Page 28 of Solitude

Even when they had nothing, they gave back.

Beth, Cole’s mother, is one of the best cooks I know. She’s a jack of all trades around here, and she’s part of the reason I can navigate a kitchen as well as I can.

About a year ago, Cole invited me to have lunch on the ranch on a random Saturday, and it sparked an instant bond between his family and me. Beth gave me an unofficial part-time job helping her whenever I had time away from Sugar. During that time, she taught me how to work the stove and oven, how to chop vegetables, and even how to make homemade bread.

Now, I make sure I’m on the ranch bright and early to help peel potatoes and knead dough. My help takes a load off of Beth as well, and I enjoy seeing her relax more after becoming such a maternal figure in my life.

As if on cue, Beth flits into the kitchen with a grin on her bright red lips and a denim apron over her pale yellow dress. Her dark, graying hair is in a claw clip, a jumbled mess of strands that falls all around her face. She kisses Cole on the cheek, a smudge of red left behind, before she comes and does the same to me.

“Where’s your daddy, kiddo?”

Cole rolls his eyes at the endearment but says nothing. “At the barns with Matt, I guess. I only got here ten minutes ago.”

Beth clicks her tongue. “Long shift?”

Cole shrugs, arms crossing over his chest. “No different from the usual around here.”

“There’s not really any crime in the Hollow, is there?” I ask, genuinely curious, but then I smirk at him. “I figured you’d want to be wherever the action is, hotshot.”

“There’s crime everywhere, Win,” he states incredulously, like he can’t believe I genuinely might think Magnolia Hollow is crime-free. “There’s plenty of action for me here.”

Beth pats her son on the shoulder and picks up the cupcake he’d swiped his grubby fingers through already, offering it to him with a grin. “You’re the heart of this Hollow, kid. Now eat this, and keep your fingers away from Winnie’s cupcakes, you hear me?”

Cole grabs the cake and kisses her cheek. “Yes, ma’am.” He shoots me a wink as he splits the cupcake in half to make a sandwich out of it.

Cole and Beth continue to talk around me as I finish the cupcakes and move them aside, so I can shape the dough to make a few pans of rolls. They should’ve been baking in the oven a few minutes ago, but I should’ve known Cole would have me flapping my jaws more than usual, goading me along into the conversation instead of focused.

I’m tucking and rolling my third small ball of doughwhen the kitchen door swings open, booming voices entering the room, and startling me.

Calvin Fletcher claps his son on the back and gives me a one-armed hug before wrapping his arms around Beth’s middle, kissing her neck.

Their love sends flutters through my heart.

It makes me believe in the sappier things in life, like soulmates and true love and love at first sight. The things my parents made me think couldn’t possibly exist.

Matt hugs me, too, ruffling my blonde hair before punching his brother in the arm, which ultimately results in a back and forth that I don’t enjoy being in the crosshairs for, and I back away before I get swept away in their antics.

“Lemon strawberry cupcakes?”

I send Matt a small, knowing grin. “She said she wanted them so…”

Matt shakes his head and chuckles. “You’ll spoil her. She’s four. My daughter doesn’t need to have control over the desserts yet.”

“Nonsense,” Beth interjects. “What my Blake wants is what she’ll get. You’re the dad. You’re the only one who has to tell her no.”

“Yeah, and I have to hear Naomi complain about it at every swap. She has a sweets radar, mama.”

Beth waves her hand and scoffs. “She does not. She has a ‘let me make Matt miserable’ radar, and you let her think she’s got you by the balls, son.”

The snort leaves me before I can stop it. I’ve only met Naomi, Matt’s ex-wife and Blake’s mother, a handful of times. She’s a tiny, fiery brunette with an attitude that’s unexpected. I think she and Matt get along for the most part until one of them starts dating again. Then all the good co-parenting they’ve been practicing goes right out the window.

Beth and Calvin say it’s been pretty textbook. They divorced two years ago, and Beth says that’s not enough time to fully move on from the situation for either of them yet.

Matt’s been rather vocal about how much he doesn’t want to date again. How being a single dad and helping his father run the ranch is enough for him to handle in a day without adding a woman to the mix.

“Mama,” Matt groans, scrubbing his hands over his face. “She’s still Blake’s mom.”

Beth holds up her hands, mouth wide. “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. Blake isn’t even here.”

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