Page 65 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

Mitch was sure she had. His mother was an excellent preacher, because she actually lived her religion. She made mistakes and worked to fix them. Then, she told people about it, and they felt this great connection to her.

He did too, but he also sometimes felt like she had something to say to him she just hadn’t found a way to say yet. She’d once told him that if he felt like he had to hide something from her, it probably wasn’t a good thing to be doing. He just needed some space. He needed to figure out how to be who he was, because he wasn’t going to suddenly be able to hear when the sun rose in the morning.

Link: She said to remember the long view. That our day-to-day challenges can sometimes feel so overwhelming, and they can make us think or only be able to see short-term. So I know you’re frustrated right now. Still settling into something that feels new and scary and big. I just want you to know that I love you, and I know God loves you, and I hope you can have the longest view possible right now.

Mitch’s heartbeat pulsed through his body, because he believed every word Link had spoken, and he had to acknowledge that God loved him. He had not been forgotten.

He simply hoped God would have a long view on his life too, and that He could potentially forgive this little bump where Mitch had doubted everything in his life, including his belief that God was aware of him, cared about him, and wanted to guide him.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Misty drew a deep breath and smoothed her hands down the front of her body to get her dress to lay where she wanted it. Everything in her life seemed to be coming up daisies and sunshine, and she wanted it to keep going that way.

A knock sounded on the door, and she turned away from her reflection. “It’s Link,” she called to Janie, but her roommate made it to the door first. Janie squealed and stepped outside without even acknowledging Misty.

“I guess it’s not Link,” she said, but Janie hadn’t said she had a date this fine Sabbath morning. She hurried to the window and pushed the gauzy curtain aside to find out who Janie was going out with. She sucked in a breath at the baby face she found smiling at Janie as he opened the passenger door to his truck so she could climb in wearing her own sundress.

“Brandon Rhinehart.” Misty straightened and turned in a circle, looking for her phone. “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me she was going out with Brandon Rhinehart.” She started typing in all caps, shouting at Janie for hiding such a thing from her. She’d never withheld a single thing from her about Link. Well, at least not the trivial stuff.

Janie hadn’t answered before Link knocked on the door, and seeing as how Misty had been pacing in the living room of her new rental, she only had to spin and open the door. “Did you know Janie is going out with Brandon Rhinehart?”

Link blinked at her, then his smile took over his face. This morning, he wore a pair of sunglasses with his sexy cowboy hat, and he might as well have been a bodyguard in those things. They gave him a sense of mystery and intrigue, as if Misty needed another reason to like him.

“No, ma’am,” he said. “I tend to talk more to Dawson than Brandon.” He stepped up into the house. “She didn’t tell you?”

“She did not.” Misty huffed out her breath and shoved her phone in her dress pocket.

“That’s kind of odd, isn’t it?” Link asked.

“It is,” Misty said.” And you know what else? It hurts. I have this pinching inside, like someone has reached through my ribs and is squeezing my lungs.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Link didn’t make fun of her for her feelings. He simply gathered her into his arms and held her while something stomped and stormed through her. “You sure look pretty today,” he murmured. “I really like you in flowers.”

“Thank you.” Misty stuffed everything that had spilled out back into its rightful place. She backed away from Link. “I’m ready.” She swiped at her eyes, but she hadn’t shed any tears, so her makeup should be fine.

Link took her hand and led her out to the passenger door of his truck, and he drove them over to the church. “Aunt Willa’s speaking about having the long view again today,” he said. “I had my nephew over for breakfast this morning, and he told me so.” He flashed her a smile. “Should be good.”

“Yes,” Misty agreed. “It should be.”

“Hey, I wanted to ask you.” Link kept his eyes out the windshield, not that she’d have been able to see them anyway. “My family does this big thing every year. For Christmas.” He glanced over to her then, and the only indication she had of his nerves was the way both hands gripped the steering wheel, almost to the point of his knuckles being white.

He wore a pristine white shirt too, with a brilliant tie in orange and gray paisley, and she marveled that he could be so put together in his Sunday best one moment, and in blue jeans and cowboy boots at another.

Misty reached over and took his nearest hand off the wheel and into hers. “You’re nervous.”

“This is a big celebration in the Glover family,” he said. “For Shiloh Ridge. We put up a family tree every year at the homestead—the one where Ranger and Oakley live. We decorate it with my great-grandmother’s homemade ornaments, and it stands for a couple of months, reminding anyone who comes to the ranch about our heritage.”

He swallowed, and Misty thought about her own family traditions. Had they even had any? If so, she couldn’t remember them. Once she’d realized that she couldn’t count on her mother to protect her and Danny, she’d done the best she could. She’d helped him dye eggs at Easter, and she’d hidden them around the house while her mother was passed out drunk.

She made pancakes every Saturday morning. For Christmas, she’d hung the stockings for her and Danny, and she’d filled them with whatever she could trade for at school. Tears pricked her eyes at the awful memories, and especially at how her feeble attempts to make a normal life for her brother had failed so spectacularly.

“I want you to come this year,” he said. “We have a big family meal. We vote on our investments during our annual ranch meeting. Then we decorate the tree. Eat dessert. It’s really amazing, and I’d really like you there.”

Misty pulled herself out of her past and looked at Link in her present. A great, booming voice in her head told her that this man could also be her future, and that made her throat dry and her palms sweaty.

“I’d love to come, Link,” she said softly.

He blew his breath out, as if he’d been holding it since he’d awakened that morning. “Great. It’s the last Sunday of October.”

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