Page 70 of Say the Words
“We want to be surprised,” Annie said. “I’m hoping for a girl, but I’ll be happy either way.”
The last part was just talk. Annie wanted a girl in the worst way—not a thing most mothers-to-be were willing to admit.
“She wants a little more femininity. Our house is mostly football games and armpit noises.” Dylan put one hand up his shirt to demonstrate, but Wade stopped him. “Not at the dinner table, little buddy.”
“I’ve only got granddaughters,” Marilyn said. “And they have their share of that, too. It’s always what you least want them to do that’s the most interesting, isn’t it?”
“What’s the point if it isn’t forbidden?” Pop asked.
Every time I visited, Dylan and Beau entertained me with an alarming assortment of rude noises that resulted in squeals of delight from each other and a faint queasiness in me. A wonder Annie didn’t mainline Tylenol against the headache of nonstop raspberry sounds.
“Jed,” Marilyn said after a few minutes. “How are you adjusting to life back home?”
A standard question for a somewhat recently returned vet, but something in either her sincerity or the situation must have affected him. He didn’t spout off a cheeky response like he usually did, anyway. “I’m getting there.”
His answer was more than he normally allowed himself to admit. After twelve years in and out of a war zone, he had seen and done things I would never dare ask him about, and he’d never offered to tell me. I knew he was happy to be home, but he had such a fun-loving attitude most days, I was ashamed to admit I didn’t often think about what he was homefrom.
“Now, all you need is to find a good woman and settle down,” Pop said.
Jed’s smile lit up his whole face. “And ruin my streak of bad women?”
Pop shook his head, glancing significantly from him to Marilyn. She laughed, though, spoiling the reprimand.
“You’ll find her when you least expect to,” she told Jed. “They always do.”
“Then I guess she should show up any minute now.” He looked over his shoulder like the devil himself was about to walk through the door, bride in tow.
“So, June,” Marilyn said as if contractually required to speak to each of us in turn. “I understand you’ve been helping Ty out around his ranch.”
I looked sideways at Ty. Was he as tired of the same line of conversation as I was? Whatever he thought about the question didn’t show in his face. He chewed his dinner like he was just trying to make it through the night.
“I’ve been doing what little I can. I don’t know much about horses.”
“I’m sure it’s appreciated.”
Ty recognized his cue to speak up. “She’s been a big help. She might not have the experience, but she’s got plenty of enthusiasm.”
Jed stifled a laugh. If I’d been nearer to him, I would have aimed a sharp kick to his shin. I made a mental note to deliver the kick later.
“You never had horses out here, then?” Marilyn asked Pop.
“Never saw the need. Although that didn’t stop this one from begging for one every day from when she was seven until seventeen.” He hooked a thumb at me. “‘We can use them in the orchards’, she said. ‘They’ll pay for themselves,’ she said.”
“My methods would have worked,” I told him.
Ty turned to me. “What methods?”
“I had grand schemes of riding my horse through the peach trees, picking fruit as I went.”
His mouth curled into a smile. “Innovative.”
“It would have saved ushundredson ladders.”
“This must be living your dream, then,” Marilyn said to me. “Being out there on a horse ranch every day.”
I wasn’t sure I would call shoveling manureliving the dream, but I couldn’t quite argue the point. My days were long and hard, but satisfying in a way I couldn’t explain, and didn’t really want to discuss in front of present company. “Doesn’t every little girl dream about riding horses?”
“Oh, I know my oldest granddaughter does. Marnie is six, and she tells me every chance she gets that she’ll just be absolutely distraught if her Daddy doesn’t put in a horse pen for her. They’ve barely got room for a dog house let alone a horse and barn, but you know how kids are.”
