“Anyway,” Ty continued. “His words for the week were...more challenging than they usually are.”
“So we taught him how to rap,” Emmitt said.
“Even Trenton,” Memphis chimed. “And if you’ve never heard a cowboy rap, you’re missing out.”
Lucas tossed his head back. “It wasawesome!”
“It’ll definitely be a new tradition now,” Maverick added.
“Right,” Emmitt said. “But first we need to know if it paid off. What’d you get on that test, man?”
The raw excitement in Emmitt’s eyes was beyond words. Sloane couldn’t help but pause, glance around the table, and acknowledge the immense amount of love that sat in that room. A simple dining area on a ranch house in Haven Hills, North Carolina. What had Emmitt told her about Lucas? In addition to saying he was pretty much the coolest eight-year-old that ever lived, he’d said that the little guy had never had a dad.
But look at what he had now, in the Duran family.
“I got a…a F!” Lucas blurted.
Silence fell over the room for a blink.
“Just kidding! I got a hundred!”
A collective cheer broke out over the table.
“One hundred and three, remember, with the extra credit,” Ty added proudly.
“Holy smokes!” Emmitt gave him a fist bump across the table.
“I never got more than a hundred on anything in my life,” Memphis said, waiting for his fist bump next.
“Maybe you just needed to learn to rap back then,” Lucas said, earning laughs throughout the table.
“Good advice,” Sloane told him while bumping fists with him next. The kid really was bright. And adorable too.
Suddenly Lucas pointed a finger at her across the table. “I want to hearyourap with your…your way you talk.”
“Heraccent,” Ty said.
“Yeah! Trenton did his like a cowboy, all slow and stuff. I want to hear what yours is like.”
Emmitt placed an arm around her back. “That’s a good idea. Should we teach her some after dinner?”
“Mm hmm,” Lucas said as he licked his lips. “Let’s say grace so we can eat.”
“That’s a great idea, too,” Memphis said.
Sloane watched as the family extended their arms to either side, placing their hands in one another’s grip. She joined in, taking Maverick’s large hand to her left, and resting the other in Emmitt’s warm, comforting grip on her right.
“I’ll say it,” Trenton mumbled.
Sloane hardly knew how she’d ended up in such a beautiful spot of heaven on earth.
Yet just as the answer occurred to her, a knot of guilt wedged its way into her thoughts, disrupting her peace in a blink. She wished she was there under different circumstances. Any other circumstance than the real one.
A thought occurred to her then: If this family really knew about Anna’s whereabouts, they had to be ignorant to what she had done. It was the only explanation for a family so good. She pulled in a breath of encouragement and hope as the prayer came to an end. No matter what she discovered in the days or even weeks ahead, Sloane could put her hurting heart to rest on one point—the Duran family was decent and good.
That statement rang powerfully true in her heart, where it stayed all through their beautiful Sunday dinner. Sloane couldn’t help but think back on what Emmitt had shared on their first day together—this was all Andie’s idea. She’d known their family, after dealing with so much loss, needed to act and live like a family. She’d come up with a plan to make it happen, and her brothers—this awesome group of men—had agreed.
Even Richard, the one who never showed up for anything. She set the mystery behind the oldest brother aside and put her mind back to the moment at hand as the evening moved on.
