“Well, it wasn’t paradise during branding season, but that’s neither here nor there. Point being, Mollie shows up and changesmylife. Then all of a sudden, Sally and Wy are finally acting on the crush they’ve had on each other forever, and then they’re in love.”
Wyatt lets out a holler. “Almost got shot in the process, but worth it.”
“Sorry about that,” John B replies with a chuckle.
Sally rolls her eyes. “Glad we can laugh about it now.”
“In the meantime,” Cash continues, rocking side to side when the baby starts to make noise, “the guys take me on a little bachelor party weekend to Austin, and Sawyer ends up meeting Ava at a honky-tonk.”
Ella claps her hands. “That’s where you kissed, right?”
“That’s exactly what we did.” Ava bites back a smile. “We kissed.”
“So much kissing,” Sawyer replies.
Dean sticks out his tongue. “No thank you.”
“Little did we know that Mollie Luck was a package deal.” Cash glances at Wheeler. “Her friend Wheeler starts showing up, and my brother Duke starts acting like a lovesick fool.”
Duke holds up his hand. “Guilty. Was love at first sight for me.”
“But me, I took some convincing,” Wheeler replies. “Duke is nothing if not persistent.”
“Gritisimportant,” Dad says.
Patsy nods. “Ain’t that the truth.”
“Next thing we know, they’re going on road trips together. Lord knows what went down on those trips—well, we actually have a very good idea of what went down, but I won’t go into detail.” Cash grins. “Now we have not one, but two sets of twins in the family.”
Mom raises her glass. “Congrats, y’all. Cheers to all these beautiful babies.”
“Cheers,” the room replies in unison, the sound of clinking glasses and a sniffle or two filling the room.
“So all of a sudden,” Cash looks at Ryder, “everyone had paired off except the baby of the family. It wasn’t a secret that Ryder was always the favorite. I remember people saying that Mom didn’t put him down for the first two years of his life.”
Ryder shrugs. “So what? I was cute.”
“We literally looked the exact same,” Duke shoots back. “Still do. And Mom didn’t hold me like that.”
Now Ryder’s smiling. “Mom and I just had that special connection.”
“Whatever the case”—Cash holds up his hand—“I think we can all agree that Ryder has always been the most tenderhearted out of all of us. He took our parents’ passing really hard, and I worried for a long time that he wouldn’t ever come back from that.”
“You? Worry?” Ryder tilts his head. “Never.”
“You’re funny.” Cash gives him a tight smile. “But losing Mom and Dad—it changed you, Ry. And then falling in love withBillie Wallace changed you again. Changed you back into the tender, brave, ballsy soul you were before.”
“What does ballsy mean?” Ella asks Ava.
Cash covers his mouth. “Sorry.”
“It’s another word for brave,” I say quickly. “It means you have the courage to go after the things you want.”
June smiles. “I’m ballsy.”
The room erupts in laughter.
“That, you are,” Sawyer says with a sigh.
