Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

D awson walked out into the main living room of the cabin and spread his arms wide. "Well? Trying too hard?"

Brandon looked up from his phone, his smile appearing before he'd even taken in Dawson's clothes. April got to her feet while Link and Misty studied him too. He'd invited them all to help him make sure he didn't humiliate himself on this very important first date with Caroline.

"The jeans are great." She circled him, looking from high to low and back, and he dropped his arms back to his sides. "Cowboy boots. Sexy. Caroline will like those. The belt buckle too."

He growled and gave his niece a side-eyed look before returning his attention to Link. "Link?"

"You look great," Link said. "Right, baby? "

Misty beamed at Dawson, and she got up, leaving her fiancé on the couch. She joined April, and they both studied his shirt. He felt naked in front of them, and he looked over to Link. He'd known the cowboy just fine before he was made the junior foreman at Shiloh Ridge, but when that had happened, their friendship had grown and strengthened.

Link had moved to a house closer to the Rhinehart Ranch, and he oversaw a lot for his family's ranch that brought him south more often, and what he needed was what Dawson did for his family's ranch. They'd been going to game nights at Finn and Edith's, and Dawson had been the seventh wheel with them, Link and Misty, and Alex and Nicki for far too long.

Fine, only about six months. But still. It felt like a long time. Or like he and Brandon were a couple when they went out with their dating or married friends.

"It's a shirt," he said to Link. "What are they looking at?"

Link chuckled and shook his head. "Don't ask me, cowboy."

"It's kind of dark," April finally said, and Misty snapped her fingers as if she hadn't been able to think of a word to describe his shirt.

"Yes," she said. "It's dark, Dawson. Don't you have something a little more…festive?"

"Festive?" Dawson glared at her. "We're going to dinner at a place that only serves potatoes. "

"Not true," Brandon said from the couch. "They have tons of meat to go with the potatoes."

"It's not a steakhouse," Dawson said. "Or anything fancy. I just don't want to be embarrassed when I show up." He held out the fabric of his navy blue shirt and looked at it. "This one's clean."

"Honey, this woman you've been pining for deserves more than ‘this one's clean.'" Misty smiled at him. "Can we see the choices?"

"I have not been pining ."

"I know which bedroom is his." April started down the hall without permission from Dawson, and he decided a simple cowboy like him couldn't lasso a tornado and rein it in.

"Shadow lands," he said to Link. "Do you go through this every time you go out?"

Link looked up from his phone. "No, but Mitch helped me for a bit." He raised his phone. "He wants to see the shirt."

"Sure," Dawson said darkly. "What's one more opinion on a shirt I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be wearing tonight?" He turned in a full circle for Mitch and made the sign as he asked, "Well?"

Mitch started signing, but Dawson couldn't understand him. He held up both hands and said, "Link, help me out."

Link looked at his phone and laughed, signed back, and looked at Dawson. "He said it's kind of boring. Bland." His eyes glittered with mischief. "And too dark."

"This one, Uncle Dawson," April said from behind him, and he turned to see her holding up a bright orange plaid shirt. Orange.

"I didn't even know I owned that shirt," Dawson said dumbly.

"It's not as bright as you think," Misty said. "It's got blue and black stripes too. Tons of white." She gave him a pretty grin. "She's going to love it."

He pulled off his blue polo and put on the plaid shirt, buttoning it up to the throat. "One or two buttons undone?"

"Oh, two," Misty said, swatting away his hand and pulling open the button he'd just fastened. "Let me see." She stepped back and April joined her, wearing an impish look on her face. "Yes, this is it." She looked at April. "Don't you think?"

"Totally," she said. "You're hot, Uncle Dawson."

"Ew," he said, which made April giggle. "Don't ever tell me that again."

Someone knocked on the door, and they all turned toward it. Dawson was already up and he lived here, so he figured he could get it. "Seems strange someone's knocking," he said. Duke and anyone in his family would just walk in.

"Oh, I bet it's my brother," Misty said. "He was going to come here after he showered, so we could go grab dinner."

Dawson pulled open the door, expecting to find Danny Granger standing there—and he did. "Howdy, Danny." Dawson grinned and stuck out his hand for the other man to shake.

He did; he smiled; he said, "Howdy, Dawson."

"C'mon in. Seems like we're all leaving." He stepped back and then went into the kitchen to get his truck keys. "Miss April, you're coming with me. I'll drop you at home."

"No, I got permission to go hang out with Pearl Jo and Chaz tonight," she said. "Aunt Willa is going to pick me up here."

"So you're just going to hang out here alone?" He cocked his eyebrows at her. "When is she coming? They're goin' to dinner, and I've got to get too."

"Let me text her."

"I can drive you down there," he said. "Are you at Ace's or Cactus's?"

"I don't know." Her fingers flew over her phone, and she looked up a moment later. "What? You don't trust me in your house?"

"You just dug through my closet and found a shirt I didn't know I owned," he said. "So, no, not really." He grinned at her, because they both knew he trusted her to stay in his cabin just fine.

Her phone chimed, and a moment later, she said, "She just passed the Top Cottage. She'll be here in two minutes."

Dawson nodded and took in the others around him. He would die in a family as big as the Glovers, but he did love the camaraderie coming from everyone in his house right now. Link sat signing to Mitch, while Misty chatted easily with Danny and Brandon.

April simply looked at him, and he moved over to her and gave her a quick hug. "You be good now, ya'hear?"

"Yes, sir," she said.

"All right." He stepped back and lifted his hand. "I'm headed out. Pray for me and wish me luck."

"You got it, brother," Brandon said while Misty yelled, "You don't need luck. She's going to love you!"

Link waved, and April said, "Just do what I said, Uncle Dawson. You'll be fine." She grinned at him wickedly, and while Dawson was dying to kiss Caroline, he wasn't sure how or when that was going to happen. He'd figure it out as the night progressed, he supposed, but not if he didn't get going.

The drive to her house happened during a single country music song, he swore. He couldn't even remember making the turn or if the light had been green when he had. But he now drove down her street, his mind kicking at him to focus and be present.

He pulled into her driveway, every muscle in his body tense and screaming. Probably because of the orange shirt, which also had a lot of white in it. It wasn't really orange at all, at least not a solid color. "It's fine," he said. He didn't have a back-up shirt, so it would have to be fine.

The trek up her sidewalk to the porch took at least as long as it had for him to drive here, and he listened to her doorbell ding and dong through her house. Dawson tucked his hands into his pockets, praying with all he had that he hadn't missed a text.

He'd left his phone in the truck, so he couldn't even check.

The door didn't open, and he checked to make sure her car sat in the driveway. It sure did, which meant she was home. Belle had her own car, and it wasn't here. That only made Dawson's pulse accelerate, and when the door started to swing open, something grabbed him by the throat and held on tight.

Caroline appeared, a beautiful smile on her face and a gorgeous flowered dress falling to her ankles. It spilled pink, blue, purple, and peachy blooms from top to bottom, and Dawson couldn't help smiling at such a fun pattern. Her bare shoulders teased him, as did the V in the neck that stopped just short of showing too much. "Hey," she said easily. "I just need my sweater."

She turned slightly away from him to collect that, and Dawson somehow knew to move into the house to help her put it on. It came in the same color of blue as the flowers, a perfect match, and he said, "You are stunningly beautiful, Caroline," in a voice he himself hardly recognized.

He held the sweater while she put her arm through it, and he smoothed down the sleeve as she settled it in place over her chest. "Thank you." She looked up at him, and Dawson didn't even think.

He simply took the woman he'd definitely been pining over into his arms, lowered his head, and kissed her where he'd wanted to days ago.

Yes, her lips tasted just as amazing as he'd imagined. Better. Softer. She didn't protest in the slightest, and the way she kissed him back told him she'd been pining after him too. Every woman he'd been out with in the past couple of years had been stale. Dry toast. No spark when he kissed them.

But Caroline…oh, Dawson had caught fire and was burning, and he didn't even care. As long as he got to keep kissing Caroline, and kissing Caroline, and kissing Caroline.