And they’re so little right now. If I spend the next four years busting my ass in school, I’ll be missing so much of their childhood.
I climb out of bed and make my way into the kitchen. Igrab a mug and pour myself a cup from the coffeepot Duke made. A noise from the hallway draws my attention. Dolly enters, her face lighting up with she sees me.
“Hey! You’re up. Perfect. Do you wanna go to the farmers market with us today?” Dolly asks. “We stopped by to grab Eden so she can tag along.”
“Oh, I would, but I have to wrangle the boys.”
She waves a hand. “Duke said to ask you. He’s working on some project and will keep an eye on them. Sam’s coming over to help him build it.”
“What is he building?”
She shrugs like she doesn’t know. “Duke’s good with wood. He’s built lots of stuff around the ranch, like the table out on the porch, the feeding boxes for the cattle, I don’t even know what else.”
“Hmm.” I didn’t know that, but if I thought he couldn’t get any hotter, I was wrong. “Let me get dressed and put on a little makeup. I just woke up.”
“No rush! We have some time. Holden and Rosie are going now to set up, so we’ll meet them after.”
Dolly, Eden, and I make it to the farmers market just as it’s getting busy. We hurry to her tent setup, where Rosie and Holden are already busy fulfilling orders.
Dolly sells baked goods, and Rosie sells homemade salsa from her garden. They told me on the way over that Dollycouldn’t keep up with the demand with one oven, so Eden took over half of the baking, and she gets a fifty percent commission for her baked goods.
Rosie smiles at me and pulls me in for a tight hug. “Hi, future sister. How are you this morning?”
I shake my head at her, my cheeks tingeing red. “I’m letting my boyfriend babysit for the first time, so I’m nervous but good.”
“Nervous? I bet Duke is having the time of his life,” Dolly adds in, pinching my arm. “He’s the best uncle in the world to the girls, but he’s been dying to have boys to get all dirty with.”
“It’s true. Bonnie and Birdie are little princesses who hate the mud,” Rosie says.
I look over at the adorable twin girls sitting in matching red-and-white polka-dot chairs near the back of the tent. They’re wearing pale yellow baby-doll dresses and white shoes and ruffled socks.
“The girl-mom life isn’t even in the same universe as the boy-mom one.” I laugh.
“Hello. I see you have fresh salsa. Do you sell any organic vegetables?” A gray-haired customer is standing in front of the table.
Rosie shakes her head. “Not at this time, no. That’s a great idea though. That’s definitely what this market needs.”
She turns and looks at me, eyes wide. “You should totally do it.”
“Do what?”
“Start growing vegetables in your garden and sellingfresh produce. You could can stuff too. Oh! Like pickles! I would do nasty things for some homemade pickles.”
I blink at her, an idea forming in my head. Holy shit.
“My mini herb garden is doing really well so far, but once summer gets here, it’s going to be a challenge. The heat and sun will kill most of it. Unless I had, like, a place to grow it in the shade.”
“Hmm,” she says, tapping her nails on the tabletop. “Well, if you decide to do it, you’re welcome to sell stuff here with us. We do weekly markets, and we always sell out!”
“With the four of us, it’s like a Redford women tradition,” Dolly says, pulling me in for a quick hug. “And to think, I used to cry about not having any sisters, growing up. And now I almost have four.”
Emotions clog my throat, and my head is pounding. We barely started dating, and they’re already adding me to the family.
He’s babysitting my boys and threatening my ex with God knows what kind of violence.
And I’m about to have a panic attack, just thinking about what the future may hold. I’m still healing, fighting the panic in the middle of the night and praying my ex doesn’t show up and demand I give him the boys back for his parenting time.
I’m not ready for any of this.
