Gia opened the back door to her little hatchback and Aurora, having freed herself from the bonds of the car seat, hopped out. “Come on, Mama! Ponies!”

Evan was already out and heading toward the barn, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. His quick pace ruined the casual disinterest he was going for as he hustled over the gravel.

Joey and Carter had invited the kids over for an informal riding lesson while Gia and Summer spent a few hours in the newly finished office talking magazine details.

Joey appeared in the doorway of the barn and lifted a hand in greeting. Gia watched in amusement as Evan ambled up to her and scuffed his sneakers in the dirt while they chatted.

Gia and Aurora caught up just as Carter ambled out of the barn. “Hi!” Aurora said, greeting them as she skipped from one foot to the other. “I get to ride Princess today, right?”

“That’s right,” Joey said, hands on hips. “But first we’re going to get some helmets and go over some basic safety.”

“Basic safety,” Aurora repeated, fluttering her arms and spinning in a circle.

“You sure about this?” Gia asked Joey.

“Don’t worry, I’ve read all about how to give horseback lessons online. It’ll be fine. Now, someone just remind me which end is the front again?” Joey quipped.

“Smarty pants,” Gia said.

Carter ranged himself against the barn door. “Looks like we got more company,” he said, nodding at the sleek muscle car that rumbled to a stop next to Gia’s little red hatchback.

Gia caught Joey’s frown as Jax slid out from behind the wheel.

“This is a closed lesson,” she snipped at him.

“I’m not here for a lesson. Canon been out yet?”

Joey shrugged a shoulder. “Not yet.”

“Good.” Jax brushed past her into the stable. The look Joey shot him would have felled a lesser man. But Jax ignored it and stalked inside.

Gia felt herself break into a sweat at the heat pumping off of them. If anything were to spontaneously combust, it would be Jax and Joey. Someday.

Carter was grinning until Joey elbowed him in the ribs. His breath wooshed out of him and Aurora giggled.

“Oh, you think that’s funny, pipsqueak?” He grabbed her and tossed the giggling girl over his shoulder.

“Watch out, she’s a puker,” Evan warned.

Carter carefully sat Aurora back on her feet.

“Again, Car! Please?” she begged.

“When did you last eat?” he asked her.

“Just over an hour ago. You’re probably out of the projectile zone,” Gia reassured him.

They watched as Jax thundered across the riding ring on a black thoroughbred. Gia held her breath as they approached a four-foot jump. The horse cleared it cleanly without a hitch in his stride and galloped off through the open pasture gate.

“Whoa,” Evan whispered.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Gia offered to Joey.

Joey stared holes in the back of Jax’s shirt until he and Canon disappeared over a ridge. She shook her head grimly. “I got this.”

Gia reluctantly left her children in Carter and Joey’s hands after Carter promised to text her pictures and wandered back to the farm.

She found Summer on the second floor of the barn. The office was done, finished by Calvin’s team with a few Pierce touches. Everything was white and bright. The new windows on either end of the floor let in a flood of natural light. The long wall across from the stairs was done entirely in white shiplap. The wide-plank floor, replete with decades of scars, had been sanded down and stained light.

Summer, in a cozy cowl neck sweater and leggings, sat behind a desk of reclaimed wood angled out from the corner to get a good look out the large window. Bookcases in white wood were built in over the shiplap and a large flat screen TV hung in front of a long, counter-height table of the same wood as Summer’s desk. Instead of chairs, six bar stools with graceful metal legs surrounded the table.

“Oh, good! You’re here,” Summer said by way of a greeting. “What do you think of the layout for the website?”

She clicked a button and the TV screen on the wall lit up.

Gia moved closer to examine it.

She could hear Summer’s pen tapping a frantic beat on her desk.

The design was clean, light. Large stock photos representing features rotated in and out on the home screen.

The navigation menu reminded Gia of the colorful chalkboard menus in coffee shops and juice bars.

She turned, grinned. “It’s perfect. The whole thing says healthy and happy in a really clean way. What are you doing about photography?”

Summer drummed a slower beat on her desk. “My friend and brilliant photographer Niko is coming in for the wedding and I’m hoping to abscond his services for a day or two and convince him to contribute. I’ve got most of the January features nailed down, and some of those will need freelancer art. The rest we can pay for stock art.”

“How can I help?” Gia asked.

“I wanted to talk to you about a thirty-day yoga challenge idea.”

“Are you thinking about releasing it in one big chunk, one pose at a time, or amp up the difficulty as the month wears on?”

Summer pointed her pen at Gia. “I knew I was a genius when I hired you! I like the amping up the difficulty as the month goes on. Why don’t you take a stab at it and we’ll look at it next week? Then we can have Niko shoot you when he’s here. Stills and video, I think.”

“Shoot me? Wouldn’t it be better with a model?”

Summer leveled her gaze at her. “Gia, where are we going to find a model who’s as good at yoga as you are? You are the expert. Plus, you’re gorgeous.”

Gia fanned herself. “Fine, twist my arm with compliments. I’ll start with a handful of basic poses and then as it progresses I’ll add more to it. Modifications, holding the poses longer, adding in more difficult postures. And then at the end we can have a full class that readers can watch online.”

Summer nodded. “I love it. I think that’s perfect. Moving on!”

She stood up and herded Gia toward another workstation. “This is yours,” she said. “Given your boundless energy, Carter designed it to go from normal height to standing.”

“You guys made me a desk?” Gia clasped her hands together over her heart.

“I may be a horrible boss, but I wouldn’t make you work on the floor,” Summer teased. “Now listen, you already have a Thrive email account set up and I’ve sent you all the drafts for the features that are done. I need you to give the piece on family-based new year’s resolutions an extra good look because these hormones have me sobbing every time in the first paragraph.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Gia said, giving her a mock salute.

“And when you’re done with that I need some ideas for health-ish features for February and March. And help yourself to coffee and water,” she said pointing at the counter and cabinets on the far wall.

Gia settled herself at the wide expanse of varnished wood and went to work.

For two hours, she focused on the article drafts first, while making notes on ideas for future pieces. Summer took and made several calls, including one to her friend Niko.

Gia’s phone signaled and she opened the pictures Carter sent her. Aurora, in a pink helmet, grinning from the back of a white and gray pony that Joey led around the ring. Then Evan looking so serious while he walked around the ring on a larger bay.

They were growing up so fast, Gia sighed. She remembered the six-year-old little boy who had introduced her to his teddy bear when she met him. And it was hard to reconcile the squalling infant with the little redhead who now feared nothing.

Family. It was the heart and soul of everything. And here in Blue Moon her family was thriving.

Summer pushed her chair away from her desk and stretched. “Okay, enough sitting.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Want to walk over to the stables? And then we can find lunch. Lots and lots of lunch.”

“Babies hungry?” Gia laughed, packing up her notes and slipping them into her bag.

“Starving. All the time,” Summer rolled her eyes.

“Good, because I brought massive quantities of eggplant parm with us,” Gia told her.

Summer shot her fist into the air. “Yes! And we have about a gallon of vegetable soup left. Let’s haul ass to the stables and forcibly drag everyone back to the house for lunch.”

Gia reached into her bag and pulled out a granola bar. “How about a snack for the road?”

She snatched it out of her hand. “Bless you. Bless you!”

Summer snacked while they headed around the barn on the beaten dirt path toward the stables. “Oh, hey, listen,” Summer said, with a mouthful of almond butter and craisins. “The dresses are done and ready for fittings. Can you go with us next weekend?”

“Oh, um. I’d have to see about the kids,” she said. Guilt crept in. She already had Carter and Joey watching them today. And her father and Phoebe had taken Aurora last weekend. Not to mention that she depended on Evan to watch Aurora on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. They were her kids, her responsibility.

They started up the slow incline toward the stables.

“It’ll be you, me, Joey, Phoebe, and my mom. I’ll be trying on my wedding dress, too,” Summer chattered excitedly. “I figured we could leave after your morning classes and have lunch, of course.”

There was no way Gia could drag Evan and Aurora to a dress appointment. They would wreak havoc on the store. She winced, imagining Aurora exploding a grape juice box on a dozen pristine, white dresses.

She spotted Beckett’s SUV outside the barn and felt a rush as her pulse quickened.

“I’m nervous about the fitting. The dress is just incredible and Sashi’s worked out this ingenious way to hide the bump that hopefully won’t be huge by Thanksgiving. A week after the wedding I’m allowed to look gigantic. I’ve had a talk with the kids and they promised to stay hidden so it won’t look like a shotgun wedding.”

“It sounds like a lot of fun. I’m just not sure I can leave the kids. Saturdays are really busy for my dad at the restaurant and he already took one off this month to help me …” She trailed off as Summer’s face fell.

“I understand,” Summer told her.

“Understand what?” Beckett strolled out of the stables, looking gorgeous as always in jeans and a zip-up sweater.

Gia forced herself not to lick her lips.

“Summer invited me along on the dress fitting trip next weekend,” Gia answered.

“And Gia can’t go,” Summer interjected.

“Why not?” Beckett asked, sliding his hands into his pockets. His gaze was warm on Gia’s face.

“I’ve got the kids,” she said lamely.

“I’ll watch them,” Beckett said, with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Next Saturday?” he asked Summer.

Summer nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! We’d leave after Gia’s yoga class. No wonder you’re my favorite soon-to-be brother-in-law.”

Beckett winked and pulled out his phone. “Sure. I don’t have anything on the calendar that day.”

“Hold on. Beckett, I can’t ask you to watch Evan and Aurora for me,” Gia began.

“Summer, do you mind if I take our friend Gianna here for a walk and talk some sense into her?” Beckett smiled winningly at Summer.

She grinned up at him. “I think I’ll just wander in and find my handsome baby daddy and leave you two to hash out the details.” She winked at Gia. “See you in a minute.”

Gia crossed her arms as Summer scurried into the stables.

“What was that all about?” she demanded.

“That’s exactly what I was going to ask you,” Beckett said. He slung an arm over her shoulder and guided her along the fence line of the riding ring. “Don’t you trust me with Evan and Aurora?”

Gia stumbled. “Of course I do. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Don’t you want to go?” He was rubbing her upper arm through her thin sweater, his touch distracting her.

“It’s not that. I’d love to go with them. It’s just, the kids,” she said lamely.

“The kids that I’m volunteering to watch that you said you trust me with.”

“Beckett, I can’t ask you to do that. They’re my responsibility.” She could feel herself getting upset. Frustration rising up from her belly.

“Red. Stop.” He turned her to face him and held her in place by the shoulders. “You don’t have to do it all on your own anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” She frowned up at his handsome face, and tried not to notice the softness in his eyes.

“It’s been just you and those kids for a long time. Having someone help out every once in a while doesn’t hurt anyone. Having other people you can lean on, doesn’t make you weak or dependent.”

He’d hit the nail on the head, she realized. She was so used to being the only responsible parent that she didn’t know how to let go.

“Most parents share the responsibilities with a partner. And the really lucky ones have extended family they can rely on,” Beckett continued. “You now have an extended family of about two thousand people, plus me.”

Gia glanced over her shoulder to make sure they didn’t have an audience. “As my secret lover, I don’t expect you to take over childcare duties.”

“As your friend, I’d love to watch the kids. They crack me up. If it makes you feel better, I’ll bring them over here and let them have the run of the farm for the day.”

The kids, she knew, would love it.

“I just feel like I’m passing them off to everyone these days. Both kids had sleepovers last weekend, they’re hanging out with Carter and Joey right now. Evan watches Aurora for me two nights a week because of yoga. And I feel like I’m pawning them off.”

“Red, how long have you lived here?”

She shrugged. “Six weeks?”

“And you feel like a sleepover, a riding lesson, and you teaching two evening classes a week is pawning them off?”

She nodded and bit her lip.

“Gianna.”

“I know. It sounds stupid to me, too,” Gia said covering her face with her hands.

“Imagine how stupid it would sound if you turned me down and stayed home doing laundry Saturday with the kids instead of being there when Summer tries on her wedding dress.”

“I bet juries eat right out of your hand, don’t they?”

Beckett grinned. “I go in for the kill with logic, style, and charm. And if that doesn’t work, I yell a lot. Don’t make me yell, Gianna.”

“Are you really, really sure you want to watch them. They can be a handful. Well, Evan can be quiet and pouty, Aurora can be a nuclear disaster.”

“I want to. I’ll bring them out here, we’ll ride horses, play with the pigs, I’ll let them do a tasting at the brewery …”

“Okay,” Gia sighed.

“Okay?”

“Okay to everything except the beer tasting. I get to sample before they do.”

“Good girl. Now, go tell Summer that you’ll be happy to join her Saturday.”

Gia looked over her shoulder again and, spotting no one, rose up on her tiptoes to kiss Beckett on the cheek. “You’re the best secret lover and friend a girl could ask for.”