Page 37 of Forever After All

“A castle,” Jess mumbled.

“A castle? Like a stone fortress?”

“No, a castle like a tent.”

Linc clicked his tongue behind his teeth. “That’ll get you mediocre points compared to my gift.”

“Shut up,” Jess said as she pushed the door to the dining hall open with her hip.

Inside, Remi pointed up at Colt, who stood on a ladder with his hands above his head. A pink pinata hung from the rafters.

Remi waved her hand. “A little lower.”

Linc huffed softly beside Jess. “A pinata. That’s pretty cool.”

“I know. I never had a pinata at a party when I was little.”

“Me either.”

Jess looked up at him. “I never even had a birthday party.”

Linc’s dark eyes locked on her, and warmth brushed down her spine. If anyone understood how hard it was when your childhood was dead on arrival, it was Linc.

They hardly ever talked about the past or their families, but people who grew up in abusive homes had a different look about them. There was a spark missing in their eyes and a hardness about their shoulders.

Linc had jumped headfirst into her family’s dumpster fire when Thea had been in trouble. Brett needed help, and Linc didn’t ask why. He just got in the truck.

They’d talked about what happened that night a total of zero times, and Jess wasn’t going to ask about it. At least not yet. Knowing multiple people had come out with holes in them did nothing good for her imagination.

“Me either, but I think we turned out okay,” he whispered.

Jess swallowed, but the tightness in her throat persisted. “That’s up for debate.”

“Not in my world.”

How did he do that? Erase the hurt of the past with just a few words. If he talked enough, she might forget all the bad stuff.

Remi spotted them and pointed toward a table on the far side of the room. “Gift table is over there. Abby should be here any minute.”

They put their gifts on the table where Everly organized the boxes, bags, and cards. A full spread of breakfast foods filled the serving counter, and everyone from the ranch plus a few more familiar faces hung around in clusters, mostly separated by gender.

“Jess, come here!” Hadley hollered from a nearby table.

“I guess this is where we part ways,” Linc said before walking over to join the men.

All the women huddled around Ava, who sat cradling her stomach with a broad smile on her face. Everyone at the ranch had gotten a front-row seat to Ava’s pregnancy woes. She’d been through the ringer since the day she found out she was having a baby.

“Twenty-six weeks. I feel like your pregnancy has flown by,” Cheyenne said.

Ava huffed. “It’s different when I’ve been sick every day of those seven months.”

“I don’t know how you do it,” Hadley said.

Jess seconded Hadley’s statement. Ava’s sickness had been hard to watch, but she kept her chin up, even when it was obvious she was exhausted or feeling bad.

Babies rarely crossed Jess’s mind, mostly because they weren’t on her radar.

Yet.

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