I couldn’t get back.” He glanced at Dot again. “Dot has some sort of blizzard vision, because she found me clinging to the swing set in the back yard and since she worked a boy scout camp in the past, she knew how to get me warmed up.”
“I bet she did,” someone said, and a couple of people chuckled. Ward was not one of them, and neither was Bishop.
The mood turned awkward, and then Ward said, “I want to know about my name. Specifically, I’m wondering why Grandmother didn’t give me a special name.” He dropped his chin toward his chest, and Bishop could taste the sadness coming from him.
He’d never realized how much the names in the Glover family meant to their owners. He’d literally never thought about why Ward didn’t have a different name that wasn’t one of his given names.
“His real name is Ward?” Montana whispered.
“No, it’s Woods,” Bishop murmured. “But Ward is his middle name.”
“That is odd, then.”
Bishop nodded as Aunt Dawna came up again. “Grandmother thought you’d already been named appropriately, son. It’s not that you didn’t deserve one.”
“I don’t have one either,” Zona said.
“Sure you do,” Bear said. “I used to call you spitfire growing up.”
“I called you all kinds of things,” Preacher said, and that got significantly more laughter.
“The twins don’t have nicknames either,” Mother said, and Bishop looked over to her and Don. He jumped up and turned the screen so it showed her and not him. “It wasn’t that your grandmother didn’t love you the way she loved the others. You’ll notice that Dawna has three children who didn’t get totally new names. She was simply better at naming her children than I was.”
She smiled, though Bishop didn’t think that was true at all. “Grandmother adored old names, and she actually suggested Etta and Ida to Dawna. I was there when we were talking about what to name the twins if they were boys, girls, or one of each.”
“Right,” Ward said. “But Bartholomew is a great name, and he still got Bear. And Richard is respectable—and old. Why Ranger?”
“I wrote about this in my journal once,” Aunt Dawna said, clear worry on her face. “I’ll have to see if I can find it. My memory has too many holes in it.”
Bishop exchanged a glance with Mother. She was older than Aunt Dawna, but the other woman suffered from more health problems—and this new mental issue as well. She’d always been sharp as a whip, with plenty of wit and a no-nonsense attitude. Bishop had hung around with Ace a lot growing up, as they were close to the same age, and he’d never thought for a moment he could get away with something at Bull House that he couldn’t at his own.
Concern rode in Mother’s eyes, and she gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.
“I have your journals, Mother,” Ward said quietly. “I can look for the story.”
“Grandmother told me once that I was unique,” Arizona said. “My name was already unique for a woman, and she thought if I could grow into it properly, I could do it justice someday.” She glanced at her husband, who sat beside her in the Top Cottage. “I have no idea what that means. How do you do Arizona justice? Like, the state?” She shook her head. “I think by the time the twins and I came along, Grandmother was too old and too tired to think of new names.”
She grinned, and Bishop did let a laugh come from his mouth. What she said didn’t ring entirely true though. He was younger than Arizona, and he’d gotten a name. The twins were another year behind him, and Grandmother had died when they were only eight years old.
“Okay, that’s it,” Ward said. “Merry Christmas, everyone. I do miss seeing you today, so this was nice.”
Bishop felt the love of his cousin, and he wanted to radiate it right back to him, to everyone. The goodbyes started, and Bishop didn’t need to say anything, not right now. He left the group video chat and faced his wife, step-daughter, Mother, and his new step-father.
“We’re having bison stew for lunch,” he said. “It’ll be ready in about an hour, and I’m going to go shape the rolls. You guys are okay here?”
Montana usually picked a place in the house on her days off and didn’t move much. They’d come into the office off the front door for the caroling, and she nodded. “I’m going to take my