Chapter 4
True to Sierra’s prediction, Maverick was restless and grumpy by Friday night, only three days since returning home.
As she and Nina filled out wedding invites and slipped them into their envelopes with the matching RSVP cards, Poppy sealed them and carefully placed stickers with the Hunt Ranch brand on the front.
The five-year-old was intently focused on her task, her brown eyes narrowed, her tongue caught between her teeth.
Even though most of the stickers were wonky, Poppy didn’t lose interest in her task.
Unlike her father.
Mav sat at the head of the kitchen table, restlessly tapping his fingers against the tabletop.
The lasagne that Sierra and Poppy had put together and timed to – hopefully – coincide with Markus’s arrival from LA was baking in the oven.
Norah Jones crooned to them over the vinyl record playing in the lounge.
The night was peaceful. Or should have been, Sierra thought as Maverick tapped his fingers on the table again.
Knowing that she would have been just as restless under the same circumstances, Sierra bit her tongue for a full twenty minutes. Instead of snapping at her brother, she deliberately tried to redirect her attention. ‘Nina, what time does Markus arrive?’
Tap, tap, tap.
Nina checked the time on her phone. ‘I’m surprised he’s not here already,’ she replied. ‘He must have hit traffic.’ Turning to Poppy, she asked, ‘Are you hungry, Poppy? Or did you want to wait up for dinner with Markus?’
Tap, tap, tap.
‘I’m kinda hungry,’ Poppy, at five, replied honestly. ‘But I want to see Uncle Markus too.’
‘Hmm, let’s see if we can find you a snack.’ Nina pushed back from the table.
Tap, tap, tap.
Sierra very calmly put the invite that she was penning down and folded her hands on the table. ‘Mav,’ she said gently, ‘if you don’t stop tapping the goddamn table, I am going to break your fingers. One at a time. Slowly.’
Mav frowned at her. ‘What crawled up your butt and died?’ he demanded, making Poppy giggle.
‘You’re irritating me!’
‘What am I even doing?’
Sierra comically mimed staring off into space and tapping her fingers obnoxiously on the table.
‘Oh, forgive me for sitting quietly in my own home!’
‘It’s the way you’re doing it, Mav! With that stupid, forlorn look on your face!’
‘I got shot! I’m allowed to be restless!’
‘Do you have to do it in front of us?’
Mav leaned back in his chair.
‘Don’t you do it,’ Sierra warned.
Thirty-five years as a younger sibling should have taught her that the warning would only fuel him further.
But when Mav emphatically tapped his fingers on the table, she clenched both hands into fists, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply.
It didn’t work. ‘I will rip your stitches out with my teeth.’
Mav leaned forward, eyes glinting. ‘Bring it.’
Sierra momentarily imagined letting her fist fly. Mav was much stronger. Even wounded, he could easily defend himself against her.
‘Do they do this often?’
At the quietly asked question, Sierra turned in her chair to see Benji and Markus standing behind her.
Benji, still dressed in his work clothes, was smiling and trying not to.
But Markus, fresh from LA in skinny khaki pants, a white linen shirt, and fedora looked a little alarmed by the hostile environment he’d walked into.
‘Uncle Markus!’ Poppy shouted. She hopped out of her chair and, with a running start, flung herself into Markus’s legs.
‘Not anymore,’ Benji replied as Markus bent down to give Poppy a huge hug. ‘But when we were kids …’ He finished the sentence with a low whistle.
Markus stood and took Poppy’s offered hand in his. He wagged one finger between Sierra and Maverick. ‘As an only child, I find this fascinating. I kinda wish we’d come in five minutes later. Would you really have ripped his stitches out – with your teeth?’
‘Anything goes in a sibling fight,’ Sierra replied pertly. But because she was genuinely at the end of her tether, she turned desperate eyes on Benji. ‘Please, for the love of God, can you do something with him? He’s driving me crazy.’
‘I promised Nina I would help,’ Mav began to argue.
‘You’re not helping, Mav! At all! Is he, Nina?’
All eyes turned to Nina, who had been silent throughout the exchange. She stood at the kitchen island, tears streaming down her face.
Mav was up in a shot. ‘Nina?’
‘What’s wrong, Neens?’ Poppy asked, her little voice instantly close to tears.
Nina held up both hands, stopping Mav in his tracks. She laughed. ‘Nothing. I’m just … This is the first time you guys have acted normal since the …’ She trailed off on a sob. Shook her head. Managed, ‘I’m just relieved.’
Mav went to her. He wrapped his arms around her, kissed the top of her head. ‘It’s okay. I’m okay. One day, our bickering will just drive you crazy,’ he promised.
Nina stepped back, raised one hand to Mav’s face. ‘Do you need to get out?’
‘Desperately,’ he replied with a huge sigh. ‘I am going crazy.’
Nina turned to look at Benji.
‘I’ll make sure he takes it easy,’ Benji answered the unasked question. ‘No bull riding.’ When Nina smiled, he added, ‘Maybe just a quick barrel run or two.’
‘Okay.’ Nina took a pointed, almost slow step back. ‘Go. But only for a little bit, Mav. You should be resting.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘For the love of God, Maverick,’ Sierra snapped. ‘Go! Before she changes her mind and condemns us all!’
Still, Mav waited for Nina to nod. The moment she did, his grin broke free. ‘Thirty minutes.’
‘We’ll wait for you to get back to eat,’ Nina affirmed.
He kissed her once, deeply, and then knelt in front of Poppy. ‘Wanna get out of here, baby?’
‘No, I wanna stay with Neens,’ Poppy replied.
Sierra thought it a testament to their family unit that Mav no longer checked if it that would be okay with Nina; he just gave Poppy a quick kiss, said, ‘Okay. I’ll be back soon.’
Sierra watched as Benji and Mav walked out together.
They each hovered well over six foot, their broad backs forming a solid wall, blocking the hallway, but their heads were bent close like two little boys plotting mischief.
It didn’t matter that it was seven at night, Sierra knew that Benji would find something for Mav to do that wouldn’t set him back.
Feeling at home, Markus walked to the fridge. ‘I sense that some wine is in order?’
‘Amen.’ Sierra turned back to the invitation she had been working on and exhaled the last of her frustration. ‘There’s a Riesling I opened about an hour or so ago,’ she said over her shoulder as she picked up the pen.
As Markus poured them wine and Nina brought over a plate of chocolate chip cookies, Sierra got back to work. ‘We’re almost halfway,’ she said.
‘How did fifty invites turn into four hours of work?’ Nina said as she greeted Markus with a huge hug and then took her seat.
‘Sacred rule of weddings,’ Sierra replied. ‘Everything is four times as stressful as it should be.’
Without a word, Markus sat and picked up a gel pen.
He studied the last invitation Sierra had completed, crossed the next name off the list, and then began painstakingly filling in a card.
‘I stopped accepting wedding bookings the minute I was making enough money,’ he told them.
‘They couldn’t pay me enough to deal with all those emotions – and from strangers too.
’ He shot Nina a wink. ‘But I don’t trust anyone else to do yours, so just FYI: You don’t have a choice. ’
‘I was literally going to ask you in person as soon as you arrived.’ Nina crossed her heart over her chest. ‘Honestly, after everything Mav and I have been through, it feels silly to stress over the small things. If it was up to me, we’d just get married in court tomorrow.’
Markus gasped dramatically. ‘Excuse me.’
Sierra smiled. But, remembering Benji’s warning that she was bullying Nina, she asked, ‘Do you genuinely not want a wedding? Because we can still cancel – as long as I get to be your witness in court.’
‘Ah, that’s not gonna work for me,’ Markus chimed in.
‘Rock, paper, scissors?’
When Markus raised his hands, ready, Nina laughed.
‘Okay. Okay. It’s not that I don’t want a wedding.
But it’s just so much to think about, and after Mav got hurt …
It’s just been hard. To focus on anything but him.
I swear I get anxious leaving him for even a minute.
I keep seeing him lying there, you know …
’ Conscious of Poppy, who was listening intently, Nina didn’t finish the thought, but Sierra knew it must have been beyond awful for Nina, who had pressed her own jacket over Mav’s wound as they’d waited for help to arrive.
Just thinking about it had that same fist of panic lodging in Sierra’s throat too.
‘I know it seems overwhelming, but the wedding will give you something else to focus on.’ Wasn’t that why Sierra was throwing herself into it too?
Wasn’t she trying to fill those few precious hours she had each day with the wedding planning so that she could stop her spiralling thoughts: What if?
What if they hadn’t gotten him to the hospital in time?
What if Poppy had been home? What if Mav had died? What if …
‘Maybe you’re right,’ Nina offered.
‘And think about the pretty dress,’ Sierra offered.
‘Okay, the dress does excite me.’
‘And my team’s photos are going to be incredible.’ Markus neatly folded the invitation in front of him and passed it to Poppy. ‘And imagine Mav, all handsome and emotional, waiting for you at the end of the aisle.’
‘Yeah,’ Nina replied dreamily.
‘And I get to dress up too, Neens!’ Poppy chimed in. ‘We’ll look so pretty.’
‘Heck yes, we will.’ Nina picked up an invite and looked at the delicate font. ‘I do want a wedding. But you guys are going to have to remind me why every few days, okay?’
Sierra laughed. ‘I don’t think that’ll be a problem.’
They worked in companionable silence for a good thirty minutes, each focusing intently on their tasks.