Astonished, I blinked at him. “But will you be happy?”
He took my hand. I’d left the giant diamond on. I’d swap it after. Or not. I was becoming a diamond girl. “With you? Always.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Autumn
Summer tapped her foot against her desk. I’d rushed to Copper Summit after school so I could catch her. The last two months of wedded bliss with Gideon had been perfect. I woke up to him and his egg wraps. I went to bed tucked into his side. And we burned up the sheets so much that Sprinkles avoided our room at bedtime.
“Isn’t this what you told Teller you didn’t like?” Her eyes were dancing. She liked to turn the tables on our brothers as much as the rest of us did.
“It is precisely what I used to hate.” Tenor and Teller had been very diligent about discussing any ideas or changes in the bar with me. I was with them every step of the way for the switch to the new inventory program. But this was different. This was something I had to talk with my sisters about before we broached the request to our brothers.
There was a knock on the door and Wynter entered.She shut the door behind her. I dug out my phone and dialed Junie.
“This feels so clandestine.” Wynter propped a hip on the edge of the desk. “Remember when we used to meet under the stairs to talk about what we were getting all the guys for Christmas?”
Summer rolled her eyes. “They’re still awful about finding packages I try to hide. When Jonah made Teller that nightstand in December, Teller walked in on him when he’d just finished it. Jonah tried to act cool and failed, yet he claims I lie like shit.”
“You do,” I said.
She folded her arms across her chest. “All of us do.”
“He-llooo,” Junie sang from the phone. “What are we hiding from our brothers?”
I had messaged all of them last night and told them I needed to talk. Junie had been the wild card, but she must’ve sensed the seriousness of the topic. She’d told us to name a time and she’d make it.
I pressed my hands against my stomach. My nerves were lighting up. There was a reason my sisters were the first ones I was talking to. I trusted my brothers, but if my sisters told me my idea was unreasonable, then I’d have no choice but to drop it. If my brothers said the same thing, my stubbornness would kick in and I’d press ahead out of emotion.
If Summer, Junie, and Wynter said I was out of line, then I’d know their decision was what they felt was the best for the business.
I took a deep breath. “Okay, here’s what I’d like to talk to them about.”
Gideon
I was stocking the bar while Autumn was in a meeting with her siblings. For the last three months, I’d experienced the kind of wedded bliss I’d thought was a pipe dream. When Autumn was working during the day, Dad and I helped at the food pantry a couple days a week. Some “anonymous” donor had set up a continuous grocery delivery. Dad had just looked at me and shaken his head, a small smile hidden under his trimmed mustache.
All that money I’d socked away for years and invested and grown was finally getting used.
Autumn and I were looking at bigger houses, but we weren’t in a rush to move. I’d been helping a little at the ranch, but mostly Tate had tapped Dad’s knowledge. The Baileys needed to buy equipment and Tate had asked us to watch auctions and estate sales for good deals.
Dad and I would pore over the ads for farm equipment, and sometimes, we’d take a trip to look a piece over and note our observations. Nothing had been purchased yet, but Dad and I had told them they were running out of time.
I set a crate of Copper Summit’s new summer special barrel in the storeroom. I was no longer behind a desk, and my back and shoulders were happy. I didn’t need an ergonomic chair if I wasn’t sitting for twelve or more hours of the day. When I emerged, Autumn was peeking her head around the wall that bordered the entry.
“You got a minute? The guys want to talk to you.”
Curiosity rose, but they probably just wanted to askme timeline questions. They might know how to farm, but Dad and I knew that land, how it behaved through the seasons, where it flooded, what parts drained well.
She tangled her fingers through mine. I’d rather walk behind her and admire her ass since she was wearing the same brown skirt she’d worn when I had officially proposed to her. She didn’t have the Christmas sweater on, but her loose cream shirt draped over her tits in a way that made my mouth water.
I’d never get enough of her.
The meeting room was on the upper level where the offices were. Inside the rectangular room, family pictures of the Baileys covered the walls. Some images had kids I didn’t recognize, but Autumn had said they were the foster kids the Baileys had cared for over the years. Whoever had been under the Bailey roof at the time was in the family picture.
Her siblings were scattered around the table. Teller, Summer, and Tenor on the opposite side. Tate at the head of the table. Wynter was across from Teller. Autumn picked a seat next to her and I took the empty spot beside her.
“Junie’s on speaker,” Autumn said.
