Chapter 25

Misty helped load one of two dishwashers with the glasses from tonight's meal. Growing up, she hadn't even had a single dishwasher, let alone two. In fact, she hadn't even had a dishwasher until she'd graduated from college and gotten an apartment with one of her friends from the single design class she'd taken.

Sammy whipped everyone into shape, and everyone—even Link—had a job to clear the table, put leftovers away, and clean up the dishes, pots and pans, and countertops in the kitchen. Misty went back to the table to get the bottles of jam they'd had for their rolls. Homemade strawberry, peach, and raspberry.

Misty had been in college before she'd realized that jams and jellies could even be homemade. And that scalloped potatoes didn't have to come from a box. And that cake recipes existed, not just cake mixes.

As she stretched for the big mason jar of peach jam, her shoe flexed, and she looked down as her shoelace broke. "Shoot."

She'd known her little runners might not last much longer, but she'd expected the soles to wear through before the lace broke.

Sammy came up beside her. "You okay?"

"My shoelace broke."

Link's mother looked down too. "They're white. I've got some you can have." She started to walk away, and Misty looked up from her broken lace to Sammy's retreating back.

"You have some?" She scrambled to follow her out of the kitchen. About halfway down the hall, Sammy slid open a door to reveal a set of shelves laden with household items.

Boxes of toothpaste. Several packages of toothbrushes. Stick after stick of deodorant, both men's and women's. Bottles of mouthwash. Painkillers. Cleaning supplies.

Sammy started rummaging through things, moving aside big packages of batteries—not cheap—feminine hygiene products, washcloths, laundry and dishwashing pods, a whole case of dish soap, body lotion?—

"Here you go." She smiled as she came up with a package of white shoelaces.

Misty stared at them, managing to take them before she made it into a thing Sammy would notice. Behind them, Link's little sisters started squabbling, and Sammy headed back in that direction without sliding the door closed.

She lowered the laces and took in the inventory in the closet. She didn't hear Link coming down the hall until he slid his hand along the waistband of her jeans. "You okay, love?" He leaned in, the tip of his nose tracing a line down the side of her throat.

"Look at this," she said. "Look at all this stuff."

Link looked into the closet, but he didn't seem surprised. "We live pretty far from town, and my momma hates being out of something important."

Misty held up the shoelaces. "Like this?"

"Not having shoelaces on a ranch is terrible," he said.

She turned away from the closet. "Can you please close that?"

He did, but he blocked her escape down the hall. "Talk to me about this," he said in a low voice.

Misty kept her focus on the floor, which shone with a golden gloss. High-end. Everything about this house screamed money, and Misty hadn't minded until this moment.

"When I was a Freshman in college," she started. "I needed more deodorant, and my roommate was at the store, so she said she'd get me some. I said I'd pay her back." She swallowed, so much stinging and streaming through her. "I never did."

Link folded her into his arms. "Okay."

"I never paid her back, because I couldn't afford a two-dollar stick of deodorant, and your mother has probably twenty of them in there."

"Sweetheart, I'll pay for whatever you want," he said. "Whatever you need, be it deodorant or hair dye or those fingertip bandages. Okay? It's just a closet of supplies."

"Yeah." She wrapped her arms around him and hung on. "It feels like it means something."

"It does," he whispered in her ear. "It means you don't ever have to live like you did in college again. It means I'll take care of you, though I know you're not that broke Freshman anymore and you don't need me to take care of you." He pulled back and gazed down at her. "It's all I want to do—to take care of you. To make sure you never have to have this look on your face again."

"Okay," she said. "Okay, look away."

"Look away?"

She flashed him a smile. "Yeah, look away."

"All right," he said dubiously as he turned his head. He even closed his eyes, and Misty fell for him a little bit more right there in the hallway at his parents' house.

She gave herself a tiny physical shake and a great big mental one. She ran her hands down her face and fixed the collar on her shirt. Since she couldn't see her own face, she wasn't entirely sure what she'd looked like, but she fixed a normal-feeling smile to her face, and said, "Okay, look again."

Link turned toward her, his eyes coming open. He grinned when he saw her face, and he started to chuckle.

"I have a different look on my face, don't I?" she asked.

"Yeah." He wrapped her up in a bear hug. "Yeah, you sure do."

"Okay, now I'm going to look in the closet again," she said. "And I'm not going to let it freak me out."

"You don't have to do that."

"I think I do." She turned to look at the closed door. "Growing up, me and Danny never had anything in a cabinet or cupboard. Not a box of granola bars or an extra can of pork and beans, and certainly not any household supplies." She took a deep breath and swallowed. "Okay, I'm ready this time. I think I was just so surprised that I let it get to me."

"Ready?" Link reached for the divot in the door to open it.

Misty nodded. "Ready."

He slid open the door, and the aisles of a grocery store looked back at her. Nothing had changed, but Misty simply reached out and picked up a women's razor. "It's smart to have extras of these around. I always run out at the worst time."

"Take it," Link said.

Misty looked up to him. "Are you serious? No, I don't need to take one of your momma's razors."

Link reached past her with his long arm and picked up a package. "Really? This pack of twelve—plus a bonus one—will get her by, I think."

Laughter started to bubble way down deep in her stomach, and she let it rise and soar through her until the giggles came out of her mouth. It was still a lot of supplies, and Misty had never seen anything like it.

"Link," Sammy said. "Misty, we've got dessert on the back deck."

"Okay, Momma," Link said over his shoulder. He put the razors back on their shelf and pulled the door closed. "All right, love?"

"Yeah," she said. "I just needed a second look to know that it's just normal. I mean, for you guys, it's normal." She slipped her hand into his. "Now, what's for dessert?"

A few days later, Misty went out into the kitchen to find Janie sitting at the dining room table, smiling at her phone. "Texting Brandon?" She moved over to the coffee pot to pour herself a cup. She'd talked to Janie about her date with Brandon, and her best friend swore up and down she'd told Misty.

Misty had been pretty preoccupied with Link and all they had going on, and she'd decided it was possible Janie had said something and she'd forgotten. They'd gone back to normal, but as Misty stirred sugar into her coffee while Janie giggled at her phone, she wondered how much longer they'd live in this reality.

"Look at his cat," she said, twirling her phone toward Misty. She hadn't gotten dressed yet, so she sat in her pajama shorts and top, her smile so genuine.

Misty sat down opposite her and picked up her phone. "Oh, it's an orange tabby."

"He says he's a real diva. Was supposed to be a barn cat, but he won't even walk on grass."

Misty grinned at her friend and pushed the phone back toward her. "He's cute." She took a sip of her coffee. "Brandon is too. You and him…is it turning into anything?"

Janie shrugged one shoulder, her eyes on her phone. "I don't really know. He's…I actually think he's not real serious about stuff like this. Too bad you didn't meet him last summer." Janie's voice held a note of sadness, though, so Misty didn't laugh or agree.

"If he's not the one," she said instead. "Maybe…."

Janie looked up. "I just don't know if I'll ever meet someone like Link."

"Oh, sure you will." Misty waved her comment away. "This town is full of cowboys like Link."

Janie shook her head, her dark eyes serious. "No, Misty. He's special."

Misty didn't want to argue with her, because Link had crossed the threshold to special a long time ago. "I don't know if he's special, or if he's just—I don't know. Something."

"He's just right for you," Janie said with a sigh. "I don't know if Brandon is just right for me. There were definitely sparks in the beginning, but it feels a little like they've fizzled out."

"So are you going to go see his cat?"

Janie shook her head. "He's never invited me up to his ranch."

"It's probably for the best," Misty said. "It's even further than Shiloh Ridge."

"Yeah, but for the right cowboy…is any distance too far?" Janie sighed again as she got to her feet. "I'm going to get dressed."

Misty watched her head for the hallway. "I'll put together our parfaits."

"Thanks."

Misty took another slow sip of her coffee before she got up to put blueberries and strawberries in vanilla Greek yogurt. Labor Day had come and gone, but the Texas sun was just as relentless up in the Panhandle as it was in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Link had moved into harvest season, which she remembered from last year. He worked from sun-up to sun-down, and sometimes overnight too. Other cowboys on the ranch were prepping for Market Day. According to him, everyone participated in the round-up, which included him.

They'd go up into the hills and drive their cattle back to the ranch. Winter crops would get planted. Another short birthing season, for calves they'd sell in the spring, which apparently yielded higher profits.

All of that would be done in the next couple of months, and Link had said by the time they made it to the last weekend of October, everyone in the family—and on the ranch—was ready for their family celebration.

Misty had moved onto the huge painting that sat behind the City Council whenever they sat in session, and the intricacy of working with old golden picture frames and paint covered in a hundred years of grime left her bleary-eyed and tired in the evenings.

She'd still seen Link almost every day, but she anticipated seeing him less this month and maybe next. For some reason, she felt a little more hollow and a little more lonely, and she'd spent all evening with him just last night.

She got up and made two yogurt parfaits before Janie came back into the kitchen, and as they headed out to her car to get to work, Misty said, "I'm thinking of going to Danny's parole hearing." She looked over to Janie, whose eyes had gone wide. "What do you think?"

"I think—when is it?"

"Next month," she said thoughtfully. "He just emailed me about it, and he thinks he might be able to get out this time."

"Does he want you to speak to the parole board?"

"He didn't ask me to, no," Misty said. She had in the past, and it had taken a lot from her. Plus, Danny hadn't been granted parole in any of his three previous hearings, and she didn't expect him to get it this time either.

But maybe…. "I'm just thinking about it," she said. "I don't have to decide right now." She opened the passenger door and got in the car.

Janie reached over her shoulder and pulled on her seatbelt. "What will you do if he gets out?"

Misty raked her hand through her hair, considering the question. "I don't know," she finally said.

"He might want to move up here with you."

"I've never said I'm moving here."

"Not out loud," Janie said, and then she let the subject drop. Misty appreciated that, and she had plenty of time to think through what her best friend had said as they drove to work and started on their individual projects.

Did she want to return to Southern Texas to see her brother and attend his parole hearing? He hadn't asked, and Misty would have to decipher what he wanted without Danny coming right out and saying it.

What would she do if he got released? She felt a sense of responsibility for him, and she currently lived a long way from the Coastal Bend and Dallas.

And the real question that needed answering: Was Misty going to make her move to Three Rivers permanent?