Page 86 of The Cowboy Who Came Home

And that right there was the rub. Doctor Bull wanted Edith to admit that someone besides Levi could love her. He wanted her to say she believed she could be loved by someone as handsome, and smart, and hardworking, and kind, and faithful as Finn.

“Never should’ve told him I felt inadequate.” Edith shook her head and switched her attention from the curve in the road—which Finn had not rounded yet—to the glass-front building where she had her counseling sessions.

She’d said as much to Doctor Bull in a moment of weakness. A single moment where she’d been asked to think about the perfect man, and an image of Finn had entered her mind. The way he brought her coffee sometimes, and took her to dinner at her favorite places, and stocked her mini-freezer with ice cream while she was out working on the farm. She’d only discover it when she went to the she-shed to write, and by then, Finn had gone home. She’d been forced to text him her thanks upon the discovery of the ice cream, and kiss him for it the next time she saw him.

“I can admit I’m falling for him,” she muttered next. She didn’t truly feel inadequate. She and Finn stood on even ground, even if she had broken down in front of him a few times. He had issues with his family he was working on, and she had things in her life that needed fixing too. She wouldn’t be human otherwise.

She was just about to call Finn and demand to know where he was when his truck finally came around the corner. She perked up and drained the last of her lemonade, excited to hear about the ranch he’d seen today. She hadn’t mentioned it to his mother, just in case Kelly hadn’t known about it, and her own curiosity ate at her like a swarm of mosquitoes.

Finn pulled into the driveway, though he stayed off to the side so as to not block the garage. He didn’t seem to have seen her, and Edith got to her feet and headed down the steps so he wouldn’t enter the house through the garage without seeing her.

She heard the rumbling of the door as it went up, and Edith broke into a jog. “Finn.” She rounded the corner and found him carrying a big water bottle and a sack of food. He’d come to a stop, and he grinned at her when he saw her.

“Hey, you.” He moved toward her then and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “What are you doin’ here? I thought I was meeting you and Alex and Nicki for movie night over at the farmhouse.”

She shook her head, her voice trapped behind a ball of nerves she didn’t understand. “I told him me and you were just going to do it here.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe with Sammy.”

“Sure,” Finn said. “That’s even better. Me and you on the big couch downstairs.” He switched the water bottle to the crook of his arm so he could slide his hand around her waist. “It’s great to see you.” He kissed her right on the mouth then, and Edith felt every eye of the ranch watching them, even if it wasn’t true.

“Mm, you taste like lemonade,” he murmured. “My momma must be inside.”

Edith ducked her head. “She was for a minute,” she said. “Long enough to stir dinner and get me a drink.”

“You’ve been waiting long?”

She looked up at him. “Feels like a long time, yeah.”

He grinned. “Come on then.” He lifted the bag of food. “I don’t know what my momma made for dinner, but Holly Ann sent me home with lots of leftovers. Steak sandwiches. Cornbread muffins. Fruit and cheese and my word, the woman makes the best mac-salad in the whole world. If we’re lucky, we can sneak downstairs right now and have a feast together, then start a movie, and we won’t even have to see my parents.”

Edith smiled at him, but she shook her head. “Right. I’m sure your mother will allow that to happen.”

Still, she went inside with him, and they didn’t linger upstairs in the main living area for long. It felt a little bit like she was doing something wrong as she followed him down the hall and around the corner to the stairs that led into the basement.

Cooler air reached them, and Finn put the bag of food on the counter in the kitchenette. “I’m just gonna shower and change really fast, okay?” He kissed her again, and Edith didn’t mind the sweat and ranch smell of his skin. “I worked hard today, and I’m gross.”

“Okay,” she said as he slipped out of her arms and around the enormous sectional couch to the bathroom.

“Eat if you want,” he called over his shoulder. “I just need ten minutes.”

Edith did wander over to the bag, and she pulled out the food and spread it along the counter. Holly Ann Glover ran a catering company in town, and she had loaded Finn up with plenty of food. As a bachelor, it would probably take him all week to eat this much food.

She’d packed macaroni salad and potato salad and cole slaw. He had cornbread muffins and scrambled egg muffins. The steak sandwiches were made on hoagies, not slices of bread, and she laid out four of them that had to be eight inches long each.

A full-size fridge stood in the kitchenette, and Edith put the leftovers in it before she turned to the TV. The shower ran in the bathroom down the hall, and she flopped onto the couch, a sigh pulling through her body.

She pulled out her phone and started to text her mom. Hey, Mom, she started. Deep questions from Edith, Thursday edition. How do you know if you can be loved?

Her mother was used to her deep questions, as she’d been asking them her whole life. In person, her mom would smile at her and say, “You can ask me anything.” Edith had taken her seriously, and they’d talked about anything and everything over the thirty years of Edith’s life.

Everyone is lovable, her mom said. Remember that lesson you had when you were volunteering in the elementary school here?

Edith knew instantly what her mom meant, and tears touched her eyes.

You thought Benjamin was nothing but trouble, her mom said. He was so mischievous. Never did what he was supposed to do. Didn’t get his homework done. And then you met his mother. And you realized that everyone has a mother that loves them.

She sniffled and pulled back on her emotions. Yeah, I know, Mom. But what about a different kind of love?

Things aren’t going well with Finn? I thought they were.

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