Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

L incoln Glover had silenced his phone, but it still nagged at him. Misty wasn't at work today, but she'd come up to the ranch to make jam with his momma and aunt Etta. They'd been nothing but kind to her in the past five or six weeks since he'd asked her to marry him—not that they hadn't been kind and accepting before that.

They had been, as Link had known they would.

But Misty hadn't spent much time with his family without him, and the pool of anxiety inside Link seemed to get pricked and poked over and over with every moment he spent in Dawson Rhinehart's cabin.

Smiles had no such cares. He grinned from ear to ear as he said, "Whenever I want to talk to a girl, but I don't have anything to talk about, or anything to say, or we're not in the same classes or whatever, I text her jokes about her favorite thing."

"Jokes?" Henry asked.

"I like it when I get those funny animal videos." Libby gave Smiles a kind smile.

"Dawson's a real joke-teller," Finn said sarcastically, and Link laughed. Even Dawson did, because they all knew him. He absolutely wasn't a joke-teller. Heck, it took a lot just to get the man to smile. And laughing? Link had heard him do it on occasion, but Dawson didn't go around cracking jokes and then tipping his head back and laughing about them.

Henry finished chuckling and said, "It's not bad, kid. Keeps your name on her phone, and it probably makes her smile."

"Women like that," Brandon said. "I'm always telling Daws to lighten up." He gave his brother a flashy smile that Dawson simply rolled his eyes at.

Link just watched his friend, because he knew some of the burdens Dawson carried that perhaps Smiles, Henry, and Brandon didn't. The oldest son, though he had a half-brother older than him in Duke.

His momma and daddy still relied on him for a lot, and Link had no idea what Dawson's afternoon would look like after this forgotten lunch. He'd have to redo his entire to-do list and move around several of his sticky notes, and all of that made him nervous and grouchy at the same time .

"You text me the jokes," Dawson said to Smiles, a brotherly smile on his face. "And I'll see if I can get myself to send them."

"You don't want to be someone via text who you're not in person," Libby said.

"She knows him just fine in person," Link said. He grinned at Dawson. "You know, Daws, a texting relationship might be in your favor."

Dawson rewarded him with a smile. "You're probably not wrong."

Link laughed, glad when Dawson joined him. "I know I'm not wrong."

"So texting," he said. "Jokes." He glanced at Libby and Henry, who sat across from him. "What else?"

"Anything about the owls," Henry said. "And then you casually branch that out to other things. Since they're owls, it's easy to go to animals from there. Dogs, Brandon's cat, your chickens, those crows who love you."

"She knows all about those," he said.

"Mm, nope." Henry gave him a smile and popped another potato chip in his mouth. "She's been here once, buddy. There's so much more to do. Take pictures of them. Send them to her. Make it seem like she wants to come to where you are." He flicked his gaze around the table. "And she eventually will."

"I can send her pictures of Ruffin," Dawson said thoughtfully, as if he'd never considered such a thing before. Truth be told, Link wouldn't have thought of that either.

"Mitch is great at dating too," he said. "I can ask him for some tips too." He pulled out his phone to do that while Libby—the lone woman at today's lunch—started to talk about what women really wanted from their boyfriends.

Link got lost in his phone for a moment, because when he navigated to his text messages, he found Misty had sent five more messages since he'd silenced his phone and shoved it in his pocket.

Look! My first jar of jam! She'd included a picture of her holding up a beautiful Mason jar of red jam—strawberry. It make his heart sing, and he fell in love with his pretty strawberry-blonde fiancée all over again.

When will you be done? Holly Ann and Montana want to make bread to go with the jam, and your momma says a homemade piece of toast with lots of butter and jam will change my life.

So I want to stay and do that.

The last text was another picture of her, this time with one of his aunt's aprons around her waist and a whisk in her hand as she stirred something in a bowl. The sunshine hit her hair just right, and it shone like spun gold.

Ah, he loved her so much.

He smiled while the conversation went on around him. It didn't really matter when he finished here. He and Smiles had plenty of work to keep them busy until Misty finished her bread-making and toast-and-jam sampling.

His thumbs flew across the phone as those around him laughed at something he hadn't heard. Remember when you brought me a freshly baked loaf of bread and my very own jar of jam so I could have toast too? That was an amazing evening.

She didn't text back right away, and Link navigated over to his text chain with Mitch. Looking for some good dating advice for Dawson. He's got a woman he likes, but it might be bad timing.

Bad timing? Mitch sent back instantly. Then Link's phone lit up as Mitch called. "Mitch is calling, guys." He held up the phone. "Should I answer?"

Dawson wiped his mouth with a paper towel and nodded. "Yeah, answer it."

Link swiped on the video call, because he couldn't talk to his deaf cousin without being able to see him. He reached out and set the phone in front of him and Smiles, as both of them knew sign language and could communicate with Mitch. Dawson sat next to him, and he could talk to Mitch a little bit, but not nearly as easily as Link and Smiles.

A deep missing filled Link, though God Himself had confirmed to Link that Mitch was where he needed to be. Honestly, if he hadn't gotten that confirmation straight from heaven, Link would've loaded up in his truck, driven to Virginia, and brought Mitch back to Three Rivers. Back to Shiloh Ridge.

"Hey," he said, making the sign as he said it. He glanced over to Dawson.

"Just tell him the situation quickly."

Link did, making the signs and summarizing things as succinctly as he could. "And now, Dawson's trying to see her or stay in her life without having a formal date on his calendar." He looked over to Dawson and raised his eyebrows as if to ask, Did I get that right?

Dawson nodded, and Smiles said, "He goes too fast for me, Link, but he said ‘This is an easy one.'"

Link hurried to focus on Mitch again, because he could keep up with Mitch most of the time. Not when he got really animated and excited, but this wasn't about him. Still, he knew Dawson well, and he loved talking about dating.

"An easy one, huh?" Dawson chuckled. "Maybe for Mitch."

Link watched his hands and tried to translate at the same time. Since Mitch had moved over the summer, Link's skills had gotten rusty at having to interpret, as he talked to Mitch all the time, but he didn't have to take what his cousin said and relay it to someone else.

"Uh, he says that he's a pro at flirting via texting, and he can send you some stuff, Dawson." He didn't dare look away. "He says it's the little things that will win her over until you can have your first real date."

"Little things?"

Link signed the question from Smiles, and Mitch's hands flew into motion again. "Yeah," he translated. "You can have her favorite food delivered to her house. You don't have to be there. Flowers, if she likes those. If she works a job where she might like a massage or a pedicure, you get a gift certificate and send it to her. Mail her a card for Valentine's Day right now. And then another one next week."

Link almost wanted to be taking notes for what he could do to make sure Misty didn't fall out of love with him. At the same time, he knew Misty wouldn't do that. She loved him, and he'd felt that deeply in his soul too.

"Maybe not every week," he amended. "But something else next week, and not the same thing as other men."

"What kinds of things?" Henry asked, and Link glanced across the table to him.

He signed the question, but Mitch hadn't finished answering yet. He fluidly moved into the next answer anyway, and it took a moment for Link to catch up. "Uh, like where some guys send flowers, you don't do that. You have to stand out. So you send an edible arrangement. Or you show up while she's at work and you leave her favorite treat on the doorstep. Then she'll know you were there, and she missed you. She misses you."

"This is really good," Henry said. "Same concept as I said. "

"Then, you make sure the first date is really special," Link said. "Because if you show her you're listening to her texts and that you miss her too, then you have to follow that up with all the things you promised she'd miss."

"As if a first date doesn't already carry enough pressure," Dawson grumbled. "But this is great." He leaned into Link's side and made a sign. "Thank you, Mitch."

Mitch grinned at him, and Link could admit he looked better than last time he'd seen him. Link wanted to ask him why, or find out if he was nervous for the new semester to start, but he didn't want to do it in mixed company. Mitch signed with Smiles for a few seconds, and then Link said, "I'll call you again tomorrow, brother," and Mitch ended the video call.

"Libby?" Dawson asked. "Am I on the right track?"

"I'd say so," she said as she stood up. She collected Paul's empty plate, then Henry's and added, "Heck if a man actually listened to me, he'd be ahead of my last three boyfriends."

She moved into the kitchen with all of them watching her, and then Paul, who sat on the end, turned to look at all of them. Link felt the same bewilderment running through him that Paul wore on his face, and then Finn burst out laughing.

That set them all off, and Link sure did love his friends. He laughed with them, and he could tell them anything. He counted himself lucky to be included in this group, and he thanked the Lord Above for Finn and Edith, who'd started having game nights and parties at their house. These cowboys-only lunches had stemmed from that, where they could talk about the concerns on their own ranches and farms, with men their own age, with similar experience levels.

Sometimes Link didn't want to take his problems or concerns to Uncle Ward or Uncle Preacher, and especially not Daddy. He didn't want them to know of his insecurities and his lack of knowledge when it came to things they did as naturally as breathing.

So these lunches, though they'd only met a few times now, meant a lot to him.

Then Dawson lifted one hand, and the laughter started to die. "Guys," he said, his eyes glued to his phone. "Caroline just texted me."

He looked up, and it sure felt like all the air had just been swept out of the room. He sucked in a breath. "It says, ‘I need some help. Like now. Could you come to my house right away?'"

Dawson looked around, his eyes round like full moons. Dinner plates. They held wonder and fear, and it was Finn who barked, "What are you still doing here, cowboy? Go."

"Yeah, go," Henry said, jumping to his feet. "Go, go, go!"

Dawson stood too, looked around wildly, and then streaked out of the kitchen and down the hall, muttering, "Shoes, I need some shoes that aren't caked in mud. "

Link grinned at his back, then got up to help clear the table and put the sandwich fixings away. He took three cookies and looked at Smiles. "Come on, bro. We've got to get back and move those turkeys over to the east yard."

"Yes, sir," Smiles said, and he took three cookies too.

Dawson came bustling down the hallway wearing sneakers, and he grabbed his leather jacket from the back of the couch. "You guys okay here?"

"Yes," a whole chorus came back to him. "Go," Link added.

"Good luck," Libby called as Dawson jogged toward the front door, trying to put his arms through the sleeves of his jacket. Unsuccessfully, but still trying.

Link could only grin at him as he pounded through the door, and then he looked over to Finn. He shook his head, smiling, and they all started laughing again.

"Go get ‘er, Daws," Alex said, and Link could've echoed that sentiment. As he left the Rhinehart Ranch and took the private dirt road that led north to Shiloh Ridge, he prayed that Dawson would one, drive safely, and two, get exactly what he wanted when it came to Caroline.

If anyone deserved happiness, it was Dawson, and Link wanted that for his friend.