on a horse,” Andy said.
“You’re kidding me!”
Andy shook his head. “Or on a cow,” he added.
“Well, we don’t ride cows, we just milk ’em. I only have a couple milk cows and I don’t even know exactly why. Because they’re breeders, I guess.” Andy gave Dylan a totally perplexed look and Dylan laughed. “They have calves. I sell the calves.”
“Why?” Andy asked.
He delayed his answer. “We don’t want to talk about that… The chickens lay eggs—that’s fun. I eat a few, sell the rest. They’re trouble, though. Wildlife want to eat the chickens and keeping them safe can be a pain. So, I have a couple of barn dogs.”
“I never had a dog,” Andy said.
“Kid, I think you’ve been deprived,” he said with a laugh.
“You going home, Dylan?”
“You ready for me to go home?” he asked, giving the twin a little squeeze.
Andy shook his head. “Wish’t I could ride a horse,” he said.
“You ever been on a plane?” Dylan asked.
Andy nodded vigorously. “Two times. Moving away, moving back. It was big. And we had to be still and quiet.”
“Never been on a little plane, huh?”
“Nope. At Disney I was on a elephant…”
“Was it pink? Because if you were on a pink elephant, maybe you should keep that to yourself.”
“You ain’t going home, are you, Dylan?”
“I’m in no big hurry,” Dylan said. “I get a kick out of you and Mitch. And I bet you get a kick out of me.”
There were now five deer in the clearing. Dylan pulled Andy onto his lap. “I do have to think about getting home one of these days,” he said, half to Andy and half to himself.
He considered how awkward the situation he found himself in was. He was here because of Katie and he was not ready to leave her. But she was all that kept him here. There was no denying the beauty of the Virgin River area and the town appealed to him, but he wasn’t one for sitting around on a porch, someone else’s porch at that, whittling and counting deer. He had a home, one he’d been living in for twenty years, in a town he happened to love.
“There’s seven,” Andy whispered. “Look at ’em.”
“You ever live around so many wild animals before?” Dylan asked. Andy just shook his head. “When I was a kid and moved to Montana, I didn’t know anything about wild animals. I’d never been on a horse. But a friend of mine who worked on the property, he taught me to ride, took me off on a trail ride, showed me how to camp, how to shoot a shotgun, then a rifle, how to make it from the house to the barn in a blizzard, how to—”
“Huh?” Andy asked, twisting his head around.
Dylan chuckled softly. “Sometimes we had blizzards so fierce in Montana you wouldn’t want to set out for the barn to check on the animals without a rope tied to the house—you could get lost just hiking across the yard. My friend Ham showed me all kinds of survival things. You ever been in a blizzard, Andy?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“The answer is no, no blizzards,” Katie said from the door. She came onto the porch with her glass of juice. “Look at the deer!”
“That’s what we’re doing,” Dylan said. “We started with one youngster, obviously a scout for the group. Keep your voice down. Where’s Mitch? I don’t want him to miss this.”
Katie smiled at him. “Andy, go get your brother. Very quietly, don’t bang the door or the deer will run.” When Andy was inside Katie sat down on the porch steps and looked up at Dylan. “Are you talking about going home?” she asked him.
“I was telling Andy about Montana. Everything I have is back there. But, Katie, I’m not going to bail out on you. I gave you my word. I’m going to find a way to prove to you that you can trust me.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I have to run some errands and make some phone calls today. I can drop the boys at summer school for you. Will you promise not to go a round with the bear while I’m gone?”
“Promise,” she said.
Mitch came flying out the door, eyes wide, Andy on his heels. “Whoa!” he said. “How long have they been there?”
“A few minutes,” Dylan said. “Come here, let me tell you about my horses. I have two—did you know that? And a few cows.”
“And a bull and chickens,”