**** "Hey, Cherry. Did you hear the news?!"
Charity looked up from her book. "No. What news?"
Brittany grinned. Charity couldn't help but smile back. It was good to see her happy again, there was still a hint of that sadness in her eyes.
Tany couldn't hide the giddiness she felt, "Kyle's coming home on his two week vacation! He'll be staying at the old log cabin he refurbished on the other side of the lake."
Charity studied the seventeen year old. "Kyle's back?" She asked.
Carlyn smiled, "He's been back longer than you. He's been staying in the city, with Eddie and his wife Sally. They're having a baby ya know, and our brothers and dad have been helping them add a nursery onto the house."
Charity looked back and forth between the girls. They were identical twins. With long dark-blonde hair and big, silver-blue eyes, they looked just alike, save for one small detail. Where Brittany wore her hair long and natural. Carlyn kept her hair cut above the shoulder, and every few weeks she would dye it a different color. One week it would be light pink, and the next a bright neon blue. This week, Charity noticed, her hair was a deep royal purple.
Their brother, Alexander (the oldest of the triplets) on the other hand was dark haired, with cobalt blue eyes. The boy was seventeen and yet at 6'2" Charity had to look up at him. The young man was taller than his own father Beau, and looked just like his dad too. And, like his father he was already a teen heart throb.
Alex had already been in a few teen romance movies. She grinned. Alex's character always turned out to be either the hero of the reall scary and evil villian. She had watched his most recent film, just the other day. 'Werewolf Creak'. At the end Billy, played by Alex had found a way to defeat the evil wolves, and save the rest of the campers. Only to find out that he himself was now a wolf, and would have to fight his own nature to stay good. It had been great. She couldn't wait for the sequel with she had on good athority was going to be a romance.
"Cherry?" Carlyn studied her cousin with worry in her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Would you go check on Michael for me?"
"Yeah. Oh, by the way. Kaylee and Topper are picking me up later. Kaylee wants to help check on the progress of the new building."
Brittany grinned at her twin. "I think Topper is good for her and the ranch. I can't wait till they get married."
Carlyn was in full agreement.
Charity smiled, "Girls, please check on Michael?" She giggled as the teens raced each other up the stairs to the nursery and returned to her book. Right now however, she was on a badly needed vacation.
Rowdy had raised her after her mother's death, and had taught her everything he knew about working on a ranch, self defence and surviving out in the middle of nowhere. She could make weapons, and traps if she had too, as well as build a shelter, and make a fire. She knew how to ride with the best of them, fly a chopper, and the ranch plane. She could track game, and stray cattle, fire a rifle, and never miss her target. The most important thing Rowdy had ever taught her was self defense. Rowdy had been an Army Ranger and had taught his adopted daughter everything she knew and loved her.
Charity smiled at a memory of sparing with her dad on the matt. She laughed when the memory of his shocked face appeared in her mind.
"Well, must be a nice thought."
She beamed up at the man in question and walked into his open arms. "Just remembering the first time I beat you at sparing, daddy."
Rowdy groaned. "My rear end still smarts."
She laughed. "That's a lie if I ever heard one. How's mama? We still having dinner at Uncle Beau's?"
Rowdy grinned, "She's fine, already there helping Drina and Kassi in the kitchen. RJ is out on another of his fossil hunts. I just thought I'd stop by and ask if you wanted to go for a ride?"
Charity beamed. "Let me see if Tany can babysit for an hour or so." With that she ran up the staircase and into her son's room.