Chapter 112 – Cody

Jack got downstairs and knocked on Elizabeth's door. He didn't hear anything, so he knocked again. Just as he was going to turn and go, he heard her.

"Elizabeth." Jack said. "I was wondering if I could come in."

"Yeah." Elizabeth said, her voice rough with sleep.

Jack opened the door and saw Elizabeth sprawled out on the bed.

"I was just going to let you know that Abigail will be here soon." Jack said.

"Thank you." Elizabeth said, rubbing her eyes.

Jack sat on the desk chair. As much as he wanted to take Elizabeth into his arms, he chose the safer option and didn't sit on the bed. As Elizabeth woke up, she looked at Jack and saw the distress on his face. She sat up and faced him.

"Maybe I should be asking if you are okay." Elizabeth said.

"It has been a long afternoon." Jack said. "I am looking forward to relaxing a little before supper and then having a nice quiet evening."

"A nice quiet evening sounds like a plan." Elizabeth said. "What time do we all need to be going tomorrow?"

"Marco will take the horses over in the morning." Jack said. "Us boys will get up and deal with them. We don't need to be there until about noon. We can start walking the course at twelve thirty. Jumping is scheduled to start just after one. After that, we will come back here, shower and change. We need to be back for the evening by eight. It starts at seven/seven thirty, but we will be okay if we are not there right away. Gran will want to make sure everyone has time to relax and get ready."

"Okay." Elizabeth said. "Sounds like a long day."

Jack smiled.

"It can be." Jack said. "We will have time to relax in the morning. Then there will be time to cool off and relax when we get back to the house here."

"How will we get there?" Elizabeth asked.

"In the morning." Jack said. "Nathan will drive the truck with us, Doug and Lee. Grandpa John's driver will bring him, Grandpa James and Gran. Ma and Dad may or may not ride with them or they can drive themselves. Tommy will be spending the day with Ed down at the stables cleaning. We will have security following us as will Grandpa John."

"What about for dinner?" Elizabeth asked.

"Grandpa John has arranged for a luxury mini bus." Jack said. "It will be here to take us over, all together and then will bring us back afterwards."

Elizabeth looked at Jack.

"It is not your typical bus." Jack said. "It is like a party bus. The one we had last time, had seats around the edge, so when we were seated, we all faced the middle. I am sure he got a twelve to fifteen passenger one. It will be black or white. Security will follow us and be in the background once we are at the dinner. The only close security will be Nathan and Grandpa John's assistant, Peter. As far as I know. That might have changed. I will know more when we sit down with security."

"Okay." Elizabeth said. "So I don't need to worry about my dress."

"Your dress will be fine." Jack said. "Ma and Gran have done this for years."

Elizabeth nodded. She went to say something when they heard running upstairs. A smile grew on Jack's face.

"Sounds like Abigail brought Cody." Jack said. "Come on, let's go up and I will introduce you."

Elizabeth took a quick look in the mirror and smoothed her hair, then her and Jack headed upstairs.

… … … …

The moment that Cody saw Jack, he took off running again.

"Jay!" Cody screamed.

Jack released Elizabeth's hand and quickly scooped up Cody as he ran toward him. Jack swung Cody around, gave him a hug and then set him back on his feet. He then knelt down to Cody's level and looked at him.

"Good to see you again." Jack said. "I didn't think I would see you until Sunday. Cody, I want you to meet someone special to me. Cody, this is my very good friend, Elizabeth. (Jack pointed to Elizabeth.)"

Elizabeth knelt down to Cody's level. She could tell he was shy as he was hiding in Jack's arms.

"Nice to meet you Cody." Elizabeth said.

Cody gave her a shy smile and she was okay with that. She knew that it would take some time for the young boy to warm up to her. Jack then scooped Cody back up and stood. Elizabeth followed. They walked over to where everyone else was.

"Abigail." Jack said. "So good to see you again."

Jack set Cody down and gave Abigail a hug.

"You look tired." Abigail said. "Are you doing okay?"

"It has been a long few days." Jack said. "But it is getting better."

"If you are tired." Abigail said. "Cody can stay up here."

"No." Jack said. "We are just going to go down and make sure the horses and tack are ready for tomorrow. Then we are going to come back up here and relax."

Abigail nodded.

"Abigail." Jack said. "I want you to meet my love, Elizabeth Thatcher."

Jack took Elizabeth's hand and pulled her slightly forward closer to him.

"Elizabeth." Jack said. "I want you to meet someone special, Abigail Avery."

"Nice to meet you." Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth extended her hand to shake Abigail's, but Abigail pulled her into a hug.

"Lovely to meet you." Abigail said. "I have heard so much about you from my husband and son since last night."

Once Abigail had stepped back, she looked between Jack and Elizabeth. Jack had put his arm around Elizabeth's waist and Cody stood in front of Jack. They looked like a little family and Abigail smiled.

"So what is the plan?" Abigail said. "I have supper in the crock pot, so I have plenty of time to help Margaret."

"We have to make sure all the shirts and vests are steamed." Gran said. "We also need to double check the dresses."

"I need your help choosing my dress." Elizabeth said. "Jack said either of the sapphire ones would work, but I want you both to make sure they match Jack's vest."

"Gran." Jack said. "I put both of my vests in the laundry room. If the tartan matches, please do that one, otherwise I will wear the silver. You only need to steam the one that I will wear. Our riding gear is clean and hanging in the laundry room as well."

"Yes, I saw them when I put a couple loads in earlier." Gran said.

"We will leave you be then." Jack said. "When we are done down at the stable, we will come back up here to hang out until supper."

"Good." Gran said. "Everything is ready once the oven is warm. Please call John and see if you can get a better time frame. We will wait to eat until he gets here. Peter is welcome to join us as well. You will have to put the extra leaf in the table."

"Okay." Jack said. "We will do that when we get back up here. I will also call Grandpa. Do you want me to invite his security as well? He will have Peter and at least one security. The rest will drive up in the morning."

"Please." Gran said. "I have four full pans of lasagna and plenty of garlic bread. There is also plenty of salad. I have enough meat prepped that we can easily make another pan of lasagna."

"I will let Grandpa John know." Jack said.

"Thank you." Gran said.

"Us boys will let you do what you need to." Doug said. "Come on Cody. Let's go see the horsies."

"Yeah!" Cody screamed, jumping up and down.

Nathan knelt down to Cody's level.

"Nice to meet you Cody." Nathan said. "You know that you can't scream around the horses."

"Yes." Cody said shyly, hugging Doug's leg.

"It is okay, Cody." Jack said. "Nathan is a friend of mine. He is good with horses."

Cody looked up at Jack and then Doug. He then looked at Nathan.

"Nayan." Cody said.

"Yes." Nathan said.

Cody then went to Nathan. Like the others, Nathan scooped Cody up and put him on his shoulders. Gran and Abigail smiled at the interaction. With Cody safely on Nathan's shoulders, the boys headed down to the stables. After the door closed, Abigail turned to Margaret.

"You know that little boy is on cloud nine right now." Abigail said.

"Oh, I know." Gran said. "I hope he behaves. I am sure that the boys can handle him, but he is very excited and couldn't stand still."

"Yeah." Abigail said. "I was hoping that he would take a nap, but no such luck today. Then he got into the soda that Peter had, so he is hopped up on sugar right now."

… … … …

As they were walking down to the stable, Nathan was tickling Cody and his laughter could be heard as it echoed off the buildings. Several of the hands that were working around the ranch would stop and watch the group.

"So what do we need to do?" Nathan asked when there was a break in Cody's laughter.

"I want to see the horses." Jack said. "We can wait until tomorrow to braid their tails and manes if we want. The Classic doesn't require it. We will have to brush out the horses in the morning and make sure they are good. Marco will see to loading the horses and getting them over there in plenty of time. He will also take all the tack if we want. We will be responsible for our helmets, vests, boots and jackets, if he takes the tack."

"Nathan, I know that you are going to be wearing your breeches and boots tomorrow." Doug said. "Are you going to wear your jacket?"

"I thought I would at least take it." Nathan said. "I am going to wear my riding shirt, tie and belt. I will bring the polo that your grandparents gave me. But I think that since I am going to be helping with the horses, I want to be in riding gear."

"Fine by me." Jack said. "Grandpa just hates riding shirts so he will be in a polo. He is not a huge fan of the breeches either, but he will probably wear them. I saw that Gran had put his kilt in the laundry room for tomorrow night."

"A kilt?" Nathan said.

"Both of my grandfathers will probably wear a kilt tomorrow night." Jack said. "Grandpa John will wear khakis and a Thornton Thoroughbred polo during the day. I am sure that he got a tartan vest like mine and I know that Grandpa James has a Sims tartan vest from the same company that ours came from."

"Why don't you wear a kilt?" Nathan asked.

"I have." Jack said. "I don't know. I have one here. I could ask Elizabeth what she thinks. I don't want her to be uncomfortable."

"What are your parents going to wear?" Nathan asked.

"I am sure that Ma has an over the top dress." Jack said with a sarcastic tone. "Dad will probably wear a black tux. He might tone it down and go without a vest and maybe add a bolo tie. I don't know, I didn't ask. Frankly right now, I don't care. Let's check the horses."

Before anyone could say anything else, Jack stocked off and into the stable. Nathan lifted Cody down, then knelt down to his level.

"How about you go look at the horses over there grazing." Nathan said. "Just don't cross the fence. I need to talk to Doug and Lee for a moment. Then we will go look at the other ones. Okay."

"Otay." Cody said.

The three watched Cody run over to the grazing area and lean on the bottom rail of the fence. Nathan stood up and looked at Doug and Lee.

"What is going on?" Nathan said. "If he doesn't have his head in the game, I am not letting him on a horse tomorrow."

"I don't know." Doug said. "I haven't seen Jack like this in a long time. The last time was when Charlotte was pushing him to jump the next level. I am sure that everything that has happened in the last few days has caught up to him."

"Please talk to him." Nathan said. "I would, but I have my own things that I am dealing with."

"Please talk to us." Lee said. "It couldn't have been easy with what happened with Gabe."

"No it wasn't." Nathan said. "I'm dealing with it."

"Just don't shut us out." Doug said.

"Go get Cody," Lee said. "We will deal with Jack for the moment."

Doug and Lee headed to the stable and Nathan headed over to Cody.

… … … …