Page 15 of Two Weddings and a Shoot Out

“I agree. I don’t know your heart, Dad, but I have seen how your mouth quirks up a little and your eyes light up when Hope walks in the room. If you feel something for her, then you need to follow it. I know I speak for everyone when I say we want you to have someone to grow old with,” Winnie said.

The girls’ words had tears pooling in his eyes. He was happy he had their blessing, but change was hard. The What Ifs were endless. What if he opened himself up and lost Hope, too? What if he couldn’t be the man Hope needed? What if he died before Benji hit high school? Taking a chance with Hope meant taking a chance with Benji.

“And I’m guessing you might be worried about what happens to Benji if something happens to you and Hope. Bear and I have discussed it, and we would take over. Until then, he’d be our little brother, and how cool would that be?” Winnie said.

“Woohoo! I wouldn’t be the youngest anymore. How cool! Okay, so what do we need to do to get Dad on board?” Beth asked.

Locks sniffed and wiped a couple tears away. He’d cried and laughed more the last couple days than he had for a while.

“I think I need to sit down and really think about what I want. Your support, no matter what, means the world to me. Now, let’s quit all this crying and emotional stuff and break out some pumpkin bread. I want to hear all about you girls. I know we all live close, but tell me what’s going on,” Locks said.

He listened as Beth caught them up on what was happening in Texas. Then Sarah tossed in her take on her life along with her pregnancy. Each girl shared what was going on, and Locks realized that they needed to do this more often.

Even if they all weren’t in the same location, they could still get together. He had a lot to think about. What did he want for the rest of his life, and once he figured that out, how did he get it?

Chapter Ten

Hopefeltlikethebiggest coward. Since last Saturday’s conversation, she’d been doing all she could to hide out from Locks, including tonight.

She’d offered to babysit for Faith and Slice so they could go to Nelson’s Honkytonk Bar & Saloon in Dodge City for a date night. It had the added bonus of providing her and Benji a place to spend the night that wasn’t at Locks’.

Slice had informed her that one of the houses that the construction company was building was going to be for her and Benji. Unfortunately, construction took time; the earliest that Slice thought she could move in was four weeks. And that was if the weather didn’t slow construction. June in Kansas could bring torrential rains that could impact the construction process.

She’d even checked into a short-term rental in town, but nothing was available. At this point, she was considering taking Benji on a cross-country vacation. Maybe they could be gone forthree weeks. It would be expensive, but she wasn’t hurting for money.

She had the life insurance from her husband that she’d never touched. She had her retirement from the school district where she’d worked, along with the online job she had of booking vacations for people. It was something she’d fallen into when she’d been given custody of Benji. She wanted to be available for all his school activities, but she also wanted something to do.

Maybe she and Benji could take a trip from Kansas to Florida and stop to stay at fun places along the way. If Faith, Slice, and the kids wanted to come, she’d be fine with that, too. As long as a certain man wasn’t in her vicinity.

He’d been walking into the diner as she and Benji were heading toward the back exit, him in his well-worn jeans that hugged his thighs and his chambray shirt that was almost white from all the washings underneath his cut. He’d even had one of his cowboy hats on. The man had more hats than she had shoes—ball caps and cowboy hats for every occasion. How he made a cowboy hat look so fine with his cut was beyond her. It was all she could do to walk out the door and not turn around and lick the man from head to toe. Despite how horrible he’d acted, her body still screamed at her to drop her panties and throw her legs open.

“Aunt Hope, can we play video games?” Micah asked.

She grinned and widened her eyes. “Don’t you know that when Aunt Hope babysits on a Friday night, there are no rules?”

Micah, Isaiah, and Benji stared at her with their mouths open.

Benji turned to Micah. “I think this is a trick.”

Micah nodded. “No rules doesn’t sound right.”

Isaiah walked over, crawled up on Hope’s lap, then kissed her cheek.

“I believe you, Aunt Hope.”

“Then you can have the first bowl of ice cream,” Hope said.

“Wait, like no rules? No bedtime? No bath? No brushing teeth?” Micah asked.

“Yep, the only request I have is that you be nice to each other.”

“So there is a rule.”

Hope snickered. “Not really. It’s more like I’m asking you to do it, not telling you.”

“Woohoo,” they screamed and ran to the kitchen. Hope followed and pulled out the ice cream, bowls, spoons, and toppings she’d brought.

Tonight was exactly what she needed. Fun with the kids and no chance of Locks being in her vicinity. Her vagina needed a break from his magnetism and attention. Though the man did know how to make her feel like she was everything. If only it could last longer than the night.

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