Had she found the kind of friend that made a place worthwhile?
Maybe she’d found a number of them.
She knew she’d found a husband she could love forever, despite his—she hesitated to call them flaws. She’d asked a lot of Cole by asking him to step into shoes society felt she should wear, but there were all kinds of compromises they could make. Even if he couldn’t do as much as she wished he could, there were other options.
She remembered Autumn and the way she, Claire and Morgan swapped childcare. She remembered the way each of them had put their lives on hold to help her. She already had a community in place and she’d only been back in Chance Creek for a few days. What possibilities would the next few years unfold?
There was only one way to find out.
Sunshine pulled out her phone and found Carl’s name in her contacts. A minute later he answered.
“Whitfield here.”
“Carl, it’s Sunshine.”
To her surprise, he chuckled. “I know, I know—no deal, right?”
“That’s right. How did you guess?”
“I should have known that first night. You were cleaning the place. Once a woman starts cleaning her home, she’s not going to leave it.”
“Well, that’s sexist.”
“I didn’t mean it to be. Men do it too in their own way. It just usually involves tools and sheds.”
It was her turn to chuckle. “Okay, I’ll grant you that. I’m sorry. I know you’re disappointed.”
“I can’t lie to you; I am. Can’t get the girl until I have the house.”
Sunshine went back inside and shut the door behind her. She crossed to the thermostat and turned up the heat. “Are you sure about that? Women kind of like to pick out their own homes.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. “Well, shit,” Carl finally said. “I’m being an idiot, aren’t I?”
“I’m not really sure.” After all, she knew nothing about him—or his girl, whoever that might be.
“Sunshine, you might have stolen my ranch, but you just gave me a Christmas present I won’t forget.”
“Really?” Carl was kind of weird, but she thought she liked him.
“Really. Happy holidays to you and yours.”
“You too—”
He was already gone.
Sunshine grabbed her cleaning supplies and moved into the family room, feeling happier than she’d been in a long time.
Chapter 8
“I haven’t tasted anything this good since we left Turkmenistan,” Cole said when he polished off a heaping plate of butter chicken nachos at Fila’s restaurant at lunchtime.
“You have to try the Tikka Masala tacos,” Ned said, pushing away his plate. “By the way—” He leaned closer. “This thing about keeping your restaurant a secret? It’s for my protection as well as yours. I really shouldn’t be helping the competition.”
“Well, sounds like Fila and Camila have already been helping Sunshine brainstorm what to do next. I think you’re in the clear.”
“I generally am. Fila cuts me a lot of slack.” The cowboy’s fondness for his wife was all too evident. He kept glancing at the window behind the counter that separated the eating area from the kitchen where Fila and Camila were hard at work. “Good thing, too.”
“I’d like to hear Fila’s story sometime.” Cole had gotten bits and pieces about the way Fila had made her way back home from Afghanistan where she’d been held captive for over a decade. “Your wife sounds like a brave woman. And I can’t believe what I heard about that firefight. A shootout in Chance Creek?” When the terrorists who’d captured Fila came after her, things had gotten deadly.
“With the local gun expert thousands of miles away. We could have used you that night.” Ned looked grim.
“Sorry I wasn’t there.”
“You don’t realize what’s important until it becomes life or death.”
“I’ve been trying to decide what’s important,” Cole heard himself say. He found it far easier to talk to Ned than he’d expected. He knew the cowboy. He’d grown up with the Mathesons and had spent plenty of time with all four of them over the years, but he didn’t know Ned well. Still, it was hard to hold back what was on his mind.
“I kind of thought you had a plan. Marry Sunshine. Settle down?”
“My plan is beginning to take shape.” He told Ned about the free-range egg idea. “The thing is…” He wasn’t sure he could voice what Sunshine had asked.
Ned waited. He was patient, Cole would give him that.
“She wants my help—with our kids when we have them. Like, not just a little help. A lot.”
Ned scratched his neck. “Welcome to the twenty-first century.” He smiled wryly. “Remember all that hoopla about women having to do it all? I used to hear it on the radio out in the barn. Some woman would come on and talk about her career and her kids and her husband and how she couldn’t do anything well enough. I used to think they were crazy. Swore I near about grabbed the phone once, called in one of those shows and said, ‘Just pick something and do it, lady!’” He chuckled. “That would have gone over well, right?”
Cole nodded appreciatively. Many times he’d had a similar urge to sort out the callers on talk radio shows when he worked at the rifle range.
“But now I look around and it ain’t just women—it’s everyone. We’re all trying to do everything. And we’re competing with TV shows where the people are doing it perfectly. I reckon they got it worse in the city. At least out here we’re too busy to care about what we look like for the most part. We know if we work with horses we’re going to smell like manure. But even here—you seen what people are doing to their kitchens? I walked into a ranch house the other day and could have sworn I’d been teleported to Manhattan.” Ned shook his head. “The world’s gone nuts, man.”
“You said a mouthful.”
“But as far as babies and men and women? Maybe it’s not so bad. My dad sure could have been a little softer around the edges.”
Cole had heard the stories about Holt Matheson. “He raised you old-fashioned, huh?”
“Saw the back of his hand more than anything else. That’s just the way he knew. Took a long time to sort things out and get to a better place. When my kid’s born—” He broke off. “Hell. I just spilled the beans. No one knows about that.”
Cole leaned forward. “Fila’s pregnant?”
“Yep. Seven weeks.”
“Congratulations.” Cole reached across the table and shook his hand. “That’s terrific news.”
“Well, keep it to yourself; we’re going to announce it on Christmas. You going to the Cruz ranch Christmas Eve?”
“Yeah, we’re staying there.”
“We’ll tell everyone then.” Ned grinned. “I’m going to be a dad. How’s that for crazy?”
“You’ll do a good job.” Cole hesitated. “So what would you say if Fila asked you to step up and do a lot of the child care?”