Page 30 of The Archer and his Rosebud

“Not even for Eli’s birthday?” I tease. Though, if she said she wanted to be there, we’d make room.

“Sorry, Arrow, you’ll just have to do without the Hawthorne girls for a few days. Tell Eli I’ll make him a cake next time they’re here.”

* * *

With the SUVweighed down and two hyper boys in tow, I jump on I-89 after picking them up from school Friday and make the 40-minute drive to Grand Isle State Park. One of the promises I made to Leah long ago was to raise our boys the way our fathers raised us. All the hunting, fishing, and camping a Texas-born kid could want. Our upbringing had us outside getting dirty and playing hard from sunup to sundown. When she married Kurt, a good man but the opposite of me in so many ways, she worried Nolan and Eli would never know that ruff and tumble life. Our laid-back, southern roots. For all the ways she’s changed, her appreciation for our history hasn’t. Our childhood years are full of good memories. Memories I want to recreate for our sons, even if we’re not doing them together as a family like we’d planned as teens.

“I think your momma and I were about your age, Nol, the first time her and Gramps went camping with Aunt Paige, Pop Pop, and me.”

“She told us last night while she was helping us pack,” Eli calls from the other side of the tent I’m trying to get tied down. “Momma said you taught her how to fish.”

“I sure did.”

Nolan hands me the mallet when I pull the tent corner taut. “She also said Aunt Paige cried for two hours because you put worms down her shirt.”

“I did that, too,” I admit, my voice a stage whisper. Let’s pray these two don’t repeat my childhood antics this weekend.

Eli’s giggles float between the strike of a mallet to stake.Little eavesdropper.

“Do you like Willa?” Nolan shoves his hands into his pockets and kicks at the ground.

Dropping to my knee, I sit on the grass and set the mallet aside. “Nol?”

“I heard Momma telling Kurt you must like her since she’s around so much. She was angry.”

Eli’s blue gaze pops around the tent, and I wave him over. My boy plops down in the grass beside me in true shadow fashion, his attention set on me in earnest. “Why do you think she was angry?”

“She told Kurt you don’t have time to raise someone else’s baby. That your attention should be on us.”

Dammit, Leah.My hands shake. “I want you two to listen to me real good now, okay?” I rub the sweat from my forehead and meet their eyes before continuing. “Nothing and nobody will ever change how I feel about you two or take away from our time together. You got that? Nothing.”

“But—”

“Nope. No buts, kid. If I decide to get remarried someday like your momma did, that won’t change how important you are. She loves you the same, doesn’t she? Even though she loves Kurt.”So help me if they disagree. That woman will never hear the end of my wrath.

Eli bumps into my side. “She says she loves us more than all the stars in the sky.”

“That’s right. And I love you more than all the fishies in the sea, don’t I?” He nods with that grin that’s morphed from child to boy. Damn, how is he turning six already? “Nolan?”

Chewing on his lips, Nolan shrugs. “I don’t want you to go away again.”

Knife meet chest.

“Hey”—I grab his shorts and tug him into my lap—“I’m not going anywhere, bud. I’m sorry.” I press a kiss to his thick hair and squeeze him tight. “I moved here to be with you boys. I love you both so, so much. Do you not like Willa? Does my hanging out with her and Clementine upset either of you?”

My tension dials back a notch when they shake their heads. “I love Clemmy,” Eli says. “I told momma she should have a baby and she laughed at me.”

Nolan scrambles from my lap and sits in front of us. “That’s because Kurt doesn’t like kids.”

I struggle to curb my frown. “Kurt likes you two. He just doesn’t want kids of his own.” Leah shared that story during a wine-fueled rant where she begged me to give her another chance. I refused, and weeks later, she married him.

“What do you say we finish putting this tent up so we can go exploring?”

Eli yelps with excitement. “I wanna put the nail in the ground!”

“The stake, and I’ll let you help. Go grab that back corner and pull it tight.”

When Eli’s out of sight, I hand Nolan the mallet. “I do like Willa, bud, a lot, but we’re friends right now, okay?”

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