They exchanged a quick hug and phone numbers, and Wynn was off, her heart racing like she’d run through a dark forest at night and barely escaped with her life.
Chapter 4
Judd
Judd tossed clothes to his younger brother, Anders, who pitched them down the hall into the open washing machine.
“Why are we doing laundry?” Anders asked.
“Because if we don’t, then Wynn has to do it, and she has enough to do.” Judd wadded up the jeans Miles wore to the ranch. He’d stepped in something, and it clung to the pant leg. The machine would get it out. “You might want to add an extra helping of laundry soap to that one.” He pointed to the detergent on the shelf above the machine.
“Uncle Judd!” Laney yelled from her room. “I’m ready for a story.” Her little voice could be heard from miles around. He knew, because he’d been in his yard and heard her yelling for her mom inside the house before.
Judd grinned.
“I want one too!” Miles raced out of his door, took a sharp left, and ended up on Laney’s bed, bouncing on his knees.
“I got this.” Anders unscrewed the cap from the soap and measured it out. A few seconds later, the machine started up.
Judd swaggered into the pink-and-cream-colored room like a cowboy entering a saloon. “You want a story, eh?” He pretended to spit on the floor. Laney wrinkled her nose in disgust, but Miles grinned.
Anders came up behind him, and Judd ducked like he was avoiding a gunshot. He used his fingers to shoot at Anders, who hid behind the door and “fired back.”
“Pew! Pew! Pow!” Miles hollered.
“Stop fighting!” Laney threw her hands over her ears.
Both men lowered their weapons and eyed one another as they came to standing.
“This rascal ate all the tacos.” Anders tipped his head at Judd. “Didn’t save me any.”
Laney covered her mouth with her hands and giggled. “I helped.”
“What?” He dove for her on the bed and tickled until she called, “Uncle!”
Judd picked up Miles and set him on his lap. Laney snuggled into Anders, who sat on the bed with his back against the wall. “All right. I think Anders should tell you a Thatcher-Dad story tonight.”
“Yeah,” the kids said in unison.
Anders looked up at the ceiling, contemplating. “Well, there is one story I’m sure Judd has never told you.”
Eager blue eyes watched Anders gather his thoughts.
Judd took a deep breath and settled in. “Hey now, I’m the kids’ hero—don’t mess with that.”
“You?Pfft. It’s me all the way.” Anders winked, and Laney giggled again. She was a veritable factory of giggles since starting school. “There was this one time your dad and Judd had to help Auntie Freda clean up some blackberry bushes. They’d been working at it all day, and they came upon an old weight set, the kind you see on TV.”
The kids nodded. One corner of Judd’s mouth twitched with a smile. He’d forgotten about this.
“So your uncle here, he tells Auntie Freda they will buy it from her for fifty bucks. But she tells them they can have it for free. The two of them hauled it home—”
“Piece by piece, mind you. I still have the calluses on my hand.” He pointed to his palm, and the kids leaned over his hand to look. He had calluses, though they’d been earned since that day.
“Don’t feel too bad for him,” Anders continued. “They cleaned up the set and sold it for $300.”
“And the moral of the story is that hard work always pays off.” Judd winked at the kids.
Anders laughed. “I thought it was that serving others pays off.”
