Page 54 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

“You have a great family,” she said.

He came into the house behind her and closed the door. Misty’s heartbeat thundered up and down her throat and then behind her eyes. Link slid his hand along her waist and down her hip, then up to her stomach as he hugged her from behind.

He murmured, his mouth right at her ear, “What does it feel like to be thirty-three?”

She held on to his arms and leaned back into his strength of his chest. “Feels like thirty-two.”

Link chuckled in her ear, his lips right there touching her skin below her ear and then moving down her jaw. She turned in his arms and looked up at him. He gazed down at her, waiting for her to say what lingered in her mind. He was exceptionally patient and very good at making her say what she sometimes didn’t want to. She drew in a breath. The words sat there, but they wouldn’t come out.

“Want me to kiss you tonight?” Link asked softly.

Misty nodded. Link leaned down and touched his lips to hers, no more questions asked, a soft, almost seeking kiss, as if he could find what she wanted to say that way. His touch grew in passion, and of course, Misty wanted to be with Link that night. But she had to tell him first.

He’s not going to be upset, she thought. She pulled away and pressed her cheek to his. “I finished my last parenting class today,” she whispered.

Link simply nuzzled her closer and kissed her neck.

“I think I’m ready.”

He pulled back almost instantly, almost as if her skin and hair had caught fire. Palpable shock flowed from him, and his wide eyes broadcast it through their house. “You’re ready?” he repeated. “For what?”

“To have kids,” she said. “I think I’m ready to have a baby.”

Link blinked one time, and then a smile filled his whole face. “That’s fantastic,” he said.

“Are you ready?” She fiddled with the collar on his shirt, doing up one button and then undoing it again. “I mean, do you feel ready to be a dad?”

“I don’t really know,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m not ready.”

Misty nodded and looked up at him again. All of the fears, the worries, the knots, everything that just wasn’t right, became flat. She’d always calmed in his presence. Shewasdifferent from her mother. She wasnotgoing to be the type of mother hers had been.

“I want a baby,” she said.

Link kissed her again, this time with all the wild, rough passion he did when he made love to her. “All right,” he whispered. “Let’s go make a baby.”

Chapter Eighteen

Mitch Glover got off yet another plane in Amarillo. He felt like he went back and forth between Texas and Virginia quite often. In fact, this ticket had been free, because he’d used his airline loyalty miles to pay for it.

Of course, Daddy would pay for anything Mitch needed, including a cross-country move at the drop of a cowboy hat if Mitch said he wanted to come home to Three Rivers tomorrow. Daddy would make it happen.

Mitch would fall down dead if Daddy wasn’t already waiting for him on the curb, and he moved expertly through the airport, picked up his bag from one of the carousels, and stepped outside. He imagined what a busy place like an airport might sound like, with luggage clunking along metal claim stations, people talking, high heels clicking along the floor, family members laughing as they met up after a while apart.

Mitch couldn’t hear any of it, but it sure wasn’t hard to miss Daddy’s truck. King cab, with an extra-long bed, double-wide wheels in the back. He stepped out of it and walked around the hood, already signing as he came.

Happiness filled Mitch in a brand new way, as he’d been in a real struggle with himself, his life, and God for the past few years.

You’re early, Daddy said as he stepped into Mitch and hauled him against his chest for a hug. Mitch wanted to say,You’re still here before me, but he had to wait until he stepped back so he could use his hands. Daddy smiled at Mitch, who imagined him to be laughing.

Yeah, I’m still here.He picked up Mitch’s bag, took it to the back of the truck, lifted it up, and then opened the passenger door for him.

Mitch found his younger siblings lined up in the back seat. Chaz, who’d graduated from high school last May, and Lynn who would in a couple of months. Finally, his youngest sister—Melissa—waved for all she was worth, and Mitch waved back, signed hello, and allowed the goodness of his younger siblings to fill him front to back, top to bottom.

What are y’all doing here?he asked, though it was Spring Break in Three Rivers too. Momma had been teaching them sign language since they were born, so they could communicate with him. A wave of gratitude flowed over him for such a good mother.

They all started signing at once, and since Mitch had been living at and working for a deaf academy, as well as taking more advanced sign language classes of his own, he’d gotten so much better at his own language.

He laughed, kept up with their individual conversations, signing to one teenager and then another.

---