Chapter 34

Link pulled up to Misty's house and found her suitcase on the porch, but not her. He took it to his truck and put it in the back with his bag. His nerves for this road trip fired at him as he walked back to her front door and knocked.

He'd been teasing her about going away for Thanksgiving, but he'd never dreamed they'd actually do it. And they weren't, not really.

They were going to Dallas to move her out of her apartment, clean it, and list it for sale. She wasn't going back there, and she saw no reason to pay for it when she wasn't going to use it again.

They'd technically be back in Three Rivers, at Shiloh Ridge, on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. They'd be here for the stuffing, the homemade croutons, the turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. All of it. So they weren't really missing anything except work.

Link wasn't upset about that, as he hardly ever took any days off work. He knocked again, this time calling, "Misty," as he opened the door.

"She's quietly freaking out," Janie said, only her eyes moving from the magazine she held as she lay on the couch. "Down the hall, first room on the right."

Link's frown flattened out, and he nodded to Janie. "Thank you, Janie. Are you still coming up to the ranch for Thanksgiving?"

She smiled and said, "Of course. Are you still coming to our Friendsgiving on Friday?"

"Of course," he said in the exact same way she had. He flashed her a smile and went down the hall to Misty's bedroom. He hadn't spent any time here, but he only had to stand in the doorway to see how quintessentially Misty her space was.

Floral curtains. A pristinely made bed. Her charging cord draped over the nightstand so she wouldn't have to bend to retrieve it. Two notebooks on her nightstand. Closet doors closed.

"Hey," Link said, and Misty turned from the window, where she'd been looking out. "I put your bag in the truck."

The tension in Misty's face dissolved away. "Thanks." She came toward him, each step reminding him how much he loved her. Today, she wore long pants somewhere between dark blue and dark purple, with wide legs that swayed with each step. Her blouse was blue, green, and purple, perfectly matched to the pants.

"You're not wearing shoes," he said.

"They're in the kitchen." She ran her hands up his chest. "We should go so we're on schedule, right?"

"We have no schedule, love." He grinned at her and leaned down to kiss her. "We can stop when you want, where you want. It's three hundred and fifty miles, give or take, and we can do that about five hours, straight through."

And the clock hadn't even struck ten yet. They weren't attending church today, and Link honestly didn't care when they arrived in Dallas. Misty would stay at her apartment, and Link, being a creature of habit, had booked the same hotel he'd stayed in last month when he'd made his first trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"I can't believe we're going away together," Misty murmured, her lips still against his.

"Next time we do it," he said. "We should actually go on vacation. The beach. The mountains. Something that isn't a chore."

"I'm in, cowboy."

He pulled away and took her hand as he fell back a step. "Come on, then. Let's get your shoes and get on the road."

She slid on her sandals with ease, and then she hugged Janie before they left the house. Link helped her up into the passenger seat; they buckled in; he set the course on his phone; and just like that, they left Three Rivers in the rear view mirror.

Misty hadn't said anything yet, and Link certainly wasn't one to chatter on if there wasn't anything to be said. But he glanced over to Misty. "So we haven't really talked about getting married."

She lifted her eyes from her phone, then tucked it under her thigh. "No, we haven't."

"Is that something you'd like to do?" He wasn't sure what he'd do if she said no. What a dumb question, he told himself. "I mean, I'm not going to rush you into it. My momma said you probably have some idea of when you'd like to get married, and I should ask you about it."

She grinned at him flirtily and leaned her head back against the rest. "Is that what your momma said?"

"Yes," he said. "So have you? Given any thought to a wedding? You know, if you'd like it to be in a field of bluebonnets or with, I don't know, hay bales and stalks of dried corn, or…." He trailed off when she started laughing.

Flustered, Link gripped the steering wheel and shifted in his seat. "If you haven't thought about it, then we can throw a dart at a calendar and get married on whatever date it lands on."

"Oh, we wouldn't throw a dart," she said, still laughing. "You'd throw a horseshoe."

Link smiled then. "Yeah, okay. Whatever you want to throw."

Misty's laughter quieted. "A marriage isn't all about one person, Link."

"No, it's not."

"So when would you like to get married?"

His heart nearly jumped out of his throat. "Just to be clear, we're talking about me and you getting married, right?"

"Yes, cowboy," she drawled out. "I mean, you're not special, but yes, me and you. Getting married."

"Well, if I'm marrying you, I'd like to get married as soon as possible."

Misty looked away, the boring, brown landscape beyond her window suddenly so enthralling. "That's so sweet, Link." She pulled in a breath that sounded a lot like a sniffle, and Link reached over and took her hand.

"Misty, I'm in love with you. Now that I know it and you know it and we're talking about marriage and kids and how to build a house of our own at Shiloh Ridge, every night I go home alone is awful." He couldn't believe it, but his momma had been right. "I don't want to sleep alone. I don't want to wake up alone. I want to see your face when I walk in after a long day on horseback, and I want to make you breakfast for dinner when you've been painting so long you can't even see colors anymore."

She nodded, truly sniffling now. "Okay," she said.

"That wasn't a proposal," he said. "And by the way, you don't say ‘okay' when a man asks you to marry him." He chuckled, glad when she attempted a laugh too. "I'm just saying, when we get married is going to depend on you, because I'd stop by the closest courthouse I could find and get it done."

She shook her head, her smile so beautiful. "Link, there's a seventy-two-hour waiting period of marriages in Texas."

"Okay, well, we could still get it done by Thanksgiving." He grinned at her, knowing full-well she wouldn't do that. "And, uh, what about your mom? Are you going to tell her? Invite her? Maybe she'd like to come see the ranch? Meet me?"

Link forced himself to stop talking, and he wished he'd stopped to get something to drink. He could rectify that in Pampa, as they had a little convenience store right off the highway.

"So many questions," she murmured.

"I don't need all the answers," he said. "Really, I don't. Just—you know how I have a lot going on in my head sometimes." He flashed her a smile, hoping to smooth things over a little.

"I love what goes on in your head," she said, squeezing his hand. "Let's start with the wedding. Link." She sighed and reached to tuck her hair behind her ear. "I didn't make plans to get married. Ever. I didn't play with dolls who got to walk down the aisle in pretty dresses I made for them out of my mother's old clothes or toilet paper or whatever."

He nodded, foolishness like hot pepper in his mouth. He coughed a couple of times, not sure what to say or do.

"Maybe I could…talk to your mom about it? Maybe she could help me set a realistic timeline. I mean, I'd need what? A dress, and flowers, and food, and maybe a band. I don't know how long it takes to do things or if they'll be booked out or what."

She pulled her hand away and wound her fingers together. "The whole thing is daunting."

"Yeah," Link agreed. "We really just need to show up in True Blue with Aunt Willa." He glanced over to her. "Everything else is just extras."

"But maybe I want the extras."

"And you can have them," he said. "If you ask my momma, she will cry in happiness, I can guarantee it." He nodded and smiled at her. "Guarantee."

"I really like your momma," Misty said quietly.

"She's the best," Link agreed.

"I'm going to text her," Misty said.

"No—maybe—" Link realized he'd practically shouted. His stomach swayed left and right and he told himself to calm down. "Maybe you should wait until we're actually engaged."

Misty's eyebrows went up. "Well, when will that happen?"

"I don't know," he said, his voice pitching up slightly. "I was told a proposal should be a fun surprise."

Misty started to giggle. "Who told you that?"

"If you must know," Link said, ready to stuff a sock in his mouth so he'd stop talking. "Your best friend." He really hit the D hard and threw a cocked-eyebrow look to Misty. "So stop laughing at Janie."

Misty zipped her lips, though her delight still filled the cab of the truck. "Do you have a ring?"

"Are you seriously going to ruin any and all surprises I may or may not have?"

She turned her head and gaped at him then. "Link."

"I need a drink," he said. "We're gonna stop here in Pampa, okay? You want anything?"

"Something to drink would actually be great," Misty said.

"Great," Link said, and he couldn't pull off the road fast enough. The wind blew in Pampa, and he faced into it, praying it would cool him off enough to finish the rest of this drive.

Yes, he had a ring. Yes, he'd brought it with him. No, he didn't have a plan for when or where or even how to ask Misty to be his wife.

Link went up to the second floor and back down to the parking lot with boxes, lamps, luggage, and more boxes. Misty wasn't bringing much furniture with her, thankfully. They'd been working for two straight days, and Link much preferred his ranch work to moving his girlfriend out of the apartment she'd lived in for the past seven years.

She hadn't moved fast the first day, going through everything, but today, they'd really gotten a lot boxed up. He estimated he had to make three or four more trips, and then they'd have everything in the back of his truck or the trailer he'd rented.

Misty came out of the apartment as he came up the steps. "I want that cabinet in my bedroom," she said. "It was my mother's."

"I'll get it," he said. He'd already emptied the drawers and taped them closed. It was just a matter of getting it out of the apartment and down the steps. He'd left a spot for it in the back of the truck, and it only stood to his chest, so it shouldn't give him too much trouble.

In fact, he didn't have a problem getting the cabinet down to the truck, and Misty brought down a box of her printer supplies while he covered everything in the bed of the truck with a tarp and tied it securely down.

"We just need to clean up," she said with a sigh. She tucked her hands into her back pockets and looked at the full bed and mostly full trailer. "We filled it up. I didn't think we would."

"Sometimes we have more than we think." He reached for her and added, "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," she said.

"Don't seem fine," he said.

"Don't I?"

"You won't look at me," he said. "Haven't looked at me for the past half-hour."

Misty still didn't immediately move her eyes to his. It took several seconds for her to get herself to look at him, and Link gazed at her. "There you are, love."

"I don't mean to get lost."

"You're doing a lot," he said. "Let's go get the place clean. You can take your pictures for the listing. Then we'll go to dinner."

"At the Four Seasons?"

"I checked that place," Link said. "No reservations available for tonight." He didn't tell her he'd booked another restaurant here in Dallas—one of the nicest places in the city—almost three weeks ago. "Don't worry, Misty. I've got dinner worked out."

"Okay," she said airily. "Now, come show me your muscles on my hard water stains."

He chuckled and followed her back up the steps one more time. She lightened considerably as they scrubbed countertops and wiped away fingerprints. Link did clean the bathroom while she started the vacuum in the back bedroom and worked her way toward the front door.

She'd never given him a definitive answer for when she'd like to get married, and Link reminded himself that she and Momma would work out a date based on the timeline of how long it took to plan the wedding. "Summertime," Link murmured to himself. It was almost December now, and Link couldn't imagine the Glovers doing a wedding lickety split.

Of course, Oliver and Aurora had gotten married with only thirty days between the day Ollie proposed and the day they said I-do. So things could get greased if they had to.

Link didn't want a rushed engagement. He wanted to enjoy his time with Misty, and he wanted her to have every single detail of her wedding exactly how she wanted it.

As the vacuum went by the bathroom, Link muttered to himself, "You've got to ask her tonight." But he didn't want to put the ring in a glass of champagne or ask her in public. They were both staying in the same hotel that night, and he didn't want to propose there either.

So you're going to do it in the truck on the way home?he questioned himself. Irritated with himself, he finished up in the bathroom and took the bucket of supplies out to the living room.

Misty finished with the vacuum, and Link took the supplies outside. "I'll take the pictures," she said. "Be right down."

He hesitated. Did she want him to stay? Or would she prefer he leave so she could have one last moment in her apartment? Link took one look at her, and he knew: She wanted to be alone. So he took the vacuum and bucket and left her to herself for a few minutes.

When she didn't come down, Link's pulse beat at him to go check on her. He checked his pocket for the diamond he'd bought last week, and he hurried up the steps. He'd closed the door behind him, and instead of going right in, he knocked as if he'd just arrived to take Misty out for a fancy dinner at the nicest restaurant in Dallas.

He'd heard how Bear had proposed to Momma so many times, but Link didn't pull out the ring and get down on his knees right there on her doorstep. He waited, and Misty opened the door a moment later.

"I'm almost ready," she said. "I just realized I wanted that towel warmer in my bathroom." She hurried away from him and down the hall, and Link entered the apartment, his hand sliding into his pocket where the ring sat.

He pulled it out and looked at it. Uncle Preacher and Uncle Ward had gone with him to buy it, and they'd both assured him that it was beautiful, that it would do the job.

"Got it," Misty said. "Would you—?" She stopped only a pace from him, the bulky towel warmer coming toward him. "What is that?"

Link looked up and into her pretty eyes. Those eyes that had captivated him from the moment he'd seen them. "It's a symbol of my unending love for you." He held it up. "It's the long view, Misty, and I see me and you making a life together. And it might be messy, and I'll have to do overnight mowing every year until I'm, like, sixty."

He grinned at her, buoyed by the stunned shock streaming from her. So he'd surprised her, and everyone he'd spoken to about proposing had said no woman wants to know how things will happen. They wanted a good story to tell their friends, their kids, everyone.

"But whenever I think of that long view, and I reach really far into the future—and even into eternity—you're there. You're mine. I'm yours." He cleared his throat and finally remembered he should be down on at least one knee.

So he dropped to both and held up the diamond ring. Princess cut, with shining facets everywhere. "I'm completely in love with you. I don't know how to breathe through the immensity of my love for you. I feel like a new man every time I think of you loving me. It's just—it's mind-blowing."

You still haven't asked her, his mind screamed at him.

He cleared his throat and looked at his gorgeous girlfriend, still holding that towel warmer. "I love you, and I will love you for the long view, Misty. Will you marry me?"

She looked at him like he'd just asked her to cut off her own hand. She said nothing.

Link chuckled, because that was what he did when he was so far out of his comfort zone and had no idea how to get back into it. "Misty?—"

"My face is wrong," she blurted out. "Look away."

"What?"

"Just look away."

"All right." He turned his head toward the pristine kitchen, wondering if he should get back to his feet. Shove that ring away. Hide his head. Cancel the reservation at Ember. Somehow make it home without losing all of his dignity.

"Okay, look again," she said. "I'm ready this time."

Link looked at her again. Gone was the towel warmer, her anxiety, and that shocked look. She'd loosed her hair from its ponytail, and she grinned at him.

He smiled back at her. "I will always look again," he told her. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes!" Misty squealed. She clapped her hands and bounced on her toes. "Link, this ring is gorgeous." She held out her left hand, and Link slid the ring onto her finger. Then he reached for her, and she laughed as she leaned down to kiss him.

"I love you," he murmured.

"I love you so much." She kissed him and pulled back. "I just want you to know I'm not going to be good at this in the beginning. I'm really not. I'm so scared. But I'm in it for the long view too."

Link got to his feet and cradled her face in his hands. "I think we'll both have a lot to learn in the beginning."

"But we love each other."

He gathered her into his chest. "Yeah, I love you," he confirmed. "Because you're so special and so amazing and so brave."

"And I love you, because you're hard-working, and calm, and so, so special."

Link grinned, his eyes dropping closed, wanting and needing to simply be here with her, in this apartment in Dallas they'd never visit again, to feel the love she had for him and the love he had for her.

He could just see the two of them in a new house on the ranch, one with a big sunroom for painting, and bedrooms upstairs for the kids, and a big yard for the dogs who followed him home after work on the ranch.

"Can I text your momma now?" Misty asked.

"No," he said, stepping back and coming back to the present. "No, because we have our engagement dinner to get to, and you won't have time."

She blinked and grinned at him. "Are you going to tell me where we're going?"

"Ember," he said, ducking his head as if embarrassed.

But Misty made that delicious squealing sound again and launched herself into his arms all over again. "You didn't. Ember?" She searched his face, pure wonder on hers. "That's such a nice place."

"Yeah, I've got a jacket in the back of the truck," he said.

"You planned this." She gave him a look that said she appreciated the work he'd put into this proposal.

"Oh, don't go thinkin' you're special because I called and got us a reservation three weeks ago." He rolled his eyes. "Let's go. I don't want to miss it, and city traffic is not something I'm used to."

He bent and picked up the towel warmer, and they left the apartment together.

"I am special, though," Misty said once he'd put the towel warmer in the back and gotten behind the wheel of the truck.

He looked over to her. "Yeah, you are. You're the special-est."

"You're special too."

"Yeah." He took her hand and lifted it to his lips. "Okay, now, text my momma and tell her I love you and you love me and we're going to get married."

Misty grinned and grinned, pulled her hand back, and said, "Okay."

I love second chance romances with my whole heart. And Link is one of my favorite cowboy heroes ever, and I love how Misty is just-right for him - and him for her! Please leave a review for them here.