Muddy paused for the barest of moments before smiling.“Lenni.Nice to meet you.Call me Muddy.”
“Okay,” Lenni murmured.
Grampy had a shock of white hair, but despite his age, his spine wasn’t at all stooped.Shrewd brown eyes peered behind thick black glasses, and they saw everything.
“I’m Grampy,” he said to Lenni as he came to stand next to Muddy.“Poet’s grandfather.Have you met Poet yet?”
Lenni nodded and curled herself over Mildred.
“Let’s go inside,” I suggested.“And give Lenni time to get used to all the new people.”
Lenni’s face relaxed in clear relief.
Muddy wrapped her arm around Lenni’s shoulders and steered her toward the house.“You like fried chicken?”
“Yes,” Lenni said.
“Great.That’s what we’re having for lunch,” Muddy said.“Grampy was going to help me cook, but he’s grumbling about it.”
“I’m not grumbling,” he grumbled.
“Does everyone’s family live here?”Lenni asked.
I smiled as they left and then caught Archer looking at me.“What?”
He frowned.“How did you know she was overwhelmed?”
“Deductive reasoning.She just met me and the gang.”I paused.“And I’m guessing she just met you for the first time, too.”
He sighed.“Yeah.”
“That’s a lot for anyone to handle,” I said, my tone careful.“You didn’t know about her, did you?”
He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck.
I was about to ask him another question, but we were interrupted by the pregnant posse and their beasts.
“Sorry, that took a bit longer than I thought,” Hadley said.“We all had to use the bathroom.”
“And safety the wood stove,” Salem added.
Poet looked at Archer.“You talk to Brooks?”
“When would I have had time to talk to him?”Archer asked.“In between Nancy dropping off the daughter I didn’t know I had, or Lenni running after her as she drove off?”
“Broke my fucking heart,” Salem murmured.
“You and me both,” I added.
ChapterThree
The Ranch
Twenty minutes into making lunch, Salem and Hadley’s husbands trickled into the main house.When Brooks arrived, he quickly kissed Poet and Lottie hello and then spent a moment staring at his surprise niece who was currently standing at the counter battering chicken cutlets with Muddy.
Brooks nodded his head at Archer and the two of them escaped out the back door.The rest of us were left wondering about Lenni and how she came to be, but none of us knew.Not yet at least.
Mr.Powell and his pregnant fiancée joined the fray, greeting Lenni like she had been expected, and not some curveball that had been thrown into Archer’s life.
