Page 147 of The Bitterroot Inn (Jamison Valley 5)
“Does she need to change?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah.” Layla was still wearing the leggings and Mustangs football sweatshirt from our sledding trip.
I walked over to her closet and inspected my options. While I had kept the boys’ rooms tasteful and not age-specific, I had lost my mind decorating Layla’s room. The walls were pale pink, even the inside of the closet. The white trim was perfectly matched to her four-poster bed and scalloped dresser. The pink floral rug in the center of the room was centered directly under a crystal chandelier.
She’d hate this room when she got a bit older, but for now, it was just right for my princess.
Pulling out a cream cable-knit sweater and some jeans embroidered with matching flowers, I set them on the bed. “Here you go. She can wear her UGG boots.”
Hunter smiled as he kept rocking his baby girl and I slipped out of the room to get our party contributions from the kitchen. Gathering up a plate of cookies and the Tupperware bowl of Hunter’s pea salad, I had everything ready by the time the boys came storming down the stairs, followed by Hunter carrying Layla.
“All set?” Hunter asked.
I smiled. “All set.”
Then the Faraday family set off for the party I’d been looking forward to for over a month.
r />
“Jess is totally going out of his mind,” I told Gigi as I came out to the farmhouse porch and handed her a refilled glass of wine.
“Why do you think I had to come out here?” Gigi asked. “I’m afraid if I don’t intercept poor Mason Drummond, Jess will scare him off before he can even knock on the door.”
Jess was pacing the living room, watching the windows and waiting for Rowen’s first date to arrive. His face was a mix of gut-wrenching anguish and cold-blooded murder.
It was kind of adorable.
I laughed and sat next to Gigi on their front porch swing, shivering as I scooted close to take a corner of the blanket she was offering to cover my lap. “This is fun. I’m glad you planned this party.”
“Me too.”
Gigi had planned this party for Jess, not Rowen. All of our friends were here in an effort to distract Jess from the fact his little girl was going to her first dance.
“Can you believe my baby girl is sixteen and going on a date?” she asked.
I smiled and took a sip of my own wine. “They aren’t babies anymore. When did that happen?”
“When we blinked.”
A lot had happened when we’d blinked.
Marriage. Babies. Life.
Hunter and I had had our winter wedding not long after he’d proposed. I’d enlisted all of my family and friends to help plan it and we’d pulled off my dream wedding within a month. With Hunter’s support, I’d been able to put Coby’s kidnapping in the past, and we’d gotten married in the barn at Howell Farm. I’d had my white, long-sleeved, lace dress. Hunter had looked as gorgeous as ever in his tux. And Coby had been the most handsome best man in the history of the world. It had been a night filled with friends, love and laughter.
Like most of the days since.
One month after our wedding—the day Hunter’s adoption of Coby had been approved— Coby and I had both changed our last name to Faraday.
Two months later, I’d been pregnant with Grayson.
Two years after he was born, we’d had Layla.
Then I’d blinked and they were both out of diapers. Grayson was in Emmeline Slater’s kindergarten class, and before too long, Layla would be too. She wouldn’t be my little princess, spending the mornings at Quail Hollow and then afternoons with me at the motel. She’d have her own life, her own friends and her own winter formal dances.
“I can sit out here and watch for Mason,” I told Gigi. “Don’t you want to go in and help Roe get ready?”
Gigi shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I got emotional earlier when I helped her into her dress. I don’t want to wreck her night by turning into a basket case because she’s growing up. Jess is losing it and one of us has to stay calm. A little time out here in the cold air will be good for me to settle down.”
