LITMIR.BIZ

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went up.

      “I’d love some, too,” Tyler said as she walked around the table toward her chair. Before she made it there, Gabe came to his feet and pulled the chair out for her. She thanked him and glanced down the table, noting Sarah’s pleased smile. “I’ll bet you drilled manners into these guys when you raised them.”

      Nick rolled his eyes. “Tyler, you have no idea.”

      “Remember those Sunday dinners?” Gabe said.

      Nick and Jack both groaned.

      “Pure torture,” Jack said. “She would use every blessed piece of silverware in the drawer and we couldn’t eat until we’d correctly identified all of them. The forks were the worst. I was the only guy my age who could tell you what a seafood fork looked like.”

      “I was not about to raise a bunch of country bumpkins,” Sarah said.

      “Sounds like a great idea to me,” Morgan said. “Between Sarah covering manners and Jonathan showing them the finer points of country swing, I’d say the Chance boys got the perfect education.” She patted her tummy. “I want the same for this little...kid.”

      “Ah, you almost slipped, Morgan!” Sarah’s face was alight with anticipation. “You’ll tell us the sex of that baby, yet.”

      Gabe looked fondly at his wife. “Nope. It’s going to be our secret until July 2.”

      “But I’m really serious about the manners and the dancing, Sarah,” Morgan said. “I want this kid to be able to handle a fancy meal and navigate a two-step.”

      Tyler put her napkin in her lap. “It’s not a bad idea to know those things. I had to learn on the job.”

      “You must have,” Morgan said. “There wasn’t a lot of formal training going on in the O’Connelli van.”

      “Lots of ideals, though.” Tyler cut into her steak. Suddenly she was starving. Making love to Alex had taken her mind off food, but now that he was across the table from her and completely out of reach, she breathed in the aroma of a meal carefully prepared, and she settled in to enjoy it.

      “You’re right about the ideals,” Morgan said. “We were taught respect—of ourselves, other people and Mother Earth. That was a good thing.”

      “It is a good thing.” Dominique looked across the table at Morgan. “That reminds me. Did you take your parents out to the sacred site while they were here for the wedding? It seems like something they’d like.”

      “There wasn’t time. When they come back, I definitely will. They would love it.”

      Tyler swallowed a bite of the best steak she’d had in ages and cut herself another one. “What sacred site?”

      Dominique gave Nick a warm glance before turning back to Tyler. “You should get Morgan to take you out there while you’re here. It’s a large, flat rock that’s big enough for you to park a pickup on, although you wouldn’t want to. The rock is granite laced with quartz. The veins of quartz sparkle in the sun...or in the moonlight.”

      Tyler figured Dominique and Nick had shared some moonlit time on that rock. She was intrigued. “And why is it sacred?”

      “It’s part of the Shoshone tribe’s belief system.” Emmett hooked an arm around Pam’s chair and leaned forward to look down the table at Tyler. “When Archie and Nelsie Chance moved onto the ranch property, they discovered that the tribe conducted ceremonies out there, even though the land didn’t officially belong to them. So Archie and Nelsie told them they were welcome to continue, but the tribe doesn’t hold ceremonies much these days.”

      “Wow.” Tyler glanced over at Morgan. “You have to take Mom and Dad out there next time they visit. They would eat that up with a spoon. I’m surprised you didn’t make time while they were here last summer.”

      “I thought of it. I just...didn’t want to encourage any weirdness during the wedding.” She winked at Tyler. “If you know what I mean.”

      “Oh, totally. Good call. They could have decided you needed a shaman to bless your union, and no telling what else they would have dreamed up once they were inspired by an ancient Native American ceremonial site.” Tyler turned back to Emmett. “So what’s this sacred stone supposed to do for a person?”

      “According to legend, it provides clarity. So if you’re dealing with some issue and you’re mixed up about it, the stone is supposed to help you figure it out.”

      “That could come in handy.”

      “Oh, it has,” Nick said. Once again he and Dominique exchanged a fond glance.

      Jack cleared his throat. “Then again, sometimes it’s just a great place to share a few beers with your brother.”

      “That, too,” Nick agreed.

      “Well, now I have to see this sacred site,” Tyler said. “I don’t have any large issues I’m dealing with, but I still want to see it. After all, I was raised by flower children, so even though I’ve left that life behind, I haven’t completely rooted out those woo-woo tendencies.”

      Gabe put down his coffee cup. “Neither has Morgan. We took a trip out there when we were deciding on names for the baby.”

      “Just don’t call her Sunshine or Starlight,” Tyler said.

      “Or Moonbeam,” Morgan said with a laugh. “Don’t worry. It’ll be a gender-specific name that won’t make a single person wince. I promise.”

      Sarah rolled her eyes and heaved a martyred sigh. “There you go again, tempting us with the fact that you both know whether the baby’s a boy or a girl, and we don’t. Why not just tell us?”

      “Because we like the suspense,” Gabe said with a laugh. “And we don’t want any preconceived notions about this baby. This kid could decide to be a rancher or a foreign diplomat. We don’t want anyone making plans for the kid’s future based on gender.”

      “Other than teaching manners and the two-step,” Morgan said. “I’m good with that.”

      Sarah tucked her napkin beside her plate. “Well, some of us are on pins and needles and can hardly wait until the official due date. Some of us are going quietly insane as we deal with this suspense you love so much.”

      “Then maybe this is the time to share our news,” Josie said. “That might give you something else to think about, Sarah.”

      Sarah straightened and fixed a laserlike gaze on Josie. “Are you saying that you and Jack are...”

      “Confirmed this morning.” Jack’s dark eyes glowed with pride. “Josie and I are going to have a baby.”

      The dining room exploded as chairs scraped back and everyone jumped up to give hugs, squeals and hearty congratulations. Tyler caught a glimpse of Alex enfolding Josie in a warm embrace, and for some unexplained reason that brought tears to her eyes. Maybe she was imagining how Alex would react when he received the news that he’d be a father rather than simply an uncle.

      She couldn’t really say why she was feeling so emotional. Babies were fine for Morgan and Josie, but Tyler wasn’t into them, at least not at this point in her life. Babies equaled the loss of freedom to pursue work that she loved.

      She understood there were trade-offs, but she wasn’t interested in hearing about them right now. If she were totally honest with herself, she’d admit that listening to a woman rhapsodize about the joys of marriage and children might interfere with her enjoyment of the single life and her career success.

      Maybe a part of her envied the spontaneous joy generated by Josie and Jack’s announcement. The ship’s crew celebrated things, too, but it was...different. The emotions around this table ran far deeper. She hadn’t realized until now what she was missing, yet she wasn’t willing to give up a dynamite career for that kind of connection. Or was she?

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