Page 9 of Long Time Coming

Organizing this trip for his spring break took two rounds and a few thousand in attorney fees.

Looking up from my phone, I see Christine reach over and tickle Beck. She taps his nose as his giggles ring out across the yard before she turns in my direction.Damn.She’s not the same Pris I remember. Even down to the nickname I promised not to use again. But calling her Christine just doesn’t sit right. She’s just as Pristine with my boy as she was all those years ago.

She swings by the house to grab some carrots from inside. “A little hot in the country for you?” she asks, grinning at me like I’m foreign to the outdoors.

“Not one bit.”

I think I hear, “I beg to differ,” but I could be wrong. I know Baylor’s younger sister would never flirt with me. Though I’m still staring at the screen door as it slams closed like my ears didn’t deceive me.Would she?

Nah.

She’s got to have a line of guys waiting to take her out or hold her hand at the county fair. What would she see in some guy she’s known her whole life? Considering how much I pestered her growing up, she probably sees me like a third brother.

Beck runs onto the porch, out of breath, and straight for me. “Dad?”

“Son?” I grin. I didn’t think I’d failed my son until early last year when Anna and I broke up. The time apart gave me clarity of what we were both missing, and I realized I had never stopped climbing the corporate ladder to take in the view. That view will always pale compared to the one I have before me.

Seeing him now, it was worth every penny.

“Miss Christine said that I get to feed the horses.” The anticipation zipping through his words has him smiling like a loon.

“Whoa, buddy!” I sit forward, just as enthused for him. “That’s exciting.”

There’s a long exhale and even longer inhale before he adds, “They’re big animals.” There’s no shake to his voice, but I can hear the change.

“They are. Are you nervous?”

He looks back at the field where two horses mosey their way toward the fence at the edge of the yard. When he turns back, he scrapes his hand across his sweaty forehead and then shakes his head. “No. I’m big and brave. She said so and that I’m old enough.”

The squeak of the door alerts me to her presence again, though her proximity seems to be doing a solid job on its own.

With a cowboy hat now on her head, she hands him two carrots. “You ready to feed the horses?”

“Yes-sir-ree Bob.”

Her laughter tickles a smile into place, which causes him to start giggling. I pat his back, though I know he’s itching to run to the horses. “Seems like ranch life suits you, Beck.”

“It’s fun here.”

“It is fun here.” I add, “You go have fun, bud.” He takes off before I finish the sentence.

Running the tips of her fingers over my shoulder as she passes by, she stops on the top step and looks back. “You’re not coming, Daddy?”

Fuck. Me.

My brows shoot to the porch ceiling.I definitely did not mishear that. She’s flirting . . . I think. Fuck.Is she?

I have no fucking clue. What I do know is I’m not getting up from this chair to show her how she affects me.

Chuckling, I look away.

Her laughter pulls me back to her. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because that was the most awkward laugh I’ve ever heard.” She crosses the yard, not leaving any room for me to lie as if she already knew I would.

I’m not sure what that exchange was all about, but I’m letting it go. I don’t know what to say anyway, so it’s best if I keep my mouth shut.

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