Page 3 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

“Julienne,” she said. “Nicki’s our aunt.”

Aunt? Mitch asked. How old are you?

Link ducked his head, because he didn’t want to ask that question out loud. “Mitch,” he muttered as Abby tried to explain she didn’t know what he’d said.

“He just wants to know how old you are,” he said finally, lifting his head to save everyone from further embarrassment. He gave the women a smile. “He’s looking for a date.”

Mitch swung his attention back to Link in time to catch the last word, and he zipped his attention back to the women, a flush crawling up his neck. His hands moved quickly, but Link caught what he’d said.

Abby and Julienne glowed like the sun, moon, and stars, and Abby said, “I’m twenty-two, and she’s twenty-four.”

“How are you nieces for Nicki then?” Link asked, not bothering to sign their ages for Mitch. He could read lips. “Isn’t she only about that old?”

“Nicki is thirty-four,” Julienne said. “She’s the youngest in her family, and our momma is almost fifty, so.”

“She’s our aunt,” Abby finished.

“Thirty-four, wow,” Link said. “I didn’t realize she was that old.”

Julienne unfolded her napkin and placed it in her lap, only looking up through her eyelashes at Link. “Is that old, cowboy?”

“Oh, no,” Link said quickly, his own embarrassment rising now. “No, not at all.” He shot a look over to Nana Malone, who gave him a smile. “Sorry, that came out too harsh.”

“This is your table,” a woman said, and Link mercifully looked away from the two women seated on the other side of Mitch. “Seems like these are your seats. My brother and Nicki are so glad you could join them tonight.”

Link looked up and found another man standing there, this one not wearing a cowboy hat. And in Three Rivers, at a formal wedding, that said a whole lot. His eyes darted over to his date, and then he was the one lurching to his feet.

His thighs hit the table, and the dishes and silverware clinked together as it all moved. “Oof,” he grunted, the yelp of Mrs. Malone filling his ears. His face flamed hot, but he couldn’t look away from Ralf’s date.

Misty Granger.

“Misty,” he bellowed right as the music cut out. Of course.

She looked at him, and she wasn’t the only one. Link felt dozens of eyes on him, and he prayed the Lord would suck him down into that portal he often fantasized about.

Chapter Two

Misty Granger touched Ralf’s arm, and then they shifted together. Him to the right and her to the left, so that when they took their seats, she’d be right next to the best-looking cowboy in the state of Texas.

Probably the whole country. No, the continent.

Misty’s thoughts sparked and flew up into the air like bits of paper had caught fire and then been picked up by a tornado. She smiled at Link as the feedback from a microphone filled the silent night.

Everyone cringed and groaned, Misty included, and she half-shrank into Link as the shrill screech faded and Alex’s daddy chuckled nervously into the mic. “Sorry, everyone,” he said. “If you’ll take your seats, we’re ready to begin.”

Misty twitched her hand slightly, as if to pull out her chair, but Link lunged in front of her. “Let me,” he said, and Misty ducked her head, her newly colored hair falling down between them.

“It’s not as red,” Link said, barely giving her room to sit down. “Your hair.” The last words came out as a whisper, his breath drifting across her cheek and reminding her of when he’d take her into his arms and kiss her.

Misty’s pulse throbbed through the big vein in her neck, making her hearing fuzzy and her throat so narrow. “Yes,” she finally managed to say. “I got it done for the wedding.”

“It’s really blonde.”

“She took out some of the red,” she admitted. “Could you give me a couple more inches, Lincoln?”

He cleared his throat and backed up all the way, and his cousin grabbed onto his sleeve and practically pulled him back into his own chair. But he was a big, tall, broad-shouldered cowboy, and this table held eight chairs. If she relaxed her knees so they weren’t so rigidly pressed together, her leg would touch Link’s.

For some reason, that made every cell in her body vibrate. She’d held the cowboy’s hand. They’d laughed together. Laid together and watched the stars come out. Hiked together. He’d brought her lunch at City Hall, where she’d been working, and they’d toured these very orchards together near the end of the season last year.

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