Chapter 11

Link walked into Bull House to the sound of several voices all talking over one another. They usually held ranch meetings next door at the main homestead, in one of the wings up on the second floor, but Uncle Ward had invited everyone here today. His wife, Aunt Dot, had brought up a huge spread of pizza and baked pasta from her landscaping company.

Apparently, she'd just redone the asphalt at the Italian restaurant, and the owner had sent over enough food to feed a small army. Link wasn't going to say no to free pizza, even though he'd just come from grocery shopping in town and had grabbed a hamburger on the way home from City Hall.

He rounded the corner to find a half-dozen of his uncles standing around the oblong table, which did hold a metric ton of food.

"Link." Glory Rose, a tall, lanky fifteen-year-old, brightened when she saw him. "You've got to see this poll on Two Cents." She whipped her phone from her back pocket, and Link smiled at her jean-clad legs, her red-and-white plaid shirt, and her cowgirl hat. She'd clearly just come in off the ranch from doing some chore, and Link pulled her into a side-hug.

"Hey," he said. "Where's your daddy got you today?"

"Workin' with Uncle Preacher down in the equipment shed," she said. "We haven't been through stuff down there in years. It's so gross."

"Good money, though," Link said.

"Yeah," Glory Rose said. She smiled up to him. "I'm going to have more than enough for that truck I want next summer."

"Yeah?" Link glanced over to Aunt Dot, who poured a glass of orange juice for Silver, Glory Rose's younger brother. He didn't see his other Ward Glover cousin, Flint, but he'd probably be along soon enough. He tended to the small animals on the ranch—when Aunt Dot and Uncle Ward could get him away from his sketch book.

"Is your momma gonna let you get it?"

"It's my money." Glory Rose lifted her chin and held up her phone. "Uncle Ranger just released the results of the Summertime Favorites list."

"Oh, boy," Link said. "Let's go." He peered at Glory Rose's phone while his uncles laughed about something, thinking he could find something for his first date with Misty tomorrow night.

No, he thought as he scanned the list of food trucks, events, outdoor activities, and restaurants that the townspeople in Three Rivers had voted on as the places to be this summer. You have a plan for your date tomorrow night.

Dinner suddenly felt a little too simple to him, but Link didn't know what else to do. He wasn't going to replicate the things they'd done last summer and fall. This was a brand new start. Something fresh and new, and he needed them to be fresh and new too.

"There's Three Cakes," he said. "Aunt Holly will be happy about that."

"She's already planning a party." Aunt Dot appeared in front of Link and drew him into a hug. "How are you, baby?"

Link hugged his aunt back, because he loved her immensely. She was very, very good at making room for him in her life, in her husband's life, and here at Bull House. Uncle Ward and Uncle Preacher were both foremen for Shiloh Ridge, and everyone knew Link would most likely take over for one of them.

So he'd been working with them a lot in the past couple of years, and he'd most likely replace Uncle Ward, as he had an agricultural degree, and adored the rotational ranching Ward had been doing for decades.

"Good," Link said. "I'm sure you heard Misty and I got back together." He pulled back and met his aunt's eyes. "My momma isn't known for keeping secrets." He grinned at her while she smiled back.

Dot had dark hair and eyes for miles, and her genes had overpowered the lighter, blue-eyed genes in the Glover family. All of her children were dark, with Flint having a hint of red in his hair. Glory Rose sported freckles to go with her brunette locks, and Silver wore a thick pair of clear-framed glasses wherever he went.

"She can keep some secrets," Aunt Dot said. "I heard about Misty from Oakley, actually."

"I'm not upset if people know," Link said quickly. "She's coming to the bonfire tonight."

"As she should," Dot said. "Will you introduce me to her?"

Link's stomach turned into liquid lava. He swallowed. "Shoot. I suppose I'm gonna have to do that, aren't I?" All he'd wanted the last time he'd dated Misty was to take her around to every house and every family here and have her meet them. Start to get to know them the way he did.

But now, it felt like a massive boulder on his shoulders, a terrible burden to bear.

"I'd send a text to everyone if you don't want her to be overwhelmed," Dot said.

Link nodded, his jaw tight. But he didn't want to warn everyone away. "She met a few people earlier this week at the luncheon on Monday." Several other families had needed more meals, but Misty and Janie didn't. They worked in town and had gone grocery shopping, so Link hadn't seen them in True Blue again.

Ralf had come over last night for dinner, and Link had sat beside him and Smiles while they'd eaten. He'd seen Misty afterward, on the lane in front of their cabins, and he still wasn't sure how much longer she and Janie would be on the ranch.

The state was trying to find them another place to live, as Janie and Misty couldn't go back to their apartment. Ralf had said last night that he should be back to his place over the weekend, as he lived in a different building, a separate apartment.

Link loved a routine, and he wasn't sure how having Misty so close would impact their second chance. Before, he couldn't physically see her every day. She lived too far away, and that made the times they could get together feel forbidden and special.

"It'll be fine, Link," Dot said. "We're better at meeting people than ever before." She smiled at him. "Come get something to eat."

"I ate on the way back from town."

"Take it home then," Dot said. "Cutter and Mitch would love it."

"Yeah, I'll take some."

Dot smiled at him. "Come on then."

Link followed her further into the kitchen, and he stepped into Uncle Ward's open arms. "Hey, son." Ward laughed, and Link's whole heart lifted. "Get everything in town?"

"Yep," he said. "I put the fire starters in the bonfire shed, and Bishop said he has a huge stack of newspapers, so I didn't get any of those."

"Okay." Ward lifted a box of all-meat pizza, and Link couldn't stop himself. He loved all-meat pizza, and he thought of Misty, and the margarita pizza, and then the veggie delight she'd ordered when they'd gone to a pizza parlor for a date.

So much about them didn't line up. Didn't mesh. The two of them shouldn't really be together, and yet Link was inexplicably attracted to her. He thought he and Misty got along real nicely, too, so he didn't dwell too long on the differences between them.

He leaned against the counter and took a bite of his second lunch while Aunt Dot picked up a box and started loading pizza slices into it. "Preach and I wanted to meet with you," Ward said.

Link moved his eyes to his uncle. "Yeah? About what?"

Ward glanced over to his older brother, Ranger, who'd also zeroed in on Link. Preacher, Mister, and Cactus had also come to Bull House that day. The conversation died, and Link could barely swallow his bite of sausage, ham, and pepperoni.

"Maybe we should wait until his daddy brings it up," Ranger said.

Link surveyed the crowd of cowboys, and said, "He's mentioned a few things. I'm not ready for my own house."

"Maybe not your family home," Uncle Cactus said. "But regular cowboys live with other cowboys in Cabin Row."

"And you're not really a regular cowboy," Uncle Preacher said.

"So I'm going to move…where?" Link asked.

"The Top Cottage," Ward said.

Surprise darted through Link. "The Top Cottage?" Surely they were joking. "It's not much bigger than the cabin I'm in."

"But it's not in Cabin Row," Preacher said. "It'd be all yours. The foreman's cabin."

"But I'm not the foreman."

"But it's time you were," Ward said.

Link met his eyes. "You're going to retire?"

"Not entirely," Ward said. "About how your daddy has." He grinned at Link and then around to everyone.

"I called it a junior foreman position," Ranger said. "Your own house to take care of, which would be a step up from where you are. Separate from the other cowhands. Better pay as you move into full-time training with Preacher and Ward."

Link nodded, because he wasn't sure what to say. Mitch rang through his head, but he didn't speak his cousin's name out loud.

"Daddy," a boy called, and all the cowboys turned toward the front door hallway. Flint came around the corner with a big golden retriever. "Uncle Duke needs help."

Everyone moved at the same time, even Link. He joined the flow of cowboy boots as they left the house, and outside, he found Duke with a rope around one cow on his left, and one on his right. The stubborn bovines wanted to go in opposite directions, and he looked at everyone with a hint of panic in his eyes.

"Cattle are loose," he said.

"It's summertime," Cactus growled. "They're free range."

"Not here," Preacher said, limping alongside Link as they let the others go to help Duke with the black cows in front of them.

Phones started chiming, Link's included, and he pulled it out in sync with Uncle Preacher. "It's my daddy."

"Cattle are out," Ranger boomed. "We've got to drive them back up into the hills. Let's saddle up, men." The crowd flowed toward the stables then, and Link hurried to saddle his beautiful bay. He worked with Copper every single day, and he trusted the equine completely.

Activity buzzed throughout the stables as everyone worked to get ready to head out, and Link wasn't the first to leave. He wasn't the last to arrive on the western fence on the ranch either, where his father rode atop his black and white Appaloosa. A pretty, confident, strong horse named Peppermint.

"They're comin' back here," he said. "Not sure why, and we've got to get a perimeter on them and get them back into the hills."

Cactus whistled through his teeth, and all of the ranch dogs—even Dusty and Rio—went to him. "C'mon, hounds," he said. "Round up." He actually led out on his pretty gray horse, and Link fell into line with Uncle Ward and Uncle Preacher.

"Thoughts?" Preacher asked.

Link kept his eyes on the horizon, no cattle in sight. He thought of Misty, then him and Misty living here on this ranch. His mind bucked against that, because he simply wasn't sure she'd ever accept a life with him here in the Texas Panhandle, in a small town of only twenty thousand, on a ranch thirty minutes from a grocery store.

Then, as the harsh sunlight shimmered against the far distance, a scene opened up for Link. One with Misty standing on the porch of a house Link couldn't fully imagine. A little girl with red hair stood at her side, waving, and she carried a blond-haired boy in her arms. Pure happiness accompanied the scene, and Link wanted the idyllic life with a wife and family, dogs and horses, cattle and this ranch, with every fiber of his being.

"I think I'm ready to be a junior foreman," he finally said, grateful his uncle hadn't pressured him to answer. Hadn't kept needling him with questions. Preacher had just said, Thoughts? and let Link think.

"I can take good care of the Top Cottage," he said next. He looked over to Ward, then Preacher.

"Tell us what's on your mind," Uncle Ward said.

Link took a breath. "I'm worried about Mitch."

"Mm," both Ward and Preacher said at the same time.

Link started to chuckle, and he shook his head. "Did you guys practice that?"

"No," Ward said with a chuckle. "Preach?" He looked past Link, who rode between them.

"Yeah, Mitch." Preacher sighed out a sigh that didn't sound super happy. "Mitch is worried about Mitch. I'm worried about Mitch. Everyone is worried about Mitch."

"Should I not be?" Link asked. "He's older than me, Preach. Why isn't he foreman?"

Preacher didn't need to answer. Mitch couldn't be foreman, because he couldn't speak to everyone the way Link could. He was an excellent cowboy and Link's absolute best friend in the world. He'd stopped going to church at some point last year, but Link loved him all the same.

"He's mentioned going back to Virginia a time or two," Link said casually. "I don't think he wants many people to know that." He looked ahead to where Cactus rode, the dogs fanned out alongside him.

"He'll always have a place here," Ward said. "And yeah, if he wants to be here, we'll make sure he's got a house, all of that."

"I think he'll be okay," Preacher said. "He knows who he is, and that's one of the most important things a man can have."

"Let me talk to him," Link said quietly. "Okay? I'll talk to him about it, and honestly, I wouldn't mind if he moved to the Top Cottage with me. It's two bedrooms, and that would still be a step up from us sharing." Which was how they lived now.

Cactus whistled again, and he motioned left in big sweeping motions.

"All right, boys," Daddy yelled. "Peel right and left, and let's get ‘em back where they belong."

Link moved into position with his uncles, too much space between them now to keep talking. He grinned and grinned at the dozen or so dogs that could probably round up the cattle by themselves. One of them, probably a retriever named Lula, barked every so often. She loved to talk to the other dogs, but the heelers and collies simply ran and ran and ran.

He loved this life, here on Shiloh Ridge, and since most of the cattle were on the left, and he'd gone right, he had a few slow moments to pray, "Lord, am I being stupid starting something with Misty again?"

He wouldn't be leaving Shiloh Ridge, Three Rivers, or Texas. Misty wasn't here permanently. But she said we could be serious, he thought.

He listened, trying to hear the guidance of the Lord. Not much came through, but Link experienced a tiny pinprick of peace in the very center of his heart. He wasn't sure what that meant, but God had never stayed silent when Link needed to do something. So maybe a relationship with Misty simply wasn't on the Lord's radar right now, because it wouldn't be a bad thing.

"Bless me to know how to become the man she deserves," he whispered. "I want to be everything for her. Her best friend. Her partner. Her Prince Charming."

And he'd do anything he had to do in order to make that happen.

The scent of smoke and flame met Link's nose the moment he left the cabin through the back door. Behind him, Mitch laughed in his strange, too-loud voice. Cutter spilled out of the cabin behind them too, while Link looked to his right, down to Misty's cabin.

He'd told her he'd meet her at the bonfire, because with the loose cattle, regular ranch chores had been delayed, and Link hadn't known when he'd be finished.

"Smells like Uncle Ward has the fire going." He signed as he said it, and Mitch nodded.

My momma made her chili for tonight, Mitch said. I can't wait.

Aunt Willa did make a mean pot of chili, and Link grinned as they crossed the grassy area behind their cabins to the trail between a couple of fields. Beyond that, the barns and stables lined the road, and Uncle Ward had built a beautiful family picnic spot on the ranch, sheltered from the winds and eyes of anyone who came to the ranch.

They continued talking and laughing as they made the fifteen-minute walk, and Link brought up the rear between two silos before the picnic area opened up. Dot kept the gravel immaculate, and the picnic tables had just been re-stained so they shone with lacquer.

His momma spread a bright blue tablecloth over one of them, and Aunt Oakley helped her straighten it and clip the corners in place. They moved to another one, where a flowery pink tablecloth covered that picnic table.

Aunt Etta and Uncle Bishop worked with Aunt Holly at the food table, setting out pan after pan of something baked. Four large pots of what Link assumed was chili stood down the table too, with stacks of bowls beside them.

Children ran and played, as there were still some younger kids in the Glover family. Heck, Link's own baby sister had just turned twelve. Sunnie held one end of a jump rope while Hazel, one of Uncle Mister and Aunt Libby's girls, jumped over it. Pearl Jo, Ace and Holly's daughter, held the other end of the rope, with other cousins waiting for their turn.

The youngest Glover—a little boy named Brantley—had just turned six, and he was Mister and Libby's youngest. Aurora and Oliver Walker had three children now, and their youngest was only eighteen months.

So the age-range at Shiloh Ridge literally went from one to eighty-three, as Grandmother Lois had reached that age on her last birthday. Link expected to see her at the bonfire tonight too, though she didn't live at Shiloh Ridge anymore. She came up for family things all the time, and sure enough, he saw her arrive with Aunt Ida and Uncle Brady and their four children.

Their twins, Johnny and Judy, were seventeen now, almost seniors in high school, and they came over to Link, Cutter, and Mitch. Link often hung out with the older teens in the family, and he fist-bumped Johnny, who asked, "Did you see what's for dinner?"

"I know Aunt Willa made chili," Link said.

"And Auntie Etta and Uncle Bishop made cinnamon rolls to dip in it," Judy said.

Link's mouth started to water. "Oh, boy," he said. "That's a winner." Then he laid eyes on Misty and Janie, who'd arrived from the homestead side of the picnic area. Perhaps they'd just gotten back to the ranch from their job down in town and had parked there instead of going home.

Link's stomach did a flip and a flop and growled at him for the long afternoon without feeding it. And his mouth watered even more, this time for the gorgeous woman who'd just found him and had smiled.

Mitch's hands moved, but Link couldn't tear his eyes from Misty. "Give me a second," he said to his friends and cousins, and then he headed Misty's way.