“You don’t have to act like seeing your momma is the worst thing that could happen to you,” she said. Then she shook her head, rolled her eyes, and hung up the call.
“I didn’t,” Ty called. “I was just leavin’ is all, but I can’t just drive away without giving you a hug.” He smiled at her, glad when his mother softened. She opened her arms to him as he neared, and Ty sank into his mother’s embrace.
“Mm, a boy is never too tough or too old to hug his mother.”
“All right, Momma.” Ty squeezed her extra tight and then stepped back. “The table looked beautiful, and as long as Bryan can get the question out, I think they’ll come back engaged.”
Momma grinned at him. “Daddy and I are going to hide out in the upstairs office and watch for themto come back.”
“Sounds like a fun time,” Ty said in a deadpan. “I’m headed home.”
“You’ve had a busy day,” Momma said. “I noticed you were limping a little bit more than I’ve seen you do lately.”
“I’m fine, Momma,” he said. “I’ll text you when I get home.”
“Who are you taking to the wedding?” Momma asked, reaching to adjust her sunglasses against the winter sunshine. “And did you see it’s supposed to snow in the ten-day forecast?”
Ty blinked at his mother. “Really? We’re going from dating to the weather within a breath?” He chuckled and shook his head. “I have a date with her tonight, actually, and if it goes well, I’ll tell you who it is, okay?”
His mother’s hopes shone on her face. “You have a date tonight?”
“Yes, Momma, so can I go now?” He wiped the grin from his face and cocked his eyebrows at her.
“Did you reschedule it from lunch to dinner?”
“Yes,” he said, though technically, Winnie had done that. “And no, I don’t check the ten-day forecast, so I didn’t know it was going to snow.”
“We’re hoping to have the roof done over the end of that stable rebuild by then.” Momma looked over her shoulder and toward her facilities. “And Daddy’s going to make sure we have fuel for the generator and extra potable water.”
A slip of worry moved through Ty. “Really, Momma? It’s going to be that bad?”
“Up here in the Panhandle, it can get that bad,” she said. “You’ve been gone for a while, and we’ve had some wicked winter storms before.”
“I live in an apartment,” Ty said. “How do I get extra potable water?” He wasn’t even sure he knew what that was.
Momma grinned at him. “You just come stay with us,” she said.
Ty leaned against the fence, because he had been walking and working a lot today already, and his body ached. “Momma, I’m almost thirty-two years old. What am I doing with my life?”
She sighed and joined him, the two of them looking out over the horse-dotted fields.
“I don’t have a house,” he said. “I don’t check the ten-day forecast so I can be prepared. I don’t have any education, and the woman I’m going out with tonight barely seems to like me.” He sighed. “I’m working someone else’s farms, and I’m lame, deaf in one ear, and completely surly all the time.”
Momma linked her arm through his. “Someone will love you for all of those things, Tyson.”
“How do you know, Momma?” he whispered.
“Because, my amazing son, someone fell in love with me, and I’m just as salty as you are, and I started this place in debt, and while I don’t have a physical disability, I don’t believe those limit people.”
They did, but Ty didn’t argue with her.
“You do just fine at Lone Star, right?” Momma asked.
“Yeah,” Ty said.
“And Colt loves you at the orchard.”
“Yeah.”
