Tilly and Carri began shaking their heads as Lottie stepped in front of them. She was once again stepping into her role as protector, even though she knew her Daddy would never hurt any of them. Smack their butts, yes, but he would never intentionally hurt them.
“But Daddy, I wanted to share my vision for the store with my sisters and showing them the blueprints just isn’t the same as seeing it in person.”
Taking her sisters’ hands, she led them back toward the kitchen. All three turned so they continued facing Travis as they passed by him on their way back to the kitchen.
Travis grumbled as he followed them, closing and locking the door to the front of the building once they were all in the kitchen. “The next time I find you out there without me before the renovations are completed, you won’t be sitting comfortably for a week. Understand?”
Lottie swallowed hard before she nodded. “Yes, Daddy. I understand.”
“Good girl. Now, lunch is ready upstairs and then I thought we could all go to the matinee of that movie you wanted to see.”
The sisters might not see each other every day, but they had learned to make each visit special. Linking hands with Tilly who was holding hands with Carri, Lottie then took Travis’ hand and followed him out of the kitchen and up the interior stairs to their home.
Travis pulled off the road and parked behind Carter’s pickup truck. Looking at his passenger, he said, “Stay there until Daddy comes around to help you out.”
“Yes, Daddy.” Lottie looked at him with a smile of innocent trust.
It had been a month since they’d moved to their new home above Lottie’s store, and he’d spent that time helping her set up her new store and learn to let her Little side free. Today’s pink jeans and white t-shirt with a dancing cow on the front and sparkle-covered sneakers were only the beginning. She had small cow barrettes in her hair and a ring pop on her left ring finger, though Travis was hoping to change that ring for something else in the very near future.
Knowing it was a challenge for her to sit still, especially when her sisters were already out and bouncing around the field, he moved around the car and opened it. She’d twisted her fingers together in her lap, but had not touched either the door or the release for her safety belt.
“Good girl,” he praised as he leaned in and released the belt before holding her hands and helping her out of the car. Grabbing the basket from the back seat with one hand, he patted his pocket to make sure he still had the box he hoped to present to her before they headed home later in the day.
Holding out his hand, he grinned when she laid hers in it without hesitation. “Do you have the tissues?” he asked.
She held up her big purse with a sad smile. “Got a big box in here.”
Travis nodded. This would be a hard day for the sisters, and he and his fellow Daddies had decided to try and make the mood a bit lighter. “All right, let’s go.”
Carter and Rooker were already putting up a gazebo tent while Carri and Lottie were picking flowers not far away.
“Go see your sisters, sweet girl. But don’t go too far,” Travis said, releasing her hand and patting her bottom.
“’Kay,” Lottie said.
Instead of bouncing over to join her sisters, she stopped and stared across the field to where big yellow machines werewarming up and driving around what had once been their front yard.
Today was the day the state had scheduled for the demolition of the Smith family farm. Though the Daddies had not thought it was a good idea, Lottie and her sisters had banded together to convince them to be here to watch as their family’s legacy was torn down.
“Go see your sisters, Lottie-love,” Travis urged as he set the basket full of snacks on top of the cooler one of the others had brought. He then stepped in and helped Carter and Rooker move chairs and a long table under the tent.
“Carri’s been crying for two days,” Rooker said. “Ever since she got the call about today.”
Carter nodded. “Tilly, too. I’m still not sure this is a good idea, but here we are.”
“I have something that might help the girls get through today,” Travis said.
“Proposing today?” Carter asked.
“You, too?” Travis asked, somehow not surprised when both men nodded.
“Seems like the perfect time to cement the future,” Rooker said just as their women walked up to the tent with their arms linked.
“We’re thirsty,” they said in unison.
He knew it shouldn’t, but it always surprised him when the three spoke as one. They were, after all triplets, though it sometimes seemed like they shared a brain.
“There are juice boxes in the cooler. Just remember we don’t have a potty out here for you if you drink too much,” Rooker reminded them.
