For now, she loved Chance and Sari with her whole heart, though Conrad’s older daughter was at their mother’s today. Glory Rose was hosting the Walker Lady Lunch, and Elaine had arrived a few minutes early so she could have this time with Chance before Clara Jean, Camila, and Ruby arrived.
The doorbell rang then, but Elaine didn’t move at all.
“I’ll get it,” Conrad said. Glory Rose continued to pull containers out of the big brown paper bags Conrad had brought in through the garage entrance.
Around the corner and down the hall, Conrad laughed at the front door, and then Camila came into the back of the house. During the school year, she taught second grade, but it was summertime, and she’d been keeping them all up-to-date about the happenings at Shiloh Ridge Ranch, where she now lived with her husband Gunnison Glover.
They’d been married for just over a year now, and Elaine wondered if Camila would be making any of her own pregnancy announcements anytime soon.
“I’m walking in,” Clara Jean called.
“Come on in,” Glory Rose called back, and the front door thunked closed before Clara Jean rounded the corner. She wore a shapeless sundress in bright blue, which brought out her dark complexion, hair, and eyes even more. Elaine looked great in blue too, as everyone in the Walker family seemed to have inherited the midnight genes.
Clara Jean groaned as she sat down and pulled her dress to stretch over her six-month pregnancy belly. She was due the first week of November with a little boy that she and Tate had been sending ridiculous names about, at least on the younger generation Walker family text string.
Elaine smiled at her. “How’s the farm?” she asked.
“It’s doing better than I thought,” Clara Jean said. “After that dust storm, I wasn’t sure if some of our trees and plants would grow back, but we’re having a great yield so far.”
“That’s great news,” Elaine said. Though she’d grown up on a rural lane just south of town with her daddy spending a lot of his time at Seven Sons Ranch, which he partly owned, Elaine could not imagine living and working on a farm. Clara Jean had inherited and taken over the farm from her mother’s side ofthe family, the Wildes. She and Tate also ran Wilde & Organic, the grocery store in town, along with Aunt Whitney’s sister and brother.
JJ had taken over the ranch, and he’d started working with Uncle Skyler’s youngest son, Gideon, as Uncle Skyler also owned part of the ranch.
Uncle Micah owned a fourth part, but Elaine hadn’t heard if her cousins Daisy, Jenson, or Laurel would be doing anything there or not. Daisy had finished college a few years ago and worked in finance in Houston right now. Jenson was an apprentice electrician, working on becoming a journeyman, and Laurel had just barely graduated from high school.
Trap had taken over his parents’ construction and interior design firm, MSW, and worked with Ruby on that venture, and Jason and Sawyer—more Walker cousins—worked with him.
The doorbell rang again before Elaine could ask Clara Jean how she was feeling, or what the latest update on the baby names was, and Glory Rose went to get it this time.
It had to be Ruby, and Elaine wasn’t surprised to hear her and Glory Rose chit-chatting as they came back down the hall. Ruby carried her beautiful baby Jade in her arms, and since the little girl had recently turned one and could walk, Ruby set her down on her feet and said, “Go see Auntie Clara Jean.”
Jade stood there for a moment with eyes like a deer in the headlights, and Clara Jean cooed at her. “Come on, baby. Come over here. I’ll give you a snack.”
Jade smiled and toddled over to Clara Jean, who once again groaned as she lifted the girl onto her lap.
“I knew we’d be last,” Ruby said. “I was meeting with Trap about a client.”
“It’s fine.” Glory Rose moved back into the kitchen. “Conrad just got here with lunch, and we were just unpacking it.”
“And I’m leaving.” Conrad stepped over to Glory Rose and put one hand on her hip, as if to balance himself. He leaned in and kissed her, and she smiled at him as he pulled back.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I’m gonna go work out,” he said. “And then I’m headed over to Colt’s to look at his lawn mower.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Glory Rose said.
“I’ll see you later.”
“Yep.” He turned toward the living room full of Walker women and tipped his cowboy hat before putting it on. “You ladies have a good time.”
“We always do,” Elaine said, and she smiled at her brother as he left.
“I didn’t miss the latest news on baby names, did I?” Ruby asked.
“Let’s eat,” Glory Rose said. “Clara Jean can catch us up at the table.” She took Chance from Elaine and started to put him in his high chair.
Elaine pushed herself off the couch and went to take Jade from Clara Jean, so she could get to her feet as well. She let Ruby put her daughter in a baby seat at the table, and then they stood around the counter while Glory Rose said, “We ordered from Roasters. It’s just sandwiches and chips and salads and cookies, but I got everything you guys requested, and we wrote your names on them.” She picked up the first box. “Ruby.”
