Almost in a trance, Brielle nodded, and she led them to her kitchen table. She knew she should offer them something to drink, but as she looked between the three men -all so amazingly alike! - she knew her legs wouldn't work long enough to perform the whole operation. She had to sit down.
"Since we just showed up like this on your front doorstep, as we've done with three of your four brothers, I'm going to get right to it," Richard said with a gentle smile. "These are my brothers."
Brielle waited for the punch line, but when he was silent, she was forced to speak. "You don't have brothers."
"We just discovered each other after I moved to Seattle. To make a long story short, my biological mother delivered three children, triplets. Joseph and George stayed with her, and I ended up with her doctor and his wife, the nurse. We'll never know for sure if this was consensual or not, and it's better that we all not delve too deeply into it. I loved my parents very much, and that won't change. But now I have brothers, and we have much in common. Plus, you and your brothers have two uncles and a whole hell of a lot of cousins."
The joy in her father's face was contagious. Some of Brielle's recent sorrow disappeared as she watched three kindred smiles beam at her from different positions at the table.
"This is a lot to take in," she finally said.
"Well, I love that you ended up here, Brielle," Joseph told her. "There are good people in Sterling. One of my best friends, Martin Whitman, lives here, along with Bethel, Eileen, and Maggie. I'm sure you've met them all." He reached out his hand to clasp hers and added with a laugh, "I'm your Uncle Joseph, in case you got me and George confused."
"I don't think I'll mistake you with that voice," Brielle said.
"I don't understand that. Everyone says I speak so loudly. I think I'm quiet as a mouse," he replied, and she couldn't tell whether he was joking.
After the initial shock wore off, Brielle was finally able to move, so she made them a pitcher of fresh lemonade, and the four of them spoke long into the evening. Just before she went off to bed, she and her dad sat down together alone for the first time that day while Joseph and George left to visit with old friends.
"We're headed to see Crew next. He's our last stop," Richard told her. Crew and her father had probably been the ones to butt heads the most, but through this journey their father had sent them all on, the relationship of father and oldest son had improved greatly.
"I'm coming with you." Brielle didn't know the words were out until she said them.
"Well, of course I'd love to have you join us, but is it a good time for you to take off?" her dad asked.
"Yes, Tony has everything under control here, and it will only be a few days. And … " She had to fight tears. "I just need to get away for a bit."
She was more than thankful when her father didn't ask her the questions she saw forming in his eyes. "Okay, Peaches. We'll head out at first light. Don't warn your brother. We like surprising all of you. It's family drama at its best."
"I quite understand. Now enough of all of that. Tell me what your doctor has been saying."
His lips tilted up a little bit more as he looked at her. "I'm going to need to have another surgery … " he began when she stopped him by holding up her hand.
"Another surgery? When was the first one? Why would you keep this from any of us?"
She didn't want to yell at her father in the condition he was in, but at the same time, she couldn't believe that he would keep something like this from them. It was just wrong.
"I had my first surgery last year, and it didn't look good, so my previous doctor told me to get my affairs in order, which is what I set out to do with you and your brothers. Then I moved to Seattle and met my brothers. They didn't like the first prognosis and they knew another doctor, my current one. He had a different opinion. He's hopeful. I'll know more in a few months. For now, it's best for all of us to not dwell on it."
///
He gripped her hand as he spoke and looked at her with both hope and love in his eyes. She had a million questions, but she could see that he was tired. She'd be with him all week, and one way or another she would find better answers.
After giving her a big hug, her father went to the bedroom she kept for him, and for the first time in a week, Brielle climbed the stairs not dreading her own cold bed. She would get away, take time to think, and figure out what she was going to do next.
She didn't want to leave the Ponderosa Pines Ranch, but she didn't know how she could stay with Colt being her neighbor. Maybe she should just offer to sell it to him. That's what he really wanted, wasn't it?