Page 56 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

Good friends.

A big city.

Lincoln Glover had ruined it all. He’d ruined her.

“Can I have my phone, please?” She held out her hand, and Janie brought over her device.

“What are you going to say?”

“I’m going to tell him he’s not special because he has millions of dollars in the bank.” Misty typed out exactly that and sent it. I don’t want you thinking you’re special because you have a lot of money.

I don’t think that, he said. Just like you’re not special because you have a great job and a fun life in Dallas.

The little bit of air she’d managed to take into her lungs went right back out again. It was as if Link held all the oxygen molecules in the world, and she could only get them from him. He’d become very important to her. Very important indeed.

“You’re thinking of moving here to be with him, aren’t you?” Janie asked in a tiny, timid whisper.

Misty couldn’t speak, so she simply nodded. Her phone chimed again, and she couldn’t stop herself from looking at it.

I want you to be mine, Link said. I want to be yours. I know we’re still in the early stages, and I can be patient. I guess I’m just fishing for the same thing I wanted when we started seeing each other again a couple of months ago—is this still serious for you? And if so, does that mean you’ll consider moving here permanently?

Another text came in as she re-read the first one.

I don’t need you to tell me you’ll move here for certain. I just need to know it’s a possibility. And I’m going to stop now, because I hate that we’re texting about this and not talking face-to-face. We can talk more about it tonight at my place.

Misty read both messages again, then read them out loud to Janie. Her face glowed like she’d set up a rim light to make a video. “That cowboy is in love with you,” she said again. “And you have to decide if you’re willing to love him back…or not.”

“He’s asking a lot of me,” Misty whispered miserably. “He’s asking me to rearrange my whole life to be here, to be with him.”

“Yeah, to be his,” Janie said with a sigh. “It’s so romantic.” She got to her feet and turned toward the hall. “Hey, I have a date with that guy Stephen tonight. Misty.” She faced her again. “Think of your Future Self. Would she want you to give up your job and apartment in the city to be here and belong with that sexy, tall, gorgeous, rich cowboy? What’s the sacrifice, really?”

With a kind smile, she left the living room, left Misty to her own thoughts and feelings. What’s the sacrifice, really?

Every single thing Misty had put in place over the past two decades, that was the sacrifice. She’d have to burn her whole life to the ground and trust that she could rise from the ashes a better, different person than she’d been before. And what if Link didn’t like that woman? What if she wasn’t who he really wanted?

What if he abandoned her like everyone else had?

Link sat on the front porch at the Top Cottage, his guitar across his lap, when Misty arrived for dinner. He’d said he’d come pick her up, but she felt silly having him do that. Their eyes met through the windshield, and Link lifted his chin in a very cowboy nod of hello.

Misty smiled and ducked her head, her hair falling down between them. She’d let it grow out this summer without dying it again, and the strawberry had definitely remixed with the blonde. When she and Link spent time outside together, he lightly tapped all over her face with a glorious smile on his face.

He’d started lighting kisses across her freckles too, claiming he absolutely loved them. Meanwhile, Misty kept trying to cover them up with foundation, and he kept telling her how amazingly gorgeous they were.

She reached for the food she’d driven to town to get for tonight’s dinner, her heartbeat thumping like a bass beat in a dance club. If her life had a soundtrack, right now it would be playing a medley of tense stringed instruments, and everyone would be on-edge, waiting to see what would happen next.

“Can’t prolong this anymore,” she muttered to herself as she picked up the authentic Texas barbecue, with all the sides she knew Link loved, and got out of her car. She hadn’t answered his texts, because he’d been right. She didn’t want to have a conversation about their future with typed letters.

She wanted to see his face and hear his voice when he said things like, I want you to be mine.

She shivered just imagining him saying that to her. Had her mother ever had someone say that to her? Did she feel this same sort of string of excitement bubbling through her? Had she hoped for a future filled with love, happiness, and joy?

Children, and family dinners, and slow Sunday afternoons after church? Misty couldn’t even believe she’d thought about church on Sundays, but she had. “I love church on Sundays,” she murmured to herself as she started down the sidewalk that led to the wide, spanning porch at the Top Cottage.

Link hummed along with the music his fingers made, and because Misty had sat beside him during a Sabbath Day meeting, she knew what his singing voice sounded like. Deep, rich, and dripping with honey.

He stopped as she got closer, but his fingers continued to pick over the strings of his guitar. “Hey.” He didn’t smile or make any move to get up and take her into his arms.

Misty set down the bags of food, seeing as how Link wasn’t in a hurry to eat, and settled onto the step beside him. The bridge of the guitar stuck out across her chest, but she leaned into Link’s strong arm and shoulder anyway.

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