March 7th 2024

Chapter 67
The Year of Reconnections

"Hello, cousin." The voice made him smile at once. He looked up from his computer to find Dora Calahart standing in the doorway, with a slim box under her arm. The older she got, the more he could see his Aunt Dot in her, even as her older daughter now reminded him of her when she'd been growing up. Her younger daughter was still very little, but even though she was the one to have carried on the name of Dorothy for a third generation, she was looking a lot more like her father, Sam.

"Hello, cousin," Lucas echoed her greeting as he stood up to go and meet her in a one-armed hug. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you until after lunch," he spoke and signed at the same time.

"That was the plan," Dora confirmed. "But I need to be at the shop this afternoon, something came up, so…" she shrugged. "I didn't want to have to put it off until tomorrow. Plus, it looks good, and I didn't want to wait to get it out here to you," she passed him the box.

"That's fair," he smiled. They moved to his desk so he could open the box. Very recently, even though she still worked out of the shop with the rest of the team, Dot had passed ownership of the business on to Dora. She had been the logical successor, the third generation, and seeing the plaque she had created for him, Lucas was only further convinced.

They left his office together, with all required materials, and made their way to the arch, stepping outside of it so they might work together at installing the new plaque. It announced to any and all, visitors or passersby, that Sullivan Stables was now the home of the Colby Creek horses. It had been very important to him, from the moment they had agreed to take on the horses, that it would not be forgotten where they came from.

The now defunct ranch had meant a lot to him, as he knew it had meant a lot to other people around Austin. The years that would pass would pull that meaning further and further away from anyone who could actually remember it, until it would only be found in the records that survived. The plaque was Lucas' way to make sure they made their own record of it. The horses would be with them, those who had actually come from Colby Creek, and one day they would be gone, but they could well develop lineage here, could keep that memory alive. Lucas already foresaw Marianne taking on the mission of tracking the horses, the generations, in years to come, and it made him smile just to think about it.

"She's going to love this," Dora nodded when Lucas told her this, and he could already picture the smile on her face, the giddiness… He had half a mind to see if he could get her a logbook to get started.

He had to go back and look at the plaque again, after Dora had left. He was very happy with the result, with how it fit with the rest of the arch. He looked at the name, the letters carved into the wood… Dora was always so good at letters. But these ones here meant so much more to him now. Colby… That would be their baby boy's name, when he came into the world, two months from now. As soon as he'd thought of it, he had felt like it was the right choice. He didn't want to get so attached to it until he'd run it by Maya, but then she'd loved it, too, and now the name and the boy were fully bonded in his mind.

The closer they got to the month of March, the more anxious he got to meet his new son. There had been a point where he'd made his peace with the idea that they would have no more children after all, but then August had happened, and Maya had told him they were going to be having another child, and he was right back in it. Their last baby had been Ezra, he'd come to them ready made, and they'd had to catch up, they'd done it easily because they'd loved him as soon as they'd known him. The last time they'd expected was with Aubrey, it had been years… These last several months, he had been rediscovering all those feelings he'd experienced as they'd expected their girls, joining them to the man he had become in the meantime.

He took a picture of himself next to the plaque, sent it to Maya, to Ella… He couldn't wait to go and pick up the girls and show it to them. Knowing them, they would want to come right over and see it in person.

If they came as far as the arch, they would want to go over to the stables, too, and visit with the Colby Creek horses. They were always very good about looking after any horses that were transferred over to the ranch, and now with there being so many of them all at once, horses they had seen and known in the past… They knew that the transition was now going to be as hard because they had all come together, and they would be surrounded by several people they were already familiar with, but for most of them it meant leaving the only home they'd ever known, and that was not easy.

But they had a great support system around them, and the Friar kids were right up there with the best of them. As much as they all loved going to see the horses, Lucas could see how much the horses would be happy to see them in return. Any day he went to see them on his own for whatever reason, they would look at him as though they were disappointed when there weren't any of the kids with him.

He had Ezra with him that day, so they were definitely happy to see him, just as they were happy to see Lucas… now that he'd brought them their little buddy. He was watching his son now as Sylvie held him in her arms, the better for him to brush at one of the horses, when his phone rang. It was not his Maya ringtone, so he didn't flip into immediate 'baby time?' panic. Still, when he saw that it was Wyatt calling him, he had to wonder what it was about.

Finneas had been in preschool since September, and it had been a rough start for him from day one. Several times, Wyatt had to go down there to pick up his son early, when there really wasn't any other alternative. It hadn't been so bad as time went on, but it still happened sometimes. On some of those days, when Wyatt simply wasn't able to go, it would be Abigail or James who'd go, whoever was free. But now Wyatt had gotten the call, and neither he nor his parents were able to go, so he was hoping that Lucas might be able to go and collect him, maybe take him back to the ranch…

Of course, he was more than happy to step in for his brother-in-law, though the thing he was most looking forward to right now was telling Ezra where they were about to go. Finneas was his older cousin, sure, but more than anything he had always felt like a brother to him, and the feeling was mutual. With how they had been raised all their lives in the same house, they might even have assumed that this was what they were to each other, if they could even make the distinction between a sibling and a cousin.

When they arrived at the preschool, Ezra was so anxious to see Finn that he took off running the moment he was on his feet. Lucas was able to catch up to him and scoop him up into his arms, and if not for the fact that they were advancing at a similar pace thanks to his father's longer legs, he might have complained at being prevented from running on his own.

They didn't have to look hard to find him. Finneas Hart-Lane was sitting about as close to the door as he had been permitted, and his face was one of anguish right up until he spotted his uncle and his cousin coming his way. His relief was absolute enough that he started to cry and stood up on the bench where he'd been sitting, ready to be picked up. Lucas balanced Ezra in one arm, silently hoping to himself that his back would not send out the slightest twinge of pain as he bent to take his nephew in his other arm. Finneas clamped on to him good, and he hushed at him, comforted him as best he could. Inches from him, Ezra patted his hand against the other boy's back like he'd seen his parents do when any of them were upset.

When he was able to set both boys down for a moment, Lucas got to speak with Miss Alma, who hardly had to explain why she'd ended up calling Wyatt to see about picking Finneas up early. The two of them had known each other for nearly a decade and the care of six of his daughters, as she would go on to care for Ezra starting in the fall. She would only make that choice if she felt that it would be best for Finn, and that was all that he needed to know. Lucas left the preschool with the boys and they hit the road for Sullivan Stables.

Finn didn't open up all the way into what his uncle knew him to be until they'd been there for nearly an hour. He was a smart little guy, everyone would call him that. He was also very shy sometimes, very quiet, and preschool had been very difficult for him. Miss Alma was doing everything she could for him, but there was only so much to be done.

At the ranch, that day, it was a visit to the dog retreat that finally brought him out of his shell, as he and his cousin took on the very important task of holding a pair of new guests they had welcomed into their care the day before. Bishop had greeted the boys as just the young assistants he'd been hoping for, and that was all they needed to hear. They stayed there, caring for the two pups, playing with them, until Wyatt was able to come and collect his son.

"I was just like him when I was that age," Bishop told his friend and former classmate when it was down to them and Ezra, now on double duty with the dogs and merrily overpowered by the pair of them.

"And how long was it before that changed?" Lucas asked. Bishop made a small gesture that Lucas read as 'a while, but nothing to worry about. Whether or not it would be that simple in Finneas' case, they'd have to wait and see.

In the meantime, the boy would be welcome to spend time at the retreat whenever he needed it. They were in the midst of figuring out what they might do to freshen things up around the building, not necessarily because it was in dire need of it, but all the same, it was about time that they tried something new, and they were looking forward to how it would look when they were all done.

"Alright, bud, you know what time it is?" Lucas asked Ezra when they finally left the retreat. The way his face lit up, he knew just where they were going. He'd be seeing his cousin again, and his aunts and uncles, and his sisters… He would be seeing his mother, too, and that was really all he needed to know to take off running all over again. "Alright, what did we say about the running?" Lucas chuckled when he picked him up mid run once again, and Ezra broke into giggles.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners