Page 162 of Hold Me Until Morning

Then Cody wavered, his teeth working at the middle of his bottom lip, his hand tightening on mine like he was the one who needed to cling to me. He kept his voice low, trying to protect innocent ears. “But you should know I got into a bit of trouble when I was working for your father. There’s a reason he hates me.”

I felt myself pale, the vague warnings he kept giving me rising to the forefront. “What kind of trouble?”

Cody looked to the rearview mirror, at my daughter who was watching out the windows.

I got it.

His reluctance.

I squeezed his hand back. “It doesn’t matter, Cody. That was a long time ago, and this is now.”

Could I claim that? Make it true? Stand in it for every obstacle and barrier that worked to keep us separated?

The promise I had made?

This guilt?

Give in and let go?

Is that what Cody wanted? Is that what we were headed for?

I inhaled around the disorder, putting it aside. “I need to figure out this other situation, anyway, then we can deal with my father.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Relief coated Cody’s tone.

“What kind of plans you got, my Mr. Cody?” Maddie piped in from the backseat.

She said it like she’d had no clue what we were talking about, her voice eager and excited, the way it’d been the entire trip, though she’d finally settled down over the last ten minutes since the ride was taking longer than she’d understood that it would.

Cody glanced at her through the rearview mirror. “The plan is we’re about to introduce you to some new friends, and you’re going to have a blast.”

“I love that plan!” she yelled.

Cody chuckled, and he squeezed my fingers some more as he glanced over at me. “What do you think of that plan, Hailey? Do you think we’re going to have a blast?”

There was a tease to it. A gentle ribbing. A nudging toward what was hanging out in the periphery waiting on me to let go.

I shifted to look between him and my daughter. “I think it’s going to be the best day ever.”

“Now that sounds like a solid plan,” Cody said.

“Yes!” Maddie shouted, throwing a little fist in the air.

Dust billowed behind us as Cody drove his truck down the dirt lane that wound through the outbuildings of the ranch, and he eased all the way around to park next to another large truck and a white Volvo with a Time River Market & Café logo in the back window.

“Are my new friends already here?” Maddie asked, squirming and yanking at the straps of her car seat.

“It looks like everyone is just getting here, don’t you fret, Button,” Cody told her.

“Then let me out!”

“I’ve got you, little one,” he promised.

He hopped out of the driver’s side and moved to open the back door. He leaned in and unbuckled Maddie then swooped her out and into his arms like he did it every day.

Like he was happy to do it.

Like he was purposed to do it.

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