Page 101 of Guarding Over You
They’d say Callum and Brooke Ridgeway were solid. They were a unit.
They raised five tough kids to be hard workers in their own right.
“I suppose so. So there is a love for the land and the elements and that is what all our names mean.”
“Clay is like dirt?”
He laughed. “Don’t say that to him. It’s earth. Ford is water, like a river crossing. Me, I’m the sun, not the fire. That’s Ash. The remains of the fire. Gale, she’s the wind. When you put us together, you get the seasons. You get a rotation of the earth, what it needs from birth to death, growth. That type of thing.”
“Wow,” she said. “That’s like... crazy poetic. And very touching.”
“That’s the thing about my family. On the outside you don’t see those things. But inside, our names are who we are. Better together to help build and repair, nurture and grow. That’s what they were trying to do.”
“It sounds as if they succeeded.”
31
HOLDING OUT
“Are you ready, Gracie?”
“Do I get to pick apples?”
“I don’t think so,” Arden said. “It’s a little early in the season for it, but Blaze said that next month we can go back and you can get some. But we can pick blueberries and they’ve got some peach, pear, and plum trees.”
“I like peaches and blueberries,” Gracie said.
“I know you do. I thought maybe we could pick some pears and plums too and you can try them. If you want, we can make some muffins or a pie? Something to do together this week.”
Yesterday with Blaze had been wonderful... all things considered with her ex giving her a hard time.
Had she been thrilled that Billy was questioning Gracie about Blaze? Not one damn bit, but she had Julie in her corner reporting it back to her.
She couldn’t imagine what Billy was thinking to do that knowing he had an audience.
But in the end, it wasn’t anything horrible. Nothing more than Gracie saying the truth. A trip to the park, a few dinners at the house, and some walks while she rode her bike.
Boring things in Billy’s mind. Things he most likely made snide comments about as well.
Not her problem. She liked where her life was going and how it was playing out.
“Can you make cookies?” Gracie asked.
She didn’t know what cookies she could do with those fruits. “I’ll see if I can find a recipe for them. And I could do a batch of blueberry pancakes.”
Gracie was jumping up and down and clapping her hands. “My favorite. Can we have chocolate chips in them instead?”
She laughed. “Next time. Blueberries this time.”
Gracie scrunched her nose. “Okay.” Gracie moved to the back of the kitchen and looked out the glass doors. “When is Blaze coming?”
She glanced at the clock on the microwave. “Soon. He had a few things to do this morning.”
She was already nervous, as it was meeting so many of his family. Everyone but Ash would be there today.
Dinner was at four, when the cafe closed and Reenie and Meredith, who were working there, came over.
That gave her time to feed Gracie lunch, which she’d just done, then drive the twenty-five minutes there and spend a few hours on the land that Blaze grew up on.
