“Out!” Rosie rocked in her carseat as Leah helped Junie out.
“I’m coming.” Leah set Junie on her feet, and Junie sprinted toward Conroy and Preacher. Even though Tank’s family didn’t dress up for Thanksgiving, the girls had wanted to wear their favorite fall-colored jumper dresses, Junie with her black boots and Rosie with her ballet flats. After Halloween, Junie had wanted more fake tattoos, and Tank had drawn a number of them for her and had them made so she could put them on whenever she wanted. Beneath her dress, RIVER was stenciled across her rib cage, just like Papa Tank, and Rosie had a tattoo of a frog on her hand.
The second Rosie’s feet hit the ground, she ran after Junie, who’d been scooped up by Preacher. Conroy lifted Rosie over his head the way Tank often did, and she giggled up a storm. Leah grabbed the gift bag with Ginger and Conroy’s memory blanket in it and closed the car door. She’d been itching to give it to Ginger last night when she and the girls had come over to bake, but Conroy had been at church, and she’d wanted him to be there when she gave it to them.
“Happy Thanksgiving, darlin’.” Conroy kissed Leah’s cheek. “You look as beautiful as ever.”
“Thank you.” She’d worn skinny jeans, Tank’s favorite green sweater of hers, which he said brought out the green in her eyes, and the leather boots from Jace’s Leather and Lace line that Tank had surprised her with after Halloween. She couldn’t afford to buy him gifts, but she knew how much he loved the little things they did. He’d hung up drawings the girls had made for him and pictures of all of them at his house and in his tattoo shop for all the world to see, and he was always raving to Ginger and Con about her and the girls. But nothing spoke louder than the way he lit up when he walked in the door after work and swept them into his arms.
“Get on in here.” Preacher pulled Leah in for a one-armed hug. “How’re you doing, sweetheart?”
She knew he was really asking how she was doing without River, and she appreciated that. She’d been afraid of forgetting River and being the only one who had concrete memories of him, but Tank had changed that. He’d helped her bring so much of River—his pictures, personality, likes, dislikes, strengths, jokes, and so much more—to their lives, she felt like his entire family had known him, too.
“I’m doing well. Thanks for asking.”
Rosie patted Conroy’s cheek and said, “That your blanky!”
“Wosie, it was supposed to be a supwise,” Junie reminded her, and the guys laughed.
“Is that the memory blanket my wife is jealous over?” Preacher asked as they headed inside.
“It is.” Leah loved that Reba wanted one, too. What Preacher didn’t know was that Tank and Ginger were helping her gather keepsakes so she could make Reba and Preacher one for Christmas.
The kitchen door opened, and Maverick ran out with Blaine and Gunner on his heels, the three of them laughing and shouting as they chased each other around the yard. Zander came flying around the side of the house and tackled Blaine at the same time Zeke sauntered out the front door. He gave Leah and the girls a casual wave and took off running, jumping on Gunner’s back. Then all of them were rolling around on the ground, laughing hysterically and shouting funny remarks.
“I play?” Rosie asked.
“Sorry, baby girl,” Preacher said. “Not when they’re playing this rough.”
“They’re not going to hurt each other, are they?” Leah asked.
Conroy laughed. “If they do, they do.”
“Too bad Papa Tank isn’t here,” Preacher said. “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen him pick up one of them in each hand like rag dolls.”
Leah loved that image. “He’ll be here soon, I hope.”
“Baz and Grandpa Mike should be here soon, too,” Conroy said. “Baz had an emergency at the clinic. He’s picking up Mike on his way over.”
Preacher looked at Conroy and arched a brow, nodding toward the guys wrestling in the yard.
“Seriously?” Conroy chuckled.
Preacher shrugged. “If not now, when?”
“Good point.” They put the girls down, and Conroy said, “Girls, stay with your mama and watch how real men win a wrestling match.”
As the men strode onto the lawn, they straightened their spines, their chests expanding, arms arcing out from their bodies, ready to conquer anything. Their sons exchanged challenging glances, and then chaos erupted, and they became a tangle of burly bodies, laughing and wrestling. One would jump to their feet, and the others would take him down. Leah and the girls cracked up. She took pictures and texted them to Tank.
Madigan and Chloe came out onto the porch. As Leah and the girls went to join them, Madigan yelled, “I’m not taking anyone to the emergency room!”
Reba and Ginger came out the front door, shaking their heads.
“Again?” Ginger said.
Reba shouted, “Robert Wicked! You’re supposed to be an adult.”
The guys stopped wrestling, and all eyes turned toward the porch.
“Oh crap,” Madigan said under her breath.
The guys charged toward them, hollering, “Get ’em!”
Leah and the girls shrieked as Blaine threw Leah over his shoulder, Zeke picked up Junie, and Gunner grabbed Rosie. Conroy and Preacher grabbed their wives, who threatened them as they did it, and Maverick hoisted Chloe over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Zander did the same to Madigan. Everyone cracked up as the guys ran around the yard with them.
When they finally put them down, Leah was laughing so hard her stomach hurt. The girls jumped and cheered, wanting to play more, and Zeke and Zander were happy to comply with piggyback rides. Maverick pulled Chloe into his arms and kissed her, Conroy reached for Ginger’s hand, and Preacher and Reba were hugging. There was so much love in that front yard, Leah knew their loved ones could feel it in the heavens above.
Blaine put his arm around her and held up his phone, taking a selfie of them. “I’m sending that smile to Tank. Welcome to the family, sweetheart.”
He and the guys took Junie and Rosie out back to play, and Leah went inside with the others. The house smelled like roasting turkey and family.
Leah gave Conroy and Ginger their gift before they got busy and watched them open it. “If it’s not what you had in mind, I can change it. Tank told me that Ashley’s favorite colors were purple and yellow, so I used it where I could.”
“Oh, Leah,” Ginger said as she and Conroy admired the blanket. “This is gorgeous.”
Leah had included as many keepsakes as she could, like Ashley’s cheerleading skirt, the knit hat she’d worn home from the hospital as an infant, a pink bib with an A embroidered on it, Ginger’s favorite onesie, and part of Tank’s Red Hot Chili Peppers shirt that Ashley had slept in. She’d also sewn in one of Ashley’s frilly toddler dresses, her Christmas stocking, a key chain with her name on it that she’d been given when she’d learned to drive, part of her baby blanket, and Ashley’s lucky socks with a hole in the toe that she’d refused to throw out.
“A nest,” Conroy said softly, running his fingers over the nest Leah had made out of one of Ashley’s tiny corduroy jumpers from when she was young. Leah had embroidered Ginger’s and Conroy’s names onto two large purple hearts and sewn them into the nest with four smaller yellow hearts in front of them, with their children’s names on them. The larger hearts looked like they were embracing the smaller ones.