Page 86 of Stay With Me Forever

He shook his head. “I hate to see how much Wyatt will eat as a teenager.”

Avery piped up. “Me too! Aunt Lori says I might be as tall as Aunt Abby. And I’ll need to eat a lot to get that tall.”

Her dad replied, “We’ll see, Avery. Your grandma isn’t that tall, right? So maybe you’ll take after her.”

Avery scrunched her nose. “I don’t think so. She’s very strict and serious and doesn’t laugh. I don’t want to be like her.”

West looked torn, knowing he shouldn’t talk badly about their maternal grandparents and yet he had reasons to dislike them. Ones his kids didn’t know about.

Maybe it wasn’t my place, but I felt like jumping in and sparing him. “No matter who our relatives are, we’re all different and unique. Your Uncle Zach and your dad have the same parents, but they have very different personalities, right?” Avery bobbed her head. “So I think you’re just Avery Wolfe, and if you ever stop laughing and being chatty, I’ll eat all the lavender in my fields.”

Avery giggled, and Wyatt snorted. Avery said, “That’s ridiculous.”

I shrugged. “I know you pretty well by now, and I’m sticking to my words.”

West lightly tapped his foot against mine under the table, and I met his gaze. He mouthed, “Thank you,” and I nodded.

The rest of the meal went smoothly, us talking about the upcoming festival, the kids’ swimming lessons, and how Avery and Wyatt couldn’t wait to visit my overgrown pasture fields again. But right as I was cleaning up the plates, Wyatt asked, “Are you going to get cattle again someday? I mean, you have so many fields and so much space. They’d like it here.”

I froze for a second and then found my voice. “I don’t know.”

“Why?” Wyatt asked.

Such a simple question with such a difficult answer. West looked about ready to intervene, but I beat him to it. “It would take a lot of work to start from scratch again. I sometimes miss them, but I can’t both plan weddings and run a cattle ranch. So I let the fields grow and let two little kids play in them instead.”

“But Dad could watch your cattle for you. He ran our grandparents’ place. He cursed sometimes if they were mean or would kick or be stubborn, but usually, he laughed about it afterward.”

West jumped in. “Wyatt, we don’t tell other people how to run their businesses or their lives. Emmy has a wedding and event business, and she loves it. That’s all that matters. Whatever she does with the rest of her land is her choice.”

Wyatt replied, “But, Dad, you know everything there is to know about cattle. And you hate the grapes. You said so.”

West muttered, “I didn’t think you’d heard that.”

His kids must have supersensitive hearing because Wyatt replied, “I did. You talk really loud sometimes.”

I could tell he wanted to drop it, and yet I remembered Abby telling me how West loved power tools nearly as much as cattle, and I blurted, “Is that what you want to do one day? Run your own ranch?”

As soon as I said the words, I wanted to take them back. He’d probably think I was asking him to come work for me.

Eventually, he shrugged. “Maybe someday. But for now, I’m helping my family.”

I burned to ask more questions, to learn more about West’s dreams. But Avery yawned, and West pounced on the excuse. “I think it’s time to load the dishwasher and head home.”

“No, you guys can go. I’ll do the cleanup.”

West frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Yep. You have the drive home still.”

“How do you know we didn’t walk?”

I raised my brows, nodding toward the pizza boxes—he wouldn’t walk that far without them getting cold—and he chuckled. “True. I prefer walking, but I’m not that fast.”

Avery nodded. “You don’t have any superpowers, Daddy. It would be amazing if you did. But sadly, you don’t.”

I bit back a smile as the two kids came over to me and each gave me a hug. Avery said, “Thanks, Emmy. We should be back to play the day after tomorrow.”

Wyatt jumped in. “Yeah, I want to find another salamander. And you can tell me if your friends will let me see the horses.”

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