With us.
Oh, good. Renie was looking forward to seeing them.
Jake and Luke came running through the front door a few minutes later.
“Renie’s here!” Luke shouted, jumping on her and almost knocking her down.
“I guess you missed me.”
He stood back and took a long look at her. “Yep, I’ve missed you.”
She squinted her eyes at him. “What was that about?”
“I missed happy Renie. The other one I can do without.”
“Always a gentleman, aren’t you, partner?” Ben smiled.
Jake looked at her from a few feet away.
“You can hug me too, ya know,” she walked over to him. “Holy crap, how much have you grown in the last couple of months?”
Jake was as tall as she was, if not taller. He hadn’t been much past her shoulder when she left.
Liv came inside and ran toward her much in the same way Luke had.
“I’ve missed you, sweet girl,” she said, hugging Renie so hard she could barely breathe.
“I’ve missed you too, Mom.”
The boys wanted to hear all about her time at the ranch. Jake wanted to know how old he had to be before he could get a job there.
“How about a good, long ride tomorrow?” Renie offered. “I’ll tell you all about it then.”
Ben got up and motioned to the boys. “Let’s make tracks out to the barn and get our chores done.” He winked at Liv. “Give the girls time to catch up.”
“Thanks, honey.”
He grabbed her hand and leaned down to kiss her on his way out the door.
“You two are so happy.”
“We are very happy.”
&n
bsp; “I met someone this summer.”
Liv sat up a little straighter. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. It’s nothing serious.”
“But important enough to bring him up. Tell me about him. What’s his name? Where’s he from?”
“His name is Jace. Jace Rice. Oh damn, I forgot to mention him to Ben. Jace said they were cousins, but he hadn’t seen Ben since they were kids.”
“How old is he?”
Renie laughed. “He’s my age, or a couple years older. He’s not as old as Ben.”