Chapter Eighteen
It was a moment he’d never forget for the rest of his days.
Four weeks had passed since he’d stepped, fully clothed, into that shower. May had come and almost gone, and with it the mountains were turning green and lush, and his vines were once again surging to life. It felt like a lifetime ago now, but he found himself thinking about it all the time. Four weeks since she’d sung those first shaky notes, her whole body trembling so hard he couldn’t soothe her. She’d sung so softly, he’d barely been able to hear her, but it hadn’t mattered. He’d been thankful for the shower spray hitting him square in the face. Then he could pretend it was shower water tracking down his cheeks from the corners of his eyes.
Seth walked the last row of vines, checking his cuts, looking at the new growth, but his thoughts stayed with that monumental moment. He found himself grinning, then chuckling as he remembered the instant he’d realized what it was she was singing. He’d begun chuckling then, too, and hadn’t been able to stop.
She’d lifted her head, standing there in his arms, for all the world like a wee drowned thing, water running all down her face, and stared at him in stunned shock. “Are you honestly laughing at me?” she’d demanded. “What happened to this being my safe space?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, wrapping his hands around her fists before she could pummel him. “But are you singing ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider’?”
“Well, you didn’t expect me to sing you an aria, did you now?”
He remembered he’d shaken his head. “No, why would I think that?” Then he’d leaned down and kissed her, and kept kissing her until she finally relented and leaned into him, kissing him back.
“You can sing me anything you like,” he’d said against her lips. “I’m quite partial to ‘The Hokey Pokey.’ Do you know it?”
And she’d looked up at him and said, “Is that the one where you put your right knee in?”
He was pretty sure she’d been the first one to snicker. But it might have been him. They’d both laughed, of that much he was certain. She’d pulled his head under the spray as payback, while fiendishly giggling, and he’d just opened his mouth to say the three words that had come to him so easily it was as if he’d been telling her he loved her for years. But the small propane tank heating the water had chosen that exact moment to bottom out, sending them both racing out from under the ice-cold spray and back into the house.
They’d gone up to the loft to find dry clothes and he’d apologized to her there, quite sincerely.
“It was the very first thing I learned to sing as a little girl,” she’d told him quite primly, in that way she had. “It seemed ... a fitting place to start.”
“It was perfect,” he’d told her, and meant it.
Seth grinned and he finished inspecting the last vine on the row, then walked around to the next and last row, feeling his body tighten all over again as he recalled how they hadn’t come back downstairs again until well after the moon had risen in the sky.
Fifteen minutes later and still smiling, Seth started up toward the stone barn, intent on stowing his tools and clipping bucket before heading down to the round barn to help Bailey. When he saw Jake walking along the stone path from the driveway, Seth stopped and lifted a hand in a wave to Will as he backed his truck around. Will lifted a hand briefly in return through the open window, but didn’t pause, and drove on back down the drive.
It was the first time Seth had seen Will since Pippa’s little talk. “I guess that’s a start,” Seth said under his breath, then turned to look at Jake. “Are you back?” he asked Jake as he got closer to the barn.
Jake nodded, looking sheepish. “I need to apologize to you,” he said. “I’m sorry I put you in that situation with my dad.”
“Jake—”
“I need to say it,” the boy told Seth. “And not because I have to. This is coming from me, not my dad.” He shuffled his feet, and Seth gave him the time to find his own words. “I shouldn’t have taken the fiddle,” he said. Then he looked up and met Seth’s gaze. “I shouldn’t have let you or Pippa think I had permission, either. I know it’s important to him. He made it for my mom.” Jake’s voice cracked on that last part and it made Seth’s heart hurt.
Seth wanted to tell Jake he didn’t need to say any more, but it wasn’t his place to tell the boy anything at that moment.
“He’d been teaching her to play. My gramma said she was really good at it, too. So Dad made her a fiddle for Christmas. But . . .”
“It’s okay, Jake,” Seth said gently, unable to bear letting the boy torture himself any further.
Jake’s eyes grew a little glassy, and his voice was more croak than not, when he added, “Gramma Dot told me he burned his own fiddle, right in our fireplace. After ... you know. I don’t blame him. I don’t. Not one bit. Gramma didn’t either. She just told me so I’d understand about ... everything. But Dad kept the one he made for Mom. Even though she never saw it. So, I know I shouldn’t have taken it. No one’s ever played it.” He dashed at his eyes again and cleared his throat, then straightened his shoulders. Seth could swear the kid had grown another two inches since he’d seen him last, or maybe now that he’d started the painful journey toward becoming a young man, he simply looked taller because of it.
“It’s just ... I’ve been thinking about her. My mom. A lot.”
“Do you and your dad talk about her?”
Jake shook his head. “Gramma did with me, all the time, so I know tons of stories about her. And we have loads of photo albums. Gramma made those, too. I hadn’t looked at them in a long time, not since before Gramma Dot passed. But I have been lately. I’m not sure why really. I don’t remember her, so it’s not like I miss her.” He sighed. “Bailey says I’m trying to figure out who I am. And I guess if anyone should know about that, it’s her.”
Seth nodded. “She’s a pretty wise young lady.”
“Right?” Jake said, sounding both impressed and annoyed, as only a teenager could, and they both laughed.
“I know it’s stupid,” Jake said. “And I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea, but I got to thinking that if I learned to play the fiddle, the fiddle he made, then maybe that would take away some of my dad’s . . . hurt, I guess? Like, I know I can’t replace my mom or anything, but I’m the one person left in the world that he loves as much as he’s ever loved anyone, so who else could do it but me? I just didn’t think it through.”
Seth had to curl his fingers inward to keep from hugging the kid tight. “Did you tell him that? What you just told me?”
Jake shook his head. “I’ve never in my whole life seen him that angry. Or angry at all. We’re okay now, him and me. He said he was sorry for coming in there like he did and I apologized for doing what I did.” Jake smiled then, and looked more the little boy he had been than the young man he was becoming. “I did my time, served my sentence,” he said, then lifted his shoulders. “And now, we’re back to where we were. I don’t want to mess that up.”
Seth took all that to mean that Will hadn’t said anything to Jake about Pippa’s offer. She’d be so disappointed, but Seth wasn’t really surprised.
“I’m sorry I left you without help,” Jake said. “My dad said I could come up every day for the next two weeks to make that up to you. I’d like to, if that’s okay.”
Seth nodded. “I’d be happy for the help. Bailey’s already down in the round barn. We’ve moved the goats down there so I can start the barn renovation.” He’d given the greenlight to the local contractor he’d hired to go ahead and start working on turning the barn into a tasting room, despite not having anything bottled as yet.
In the past few weeks, Seth had been rethinking his decision to hold off on doing any pressing or fermenting from the upcoming crop. The bottles he’d been making as testers really were coming out pretty decent. It meant a much more accelerated schedule than he’d been planning, but what the hell? More of that living life without fear mantra that he and Pippa were embracing.
“Is Pippa up here?” Jake asked. “I mean Miss Pippa,” he corrected. “Except she calls me Master Jake when I call her that. Bailey said she’s spending more time up here now.” The blush that came into his cheeks and turned the tips of his ears bright red suggested Bailey had been a bit more blunt in her description of the new direction Seth’s relationship with Pippa had taken. But he appreciated the boy’s discretion in how he’d chosen to frame it. “I need to apologize to her, too. I know she and my dad have talked, but she still needs to hear it from me.”
Seth’s attention snagged on that last part. “Your dad told you about that?”
Jake nodded. “He told me she came over to talk to him and apologize, which she totally didn’t have to do. I mean, it wasn’t her fault. But I am glad they talked.” He looked down at the dirt he’d been scuffing into a little pile with his toe. “He doesn’t play her music anymore,” Jake said quietly. “And I’m sorry for that.” He looked up. “Don’t tell Pippa, okay? She—it would only hurt her feelings. It’s not about her, I’m sure. It’s just my dad.”
“I won’t say anything,” Seth promised him. “I’m glad they talked, too. Pippa likes your dad a great deal. She said it was a really good conversation. I don’t know why your dad may have decided not to listen to her music, but I’m pretty certain he and Pippa are just fine.”
Jake nodded, but didn’t look entirely convinced. “I asked him if he was nervous, meeting someone famous like her.” He let out a short laugh. “I remember how nervous I was. It feels stupid now, because, you know, she’s just Pippa. Like, it’s hard to believe she’s the other Pippa, you know?”
Seth nodded. “I do know,” he said, and tried to ignore the knot that tightened in his gut, as it always did when he thought about the other Pippa.
“Bailey also told me something else, but I’m not sure whether or not I’m supposed to say. I mean, Pippa didn’t tell her not to say and it’s not like you probably don’t already know, since you’re, you know ... together.” His cheeks flushed scarlet and he snapped his mouth shut.
“It’s okay, Jake,” Seth said, chuckling. “We are together, and it’s a really happy, good thing. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Maybe check with Bailey about the other thing, or better yet, Pippa, and make sure it’s okay to tell me.”
He nodded. “Will do. So, where is she?”
“She’s at the cabin,” he told Jake. “She’ll be here a little later, around three. She’s cooking supper. You’re welcome to stay if you’d like. Addie Pearl’s coming to get Bailey and they’re both staying to eat. Give your dad a shout. I’m sure it would be fine if he comes, too. Pippa always cooks like she’s cooking for a family of eight anyway. If your dad can’t make it, Addie Pearl or I can take you home after. We’ll get you back in time to finish your homework.”
“Already did it,” Jake said. “And that’d be great. I’ll text him and let you know.”
“Why don’t you head on down to the barn,” Seth told him. “We’ve had four goat babies in the past week, so I know Bailey’s got her hands full. The sheep are out, and Dex is with them, so no worries on that.”
Jake nodded and turned to head down the hill, then stopped and looked back at Seth. “How come Pippa’s at the cabin? I thought—Bailey said—I mean, I thought she was here now?”
Seth swallowed the urge to chuckle. The poor kid was going to turn permanently pink. “She is, but she kept the cabin, too.” He wanted to tell Jake that Pippa had kept the place as her private little music studio, but that was for Pippa alone to say. She’d explained to Seth that the small size, the comfort, and the joy she felt there, along with the complete and utter privacy it provided from everyone, himself included, made it the perfect spot to shut down her active brain and focus inward on her songwriting brain.
It made as much sense to him as it could to someone who didn’t write music and lyrics for a living. He was just happy to see her writing again, singing again. She didn’t sing much around him, though she swore to him it wasn’t because of what they now referred to as “the shower incident.” She was simply keeping it to herself, she’d said. “Getting reacquainted,” was how she’d described it. He understood that.
He’d overheard her singing along to the Disney tunes she always played when she was brushing Dex late at night, after Bailey had gone home, or playing with Elliott and the new baby goats. He often heard her in the outdoor shower when she got up at dawn along with him; and very occasionally, late at night, while in bed with him, she’d sing bits and pieces of new verses under her breath, revising them, trying out different emphasis or tones, while she thought he was asleep. He’d never heard her sing full out yet, only in moderation, but he suspected she’d need some time to get past the fear of really letting herself go.
And none of those things could Seth share with the young man standing in front of him. Seth was still the only one in Blue Hollow Falls who knew she was singing again.
Seth was grappling with what excuse to give Jake as to why Pippa had kept the cabin, when the boy said, “Oh, that’s cool. Well, when she gets here, let me know, okay?”
“Will do,” Seth said and watched Jake lope down the hill toward the round barn. He chuckled, thinking Bailey was right, adults really did make things so much more complicated sometimes than was necessary. “Most of the time, more like,” he said, and shaking his head, went on inside the stone barn. Seth had decided to keep his office out in the barn and was in the middle of revising the tasting-room floor plan to include a formal office space. He’d spent all morning the day before looking at the property, trying to decide if he wanted to plant more vines this season, or keep to his original plan. He’d started the rough outlines for repurposing another one of the outbuildings into a reception hall of sorts. Maybe he would go ahead and mow down the overgrowth around the small pond that was down past the round barn. Sarah Bianchi had pegged that as the perfect spot for wedding ceremonies. Adding a trellised arch, or a pergola. Seth thought she was probably spot-on with that.
He sat down behind his desk and chuckled. “And man, you’ve got weddings on the brain these days.” He turned on his computer and pulled up the tasting-room designs, but his thoughts were already wandering down the very familiar path he found himself working harder and harder to steer clear of. The thing was, his life felt like it had come full circle. Everything seemed pretty damn perfect. He was doing something he loved, he had a wonderful woman in his life. It made him feel happy and content, knowing Pippa was over at the cabin, pursuing her own passion.
Seth loved waking up with her, and looked forward to the end of each day now, too. It made him feel grounded, made life feel more balanced. They dined together every evening, taking turns cooking depending on who got done working first, cooking together when they could. He talked over his new plans for the winery with her, and she talked about the music she was discovering, and how it was taking a different turn now. Her voice was definitely smokier than it had been, which he knew, as he’d now listened to pretty much everything she’d ever recorded. She told him it still startled her when she opened her mouth and sang, but it sounded gloriously rich and full to him, which he’d told her countless times.
She’d told him her songwriting was changing too, and that didn’t surprise him. Given her injury, the surgery, and everything that had come after, it seemed natural that she’d have different stories she wanted to tell. She told him her time spent in Blue Hollow Falls, and her time with him, was influencing her songwriting, too. That made him happy, and though it was maybe kind of weird to imagine someone writing songs about him, he’d been flattered and more than a little abashed. He knew she was working hard to find a way to meld the songs in her head with the voice she now had, and he had every faith she’d not only find it, but her fans would be knocked out of their collective socks when they heard the result.
What they very carefully didn’t talk about was how they were going to manage his going after his dreams, getting the winery up and running, when she finally reached the point where it was time to get back into a studio and start recording again. She’d be going back to performing, touring, recording, and the myriad of other things that came with it, which he’d only had the barest whiff of as yet. He’d overheard her on the phone with her assistant, Julia, her manager, her agent, her record label, checking in with them, handling the business details of her life, which went on even when she wasn’t actively recording or setting up tour dates. It was hard for him to wrap his head around the fact that his Pippa was also that Pippa, even as he watched them finally become the same person, right there in front of him. When the two of them talked about any of that, though, or the future at all, it was always in the abstract, as if it was going to happen so far down the road, there was no need to figure it out now.
The other thing they didn’t talk about was love.
It had gotten so he silently said those words to her multiple times every day. And given the way she looked at him, the way they made love to each other, if she didn’t love him right back, she was doing a damn fine impression of someone who did.
But they didn’t talk about love. Not because they were afraid to say the words. Or he wasn’t, in any case. Hell, he wanted to hire a skywriter, and tell the whole world. But he didn’t say those words, and he was pretty sure she didn’t either, because then it would make everything they were doing all too real and not some dream-sequence timeout from reality. Which was ridiculous, and yet ... there it was.
Seth wanted things to stay exactly the way they were right now. And he knew that couldn’t happen.
He had just punched the button on his keyboard to open the most recently saved version of the tasting-room schematic, possibly with a little more force than was necessary, when his phone rang. Seth knew that ringtone and immediately picked up his phone. “Mouse,” he said with a grin. “About time you checked in. I’d begun to think the leprechauns had spirited you away.”
“Katie told me,” Moira said. “You’re hooking up?”
Initially, he and Pippa had decided not to tell his sister, or hers, to avoid this very conversation, but that had been a month ago now. Pippa hadn’t mentioned that she’d told her sister, but for all he knew it had just happened five minutes ago, and she hadn’t gotten the chance to let him know.
“I told you not to get involved,” Moira told him, sounding more worried than scolding. “Seth, she’s—”
“Someone I love very much,” Seth interrupted, feeling as if some huge pressure had just been released inside his chest and he could finally breathe again, now that he’d finally gotten to say that out loud. “Mouse, it’s okay.”
There was a long pause, and he could hear her long exhale of breath. “Promise?”
“As much as I can, yes. I don’t know what Katie has told you, or what Pippa told her—”
“They just got off the phone. Pippa told her she wanted to tell you first, before Katie said anything to me, but she and I were texting when Pippa called, and I kind of wheedled it out of her. Don’t be mad at Pippa.”
“I won’t be. Wouldn’t be.”
Moira paused, then said, “So, you love her? The real kind of love?”
Seth smiled. “Yes,” he said without hesitation. “The real kind of love.”
“She loves you back?”
Seth chuckled. “Don’t sound so surprised.”
“I’m not,” Moira hurried to say. “I’m just ... I didn’t expect this. It’s a lot, Seth. Like huge, big-time a lot.”
He knew it was, just as he knew Moira was talking about more than love. She was talking about him being in love with Pippa MacMillan, singer. “I know,” he said.
Moira’s voice was softer when she continued, and he heard the worry, and all the love. “Are you ready for all that?”
Seth felt the first tiny fissures start to crack the bubble. He wasn’t ready yet. “As ready as I can be.” Which was the first lie he’d ever told his sister. “How has your time gone?” he asked instead, shoving his own feelings aside with phenomenal force of will. “Have you gotten much studying done? What do you think of our ancestors’ homeland?”
“It went by too fast,” she told him. “Katie’s family is amazing, so much like ours, Seth. And the countryside is more breathtaking than you can imagine. Everyone is so lovely.”
She paused then, and Seth could hear some other thread in her voice, one that wasn’t quite as joyful. “But?” he asked.
“You always know,” she said, and her voice broke just the tiniest bit.
“What happened, Mousie?” he said, instantly concerned, but careful to keep his voice gentle. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Or I will be.” She let out a watery attempt at a laugh. “Turns out you weren’t the only one to have a little fling.”
Seth wanted to correct her: what he and Pippa had was no fling, and the vehemence with which he felt the need to do so told him he really did need to have a talk with Pippa. About a lot of things. “What happened?” he asked her again. “He didn’t hurt you in any way, did he?” He felt his stomach knot and his temper—rare as it was—start to rise, but she hurried on.
“Just my heart, Seth,” she assured him. “And that’s not even his fault. He’s a lovely, lovely person. Generous and kind. I just ... well, I fell, and ... he didn’t.” Her voice broke on the last word. “It looks like you found your Kate Winslet after all,” she added gamely. “While I didn’t get so lucky with my Jude Law.” She was trying so hard, but he heard the sniffle, the catch in her throat, and, with four sisters, he knew what was coming next
Seth hated it when anyone cried, but he especially hated it when it was someone he loved. He felt so damn helpless. “Listen to me, Mousie. You know you’re perfect. You’re lovely, smart, and every bit as kind and generous. If he couldn’t realize the gem he had in his hand, then he’s both a fool and an idiot. He lost out, but you haven’t. You want the guy who sees that about you, not the guy who doesn’t.”
Moira gave a watery laugh. “See? This is why I love you. Why I always turn to you. You always say such lovely things, even if they aren’t true.” She sniffled again. “The truth is, I don’t feel like any of those things right now. I feel stupid. He told me he wasn’t interested in starting up anything, but did I listen? No, I did not. I mean, I tried, but we were having such a lovely time, and he was the one pushing things along—not like that,” she hurried to add. “I just mean, he wanted to see me, he’d set up our dates, and we had so much fun together, Seth. How could he not want more of that?”
“I don’t know, Mouse. Not everyone is made for commitment. Or it could be he’s just not mature enough, or where he wants to be in life. I don’t know. It could be a dozen different things. But know it’s not you.”
“It sure feels like it’s me.” Her dry delivery and laugh sounded a bit more like herself. “He even broke up with me the right way, if there is a right way. I made some silly comment about trying to work it out to stay a bit longer, and instead of being happy about that, he was a little concerned. Which surprised me, but that’s when I knew.” She paused, and he heard her breath hitch again, but she didn’t start crying. “He gave me the most beautiful little speech, because he really is lovely. But he made it clear he wasn’t falling in love, and while he enjoyed being with me and thought I was delightful—his words—he’d just assumed we were having some fun together. He told me he’d never meant to hurt me, and I swear, Seth, we both cried. It was both beautiful and awful, all at the same time.”
“I’m really sorry, Mouse.” Seth half wished the guy had been an ass so she could be angry instead of heartbroken. Or maybe so he could be angry instead of sad on her behalf. “There’s nothing easy about that. He does sound like a good guy.”
“Right?” she said, her laugh a bit sadder this time.
“Well, I suppose you could console yourself that your instincts are good and you didn’t fall for some jerk.”
“I feel loads better already,” she said, the wry note back, and they both laughed.
“When are you coming home?” he asked.
“Oh, I am home. I’m back at Mum and Dad’s.”
He smiled at her use of the Irish word for mom, and at the hint of brogue he detected in her voice. “I’m sorry you came back early. You should have stayed and enjoyed the rest of your time.”
“I didn’t come back early,” she said, sounding surprised.
Seth flipped the calendar up on his computer screen. His smile faded as he realized Moira was right. It had been more than six weeks since Pippa had popped up over the ridge and plowed into that snowbank. Your time is running out. “Right, right,” he said, trying to stomp down the surge of panic. But it was too late; the bubble had already gone from having tiny, little fissures to big, huge cracks.
“I am glad I went,” Moira told him. “All in all, it really was a wonderful time. Once I get over having my heart being stomped flat, I’ll have only fond memories. I’m sure of it. Katie’s even talking about coming to see me when I move back to California.”
“You ready for the bar?” he said, feeling like he was having a dual conversation. The nice, calm one he was having with his sister, and the panic-fueled one in which he scrambled to figure out how he was going to save his nice, grounded, perfectly balanced life.
“I still have a bit of time,” Moira was saying. “The exam isn’t until July. But I’ve already registered, so it’s going to happen.”
“I know you’ll nail it,” he told her, meaning it. “And I know how much you’ll love moving back to California.”
“Actually, that’s happening now,” she told him. “Mom and Dad have been great, but being in Ireland, and yes, having my heart broken, I just feel like I can’t stay in this weird purgatory any longer. I need to take action, move on, get started. I’ve found a place recommended to me by another friend from back in my Stanford days. It’s short-term, but it’s a place to crash until I find the right spot.”
Seth frowned and his focus returned solely to his sister. “Will you be able to study there?”
“I’ll be fine. If the apartment is too noisy or whatever, and seeing as I’ll have three roommates, it probably will be, I can use the libraries on the Stanford campus since I’m an alumnus. I have a few other friends I may end up crashing with, if the room thing doesn’t work out.”
“You sure you wouldn’t rather wait until you have something more permanent lined up?”
“No, it’s time to get on with things.”
“Well then, you’ve got my support,” he said, smiling even as he felt lingering concern for her. But that was pretty much par for the course in his relationship with his youngest sister. “Knock ’em dead.”
“Thanks, big brother. I love you.”
“Love you back.”
“So,” she said, sounding relieved and a tiny bit refreshed, “back to you. What have the two of you worked out for when she goes back to Ireland?”
“We haven’t sorted that part out yet,” he admitted.
“Really?” she said, sounding truly surprised.
“Really,” he said, mildly annoyed, but mostly with himself, because it was true. “Don’t worry, okay?”
“Oh, I’m not. I mean, I trust you. I was just surprised because, well, from what Katie said, Pippa’s got almost enough music written to start thinking about her comeback album. And I haven’t a clue what-all is involved in going from writing music to making a record or anything, but I guess I assumed she’d want to be back in Ireland when she did it. Are you going to go with her? What about the winery? This is your first big harvest before wine making. Did you get the distributor deal?”
“Whoa, slow down, slow down. The winery is fine,” he said, his brain really doing double time now. “I’m actually thinking about pressing some of the grapes from this crop. The distributor can’t take them all, and though I have other avenues to sell to other vintners, I think I might just dive in and get started. A limited edition run.”
“Wow, that’s wonderful!” Moira said. “I’m so excited for you. So, Pippa will be staying with you, then, I guess. I mean, that makes more sense when you think about it. You have all those random buildings on your property; she could probably just turn one of those into a recording studio, right? Wouldn’t that be cool? I mean, why does it matter where she records? Artists record in places all over the world. And you have some of the best musicians around right there in the Falls.” She gasped. “Oh my God, Seth. Wouldn’t it be awesome if she recorded her comeback album there, with the guild musicians? Given she wrote the songs there, it seems kind of fitting. Oh!” she added, on a roll now. “That would be amazing for Blue Hollow Falls and the mill, too. Everybody wins!” She squealed and he held the phone away from his ear. “I’m so happy for you. This helps me so much, big brother. There’s nothing better than a real love story. When are you going to propose? Can I come out? Wait, duh! I’m guessing I’ll be in the wedding. Or I hope I will. She has a lot of sisters.”
Seth let Moira ramble on excitedly in his ear, her honest joy making him surprisingly happy. More than happy. Because out of the mouths of babes—or in this case, his twenty-six-year-old sister—he might have just come up with the perfect solution.
“Moira,” he said, breaking into her excited babble. “Mouse,” he said, more loudly. “Listen, I need to go.”
“Okay, okay, but you have to call me and tell me everything when you can. And thank you for your shoulder. Sorry I got it all soggy. Again.” She wound it back down then, sounding quieter and sincere when she added, “I love you so much. You’re always there for me, Seth. I know I always say I’ll repay you, but I don’t know how that will ever be possible. You’re the very best.”
“Actually,” he told her, grinning now, “I think we’re beyond even. Thank you, baby sister. I love you right back.” He hung up, then leaned back in his chair and propped his hands behind his head. “Adults do make things so much more complicated than they have to be.” He got up and paced his little office stall, trying to force his brain to process everything in a linear fashion, wanting to have it all thought out before he said anything to Pippa. Surely there had to be a glitch he wasn’t seeing. And yes, it wasn’t a perfect solution, and sure, she’d want to spend time in Ireland. He hoped he would, too. At some point. He just had to hope she was willing to not spend all of her time there.
Seth turned in his pacing to find Dex standing on the other side of the stall door, giving him his classic baleful look. “I know,” he told the beast. “I just have to go ahead and do it.” Then he grinned and thought, Yeah. Just go ahead and do it. Before he could change his mind, or God forbid find that glitch, Seth grabbed his wallet and his phone, then opened the stall door and kissed Dex square on the snout. Then immediately grimaced and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Buddy, you really need to grab a mint.” He waved to Jake and Bailey, who were just coming through the door on the other side of the barn.
“Sheep are up. We just have to do the last feeding for the goats,” Bailey told him. “Then we’ll go bring the hay up to the top level of the round barn.”
“Dad can’t come, but he said I could stay for supper,” Jake added.
“Great, on both counts,” Seth told them. “Listen, I have to run over to the cabin for a few minutes. Maybe a half hour.”
Bailey wiggled her eyebrows at Jake.
“Stop being forty and be a ten-year-old for just a few more months,” Seth told her. “Okay?” When she just smiled and rolled her eyes, he said, “Pretend. For me.”
“Will do, boss,” she said, then did a perfect Pippa curtsy.
“I’m going to grow old before my time,” he muttered, but the grin was already edging back.
“You don’t need to hurry back on our account,” Bailey told him. “Addie Pearl just called and said she’s coming up a little early. Probably in the next half hour. I think she’s planning on commandeering your kitchen. She said something about a new recipe she wanted to try and how it was easier to make it here on your big fancy range.”
“Even better,” Seth told her. “Tell Addie mi kitchen es su kitchen. We’ll be back long before supper, so no worries.”
“Mm-hmm,” Bailey said doubtfully as she and Jake started over to the stalls where the baby goats were still being housed.
“Ten,” Seth reminded her as he went back in the stall and shut down his computer. Then he took off toward the house.
There was something he needed to pick up first.