Chapter 2
Misty Granger touched Ralf's arm, and then they shifted together. Him to the right and her to the left, so that when they took their seats, she'd be right next to the best-looking cowboy in the state of Texas.
Probably the whole country. No, the continent.
Misty's thoughts sparked and flew up into the air like bits of paper had caught fire and then been picked up by a tornado. She smiled at Link as the feedback from a microphone filled the silent night.
Everyone cringed and groaned, Misty included, and she half-shrank into Link as the shrill screech faded and Alex's daddy chuckled nervously into the mic. "Sorry, everyone," he said. "If you'll take your seats, we're ready to begin."
Misty twitched her hand slightly, as if to pull out her chair, but Link lunged in front of her. "Let me," he said, and Misty ducked her head, her newly colored hair falling down between them.
"It's not as red," Link said, barely giving her room to sit down. "Your hair." The last words came out as a whisper, his breath drifting across her cheek and reminding her of when he'd take her into his arms and kiss her.
Misty's pulse throbbed through the big vein in her neck, making her hearing fuzzy and her throat so narrow. "Yes," she finally managed to say. "I got it done for the wedding."
"It's really blonde."
"She took out some of the red," she admitted. "Could you give me a couple more inches, Lincoln?"
He cleared his throat and backed up all the way, and his cousin grabbed onto his sleeve and practically pulled him back into his own chair. But he was a big, tall, broad-shouldered cowboy, and this table held eight chairs. If she relaxed her knees so they weren't so rigidly pressed together, her leg would touch Link's.
For some reason, that made every cell in her body vibrate. She'd held the cowboy's hand. They'd laughed together. Laid together and watched the stars come out. Hiked together. He'd brought her lunch at City Hall, where she'd been working, and they'd toured these very orchards together near the end of the season last year.
She'd kissed Link Glover plenty of times, and these past five, kissless months had been torture without him.
I don't want to be used.
Some of his last words to her, and Misty had never felt so guilty. She'd also never cried over anyone…until Link. She wasn't sure what that meant, but she also still didn't have plans to stay in this small town in the Texas Panhandle, and she hadn't found the courage to reach out to him and apologize for "using him."
She hadn't thought at the time that she was, but as she'd had some time to reflect in his absence, she'd been able to see their relationship from his side. "Link," she started, but the wedding march started in that moment, and they all got to their feet again.
He'd grown his hair out, and Misty found she couldn't look away from him, though the bride and her father were walking down the aisle on her opposite side.
"Are you gonna stare at me all night?" Link murmured out of the side of his mouth.
"No." Misty linked her arm through his, marveling that he didn't shrug her off instantly, and turned to look at Nicki Johnston in her gorgeous wedding dress. As she moved, her shoes flashed with blue, and that made Misty smile. She did love a good wedding, but until she met Link, she'd never wanted to be the one with the glowing eyes, the painted lips, and the pure joy radiating from her.
She couldn't believe she was even thinking about it right now.
It was Link's cologne, infecting her mind and confusing her, twisting her thoughts and making her wonder if there were indeed good men in the world.
Of course there are, she thought. She and Link had been out on double dates with Alex and Nicki, and she'd seen how Alex treated his almost-wife. He absolutely adored her, and he'd never belittled her or spoken ill of her.
Link had treated Misty the same way, and when she'd started to feel him getting too close, slinking in too close, she'd had to remind him that they weren't serious. Misty couldn't be serious with anyone.
Especially not someone from this tiny town Misty had been planning to escape since the moment she'd arrived.
As Nicki reached Alex, he took her into his side and pressed his lips to the side of her face. Nicki's eyes drifted closed in bliss, and Misty found herself sighing. The love permeating the air seemed to scent the orchards with roses instead of blossoms, and baby powder and everything sweet and pure and good.
"Alex and Nicki would like their wedding party to come forward," the pastor said. "To act as witnesses to their union."
Link cleared his throat and moved his arms to button his suit coat before he moved away from her without a word. Mitch went with him, as did the two brunettes they'd been talking to before Misty and Ralf had arrived at the table.
Misty watched him walk away in those matte cowboy boots, every stitch of clothing on his body exactly right. She could admit she found him incredibly attractive, and something inside her absolutely needed to be next to the magnetism inside him.
"So you're not over him," Ralf whispered from over her shoulder, and she ducked her head, finally breaking her stare on Link. She said nothing, because she didn't have a defense and she'd been working to be honest in all things. With herself. With her friends. With her family. With God.
"All right." The pastor beamed out the same love and sunshine that Alex and Nicki possessed as she surveyed the guests. "The very best part of my job is performing ceremonies like this."
Willa Glover carried such a good spirit with her, and Misty could admit she'd attended a few of the woman's sermons simply because she liked the idea of a female pastor. She'd always been glad when she'd attended church with Willa at the pulpit, and she smiled at the woman now.
She said, "There's nothing more amazing than two people in love, willing to commit to each other—and God—that they're going to work together, sacrifice for each other, and build a family."
Misty let her words sink into her ears and really sit there. So much more existed inside the curves and dips of the letters, and Misty had never thought of marriage as something to work toward. Something to want. Something…good.
All the examples she'd had in her life had convinced her from age ten to never, ever trust her happiness to a man. By then, her mom had been married three times, and each husband had brought massive complications to her life, Misty's life, and her younger brother's life.
Danny currently sat in prison for his role in a bar fight, and Misty's heart suddenly felt too big for her chest. Everything hammered and throbbed through her, because neither of them had been protected by a mother or father, and Misty wasn't even sure she understood what a family looked like.
She held an ideal in her mind, and she simply didn't want to be disappointed. It had been when Link had wanted to start introducing her to his family that Misty had panicked and reminded him that they weren't serious.
But with his aunt officiating the ceremony, Alex and Nicki must know the Glovers. With the amount of people here in this massive outdoor ceremony center, surely the Glovers had been invited. That meant his parents could be here.
Misty glanced around, trying to determine which of the cowboys she saw could bear Link's last name. Before she knew it, cheering and whooping started, and she yanked her attention back to the altar, where Alex had his wide smile pressed to Nicki's.
They laughed and turned toward the crowd, and they stepped down off the stage where they'd been a few feet higher than everyone else. Their wedding party parted, and Misty started clapping along with everyone else as the bride and groom walked back down the aisle together.
"Ladies and gents," someone said into the microphone. "They're just going to mingle for a few minutes, and then we'll settle down to dinner."
Sure enough, Alex and Nicki came back down the aisle to the front tables to hug their friends and family members. Nicki stepped into her mother's arms, both of them emotional, and Misty's stomach clenched and swooped.
She didn't have that relationship with her mom. If Misty were to ever get married, she wasn't even sure her mom would come. She'd never left New Orleans, where she currently lived in a tiny apartment that surely had mice and bugs for how unclean it had been the last time Misty had seen it.
As the crowd near the altar started to break up, Misty turned to Ralf and gave him a shaky smile. "That was nice."
"Sure was." He indicated her chair, and Misty sat. Only a few minutes later, salads and bread started arriving, and Misty focused on eating, even when Link and Mitch and the women returned to the table.
They all chatted excitedly with one another, and Misty didn't dare look over to Link. He wanted what Alex had just achieved; Misty knew that. He didn't date casually, and Misty suddenly didn't want to either.
She didn't know if she could just tell him she'd had a change of heart, maybe ask him out, and see if they could try again. Thankfully, it didn't take long to eat, and then the dancing was announced.
Misty looked over to Link before she could stop herself. But Mitch met her eyes, not the gorgeous cowboy she'd spent all of her free time with for a few months.
Wanna dance?he signed and then he pushed back from the table.
Link tilted his head slightly to look at her out of the corner of his eye, no smile in sight.
"Sure." Misty signed as she spoke, and she got to her feet too. She flashed Mitch a smile that felt fake and forced, but he wore an easy-going grin as he took her hand and led her away from the table. From Link.
They couldn't talk while they danced, and Misty's heart pounded. Too many eyes watched her, and when the song ended, Alex's father said, "We're going to have Alex and Nicki's first dance now."
The music changed dramatically, and surprise shot through Misty as a rambunctious country music song filled the apple orchard. The crowd cheered and parted, and Misty went with the others to the sidelines.
Smiling, she watched Alex and Nicki do a lively country line dance for several counts, their joy practically a being on the floor with them.
Cowboys and ladies clapped along, with an occasionally "Yeehaw!" thrown in, and Misty found herself enjoying this immensely. It felt like a perfect small-town, country-cowboy celebration, and like she belonged here.
These were her friends, and she'd rather be here than anywhere else. So she clapped with everyone else, and when a man said, "All right, ladies and gents, join ‘em out there," the floor got flooded with those willing to dance, and the man with the mic continued to call the moves.
Misty loved a good country line dance as much as the next Texan, and she laughed as Ralf grabbed her arm and said, "Let's do this."
They joined the other dancers, and Misty finally felt herself relaxing completely. She'd been invited to this wedding. She could dance with everyone. With abandon.
And she did.
When the song ended, Misty's breath came in pants, and she'd lost Ralf somewhere. She found herself retreating to the sidelines again and someone said, "You must be Misty."
She turned toward a blonde woman who wore the prettiest flowered dress Misty had ever seen.
She took a big breath, trying to calm her beating heart and said, "Yes."
"Momma," Link said in the next moment, appearing at her side. He didn't look at her, but kept his eyes trained on his mother. Misty remembered her name to be Sammy—and her husband and Link's daddy, was Bear.
"Do you want to dance?"
The music had gone back to the subdued, flowery wedding music, and several cowboys and their women swayed back and forth on the dance floor.
"Not with you," his momma said with a smile. She tucked her arm into the tall, bearded, glaring cowboy at her side. "Daddy and I are going to take a breather after that line dance."
Link frowned, and he looked over to Misty. She stood there with him and his parents, no one talking, no introductions being made, for two breaths before he drew one and opened his mouth.
Before he could say anything, another blonde woman joined them. Breathlessly, she grabbed onto Link's arm. "Link, I need you."
"I—" he said, but she towed him away.
"Wonder what's got Hailey worked up." Link's daddy glared around, as if his gaze alone would scare off anyone daring to hurt Hailey.
"Her ex is here," Sammy said.
Misty watched as Link took Hailey into his arms and they started dancing. She spoke with him rapidly, and Link simply wore his gruff cowboy face as he nodded a couple of times.
"She's his cousin," his momma said.
Misty turned back to his parents, her heartbeat flailing in her chest. Link hadn't looked over to her at all, and she glanced back to him.
Their eyes locked for a beat of time, and Misty employed every ounce of bravery she had as she tore her gaze from his and looked at his glowing mother and his grumpy-cat father. "I need some help with him," she said. Every cell in her body quivered. "I hurt him. I know that."
She took a breath and pressed her palms together. "I want to fix things with him. Maybe try again. How do I—?" She exhaled heavily, her lungs suddenly holding too much oxygen.
"How do I do that? Any ideas?"
Bear looked at his wife. Sammy looked back at Bear. Then they both looked at Misty, and she stood there in agony, waiting for one of them to give her the key to Link's heart.