Page 61 of Lone Star Country Protector
“Not yet,” she said. “He’s been unreachable lately. I see that he’s been reading the updates. But he doesn’t comment.”
“I can reach out to him,” Dalton said. “Just to get a baseline of what everyone is thinking.” He took a bite of bagel, chewed and then followed it with a swig of black coffee. “Grandpa Lor is feisty as usual, but I think he’d be thrilled with the help.”
“Did you get a good look at him?” she asked.
Dalton nodded. “He definitely needs some home cooking to put some meat on those bones.”
She smiled. “The bagels should help.” Then, she added, “I’m proud of you, Dalton. I hope that doesn’t sound too mushy or cliché.”
He cracked a smile.
“The ranch will be lucky to have you back full-time,” she said.
He nodded. “It just feels right. You know?”
“Then you have to do it.”
“Any idea how long it’ll take Grandpa Lor to be released from the hospital?” he asked.
“Do you seriously think he’ll leave Grandma’s side?”
“I guess not,” he agreed.
“Can you imagine the two of them being separated from each other?”
“No,” he admitted. He couldn’t. He’d always believed the two of them would ride off into the sunset together. “I doubt death will part them no matter what vows they took on their wedding day.”
Jules laughed.
“Agreed,” she said before urging him to eat.
Dalton polished off a bagel and then his coffee. “You still haven’t told me where they hid my clothes.”
“Right. That.”
“Do you intend to?” he asked.
“Have you spoken to the doctor about being released?” she asked.
“He stopped by last night after Blakely fell asleep,” he said. “Turns out, I have a mild concussion, but I could have told him that.”
“You and Camden should know what that feels like after our childhoods,” she teased.
“Truer words have never been spoken,” he said. “All of us played sports.”
“And ran around the ranch like wild animals if memory serves,” she added.
He couldn’t help but laugh as memories filtered through of him falling out of a tree, Camden falling out of a tree, Duke falling out of a tree. “Our grandparents are saints for putting up with us.”
“Yes, they were,” she said with a spark in her eyes that he’d seen many times before.
“We had an amazing childhood that I completely took for granted,” he said as shame filled him. “I should have been here for them.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Dalton. Any one of us could say the same thing, and you would be the first to tell us not to think along those lines.”
She had a point there. One he couldn’t argue.
And then she caught him off guard when she asked, “What about her?” Jules hooked her head in Blakely’s direction. “What will happen with your relationship if you move back to Mesa Point?”
