Chapter 38
Chapter thirty-eight
Ruth
My friends have fallen in love with Everett just the way I knew they would. He fits into our little ragtag group perfectly. Jay is still weary, keeping his distance, but even over the last twenty-four hours, I can see how much Everett has worn him down, just by being his perfect self.
He’s won Maisy over the most. She adores him already, and she loves having someone new to chase around and roar like a dinosaur with.
He’s proven himself a worthy airport builder, too.
Right now, he and Cam are busy at the grill, cooking up a storm.
I’ve been in the kitchen for a lot of the afternoon, with a rotation of helping hands from my brother and my best friends, throwing together an enormous array of side dishes to supplement our feast. You’d be forgiven for thinking we’re preparing a banquet for a hundred, given the amount of food, but it’s just eight of us—and Pup, of course.
I settle into one of the Adirondack chairs on the porch with a crisp glass of wine in my hand.
There’s a lot going on in the back yard: Katy and Jay are running around with Maisy and Pup.
Paloma is crouched nearby, snapping photographs with a peaceful smile on her face.
Amie is sat on the side of the pool, reapplying sunscreen.
But my eyes are fixed on one man, at the other end of the wraparound porch.
Not only is he an absolute god, sexy as hell, and the nicest man in the world—he’s a damn good grill master, too, if the mouthwatering smell is anything to go by.
I guess that’s to be expected, growing up on a ranch.
Grilling and barbecuing kind of comes with the territory, at least as far as I can tell.
Most of the meals I’ve eaten when I’ve been on the ranch with Everett have been grilled outdoors and shared with family.
“Roo!”
I tear my eyes from where I’ve been admiring the way Everett fills out his jeans, to see Amie waving me over from the pool.
“Come and get some sun!”
She has her own glass of wine sat in the small, shaded spot at one end of the pool, so I grab my own and trot down the steps to join her. When I reach her, I fling off my beach kaftan and let it fall to the ground, revealing a maroon two-piece swimsuit underneath.
“That’s better. Girl, you’re too pale.”
“Girl, you’re too brown,” I bite back with a grin. “We can’t all be jet-setting to tropical islands every week.”
“Your man lives in Texas, babe. Time to get some of that year-round sunshine.”
A giddy thrill ripples across my skin when Amie refers to my man. Sometimes it still feels like a dream to think that of all the women in the world, Everett Tanner chose me.
Moments later, Paloma plops herself down on the edge of the pool beside us.
“Amie, your child might be insane.”
“Might be?”
“Fair point.” Paloma smirks as Amie laughs, a smile on her face as she watches her daughter squealing with delight. Pup’s enormous tongue licks her fingers as she feeds him a treat. “Anyway. I still can’t believe Miss fuck the patriarchy over here actually settled down. With a man!”
“Chances of it being a woman were slim to none, Lo,” Amie smirks. “Sorry to burst your bubble.”
A tiny laugh bubbles up my throat. “You know you’d be my first choice, Sweet Thing.” I reach over to pull Lo into a sideways hug.
“Miss Independent Woman, Miss I Don’t Need No Man…”
“We have to toast this with margs, you know,” Amie declares. “Leave the men and the kids at home. Wet the baby’s head, so to speak.”
Paloma snickers. “That’s funny, ‘cause he is practically a baby.”
“God, Roo,” Amie laughs. “I should’ve known of all of us, you’d be the cougar.”
I curl my fingers into claws and feign a swipe at her, laughing all the while.
“Wait a minute though.” Paloma sobers a little. “How young is he? Did I miss that?”
I mumble quietly, face dropped towards my knees.
“Sorry, what was that?” Amie cups her ear and leans in.
“He’s twenty-seven.”
Paloma shrieks.
“He’s twenty-eight in October.”
“He’s—” Paloma cuts herself off before lowering her voice and continuing. “Has he even hit puberty?!”
“Yes.” I roll my eyes. “He has very much hit puberty. And puberty was very kind.”
Amie smirks, following my gaze to where Everett and Cam are chatting over the grill. Paloma follows, nodding appreciatively with a quiet whistle.
“He does wear those jeans well.”
“Even better when he doesn’t wear them at all.”
“Good god, are Katy and I this sickening?” Amie rolls her eyes. Paloma and I glance at each other before answering together.
“Yes.”
The three of us laugh for just a minute until the air fills with a yip from Pup and a squeal from Maisy. All three of us snap our heads towards the sound to find Maisy sitting on Jay’s shoulders as he ambles over to Cam and Everett at the grill. Katy flops down beside us, breathless.
“My God, that girl could bottle that energy and sell it.”
“Fucking tell me about it,” Amie grumbles, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Never fucking stops.”
“I’m exhausted. I think she’s exhausted Pup, too.”
“She’ll exhaust the fucking cockroaches,” Amie agrees.
Jay is stood behind Cam now, with Maisy stretching her arms around his head to reach Cam, who seems to be pretending he has no idea where she is.
Shrieks of delight mingle with the sound of sizzling from the grill, and it strikes me that this is the perfect kind of late afternoon spent with my family—the kind I’ve missed with my nose buried in contracts for the last decade.
I reach out my hands to my best friends.
“I love you girls, you know that, right?”
“We know, Roo.” Katy squeezes the fingers of my left hand while Paloma holds my right. Amie rubs my arm, shuffling in front of me to close our circle. “We love you back. Always.”
Katy insists we put our cover-ups back on to eat.
Amie twists her way back into a cute halter dress and I slip my arms into my kaftan again.
Paloma slips into a loose, floaty playsuit to cover her high-waisted, vintage pin-up-style bikini, while Katy covers her swim shorts with a pair of palazzo trousers that boast splits up to her thighs.
“I just think it’s nicer when we’re eating,” she says, adjusting the straps of her cropped vest.
“I mean, we’re uncouth, but we’re not that uncouth, K,” Amie laughs. “Tie me up?” She spins and lifts her hair for Katy to tie the halter straps in an intricate bow.
“Speak for yourself,” Paloma says with a wink. “I was planning on stripping naked for food.”
“You plan on stripping naked far too often, Lo. I can’t keep up.”
“Single girl’s gotta do what a single girl’s gotta do.”
“And what is that, exactly?” Jay’s voice joins the conversation as his hands clamp down on my shoulders. They’re cool and slightly damp, like he’s just been retrieving drinks and dishes from the fridge. I flinch at the initial contact, and then relax as he rests his chin on top of my head.
“Get dicked,” Paloma answers matter-of-factly. “Or get—whatever the girl equivalent is.”
“Get pussied? Get clitted?” Amie posits some options and Katy snorts.
“A scissor-fight?” I offer. Jay wrinkles his nose.
“Lip syncing,” Katy says decisively after a moment of thought. Paloma and I both snort and snicker. Amie groans. Jay simply shakes his head with a smile.
“Sorry I asked. Food’s up. Race ya to the potato salad, Rooey.”
By the time we reach the table on the porch, everything has been laid out, and Cam is serving meat and corn cobs fresh from the grill.
Maisy is in Everett’s lap, a corn cob already between her hands and melted butter smeared around her wide grin.
Amie and I take seats on either side of Everett, and Jay fills the seat on my other side.
Katy sits next to him, with Paloma on her other side, and Cam sits next to Amie, his chair so close they’re practically touching.
“This looks amazing, guys, thank you for cooking.” Amie scoops a spoonful of potato salad onto her plate, and a smaller one onto Maisy’s, before cutting a piece of steak into small pieces for her daughter.
Thank yous echo around the table, and then the only sound is cutlery on plates for several minutes.
“You’re spoiling him.” Katy breaks the silence to admonish Jay, who is dropping pieces of meat under the table for Pup.
“Tell me I didn’t see you sharing your steak with him two minutes ago, Princess.”
“You didn’t see me sharing my steak with him two minutes ago.” Katy remains deadpan until the final word, when a sheepish grin curls her lips. “I can’t help it, those eyes do me in every time.”
“Pup have dinner too?” Maisy holds out a forkful of potato salad towards Jay.
“Pup has his own dinner, Maisy Mouse,” Amie explains patiently. “It’s kind of you to share, but you should eat yours.”
“I eat mine,” Maisy agrees, shoving the fork into her mouth.
I glance around Everett to see Cam nudge Amie’s arm, and she looks up at him with a dopey grin. Everett seems to notice the same thing, because he nudges my arm to get my attention. When I glance up at him, he leans down to kiss me softly. Maisy giggles.
“This potato salad slaps, Roo,” Paloma says through a mouthful of food. Katy hums an agreement, swallowing first before she speaks.
“Is this another Granny Bevan recipe?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny,” I say, hiding my smile behind my glass of wine. I spoon some pasta salad onto my plate before grabbing a second corn cob. The corn is perfectly charred and smothered with enough butter to have it almost dripping, and my mouth waters before I even take a bite.
“I’ll give you the recipe, Princess,” I hear Jay say lowly as he presses a kiss to his girlfriend’s temple. Her smile is the brightest, most pure smile I think I’ve ever seen, and it guts me a little that I ever resented their relationship.
Everett raises his beer bottle with his free hand, and his voice startles me from my thoughts back into the present.
“To family,” he announces. “To you guys, for letting me in. For making Ruth the woman she is. And to all of us, and the memories we’ve yet to make. And to Cam. Happy birthday, buddy.”
“To family.” Cam is the first to raise his own bottle, and everyone else follows, echoing both the toast and the birthday wishes.
“Roo?” Amie looks over at me, and I push my chair back from the table.
“Come and give me a hand, K.”
I pull Katy into the kitchen with me. For all my strengths in the kitchen, baking is not one of them, but Katy happens to bake the most amazing cookies.
Between the two of us, with Amie as the chief planner, we spent a good part of the afternoon baking an enormous cookie and icing it with the words happy 40th birthday Cam.
Katy pulls two number-shaped candles from a drawer and sticks them into the middle of the soft cookie, lighting them with a match.
I lift the tray carefully and between us, we carry it out to the table.
Maisy is in Cam’s arms now, smiling sleepily with Roger the dinosaur tucked under one arm as Cam presses repeated kisses to her temples.
Paloma spots us first, shielding the candles from the gentle evening breeze, and begins to sing.
Soon, everyone is joining in—including Pup, who howls along, much to Maisy’s delight.
She blows out the candles for Cam and manages a few mouthfuls of cookie before turning her face into Amie’s shoulder.
“Bedtime for you, Miss Mouse,” Amie whispers into Maisy’s hair. “Who’s reading your story tonight?”
“Unca Evvy read a story?”
Amie looks over at Everett, who has one arm wrapped around my shoulders, holding me to his chest, and the other hand holding his beer bottle halfway to his lips.
“I can read a story,” he declares with a nod.
His beer bottle is returned to the table as Maisy immediately holds her arms out to him, clambering from Cam’s arms, across Amie and into Everett’s lap.
I tuck myself against them both, hugging Maisy between my body and Everett’s.
Amie smiles gratefully, knowing her daughter is safe and looked after, and settles into Cam’s arms.
“Help me clear everything, Lo?” Katy begins to stack plates, and she and Paloma take care of loading the dishwasher and putting away leftovers while Jay walks Pup to the far corner of the yard to do his business.
Within minutes, Cam whispers something into Amie’s ear and they stand, walking slowly across the yard. Amie stops to scratch Pup’s ears as they cross paths.
“C’mon, baby girl. Better view of the sunset over here.
” Everett stands carefully with Maisy in his arms, already fast asleep before her story has even happened, and he leads me to the porch steps.
From here, we’re out of the shadow of the porch roof overhang, and the backyard glows orange.
Amie and Cam are all but silhouetted in the fading light.
Katy, Jay, and Paloma join us on the steps.
“Is it happening?” Paloma stoops to whisper in Katy’s ear, and Katy elbows her lightly.
“Is what happening?”
“Shush, Roo,” Paloma says. “It’s happening.” I roll my eyes. Cam drops his head to whisper something to Amie, and she looks up with a smile. Even as daylight fades, I can see the smirk on her face and the feigned look of despair on his.
And then he sinks to one knee.
Amie’s hands fly to her face as she shrieks, bending at the waist and leaning down towards Cam, on the ground. Katy and Paloma gasp on either side of me. Everett’s arm tightens its hold on me as my eyes fill with tears.
Cam slips a ring onto Amie’s hand as she nods, her grin clear as day even from across the yard, and they stand together.
He lifts her off her feet and swings her around, kissing her deeply, before lowering her to her feet and kissing her again, more chastely this time.
It’s a tender moment and it feels like an intrusion to watch it, even from a distance.
I turn my face into Everett’s chest and he dips his head to kiss my hair.
“I love you, Ruth,” he whispers. “I love you now and always.”
“I love you forever, Cowboy.”