“Oh, boy.”
“I heard all of this secondhand from Jack and Ethan but they said when she was done there was a mushroom cloud. Their mother is a passionate woman and judging from what Jack could pick up of what she said in rapid Spanish, it sounds like they aren’t welcome in her home either. That even the barn was too good for them. They could sleep in the goat shed, or something like that.”
“What about the house?” Charity asked as she held a pair of jeans up for Grace to look at.
“The wall-to-wall carpeting is ruined and will have to be ripped out. There’s structural damage and property damage. Insurance should cover most of it, but they really didn’t need this headache. They’d only just recently finished with the house.”
“It’s a shame.”
“The guys won’t let me near it, both because it pisses me off and because I wanted to help clean up.”
“Ding-dong. You’re in a brace. You have a broken collarbone—”
“Had a broken collarbone. Emma said I can come out of this next week if I agreed to use a sling.”
“Which still excludes you from helping with that big mess.”
Grace shook her head. “Luka and Matthias have always been such sweet guys. I’d heard they’ve been sowing a lot of wild oats but I figured they would’ve settled down a bit by now. Something’s not right there. They were up here to work for a little bit at the ranch but since last weekend the ranch hands don’t even want them in their house.”
“That sucks. Where will they live?”
Grace shrugged. “Angel was going to bail them out today, but I have no idea where they go from there. They’re lucky none of those parents are pressing charges against them so far.”
“They’ve got a guardian angel watching over them,” Charity said as she held up a pretty tooled leather belt.
Grace shook her head, rejecting the belt. “No, it needs to be plain. Look in the boys belts, too. If she wants a pretty tooled belt, she’ll have to wait until Christmas. It’ll give her time to really appreciate it. Luka and Matthias aren’t interested in rodeo. All they seem to be good at is partying and flirting…and horse ranching. They better pull their heads out of their asses before they’re not welcome on the ranch at all.”
Charity found a plain belt and held it up. “How ‘bout this one.”
“Better.”
“So I take it this means the guys are not giving Sassypants a horse just yet?”
“No. I think Adam thought about it, the big softy, but Ethan and Jack brought it up and talked about why it wasn’t a good idea yet. She needs to earn that privilege with a little sweat equity and show them she really wants it first.”
“I think it’ll be good for her.”
“I know it already has been. You know why?”
“Why?” Charity asked, growing more curious as Grace laughed.
“Because when I told her that I wasn’t sure she was big enough to help with the horses, the first words out of her mouth were, ‘But Mommy, I’m a big girl now.’ So I’m counting on the guys to all help her learn. If she catches ‘horse fever,’ then I’ll get to shop for fancier duds for her later. Let’s go look at boots and hats.”
“Awesome. I also need to shop for jeans before we leave. You’re not going to believe what I discovered this morning.”
“New jeans?” Grace asked as they walked over to the hat department. “You know, I wondered why you were wearing those jeans cuffed up like that. I know how much you spent on those and you always wear your pretty boots with them, not cuffed up with sandals. What happened?”
“Val and Ransome decided to do my laundry.”
The look on Grace’s face was priceless. “Were they still breathing when you left?”
“Yes, and I have Val’s debit card and permission to replace all the clothing they inadvertently ruined.”
“He’s not going to know what hit his bank account,” Grace replied with a giggle. “Are you talking to them?”
Charity nodded. “To be honest, I felt a little silly about the whole thing once I had a chance to calm down. I almost expected them to laugh at my reasons for being upset. They didn’t do that, though, but still, I’ve told them, several times, and Justin has even warned them. They didn’t listen to me. I guess I should be grateful that they didn’t just slough it off as no big deal, you know? Like it’s just clothing. They don’t understand I can’t always find my sizes, and I have to save up to shop. It’s not easy.”
Grace smiled at her, compassion in her eyes as she patted her shoulder.