Chapter 52
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
The Barn
“You’ve got the prettiest gourd,” Brooks said as he draped his arms around me from behind.
I looked at him over my shoulder and grinned. “How did you make that sound sexual?”
“I didn’t make it sound sexual,” he said. “You with your hormones took it that way.”
“I’ve heard of pumpkin carving,” I said. “But I’ve never heard of gourd carving.”
“Time-honored tradition,” Muddy said as she approached the table with her arms full of gourds. “Eloise has the touch for growing them. In fact, the woman can’t grow anything else, but it doesn’t matter. Every October she supplies the entire town with gourds. Which one did you carve?”
I lifted the gourd in question into the air.
“Nice,” she said.
The crispy autumn air teased my cheeks and when it brushed against my neck I shivered.
Brooks turned up the collar of my jacket and let his hands rest on the lapels.
Jo and Gary Calhoun were chatting with Grampy, who looked completely at ease in his new small-town life. Between the poker games and making a daily appearance at Sweet Teeth, the town had quickly grown accustomed to my Brooklyn-accent-having, no-bullshit grandfather.
I was glad to have him close.
“Which basket is yours?” Muddy asked Brooks.
“The one with the blue ribbon on it,” he said in embarrassment. “I still don’t get why the men have to make baskets and their women have to bid on them.”
“The Belly Basket Auction is a time-honored tradition,” Muddy explained. “You put anything in there besides saltines and ginger beer?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Her hazel gaze settled on me. “How you feeling, sugar?”
“Happy.” I looked up at Brooks when I said it. “With a touch of morning sickness.”
Brooks wrapped me in his arms again, my back pressing into his chest as his large hands settled on my still flat belly.
“I promised Wyn we’d get some videos for her,” I said. “But I keep forgetting.”
“Lucy’s on it.”
I nodded my chin in the direction of an attractive blonde with a digital camera pressed to her face. “She’s on it too. Whoever she is.”
“That’s Arden,” Muddy said. “She owns a photography business in town. You guys better get in place. The auction is about to start.”
Brooks and I ambled toward Hadley and Salem. Hadley’s face was pinched in pain, and she placed a hand at her back as she began to rub it.
“Son of a bitch,” she muttered. “Let’s get the show on the road, yeah?”
My normally easygoing and chipper friend was clearly having a day.
Declan didn’t say anything, he just dropped his hand from her shoulder and walked away. A few moments later, he returned with a chair. Hadley shot him a grateful look and then sat down.
“You want a chair, tater tot?” Cas asked Salem.
She shook her head. “I’m good.”
Gary Calhoun, the owner of Dark Timber Ranch, took the stage with a podium and a gavel. On the table next to him were all the baskets that the men of Huckleberry Hill had made for their women to bid on in the name of charity.
Gary banged the gavel, and everyone began to quiet down and pay attention.
“Thank you for coming to Dark Timber Ranch for the annual Belly Basket Auction and Barn Dance. We’re here for a great cause. All proceeds will be donated to the Huckleberry Hill Women’s Shelter. Remember, the first bid can’t be your wife or girlfriend. That spoils the fun.”
He picked up a wicker basket with a braided handle. “Bidding will start at five dollars.”
“It’s worth more than five bucks,” a man called out to let everyone know it was his basket.
“Tell that to your wife,” Gary quipped.
A woman yelled out, “Five dollars!”
“Ten dollars!”
“Eleven dollars!”
“Twenty dollars!”
The basket sold for twenty-five and Gary banged his gavel and the man took the basket and offered his arm to his wife. She beamed up at him and rested her hand in the crook of his elbow. They wandered off, no doubt to enjoy the spoils of the picnic basket.
Brooks leaned down and whispered in my ear, “You’re going to bid high, right?”
“I don’t know,” I teased. “Is there anything chocolate in there?”
“You have to bid to find out.”
Gary lifted Brooks’ basket.
“We have here a lovely display,” Gary stated.
“It’s a blue ribbon,” Brooks yelled. “It’s masculine, not lovely.”
“Right you are, young man,” Gary said. “We’ll start the bidding at ten dollars.”
Salem shot me a wicked grin. “I bid twenty bucks!”
“Thirty,” Hadley bid with a cackle.
“Fifty!” Muddy shouted.
“Seventy-five!” Lucy cried.
“One hundred dollars!” I screamed.
The crowd clapped and Gary said, “Going once, going twice . . . sold to the lovely Poet for one hundred dollars!”
I met Brooks outside the tent, basket in hand.
“Let me take that for you,” Brooks said.
I handed him the basket. We found a clear spot on the grass, and I took a seat. Brooks sat down next to me and stretched out his long legs.
“Is it wrong that I like how possessive and feral you got at the end of that bidding war?” Brooks teased.
“Blame Salem. She started the bid high.”
Salem and Cas ambled toward us.
“You mind if we join you?” she asked.
“Not at all. Sit,” I said.
She looked at Cas. “You’re gonna have to help me up.”
He grinned. “I think I can handle it.”
They sat with us. And then Hadley and Declan came—with a chair for Hadley. Muddy, Lucy, my grandfather, Mr. Powell and Jane also added themselves to our party.
And as more and more people bid on baskets, the bigger our group grew.
“The bookstore is coming along,” Brooks said to the few people sitting close to us. “Poet is making me build her custom bookshelves.”
“Making you?” I said with a laugh. “You offered.”
“Yeah? You need any help?” a cowboy asked. “I’m good with my hands.”
The petite brunette next to him opened her lips to say something, but he quickly covered her mouth with his palm.
Her eyes sparkled with amusement.
“Thanks, Stratton,” Brooks said. “I appreciate the offer.”
“I do too,” I said.
Stratton lowered his hand from his wife’s mouth, and she grinned at him.
“Are you going to behave?” he asked her in exasperation.
“Never,” she tossed out. “Where’s the goat cheese?”
Hadley rose from her chair and arched her back. “I thought I could do this, but I’m miserable.”
“Let me take you home,” Declan said as he popped the last of his carrot stick into his mouth.
When Hadley and Declan were gone, Salem looked at Muddy and asked quietly, “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” Muddy assured her.
“They’re going to miss the announcement for the winner of the gourd-carving contest,” Cas said.
“We’ll tell her. And then gloat because we won,” Salem said.
“You seem awfully sure of getting the blue ribbon,” I said with a laugh.
“We had a plan going into this,” Salem said.
“Oh yeah?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know,” Muddy said. “Yours is good. But did you see Brooks’?”
“Brooks didn’t carve anything,” I said. “But I did.”
“Oh, he carved something alright,” Muddy said with a smile. “You were busy with yours and didn’t notice he’d snuck away to carve his own.”
I looked at Brooks. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” he said.
“Well, I’m surprised.”
“You haven’t even seen it yet.”
I scrambled off the ground. “Show me!”
“Now? We’re still eating,” Brooks said.
I glared at him.
With a sigh, he got up, clasped my hand, and ushered me in the direction of the two gourd tables. Gourds of all shapes and sizes covered every bit of surface. Brooks led me to the end of one table and pointed at the gourd.
I turned it around and gasped.
He’d carved a woman with long hair, glasses, curled up with a book. And it was so obviously me.
“Brooks,” I breathed. “This is beautiful.”
“Yeah. It is,” he murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
I looked at him—he was staring at me, his amber eyes soft with emotion.
“Ah, just the man I was looking for,” Gary Calhoun said as he approached. He stuck a number 1 blue ribbon to Brooks’ gourd. “You won the gourd-carving contest. Do you want your prize now?”
“I get a prize?” Brooks asked, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Of course,” Gary said. He looked over his shoulder. His wife strode toward us, and she carried something small and pink in her arms.
I wasn’t sure what it was until a little head popped up to reveal a pink snout.
My jaw dropped open. “Is that—”
“A piglet,” Jo said as she deposited the little beast into my arms. “Our sow had an unexpected litter. This is the runt.”
I looked down at the piglet.
“You got a piglet?” Salem asked as she waddled toward us, Cas trekking behind her. “No fair!”
“You have Fig. Hadley has Tempest. Why can’t I have a piglet?” I looked at Jo. “Is it a boy or girl?”
“Girl,” Jo announced.
I looked at Brooks. “Can we keep her?”
“We don’t have a barn.”
“Oh no, she’s going to be a house pig,” I explained.
“I don’t know anything about keeping a piglet as a house pet,” Brooks said.
I clutched the piglet tighter in my arms.
“Guess I’ll have to figure it out,” Brooks muttered.
“She’s so cute,” I crooned.
“Don’t let her sleep in the bed,” Cas warned.
“Can I pet her?” Salem asked me.
I nodded.
Salem stroked the piglet’s head. “Aww she’s adorable. What are you going to name her?”
I looked at Brooks.
“You pick,” he said.
“Charlotte,” I said after a moment. “Lottie for short.”
“Charlotte? As in Charlotte’s Web?” Jo asked.
I grinned. “Made that connection fast, did ya?”
“Charlotte was the spider, though,” Cas said. “The pig was named Wilbur.”
Salem looked at him in surprise.
“What?” he asked. “I read.”
She shot him a look.
“Fine, I saw the movie when I was a kid,” he admitted, looping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his embrace. He leaned down and whispered something in her ear that had her hugging him tight and smiling.
“I like it,” Brooks said. “Can we leave Lottie with her littermates while we—”
I adamantly shook my head and clutched Lottie tighter.
“We’re leaving now, aren’t we?” Brooks asked.
I nodded.
“Thank you,” Brooks said to Gary, shaking his hand.
“You think we can make it to the truck without introducing the newest member of our family to everyone in town?” I asked as Brooks and I left the tent.
“Not likely. You look cute with a piglet in your arms,” he said, taking a step toward me. “And you’ll look even cuter with a baby in them.”
“Stop staring at me like that,” I warned.
“Like what?” he demanded.
“Like you want to get me naked.”
He leaned down and whispered, “I do want to get you naked. And the piglet is just a good excuse to leave so I can get exactly what I want.”
“Slow down.” I chuckled. “We have to get Lottie some things before we can go home.”
“Did we just become those people?”
“What people?”
“Pig parent people.”
I laughed. “Yes. But if Hadley can walk her goat through town, we can definitely walk our pig through town and get away with it.”
Lottie looked up from my arms and set her sight on Brooks.
“Oh no,” I murmured.
“What?”
“I think she just fell in love with you. I became the fallback human.”
Brooks lifted Lottie out of my arms. She immediately snuggled against him.
“It’s going to be the same with the baby, isn’t it?” I asked in exasperation.
“No. It won’t even be a contest.” His eyes were warm. “You’re my favorite person. And our baby will feel the same way about you.”
I sighed. “God, you’re perfect.”
“Perfect for you.” He leaned down and kissed the end of my nose and pulled back.
I stroked Lottie’s head and was quiet for a moment.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“Just thinking about how cute our baby will be.” I beamed up at him.
“Hopefully it has the good sense to look exactly like you.”
“Funny,” I said with a wobbly smile. “I was thinking how much I hope it looks like you.”
He held Lottie with one hand and cradled my cheek with the other. “Let me get my girls home. And I’ll spend the rest of the night showing you how much I love you.”
I sighed. “If you insist.”
“I do.”
As he led me to the truck, he leaned down and whispered, “After all, ladies come first.”