Retta smiled. “No, I just got into the habit of calling him a boy.”
Travis chuckled. “You know, you’ve called himheso often that it’ll be strange if it’s a girl.”
They all looked up when Ty appeared at the corner of the house and called, “Hey! Are you guys going to hang out back here for the whole afternoon or are you going to come and join us?”
“On our way,” called Travis.
He sat Retta in the wheelchair, but before he could take the handles, Frankie got there first.
“I’ll bet that Ty wants you to give him a hand, Trav. Do you want to come and hang out with the girls, Retta?”
“I’d love to.”
Travis laughed as Frankie pushed her away. “It’s a good thing you want to, darlin’,” he called after them. “It’s not like she was giving you any choice in the matter.”
He could hear her laughing, and Frankie just waved over her shoulder without turning back.
He trotted up the steps to where Ty was working the grill. Tanner came out from the kitchen and handed him a beer.
“How’s it going, Trav? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Everything’s going great. The cabins are coming along. I’m sure Ty’s told you all about the restaurant. And the plan for the rest of the place is slowly coming together. How about you, Tan? What’s going on in your world?”
“It’s business as usual for me – working the horses during the day, working behind the bar at Chico in the evenings.”
“How many nights a week do you work there?”
“Just the weekends usually, but I cover some nights during the week when they need me.”
Ty grinned at him. “Seems to me that you’re covering more and more since you’re the last man standing.”
“The last man standing?” asked Travis. “I don’t get it.”
Tanner rolled his eyes. “He means since the rest of them are all coupled up. Ty and Luke used to be my wingmen, but now, they have Shay and Laney.” He shrugged. “I don’t blame them for staying home with their girls instead of coming out with me. I’d do the same in their position.”
Travis cocked an eyebrow. “That sounds like you wouldn’t mind being in that position?”
Tanner shrugged again, and Ty chuckled and said, “Trav’s right, you know – you used to give us a hard time, but lately I feel like I’m sensing a little bit of envy there, Tan.”
“What do you want me to say? I never thought the day would come when the thought of staying home with one girl was more appealing than the thought of going out with as many as I can but…”
Travis grasped his shoulder. “But that day is finally here?”
“Maybe. I won’t know until I meet the kind of girl who I’d want to stay home with.”
Ty laughed. “You might have to start looking in a different place, then. The only girls you meet at Chico are the kind you want to take home for the night – and that’s a lot different from staying home with them.”
Tanner laughed. “Tell me something I don’t know. But where the hell am I supposed to look?”
“I’ve told you, I’m a convert to the whole online dating thing since I met Shay. I was more skeptical than you were in the beginning, but we all know that it’s the best thing I ever did.”
Tanner made a face. “It couldn’t have worked out better for you, I’m not denying that, but it wasn’t really online dating that brought Shay into your life, was it? It was all because of April knowing you both and connecting you. I feel like you got so lucky that lightning won’t strike in the same place twice.”
Travis nodded. “For what it’s worth, I’m with you, Tan. I love how it worked out for Ty and Shay, but I think you’re more likely to meet your match while you’re just going about your life.”
Tanner grinned at him. “You mean the way you met Retta?”
He grinned. “I guess I do. I just got lucky. If you think about it, if I hadn’t barged in on Kolby and Callie while they were talking to her on a video call, things might not have worked out as well as they have.”