Page 97 of High Velocity

She shakes her head. “He’s never gonna go for it.”

I grin at her. “Oh, I think he might.”

Glancing back at Jonas, I put my fingers in my mouth and blow. His head swings around at my sharp whistle, and I motion for him to join us. He immediately wanders over.

“You’re back,” he states the obvious. “Did everything with Stephanie’s apartment get sorted?”

I’d used that as an excuse when I sent them a message yesterday to let them know we wouldn’t be back until this morning. I wasn’t about to share I was taking Stephanie for dinner and then a private night at the Red Lion Hotel to celebrate.

“It did.”

I hand him a box of books from the back of the truck and give Ma a basket of bathroom linens to carry inside. I follow behind with the rest of Stephanie’s books.

She’s already inside, putting on a pot of coffee, and turns around when we file into the cabin. Her eyes find mine right away and I shrug in response to the question I read in them.

“Where do you want these?” Jonas asks.

“If you wouldn’t mind putting them under the window in the living room for now? I’ll figure out where to put those later.”

“If you don’t have room here, feel free to find a home for them in the big house,” Ma offers. “You may as well, you’ll be moving in there soon enough.”

“Not if those yahoos keep dragging their asses the way they do,” Jonas grumbles. “It’ll never get done.”

“Maybe they could get some work done if you weren’t breathing down their necks all the time,” my mother fires back, handing me the opening I need.

“You guys should take a trip,” I suggest, shooting a pointed look at Ma to weigh in.

“I wish we could,” she chimes in. “The dirt and the constant noise of the construction is starting to get to me. I get headaches, my body is aching, and I haven’t been sleeping well either.”

As expected, that gets my stepfather’s attention.

“You should see the doctor.”

“I don’t need to see a doctor; I need to get away from here for a bit.”

“I promise, I’ll take you wherever you want to go after construction is finished,” he returns. “We’ll have all the time in the world to travel.”

While the two of them are hashing it out, I’ve made my way over to Stephanie and drape an arm over her shoulders.

“Actually,” I interject. “I would strongly suggest using what’s left of this summer to get any traveling you were hoping to do out of the way, because there’s no way you’ll be able to get Ma away from the ranch after March of next year, and you may not wanna go either.”

Stephanie snuggles into my side, putting her hand on my chest. She knows where I’m going with this.

“Why the hell not?” Jonas demands to know.

“Because you’re both going to want to stick around for the arrival of your first grandchild.”

Epilogue

Alex

“Is that them?”

Ama almost shoves me out the front door to get a look at the approaching vehicle.

“Yes, it is, and back off,” I snap. “It’s my turn now.”

Several months ago, Ama got to welcome her gorgeous first granddaughter, Sage, home and I’m not proud to admit I’ve been green with envy. But I’m damned well going to make sure I’ll be the first to greet my brand-new grandson.

---