Page 98 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

And the clock hadn’t even struck ten yet. They weren’t attending church today, and Link honestly didn’t care when they arrived in Dallas. Misty would stay at her apartment, and Link, being a creature of habit, had booked the same hotel he’d stayed in last month when he’d made his first trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“I can’t believe we’re going away together,” Misty murmured, her lips still against his.

“Next time we do it,” he said. “We should actually go on vacation. The beach. The mountains. Something that isn’t a chore.”

“I’m in, cowboy.”

He pulled away and took her hand as he fell back a step. “Come on, then. Let’s get your shoes and get on the road.”

She slid on her sandals with ease, and then she hugged Janie before they left the house. Link helped her up into the passenger seat; they buckled in; he set the course on his phone; and just like that, they left Three Rivers in the rear view mirror.

Misty hadn’t said anything yet, and Link certainly wasn’t one to chatter on if there wasn’t anything to be said. But he glanced over to Misty. “So we haven’t really talked about getting married.”

She lifted her eyes from her phone, then tucked it under her thigh. “No, we haven’t.”

“Is that something you’d like to do?” He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she said no. What a dumb question, he told himself. “I mean, I’m not going to rush you into it. My momma said you probably have some idea of when you’d like to get married, and I should ask you about it.”

She grinned at him flirtily and leaned her head back against the rest. “Is that what your momma said?”

“Yes,” he said. “So have you? Given any thought to a wedding? You know, if you’d like it to be in a field of bluebonnets or with, I don’t know, hay bales and stalks of dried corn, or….” He trailed off when she started laughing.

Flustered, Link gripped the steering wheel and shifted in his seat. “If you haven’t thought about it, then we can throw a dart at a calendar and get married on whatever date it lands on.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t throw a dart,” she said, still laughing. “You’d throw a horseshoe.”

Link smiled then. “Yeah, okay. Whatever you want to throw.”

Misty’s laughter quieted. “A marriage isn’t all about one person, Link.”

“No, it’s not.”

“So when would you like to get married?”

His heart nearly jumped out of his throat. “Just to be clear, we’re talking about me and you getting married, right?”

“Yes, cowboy,” she drawled out. “I mean, you’re not special, but yes, me and you. Getting married.”

“Well, if I’m marrying you, I’d like to get married as soon as possible.”

Misty looked away, the boring, brown landscape beyond her window suddenly so enthralling. “That’s so sweet, Link.” She pulled in a breath that sounded a lot like a sniffle, and Link reached over and took her hand.

“Misty, I’m in love with you. Now that I know it and you know it and we’re talking about marriage and kids and how to build a house of our own at Shiloh Ridge, every night I go home alone is awful.” He couldn’t believe it, but his momma had been right. “I don’t want to sleep alone. I don’t want to wake up alone. I want to see your face when I walk in after a long day on horseback, and I want to make you breakfast for dinner when you’ve been painting so long you can’t even see colors anymore.”

She nodded, truly sniffling now. “Okay,” she said.

“That wasn’t a proposal,” he said. “And by the way, you don’t say ‘okay’ when a man asks you to marry him.” He chuckled, glad when she attempted a laugh too. “I’m just saying, when we get married is going to depend on you, because I’d stop by the closest courthouse I could find and get it done.”

She shook her head, her smile so beautiful. “Link, there’s a seventy-two-hour waiting period of marriages in Texas.”

“Okay, well, we could still get it done by Thanksgiving.” He grinned at her, knowing full-well she wouldn’t do that. “And, uh, what about your mom? Are you going to tell her? Invite her? Maybe she’d like to come see the ranch? Meet me?”

Link forced himself to stop talking, and he wished he’d stopped to get something to drink. He could rectify that in Pampa, as they had a little convenience store right off the highway.

“So many questions,” she murmured.

“I don’t need all the answers,” he said. “Really, I don’t. Just—you know how I have a lot going on in my head sometimes.” He flashed her a smile, hoping to smooth things over a little.

“I love what goes on in your head,” she said, squeezing his hand. “Let’s start with the wedding. Link.” She sighed and reached to tuck her hair behind her ear. “I didn’t make plans to get married. Ever. I didn’t play with dolls who got to walk down the aisle in pretty dresses I made for them out of my mother’s old clothes or toilet paper or whatever.”

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