his face and looked back over at Carol. “I told you, you
fucking whore, that if you ever left me I would put a fucking
bullet in your head,” he slurred the last part, and suddenly
reached into the back of his pants and pulled out a 45. We all
gasped and my dad told him to take it easy. “Take it easy?” He
grunted and starting waving the gun around like a mad
man.