Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
W arrick opted for black military pants for family dinner. It seemed appropriate. He put a belt on to dress the pants up. He slipped on a military athletic shirt that hugged his body before putting a dress shirt on over it. He was going to war and he was prepared.
The timer went off as he laced up his combat boots. Cassidy was in the bathroom doing her hair as he entered the kitchen and turned off the oven. He opened the door and used a kitchen towel to pull out two casserole dishes.
“Mmm,” Cassidy said, walking out of the bedroom. “That smells so good. I can’t believe you made macaroni and cheese for family dinner and my favorite dessert for when we get home.”
“I can’t show up empty-handed. It would be rude.”
“I think you’re bribing the women of my family.”
Warrick winked at her as he covered the casseroles. “Is it working?”
“Considering I got no less than eight messages about how nice you are from my cousins-in-law, I would say it’s working.”
“You never wage war on only one front,” Warrick told her as he placed the casserole dishes into a large basket. “Ready?”
“Why do you look so excited for this?” Cassidy asked with a mix of suspicion and wonder.
“Sweetheart, this is like finding out the thing you’ve trained your whole life for gets you something even better than a million dollars.”
“What does this get you?” Cassidy asked, following him out of the house and to the car.
“You, Cass. It gets me you.” Warrick set his things in the back of the car and turned to find Cassidy jumping up on him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
“That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me, pookie wumpus.”
“I’ve been alone for nearly a decade, thinking only of revenge. You’ve changed my whole world, my whole future, my whole life, Cassidy. I’d do anything for you—even beat the crap out of your family a moment before embracing them all as my own. I’m pretty lucky. It’s like you, your family, and this whole town were all, waiting for me with open arms. I couldn’t do a high-society, diplomatic wife and family. A family that throws axes and has hand-to-hand combat at dinner—I can totally do. Not only do, but want to do. When can Cricket start dating? I can’t wait to torment her dates.”
“Mom texted that Cricket wore a special outfit for you tonight. I think she likes you. Don’t tell poor Aiden, but you might be her new favorite,” Cassidy told him as he carried her around to the other side of the car and opened the door for her.
“Good, because she’s my favorite too. Also, keys. It’s a date night. I’m driving,” Warrick leaned Cassidy against the car and kissed her senseless as he took the keys from her hand.
He realized as he practically bounded around the car that he was so happy he couldn’t stop smiling. He had a future to look forward to. He had love. He had a family. He had a little sister. Revenge wasn’t the only thing he had to plan anymore. He needed to talk to the guys after he beat them to a pulp. He needed to know where to buy a ring.
Warrick pulled up to the farm house and stared in wonder. “Where do I park?”
“Anywhere in this area off the house. There’s also a barn back there that you can park around, but I’d suggest closer to the road in case we need to make a quick getaway.”
Warrick parked off the gravel drive near the black four-board fence. He hurried around and opened Cassidy’s door before grabbing his gifts. “I was an only child. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Warrick told her as they walked up to the house. People were sitting on the stairs, gathering on the deck, and children were running around the house chasing each other.
“Scare you?” Cassidy asked.
“Hell no. Makes me want to have five kids of my own.”
Cassidy stumbled. “Five?”
“Is that a deal breaker? Didn’t your mom have five?”
“Not on purpose!”
“Warrick!” Cricket yelled, running straight at him at full speed.
“Yup, five. Just like you and this little one.” Warrick set down what he was carrying and dropped to a knee so he could catch Cricket as she threw herself into his arms. “Hello, Cricket. I got you something.”
Cricket looked up with such adoration that his heart nearly burst. He glanced over and saw Cassidy smiling down at them with a look in her eyes that told him he would definitely get the five kids he wanted.
“What?” she asked excitedly.
Warrick reached into the bucket he was carrying and pulled out a large sunflower. “This. It has yellow hair like you and it makes me smile like you do. And boy oh boy, I love your outfit, sunflower.”
She was wearing a camouflage print tutu with a T-shirt that said: Don’t worry about my brothers. Worry about my sisters.
Cricket flung her arms around his neck and placed a sloppy kiss on his cheek before grabbing Cassidy’s hand and then his, making him juggle the flowers with the casseroles. She talked nonstop about telling the kids at school she was getting a new big brother before Ash tagged her to be it and she ran off chasing the other kids.
Warrick handed out flowers to each woman he passed, complimenting them on everything from show jumping, to flying planes, to making weapons, to gardening until he reached Mr. and Mrs. Davies.
“Hello, sonny,” Jake said, grinning up at him. “Do I get flowers too?”
“Sorry, Mr. Davies, you’re not pretty enough. But I did get you this.” Warrick handed him a packet of beef jerky, making the old man laugh.
“I think it’s time you called me Grandpa or Jake.”
“Thank you,” Warrick told him. It meant a lot to feel as if he were part of the family. “This is for you, Mrs. Davies. Thank you for inviting me to your house.” Warrick handed her a bundle of flowers and the basket. She lifted the towel and took a deep breath.
“Grandma or Marcy, please. The mac and cheese smells delicious. Where did you get it?” Marcy asked as she handed him the basket back and stood up.
“I made it for you. You shouldn’t have to do all the cooking for us.”
Marcy put her hand to her heart. “Bless your heart. Are you trying to get me to call Father Ben? Cassidy, marry this boy so I can die happy.”
“I will when he asks, Grandma.”
A hand swatted the back of his head. “Well ask so I can really be your grandma. Now, tell me, do you bake?”
“Not as well as you,” he said, winking at her. “But I made this amazing dessert tonight that turned out to be Cassidy’s favorite. Who knew?”
They walked into the house chatting until he realized everyone had gone quiet. The women were all smiling and sniffing their flowers, while the men were all glaring. Marcy let out a sigh and shook her head. “Fine. Go. Get this over with. The boy made mac and cheese. He’s a keeper. You have one hour until dinner. Whoever isn’t back by then doesn’t get any dessert.”
The cousins raced out the door. Dylan grabbed Warrick’s arm, dragging him along with him as the uncles followed behind. Warrick looked over his shoulder to find Cassidy leaning against the door.
“Have fun, Warrick. Don’t break anything,” Cassidy called out.
“We’ll try not to break him,” Dylan replied.
“I wasn’t talking about him. I was reminding him not to break all y’all!”
Warrick chuckled and shot a triumphant grin at Dylan’s scowl.
They walked along the fields until they reached a back pasture that was laid out in stations. “This is fantastic,” Warrick said, looking around.
“Aye,” Grant said as he and Dalton had been allowed to tag along. “Can we play too?”
“This is Warrick’s night,” Jace said, crossing his arms over his chest. “But we could use you to declare the winner of each station.”
“Why are there are bunch of spoons over there?” Dalton asked, but got shushed.
“First station,” Dylan said to Warrick as they stopped next to a table with two ropes on them. “Wyatt, I’ll let you explain.”
Wyatt, the veterinarian and horse farm owner came forward. “We cousins agreed the in-laws might be a little biased since they already like you, so all stations will be led by brothers and cousins only. However, to make this station a little more interesting, I am going to ask the in-laws to participate.”
Nash and Sebastian didn’t look amused and that alone made Warrick smile. They’d been good to him, the in-laws, but now it was every man for himself.
“Deacon and Matt,” Wyatt said, getting their attention., “this station is who can lasso the goats while being charged from the side by either Deacon or Matt. Both men will stand fifty yards to our sides and charge us as soon as Dylan releases the goats. First person to lasso their goat and bring them under control wins.”
“What happens if we reach you all?” Deacon asked.
“You get to move to hand-to-hand,” Wyatt grinned. “Let’s see how good Warrick is on concentration while fighting off an attack.”
“No problem,” Warrick said, reaching for his lasso.
“Did I mention the goats like to headbutt you?” Wyatt smirked and Warrick shrugged.
“Did you know I was stationed at several Middle Eastern embassies as a kid?” Warrick asked conversationally as they got into position and as Dylan brought out two very angry goats.
“So what?” Wyatt asked before yelling for Matt and Deacon to charge. They did, along with the goats.
“Do you know that goats are very common in those areas? One of my best friends was a goat herder.” Warrick waited as the goat and Deacon charged him. At the last minute, he tossed the lasso over the goat’s neck, yanking him forward. He grabbed a horn with one hand and placed the other hand under the goat’s chin, gaining complete control over the goat while Wyatt was wrestling to get his goat under control. Deacon stopped and began to walk while Matt slammed into Wyatt since his goat wasn’t under control.
The goat got loose, jumped Wyatt, and charged Grant.
“Someone capture this wee beastie!” Grant began running with the goat hot on his heels. Dalton was laughing so hard it was hard for him to hold his phone steady as he filmed his friend instead of helping him.
“Point, Warrick,” Dalton called out between guffaws.
Porter grabbed the rope and got the goat under control. “I told you. You should have left it at just lassoing. But no, you’re the large animal vet. You know how to take down a bull surely you can take down a goat,” Porter told Wyatt, who was not looking happy at losing.
“Next station!” Dylan sounded mad and Warrick loved it. “Ryan is up. Archery. You get three arrows. The person with the most points wins. Oh, and the targets move.”
Ryan picked up his bow and set the arrows on the table next to him. Warrick followed suit. Targets were on a track that moved randomly right and left from center.
“This is fun.” Warrick winked at Ryan and watched the motion of the targets. He was getting a feel for it when Ryan shot the first arrow and hit a bullseye.
“Try to beat that,” Ryan taunted.
“Okay.” Warrick focused in on the target, slowly moving his aim to adjust for the movement and then let go of the string. The arrow shot forward and hit the bullseye. He quickly notched another arrow, aimed, and hit a second bullseye. Each one getting closer and closer to center.
Ryan shot next and also hit the bullseye. So far, they were equal.
“Tie breaker,” Dalton said. “Winner takes all.”
Warrick didn’t see it, but he felt it. The punch to the kidney right before he let the last arrow fly. The surprised grunt from Ryan told him that Ryan didn’t know about it either. Their arrows flew, but only Warrick’s hit the bullseye.
“What the hell was that?” Ryan asked.
“The Scottish way of settling a tie breaker. As judges, Dalton and I thought it appropriate since you’re both obviously good shots,” Grant explained.
“This is so much fun.” Dalton grinned. “Point Warrick. What’s next?”