“Zach’s sister Elvira. There would be one more rugrat, but Matty has a cold. I promised to watch everybody, which isn’t too hard since I have Mav. She loves directing traffic and they all listen to her.”
“They sure do. I think you have a future world leader right there.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me. Whatever she does, she’ll be a force of nature just like her mother and her Grandma Dez.”
“My mom’s a little jealous of your mom on account of all these grandkids.”
“Ah, they’ll show up. Takes time.”
“That’s what we tell her. By the way, did you happen to notice if Jordan went through that tunnel?”
He grinned. “She did. Her brother, too, after Granny showed them how it was done.”
“Guess I’ll catch up with her.”
“Goin’ through the tunnel?”
“I think I have to.”
His grin widened. “Yeah, you do.” He turned back to the four kids who’d begun stacking colored blocks into a tower. “Mav, Uncle Luis is going through the tunnel. He could use some pointers.”
Uncle Luis? Had he just been adopted into the Rowdy Ranch gang?
“Sure, Daddy!” She hopped to her feet, raced over and took him by the hand. “Don’t be scared, Uncle Luis. It’s easy.”
Apparently Maverick was fine with adding him to her list of uncles. So was he. “Thanks, Mav. You’ve been through it, right?”
“Lots of times. You’ll be fine.” She led him over to the opening, an upside-down U shape.
“He’d better take off his hat.” The boy with the big brown eyes had joined them. Jodie and Susie stood behind him.
Jodie gave him a smile and a wave, but Susie eyed him and shook her head. “He’s too big.”
“No, he’s not,” Mav said. “The others made it. Even my daddy made it.” She gazed up at him. “You’re too big to crawl on your hands and knees. Just flop down on your tummy. Pretend you’re a seal.”
He lowered himself to the floor and ignored the muffled laughter from the adults in the room. More kids arrived and crowded around him.
Mav waved her arms. “Move back. You’ll make him nervous.”
They all stepped back. Impressive.
“Okay, Uncle Luis. Hold your hat in front of you and pretend you’re a worm.”
“I thought I was a seal?”
“That’s for the first part. Now you gotta be a worm.”
“Or a snake?” He liked that image better.
“Snakes slide. But you’ll kinda stick to the rug. You need to be a worm. Worms wiggle.”
Couldn’t argue with that logic. “Then here goes.” Holding his hat in front of him, he began inching forward, wiggling like a worm. He tried not to think about how it looked from above.
“Come on, everybody!” Mav called out. “Cheer him on. Go, Uncle Luis! Go, go, go, go, go!”
Childish voices were quickly joined by adult ones. Except the adults had trouble cheering because they were laughing so hard. Beau had set him up for this. Too late he remembered Kieran had told stories about Beau McLintock, the family jokester.
Could he have quietly slipped through the tunnel without attracting any attention? Probably not. But he would have liked to try.
