“How about we have all the kids over so you and Roam can get ya some or bask in the lack of sounds in a kid-free house for a night?” Remi said.
“No takebacks,” Sprite said, shelving some of the indie author books that Rachel had ordered in.
“I kind of did something that might blow up in all our faces,” Jesse said, continuing to shelve books with her back to all of them.
“Blow up like let’s get the guns out and start carrying with sentries outside of town or blow up because it might cause someone emotional trauma?” Regina asked.
“Umm, the latter like maybe a Code Rachel,” Jesse said, turning to face the group.
“Come tell us about it,” Meg said. Rachel marveled at how quickly everyone sat down around tables.
“Back in October, Cannon was having trouble sleeping. We talked about it. He’d been having dreams that he had other siblings out there who weren’t in good situations. I bought us DNA tests to see if his dad had left any siblings somewhere. I didn’t want Cannon to have to go through it alone, so I did one for myself too,” Jesse said.
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense. Does Cannon have more siblings out there?” Clara asked.
Rachel waited because she couldn’t imagine where this was going.
“No. At least, not that we know of yet. But it came back that we have five possible cousins,” Jesse said.
“But—” Winnie said, turning to Remi.
“Umm, I thought Mom and Dad were both only children. Neither of them ever brought up anything about siblings or parents. I assumed they were all gone,” Remi said.
“Me too. So I guess we need to figure out if we want to contact them,” Sarah said.
Beth shook her head. “Nope, Jesse wouldn’t be worried if she hadn’t already contacted them. What did you find out?”
“You did?” Sarah asked.
“I did. I saw the matches and contacted them each individually. The oldest replied,” Jesse said.
“Well, what did she say?” Remi demanded.
“She’s the oldest of five sisters. They’re the daughters of Aaron Franks,” Jesse said.
“And who is Aaron Franks?” Remi asked.
“I don’t know. I was going to ask Dad, but I figured that I better ask soon because I invited them to visit Bluff Creek and Broken Hearts Brewing for our grand opening,” Jesse said.
When the conversation turned into an argument, Regina suggested maybe the girls should all sleep on what they’d found out before they said something they’d regret to each other. The sisters were divided on what needed to happen and accepted Regina’s suggestion.
Rachel was glad they were toward the end of unloading the boxes because the tension between the sisters was unnerving her.
“We have about forty-five minutes until my children will be returned. My primary goal would be getting the rest of the books unloaded. They’ve already been scanned into our system for inventory tracking. I really appreciate all the help you’ve given me,” Rachel said.
Clara slid her arm around Rachel. “I’m glad you decided to come here.”
“Me too,” Rachel said, hugging Clara back.
The little disagreement between the sisters, though unnerving, had been a good thing. Getting to see family disagree but still get along was something new for Rachel. Her dad and mom hadn’t allowed any disagreements. They hadn’t allowed any deviation from what they considered appropriate. Over the years, Rachel had second-guessed her decision to keep the kids away from her parents and never trying to introduce them to their grandkids, but after seeing the way family worked at Bluff Creek, she’d come to therealization she’d made the right decision. This was the type of family she wanted her kids to experience.
Gunner had brought the kids to the store. He’d planned on the four of them spending a little bit of time together before heading home. But Roam had called that he needed help with something at Bluff Creek Ink. Gunner had run over to help out and was headed back.
He decided to take the back way and walk through the alley. He’d wanted to check the sensor on the outdoor motion lights and now was the perfect time. Although there was a large light in the lot, it didn’t illuminate their back door or the area where their dumpster was located. He listened to the night sounds, thinking about how cute Marcus and Chelle had been coming back to the store. Marcus had been ecstatic that he andBenji had finished first one of the rounds. Chelle had said she had fun playing with everyone.
Despite what they’d gone through, both kids had such sweet personalities. The parking lot was dark except for directly around the large light. He walked toward the back door. It only took a couple seconds to trigger the motion light. One less thing to worry about. He unlocked the back door and walked into the kitchen. It was quiet but then he heard talking.
It wasn’t that he planned on eavesdropping, but the kids were asking questions that caught his attention.
