Betting on Grace by Nicole Edwards Page A

would likely bombard her with later. Maybe by then she’d be willing to
tell them. But right now, with the memory of her mother weighing heavily on her
heart, Grace just wanted a few minutes to herself.
     
    Half an hour later, Grace was entering the dining
hall, looking around to see if she was the first of her little group to arrive.
She didn’t see Ben or Maddie, but she did see Lane and Grant standing at the
front of the food line, chatting with a wrangler who was adding additional
plates to the buffet table.
    The place was busy, with other guests arriving for the
final meal of the day, along with her sisters, her father, and several of the
wranglers. In a few minutes, she knew the place would be loud, which was what
she was anticipating. With any luck, there would be too much going on for
anyone to question what they had seen a short while ago.
    “Hi, Gracie!” The excited voice chimed from behind
Grace, so she turned to see Maddie standing there with an Oscar-worthy smile on
her face.
    “Hey, Maddie. Are you hungry?”
    The excited little girl nodded her head emphatically,
her pigtails bobbing.
    “Well, we better get in line before the cowboys take
all the food.”
    Grace, Maddie, and Ben all joined the line, waiting
patiently to reach the tables that held the food. Ben’s vivacious daughter was
kind enough to provide comic relief, explaining in thorough detail all about
their trip to the ranch. According to Maddie, she lived in Oklahoma with her
dad but went to see her mother every other weekend when her mom wasn’t out of
town. Grace noticed that when the little girl mentioned her mother, there was a
pained expression on Ben’s face. She had to wonder whether their divorce — if
they were actually divorced — was amicable. For some reason, she didn’t think
so, but she definitely wasn’t going to pry into the details of his life.
    After filling their plates with chicken-fried steak,
corn on the cob, and ranch-style beans, the three of them wound through the
tables until they reached the larger one in the back. Grant and Lane were
already seated, and Grace wanted to laugh when she noticed they had reserved
her a chair. Between them.
    Rather than call attention to their clever move, she
made her way over, sliding into the chair while Maddie did what Maddie did best
— started asking questions.
    Grant and Lane were both good sports, sharing stories
and answering questions. Neither of them seemed at all put off by the fact they
were having dinner with a six-year-old and her father. In fact, Grant seemed to
have relaxed somewhat since she’d seen him earlier.
    When they had finished their meal, Grant offered to
escort Maddie to the dessert table, promising coffee upon his return for the
adults. The conversation didn’t stall with their departure, though. Ben was
interested in the inner workings of the ranch, but he seemed more comfortable
asking Lane questions. Grace wasn’t sure whether that was because she was a
girl — which she highly doubted — or because he figured she had enough to do
just answering his daughter’s endless questions. Either way, Grace hung on to
Lane’s every word, enjoying the easy way he interacted with Ben.
    A short while later, Grace was sipping coffee and
listening to Maddie chatter away about what she wanted to do tomorrow, when
Hope walked up to their table.
    “Hey,” Grace greeted her sister with a smile. “Ben,
Maddie, this is my sister Hope.”
    You could’ve heard a pin drop at that very moment. The
moment when Ben met Hope’s gaze from across the table, Grace was pretty certain
she saw sparks fly.
    “Very nice to meet you, Maddie. Ben,” Hope said, her
voice soft.
    “Are you a real cowgirl, too?” the energetic little
girl asked Hope.
    “I guess you could say that.”
    “Awesome!”
    A round of laughter erupted, Grace leading the charge,
but she noticed that Ben wasn’t laughing. His eyes were glued to Hope, and
Grace saw something there. Something that