Marti was up through the night with Heather as usual, and once they were truly alone and the babies were sleeping, Heather asked how her day with Josh went. “Did you guys work things out?”

Marti shook her head. “We’re going to be friends . . . at least for a while. We got me new clothes, and we had so much fun on the snowmobiles. I had to get new boots because yours were pinching my toes.”

Heather shrugged. “My feet are dainty.”

“So are mine. Yours are micro-dainty!” Marti shook her head. “We’re going sledding tomorrow, and I’m going to make him Tracy’s Irish nachos.”

“Oh, yum! Make them for him, and then one day this week, make them for all of us. I can’t believe you’ve been here for two weeks and haven’t cooked those yet. Do you have any idea how much I craved them while I was pregnant?”

“You could have made them yourself!”

“I could have . . .” Heather said with a grin. “I’m not fond of making them. They take a lot of work.”

“But it’s worth it if I do it, right?”

“Well . . .”

Marti rolled her eyes. “I’ll do it. Maybe on Monday night. Tell Amy not to cook anything, and I’ll make them. You don’t deserve it, but I love you.”

“Have you had more visions?” Heather asked, bringing the topic back around to where she wanted it. Right smack on Marti and Josh’s relationship.

“I have. I had one where he and I were old . . . grandchildren around us. And I told him I had no regrets. I guess that means that I came to terms with the triplets and all that, but I don’t see how that could happen. Not quickly anyway.”

“Just don’t burn your bridges. I can see how he feels about you, and it’s pretty obvious you’re head over heels for him. If you do something stupid, I’ll have to disown you as soon as my babies don’t need you anymore!”

“Very smart of you to wait. I can’t imagine you having to do the night shifts all alone again,” Marti said, shaking her head.

“I’m nothing if not practical.”

Marti went back to the laundry and ignored her sister. It was amazing how many loads of laundry four adults and four babies generated. She needed to get down on her knees and thank her mother for every load of laundry she’d done for her. Laundry was a boring, tedious task that needed to be done constantly. She wished she could just tell everyone to go naked, but she didn’t want to think about the messes she’d have to clean up off the floor.

When Marti got to Josh’s house the next day, he had two huge red plastic circles ready for them. “What are those? I thought we were sledding.”

“These are my favorite things to sled on! I have some boring sleds that are normal, but these will spin us in circles as we go down.”

“And if I get sick to my stomach?” she asked, her eyes wide as she tried to imagine sliding down a hill on one of the contraptions.

“Then you get sick. We’re outside. No big deal.”

She sighed. “I’ll give it a try. Can we take the other kind of sled as backup?”

“Sure. If you’re that worried about it, we’ll take both kinds.”

“Good.” Josh went to get another sled that looked more like what she was expecting. It was wooden with metal rails. “That’s more like it!” she exclaimed.

“If you won’t trust someone who has been sledding since he was knee-high to a grasshopper, then I don’t know what to tell you.” Josh took her hand and pulled her toward his truck. “We’re going to sled at Amos’s. He’s got a hill that’s more accessible and better. Trust me. We’re going to do this right.”

“Amos’s? Is he going to come out and start acting all weird again?”

Josh shook his head. “I had Mom invite him to Michael’s for lunch so he would be distracted. By the time he gets home, we’ll be done.”

“You’re a closet genius, aren’t you?”

“Don’t you forget it!” Josh grinned at her as he pulled the truck out onto the highway and headed up the road to Amos’s.

“Heather said you guys usually do big family dinners at least once a month,” she said, wondering when the next would be. It hadn’t been mentioned since her arrival.

“Yeah, but we’re putting them off until Heather is a little less exhausted from the babies. Probably until about . . . oh . . . 1999. We had one the day you got here, but the girls couldn’t come, and then we figured it was too much anyway.”

Marti laughed. “So when the babies are fourteen? I think they’ll be more work as teenagers, don’t you?”

“That’s quite probably true. Can you imagine four teenage girls in your house all at once?” He shuddered.

“I can. Remember I have six sisters. Heather, Jessica, Gaylynn, and Rebekah were all teenagers at the same time. Thankfully, I wasn’t fighting them all for the bathroom.”

“Why weren’t you fighting them for the bathroom?” he asked.

“By the time Heather moved out, I was nine. I was in my ‘no shower unless Mom strips me and throws me into the bathroom and bars the door until my hair is washed’ stage.”

He chuckled. “I remember going through that stage. Thankfully it was over before I hit high school.”

“Glad to hear it. I don’t want to have to think about you coming over with your hair hanging down in greasy sheets.”

Josh stopped the truck in front of a large ranch house. Marti immediately unbuckled and opened her door. “This is Amos’s house? Nice.”

“Not as nice as mine, though, right?”

She laughed. “Are you in competition with your brother about everything?”

“Well, yeah. What brothers aren’t in competition?”

“I have no idea. But you two do seem to take it to ridiculous extremes.”

“Yup.” Josh grinned at her, letting her know he knew how bad they were and he really didn’t care. He walked to the back of the truck and took out the two disks and the sled. “Let’s go do this thing!” He pointed off in the distance. “That’s our sledding hill.”

“Okay!” Marti was glad she had boots that fit, because it looked like it was a decent length walk just to get to the hill. Then they’d be trudging up and down it dragging sleds. This was going to be more work than snowmobiling.

After her first run down the hill in the disk, she grinned at him. “Yeah, that was fun! I’m going to try the regular sled once and see which I prefer.”

“Okay, but you should go down head first . . . on your belly. That’s the best way to use a sled.”

“What if I break my neck?”

“Don’t!”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the rope at the front of the sled, dragging it up the hill. He kept pace beside her with his disk. “This is so much more work than snowmobiling.”

He nodded. “Yeah, but it’s worth it. It’s not safe to go down a hill at that speed on a snowmobile. It could easily flip on you. With the sleds, you just go, and if it does flip, you don’t have a heavy machine weighing you down.”

“This is true . . .”

When they reached the spot where they started sledding, which wasn’t really the top of the hill but rather a slight indention where it went flat for a few feet before a sharper incline, she put the sled down and gingerly got onto it. “Race you!” And she again took off without waiting for him.

He laughed and jumped on the disk, riding it down after her but knowing he’d never catch up.

When she reached the bottom, he crashed into her, knocking her backward into the snow. She laughed helplessly, laying under him sprawled on the ground. “Get off. You’re heavy.”

“Are you hurt?” he asked. He wanted to laugh, but he had to make sure she was all right first.

“No, not at all.” She giggled. “I can’t believe you knocked me down. You big oaf.” She pushed against his shoulder, trying to get him to roll off her.

“I’m not sure I can get up without a forfeit.”

“A forfeit?” She frowned at him, wrinkling her nose. “What kind of forfeit?”

“I was thinking maybe a kiss.”

“A kiss? But what if my lips fall off! They’re frozen, and if there’s pressure, they could fall right off into the snow, and I’d run around for the rest of my life, absolutely lipless!”

He shrugged. “It’s a risk you’re going to have to take if you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in the snow.”

She laughed and pressed her lips to his cold cheek. “There. A kiss. Now get off me!”

“It’s a good thing it’s me who found you two this way and not your dad, Marti,” Amos said from behind them.

“You weren’t supposed to be home for a while yet,” Josh said with a scowl, rolling to his side. “Besides, I accidentally crashed into her and knocked her on her butt.”

“Accidentally, huh?” Amos reached down and helped Marti to her feet. It was hard to tell if she was blushing or if her face was just red from the cold.

“It was an accident,” Marti said, taking her hand from Amos’s and brushing the snow off the front of her. She stepped away from Amos and looked down at Josh, who was still sprawled in the snow.

“We’re going to make a couple more runs down your hill,” Josh said. “You can lose yourself somewhere.”

“You’re on my land. I feel the need to play the charming host.” Amos grinned. “I’ll go get my sled.”

Josh groaned loudly. “Great.”

Marti laughed, watching as Amos walked away. “It won’t hurt us to have a chaperone for a little while. Might be fun.”

“Might not,” Josh mumbled.

“Well, I’m going again!” Marti said, grabbing the disk. “And as much as I hate to admit it, I think you’re right. The disks are more fun.” She hurried up the hill, leaving Josh still lying in the snow, watching her.

An hour later, they were back in his kitchen, and he was sitting at the table while she meticulously followed Tracy’s instructions for making the Irish nachos. She didn’t have a deep fryer like Tracy did, so she used a pan and dipped the chips after cutting the potatoes into thin slices.

Once everything was finished, she put her masterpiece on the table in front of him. She had put it onto two different plates, knowing it needed to be plated well for full effect. “Let me just pop the scones in the oven, and I’ll join you,” she said.

Josh wasn’t about to wait. He’d heard too much about the nachos, and he took a bite of potato chip covered in cheesy sauce and bacon. “These are delicious. You may make them for me every day for the rest of my life.”

She laughed. “Once a month is more than enough with as much work is involved.”

“But . . . I like it!”

“You’ll live.” Marti sat down at the table beside him and took her first bite of the fattening concoction. “I forget how much I love this.”

“I’ll never forget it.” Josh took another bite. “And I didn’t know you were making scones. Are you trying to spoil me? I’m going to have to go back to eating my own cooking!”

“I’ve eaten your cooking. You’re a good cook, so don’t try to make me feel sorry for you.” She frowned. “I feel like we should take a plate of nachos to Amos for letting us sled on his hill.”

“There’s no need. And there will be no more nachos by the time I’m done with them.”

“You really aren’t good at sharing with your brother. I don’t know what’s wrong with you.” Not that she really wanted to share her half of the nachos, but she did feel badly. “Maybe we should take him a scone.”

“That depends. How many did you make?”

“Six, but I thought you could have some for breakfast in the morning.”

“No scones for Amos then. He doesn’t deserve them anyway.” Josh ate his last bite of nachos and eyed her plate. “I need more.”

“There’s stuff for another plate on the stove,” she said. “Just get up and make them yourself.”

He took his plate over to the counter and piled it just as high as she had the first time. “What do you think of sledding?”

“I think Texas children are deprived of one of the true joys of childhood, and someone needs to bring in snow for them.”

“That might be a really hard thing to do.”

“So?” she took another bite of nacho and jumped up when the oven timer dinged. “Wait until you try these scones. Tracy’s recipe of course.”

“You said Tracy is married?”

“Yes, why?”

“I’d marry her just for her cooking. But then . . . I’d miss you a lot.”

Marti shook her head. “You certainly are fickle! Can’t decide if you want to marry for love or food.”

“Or love of food.”

“I’m just going to serve the scones and pretend you’re not here.”

“You can’t ignore me! I will be a thorn in your side if you try!” Josh finished his last nacho and sighed, patting his belly. “Bring on the scones!”

“You eat more than a teenage boy!”

“Well, yeah. Do you have any idea the number of calories it takes to keep a ranch like this going? I could eat all day and never gain a pound.” He reached for the scone she put on the table. “Hot!”

“You just saw me take it out of the oven! How can you be surprised it’s hot?”

“I don’t know, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that hot.” He broke off a chunk with the side of a fork and blew on it. “Raspberry?”

She nodded. “Tracy makes blueberry more than any other flavor, but I like raspberry.”

“We need to try huckleberry!”

“Huckleberry? As in Finn?”

“You’ve never had huckleberry? It’s one of my favorite fruits, but they’re so hard to pick. They only grow naturally at high altitudes, and you can pick for hours and only get a quart of berries. They are so worth it, though!”

“Do people sell them? Why have I never seen or heard of these things?”

“Most people don’t sell them. I’ve never seen them in a grocery store. People pick them, and then they use them. No one is willing to go to that kind of trouble just to sell them. Too delicious.” He took another bite. “When summer comes around, you and I are going huckleberry picking, and you’re making me huckleberry scones. It’s a date.”

“A date where I get to cook for you? Yay. I can’t wait.”

“I hear your sarcasm, but I really don’t care. You will be my huckleberry scone slave. Do you hear me?”

She sighed, taking another bite of her own scone. The man was crazy.