Page 76 of The Cowboy Who Came Home

“I’ll give you the recipe.” Kelly picked up a plate too. “Don’t worry; I’m not going to eat with you.”

“You’re welcome to do just that,” Edith said easily. “How’s your garden doing this summer?”

Surprise filled her expression, and she glanced over to Finn, who had his head down again. Edith hated seeing his light burn so dimly, and she slid her hand into his. He looked up at her, and she wanted to tell him to stop worrying. In that moment, she saw something she hadn’t before.

He was truly and legitimately embarrassed of his family. Why, Edith had no idea, but she saw it laid out plain as anything on his face.

“It’s going great,” Kelly said. “As usual, I’ll have way too many zucchini to actually do anything with.” She trilled out a light laugh, and Edith joined her.

“Everyone always does,” she said.

“Kel,” someone said, and she turned to see what Finn’s grandmother wanted. “They need more chocolate for the fondue pot.”

“Oh, sure.” Kelly turned back to Edith and said, “Lovely to see you, Edith. I hope we’ll get to spend more time getting to know one another,” before she bustled off to get the chocolate.

“Thanks, Grandma,” Finn said, and he moved in to hug her too. “Granny, this is Edith Baxter, my girlfriend. Edith, my grandma, Heidi. I mean, everyone knows her, so….” He trailed off, and Edith really didn’t like seeing this shell of him.

“Everyone does know you,” Edith said pleasantly. She kissed the older woman’s cheek and said, “How much of this does Kelly make herself?”

They both surveyed the table with all the sides, and Edith wanted a little bite of every single one. Like a taste test to see which would be the best. The deviled eggs? Or the cornbread? The frog eye salad? Or the grilled street corn?

“Oh, about all of it,” Heidi said with a sigh. “She allows some of us to bring things, but she’s really a genius in the kitchen.”

“So’s my grandma,” Finn said.

“I brought the apple tarts, dear,” she said. “I kept five or six in the house to make sure you’d get one.” She beamed at Finn like he was made of stardust, and then she nodded herself away.

They approached the grills now, as his uncle laughed with another cowboy who’d just gotten his cheeseburger. Edith looked at Finn, and he looked back at her. She had a quick internal debate with herself, and then she said, “I will need to know why you’re so embarrassed of your family, but it doesn’t have to be tonight.”

“Fair enough,” he murmured, and then it was their turn.

Edith requested a cheeseburger, and then she turned to the long row of tables filled with so many other things she wanted to eat. Cowboy Jon definitely had the best idea, and she decided she’d follow his lead.

She found the table with Alex, Paul, Henry, and Libby, and she put her plate down there. “I’m going to go get a bunch more,” she said.

“Get the peach lemonade,” Libby said as she lifted her clear plastic cup with the pretty, peachy liquid in it. “It’s fantastic.”

Edith didn’t doubt that, and she couldn’t wait to taste the definition of a Texas picnic.

Hours later, she’d met dozens of cowboys as Finn’s girlfriend, and darkness was finally falling. Everyone who’d come had brought blankets or lawn chairs, and Edith stood with Henry while Finn had gone to get the blanket he’d brought.

She’d learned that Henry had been engaged once already in his twenty-three-year-old life, and that he’d graduated from college last year with a degree in industrial engineering, then decided it wasn’t for him. Thus, the farrier school.

Finn spread their blanket near the back of the crowd, a little further away than others were setting up. “Excuse me,” she said to Henry, and she made her way over to Finn. The lawn sloped up slightly here, and she could see the crowd who’d been celebrating with food, music, dancing, and smaller ground fireworks that evening.

“Where do they set off the fireworks from?” she asked.

“Down behind the admin building,” he said as he sat down on the blanket.

Edith curled into him, and he puffed up the pillows he’d brought and then laid back on them. She did the same, cuddling into his side as she looked up at the stars. “Finn, I don’t think there could’ve been anything better than tonight.” She tilted her head back “With you. Here. On this ranch.”

He said nothing as he gazed toward the row of cowboy cabins that stood between where everyone had gathered and the admin building where the fireworks would soon fill the sky.

“You’re no fun,” she teased as she switched her gaze in the same direction as his.

“I’m not?”

“No.” She enjoyed the warmth of his arms around her, and she draped her arm across his stomach. “You’re supposed to say, ‘I know one thing that could make tonight better, Edee.’”

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