Page 24 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

“So they’re talking again,” Janie said while Misty silently suffered. She turned away from the scrutiny of the Glovers, refusing to allow herself to cry in front of them.

“Come with me, honey.” Gentle yet firm hands guided her away from the table and down a nearby hallway. It led into the kitchen, where dishes clattered and voices chattered.

Misty knew Etta had led her away from the others, but she couldn’t look at her. Didn’t know what to say.

“We all love Lincoln beyond measure,” Etta said quietly, carefully, slowly. “He was never happier than when he was with you, but none of us want to see him hurt again.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” Misty said as she twisted her hands together, her gaze locked on her fingers. “It’s just, I have so many knots inside me, you know? Haven’t you ever just—?” She sighed out her breath and looked up helplessly. “You think you know what to do, so you make these rules for yourself, but in reality, you don’t know anything. That’s how things have gone with me and Link.”

Etta looked at her with all the compassion in the world, and Misty couldn’t fathom it. “You are a sweet woman, Misty. I don’t know the source of your turmoil, but I’ve experienced plenty of my own in my life. We all have.”

“I have so many things to make right,” Misty said. “What if he won’t listen to me?”

Etta smiled kindly at her. “Oh, baby, Link is the best listener on the ranch. He lives with Mitch, didn’t you know?”

Misty huffed out a laugh. “Mitch only talks with his hands.”

“Yeah, and he talks a lot,” Etta said. “Link has to watch and listen, and he’s so, so good at it.” She took Misty’s hands and pulled them apart. “Do not walk away from him without making him listen, okay?”

“I don’t know if I can explain everything.”

“Maybe just try,” Etta said with a final nod. “Okay? Just try, and let God fill your mouth with words.” She dropped her hands and moved to the door of the kitchen and right through it. “August, baby,” Misty heard her say. “How are things looking in here?”

Misty pressed her back against the wall and took in a deep breath. She looked up toward the ceiling, not sure God would give her the strength—or the words—she needed to tell Link the real reason why she’d wanted only a casual relationship with him in the first place.

“Why do some people get families like the Glovers?” she asked the Lord. “When I got something so different? So…so inferior? So much worse than this?” Tears did press into her eyes then, and Misty didn’t know how to hold them back.

She didn’t want to be mad at God, but it sure felt extremely unfair that she’d experienced such a wildly different childhood and young adulthood than Lincoln had. “How do I explain it in a way he’ll understand?”

Have faith and take the first step.

Misty had heard those words spoken by a Glover—Pastor Glover—several weeks ago, and now it seemed like they’d been implanted in her ears right when she needed them the most.

“What if I don’t have enough faith?” she asked.

Take the first step.

After another deep, cleansing breath, Misty pushed away from the wall and faced the big room of the barn. She’d be seeing Link that evening, and she made a promise to herself and the Lord that she’d do her best to open her mouth and let Him fill it with what Link needed to hear.

The hours in the afternoon seemed to melt into seconds, and before Misty knew it, she stood in the cabin kitchen and pulled on a pair of boots she’d borrowed from the clothing tables in True Blue.

She stomped her heel down and stood. “How do I look?” She spun for Janie, who barely looked up from her phone.

“Like you’re going for a stroll, not a horseback ride.” She went back to her phone. “Don’t you need to wear long pants to get on a horse?”

“Do you?” Misty panicked as she looked down the hall to her bedroom. “I don’t have long pants. It’s June. In Texas.”

Knocking sounded on the door, and Misty yelped. “Just a minute,” she yelled, but the door had already started to push in. Link followed it, his smile sliding from his face when he met Misty’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, entering the house fully now and kicking the door closed behind him. He strode toward her and took her elbows into his hands as he scanned her to her feet and back to her face. “What’s—what’s this look on your face?”

“I don’t have long pants,” Misty said, just expecting him to understand what she meant.

A sexy furrow pulled between his eyes. “Okay.”

“Janie says I need long pants to go horseback riding.”

His face relaxed, and he chuckled low in his throat. “Ah, I see. Well, they are preferred.” He glanced over to Janie, who lay on the couch watching them shamelessly. She didn’t even blink as they both looked at her.

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