Woman Up (Port Ranch Book #2)

Chapter 22

WALKER

“Get your shoes on and then grab your big jacket, Miles. It is going to be really cold today, it might even snow.” I stood in the mudroom shaking my head. I sounded like my mother, she would get a kick out of this.

Miles comes running into the room, big coat in one hand, homework folder in the other. “I love the snow. Don’t you love the snow?”

“Not so much.”

“Dude! How can you not like the snow? Jace told me that they have a HUGE sledding hill on the ranch. Do you think I can go there when it snows someday?”

“I don’t think that would be a problem, but we need to leave right now so I can get you to school, and then I can get to work.”

“What if it snows on Halloween?” He was a man with a million questions, but I learned the keep him moving while we talked.

“We still have a week until Halloween. Let’s go, don’t forget your backpack.”

The adjustment these last few weeks was not easy. It’s not easy getting two people ready for the morning instead of just one. I no longer could just worry about my morning routine. After our third tardy in a row, I broke down and called Norma to ask her for advice. Once she was done laughing, she gave me some great ideas.

After that, I started waking him up earlier, but also preparing for our day the night before. That seemed to help, but he was still slow as molasses in the mornings or on days like today when he was distracted. Although I did get him to school with five minutes to spare and then made my way to the ranch, so I was feeling good about myself.

I pulled into my spot behind the big house and when I got out Granger was leaving the back door and just shook his head. “You do NOT want to go in there.”

“What’s going on?” I was immediately on edge, worried something was wrong with Bev. Was Charlie back in town? I was ready to punch him back to where he came from if so.

“Mitch used the wrong jam on Brielle’s toast this morning and she is NOT happy.”

I let out a relieved sigh, “He used the wrong jam?”

“I’m telling you, if every woman had emotional outbreaks like she does while pregnant, humankind would cease to exist because no man would ever want to get a woman pregnant again.”

“That bad?” I chuckled.

Granger pointed back to the door, “Jam, Clark Kent, she’s ripping him a new one over jam.”

“I’m sure it isn’t that bad.”

“I’m warning you, don’t go in that way.”

I shake my head and move past Granger as he heads back to his ranch work, but just as we cross paths, grabs my forearm and looks down at me, “What’s with you and Bev?”

“Bev and I are friends. Why do you ask?”

“Friends or more than friends?”

I shake out of his grip and stand a bit taller. If he wanted to push me, I wasn’t going to back down too much. “What are you trying to ask me, Granger? I don’t feel like talking in circles and playing games.”

“I’ve known Bev since I was a scrawny teenager who didn’t find trouble she didn’t like. I’d be mucking out the stalls and then the girl with pigtails would be jumping around on the hay bales helping her daddy with the horses and somehow she buried her way into my heart and my soul,” he grabs his chest.

“I love her like she’s my little sister and I would do a full list of questionable and even illegal acts for her. One of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with short of my best friend passing away was the day she came home and fell into my arms sobbing because that motherfucker was cheating on her and she thought her world was over.”