Chapter 14
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Cole Young woke slowly, the scent of coffee and crisping bacon luring him out of bed.
He left the bedroom of the vacation rental house his parents had secured for his marriage to Rachel Walker, and padded down the hall.
Sure enough, Daddy stood in front of the stove where the snapping, crackling sound of fatty breakfast meats sizzled.
Daddy swore, jumped back, and yanked his arm away from the stove.
“I got it,” Sunny said, and Cole paused to watch them interact from several feet away. His step-mom practically pushed Daddy out of the way, though he fell back without her actually touching him. “You focus on the parfaits.”
“I don’t know why—” His voice silenced as his eyes hooked on Cole. “You’re finally up.”
“It’s seven-fifteen,” Cole said, and he followed that with a yawn for extra emphasis. “The wedding isn’t until five o’clock tonight.” He glanced over to his younger sister, and of course, Rosie was already up and she’d eaten a bowl of cereal if the dish with an inch of leftover milk said anything.
He certainly couldn’t be compared to her, as he swore Rosie only had to sleep for a couple of hours each night, and she still had a reserve of energy during the day.
He was actually surprised she hadn’t climbed into bed with him that morning, as she’d always done that before she left for work or school in Coral Canyon.
His life had burst from that mold, though, and Rosie’s had too.
She’d been training for the rodeo for years now, and as soon as she received her high school diploma, she’d be on her way to the amateur rodeo circuit.
She hadn’t wanted to go pro immediately, though everyone knew—except her, apparently—she’d sweep the amateurs.
Daddy was going to travel with her this summer, and they’d scour for a manager, as his father and Sunny had an eight-year-old and a three-year-old at home still. He couldn’t manage and train and travel with Rosie long-term.
Cole’s soon-to-be brothers-in-law both rode the pro rodeo circuit, but their manager only trained men in roping and bull riding, and Rosie wasn’t doing either of those events. She wanted to prove herself on the amateur circuit, which she hoped would then allow her to have her pick of managers.
She finally looked up from her phone, and her face bloomed into a smile. “Hey, you’re up.”
“Why does everyone act like it’s noon?”
“The Walkers are going to be here in forty minutes,” Daddy said as he arrived at the table and set down a stack of plates. “Did you forget we’re hosting them for a wedding day breakfast?”
“No,” Cole said. “But I thought you catered those French toast casseroles.”
“We did,” Daddy said, nudging the plates closer to Cole. “Start setting these out, please—and be sure to get the tables outside. Rosie-babe, get rid of that bowl.”
She got to her feet to do what he asked, and Cole started to set the tables as Daddy added, “But we’re doing the bacon, sausage, and fruit to go with it.”
“When you’re done there,” Sunny said. “You guys can set up the juice bar too.”
“And the juice bar,” Daddy said. “I’m going to get Skye out of bed.” He walked out of the kitchen, and while Cole still needed to get dressed, he stayed to help get the tables ready, the juice bar set up, and the fruit arranged on the platter.
Then he left Rosie and Sunny to finish up the breakfast meats, and he pulled on a pair of fresh jeans and a clean black button-up shirt just as the doorbell rang. His eyes flew to his phone, but breakfast shouldn’t begin for another ten minutes.
Voices filtered down the hall, and his father spoke in his PR voice, which meant he was probably receiving the catering. Back in the kitchen, Cole found everything set out and ready to go, but he still asked, “What else?”
“Nothing,” Sunny said. “Uncle Tex just got here, so all we need to do now is prepare ourselves for the crowd.” She smiled as she said it, but Cole knew what she meant on a deep level.
He turned toward the front door as it opened and his uncle’s booming laugh filled the house. Cole couldn’t help smiling, because Uncle Tex only elicited such a response.
“There he is,” Uncle Tex said, and he practically steamrolled into Cole and wrapped him in a hug. “Are you ready for this?”
“Yes, sir,” Cole said, because he was almost desperate to be married to Rachel Walker. He’d fallen for her fast and hard, and he couldn’t wait to move onto the ranch where she lived and managed the rodeo animals her brothers trained and then sold.
Whispering Pines would become his new home, and Cole loved how it sat nestled in the forest just outside of Dog Valley. It felt removed from civilization, and he’d never experienced the level of silence he’d found at Whispering Pines.
More aunts, uncles, and cousins started arriving, and they all wanted to talk to Cole. His heart expanded with love with every hug and congratulations he received, because his family had made the trip from Coral Canyon to Three Rivers, Texas for this wedding.
To date, he was the only Young to get married outside of their small Wyoming town, and Cole honestly wasn’t sure if everyone in the family would be able to make the trip.
But they had, and he clung to his grams the longest, pressing against the tears that kept threatening to spill out of his eyes. “Gramps made it okay?” he asked when he stepped back.
His grandfather stood a half-step behind Grams, leaning one hand on a walker. She moved to give Gramps access to Cole, and he stepped into him and hugged him too. “He did great,” Grams said.
“I love you, Gramps,” Cole whispered.
“I love you too, son,” his grandfather said. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
“Cole,” Sunny said. “Rachel and her family just arrived.”
His pulse pounced through his veins, bobbing up to the top of his skull and the back of his throat. “Okay,” he said, and he released his grandfather carefully, so he could find his balance.
With all the people in the house, Cole was sure he’d have to dodge through the crowd to get to his fiancée, but he shouldn’t have worried.
Her daddy, the famous rodeo champion Wyatt Walker, had a personality bigger than Uncle Tex’s, and he stood just inside the room, clapping a hug around Uncle Blaze.
Daddy stood only a hair behind him, and he too hugged Wyatt as they both laughed. Rachel emerged from behind her father, and everyone else in the room disappeared. Cole could only see her, and that golden hair, and those pretty pink lips as they curved up into a smile.
She said something to her mother, and then looked back at Cole. He headed her way, pure joy filling him. She’d grown up here, and while she and her brothers had been up in Dog Valley for about eight years now, she’d wanted to get married here.
All of her aunts and uncles lived here, all of her cousins, and she’d wanted to get married at her mother’s runways. Her momma had once flown crop-dusters, and she still owned the business, though she didn’t pilot planes anymore.
“Hey, love.” He gathered her into his arms and swept a kiss across her cheek. Magic buzzed through his body whenever he saw Rachel, and Cole had only been able to identify it as happiness and love.
“Hey, yourself.” She flirted with him, and Cole grinned and touched his mouth to hers.
Applause began, swelling to fill the house, and Cole broke the kiss as a measure of embarrassment filled him. Cowboys whooped and cheered, and with every eye on him and Rachel, Cole had never felt so loved.
The noise quieted down, and everyone seemed to be looking at him for what to do next. His emotions surged like angry waters in high wind, but he managed to swallow and tuck Rachel’s hand in his.
“Thank you so much for coming,” he said. He looked around at everyone, meeting the eyes of Bryce, Harry, Cash, Boston, Joey and Adam, Rosie, Corrine, Liesl—his cousins who’d been at his side for so many years.
He let the tears fill his eyes now, especially as he took in all of his father’s brothers, their wives, and their little kids. They’d all come. Every single one of them. Grams and Gramps.
Sunny.
His heart lurched, and while his mother would be at the ceremony later today, she hadn’t been invited to this Young family breakfast.
He met his almost-bride’s eyes, and she smiled at him encouragingly. “Rachel and I are so grateful you’re here. It means a lot to us.” Cole swallowed, and watched as his dad nodded to the counters full of food.
“We have vats of French toast casserole,” Cole said next. “And fruit, and bacon, and sausage.”
“And a whole juice bar,” Rosie called. “Apple, orange, grapefruit, and even tomato.”
Cole beamed at her. “There’s a table in here, and a few outside. I turned on the fans and misters myself, so it shouldn’t be too sweltering.”
His eyes moved back to his father, who nudged Uncle Blaze. Cole loved his father so powerfully in that moment, because he’d allowed Cole to lead, though he hadn’t done hardly any of the work for this breakfast.
“My uncle Blaze is going to say grace, and then we’ll eat,” Cole said. “Unless we have any family announcements.” He swept the crowd again. “We sometimes do that at big parties in our family.”
“We do too,” Rachel said, and she looked over to her parents. Wyatt grinned like he’d just won the lottery, and Cole hoped it was the son-in-law lottery.
“Nothing for us,” Marcy said, though she checked down the line of her sons.
Warren, Cole, and Harrison all shook their heads.
Cole liked Rachel’s brothers, and they seemed to like him.
Warren and her brother Cole traveled a lot, and trained more than that.
They shared a cabin at Whispering Pines, and while Harry had been living with Rachel, he’d moved out and into a brand-new house they’d built on the corner of the property just for him.
It had a music studio, as he composed and recorded his own songs.
Several beats of silence filled the house, and with the Youngs, that was a miracle.
“Nothing?” Cole asked.
Uncle Blaze stepped forward. “I’ll say the prayer.”