Chapter 43
CHAPTER
FORTY-THREE
Bailey ran her hands along the back of the prettiest horse she’d met this year. “You’re so beautiful,” she cooed to Ponzu, the palomino Quarter Horse Cash Young had brought home from Texas. “Great coloring, amazing coat.”
She smiled as the horse’s tail continued to go swish-swish-swish as he stood very still. “If you can’t train this one into a champion cutting horse, I’ll take him,” she said to Cash.
He chuckled as he finished looping the rope on another horse—a beautiful chestnut—over the post several feet away. “I think he’s going to be amazing.”
Bailey was sure of it too, and she didn’t find a single problem with any of the horses Cash had bought and transported back to his ranch.
“Oh, brother,” he said as she finished up.
“What?” Bailey found him eyeing his phone, and she hoped nothing too serious had happened.
“Nothing,” Cash said. “It’s just—well, I guess it’s something.” He grinned over to Lark as she ducked through the rungs of the fence. “Joey and Adam had their baby.”
Lark sucked in a breath, and she immediately dug in her jeans pocket for her phone. “They did? What did they name her?”
Bailey wanted to know too, as she felt some older-sister feelings for Joey. She shouldn’t, she knew, but her emotions surrounding the Youngs had always been confusing at best, and downright impossible to figure out most of the time.
“Eliza Eden,” Cash said, his thumbs zipping across his screen.
“That’s so stinking cute.” Lark’s focus remained on her phone too, and Bailey suddenly felt completely out of place. “Oh.” The word fell from Lark’s mouth. “She’s beautiful.”
Bailey couldn’t help hearing how wistful Lark sounded—or realizing how she’d just used the same word for a horse and not a baby.
She pulled out her phone to see what price she’d told Cash for today’s exam—and her heartbeat stopped right there in her chest.
She had over forty messages too, and she quickly tapped her fingerprint to the screen to get her phone open. Another tap, and the breath left her body.
“I’ve been added to the Young Family Good News Thread.” She looked up, having just read verbatim from Adam’s initial text message. She held up her phone, as if Lark or Cash would be able to confirm or deny what now sounded like an accusation in her own ears.
Cash drew closer, his eyes blitzing around as he looked at her screen. “Sure looks like you have. I didn’t even realize Adam had started a new thread.”
“His parents are on it too,” Lark said. “You must not have gotten to their messages yet.”
“Nope.” Cash didn’t seem concerned that there were literally over one hundred people in the group message, but as his text popped up in Bailey’s notifications, she sure was.
She’d also gotten a text from Reeves, and that made her pulse bounce in a strange way too. She backed out of the Good News Thread and over to his message.
I’m in a group message with all the Youngs?
PS, you are too. Joey had her baby, and Adam started it and apparently included both of us.
She smiled, because she could only imagine Reeves’s surprise at being included. She’d tried to tell him the Youngs didn’t set great boundaries. Once you were in with them, they didn’t let go. Ever.
I tried to warn you about them, she sent to him. How was the drive to Colter Bay?
I’m almost there, he said. It’s cloudier than I’d like, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.
They’d had Stockton and Ronnie over for dinner a couple of nights ago, and while Bailey had told Reeves she needed time, she still didn’t know what for. She didn’t want to break-up with him, but she also felt stuck.
Yes, that was the best word for how Bailey felt. Stuck. She didn’t want to go backward with Reeves, but she wasn’t sure how to move forward.
She tapped over to her maps and found Reeves’s pin.
He seemed on top of Colter Bay Village, where he’d be camping along the banks of Jackson Lake this weekend.
Just another overnight trip, but Bailey worried about him, despite the roads there and back being paved, his satellite capabilities, and literally being able to see where he was twenty-four-seven.
Stay safe, and come home quick, she sent to him, her thoughts once again flowing toward what home meant to her. Somewhere warm and dry, safe from the outside elements, sure. But also safe from the cares of the world, the expectations of others, the heaviness of life.
She lifted her head and turned back toward Cash and Lark. “I’ll send you an invoice,” she said.
Cash lowered his phone and tucked it away. “Thanks so much, Bailey.” He moved right into her and hugged her. “I’m sure you could ride horses at Uncle Tex’s or Bryce’s any time you wanted.”
She smiled as she stepped out of his big cowboy embrace. He put one arm around Lark, and the two of them smiled at her. “I’m sure,” she said, though she wasn’t going to do any such thing. “You two have a good weekend.”
“You too,” they said together, and Bailey left them in the pasture with their trio of new horses.
She got behind the wheel of her SUV, only a few minutes from home.
She really should head back to the clinic and finish up some paperwork, but she couldn’t make herself continue straight once she left Cousins Creek.
She went right instead, easing onto the northern highway, and arrived at her house only a few minutes later. Rather, she went past her driveway to Reeves’s, and pulled all the way to the end of his lane, his house on Bailey’s left.
Can I lay in your hammock? she texted as she gazed out onto his farm. She’d agreed to come feed his chickens and goats while he was away making camping videos, and she had to be here tonight anyway.
He called, and Bailey grinned as she swiped on the call. “Are you playing hooky from the clinic?” he teased.
“Yes,” she said simply. “I had to go to Cash’s place to examine his horses, so I was practically home anyway.”
“Oh, right,” he said. “Did you have a chance to look through any of the texts?”
Bailey sighed. “I just saw Adam’s initial one,” she said. “Cash and Lark were in pretty deep.”
A beat of silence came through the line. “Why do you think they included us?”
“Because.” Bailey paused, because so many things could come after that word. Because they wanted us to know about their new baby.
Because they want to share their joy with the people in their lives.
Because they love us.
She said all of them, and then sighed again.
“Yeah,” Reeves said quietly. “I suppose you’re right.”
“We should let them love us,” Bailey said, surprised at her own words. “I haven’t let the Youngs love me in the past, but when I do, it’s always amazing.”
Reeves didn’t answer right away, and Bailey could imagine the way his jaw would jump as he tried to contain his emotions. “Okay,” he finally said, his voice so tight.
“I wish you were here to cuddle with me in the hammock,” she said.
Reeves chuckled, and Bailey smiled at the sound of it. “Read all the Good News from the Youngs, and text me your thoughts. It’ll give me something to look forward to while I’m setting up camp.”
“Okay,” she said. “’Bye, Reeves.”
“’Bye, wildflower.” The call ended, and Bailey let her hand drop to her lap.
She simply watched the September sunshine flood his farm, and then she managed to get herself out of her car.
He took his dogs camping with him—they were both wildly popular online—and Bailey wouldn’t have been here this early to feed his animals.
So she detoured over to the hammock he’d strung between an aspen and a pine earlier this summer, and she sank into it and lay down. Then, feeling brave, she opened her phone again and tapped on the Young Family Good News Thread.
Meet Eliza Eden Harmon, Adam had sent right after the group introduction. She was born this morning at 6:10 AM, and Joey’s doing great.
He’d sent a picture of his new baby girl, as well as one with the three of them. Eliza Eden was absolutely darling, wrapped in a pink blanket, her face all smooshed, and a big cloth bow wrapped around her head.
She’s completely bald, Adam said next. And we’re completely in love with her.
As you should be, Abby Young said. She’s beautiful.
Congratulations! Tex said.
More and more “she’s wonderful,” and “congrats, you guys!” came in, from literally every single member of the Young Family, including Cash and Lark, as well as plenty of people whose numbers Bailey didn’t have in her phone.
She assumed they were Adam’s parents, and then his sisters.
Finally, Otis said, We have a lot of people on this thread I don’t have in my phone. Maybe we could say who we are? This is Otis Young, Joey’s daddy.
People started identifying themselves after that, so Bailey knew it was Corrine who said, This says Good News Thread, so I’m going to jump in with the fact that I moved to Jackson Hole yesterday, stayed in my apartment by myself overnight, and attended my freshman orientation today!
It all went well, and my parents are taking me to dinner tonight before they head home tomorrow.
Bailey smiled at the message, because she distinctly remembered leaving home for the first time, and her first night in a new place by herself. She thought that definitely deserved the accolades the Youngs so freely started pouring out on Corrine.
This is Boston Young, Bailey read as the newest message came in.
I just got final approval for the bald eagle excursion I’ve been working on for almost two years!
That’s my good news, and anyone who thinks they can do a moderate six-mile hike to cabin, through the prettiest country in the world, and wants to observe a bald eagle nest should sign up!
The first excursion won’t be until next May, someone said next. And this is Cora, Boston’s wife.
Bailey tapped away from the Good News Thread though more congratulations and messages came in about the eagle excursion. She touched Reeves’s name and typed quickly. We can do a moderate six-mile hike next spring, right? I want to see the eagles.