“I miss you too. Miss Lainey, you’re here for dinner?”
Lainey wipes her mouth with her napkin and grins. “Your grandmama invited me. Isn’t that so kind?”
“Can we play UNO after we’re done?”
“As long as you eat your vegetables and mind your manners.”
“That a deal?” Dean asks, holding out his hand.
Lainey takes it. “That’s a deal. Such a good handshake.”
“Thanks. My dad taught me.”
“I’m sure he did,” Lainey says, looking up wearily as Colt walks into the room. “Hello, Colton.”
My stomach bottoms out. Billie and I meet eyes, and I can tell she’s wondering the same thing I am.This a good thing or a bad thing?
“Lainey.” He nods, then looks around the table. “Why y’all so quiet?”
“Because you’ve been giving us all the silent treatment for, like, a year now, and suddenly you decide to show up to supper like it’s no big thing.” Mack cocks a brow. “Care to explain yourself?”
Colt leans down to kiss his mama before he takes his seat. “Me and Dean were hungry.”
“Right,” Beck says slowly.
Colt helps Dean put his napkin on his lap. “This looks amazing, Mom.”
“Ryder helped too, you know,” Mrs. Wallace replies. “He’s an excellent kitchen assistant.”
“That so?” Colt cuts me a look.
I reach for my beer and take a gulp. “My mom always used to say many hands make light work.”
“You’re kind of a living embodiment of that, Ry,” Billie says.
Lainey chews thoughtfully on a piece of garlic bread. “All y’all are. Watching you work together day in and day out is really something else.”
“That’s ’cause we’re doin’ real work.” Colt gives her a tight smile. “The kind you do with your hands.”
Lainey, bless her, isn’t having it. “You really gonna start with this right now?”
“Daddy, Miss Lainey does real work too. Matter of fact, we worked together today.”
Colt’s brows pop up, a piece of garlic bread poised over his open mouth. “I thought you were showing Miss Lainey how to ride a horse.”
“We were riding horses, Daddy. We were also talking strategy.”
Mack is laughing into his napkin. “I like the sound of this.”
“Can we tell them?” Dean begs Lainey. “Please please please? Your ideas are the neatest.”
That has us all laughing again.
Lainey nods. “Sure. Why don’t you tell everyone the idea we were kicking around today while you were being such an excellent teacher?”
“Double U Ranch!” Dean proudly exclaims. “Get it, Mimi? Instead of The Wallace Ranch, our new name would be—wait, what did you call it, Miss Lainey?”
Lainey laughs, reaching over to ruffle Dean’s hair. “A play on words. Wallace starts with the letterw, so we just spell that letter out in a different way.D-o-u-b-l-e…”
