Chapter Ten #2
Willow came rushing across the yard toward them, smiling so wide Pope knew whatever happened had nothing to do with danger.
“What’s going on?” Summer asked.
Willow clapped her hands together. “Theo and Juliette are married!”
Pope blinked. “What?”
“They eloped!” Willow practically bounced on her toes. “They made a detour from New York City to Las Vegas! Can you believe it? She got halfway through dress shopping and said, ‘Screw this. I just want you.’ So they flew off to Vegas!”
The yard was flooded with a large group now, everyone hugging and laughing as Theo and Juliette stood in front of the lodge looking both smug and ridiculously happy.
Colt slapped Theo on the back hard enough to make him stumble. Rhae hugged Juliette. Dutch yelled something about champagne, and Navy bounced through the crowd wearing a cowboy hat much too large for her.
Willow turned to Summer. “We’re throwing a big party. Right now. Come party with us.”
Summer’s smile faltered. “I don’t know about a party. I have Ben with me…”
“If Navy can party, Ben can party.” She pointed at the three-year-old who was enjoying the fun.
Ben looked up at Summer with hope in his blue eyes.
Summer hesitated, and Pope saw her instinct to say no because she didn’t feel like she fit in with the Malones. But if he did, she and Ben did too.
Willow must have seen her hesitation as well. “We’d love for you to celebrate with us. It’s family-friendly.”
She glanced from Willow to Ben, then to him, and the worry in her eyes slowly gave way to a careful kind of wonder.
Like maybe belonging wasn’t a thing he had to earn.
Like maybe it could be offered.
Somebody already pulled out the wireless speakers and music filled the air as the party truly got started, Black Heart style.
Ben tugged lightly on her hand. “Please?”
She exhaled, and a smile finally broke through. “Okay.”
The single word settled deep in Pope’s chest as the ranch burst around them in laughter and celebration, with Summer and Ben pulled into the fray as if they’d been expected to show up all along.
Suddenly he didn’t feel like he was showing them his world.
He felt like he was bringing them home.
* * * * *
Summer barely had time to get her bearings among the huge crowd of family and veterans, let alone process the fact that they were apparently throwing a wedding reception right this second.
She didn’t know Theo Malone, but everyone knew Juliette. Summer had seen photos of her in ball gowns, an elegant star she never expected to see in her life let alone help throw an impromptu party for.
People moved in every direction across the yard. Country music drifted through the air mixed with laughter that bounced around hard enough to make the whole ranch feel alive.
Summer found herself falling into step with the bustle. She might not know how to throw a wedding reception, but thanks to waitressing, she knew hard work and how to handle a crowd.
Inside the lodge kitchen, women moved around each other like they threw parties every day—with seven siblings, maybe they did.
They pulled containers from the refrigerators and pantry shelves.
Somebody grabbed a big bowl and began whipping cream as another woman sliced strawberries at lightning speed.
Summer spotted stacks of plates before anybody asked for help and carried them toward the tables being set up outside.
She glanced around for Ben and saw him with the little girl wearing the big cowboy hat. Navy, Willow called her. As she looked on, Vander strode past with a stack of chairs balanced on one shoulder.
“Pope! Pope!” Navy bounced up and down on her bootheels. “Neigh-neighs!”
He stopped walking, a grin stretching across his face and so much affection in his expression that a lump slipped into Summer’s throat.
“We’ll go see the neigh-neighs after we eat. Sound good?”
The child tossed her head back and whinnied. The noise made everyone around her break out laughing. Then Ben tried his best to mimic the sound.
Summer glanced up to find Vander watching her, and damn if her heart didn’t give a little extra beat. She threw him a wave, and he dipped his head in that sexy way she’d seen from him so many times when he sat at the back table in the Stockyard.
He continued to his destination, swinging the heavy chairs to rest on top of the table with a display of rippling muscle down his spine.
For a beat, Summer forgot to move or even breathe.
“We need more mason jars here!” A lovely woman with dark wavy hair swirling around her shoulders looked around for a helper for the centerpieces she was creating on the fly using candles and water.
“I got you,” Summer called back and hurried back into the lodge.
Nobody questioned her about pitching in—they just acted like it was a natural order of business to have strangers acting like they’d always been here.
The kitchen smelled like barbecue sauce and fresh strawberries. She found a big tray and filled it with mason jars from a nearby cupboard. When she returned to the woman who requested them, her eyes lit up.
“You’re Summer.”
She nodded, setting the tray on the table. “That’s right.”
“I’ve seen you around town. I’m Aspen.”
“Hi.”
Aspen pushed a stack of tealight candles her way. “Do you mind taking over with the centerpieces? I have to see about the flower arch.”
“Not at all.” She laughed at the impossibility of just producing a flower arch out of thin air.
Aspen tossed her a smile and rushed away.
By the time Summer filled each jar with water and floated a candle on top, the tables were all set up. She placed two jars on each long table and checked that Ben was staying out of trouble, but he and Navy had a bucket of sidewalk chalk and were drawing on the pavement.
Back in the kitchen, she filled her tray with food to be carried outside. “Behind you,” she said to a woman as she scooted by her.
The woman turned and Summer saw she had an infant strapped in a carrier on her chest. She recognized her from the Stockyard that day, when the security team quizzed her about the groceries and her car.
The woman offered her a smile and stepped aside to let her pass.
“I’m Rhae,” she offered.
“Hi, Rhae.”
After placing the covered dishes on the tables, she returned to see Rhae with her hands full.
“Here—let me take these.” Before the woman could protest, she took the box of plastic silverware and a big pack of napkins from her.
“Thank you. I feel like I’m in the way.”
Summer smiled. “You’re doing the most important job there is.” She glanced down at the sleeping baby nestled against her chest.
That earned her a smile.
Summer threw herself into the work as part of her kept waiting for someone to remind her that she didn’t really belong here. She’d waited on some of them plenty of times at the Stockyard, but she’d never hung out with the ranch owners, security guys or the women tied into the Black Heart orbit.
But they all treated her like an old friend, when she’d only served them burgers and refilled their drinks.
Ben ran past with Navy chasing him. Both of them wore a mustache of whipped cream that they’d obviously scooped off the triple decker strawberry pound cake the ladies whipped up.
She couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head. She felt a stare on her and looked up…right into Vander’s eyes.
The man stood in the middle of the hustle and bustle like the only thing he’d been tasked with doing was looking at her.
A flush crept into her cheeks, and his eyes hooded. The sexy smile that always drove her to distraction tugged at the corner of his lips, taking every brain cell. And she thought they’d all fled when she saw his back muscles flex under the weight of those chairs.