Page 67 of Bailey

“Mm, you smell nice,” he murmured.

Belle grinned and pressed against his kiss. “Go welcome all your cousins, and leave me to finish these.” She’d spent the morning making dipping sauces, everything from honey mustard, to homemade ranch, to a spicy barbecue ketchup.

He’d also cut watermelon into cubes and whipped up a batch of marshmallow crispy rice cereal treats. His daddy had mixed in peanut butter and chocolate chips when Harry had been a child, and he’d done that tonight, a wave of nostalgia washing over him.

The doorbell rang, and Harry straightened away from Belle. “I hope everyone remembers their food assignments.” He’d been organizing these cousin nights for long enough to know that even if he put it in all caps on the group invite thread that no one needed to bring anything, they still would.

“Howdy, all!” Bryce called from the front door just as Harry rounded the corner to head in that direction.

Bryce stepped back to open the door further, which allowed room for his pregnant wife to enter ahead of him. Harry’s face broke into a grin at the sight of Codi wearing a sleeveless sundress, her belly bumping out in front.

“No Matty tonight?” Harry asked as he moved forward to take the bin of popcorn ingredients from Bryce.

He had a special popper and the exact buttery salt they used at the movie theater. Harry’s front door faced south, and a literal swath of forest towered on the west side, so his backyard would be shady and cool for movie night. He’d already set out chairs and blankets with pillows, and a long table with a cooler at one end full of soda, and syrups next to that.

Belle was making hefty appetizers like the pronto pups, along with mozzarella sticks and a big bowl of dilly ham-and-cheese pasta salad. Harry could eat that every day of his life and die a happy man, especially when he got together with his cousins to do it.

“How’re you feeling, Codi?” Harry asked as he let her lead the way into the back of the house.

He and Belle were set to have their first baby very, very soon, and Harry certainly didn’t need the six-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bath house he currently lived in. Yet, his mind whispered, because Harry and Belle planned to be in Dog Valley for a long time, and they definitely wanted more than the one baby she currently carried.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Codi said. “Of course, I still have six weeks to go compared to Belle’s one.” She moved right into the kitchen, where Belle reached to turn off the flame under the pot of oil.

“How are you?” Codi asked as she snaked one arm around Belle and gave her a squeeze.

“Surviving,” Belle said.

She was the toughest woman Harry had ever met. She’d quit her job in law enforcement to write songs with him in their dedicated music studio, where Harry still played his guitar and sang to the camera for millions of fans online. But he had no record contracts and no plans to try to get another one. Belle had had a couple of labels interested in signing her for a record deal—something she’d wanted for a long time—then she’d found out about their baby, and she’d chosen this small-town life with Harry and their soon-to-be daughter instead.

Harry set the popcorn bin on the counter and pushed it over next to the sink. “Who has Matty tonight?” he asked, because a lot of the people Bryce would normally ask to babysit his son were here. “What with Rosie on the road and all.”

“Yeah, Rosie being gone has really killed our ability to get a babysitter,” Bryce said with a smile.

“Your momma and daddy are out of town, aren’t they?” Harry asked.

“Yep.” Bryce nodded.

Harry already knew Bryce’s younger half-siblings were staying with Wade and Cheryl Ingalls—Abby’s brother and sister-in-law—who lived right next door to them on the Eastern Highway. Codi turned from the stove and met Bryce’s eye, and, oh, Harry sensed a story here.

“You’ll die,” Bryce said with a chuckle. “But since Kassie and Reggie are coming here, and my momma and daddy are out of town, and Luke is off on his first camping trip of the summer….” He shrugged one shoulder. “I called Graham and Laney.”

Harry’s eyebrows did go up as a whiff of surprise moved through him. “Wow,” he said. “I am surprised by that.”

“They said no,” Bryce said, but his smile didn’t go anywhere. “I guess all the Whittaker brothers and their wives are headed up to Alaska this week.”

“Denali National Park,” Codi said.

“Yeah, they’re doing some hiking and helicopter tours,” Bryce said as Codi migrated back to his side.

Harry waited because Bryce and Codi didn’t have their two-year-old son with them, and that meant someone had to be watching him.

“Bailey was there when I called Laney,” Bryce said. “And she volunteered to take Matty.”

Harry’s jaw dropped open, and while his brain blitzed around, he couldn’t quite get it to settle on one thought that would come out of his mouth. “Bailey is watching your son?” he finally blurted out.

“Wow,” Belle said, the surprise in her voice matching that coursing through Harry. With everything she’d seen in her life, that took a lot. Harry looked from Bryce to Codi to Belle and back.

“We’re walking in,” another man called, and Harry blinked his way out of his shocked stupor.