Page 78 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

“Yeah, I can hear,” Link told her with a smile. “Come on. Let’s see who it is.” Before he could get up from where he’d sprawled on the couch, the door creaked open.

Misty said, “It’s just me, baby. Can I come in?”

Link hurried to stand now, and he faced her with the couch between them, wearing only a pair of basketball shorts and nothing else. “Hey.” Surprise ran up his spine and down his arms. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

She stared at him, a couple of brown cardboard containers of food in her hands. “Uh.” Her eyes skittered all over his chest, from left to right and down. She yanked them back up, and heat filled Link’s whole body.

“Uh, let me find a shirt,” he said. He took a step and tripped over Honor, stumbling forward as he grunted and griped at the dog. He’d thrown a shirt over the recliner at some point, and he snatched it up and pulled it over his head. “What did you bring for dinner?”

Misty startled as if she’d just been unfrozen in a game of freeze-tag, and she walked into his kitchen as he did the same. “It’s nothing special. Just those waffles we tried a couple of weeks ago.”

“I love those,” he said. “Did you get me the—ah, yes. The Nuts About Berries.” He grinned at the big, puffy waffle with Nutella spread, raspberries, and strawberries, all topped with whipped cream. “Thanks, love.” He leaned down and kissed the side of her neck. “Work going okay?”

“Yeah,” she said in a higher-pitched voice. She snuggled into his side, but Link definitely felt like something wasn’t quite right.

“Did you text me?” he asked. “I couldn’t sleep, so I came out here and laid down. Dozed a little more.”

“I didn’t text,” she said. “I figured if I got here by five, you’d be here.”

“Mm.” He got out forks and handed her one. She opened her container, and he wasn’t surprised to find a waffle with lemon curd covering it, then whipped cream with a few delicately placed raspberries in it.

“Can we share?” she asked.

“Of course we can,” he said, taking his waffle over to the table. “Want some juice? I have milk too, or that peach lemonade you like. Sweet tea from Aunt Holly.” He moved over to the fridge and opened it. Misty didn’t respond, and Link reconsidered why she’d fallen into a trance earlier.

He’d thought it was because he hadn’t been wearing a shirt, but now, he wasn’t so sure. He got out the orange juice—medium pulp—because he knew Misty liked it, and he pulled down two glasses from the cupboard.

After he poured her a glass of orange juice, he plunked the heavy-bottomed glass in front of her. She blinked rapidly, and he asked, “What’s going on?”

“I—well, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“You’re as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.” He grinned at her. “As my grandmother would say.” He cut a bite of his waffle and speared it on the end of his fork. “It’s just me, Misty. Say what you want.”

“I’m afraid you won’t like it.”

Link swallowed, then put the dessert waffle in his mouth. Wait, he told himself. He wasn’t going to ask her if she was about to break-up with him. Surely she wouldn’t bring waffles to end their relationship. He couldn’t imagine her ending it at all. He’d gotten no hint or sign of that.

So he waited.

Misty hadn’t taken a bite of her waffle by the time Link had eaten half of his, and he said, “Misty, baby. Just tell me.”

“My brother is up for parole,” she said. “First Monday in October. I want to go to the hearing.”

Link looked at her. “Okay.” He gave her a small smile. “That’s what you’re worried about?”

“I’m afraid,” she said again, her voice much tinnier and higher than usual. “That if I leave…I don’t know. I don’t want to leave Three Rivers.” She shook her head. “Or you.” She stabbed off a bite of her waffle and stared at it. “It doesn’t make sense. But I’m nervous.”

“You’re going to come back,” he said. “You have a job here.”

She looked at him with those gorgeous green eyes. “Link, we both know it’s not the job I’m worried about.”

“What are you worried about? That I’m going to find some other stunning blonde to fall in love with?”

She wiped at the tear as it started to creep out of her eye. “No, I’m worried that Danny will need me. That he won’t want to come up here, or he won’t be able to. That you won’t like him. That everything is about to get so complicated, when it’s been so easy.”

Link listened to her, but he couldn’t imagine anything she’d just said. Still, he didn’t jump right in to refute her. After a few moments, he said, “Sweetheart, I will—” He cleared his throat. “I’m not going anywhere. If you have to take care of some things down near the coast, or in Dallas, or wherever, that’s fine. I’d go with you, if you wanted.”

He kept his head bent, studying the texture of the waffle in front of him. “I don’t have to like your brother to love you. And being with you has been both complicated and easy, and I’ve loved every moment of it. So whatever is next for us is just that: the next thing we have to conquer.”

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