Page 72 of A Cowboy's Trust
At ten, Carter was on the cusp of insisting he was far too old to join in the games that Chloe and Harper wanted to play. But the instant Jeffrey arrived, evening out the boys-versus-girls ratio, everything changed.
With Jake there as well, Tansy’s amusement level was through the roof. They weren’t only building a racetrack for Hot Wheels that went around ninety percent of the playroom. They were building aSpace Mover Deluxewith a loop in the middle and a Lego bridge for all of Harper’s favourite toys to gather and cheer each time a car went flying down the track.
Controlled chaos at its finest with Jeffrey wide-eyed and quieter than the others and very, very observant.
Tansy alternated between joining in and building as directed by Harper and Jeffrey, and hitting the kitchen to make a crumble to go with the rest of supper she was assembling.
She slipped out to the washroom, but the kids’ bathroom in the hall was occupied. So she followed the usual family protocol and slid into Ivy and Walker’s room. Her sister insisted it was never a problem, but Tansy still kept her head down and didn’t take too much time admiring the beautiful quilt on the bed or the family pictures in black-and-white on the wall.
After washing up and silently opening the door, Tansy took one step into the room to discover Jeffrey motionless at the foot of the bed.
“Did you get lost?” she asked.
He nodded, eyes going wide.
She held out a hand. “This is my big sister’s room. It’s very pretty, but we should stay in the other parts of the house.”
“Okay.”
That was the first, but not the last time that Tansy turned around to discover Jeffrey not where she expected him to be.
The kid moved like a ghost.
“My mommy works at the school,” Harper informed Jeffrey as they sat next to each other at the dining room table. “And my daddy rides horses.”
“He used to ride bulls,” Carter added enthusiastically, “but he said he likes his head attached to his spine, and bull riding can make your bones shake apart, so he doesn’t do that anymore.”
Jeffrey’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. “His head could come off?”
“It’s an expression.” Chloe lifted her nose like the little expert she was. “It never really came off.” She frowned then turned to Tansy. “Right?”
Oh, the temptation to tell a whopper right then. Auntie Tansy could get her brother-in-law tangled in so much mischief, but she restrained herself. “You’re right, it’s only an expression. Like when we’re having fun, and we say we’re having a blast.”
Carter snickered. He put his hands together as if he were holding a ball then threw them into the air as he shouted, “Kaboom.”
After supper, and after dishes were done and the playroom had been deconstructed, Chloe had a request. “Can we play hide and go seek?”
“Absolutely,” Jake said, instantly dropping to the floor and covering his face with his hands. “I’m counting to twenty,” he warned.
Four children and Tansy darted from the room.
Of course Jake found her first, standing against the wall near the front entrance. He pushed aside the coat she’d used to cover her face and upper body, one brow raised high. “It usually helps if you cover both the top and the bottom.”
Tansy looked down to discover the second jacket that had been hanging from the bottom hook lay on the floor by her feet. Which of course, left her entire lower body in full view. “Some little sneak took my cover off,” she complained.
A giggle sounded from behind the couch.
Jake winked. “Good thing there’s no one hidden nearby who might’ve tried to commit sabotage on their auntie.”
Another giggle, and this time Tansy pressed her hand over her mouth to keep from joining in.
Being found first was perfect. Getting to follow along behind Jake allowed Tansy to watch the precious moments when he discovered each of her nieces. Harper was the little mischief maker hiding behind the couch. Chloe had somehow snuck around behind Jake’s back as he counted and covered herself in a blanket. She looked like nothing more than a messy lump on the edge of the loveseat.
Funniest though was the expression on Carter’s face as Jake slowly peeled back the curtain in his room. His little boy face was screwed up tight, with his eyes closed as if truly believing that ostrich story of if you can’t see them, no one can see you.
Finally the only one missing was Jeffrey. He wasn’t in the kitchen, the living room, or either of the two children’s rooms.
There was a moment’s excitement when Jake tried the bathroom door and discovered it was locked. He motioned Tansy forward. “I assume you can do something about this?”
