Page 46 of The Cowboy Who Came Home

“I don’t know.” Finn planted his palms on the counter and looked at his parents. “Libby is going to come back here and run this place.” He looked back to Momma. Then Daddy. “Right?”

“She hasn’t said that out loud,” Momma said quickly.

“I think she will,” Daddy said. “Yes.” He glanced at Momma too. “It would make sense for her to live here, darlin’.” He looked at Finn with plenty of nerves and worry in his expression.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t be here too, Finny,” Momma said.

“I know that.” Finn picked up his sandwiches and joined his parents at the bar. “But I don’t know. God’s slow to reveal what I should do. I’m trying to listen to Him. I’m trying to make moves on my own to see if He stops me.” He shook his head, his thoughts tangled and in the wrong order. “So I just don’t know yet.”

“Maybe something around here of your own,” Daddy said.

“That’s a great idea,” Momma said. “There’s got to be something like Coyote Pass for you. Something smaller. Something you and Edith can run together.”

“Momma.” Finn smiled at her, but it was in the please, stop kind of way.

“What?” she asked, swiveling her attention between him and Daddy. “I’m just saying.”

“I barely kissed her tonight,” Finn said, quickly filling his mouth with a big bite of turkey and cheese.

“That’s his way of saying you’re thinking too far down the road, sweetheart,” Daddy said. He chuckled and met Finn’s grateful gaze. “But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to start looking at real estate around here. Ranches. Smaller farms. The market is high right now, and it might take a while for you to find something you can afford.”

Finn nodded, finished chewing, and swallowed. “This is a me-move, not a thing I’m doing for me and Edith.” He gave his mother a pointed look. “I’d like a place here. A place of my own. And if Edith and I break-up, I’d still want a place.”

“And if it does work out?—”

“Momma,” Finn said, and Daddy said, “Kelly, darlin’, let’s go get that paperwork for Beau.”

“I’m not going out to the admin trailer again tonight,” Momma griped back at him.

“Then let’s put something on TV and let Finn alone.” Daddy got to his feet, and Finn smiled at him as he went by.

Momma glared at his back and then switched her gaze to Finn. She softened instantly and said, “You kissed her tonight?”

Finn ducked his head, that kiss already streaming through his mind. “Yes, ma’am,” he muttered. “She kissed me back. It was…nice.”

Momma slid over onto the stool next to him. She put her arm around him. “I love you, baby. I just want you to be happy.” She stroked his hair off his forehead. “You seem happy with her.”

“I am,” Finn whispered. “I mean, so far. Momma, it’s been what? A couple of weeks?” He hadn’t been home longer than a month yet. “So you don’t need to start planning a wedding or anything, okay?”

“Okay,” she said in that falsely high-pitched voice that said she was going to start planning a wedding. Finn could only smile at her, and he leaned into her embrace before she stood and went to join Daddy in the living room.

Finn finished his sandwiches, and he pulled out his phone to set an alarm for the next morning that would give him enough time to shower, pack a lunch, and make the drive to Coyote Pass.

As he did that and said, “I’m gonna go downstairs,” a text came in from Edith.

Can’t wait to see you tomorrow, Finn.

He wasn’t sure if either of his parents said anything as he went down the hall and then down the steps. Because he was floating on clouds and already texting Edith back. He couldn’t help imagining a small farm or ranch of his own, with Edith there with him, and when she finished writing that night, she’d come in to bed, and he wouldn’t be alone.

That felt like coming home too, and Finn let himself daydream a little while he texted with the most beautiful woman in the world.

Chapter Fourteen

Lincoln Glover left the bedroom he shared with his best friend and cousin—though not through blood—and walked down the short hall in the cowboy cabin where he lived on Shiloh Ridge Ranch.

He’d tucked his shirt in precisely right, and his belt buckle could’ve been worn by Uncle Mister as a rodeo champion. His jeans had just been washed, and he’d even hung them up last night so they’d be straight and even today.

“Wow,” Cutter said from where he sat on the couch. He hadn’t showered yet, and he looked like he’d rolled in the fields where he’d been tending to cattle all day. “Who are you goin’ out with?”

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