With John and Linda due to arrive from Tulsa tomorrow, Tucker’s house had suddenly become one-third smaller. He and Bobbie Jo would stay on the main level, where all of the amenities were, and her parents would take the second-floor suite.
Rosie Young and Jessa Lilly would live in the basement, in that three bedroom, two bath area with a full living room and the theater room. It had space for a kitchen down there too, andBobbie Jo was handling the arrival of a full-size fridge and stove to complete that area, so his rodeo clients could live comfortably in the basement.
Everyone would have to come and go through the front or back door, and Tuck reminded himself that he’d grown up on a farm with a revolving door that anyone and everyone walked through at any given time, day or night. He actually didn’t mind it so much, but he really worried about Bobbie Jo. She wasn’t like that at all, and she liked her privacy and her quiet time in the evenings.
He thought of the main level suite, where they had a full master bedroom with a sitting area and a fireplace, a connected master bath and a door that led into the nursery. He had already ordered furniture to make it Bobbie Jo’s office and a reading nook, so she would have somewhere private and quiet all to herself. He could handle the rodeo stars and her parents anytime she needed to escape.
As the beeping stopped on Alex Monterro’s trailer, Tucker thanked the Good Lord Above that he had this farm to provide for the needs of his friends and family. Tarr was super happy in his RV—warm and watered with restroom and shower facilities only a few steps away. He’d said that he’d start showering at Briar’s to leave the mansion for the rodeo stars and Bobbie Jo’s parents, and Tucker loved Tarr’s thoughtful heart.
Alex dropped out of his truck, his grin as wide as the sky. “This is going to be so great,” he said. “Look how close I got to those pallets.”
Tuck looked, as the edge of the trailer had gone right by him, and he hadn’t even noticed. “Your steps go right on the pallets,” Tarr said. “And then you can get out of the mud and get everything clean before you go inside.” He turned back to the arena. “I’m thinking we need some retractable awnings here, though. Sure would be nice if this patio area was covered.”
“Don’t call it a patio,” Tuck growled. “It’s a bunch of pallets.”
Tarr turned toward him, his eyebrows raised. They had a whole conversation in only one look, and Tarr’s face settled back into a regular expression. “You’re right. It’s not permanent. You probably shouldn’t put anything permanent on the side of the arena. We’ll figure out if we can set up some poles, maybe put some tarps that will slope down over the pallets to slick the snow away, so we can have this dry area where the pallets are.”
“It’d be great to make it through the winter,” Alex said.
Tuck took a deep breath and tried to calm his inner beast. It didn’t come out very often, as he was definitely more like Momma and Hunter, who both saw the bright side of life, while Jane and Deacon had inherited their daddy’s more grumpy personality.
“I can fund a tarp-roof for your pallets,” Tuck said. “If you guys want to look into it.”
“If you’re talking some sort of roof structure,” Jentzen said, as he stepped up onto the porch-pallets with them. “You could put in some four inch posts or poles, but they’d need cement.”
“Just QuickCrete, probably,” Alex said.
Tarr looked back and forth between the two of them as if they were speaking another language, and Tuck felt the same way. Sure, he’d grown up on a farm, but he lived with all the modern conveniences of life these days, and he employed people to build fences; he didn’t actually do it himself.
“It’d be really easy to adjust the pallets or cut through them,” Jentzen said. “I’ve probably got some posts at my place.” He started pacing off the distance between the two trailers. “Probably twelve foot tall,” he said as he reached Tarr’s RV steps.
“And you’d only need three.” He turned to face them again. “We could put one right behind Tarr’s RV, one here in the middle, and one on the other side of your trailer, Alex.” He returned to their huddle, and Tuck wanted to leave it. Aheadache stretched across the back of his neck and up into his skull, and he just wanted to go home and take a nap.
“What would you use for the roof?” Tarr said. “A tarp? And where would you attach it?”
“We put lower posts on either side.” Jentzen looked right and then left, indicating the trailer-less sides. “They’d match up with the three main posts, so you need six more—mm, probably eight foot posts, so you could walk underneath them.”
“That doesn’t give you much of a slope,” Alex said.
“True. We could make the back side even lower,” he said. “Keep the front open for where you guys are going to park and walk in, and make the back side go all the way to the ground. Then we could stake it and keep it nice and tight.”
Jentzen actually looked excited by this project, and Tuck turned away from the conversation. He let them continue to brainstorm as he unhitched Alex’s trailer and got it level and settled. He pulled his truck forward and parked it next to Tarr’s, and then got out to find Bobbie Jo exiting the arena through the side door that Tucker had once thought they’d never use. Now, it was one of the most trafficked entrances and exits of the arena, and he, once again, took a moment to acknowledge the blessings in his life.
After all, having a property like this that had once felt too big and completely ridiculous for a single man to purchase now provided shelter and life for almost a dozen people.
“How’d it go at the house?” he asked, moving to meet Bobbie Jo.
“Great,” she said. “The fridge and stove are in. Everything’s plugged in and works. When the girls get here, everything’s ready for them down there. Beds, toiletries, all of it.”
Tuck drew her into a hug. “Thank you, sweetheart. Tarr and I got everything ready for your mom and dad on the second floor.” He stepped back and gestured to the trailers parked on theproperty. “Alex and Tarr are going to be out here. Stretch said he found a room with a friend not far from here—only about fifteen minutes.”
“That’s great,” Bobbie Jo said. “And he can stay at the mansion if he has to. Thereisa third bedroom in the basement.”
“I just worry about those young ladies,” Tuck said, though he wasn’t that much older than Rosie and Jessa. Their daddies had entrustedhimto take care of them, and he didn’t want to put a cowboy directly across the hall from them, even though Stretch was one of the most amazing men Tucker had ever met.
“This is really cozy,” Bobbie Jo said, a smile coming to her face as she faced the trailer yard. “Have you ever thought about living in a trailer, Tuck?”
“I’ve lived in plenty of trailers.” He chuckled. “Where do you think Tarr and I stayed most of the time?” He nodded over to his best friend’s RV. “Somewhere far worse than that, let me tell you.”
