Wolf met his uncles, his aunts, more cousins. He met the redheaded vet Maria’s husband Harrison, who clapped his shoulder and pumped his hand. Willow’s partner Jeremiah hung nearby, and once had leaned in and said, “You made my Willow so happy, Wolf. You got me as a friend for life, you hear?”
“Family,” Willow said. “That’s better than a friend.”
“Brother-in-law, no less,” Jeremiah said.
There were so many of them that it was overwhelming. And everyone wanted to hear the story, and to hug him, and touch him, and welcome him. He noticed a lot of them hugging and loving on his mother and father, too. He’d given Cilla’s diaries toTaylor to read. Willow thought it would ease their mother’s mind to fill in those missing years, to know what her son’s life had been like.
Garrett Brand, who Wolf now knew was the sheriff who’d been looking for him, and was also his uncle, rose, raised his glass of sweet tea, and tapped it with a spoon. Everyone quieted. There were tables and tables of people, and Wolf wondered how he’d ever get to know them all as every eye turned toward the big sheriff.
“I gotta tell you something, folks. This family is blessed. We’ve had miracles before, and plenty of ’em.” He made eye contact with specific members of the clan as a murmur of agreement made the rounds. “But getting Johnny Wolf back—” He glanced at Wolf. “That’s what we called you those two precious weeks we had you—Johnny Wolf. That okay with you, nephew?”
Wolf nodded solemnly. “Sure. I mean, I’ve grown kinda fond of Wolf, but?—”
“And I’ve gotten fond of Ethan,” said the one they called Bubba half the time.
“And I prefer Harrison to Harry,” Maria’s husband called out. “If anyone forgot.”
Garrett shrugged. “So good luck with that, Johnny Wolf. Meanwhile, I just want to say?—”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” screamed a high-pitched female voice. “Omygosh, what’s happening?”
The cry had come from Lily. It was easy to remember which one she was. Her hair was paler and finer than Drew’s, she was married to Ethan, and she was very,verypregnant.
Wait a minute…
She was rising from her chair with help from Ethan, who stood behind her. She had one hand on her back, one on herfront. She was wearing a sundress and standing in a puddle of water. Oh, wait, that wasn’t water.
“Ooooohhhhhh, it’s for real this time,” she squeaked.
Uncle Garrett, still standing, said, “I’m about to become a grandpa! Hot damn!”
Drew turned to Maria. “What do we do? What do wedo?”
“I don’t know what we do! This is the first baby of our generation,” Maria cried, and she looked at her cousins. “What do we do?”
“We go to the hospital,” Willow said. “That’s what we do. That’s what they did.” She nodded to their parents. “So that’s what we do.” Willow clasped Wolf’s arm as she hurried past him and gave a squeeze. “You won’t be the newest Brand for long, brother.”
He looked at Camellia and squeezed her hand as they and every other Brand on the premises headed for their vehicles and took off, a caravan of a kind.
“When things calm down,” Camellia said as she walked beside him to his truck, “we need to go back to Big Bend. Now you have a last name to write in that book.”
“I do, don’t I?”
“You sure do.”
“Do you like it?” They’d made it to his pickup. She got in her side and he got in his.
“Do I like what?”
“The name?”
She looked at him wide-eyed.
As he grinned at her and started driving she said, “I don’t know. Some handsome guy once told me Camellia Rio’s almost too pretty to be real.”
“We could hyphenate,” Wolf said. “Become the Rio-Brands.”
“The Rio-Brands from the Rio Grande?” she asked, laughing softly, like she thought he was kidding around with her.
