Page 30 of Sweet Surrender

“Ourdadmade that,” Nick yelled.

“In wood shop class,” Cal added. “Whenhewas a kid.”

“That’s amazing,” she said. “And as a teacher, it makes me happy to think that something your father made when he was a student is still in use here every day.”

“You like being a teacher,” Cal said, looking up at her thoughtfully.

“Ilovebeing a teacher,” she said, looking happy enough she might float away. “I’m so lucky.”

“Here we go,” Zane said, using the key on his belt loop to unlock the door to the creamery.

Not much got locked up on the farm, but the equipment in here was valuable, and more importantly, hard to get hands on. And if they couldn’t make the ice cream, there was no point to everything else every other member of the family did here all day.

The boys darted into the dim space, and Zane gestured for Becca to follow.

“Look, Miss Hawthorne,” Nick said, pointing to one of the large, stainless-steel vats. “That’s chocolate.”

“And that’s vanilla,” Cal told her, pointing to another.

Zane smiled at how enthusiastic they were. Maybe one day they would be working here with him.

“Look at all that ice cream,” Becca said dreamily. “It makes my mouth water.”

Zane couldn’t help smiling again at her adorable reaction.

“Look! There’s anew flavor,” Nick yelled, looking at the handwritten sign by the cylinder on the far wall. “It’s ummmm… it’s… it’s…”

His voice trailed off and Zane felt his heart squeeze in sympathy. Nick just wasn’t as strong a student as Cal. It hurt to see him struggle like this. Nick’s expression had gone from wonder to shame and frustration in less than a heartbeat.

Zane was about to call out the name of the flavor for him when Becca grabbed his wrist. He looked down to see what was wrong and she silently tilted her chin toward the boys.

They both watched as Cal grabbed his brother by the hand and dragged him toward the sign.

“Come on, Nick,” Cal said excitedly. “Let’s go sound it out.”

Zane was pretty sure that Cal could read the wordsmoose trackswithout sounding them out. But he wasn’t about to show up his brother. Nick brightened up immediately and moved along with Cal toward the sign.

“Moose tracks,” Nick yelled out happily when they hadn’t quite reached it.

“Moose tracks,” Cal echoed, a big smile on his face.

Something unlocked in Zane’s heart, and he felt gratitude wash over him as he looked down at Becca in wonder.

Her gaze was already fixed on his face, and she bit her lip, looking every bit as hopeful as his boys when they wanted permission to stay up late or go into town with their cousins.

She wants this for them, this is what she wanted…

“You were right,” he heard himself murmur to her as the walls of resistance he’d put up came crumbling down. “You were exactly right.”

11

BECCA

An hour later, when her mini tour of the farm was over, Becca walked with Zane as they followed after the boys on the way back to the house.

It got dark so early this time of year that there hadn’t been time to look at half of what Nick and Cal had wanted to show her.

She had bottle-fed the most adorable little calf, seen the shining metalworks of the creamery, and watched the herd amble down the hillside on their way to their second milking of the day—black and white Holsteins and brown Jersey cows with big, beautiful eyes, all looking perfectly peaceful and content.

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