The Scars That Make Us (Second Generation Book 3)

Chapter 32

JACE

Going from living the bachelor life to being a husband and a dad-to-be happened in the blink of an eye, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I know some people on the outside might look at Cat and me and think that everything is moving way too fast for us, but it feels right, that’s all I have to say about that. Catarina has molded perfectly into my family as I knew that she would. Not only has she bonded with Ember, Harlow, and Stef, but she’s helped support Clemmy a lot too.

Clemmy gave birth three weeks ago and it is pretty cool having babies back on the ranch. I was old enough to remember what is was like when all my aunts and eventually my mom were having babies. I swear it made everything better from holidays to birthdays to just random days where we’d have dinner and there were kids crawling and toddling around.

Peyton brought that back and now we have Vivienne, even though she’s only three weeks old. Before we know it, it’ll be Lyle and Harlow’s turn to add to the gang and August can’t be here soon enough so Cat and I can have our baby. She’s only twelve weeks along now, so just barely getting out of the first trimester. She still doesn’t look pregnant, but in the last couple of weeks, her morning sickness has eased a bit. That’s good because I was really starting to worry about her. Her midwife swore that it was normal, but some mornings I was ready to rush her to the ER.

She’s still sleeping a lot though, it isn’t unusual when I head back home for lunch that she’s curled up on the couch sleeping. Deacon and I have gotten used to making our way up the stairs quietly and eating old lunches so we don’t wake her up with the microwave noise or anything. Have I mentioned that Deacon is basically the best brother ever?

“Hey Jace, can you help me clean the workhorse stables? Lyle needed to head back home early.” Granger grabbed me right before I was ready to clean up for the evening. I had gotten Piston back into his stable and rubbed down for the night.

“Is everything okay with Harlow?” Being so close to her due date, any last-minute change of plans or calls from Harlow had us all on edge.

“He didn’t say much, but he wasn’t in a panic or anything, so I think it is something non-labor related.”

“Okay good. I’m ready to head over there when you are, let me just text Cat and let her know I’m going to be a bit late.”

Granger nods his head in my direction, “Yep, see you over there.”

Me: Hey beautiful, might be late for dinner, Lyle had to head out early tonight.

Catarina: Everything okay with Harlow?

Me: I said the same thing, sounds like all is okay.

Catarina: Okay good. Well, Deacon was heading out tonight, so I’m going to eat because otherwise, I’ll starve.

Me: Save room for dessert and I’ll make you a milkshake tonight.

Catarina: You’re my hero.

I tuck my phone into my back pocket and head next door to the barn that holds the stables for our workhorses. We don’t typically use our personal horses for daily work, they aren’t all the right breed for that. We also have a few temp ranchers working with us right now to prep for the upcoming Spring. I grab one of the rakes and start mucking the front stable while Granger pulls in new hay to replace what is bad. Together we work through three of the stables without saying much. We’ve been working together for years now, we hardly need to talk about it anymore.

“Your mom said Cat was over for lunch today.”

“Yeah, she’s been feeling better so she wanted to see everybody and of course walk over and check out Vivienne.”