It had to be so hard for him, falling for a child who might or might not be his. For all of them, actually, but especially for Brian. And yes, even Siobhan had to agree there wasalmostno chance Oliver wasn’t his biological son, but until the test was done, there was a very slim chance it was just the worst coincidence of physical features ever.
Siobhan knew that very slim chance her son wasn’t Brian’s was the best case scenario for her. She and Oliver would be free to resume the life they’d been living and this would just be a memory of a strange vacation she didn’t want to revisit. But she couldn’t wish that kind of heartbreak on Brian or his family. Even though he’d only known Oliver for a few days, he would be devastated.
They’d managed to avoid being alone for even a second today, and moving through different family conversations so they were always talking to other people was a dance they’d mastered the steps to.
And it held for the remainder of the evening when Brian was tasked with helping move the rocks to the makeshift table in the garage they’d made with a sheet of plywood across two sawhorses. Because Oliver had gotten as much paint on himself as he had the rock, she had a good reason to excuse them to get cleaned up.
When they reached the site, she had him sit on the step while she got the worst of the paint off with a cloth and plain water. Washable or not, she didn’t want him leaving smears and handprints all over the interior.
By the time she scrubbed all of the green paint off of Oliver and then off of herself and then out of the shower in the camper that didn’t belong to her, Siobhan was exhausted. Luckily, Oliver was worn down, as well, and he didn’t seem the least bit interested in getting re-dressed and going back outside.
“Where’s my frog?” he asked once they were in pajamas.
“It’s going to dry in the garage while you’re sleeping, and then they’ll put a clear spray on it to keep the paint safe.”
“Then I can have it back?”
“Yes. You’ll get to bring your froggy home with you.”
He rubbed his eyes, and she wondered if he’d make it through a single story tonight. “Home?”
Siobhan ran her hand over his dark hair. “We’ll sleep here three more times, and then we’ll go home and you can show your froggy to Auntie Robin.”
He grinned. “And go to school?”
“You can probably bring it to school. We’ll see.” Siobhan knew her life was made immeasurably easier by the fact that Oliver loved his daycare program. He wanted to share everything with his teachers and friends, but it was a big rock. “Which book should we read tonight?”
“Beep beep!” Oliver yelled, grabbing the book out of the pile, and heading for the bed.
Siobhan knew going to bed early meant getting up early, but Oliver was going to drop into sleep one way oranother. He might as well be in bed for the night when it happened.
Sure enough, it was barely full light when Siobhan sipped her coffee the next morning, listening to her very excited son talking about his frog rock. And she tried not to think about Brian running his thumb over the small rock he kept in his pocket.
Hours later, when breakfast was over, the men headed out with the ATVs and side-by-sides for a day on the trails. Today was serving as the bachelor and bachelorette parties, with the men taking the groom out into the woods, apparently.
For most of the women, the fact that the men would be gone all day was enough of a party, but there were some fun activities planned. Robin had helped Siobhan pull together a few basic bachelorette party games last-minute, and with a few family traditions and an impressive mimosa pitcher added in, it promised to be a good day.
“We’re definitely playing Scrabble,” Terry announced when they were all gathered together with nothing to do but enjoy themselves while Cat played with the younger kids on the playground.
Siobhan looked at Steph, wondering what her friend’s reaction would be to playing a board game at her bachelorette party, but judging by the grin and bouncing on her toes, she was excited about it.
That didn’t make any sense to Siobhan, but she had to admit a bachelorette party probably landed differently when your mother and grandmother were in attendance. And when it came to word games, Siobhan usually crushed her competition, so she was in.
“Wait,” she said, holding up her hand. “Do you meanactualScrabble? Or is this some kind of Kowalski-fiedScrabble of Doom where we use a slingshot to pelt each other with letter tiles and have to spell out words with the ones we can catch before they take our eyes out?”
They all stared at her for a minute, and then Emma laughed. “That actually sounds super fun. We should try that some year.”
Siobhan held up her hands. “Did you miss the part where they take your eyes out?”
“We’d wear safety glasses, of course.”
“It’s the board game,” Steph said.
Keri nodded. “The actual game, with standard Scrabble scoring, along with a bonus double word score for any word you shouldn’t say in front of the kids. Any if there’s a word you can’t bring yourself to say out loud at all, even if there aren’t any kids nearby, you get a bonus triple word score. We’ve changed it a bit, though, as the kids got older, and you also get a bonus triple if it’s a word Gram would smack you with a wooden spoon for saying in front of her.”
Siobhan nodded, considering. “Does sheactuallyhit us with a wooden spoon?”
They all laughed when Mary very slowly reached down and adjusted the tote bag on the ground next to her, folding over the top so nobody could see inside of it. Siobhan doubted she actually had a wooden spoon in there—though she wouldn’t have bet against it—but she loved the woman’s sense of humor.
