A Forever Family

 

Chapter 1

January 14, Heart Falls

 

Walker Stone leaned on the fence and gave the horse in the arena the barest hint of his attention. It wasn’t that work was dragging…

Fuck it. This day felt like at least thirty-six hours and counting. He sighed while checking his watch as discreetly as possible.

The brotherly slap to the back of his head that followed said he’d been anything but successful in the attempt.

“We boring you?” Caleb growled as he stopped at Walker’s side and glared.

“Sorry. Distracted there for a second.” Walker worked to refocus. “I'm not sure this horse is worth the money or the time she’d cost us.”

“Really? Luke said Barenaked Lady is right up our alley.”

Walker blinked. He glanced at the horse then down to the paper in his hand. Shit. He’d lost his concentration more than a second ago according to this. They were at least a half dozen horses farther down the auction sheet than he’d expected. “Fuck. I missed a few. Yeah, this one’s good.”

Caleb rested his hands on Walker’s shoulders. “Go outside. Call Ivy, get an update. Do whatever you need to screw your head on straight. We’ll meet you at the truck in an hour.”

“I can stay,” Walker insisted.

“You need to go.” Caleb glowered at him. “You’re useless right now. I get that you need a distraction, but you’re making me lose my concentration as well. One of us needs to keep his shit together.”

Walker nodded, then amusement escaped. “I notice you aren’t hoping Luke and Dustin are of sound enough mind to get this auction right without us.”

“Dustin is busy flirting. Luke is plotting something with Kelli for next weekend, so he’s nearly as bad as you.”

“Unlikely,” Walker admitted. He itched to touch base with Ivy, though, so he gave in. “Thanks. I’ll make this up to you; I swear I will.”

“Brother, you’re waiting for one of the most precious things a man can have to arrive. I’m not mad, and I don’t expect payback. But I do need you to get out,” Caleb said dryly.

Walker got.

Outside, the bitter cold snapped at his skin. January in Alberta had followed her usual pattern, sliding into a hellish deep freeze for the past two weeks. The windchill only made it worse. A brilliant blue sky hung overhead, pretty as anything, without a cloud in sight. Shivering, he turned his collar up as he hurried away from the heated auction barn and back to his truck and trailer.

He waited until he had the engine going and heaters turned up high before he pulled out his phone.

No messages.

Walker checked his watch. Ivy should’ve been out of the classroom and doing vice principal stuff now. Maybe phoning wouldn’t be bad.

A loud ring sounded. Ivy was calling him.

Thank God.

“Hey, Snow.”

“Hey, love. Am I interrupting?” she asked quickly.

“Hardly. Caleb kicked me out of the auction because my concentration is crap. All I want is to be home with you.” He paused. “No, that’s not all I want.”

She sighed. “I know. No calls on my end, either. But soon. It’s got to be soon.”

“I keep thinking of our girls,” he admitted softly.

After all the months of work and weeks of waiting, they’d been given a set of paperwork that included pictures of the sisters who were so close to being theirs. The girls also had an older brother, fathered by a different man. Carter was being cared for by his paternal grandmother, so while the children got to have regular visits with each other, only the girls were up for adoption.

The first time meeting the girls in person? It hadn’t mattered that the dog in the yard next door to the foster home had barked the entire visit, the high-pitched sound scraping their nerves like speaker feedback. Walker had fallen in love.

Chloe was six years old. She’d held onto her four-year-old sister, Harper, as if protecting a priceless treasure. Both of them were on the thin side with dark brown hair and their souls in their eyes.

“They’re too little to feel so lost. Their expressions knocked my feet out from under me and broke my heart,” Walker admitted. “Not being able to scoop them up and bring them home with us is killing me.”

“I know. When we met them, I wasn’t sure if I should hug them or not,” Ivy reminded him softly. “Then Harper leaned against my leg to look at the picture book we brought about horses. She was almost in my arms—”

Ivy broke off, tears choking her.

“I know. I know,” he soothed. “Damn it, I should be home with you.”

A soft but wet laugh answered him. “It wouldn’t make me less weepy. You’re supposed to be right where you are. Trying to work, same as me,” Ivy told him. “We’ll both be taking time off when they do arrive. We need to find a way to keep it together until that happens.”

“Shall we invite our families over on Sunday to finish the playhouse?” Walker offered. “The women can cook up something hearty, and the guys and I will swing hammers.”

“Sounds like the start of a plan. Maybe the women should swing the hammers, and you guys can do the cooking,” she countered.

“Forecast calls for minus fifty with windchill,” he informed her.

She snorted indelicately. “The fact I don’t go out in that kind of weather doesn’t mean my sisters wouldn’t dive in wholeheartedly. How about we issue an open call to work and play? We’ll order as much pizza for dinner as needed.”

“Sounds great. Although I bet someone ends up baking cookies tomorrow.”

“I’m not taking that bet,” Ivy returned quickly.

“Because you know I’m right?”

She laughed softly. “Because sometime in the past, you must have won a bet against my sister Tansy. Every time she stops by, fresh cookies magically appear on the counter.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he insisted.

Although it was true. At last tally, Tansy owed him another couple months’ worth. He couldn’t figure out how she could be so smart with everyone else and yet keep losing to him.

Part of him didn’t want to know if she was secretly losing just to make him feel good in a patented Tansy love ya, bro kind of way.

The sunshine outside was back in his heart. Just talking with Ivy, planning with her, dreaming and hoping and laughing—

It made the wait bearable.

“I love you so much,” he told her quietly. “We’ll just keep working to make the best home ever for our girls so it’s ready when they are.”

“I love you too,” she said sweetly. “I’ll call my grandma right now. I know she and Ashton can’t be there, but she’s been begging for updates.”

“I’ll message the rest of them,” he promised.

The quiet after the call, with only the buzz of the heaters and rumble of the engine, soothed Walker with a solemn peace. Yes, it was hell to wait, but there was no way to change the timing. Until the final paperwork was done, Chloe and Harper had to wait too.

He opened his phone and wrote the invitation for the work bee, because while waiting might suck, waiting with his family was far better.

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