He glanced over and found his father’s eyes on him. Mike’s expression was twisted tight, and Daniel worried for a moment until he realized his father’s eyes were full of tears and he was trying not to cry.
Ah, shit. Daniel leaned forward and pinched the bridge of his nose, desperately fighting to regain control before he lost it again.
Thankfully, by the time the rest of the ceremony was done, his emotional level was no longer riding on teary but happy enthusiasm. The entire clan gathered around, taking turns to shake Lance’s hand as laughter swelled around them.
A sharp tug on his sleeve brought Daniel’s attention back to his middle boy, Nathan, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“How come you look like trouble?” Daniel asked softly.
Teeth flashed white. “Not me,” Nathan insisted before leaning against Daniel’s side, comfortable his affection would be accepted and reciprocated. He lifted a hand and pointed to the other side of the gathering. “Just thought you might be interested in watching this.”
Rob was talking earnestly with Auntie Dana.
“Aw, shit.” It wasn’t right that Daniel’s first impulse was to laugh. “Your brother has no idea that he’s dealing with dynamite, does he?”
“Not a clue,” Nathan agreed. Then he shrugged. “Truth is, he gets away with murder when it comes to girls. That whole innocent ‘but I just wanted you to have this pretty flower’ spiel works for him far too often.”
Oh boy. Something to be worried about on a day in the future that was not today.
Daniel and Nathan watched as Auntie Dana listened intently to Rob’s rapid words that were accompanied by much hand swinging. She tilted her head slightly as if not quite believing her grandnephew’s argument. But then she laughed, and Rob gave her a quick hug before turning and sauntering away, hands shoved in his pockets and a pleased expression on his face.
“I really wish I could read lips,” Nathan complained.
“It would be entertaining.” Daniel wrapped an arm around Nathan’s shoulder, ready to pull him back toward the family.
“Wait.”
Auntie Dana was on the move. It wasn’t as if she was on a mission, but more on a focused meander that sooner than later brought her into the path of Uncle Mark. They didn’t meet for long, but there was clearly a moment of pleasant conversation before Dana continued on her way, Mark staring after her, his bemused grin growing steadily wider.
“Son of a gun,” Daniel whispered.
Nathan snorted. “See? Robbie’s terrible. And good.”
This time Daniel laughed, tugging his son with him and pointedly ignoring whatever was going on between certain older family members. “He’s a busybody. He got lucky this time.”
“He gets lucky a lot,” Nathan said before jerking upright and blinking hard. “That came out wrong. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”
They were nearly at where Beth, Lance, and Robbie were waiting, but Daniel couldn’t resist. He stopped and tugged Nathan into a huge hug, the two of them chuckling the entire time.
Daniel patted Nathan firmly on the shoulder. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Dad,” Nathan said as easy as anything, the words flowing freely in their family. “Can we go? I’m starving. I can’t wait for the barbecue.”
Daniel took Beth’s fingers, holding hands as they walked back to the car. Their three boys milled around them, nearly as active as they’d been eight years ago when he’d first started seeing her.
Her eyes shone brightly as he paused to open her car door. “I love you, Mr. Coleman.”
“Love you too, Miss Beth.” Daniel stepped against her, pulling her into his arms to kiss her. The sweet rightness of her there, his family, his sons, who were all making smooching noises and laughing…
It was where he had chosen to be, and he couldn’t be more grateful for what he’d been given.
23
Dana hated to admit it, but she missed Mark. It might’ve been only a short time since he’d returned to Rocky, but for the past month she’d woken each morning wondering what he would do that day to make her smile.
But even as well as things had been going, him assuming they would be together down the road? Him assuming anything—
That was a no go. She was actually kind of proud of herself for having spoken up the way she had.
Since she’d kicked him out, however, there’d been constant reminders of how much their days had become tangled. Every time she looked into her yard, it seemed he was there. Working with Rafe outside the barn. Delivering animals from Gabe and Allison’s—Dana’s oldest son and Mark riding confidently into the yard with the ranch dogs barking enthusiastically as they helped herd sheep into the summer pens.
Mark, stripping off his sweaty and dirty shirt as he stopped at the old hand-pump outside her garden plot. His lean yet muscular body far too mesmerizing as he soaked his head and torso then casually dried off.
She was torn between giving Blake a stern talking to for scheduling Mark near her or baking her nephew a cake for keeping the man close enough to ogle.
Add in her grandnephew’s meddling—still, Robbie had been the only one bold enough to come out and say what the entire clan seemed to be thinking. Give the man another chance.
It’s what she truly wanted. But she would bend, not fold.
So a couple of days after Lance’s graduation, Dana sat in the local coffee shop and waited for Mark to arrive. They needed a solid conversation on neutral territory to get things straightened out.
As she fidgeted with her coffee cup, other thoughts whirled. While she wanted this relationship to work, she was still afraid. That wasn’t his fault, but if she couldn’t move beyond hesitant friendship, she needed to let him know sooner than later.
Someone slid onto the bench seat across from her. Dana glanced up with a welcoming smile to discover her brother-in-law George. “Oh.”
His lips twitched. “I know. Wrong brother.”
It wasn’t right her cheeks flushed so hot, so quickly. “George. It’s always good to see you,” she said honestly.
“You too,” he said, waving off the waitress who had come forward to offer a mug and the coffee carafe. “I won’t stay long. I know Mark’s on his way. He had to stop at the seed mill to pick up something for Blake.”
She eyed George. “What’re you doing here?”
He placed both palms flat on the table and took a deep breath. “At the risk of being told to mind my own business—”
“Oh, dear. Conversations that start that way rarely end well,” she warned.
His nervousness vanished as his grin widened. “Right? Sally would’ve told me to stay out of it. But then again, afterward she would’ve slipped in behind my back and come to you on the sly.”
George’s wife had been gone for over twenty-five years, but Dana could picture it plain as day.
Dana eyed her brother-in-law closer. He too had experienced sadness and loss over the years. He’d ended up raising three girls by himself. He’d had help from his sisters-in-law, but he’d been fiercely independent for the most part.
“I still miss her,” Dana admitted.