Page 190 of Dusty Spur Ranch Cowboys

He appears right on cue, proudly carrying the glitter-covered sign beneath one arm. “I supported you before you became famous.”

Red takes the cardboard from him before another trail of glitter escapes onto the walkway. “You’ve still got glitter in your beard,” I tell him.

“I know.”

Sadie giggles before spotting someone farther along the midway. “Dakota!”

She bolts across the walkway, and Charlie meets her halfway. They disappear toward the ring toss together while the rest of us follow at a much more reasonable pace.

Dakota laughs as soon as she sees them. “I wondered how long it’d take.”

“They’ve been talking about this all week,” Clint says, shifting baby Olivia higher against his shoulder while she sleeps through the excitement.

Dakota shakes her head before pulling me into a hug. “You sounded amazing.”

“Thanks.”

She studies me for a second before smiling. “You look happy.”

Olivia stirs against Clint’s shoulder before settling again, while Charlie grabs Sadie’s hand and drags her toward the next game. Sawyer follows without hesitation, and Reid hurries after them, insisting the children clearly need professional supervision.

“You’ve never supervised anybody in your life,” Clint calls after him.

“I was a child once.”

Dakota slips her arm through mine as we watch them disappear into the crowd. “You fit here.”

“I finally figured that out.”

“The rest of us figured it out months ago.”

I look across the rodeo grounds where families wander between the food stalls and livestock barns, ranch hands wave as they pass, and half a dozen people stop to ask about Dusty Spur, my next show at The Silver Bit, or whether I have another opening for guitar lessons.

“Arizona!”

I turn toward the food tents where Abilene waves me over from beneath a striped canopy.

Her pregnancy is impossible to miss now. Marshall stands close beside her, watching the crowd while Wyatt balances two lemonades, and Jesse is busy chasing his twins before either of them can climb onto the livestock fencing.

“I told you two to stay where I could see you!” Jesse calls.

“We are!” one of them shouts while running even farther away.

“I should hope so.”

Wyatt heads toward the livestock barns with one of Jesse’s twins riding high on his shoulders, happily steering through the midway, while Jesse carries the other one under one arm and tries to convince him that climbing fences isn’t an Olympic sport. Marshall never lets go of Abilene’s hand as he watches them disappear into the crowd.

“You’ve all got your hands full,” I say.

Abilene smiles, resting her free hand over the curve of her stomach. “That seems to be how we do things around here.”

The crowd erupts as the first bronc rider bursts from the chute, and I glance toward the grandstands.

“I should rescue Sadie before she talks Emmett into another stuffed animal.”

“You’d better hurry,” Abilene says as Marshall reaches her side again. “You should find Annie, too. She threatened to leave after Duke started explaining rodeo scoring.”

I chuckle. “That serious?”