“But I was so looking forward to getting my hands on you again. Don’t disappoint me.”
“I’d never do that. Knock yourself out.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” He gave her ass a grab before he lifted her and headed up the stairs. “I need your ankle to get better so we can zip-line and teach you to drive a stick and all sorts of other fun stuff, but I sure will miss carrying you around.”
“And I’ll miss being carried around by you.” She took advantage of the opportunity to fix his messy hair and kiss his cheek.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Hannah said when they reached the landing at the top of the stairs.
“Don’t be doing that stuff in front of the children.” Hannah shielded Callie’s face so she couldn’t see her uncle kissing Amanda.
“She sees far worse at home, I’m sure,” Landon said.
“That’s true,” Hannah replied.
Landon groaned as he put Amanda down. “Gross.”
“Not even kinda.”
“I’m sorry, Callie.” He kissed the baby’s chubby cheek. “You call Uncle Landon if it ever gets to be too disgusting to stay at your house.”
“Oh, whatever. You’d last ten minutes with a baby.”
“That’s not true!” He glanced at Amanda, seeming concerned she might think he couldn’t handle kids. “I’ll take her any time for as long as needed.”
“That’s very nice of you, but I love my child too much to trust her to the likes of you.”
“I could do it, Hannah,” Landon said. “I mean it.”
Before Hannah could respond, Linc called for everyone to get in the conference room.
“This came for you, Amanda,” Emma said, handing her a FedEx envelope.
“Thank you. Looks like the monthly mail delivery from my office.” Amanda took it with her into the conference room, where most of the family had already gathered.
Molly and Elmer greeted Amanda with hugs and concern about how she was doing.
“I’m much better,” she said, touched by their warm greetings. “Landon is taking very good care of me.”
“He’d better be,” Molly said with a smile and kiss for her son.
Everyone seemed surprised to see Lucas when he came in with Dani and Savannah.
“What’re you doing here?” Hunter asked him.
“I heard it was all-hands, and since I have hands, that includes me.”
Linc jumped up to find seats for Lucas and Dani. “We could’ve updated you, son.”
“It’s fine.” Luc lowered himself gingerly into the chair his father got for him. “I’m going nuts from doing nothing. It’s good to be out.”
“Well, it’s good to see you,” Linc said. “It’s good to see all of you. I called this meeting to go over a few things that’re coming up that’ll affect us all. First up will be the long-awaited training next week of our sales team for the intimate product line. Wade, can you give us an update on that?”
“My update is this: Amanda, I need you.”
While everyone else laughed, she gave him a thumbs-up. “I’ll be there for you. I promise.”
“Thank God.”
“Believe it or not, training the sales force won’t be as traumatic as you think,” Amanda said.
“It would be for me,” Wade said bluntly. “I’ve known most of those women since I was a little kid. I can’t do it. I just can’t.”
“I got you covered.”
“God bless you.”
“Can you be at the Grange bright and early on Monday morning?” Linc asked her.
“Sure thing.”
“Excellent. Cameron and Lucy, can we get a catalog update?”
“We’re down to the final photo shoot, which will take place next Wednesday and Thursday.” Lucy got up and handed out a piece of paper that had the schedule on it. “If anyone can’t do it at their appointed time, let me know, and we’ll move things around.”
“What about the cousins?” Will asked. “How come only Gray is on the schedule?”
“Grayson agreed to do it,” Lucy said, “but Noah said, and I quote, ‘There’s no way in hell I’m doing that.’ He said he’s completely consumed with rebuilding the inn and has no time for anything else. Izzie is doing the shoot for us, and the rest of the Colemans are in Boston, so we need to be happy with what we’ve got. Landon, I did the math on your schedule to figure out that your four days off happen next week, so you should be free, right?”
“Sadly, yes,” he said to laughter from his siblings.
“Excellent. We need your handsome face in the catalog.”
“Why do I have to do underwear?” Colton asked. “I feel objectified.”
“Oh, shut up,” Lucy said. “You prance around naked half the time. Putting underwear