Liv beamed at Tristan. “Thank you. You’re good for this old girl’s ego.”
Tristan shook her head. “Old,” was the last word she would’ve used to describe Liv.
“You’ve met Lyric, haven’t you?” Liv asked when they walked into the house and saw a woman sitting at the kitchen counter.
“Of course I have.” Tristan walked over to shake Lyric’s hand. “Nice to see you again.”
Instead of taking Tristan’s extended hand, Lyric stood and hugged her. “I need a hug, bad, and you’re closest.”
Lyric hung on longer than Tristan expected.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Liv put her hand on Tristan’s shoulder and gave Lyric a hug as well.
Lyric started to cry. “Bullet’s wife killed herself.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry,” Liv gasped. “How’s Bullet?”
“On his way here. With Grey.”
Tristan wished a hole would open up in the wall so she could disappear. “I’m sorry to intrude. Is there somewhere else I can wait for my meeting?”
Lyric wiped at her tears. “Intrude? If you’re gonna be part of things around here, you better get used to drama. There’s been nothin’ but, since I met this family. Today, it’s my turn to bring it.”
“The other thing you’ll have to get used to is Lyric telling you exactly what she thinks the minute she thinks it.” A woman whom Tristan hadn’t met walked into the kitchen.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Bree. Jace’s wife.”
“I’m Tristan, um, with Lost Cowboy.”
“It’s nice to meet you. Jace asked me to tell you they’ll be a few more minutes. The guys are tending to a cow that had twin calves. I’ve never seen anything like it, although Jace said it isn’t that unusual.”
“It’s more common with dairy cattle than it is with beef cattle, but from what Billy said, there’ve been five sets of twins born so far this year.”
“Lyric, how do you know this? Even I knew nothing about any twins being born?” asked Liv.
“Just gotta pay attention is all. Sometimes I think I’m the only one who does around here.”
Bree laughed. “See how she is? You’ll get used to it.”
Jace and Billy came in the front door a few minutes later. Tristan wondered if it didn’t bother Liv, all the people who walked into her house as though they owned the place.
“Sorry we’re late,” Billy said to her.
“I heard you had some excitement.”
“Yeah, we did. Uh…can you wait for another minute?”
“Of course,” she answered, although he didn’t appear to be
listening to her.
Billy walked straight over to Lyric and wrapped her in a hug. “You okay?” she heard him whisper. Lyric started to cry again, and buried her face in his shoulder.
Out on the circuit, Billy had a reputation for being self-involved. Guys complained that he kept to himself and didn’t form relationships with anyone. What she was witnessing was the antithesis of what she’d heard about him.
“I guess you talked to Bullet already. So you know what happened.”
Billy nodded his head.