Bo hired a wagon to transport Kelly's meager belongings, furniture, clothes, kitchen items, and all the small treasures a family accumulates even in poverty. The children were beside themselves with excitement, running from room to room in the big house, marveling at the space and luxury they'd never experienced before. "Papa!" Thomas called from upstairs. "Sarah and me have our own rooms!"
"Our own rooms! We don't have to share!" "That's wonderful, son," Bo called back, grinning at Kelly. "Told you they'd adjust quickly." But it was Martha who brought the reality of the change home.
The little girl stood in the parlor, a room bigger than her entire previous house, clutching her one-armed corn-husk doll, her face showing wonder and uncertainty in equal measure. "Mama?" she said quietly. "Are we really going to live here? Forever?"
Kelly knelt down and pulled her daughter close. "Yes, sweetie. This is our home now." "But it's so big. What if I get lost?"
"Then Papa or I will find you," Kelly promised. "We're a family now, Martha. Families stick together and take care of each other. You're never going to be lost or alone or scared again. I promise."
Martha considered this seriously, then nodded. "Okay. But can I still keep my old doll, even though we're fancy now?" Kelly's laugh was half sob. "You can keep your doll forever, baby."
"Being fancy doesn't mean forgetting where we came from or what matters." That evening, they gathered for their first family dinner in the ranch house, all seven of them around the big dining table that had once seated only Bo or sat empty entirely. Cookie, the ranch cook, had outdone himself preparing a feast.
Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh bread, vegetables from the garden, and apple pie for dessert. The children ate with the enthusiastic appetite of youth, chattering about their new rooms, the horses in the barn, all the space to run and play. Bo watched them, marveling at how quickly they'd made themselves at home, how naturally they'd accepted him as their father. After dinner, Kelly put the younger children to bed while Bo read to Thomas from a book of frontier adventures.
When he finished, Thomas looked up at him with serious eyes. "Papa, can I ask you something?" "Anything, son." "Do you miss your old life?"
"Before us, I mean. When it was just you and everything was quiet and you didn't have kids making noise all the time?" Bo set the book aside and pulled Thomas onto his lap, something he'd never imagined doing with any child, let alone one who'd become his in such an unconventional way. "You want to know the truth, Thomas?"
"My old life was so quiet, it was almost silent. I was so alone, I couldn't even hear myself think, and I was miserable. I just didn't realize it because I'd gotten used to being miserable." "And now?" "Now it's noisy and chaotic, and I'm constantly tripping over toys or wiping someone's nose or answering questions I don't know the answers to."
Bo smiled. "And I've never been happier in my entire life." Thomas hugged him fiercely. "I'm glad you married Mama. I'm glad you're our papa now."