She waved her hand through the air as if it were no big deal. “She and Cord are taking a bath together. Don’t worry, that’s not a bad cry. She’s happy.”
Whatever. She had that mother thing where she knew the various sounds her baby made and the DefCon status of each one.
“You slept with Sam and Ashe. I knew you’d get along with them.”
“Get along?”
“They’re sweet and kind and manly and drop-dead gorgeous.”
“Who are you calling drop-dead gorgeous?” A man walked over to us, a smile on his face, easy demeanor. If Cord was in the bathtub, this had to be Riley.
He confirmed it. “Good to finally meet you,” he said.
“You, too.”
He was in jeans and a Henley, his fair hair a little wild as if he had yet to comb it today. Or Kady had been running her fingers through it. The way he pulled her into his side and kissed her temple, I assumed it was that.
“Sam and Ashe,” Kady told him, putting her hand on his biceps.
“Ah,” he replied, not adding to that. He was a smart man and he’d no doubt gleaned from my tone and adamant stance on keeping my being in town in secret that I didn’t want anything to do with those two.
“Kady and Cord know you’re here, but none of the others, as you asked,” he said as if reading my mind.
Kady lifted her hands to the praying position in front of her, her big diamond ring catching the light. “Please, please let me call the others. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me? I just found out about all this”—I circled my finger in the air—“just the other day.”
“We’ve been waiting for our last sister for months.”
I glanced to Riley who was smiling indulgently at his wife. “It’s true. I never had sisters—brothers either, actually—so I can’t say if they’re any different than other families, but these four are really close.”
“I’m an only child,” I admitted, then shrugged. “Until now.”
“It’s true what Kady said, all four of them have been waiting for you, which means you’re in trouble.”
I frowned. “Trouble?”
“Please?” Kady begged, not answering my question.
I sighed, gave a small laugh, then nodded. “But just your sisters.”
This wasn’t that bad. The nerves I’d had since I stepped off the plane were gone. Riley was nice, Kady was ridiculously friendly and excited to meet me. Four sisters weren’t Ashe and Sam. I wouldn’t have to think about them at all or their trickery. How bad could four sisters be?
* * *
“You’re not married, no boyfriend. So what’s the scoop?” Penny asked an hour later.
As soon as I’d given Kady the go-ahead, she’d grabbed her phone and started calling. Instead of everyone—and I meant everyone—going to Kady, Riley and Cord’s house, we’d gone to the main house at Steele Ranch. Penny and one of her men had been horseback riding there and it was agreed it was easier for so many people to get together in the big house.
They hadn’t been wrong. There were fourteen of us, plus a few ranch hands. Together. Kady’s rancher in town was a nice size, but this was like a Thanksgiving dinner. The Steele family had built a beautiful farmhouse back in the 1800s that had grown and morphed over the generations to be even bigger. I guessed five or six bedrooms, at least five-thousand square feet. Since our father hadn’t claimed any of us, I had to assume it had been quite large and empty for just him. In death, he’d brought us all together.
Cricket lived in the house with her men, Sutton, Lee and Archer, and it suited them, especially since Sutton worked on the property and Lee, a professional rodeo rider, stabled his horse here. As for me? It was lovely but way, way out in the boonies.
It had taken ten minutes more for Sarah to show up from the town library, sharing that she’d closed up early just for me. Cricket and Boone had arrived a few minutes later in scrubs, having come from the hospital, although it had been quickly clarified they weren’t together. As in together, especially since Cricket greeted her three men—and not Boone—with very thorough kisses. Thirty minutes after that, Penny came with Jamison from the stable. Boone was the third of that group. Two ranch hands, Patrick and Shamus rounded out the party.
I’d lost track of who belonged to who after that, completely overwhelmed. All I knew was the head count.
Four new sisters and nine brothers-in-law! Plus two ranch hands.