“She’s volunteered to keep the nursery for all the little children,” Iris said with a smile.
“Does Rachel know what she’s going to be doing?”
“I have no idea.” The smile turned into a giggle. “That’s one way for her to keep that woman away from Billy Ray, isn’t it?”
“Yep.” Alana took a first bite of the warm, gooey cinnamon roll and moaned. “If I get married every day, will you make these for me? Matter of fact, there’s lots of room in this house. You can come and live with me and Pax.”
“Only if you marry my grandson every day,” Iris answered. “And, honey, I’d love to come visit y’all, but I need my own space, like you and Paxton need yours. Especially, during this first year of marriage. Always remember, though, I’m less than an hour away if you need to talk to me.”
“Thank you, Iris,” Alana said.
“From now on, that will be Mam to you, not Iris,” she said.
“Thank you most of all for that.” Alana nodded and was happy that she could truly call her Mam—and that it wouldn’t be a big fat lie.
She took a picture of the cinnamon roll with her phone and sent it to Pax with a note: Iris says that I can call her Mam.
She got back a picture of a dirty plate and a text that read: I had three for breakfast. I love you!
* * *
Pax expected the day to drag by like a turtle on crutches, but he was wrong. After Matt and Lucas had served up a big breakfast for all the guys in the Bar C bunkhouse, Matt told them all what they were going to do that morning. Lucas would give the other guys a tour of the ranch, but he and Paxton had business in town.
“You need me to go with you?” Landon asked. “He might have a hangin’ tree between here and there. You could need some help escapin’.”
“Don’t think so,” Matt said with a grin. “I been tryin’ to get this cowboy in my family for years. Neither he nor my stubborn daughter would listen to anything any one of us had to say. We’ll be back by noon and we’ll be bringing in fried chicken from a little café in town for dinner. If y’all have any ranchin’-type advice, tell Lucas. We’re always on the look out for ways to improve.”
“Thank God, you weren’t arranging a golf game this morning,” Cade said.
“Why in the hell would I do that?” Matt asked.
“We read somewhere that that’s what some groomsmen do on the day of the wedding so they won’t get in the way, but we’d rather get a tour of your ranch,” Levi said.
“Speak for yourselves,” Landon piped up. “Next to surfing, I like golf pretty damn well. Maybe we could turn at least one pasture into a practice green, you know, a nice level area to tee up and flags to tell us how many yards our drives made. I could give the cowboys some lessons.”
Lucas shook a finger at him. “You want to play golf, you can hitch a ride up to Amarillo. You want to learn more about ranchin’, you can stick around here. Now get out there on one of them four-wheelers and let’s go take a tour of this whole place.”
“Yes, sir,” Landon said as he followed the other cowboys outside.
Eight engines roared into life, and the machines kicked up a fair amount of dust when the cowboys followed Lucas’s lead. Pax would have far rather been with them as going to town to talk to a lawyer. He had a pretty good idea that Matt was going to have him sign a prenup that said if he and Alana ever divorced, he would only take away from the Bar C Ranch what he’d brought to it. That, of course, would be only his clothing and his pickup truck. He was more than willing to sign such an agreement, but he wondered if Alana had anything to do with the idea.
The ride into town took a few minutes, but Pax wasn’t worried a bit. He wasn’t going to divorce Alana, but if they ever did, he wasn’t the kind of man to take what wasn’t his to begin with. The only other vehicle in the parking lot at the lawyer’s office was an older model pickup. Pax pulled in beside it and turned to Matt. “This is Saturday. Randall isn’t open today.”