Page 73 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

“Is it?” he challenged. “Maybe I missed all the hype around twenty-seventh birthdays.” He looked over to his father. “What did you do for your twenty-seventh birthday, Daddy?”

Bear smiled, of all things. “I worked the ranch.” He took a big bite of his roll and said nothing more.

Sammy wanted to roll her eyes. “How old will you be in March, Misty?”

“Thirty-one, ma’am.”

Sammy’s heart fell to the soles of her shoes, especially when Link said, “Also not a milestone, Momma.”

“Still, March is a big month for us,” she said. She gestured between her and Bear. “We got married in March. So did Oakley and Ranger.”

“On the same day,” Bear said.

“So we could just have a big family celebration.”

“I like parties,” Misty said, and Sammy practically lunged at her to hug her.

“There you go. She likes parties, so we’ll have a party.”

“It’s months away, Momma,” Link said, glaring at her out of the corner of his eye.

Sammy knew how to win this and get out of it at the same time. “So we’ll just wait and see.” She smiled at Misty and looked over to Rock. “Rock, we get three sentences on what you did in your rodeo prep class this morning.”

He looked at her like she’d just said speaking three sentences would torture him, but she didn’t budge an inch. If she didn’t give him a stipulation, he’d say nothing.

“Then can I tell everyone about the new girl in my health class?” Smiles asked. Sammy would get two whole conversations from him, and she nodded at him while also telling him with her eyes to stay quiet until Rock had his turn.

“Is this a new girl you like or just a new girl?” Daddy asked.

“It’s Smiles,” Heather said with a snort. “What do you think?”

Smiles didn’t deny that he was a bit of a flirt, or that he seemed to like every female who smiled back at him. In fact, he just smiled while his siblings teased him—everyone but Rock.

Sammy let it go on for a few moments, and then she said, “All right, all right. Rock, your turn.”

He put another big bite of bread in his mouth, but they’d all learned to wait for him. If they didn’t, he’d get out of talking, and Sammy would have to nag him again the same way she had Smiles about filling the cups with ice before dinner.

Sammy knew all of her children and the things they did to avoid what they didn’t like to do. So she waited, and finally Rock said, “It’s just the beginning, and we’ve started with a first aid unit.”

That was one sentence, and Sammy waited patiently for a second, her love for her family expanding and filling her whole heart. She glanced at Misty, and she easily absorbed her into her heart too, which caused her to instantly start praying that all would work out between her and Link.

Her beautiful son, who Sammy knew only wanted someone to see him and love him and choose him.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Misty helped load one of two dishwashers with the glasses from tonight’s meal. Growing up, she hadn’t even had a single dishwasher, let alone two. In fact, she hadn’t even had a dishwasher until she’d graduated from college and gotten an apartment with one of her friends from the single design class she’d taken.

Sammy whipped everyone into shape, and everyone—even Link—had a job to clear the table, put leftovers away, and clean up the dishes, pots and pans, and countertops in the kitchen. Misty went back to the table to get the bottles of jam they’d had for their rolls. Homemade strawberry, peach, and raspberry.

Misty had been in college before she’d realized that jams and jellies could even be homemade. And that scalloped potatoes didn’t have to come from a box. And that cake recipes existed, not just cake mixes.

As she stretched for the big mason jar of peach jam, her shoe flexed, and she looked down as her shoelace broke. “Shoot.”

She’d known her little runners might not last much longer, but she’d expected the soles to wear through before the lace broke.

Sammy came up beside her. “You okay?”

“My shoelace broke.”

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