He shook his head. “They all show cattle or pigs. Phil does goats though…”
“Then you should ask Phil.” I slowed to stop at the only red light on Main Street. I shot my boy a look as we waited for the green. “Did you apologize to him like I asked you to?”
“Yeah, he said it was cool. He’s kind of okay, I guess.” He seemed unwilling to discuss it further, so I let it go. About five miles out of town, he looked at me. “Are you going to marry Sheriff Ahoka?”
I nearly choked on my spit. That was not a question I’d been prepared for. “No, no, we’re not anywhere near marriage yet. That takes time. Rushing into marrying someone is pretty foolish.”
“So like Dad marrying his twink is foolish,” he stated factually.
Where he had heard the term twink I didn’t know, but if I had to guess, it was from me. I did tend to popoff about Topher being a twink. So yeah, I’ll take the hit for that one.
“You should call him Topher, and yeah, I think jumping from one marriage into another is foolish. They’ve been together for close to a year now though, so maybe that’s long enough? I don’t know, buddy, romance and love are complicated.”
He nodded sagely as if his ten-year-old life had granted him knowledge of such adult things. “But I do not want you to worry about that. Ollie and I are just getting to know each other. We’re going to go on some dates, and I will be spending time with him, but I’m not planning on anything serious yet. When I do, I will talk to you about it since that would impact you as well as Ollie and me. Does that make you feel less worried?”
“Yeah, sort of,” he confessed as acres and acres of corn whipped past his window. “I’m mad at Dad.”
I suspected as much. “I know, and it’s fine to have that emotion. I’m not happy with him either, but we’ll work through it. Do you want to call him tonight and talk to him?” He shook his head. “Okay, well, how about we call Grannie Helen and talk to her?”
His expression lifted. “Cool, yeah, I have so much to tell her about the goats and fair, oh, and school starts the week after the fair, so I need stuff.”
“Fine, yeah, we’ll go shopping. I hear there’s a mall about an hour from here. Why don’t we make a day of it, say in the middle of the week? Just you and me?”
“Can I get new sneakers and a tablet?”
“We’ll see.” The new shoes were a for sure as his were busting out the seams. The tablet was an iffy item. I had done my best to keep him away from social media as much as possible by owning one laptop, mine, that had strict parental controls for him when he was logged in. In the city, they were far aheadof the technology and were relying more and more on digital assignments. Out here, they’d just started to expect children to have a device of their own. Since a cell phone was a big nope yet, a tablet with controls was a possibility. This way, he could do his own research and any assignments that may come in, especially in the winter when the weather made attending school in person impossible and not be spilling soda all over my tech.
“And some new jeans. And a jacket and boots. The guys say they get lots of snow.”
I nodded along, happy as a lark in spring to have my boy chattering away with me once more while enjoying the afterglow of time spent with Ollie. I liked that man a lot. A whole lot. And while marriage was a distant and blurry thing I was not ready to think about, a deeper relationship with my sexy lawman was something I could easily envision.
The rest of that day was an easy one, thank goodness. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits at the ranch. Granny had made meatloaf, and Bella had finally granted poor Linc one of her fey smiles over dinner, which made him glow like a firefly. That night, around ten, as Dahn snoozed in his bed and I lay in mine reading over some paperwork my lawyer in California had forwarded to me, a text rolled in. I saw it was from Ollie, so I quickly read it.
I am SO damn sorry for crashing on you. That was so rude. Please forgive me. ~O
Nothing to be sorry about. You were exhausted. ~D
Still, shit, that was uncalled for. I just woke up. Guess I was more tired than I thought. ~O
Bone-weary was more the term. Don’t worry over it. Did you see my note? ~D
I did. It was very sweet. You’re a good man, Dodge. ~O
Right back at you. I’m not going to be able to do lunch Wed. Taking Dahn shopping for school supplies. ~D
That’s fine. Disappointing but fine. We still on for Friday? ~O
I wouldn’t miss it. ~D
Excellent. I’ll let you go. I’m very much infatuated with you, just so you know. Pleasant dreams. ~O
I was rather sure my dreams would be beyond pleasant. With him on my mind, they’d be incredible.
9
Chapter Nine
The following day, after the morning chores were completed and Granny had taken a few pot shots at the ever-moving cans, I slipped away from the chaos of the house to sit out behind the boutique where the meditation tree grew and dialed my mother. The bookkeeping was done already, and I’d helped with cleaning up after breakfast. I’d even pretended to be a goat show judge with Dahn as the tractor rumbled around the cow lot, cleaning up wet, poopy hay. I’d done all that I could do, so it was now or never. Foolish of me to be so wary of calling my own mother. She and my aunt Josephine—twins with mops of red hair—had raised me quite well after Cash had split to go hook up with Ford’s mother. That was after he had set up house with Linc’s mom and had grown bored of Chicago. No wonder I was so sickened with how Chris was behaving.
