“What is happening here?” Alex asked. “Who made these on a Thursday morning?”
“My momma, Aunt Sammy, and my aunt Holly Ann,” Wilder said, sliding the end of the tray onto the conference room table. He grinned at them and then clapped his gloved hands together. “It’s Clover’s birthday, and we had a big thing at Shiloh Ridge.”
“Thus, we have a lot of leftovers from Shiloh Ridge.” Link grinned and picked up one of the burritos. “But these are amazing. The ones with an H on the outside are ham, and the B-ones are bacon. Otherwise, it’s just egg and cheese.”
“And those potato tots.” Wilder picked up a burrito too. “Shoot. I left the condiments in the truck. I’ll go grab them.” He tossed his burrito back into the tray and headed out again.
“Hey, where you goin’?” Henry asked as Wilder nearly mowed him down in the doorway.
“Hot sauce,” Wilder said by way of explanation, and Finn grinned at the answer. Then at his cousin’s face as Henry entered the room.
“Hot sauce?”
“For the breakfast burritos.” Finn indicated them with a gentle wave of his coffee cup.
“You Glovers always know how to feed people,” Henry said. “Angel isn’t coming today, but Trev’s out in the store, getting some tubing for his sprinkling system.”
“Great,” Finn said with a grin. “I’m so glad he comes, Henry.”
“Me too.” Henry moved toward the coffee station. “You should see him and Janey together. They’re the cutest.”
JJ entered the room, and he carried an infant carrier with him. “I have Jade today,” he said. “But she’s asleep right now, so I’m just going to put her under the table.” He moved the chair closest to the door, right near the end of the table, and set his daughter down, then pushed her further under with his foot.
He sighed and looked around the room, then at the tray of food. “What do we have here?”
“Breakfast burritos,” Link said.
“Why do you have Jade?”
“Ruby’s doing a consult today,” JJ said, reaching for a foil-wrapped bundle. “Trap’s not coming either. They’re out at the Hensen place today. I guess someone is thinking of buying it, but it needs a lot of work.”
“That it does,” Ty said, and Finn switched his gaze to the dark-haired cowboy as he limped into the room. “I went and looked at it last week too.”
“You did?” The surprise in Alex’s voice matched that flowing through Finn. He’d even raised his eyebrows, same as Finn.
“Yeah.” Ty sighed as he sank into the chair opposite of where JJ had just stowed Jade. “Man, I’m tired.” He yawned and knocked his cowboy hat loose as he ran his hands through his hair.
“Yeah?” Henry teased. “Is your new girlfriend keeping you out too late?”
“I think it’s actually this guy at the boarding stable where I work,” Ty deadpanned. “Keeping me past my time to go home, because I’m so good with owners.”
Henry belted out a laugh, and Finn raised a hand of hello to Paul—another cousin—and Libby—his sister—as they entered the room.
Mitch and Lacy arrived, as did Brandon and Lenore, and the room got louder as multiple conversations broke out. Trevor slipped in, and he took the seat next to JJ. Finn noted they all left that seat on the very end, at the head of the table, for him.
He heard Colt tell Brandon that he had branches down everywhere at the orchard, and Brandon and Lenore say they’d had some damage to their windbreak. Finn usually chose a topic before the meeting and texted it out, but he hadn’t done that this time. Sometimes, he just needed to let the people here talk, and sometimes he didn’t know what they needed to discuss until they were all in the room together.
Tate said they hadn’t had any problems at the produce farm he and his wife ran for Wilde & Organic, and Finn was reminded thatthough they all lived in a small town, conditions weren’t always the same from north to south, east to west.
He ended his chat with Alex and Wilder, who had returned with hot sauce, ketchup, and salsa, and started to move down to the head of the table.
“You just go on in,” Conrad said, and Finn looked toward the door to find Jake Ahlstrom hovering there.
“Hey, hey,” he said, maybe a little louder than he needed to. “You made it.”
Jake nodded, looking slightly uncomfortable as he entered the room ahead of Conrad. “Yeah, I figured I’d give it a try.” He looked around, his eyes finally coming back to Finn. “I know a lot of these people.”
Finn chuckled and clapped Jake on the shoulder. “I knew you would. We’ll do intros too.” He took a couple more steps and whistled through his teeth. “Get your coffee and breakfast burritos, fellas. We’re going to start in three minutes.”
