“Fuck man, she didn’t have to ask. I volunteered.”
Late that afternoon, Sunshine took a taxi into town and joined both Fila and Camila for an early dinner. Finally she heard the full story of Fila’s journey from a remote village in the mountains of Afghanistan back to the United States. Sunshine couldn’t believe the courage it must have taken.
“We never went to Afghanistan,” Sunshine told her. “We spent some time in Turkmenistan, but that’s the closest we got.”
“I’m glad you’re both here now,” Mia said. She eyed Sunshine speculatively. “You look different tonight. Is your morning sickness settling down?”
“No. Ugh.” Sunshine still struggled from late morning through mid-afternoon. Then she became ravenous. “But I’ve sorted some stuff out that was on my mind.” She couldn’t wait to catch up to Cole tonight. Freed from worry about his choice, she felt so much better than she had in days. She wanted to reconnect with him. To start figuring out the future.
“You know, if you feel up to it, and if you have time, we could use some extra help during the next few weeks here at the restaurant.” Fila flipped her long, dark braid over her shoulder.
“We’ve both been working overtime for months. We need to back off our hours,” Camila put in. Like Fila, her hair was dark, but hers surrounded her face in wild curls. She was pretty and vivacious. Fila was calmer, but her eyes danced with fun.
They made a good team, Sunshine thought. She hoped she and Emma might become like them someday. They’d decided to wait until the Christmas craziness had died down to have another planning session.
“Would you consider coming on board? Only temporarily,” Fila said. “We know you have plans for your own restaurant.”
“That’s going to take a while. I’ve spent my money on the ranch.”
“But if you and Emma work together you’ll figure out a way,” Camila said.
“We’ll see.” She wasn’t going to rush anything. She’d decided that for now she’d be content where she was.
“Can you keep a secret?” Fila said, leaning forward. “I heard about your pregnancy.”
“I figured.”
“I’m pregnant too. But shh. You two are the only ones who know except Ned.”
“Oh, my goodness! Congratulations!” Sunshine wanted to hug her. “This is your first one, right? We’ll be newbies together.”
Mia laughed. “Welcome to the baby club, both of you. This is exciting!”
“So—will you come work for us?” Fila said.
Sunshine hesitated. “I’d love to—but you know I’m a vegan. I don’t cook meat.”
“We thought about that,” Camila said. “What we really need is someone to help prep and to take over ordering supplies. You can be queen of the vegetables. We use a lot of them.”
“And tortillas,” Fila said. “We desperately need a tortilla queen. We only use handmade ones.”
“I could do that,” Sunshine said. It would get her hand back in the business and introduce her to local suppliers. She’d get as much out of it as she’d be putting in.
“Terrific,” Camila said. She checked her watch. “We’d better get back to work.”
“I’ll walk over to Thayer’s and catch a ride back to the Double-Bar-K with Mia,” Sunshine said. “She’s—”
The door opened and Carl walked in. “Oh,” Camila said, cutting Sunshine off. “I’ll take this order.” She jumped up and moved behind the counter as Carl crossed to stand in front of it.
“Those two,” Fila said with another toss of her head. “Someday they’re actually going to date.”
Sunshine eyed them curiously as she stood up and put on her coat. “Maybe sooner than you think.”
After a long day’s work on the restaurant, and several hours spent helping Ned with his chores on the Double-Bar-K, the last thing Cole wanted to do was stumble through another dance class, but since all of his friends had been roped into it on account of him, Cole knew he couldn’t bow out. This one went better than the last one had, but it was still hard to watch Ned dance and keep a straight face.
Afterward, they milled around by the door to the restaurant as they pulled on their coats.
“Did you hear about Carl?” Cab asked. “Rumor has it he’s going after some ranch.”
“I heard he put the bank on notice he might need a lot of cash to buy it outright,” Jamie said.
Cole hid a smile. Small town living at its worst; no one should be talking about things like that, but somehow everyone knew.
“Who’s he going after?”
“I have an idea, but I’m not at liberty to say,” Cab told Cole. “But I sure as hell hope he doesn’t get it.”
“You’ve got something against Carl?”
“Nah, Carl’s all right, but this particular owner shouldn’t sell.”
That was all Cab would say despite their attempts to get him to cough up more. Cole went home with an uneasy feeling in his gut. It was clear ranches were hard to come by in these parts. He didn’t have a lot of cash left after purchasing the restaurant. He hated to think he might be forced to buy a small parcel of land instead.
Back at the house, he and Ned gathered with Fila and Sunshine in the living room for cocoa before heading upstairs. Ned turned on the television and surfed through the channels until he found a Christmas movie Cole had seen a half-dozen times. Still, with Sunshine next to him on the couch, and good friends close by, he relaxed, content. At some point he realized both Sunshine and Fila had fallen asleep watching the movie. He caught Ned’s eye, grinned and raised his cup of cocoa. Ned raised his cup, too.
“Happy Holidays,” Ned said.
“To you, too.”
It had become so habitual to pack their things each morning, Sunshine did it automatically and was ready to move to Mia and Luke’s cabin before breakfast the next day. Cole and Ned took care of transferring their luggage over, while Sunshine did her best to choke down a piece of toast and a glass of juice, fighting against the morning sickness that always hit her at breakfast time these days. She’d learned she had to power through it until the afternoon when it would subside.
She caught a ride to town with Fila, and made plans to meet up again with her later. Meanwhile, since the painters were hard at work at the ranch again today, she spent the day at Kerri’s second-hand store. It was fun to help arrange new stock for sale and chat with Kerri in between customers. They finally had enough time to truly catch up, and Sunshine wondered why she’d ever been afraid she’d lost Kerri’s friendship. They got along as well as they ever had.
“We have to do this more often,” Sunshine said when it was time for Kerri to close up shop. They planned to eat a quick dinner out, then head over to the ranch to meet up with the other women for a practice session.
“Definitely. I’m so glad you’re home.” Kerri gave her a quick hug.
After dinner, they bundled up against the cold and headed to Kerri’s truck. It took a long time for the vehicle to heat up as they drove the dark, quiet roads to Sunshine’s ranch.