With that, he walked into his bedroom and left me standing there with his words tumbling around in my head. A huge smile spread over my face as I slipped into my room.
Those words were all I could think about as I quickly changed my socks and grabbed my gloves and coat. Ladd had casually made comments about our future before, but this time he’d dropped kids into the conversation. The crazy thing was, I wasn’t the least bit freaked out by it. The idea of spending the rest of my life with Ladd was thrilling. After all, we were in our senior year of college, with only the spring semester left. It was time to start thinking about where our futures might take us. I hoped it would be somewhere together.
Maybe in the little cabin on the hill, Ladd working the ranch and building his own business, and me employed as ateacher. I could help Nellie witheveryChristmas Day event, possibly even help organize fundraising efforts throughout the rest of the year.
For the first time in a very long time, I was filled with hope and excitement about where life was taking me.
With a smile on my face, I headed downstairs to find Mike and Ladd talking to their father. Gus tossed him keys to what I guessed was his truck.
“Not a scratch on her, you hear me, Ladd Wilde?”
Ladd grinned. “Got it. Not a scratch.”
Ten minutes later, the three of us piled into the truck and started for town.
Ladd
The drive into town was filled with Mike telling me and Vivianne about how the high school football team started with no hope of a good year, and now they were heading to the state championship game.
“What position do you play, Mike?” Vivianne asked.
I could picture my brother’s chest puff out as he said, “I’m the starting running back.”
Vivianne looked back at him. “That’s exciting. Have you always played that position?”
“Sure have!”
“And Jason?” she asked.
“He’s a receiver. He’s good. Once he gets the ball in his hands, he can outmaneuver and outrun almost everyone.”
“Everyone, huh?” Vivianne asked with a slight bit of amusement in her voice.
Mike nodded. “Everyone, Viv. He’s an outstanding player.”
“It’s nice that the two of you get to play with each other.”
“Jason and Mike used to say when they were younger that they’d both be playing for the Denver Broncos.”
Mike chuckled. “I don’t see myself doing that anymore. College is in my future, only because Dad’s making me go, but my dream is to work the ranch with Dad.”
“Does Jason still have that dream, to play for the Broncos?” Vivianne asked.
I shrugged as Mike replied, “Oh yeah. His goal is to play in the NFL, and he’d love to play for the home team.”
She was clearly surprised by that response. “And you really don’t?”
He shook his head. “Nah. I love football, don’t get me wrong. If I can play for Colorado State and have my degree paid for, that would be amazing. But the endgame isn’t the NFL. I love the ranch too much.”
“Jason loves the ranch as well,” I offered. “He’s just never really expressed his desire to work on it.”
We sat in silence for a few moments. “Do you think he’ll work the ranch?”
“Honestly, no,” Mike said. “David is like me. He lives for this ranch.”
“I was scared to death to tell our father that I wanted to open a sporting goods store, but when I did, he was immediately supportive. Likely because his own dad didn’t really give him a choice. Still…he’s probably thanking his lucky stars that he had four boys.”
“I’d say two and a half out of the four is a pretty good number,” Vivianne said with a smile.
