“Do you think we have enough seating?” Dawson asked, counting the mismatched collection of folding tables and chairs they’d borrowed from his parents, Zona and Duke, or Shiloh Ridge.
“We never do.” Caroline grinned at him and took the cowboy hat from Bronco. “But we’ll be fine. The house will be open too.”
“Like a revolving door,” Dawson muttered, though he loved having his friends and family over to his house. He took the cowboyhat from his wife and placed it just-so on his son’s head. “There you go, buddy.”
“Da-da-dad,” Bronco babbled, then lunged forward and grabbed a fistful of Dawson’s shirt.
With adrenaline pumping through him, he quickly grabbed onto his son. With Bronco settled securely in his arms, Dawson kissed the top of his son’s head, breathing in that sweet baby smell mixed with the outdoor air.
“Well, I’m going to start getting out the sandwich stuff,” Caroline said. “April just texted me that she’s on the way.” She nudged Dawson with her hip. “And she’s bringing her boyfriend, and she wants you to be nice.”
Dawson scoffed. “I’m always nice. Did you tell her that?”
“I tried,” Caroline said with a grin as she backed up. “She really wants you to like Louis.”
“I’m not going to like anyone who goes out with her,” he said. “She’s still ten years old in my mind and shouldn’t even have a boyfriend.”
Caroline giggled as she went back into the house, and Bronco wiggled to get down. Dawson set him on his feet and secured his hand in his boy’s, then turned to follow his wife, albeit at a much slower pace.
The truth was, April had turned twenty-one a few months ago, and she could date anyone she wanted. Heck, Dawson knew girls who’d gotten married before age twenty-one, and his heart did a backward somersault.
She and Shiloh lived in the old cabin he and Brandon had once shared, and Duke and Zona had started talking about building another cabin for their boys. None of their kids wanted to leave the Rhinehart Ranch, and right now, their oldest son, Dwayne, lived with Dawson’s parents.
His daddy had gotten really advanced in his age, and he barely left the house anymore.
Dawson helped Bronco over the lip and into the house, where thelittle boy collapsed back to his hands and knees and crawled rapidly toward the kitchen.
“I’m going to go pick up my momma and daddy,” he said.
“Okay,” Caroline said, and Dawson pressed his lips to his wife’s cheek before he left the house and got behind the wheel of his truck.
“Thank You, Lord, for sparing my father as long as You have.” His chest turned tight, like someone had wrapped a thick rubber band around him and kept twisting and twisting.
“But it’ll be okay—we’ll all be okay—if You take him home.” He pulled up to his parents’ house and found Dwayne steadying his grandfather as they left the house.
Dawson swung out of the truck, calling, “Hey, you two.”
“Hey, Uncle Daws.” Dwayne grinned at him, but he didn’t let go of his grandpa’s arm.
Dawson jogged down the sidewalk and shored up his father on his other side. “I was comin’, Daddy.”
“I know,” he said, his voice low and cracked like an old cement driveway. “It just takes me a minute to get moving, and I didn’t want you to be waitin’.”
Dawson kept a steady hand on his father’s forearm. “Is Momma coming?”
“My mom is coming to get her,” Dwayne said. “She has a few laundry baskets of chips.”
Dawson’s eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything. He’d learned long ago to let his sister-in-law, his mother, and his wife plan the parties however they wanted to. He knew they wouldn’t run out of food, and he appreciated all the work they did to celebrate him, his children, this ranch, and everyone he loved.
“Let me get the steps, Daddy.”
“I can do it,” his father said.
But he couldn’t, and Dawson met Dwayne’s eye, then released his father and hurried ahead of them to get the single step out of the back of the truck. It made getting up and into the pickup truck easier by lowering the step by half.
He opened the passenger door and positioned the step just as his daddy’s boots met the gravel he’d parked on.
“There you go, Grandpa,” Dwayne said. “He’s already got it ready for you, and you won’t have to trip the way I always do.”
