Colt exhaled, and Trap ducked his head too, wishing he hadn’t hung his cowboy hat on the hook beside the door. “I haven’t exactly told her about Jonas yet.”
Trap sucked in a breath, realizing too late how dramatic he sounded. “What—? How can she not know?”
“She’s new to town,” Colt muttered. “It’s not like I take my son on dates with me.”
“And you think—?” He searched Colt’s face and told himself to breathe. “Just tell me why you think that’ll be a problem.”
“I don’t?—”
“All right, fellas,” Finn said, and he clapped a couple of times. Then Alex whistled through his teeth, and that got the conversations to calm into silence. Finn stood and beamed around at everyone seated around the long, oval conference table.
Trap focused on eating, because he’d been doing too much talking and not enough lunching.
“We made it through the hottest part of the summer,” Finn said. “I mean we’re not out of the woods yet or anything, but when I looked at our poll, it seemed a lot of you wanted to talk about winter prep and emergency weather preparedness.”
Trap nodded, because it sure seemed like the Panhandle had been experiencing their fair share of weather-related incidents. He liked seeing his community come together to help one another, but he could use a break from the dust storms, the wildfires, the floods, and the heat waves.
And if they couldn’t get those breaks, he should be prepared for them.
“News first?” Finn asked. Trap looked to those across from him, not quite sure what anyone would say.
“There’s a small-ish farm close to us,” Link said. “I mean, this is Mitch talking.” He glanced at his cousin and waited while Mitch’s hands flew through the signs. “And he’s wondering if anyone is looking for something. I guess the owner is trying to sell it without a real estate agent, and Mitch said he’d mention it.”
Silence descended on the room, and Trap once again found himself looking around the room. Finn and Alex already had farms they worked with their families. Libby ran Three Rivers Ranch, and Paul had taken over Courage Reins for his daddy.
Link, Smiles, Wilder, Glover, and Rock had their hands full at Shiloh Ridge. Mitch ran his dog training facility and a sign language center. Dawson worked his family ranch, and Brandon and Lenore could barely keep up with their homestead.
Colt elbowed him gently and nodded to Link. “You want that.”
“I do?”
“You’ve wanted a place of your own for a while.”
“I don’t have time to look for a place of my own.”
“You can’t go drive out there and look at it?” Colt raised his eyebrows, then raised his hand. He nodded to Trap now. “Trap’s interested.”
Trap’s heartbeat picked up speed as everyone looked at him, but Henry and Angel had Lone Star and plenty of personal acreage too. Jake lived and worked at Three Rivers Ranch. Conrad had his hobby farm with all the miniature donkeys, and JJ ran the enormity of Seven Sons.
Trap cleared his throat, things becoming clearer for him. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “I’m living in a cowboy cabin at Seven Sons right now, and I’ve thought about getting my own place.”
“Great,” Link said. “Mitch will give your name and number to his neighbor. His name is Shadow Lemon.”
“That’s not a real name,” Smiles said.
“No, the Lemons are real,” Finn said. “Their kids are named weird things, but totally real.”
“Like what?” Libby asked.
“I think their oldest is Tweed, and I’m surprised he doesn’t want the farm.”
Link signed everything they each said, and Mitch suddenly waved both hands as if to get everyone’s attention. “No, no, no,” Link said. “Tweed passed away a couple of years ago, and his wife brought the kids back here.” He watched Mitch, frowned, and signed something back to him.
“She’s not a farmer, and she’s going to return to Arizona, where her parents live and Shadow and his wife, Norma, are going with her.”
“I didn’t know Tweed passed away,” Finn said, plenty of surprise in his voice.
A pause happened, while Link signed, and then Mitch responded. “Yeah, he worked on the oil rigs out in the Gulf, and there was a fire.”
