put on a restoration show—fixed everything up. I thought he’d flip it, sell, but he stayed on.”
“Shelby,” Coop said.
“Isn’t she something? I have definitely lucked out in the sister-in-law department. Have two more winners—Aiden and Sean both married up, as my mother says.”
“How many of you are there?” Coop said, standing to face Colin.
“Five Riordan sons. Luke says you flew for the Army.”
“For a few years. And if I have it straight, you flew Black Hawks, too.”
“I did,” Colin said. “Until a freak accident retired me. We were in an exercise at Ft. Hood and a civilian plane out of control took me down.” He shook his head. “All that damn war and then it was some poor bastard with a heart attack that damn near killed me. But, I ended up here for my recovery and found Jillian, a very interesting little farmer. We’re not married, but we’ve been together over a year. And there’s no end in sight.”
“Does this place just spew pretty girls?”
Colin laughed. “Wouldn’t you wonder?”
“Beer, Colin?” Coop asked.
“No, thanks—but I’d like to see your digs, if you don’t mind. Luke was telling me about this setup… You haul your gear and still have a house.”
“It’s a good little operation,” he said. “Come in, look around. Plenty big for me, plenty of storage and a moving garage.”
Colin stepped inside, looked right toward the kitchen and a set of stairs toward the master bedroom and bath and left into a spacious living room. “Push these chairs back against the window, fold the tabletop against the wall, raise that long sofa bed to the ceiling and the entire back wall opens—it lowers into a ramp so I can drive in the toys. The wave runner is on wheels—I push it up the ramp.”
Colin took it all in and laughed. “How’d I live this long without knowing about a contraption like this?”
“I originally bought it for camping, but when I took my last job in Corpus Christi, I just rented a space and lived in it. That wasn’t exactly a radical move for me—I lived on my boat for a few months, and it wasn’t a big boat… . But I do have a long history of not staying in one place for long.”
“Or with one job? Luke mentioned something about your difference of opinion with the way the suits run things.”
“Yeah, that,” Coop said with a laugh. “Luke thinks I turned into a tree hugger. I’m not, I don’t think. Just hate rape and pillage.”
Colin laughed. “Well, I think I am a tree hugger… I only shoot animals if they’re about to eat me. And Jilly? She won’t even use pesticides on her vegetables. I wanna see the rest of this place.” He pointed to the stairs. “What’s up there?”
“That’s the part of the trailer that sits over the truck bed,” Coop told him. “Bedroom and bath. Go ahead.”
Colin took the steps and looked into a large bathroom that contained a shower and then a bedroom with a queen-size bed and a long wall of drawers and closets. There was a nice flat screen on the wall opposite the bed. “I might have to get me one of these,” Colin said.
“Have a lot of toys, do you?”
“Not yet,” Colin said with a grin. “Let’s fire up that Rhino of yours and I’ll take you on a tour of the forest. We might even end up at Jilly’s farm—really something to see.”
* * *
After all the employees had left the orchard on Wednesday afternoon, once the equipment was secured and the gate closed, Tom headed for the house. As he neared, he saw a little girl sitting on the back step, a large picture book in her lap, carefully turning the pages. Even if he hadn’t known Nora and her children would be joining them for dinner, he would definitely know this was her daughter. She had the same peachy complexion that would eventually freckle. Her brown hair was a lighter shade, but when she looked up at him he recognized those big brown eyes with the golden flecks.
This would be Berry. Nora had talked about her often enough.
Tom sat on the top step next to her. He pulled off the boots he’d worked in that day—they smelled of manure and Maxie didn’t allow them under her dinner table in that condition. Berry scooted away