Page 85 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“It’s gonna be a madhouse,” JJ said as he glanced over to his best friend in the passenger seat. “I can’t believe you want to come.”
“What else am I going to do?” Tate asked. “Sit alone in the apartment?” He threw JJ a disgruntled look. “I got told no three more times this week. I ain’t got no job. I got nothing to do here.”
JJ gritted his teeth and nodded. “Well, I hope you’re ready for the biggest family party you’ve ever been to,” he said. “There aresevenWalkers graduating from high school this year.”
Tate laughed, his mood brightening pretty quickly, and said, “Just like your Seven Sons Ranch.”
JJ could smile too, and he did.
“What are they all doing?” Tate asked. “The graduating Walkers.”
“Well, Clara Jean is going to work at the grocery store,” JJ said. His younger sister had already been working at Wilde & Organic for the past three or four years, as Momma’s family owned it. “She likes being out in the fields with my uncle as well. So she’s probably going to do that. I haven’t heard anything about her attending college or anything.” He cut a look over to Tate.
“What about Ruby? What did she decide?” He had been unable to get his best friend’s little sister out of his head since she had shown up outside of their apartment and he’d splashed her with soda. But JJ would never admit it to anyone.
“I think she’s gonna come to Amarillo State,” Tate said. “She’s filling out housing applications now.”
JJ pressed his lips together and nodded. “That’s great,” he said, and he wasn’t sure if he sounded like he was about to put his dog down or if he really thought it was great that the gorgeous Ruby Reynolds was going to be at the same college as him next year. It sure would be harder to keep his feelings to himself if he saw her all the time.
“Who else is graduating?” Tate said.
“Let’s see.” JJ took in a big breath and exhaled it all out. “My Uncle Rhett is the oldest brother—he’s just older than my daddy. And he has triplets. They’re all graduating this year: Austin, Elaine, and Easton.”
“Wow, triplets,” Tate said. “These are the ones you were telling me about that got in trouble with your momma? With the pumpkins?”
JJ laughed, so many memories streaming through his head. “That’s them. Mostly Easton. I swear, he exists in a world all his own.”
“That’s right,” Tate said with a chuckle. “And your momma got real mad at him, and the next year, he grew all her pumpkins for her.”
That was him, and JJ loved his cousins. Thankfully, he hadn’t been the oldest one, carrying the torch for all the rest of them. Conrad was also Uncle Rhett and Aunt Evelyn’s son, and he was a year older than JJ. Uncle Tripp and Ivory had a son close to that same age too, and Isaac had left Seven Sons to do a machinery repair course at a trade school in Austin.
Oliver, of course, was older than all of them, and he lived in town with Rory and their three kids. JJ babysat for them a lot while he was in high school and even after, and he did miss Jewel, Lara, and Mason fiercely.
“My Uncle Wyatt and Aunt Marcy have a son graduating—their oldest, Warren. He’s probably going to turn pro this year.”
“Of course, Wyatt Walker,” Tate said with some new swagger in his voice. “The rodeo king.”
“Yeah, Wyatt’s going to be his manager here at the beginning,” JJ said. “I don’t know about after that. Uncle Skyler and Aunt Mal’s oldest daughter is graduating. Her name is Camila. And, uh…Uncle Micah and Aunt Simone’s oldest son is graduating. His name’s Trap.”
“A lot of kids,” Tate said.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” JJ said. “Everyone else at Seven Sons is a teenager. My youngest sister, Hattie, just turned 13. Uncle Wyatt and Marcy have a daughter that age, while Uncle Skyler and Uncle Micah both have kids younger than that by a year or two.”
They were all big enough now to run lawn mowers and pull weeds and help harvest the honey from Aunt Callie’s farm. They could paint walls and stain cabins, fix porches and back decks, and ride horses to check on fields and round up cattle. No matter what, everybody worked around Seven Sons Ranch.
Tate was so going to regret coming here to work for the summer.
JJ glanced over to his best friend. “I think I’m going to move into the Equine Science and Management program next year.”
Tate looked square at him, and it was a good thing there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the highway between Amarillo and Three Rivers. “You’ve decided?”
“Yeah,” JJ said. “I think that’s what I want to do.”
“You’re going to do barn management then?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe. It’s enough that I just know about horses and how to take care of them. Maybe we’ll do a little horse breeding at Seven Sons to go along with our cattle ranching. Or maybe I’ll become a show ring judge, or maybe I’ll want to be a vet.” He smiled and then burst out laughing. “Okay, not that last one.”
