Page 10 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

Misty closed her eyes and shook her head. “No,” she said. “He got squirreled away to dance with his cousin, and his parents said nothing.”

“You said Sammy said you must be Misty.”

“Yeah, that,” she said. “Then they looked at each other, and the next thing I know, his daddy’s asked me to dance.”

“And he said nothing?”

“He’s tighter-lipped than Link.” Misty smiled then, because she’d often teased Link about how he never said more than what was necessary. He’d teased her back that she said plenty for the both of them.

Her chest felt absolutely hollow, and Misty feared taking a breath. Perhaps her ribs would shatter with the oxygen, or the air would super-cool her lungs to the point of freezing. Tears pressed behind her eyes, and she hadn’t felt this helpless since she’d hugged her brother good-bye and then watched him get led away in handcuffs and shackles.

Alone. She’d done that alone, while her mother had stayed home, claiming she couldn’t handle seeing Danny like that. Misty couldn’t imagine not being there, but her mother had always chosen herself over her children, so Misty shouldn’t have expected anything differently.

She hated going back to that place, because she’d worked so dang hard to pull herself out of that pit. She’d never felt lighter than she had when she’d driven across the Texas border and left New Orleans and Louisiana in her rearview mirror.

Drawing a deep breath, Misty yanked on the string that had started to unravel. It snapped, relieving her of any more memories. “Then Mitch arrived, and he spun me away, and the next thing I know, Link’s gone.”

“And nothing since,” Janie said, not asking. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Misty whispered. “All his mom would say before his daddy hustled me onto the dance floor was that I should talk to Link.”

“Maybe you should.”

“I don’t even know what to say.” Misty groaned and sat up. She started pulling the barrettes out of her hair. “I know what he’s going to say, and you know what? I don’t have answers for him.”

“Okay, practice on me,” Janie said. She shook her hair over her shoulders and straightened them.

“I’m not going to practice on you.”

“Go on,” she said with a smile. “Maybe it’ll help you iron out your thoughts.”

“Sure.” She closed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair. She had colored it. She’d started doing yoga in the morning before work. Walking along the river in the evening. Anything different than she’d done when she was the Misty-with-Link. Because it hurt too much to be the Misty-without-Link.

“I miss you,” she said, opening her eyes. “I’m sorry about last year, and I’d love to meet at the coffee truck and get coffee with you.”

“Why?” Janie barked out, her voice lower. “So you can eat all my cookies?” A smile flashed on her face, but she shoved it away.

Misty almost rolled her eyes, but her heartbeat shuddered through her body. “I’ll buy you another box of cookies.”

“And then what, Misty?”

“Then, I don’t know. We could go hiking like we used to, and you could show me that old car you’ve been working on with your momma, and I don’t know. Just…something.”

“We can’t go back to who and what we were before,” Janie said in her fake cowboy voice.

“I know,” Misty said, but she honestly hadn’t considered that. “But I want to.” She wiped at her right eye, though she wasn’t about to cry. “I could bring you lunch up on the ranch. I always said I would, but I never did.”

“So what’s changed?” Janie asked. “You’re not planning to live here in Three Rivers are you?”

Misty pulled her eyes from the carpet then, and she looked at her best friend. She couldn’t get herself to say no, of course not. But she wasn’t planning on staying in Three Rivers once her restoration assignment ended.

And Link knew that.

No wonder she hadn’t heard from him.

Janie wore a look of sympathy, and she shook her head. “I’m sorry, Misty.”

“Me too.” She got to her feet, because she thought she might cry, and she really wanted to do that alone. “I’m going to bed. Thanks for cleaning up dinner.”

---