Page 20 of His Tenth Dance

“I don’t think I can keep it in much longer,” she said. Jane and Cord couldn’t come to lunch today, and Opal had told them about her pregnancy already. The more people she told, the easier it was to simply say things as if everyone already knew.

But they didn’t, not yet.

“At least wait until they’re all here,” Tag said just as the back door opened.

“Just us,” Mike called, the sound of little feet running into the house.

Little feet. Opal loved—absolutelyloved—the sound of little feet coming her way.

“Ope,” West yelled. He’d turned three at the beginning of the year, and he could say her name properly now. He just never did. “Daddy says there be slithers out there.” He pointed back the way he’d come.

“Snakes,” Mike said as he followed his son toward Opal.

She bent down and picked up her favorite three-year-old. “Slithers? Were they hissing?”

“Hisssss,” West said, grinning at her.

“You’ve got a couple in your pumpkin patch,” Mike said. “Nothing dangerous.” He hugged Tag, then took West from Opal and hugged her too. Their parents lived hundreds of miles away, in another state, and Opal gripped her brother, inhaling deeply, as if she’d be able to feel or smell her father on him.

“You okay?” Mike asked. He held her tight for another moment and then stepped back.

“Everyone should be here soon,” Tag said loudly, and Opal got the hint. They’d already called her parents and told them about the baby too; Opal didn’t have to make the announcement several times.

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said as she stepped out of her brother’s arms. “Where’s Gerty?”

“She was in the barn with Steele. They’re coming.” Mike snagged a black olive out of the pasta salad and popped it into his mouth. “Two salads?”

Opal swatted his hand away from swooping in for a second olive. “Gerty doesn’t like the potato salad, Mister. So I made the pasta.”

Mike grinned at her, something sparking in his eyes. Thankfully, the doorbell rang, which diverted his attention. Deacon entered the house, followed by Mission. Neither of them said a word—not shocking—though they both lifted their hand in a wave before they hung their cowboy hats on the rack near the door.

“Howdy,” Tag said, going to greet their guests. He loved the cowboys at Opal’s cousin’s farm, and she smiled as they man-hugged and shook hands. Steele and Gerty arrived next, the two of them going back and forth about one of the horses on the farm.

“He needs his own stall,” Steele said. “There’s the stable out by me, and we should move him there.” He gave Gerty a blue-gray stare, and then moved over to Tag, Deacon, and Mission.

Gerty watched him with fiery blue eyes, her bluster falling when she turned toward Mike and Opal.

“Momma,” West said, rushing over to her. The boy never walked anywhere, that was for sure. He started rambling off a string of words, and Opal caught “Frog…hisses…pummins…” and not much more.

Gerty grinned at him as she lifted him into her arms. “Auntie Opal has snakes and frogs in her pumpkins?” She looked over to Opal, now all joy and sapphires. “Maybe we do too.”

“I look,” West said.

“We’ll look tomorrow, buddy,” Gerty said. “We’re having a party this afternoon, and then it’ll be time for bed.”

“No, Momma,” he said, his eyebrows drawing down into the cutest frown ever. “I look…slithers…pummins.”

“We didn’t even plant pumpkins, bud,” Mike said.

Opal’s stomach growled, and her pregnancy had definitely brought with it cravings and an increased appetite.

Gerty set West on his feet without arguing further with him, and Opal distracted him with his toy chest. Since she babysat him a few days each week, she had everything the little boy needed right here at her house, including a bright red race car bed in the spare bedroom.

Laughter came from the direction of the front porch, and Opal’s nerves vibrated at her. Tucker, Tarr, and Bobbie Jo had arrived. Her cousin had a very bright personality, and she’d recognize his laugh anywhere.

Sure enough, they came through the door a moment later, all three of them wearing smiles. Tuck and Bobbie Jo had been engaged for about three months now, with their wedding coming up in September.

She was as cowgirl as they came, and she took care of over one hundred goats on Tucker’s farm, though she didn’t live there yet. He and Tarr trained rodeo animals, as well as humans, on a beautiful piece of property north of the city—and about an hour from Tuck’s family farm and what had become Gerty’s rescue ranch.

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