Page 14 of Sweet Surrender

“Sure,” Tripp said. “But why are you so off today?”

“No reason,” Zane said with shrug. “Felt cooped up in the creamery, I guess.”

“Boys okay?” Tripp asked, concern in his normally twinkly eyes.

“They’re fine,” he replied.

He wondered sometimes if the family would ever stop worrying about Nick and Cal. Or if he would ever stop feeling a wave of gratitude himself every time he remembered that they were healthy and strong.

“One of ‘em’s got a new teacher,” Tripp said, waggling his eyebrows. “And I already heard she’s a looker.”

Zane couldn’t help wondering where on earth Tripp had heard something like that. But that was Tripp for you—he was as social as Zane was quiet. He probably had half the town on speed dial.

“She seemed nice,” Zane said, shrugging again and looking down to stroke Marty’s neck.

“What?” Tripp said. “Youmether? And you didn’t even tell your own brother? You sly dog. Did you put the moves on her? Hit her with the old Lawrence smolder?”

“The Lawrence smolder isn’t a thing,” Zane said, but he couldn’t help chuckling.

“Of course it’s a thing,” Tripp said, sounding affronted. “And it works. Even grumpy old Tag scored himself a bride last year. It’s like this.”

Tripp raised an eyebrow and gave Zane an intense look that he had a hard time imagining anyone taking seriously. But he couldn’t deny that it was hard to ignore. And Tripp could get away with over-the-top stuff like that. Zane thought that if he ever tried to look at a woman like his brother was looking at him now, she’d probably call the police.

“Okay. You win,” Zane said, lifting his hands in surrender. “But I just want the boys to do well in school.”

“It’s okay to want a few other things too,” Tripp said. “She’s supposed to be a real honey.”

Zane opened his mouth to ask Tripp whyhedidn’t just give her the Lawrence smolder if he was so fired up about her. But his stomach twisted and he felt almost sick inside at the thought of his brother dating the pretty schoolteacher.

Why am I worried about that?

“I guess we should go get some lunch, brother,” Tripp said, glancing up at the sky. “Dad’s making chili, and that means?—”

“Cornbread,”they both said at once.

Dad’s chili was amazing, and Mom’s cornbread was nothing short of a revelation. And now that Dad wasn’t working the farm much, he was putting some of his leftover energy into cooking. Which meant that lunches were sometimes the best meal of the day.

The two of them rode off for the barn, the clop of the horses’ hooves and their harsh breath the only sounds in the quiet landscape.

Though Zane sometimes wondered if Nick and Cal might benefit from all the things the city had to offer, he only everhad to look around to remember why he was never tempted to uproot them from Sugarville Grove. He wanted them to grow up surrounded by the same gift of peace and natural beauty his parents had given to him.

When the boys were older, they would make their own decisions. But Zane truly couldn’t imagine living anywhere without that view of open fields anchored by blue mountains.

“I’ll get the horses,” Caleb called out from the barn as they approached.

Caleb was one of the hands they’d hired on this year. He was a great guy and seemed to appreciate the work.

“You sure?” Tripp asked him. “Our mom’s got chili and cornbread going up at the house.”

Mom and Dad often invited the hands to eat lunch with them.

“I’m leaving early today,” Caleb said, grinning and shaking his head. “I’ve got a thing.”

“Good man,” Tripp said with a wink.

Zane rolled his eyes and jumped down from Marty’s back, giving the horse a scratch behind his ear, and then walking up to the stone farmhouse with his brother.

Lawrence Dairy Farm was comprised of several hundred acres that sprawled all the way across the wooded hillside, down into the valley and back up again on the other side of Stone Creek, which wound through the property, and bore the name of Zane’s ancestor, Stone Lawrence, who’d been the first Lawrence to settle in these parts.

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