‘When?’ Sierra rasped.
‘We found out the day after Mav got home,’ Nina whispered.
Markus looked back and forth between them. ‘What the hell did I miss?’
Sierra pushed to her feet. She blocked all her own ugly emotions as she walked to Nina. She tried not to think about the fact that if her baby hadn’t died, there would have been one more little girl between Poppy and Mav and Nina’s baby. There would have been a new generation of kids, running riot on Hunt Ranch like Mav and Benji and Sierra once had.
Taking the flute from her almost-sister-in-law’s hand, she pointedly took a sip, said, ‘More for me,’ and then she folded Nina in a bone-crushing hug. ‘I’m so freaking happy for you.’
‘Thanks, Si. I … I wanted to tell you in private first. I can’t imagine—’
‘No need,’ Sierra hurried to say. ‘We’re on different paths, Nina. My past shouldn’t detract from your joy and excitement for the future.’ It was true. Or maybe not. But Sierra knew itshouldhave been true, so she closed off the part of herself that wanted to scream with self-pity.
‘No!’ Markus gasped, finally catching on. ‘Oh my God!’ His tears started coming freely and unashamedly too. ‘Wait, is this happening right now?’ he demanded, and pulled Nina out of Sierra’s arms and into his.
Nina laughed, and it was so bright it hurt Sierra to hear. She remembered what that felt like, that joy that nestled within a woman as deeply as the child in her womb.
‘Yes!’ Nina replied. ‘We weren’t really planning it; it kinda just happened …’ She laughed incredulously.
‘Holy crap.’ Markus swiped away a tear.
Seeing that Poppy was watching them, her face scrunched with confusion, Nina crouched down and opened her arms. Poppy immediately ran into them. ‘How would you like to be a big sister?’
Poppy’s eyes became huge. ‘We’re getting a baby?’ she asked, her voice pitched with excitement.
‘Yeah,’ Nina laughed. ‘We’re getting a baby.’
‘When?’
‘About seven months from now.’
‘Oh.’ Poppy deflated. ‘That’s a long time to wait.’
‘Yeah, it is,’ Nina laughed, ‘but it’ll go really fast.’
While the girls and Markus were wedding dress shopping, Benji was sitting side by side with Maverick as they cleaned and oiled tack. It was an easy but time-consuming job, one that they did twice a year to keep their leather in good condition. And although they were a few months early this time round, it was also one of the only things Benji could think to give Mav to do that would keep him sitting down and taking it easy. If they both knew that Mav was being managed, neither of them mentioned it.
They worked in a companionable silence for a long time, two men who didn’t need conversation to feel close to one another.
The barn was calm and quiet mid-afternoon. The crisp air occasionally slipped beneath Benji’s jacket, refreshing him. Outside, Skye instructed two small kids from the resort on their first horse ride while José and Riley led the two ponies.
At two-thirty, he would start prepping for the three o’clock trail ride. A group of six novices wanted to do the two-hour tour to the lake and back, and although he’d much rather be training diablo or practising his roping, this particular trail ride was one Benji enjoyed too.
‘I’m going to take Zeph on the three o’clock ride,’ he told Mav. ‘Give her some exercise.’
‘Appreciate it.’ Maverick sighed deeply. ‘I’d do it myself, but Nina would kill me if she found out.’
Benji couldn’t stop his grin. ‘You’re getting soft in your old age.’
‘I know it.’ Maverick picked up a dark brown bridle and began taking it apart so he could clean it. ‘But I figure I’m going to be equally obnoxious about her health, so I’m making sure she has nothing to hold over me.’
Benji’s head shot up. ‘Nina’s sick?’
Maverick, confusingly, only smiled. ‘No.’ He paused, corrected, ‘I mean, yeah.’
Concerned, Benji stopped what he was doing. ‘Well, Jesus, Mav, which is it?’
‘She’s pregnant, Benj.’ Mav put the bridle down. He raised one hand to his rub mouth as if self-conscious of his own huge grin. His blue eyes danced with excitement.
