Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
M isty Glover closed her notebook as the last class in her “Raising Independent Children” course ended. She smiled around at the other ladies who had attended with her, only a handful of them, for the past eight weeks. This was the third parenting class that Misty had taken and completed. As she hugged the instructor and said goodbye to her friends, she wondered if she needed to take any more.
Of course, she didn’t know everything about how to raise a child, and she knew that actually having another little human being to take care of was different than just studying about how to do it.
She left the community center, got situated in her SUV, and started the car. She needed a moment to run through what the rest of her day would be, as her birthday was this weekend.
They had celebrated Link’s while Mitch was in town for Dawson and Caroline’s wedding, but Misty hadn’t wanted to combine their birthdays this year. It was fine last year when Sammy took charge and really wanted to make everything special. But Misty wanted to start her own family traditions with Link.
She’d asked if they could have a private birthday party at the Top Cottage for her and invite only his immediate family. So that was what she’d planned; she and Sammy had started working on a menu together.
She had a few things to get at the grocery store on her way back to the ranch. She enjoyed living at Shiloh Ridge more than she’d anticipated. Even though it was quite far from the city of Three Rivers, it was like a bustling little town all by itself, with ten or eleven families living there, cowboys paired up in cabins, all the animals, and of course, Link’s horse and dogs.
As she did after every parenting class she’d taken, Misty sat in the car, bowed her head, and prayed.
“Am I ready to be a mom?” she asked.
Her own mother had been such a disaster. Misty was still trying to forgive her, and she continued to work through some of the issues that had come from her childhood trauma. Every other time, after twenty-three other classes, Misty had felt like she wasn’t quite ready.
Today, the Spirit whispered to her, It is time.
Misty’s eyes popped open as a rush of adrenaline filled her chest. Link had deferred to her over when they would have children, and she’d wanted to wait and make sure that she was ready, that they could handle it, that they were solid in their relationship.
She wanted some time with just them. She’d had it—nine months. A small, jealous part of her wanted more. She wanted Link just to herself. She wanted all of his attention, because he was so good at giving it to her. He excelled at making her feel loved and cherished and adored. He took such great care of her. If they had a baby, his attention would be divided, as would hers.
And a tiny part of her didn’t want that.
Then, a louder voice whispered, A child will be part of Link. You’ll have more of Link to love.
And besides, they might not be able to have a baby right away anyway. Alex and Nicki hadn’t been able to.
Misty left the community center, got her groceries, and returned to the ranch. She wasn’t all that surprised to see Sammy’s old truck parked in front of the Top Cottage, with Link’s momma still sitting behind the wheel. Misty smiled at her and waved as she parked next to her. She got out at the same time Sammy did.
“How long you been here?” she asked.
“Oh, two minutes,” Sammy said. “The dust has hardly settled.”
She nodded as she moved to the back of the SUV. “I got the groceries.”
“I’ve got a bunch too,” Sammy said, and she met Misty at the tailgate of the SUV. “Happy birthday, my darling girl,” she said, and pulled her into the sweetest, most maternal hug Misty had ever had.
She loved hugging Sammy, as Sammy was so extraordinary at showing Misty specifically how valuable she was and how much she loved her. Misty could go to her for anything, just the way she should have been able to go to her mother.
Sammy stepped back and said, “How was your class?”
Misty nodded, her breath sort of whooshing out of her nose as her emotions made her mouth and jaw and tongue so tight. When they finally released, she said, “It was good.”
Sammy nodded and didn’t ask anything further, and together they took their groceries in, making a couple of trips to get everything. After all the ingredients sat unpacked on the island countertop, Misty looked at the vast array of things they needed to make her preferred birthday meal.
“This is a little bit over the top, isn’t it?” she asked.
“It’s your birthday,” Sammy said, as if over the top could never happen on someone’s birthday. “Absolutely not, and Etta is bringing the cake in a couple of hours.”
“Oh, that’s great,” Misty said. Etta had been baking birthday cakes and wedding cakes for everyone in the family for a long time, and she never told anyone no when they needed a special dessert.
“All right,” Sammy said, “I’m going to start on the chili, since that needs to go the longest, and you’re going to…?” She looked over to Misty, her eyebrows raised.
“I’m going to do the potatoes for the fries,” Misty said. She wasn’t making anything fancy because she wanted some of her favorite foods, and that was a chili dog and chili cheese fries. Growing up, she’d counted herself lucky to have had a can of chili and a single hot dog for her birthday.
Now, of course, Sammy would make homemade chili with a family recipe, and they had all-beef hot dogs from the best butcher in town. Sammy would put together her famous broccoli-craisin-apple salad to go with it, and today she was going to show Misty how to make the famed Glover family peach punch.
When the birthday cake arrived, it would be the perfect celebratory meal for Misty. She thanked the Good Lord Above that He had led her to this town, and specifically this family, so that she could be healed, and held, and shown what real families looked like.
“Thank you so much for coming.” Misty hugged Heather and then Sunny, Link’s younger sisters. “You guys be careful out on the fence tomorrow.”
“We will,” Heather promised. They left the house after their parents and older brothers. Misty and Link went out onto the porch with them and waved good-bye to his family. Darkness had already settled over Shiloh Ridge, and since Misty had gone to class today and then spent the afternoon cooking, then the evening entertaining, a certain measure of tiredness entered her body. But it was the kind of exhaustion that sparked from an amazing day of laughter, love, and good times.
She put her hand on Link’s chest and said, “Thank you, baby,” before she returned to the house.
“I didn’t do anything,” he said.
“You have a great family,” she said.
He came into the house behind her and closed the door. Misty’s heartbeat thundered up and down her throat and then behind her eyes. Link slid his hand along her waist and down her hip, then up to her stomach as he hugged her from behind.
He murmured, his mouth right at her ear, “What does it feel like to be thirty-three?”
She held on to his arms and leaned back into his strength of his chest. “Feels like thirty-two.”
Link chuckled in her ear, his lips right there touching her skin below her ear and then moving down her jaw. She turned in his arms and looked up at him. He gazed down at her, waiting for her to say what lingered in her mind. He was exceptionally patient and very good at making her say what she sometimes didn’t want to. She drew in a breath. The words sat there, but they wouldn’t come out.
“Want me to kiss you tonight?” Link asked softly.
Misty nodded. Link leaned down and touched his lips to hers, no more questions asked, a soft, almost seeking kiss, as if he could find what she wanted to say that way. His touch grew in passion, and of course, Misty wanted to be with Link that night. But she had to tell him first.
He’s not going to be upset , she thought. She pulled away and pressed her cheek to his. “I finished my last parenting class today,” she whispered.
Link simply nuzzled her closer and kissed her neck.
“I think I’m ready.”
He pulled back almost instantly, almost as if her skin and hair had caught fire. Palpable shock flowed from him, and his wide eyes broadcast it through their house. “You’re ready?” he repeated. “For what?”
“To have kids,” she said. “I think I’m ready to have a baby.”
Link blinked one time, and then a smile filled his whole face. “That’s fantastic,” he said.
“Are you ready?” She fiddled with the collar on his shirt, doing up one button and then undoing it again. “I mean, do you feel ready to be a dad?”
“I don’t really know,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m not ready.”
Misty nodded and looked up at him again. All of the fears, the worries, the knots, everything that just wasn’t right, became flat. She’d always calmed in his presence. She was different from her mother. She was not going to be the type of mother hers had been.
“I want a baby,” she said.
Link kissed her again, this time with all the wild, rough passion he did when he made love to her. “All right,” he whispered. “Let’s go make a baby.”