Chapter 42
CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO
Reeves laughed with Graham, really feeling like he belonged as part of the Whittaker family. The man clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m sure glad you came tonight, Reeves.” He shot a glance over to his wife, who stood with Bailey as they shucked an early crop of corn.
“Yeah, of course.” Reeves said. “Thanks for having me.” He’d been outside with Graham to check on the smoker, and they’d come back in to get the trays and tongs they needed to pull off the chicken, salmon, and pork roast that had been getting delicious for hours now.
Graham turned and headed back outside. Reeves picked up the cookie sheet he’d been given, as well as a pair of tongs, and followed him.
The lodge sat in the evening shadows, which meant the temperature had started to drop.
Their growing season would end soon as well, as the first frost would probably kiss the ground here in Coral Canyon in the next couple of weeks.
A quiet excitement built inside Reeves, because while his summer camping videos did all right, it was really the winter camping that brought in the big views, and thus the bigger income.
“When are you going to post the video of you camping with OJ?” Graham asked.
“This weekend,” Reeves said. “And I’ve got a couple more done, because I like to work ahead.”
Graham lifted the lid on the smoker, and the most delicious scent wafted out.
“I’ve got to do something for this week, but I’m not sure what.”
Graham glanced over to him as Reeves joined him in front of the meat.
“Do you ever do tours of places?” Graham asked.
“I mean, I’ve watched a few of your videos, and you’ve done like…
recommended hikes or road trips or things like that.
Sometimes, I’ll see you highlight a pie shop or a diner in a tiny town somewhere. ”
“Yeah, sure.” Reeves picked up an oven mitt and slid it on his hand, then held the tray as he started to pull off chicken breasts and thighs.
“Laney is probably going to kill me for asking you this,” he said. “And you just tell me no if you don’t want to.”
Reeves’s default when he got uncomfortable was silence, so he simply nodded and kept his attention on the protein in front of him.
“We do horseback riding and things like that here at Whiskey Mountain Lodge,” he said.
“They do at the Lions Lodge too, and out at Silver Sage, and I don’t know…
maybe you could do excursions at all three, and do a recommendation video.
Otis goes to the Lions Lodge all the time.
Wolf Creek too, but I think they’re more of a resort out of Jackson, with swimming pools and a few kid hikes and things like that. ”
“Yeah, they’ve got a lot of nice restaurants there,” Reeves said, as he was familiar with Wolf Creek. It was high-end vacation living for those with money, and he wasn’t surprised at all that Otis took his family there.
“Boston’s at Silver Sage and leads a lot of their excursions,” Graham said.
Reeves put a smile on his face as the idea for the video came together. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” he said. “I’ll add it to my list of things I might be able to do.”
“Sure,” Graham said easily. “We host Christmas tree cutting from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve up here as well.”
“Is that right?” Reeves asked. “That might be kind of fun to put at the end of a winter camping video.”
Graham grinned at him. “And if you want to go camping anywhere up here, just let me know. I haven’t seen a lot of your videos, but Andrew says you keep the location pretty neutral if you’re just out camping in the wilderness.”
Reeves grinned and chuckled. “Yeah, sometimes I’m still on my own property.” He leaned in close to Graham. “But don’t tell anyone that.”
Graham belted out a laugh, and Reeves sure did like the man. They finished up with the smoker, and Graham closed it and switched it to off while Reeves started back inside the lodge.
“The meat’s done,” Graham called as he slid it onto the counter in the kitchen.
Whiskey Mountain Lodge employed a full-time cook for the guests here, and Graham and Laney seemed to exist among them easily. The guests had already eaten and moved on to the evening activities here at the lodge while Rosa continued cleaning up after them.
“We’re nearly done in here too,” Laney said.
“If you guys want to set the table.” She smiled at Reeves, and he reached for the stack of plates.
He balanced them in one hand against his waist as he slid his other around Bailey.
He kissed her cheek and said, “Everything looks great, wildflower,” before turning to lay out the four plates along the two corner edges of a much bigger table.
He’d learned that Graham’s brothers no longer lived at the lodge. Only he and Laney did, down the hall from the kitchen in the family suite, which was closed to guests. They had their own kitchenette back there, so if they didn’t want to come out and interact with others, they didn’t have to.
“Grab those up again,” Graham said. “We’re eating back here in the family suite.”
Foolishness ran through Reeves, but he picked up the plates and followed Graham. They returned to get the meat, and this time Laney and Bailey followed them down the hall with a bowl of salad and a plate of steaming corn on the cob.
Inside the family suite, a table for four waited just beyond the door. The kitchen expanded around that, with a stove and a microwave above that, a small patch of counter and a fridge. A peninsula jutted out into the room, which separated the space.
Two armchairs sat on the other side of that, which faced one big wall of windows looking south. Graham and Laney’s bed stood against the other wall between two floor-to-ceiling windows that had been covered with dark purple drapes.
Behind him, he could go through a door and into the bathroom. While he didn’t hear a dishwasher, he definitely heard some sort of machine working away. They probably had a private laundry back here as well, and while the space was plenty large, it also felt intimate and personal.
Reeves smiled at Graham and Laney as they sat down. He quickly put the extra tray of meat on the counter and joined them. Bailey took his hand in hers the moment he sat, and he squeezed hers, suddenly nervous.
“I’ll say grace,” Laney said, and Reeves quickly swiped his cowboy hat off his head. He bowed it and closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and as he exhaled, he pushed his other thoughts and worries out of his mind.
He’d been praying every night for the past two weeks, since he’d attended Pastor Michaels’ first sermon. He felt ready to maybe up his goal to a morning and evening prayer, and as Laney said, “Dear Heavenly Father,” Reeves made the commitment to himself to double his out-loud prayers.
He thought his own prayer as Laney thanked the Lord for good food and good family and the good state of Wyoming. He hadn’t quite finished petitioning the Lord for help in knowing what the next step with Bailey should be before she said, “Amen.”
He quickly repeated the word and opened his eyes, deftly sliding his cowboy hat back into place.
Bailey had been quiet that afternoon after Reeves had left the veterinary office. He hated how loud his life had gotten, especially because he’d worked so hard to keep to himself and stay out of the public eye.
He cut a glance over to her, because while they’d talked briefly about her desire to stay off camera, Reeves had heard a much louder underlying concern.
His fame.
He didn’t know what to do about it, and could someone be considered famous in small town Coral Canyon? He set the topic on a shelf for now, knowing he and Bailey would have to pull it down and talk it through at some point.
Bailey gave a report about her veterinary clinic and asked about the horses up here at the lodge. They chit-chatted about Graham’s retirement and what he might do in another thirty-four days, when he found himself jobless.
“He’s going to be driving me crazy, is what he’s going to be doing,” Laney said with a grin.
She leaned into Graham and swept a kiss across his cheek, and Reeves loved watching the two of them interact.
They showed him what a man and wife committed to one another and who loved one another looked like, and he wanted that so badly in his life.
“Well, I think Ronnie’s excited,” Bailey said, and she met Reeves’s eyes. “We’re having him and Stockton over for dinner this week, and I’ll ask him how he’s feeling.”
“That would be great,” Graham said. “Every time I ask him, he rolls his eyes and says he’s been doing it for years alongside me, and he’ll be fine without me.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Which, of course, he will be.”
He looked at Reeves. “I told Reeves he could come shoot some of his videos up here at Whiskey Mountain Lodge.”
“You did?” Bailey asked, and it sounded very much like an accusation. Reeves looked at her, trying to find the root of her concern.
“Yeah, we’ve got a lot of forest up here,” Graham continued, as if he couldn’t read the unrest in Bailey’s expression. Reeves could, loud and clear.
“Daddy, he doesn’t tell people where he’s going unless it’s a public place, like—like a National Forest campground or something.”
“I know,” Graham said casually. “But he does a ton of winter camping, and there’s no reason he can’t hike out along our trails and build a snow fort up here.”
Reeves forced a smile to his face. “In a video like that, I wouldn’t say where I was. I would just say I was in the Tetons.” He spoke slowly and calmly, the way he would to a scared dog, because Bailey very much put off those vibes right now.
Thankfully, Laney moved the topic to something else, and Reeves finished dinner and helped clean up before Graham went to start a fire in the backyard pit.
“I’ll go get our sweatshirts,” Reeves said, as they’d brought them along, but he’d left them in the truck.
“I don’t know if I want to stay,” Bailey said. “I’ve got a really busy week, and it’s an hour back to the farm.”