Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📗

She married him. In a small intimate ceremony on the ranch as soon as Dev got out of the hospital. Their families, their dogs, their horses had been there as they’d promised to love and cherish each other forever.

They’d moved into the Knight house, since Grandma Pauline had Brady, Cecilia and later on baby Paula living with them.

Grandma Pauline had quite the array of great-grandchildren named after her.

They put to rest the ghosts of Ace and Anth—together and with their family. As another Christmas dawned, life was good.

Dev stepped into the mudroom and wiped his boots on the mat. He hung his coat up on the peg, shaking the snow off of it. His leg ached, but his wife had snuck out early and done most of the chores before he’d noticed she’d gone.

She’d let him handle the evening chores, and so he’d gone out with his father-in-law and done the work of keeping the Reaves and Knight ranches running, even on Christmas.

When Duke had gone inside Grandma Pauline’s, where the festivities would be, Dev had begged off a few minutes. The moon shone bright above. They’d had a blizzard last week so the entire area was covered in snow. Glittering, Christmasy snow.

He and Sarah had taken Paul out to play in it this morning, and Dev didn’t know when he’d ever been so happy.

Actually, he did know. Never. Never in the whole of his life had he been able to access this well of happiness. Because he’d had brothers who’d sacrificed for him, a grandmother who’d given him a foundation to build on, but it had been Sarah and Paul who’d finally brought him to this.

The families had grown and the living room was packed. Nina and Cecilia had given birth to healthy girls. Jamison and Liza had adopted three siblings ranging in ages from five to fifteen. It wasn’t smooth sailing, but Liza and Jamison were well-equipped to deal with the unique challenges of adopted older children touched by tragedy.

While Cash and Brownie lived with his family at the Knight ranch, Brady and Cecilia had adopted two dogs, and Rachel had gotten a guide dog. All five animals were curled in various spots around the house, because Grandma Pauline had shocked them all and lifted her ban on having animals in the house.

For the great-grandchildren’s sake.

Dev took a moment to watch, to enjoy. Sarah had taught him how to do that too. When Paul caught sight of him, he let out a squeal and wriggled away from Sarah.

Dev grinned and crouched down, holding out his arms. “There’s my guy. You going to walk to Daddy?”

Paul gurgled an answer, his hazel eyes lighting up with mischievousness. The boy got into everything, loved horses and dogs more than anything else, and held his parents’ hearts in his small pudgy hands.

He was this close to taking his first steps.

Sarah picked him up and placed him on his feet. The boy bent his knees, over and over again, before taking one step forward. He immediately collapsed, but chortled merrily as his butt hit the ground. Then he crawled the rest of the way to Dev, squealing when Dev picked him up and gave him a little toss.

“Da!”

“You’re going to be a walking machine before we know it, aren’t you?”

Sarah came over to stand next to him. “I think we’ve got some major baby proofing to do then.”

Paul babbled happily, flinging himself over to Sarah and then wiggling back down to the ground. He crawled over to Grandma Pauline and began babbling happily to her, one small hand resting on Cash’s head.

Dev would have gladly slid his arm around Sarah’s waist and enjoyed the moment, but Jamison came over.

“Come on,” Jamison said, nodding toward the kitchen.

Dev frowned, but got to his feet and followed his brothers back into the kitchen. Gage was getting beers out of the fridge, handing them out. Everyone except him and maybe Tucker seemed to know what was going on.

Though it dawned on Dev eventually that this is exactly what his brothers had done for him last year. Dev grinned.

“What are we doing?” Tucker asked.

“We’re inducting our newest member,” Jamison said with mock seriousness. “Welcome, Tuck. You’ve officially joined our ranks.”

All eyes turned to Tucker.

“What are you guys... Wait. You know?” He frowned. “Who told?”

“Your wife isn’t great at keeping secrets,” Gage offered. “And neither am I, since I was the one who overheard her telling Felicity.”

“And spread the word,” Tucker said disgustedly.

“Just to the club,” Jamison said, raising his beer bottle. “The father’s club. Welcome.”

Tucker rubbed his fist over his chest. “Is it going to be this terrifying the whole time?”

“Worse,” Dev offered.

“And worse and worse and worse,” Cody added. “I’m going to have to survive two girls going through puberty, Tucker. Nothing is as terrifying as that.”

They laughed and chatted, razzed Tucker about the coming responsibilities and sleepless nights. It was good, and it was right, but Dev couldn’t help but think about last year. There had been so much terror and pain and suffering. He wanted to commemorate that somehow. How far they’d come from six scared boys in their father’s gang.

“You know, it’s been a year now,” Dev said. “A year of peace and stability, aside from the fear of puberty and whatnot. We’ve...had to fight a lot to get here.”

“Survived a lot to get here,” Gage said.

“Yes, we have,” Jamison agreed. He smiled, raising his bottle. “And now we get to live.”

Dev clinked his bottle with his brothers. As toasts went, it was the best he could think of. He glanced into the other room, where their wives and grandmother, the women who’d helped save them in a variety of different ways, sat with their children.

So that they could be here.

Living.

Which was finally exactly where Dev Wyatt wanted to be.

Keep reading for an excerpt from Investigation in Black Canyon by Cindi Myers.

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