by Claire Adams
Pete held my door open, and I gave him a kiss before climbing into the truck. We drove off, rolling the windows down while we were still in the city because I loved to stick my hand out in the wind.
“I’m glad we went out,” he said. “That was fun. Jack’s a good guy.”
I agreed.
We rolled to a stop at a red light, and he reached to take my hand, squeezing my fingers. I looked over at him, smiling as I met his light eyes.
“I love you, Emma,” he said, a sheepish grin curling the corners of his mouth.
My heart beat a little faster as a warm feeling started in my chest and spread out, tingling over my skin. I felt that need for him again, but it was different, sweeter. I squeezed his fingers.
“I love you, too, Pete.” And, I did.
His smile expanded to swallow the whole bottom half of his face, and he turned his eyes back to the road when the light turned green. That warm feeling stayed with me the whole way home, and I didn’t let go of his hand again until we were back on the ranch.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Pete
Six Months Later
I’d just stepped out of the house onto the porch when Emma came tooling up the country road and turned into the driveway. It wasn’t even six yet.
“What’s gotten into our girl, Riley?” I asked, but the dog just went on sleeping, completely ignoring me, as usual. I set my cup of lukewarm coffee on the porch railing and walked down to the driveway to greet her. She just rolled her window down and ordered me to get in.
“We have to get to the Texan,” she said. “Get in and let’s go!”
“You’re damned bossy this morning,” I replied, smiling as I got into her tiny little car, my legs cramped nearly up to my chest. “We’ve got to get you into a pickup, Em.”
“I like my car,” she said. “It gets good gas mileage.”
We drove over to the Texan, getting one of the good spots up front. There were a few more cars out here than usual. When we went inside, I was surprised to see Mr. Flowers sitting at the table with the old timers. He was probably a good ten solid years younger than they were, but he seemed to be getting along with them just fine.
“When did your daddy start coming to the Texan?” I asked as we moseyed over.
She grinned at me, her emerald eyes shining in that pretty way they had. “I talked him into coming a few weeks ago just to meet the guys. Now he comes damned near every morning, whether I’m here or not.”
I pulled up a chair next to the only empty one at the table, letting Emma sit down next to her daddy before I got in on the other side of her. “Morning,” I said to everyone.
Emma leaned to kiss her daddy on the cheek. I looked over at him and nodded.
“Morning, Mr. Flowers.”
He nodded back at me, not really smiling, but not frowning either. I’d take it. I liked the quiet way he carried himself. The better I got to know this man, the more I understood why Emma was as amazing as she was.
The waitress came over to give us some coffee.
“I already got my number,” Big Tom announced. “You starting us off today, John?”
“I reckon so,” Mr. Flowers said. “Fifty-five.”
“Lower,” Big Tom replied.
Emma went next, then me, then Winston, Laraby, and back to Mr. Flowers again. We went around one more time before we were down to two numbers. It had come down to Emma and her daddy. She smiled at him, nodding to tell him to take his turn. I had a good idea of what was about to happen, considering I’d seen Big Tom communicate the number he’d chosen to Mr. Flowers using his fingers when Emma was talking to the waitress, who’d wandered over in the middle of the game to refill our mugs of coffee. I could tell by the high shine in his eyes that he was going to guess the right number so Emma wouldn’t get stuck with the bill.
“Seventeen,” he said, picking the number purposely so he would end up with the tab. The old timers cheered Emma, who smiled, that pretty color blooming in her cheeks the way it did whenever she was truly happy.
As soon as we’d finished a few waitresses came to deliver our breakfasts.
“I never tasted eggs as good as these,” Mr. Flowers said.
“Hey!” Emma said. “I make you eggs all the time.”
“Uh oh, John,” Tex said, grinning. “Looks like you just stepped in it.”
He chuckled low in his throat. “You never put cheese in your eggs, Em.”
“I can start.”
They laughed together. I was smiling just watching them. I’d never seen Mr. Flowers as talkative as he was around the old timers. But it made sense. I’d gotten Emma to open up by bringing her here all those months ago after she first started at the ranch.
“We’re gonna take a drive over to your daddy’s ranch after breakfast, young lady,” Big Tom said, talking right to Emma like he always did. If a pretty girl was around, he never stopped flirting. The few times I’d brought Lacey here, he’d focused right on her, completely forgetting my ass was even there.
“Oh yeah?” Emma turned to her daddy. “What’re y’all doing on the farm?”
“Tom’s got some ideas about what I can do with the land out back of the barn past the garden,” he replied, then took a big bite of his omelet.
“The rest of us are just going to have something to do,” Laraby said, and everyone laughed long and loud.
“Can y’all keep it down over there!” our waitress cried from the counter, then giggled herself when we craned our necks to look over at her.
“Careful, or you won’t get a tip!” Tex hollered, and the table broke up laughing again when she flipped him the bird.
“You ever been out to Pete’s place, John?” Big Tom asked.
“Matter of fact, I have,” he said. “Em showed me around once or twice, and we rode some of the horses.”
I hadn’t heard Mr. Flowers say this much in all the time I’d known him. I could plainly see how pleased Emma was to see him this way. He fit right in with the old timers, even if he was the youngest by nearly a decade. Being younger had never stopped me from fitting in with them, after all.
“We’re barbecuing this weekend, too,” Emma said, grinning first at her daddy before she looked around at each man at the table. “Y’all are welcome to join us.”
The guys had a good deal to say about that, thanking her and arguing over what they needed to bring until she put an end to the back and forth.
“Just bring your appetites,” she said.
“I bring that damned thing wherever I go anyway,” Mr. Flowers said, and the men around the table chuckled.
Emma and I finished our meals slowly, sharing the occasional glance and a smile as we listened to the older men talk. This was my favorite part of the day — or it had been before Emma started spending more nights at my place than she did her own — just soaking up everything these men had to say. Always had been. It made me miss my own daddy something fierce, but they kept him alive somehow. And, I liked that Mr. Flowers was part of this now, too.
“We’d better get back to the farm before those horses get to wondering where we are,” Emma piped up. She gave her daddy a kiss and stood. The men around the table got up when she did, which always made her giggle. I shook hands with every man there, same as I always did, telling them goodbye until the next time. They clapped me on the shoulder, all but Big Tom, who pulled me into a hug.
“You let go of that girl, and I’ll snatch her up myself,” he whispered to me before letting me go.
I smiled at him and moved on to Mr. Flowers. Emma had drifted to the other side of the table, giving each man a hug and a smile.
Mr. Flowers took my hand and shook it firmly, the way he always did, but, this time, he held our shake for a few seconds longer.
“Thank you, Pete,” he said.
I pulled my eyebrows together some, confused, but he looked past me at Emma, who was laughing at something Big Tom had said, that healthy color high in her cheeks. I turned back to Mr. Fl
owers, smiling myself. I couldn’t help it after seeing her.
He nodded at me, not saying another word, and I nodded, too. The words passed through us, unspoken, just like they had the first night we met. We let go of each other and turned to watch the girl who’d wrapped us both around her little finger without really even trying.
Epilogue
Emma
One Year Later
With Kasey in Austin full time working and going to school, Daddy and I spent a lot more quiet time in the house together or out back in the yard. We were in the living room today, talking about the last week.
He’d been passing more time with Big Tom and Tex during the day and, with their help, he’d started working his land again, making enough to quit his job in town. He hadn’t been unhappy before, but I could see this was what he’d really wanted to do. After the new barn was complete, he was going to take on a few more horses, stabling them for a few folks in town for some extra money. Pete had been helping him quite a bit, too. I loved seeing that — the two men I loved most in the world working together.
Daddy shook his newspaper, straightening it a little, though he’d been talking more than reading. “What did you say Pete was doing today?”
“We have a few more horses coming to the farm,” I replied. “He’s getting the new barn ready.”
Daddy wasn’t the only one who’d been doing some building. Pete had added onto the barn he already had, giving us enough stall space for ten additional horses on top of the ten we already had. We were going to be busier than we knew what to do with when we finally got all the horses in there. But we were excited about it.
“Y’all are gonna be pretty busy to hear him tell it,” Daddy said.
I nodded. “Yeah, all three of us are probably going to be living in the barn for the first couple weeks.” I laughed, remembering Lacey joking about bringing a sleeping bag and just going to bed in the middle of alleyway instead of driving home at the end of each night. Even I’d taken to spending most nights at Pete’s. I still went home to my little house one or two nights a week, but I was starting to see the point in that less and less. Most of my clothes and other things were on the ranch already, anyway. I didn’t know why I was resisting just moving in all the way.
The phone rang and Daddy damned near launched out of his chair to go get it. He usually couldn’t be bothered, but I figured maybe he was waiting on somebody today. He may have gotten more talkative around Pete and the old timers, but he still wasn’t much for chatting on the phone more than he had to. He went into the kitchen, speaking low for a few seconds before hanging up. He walked back out to the living room.
“Who was on the phone?” I asked. “Big Tom?”
He shook his head once. “It was Pete. He asked us to run out to the ranch to give him a hand with something.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “He said he’d be busy all afternoon, but was planning to join us over here later for dinner.”
“I guess he changed his mind.” He walked off without another word of explanation.
I sat for a second on the couch, still looking after him, confused, before I got up myself and followed him out to his truck. I climbed into the passenger seat.
“Did he say what he needed?”
“Something to do with the barn,” Daddy replied as he got the truck started.
I rolled down the window as soon as we got going, closing my eyes, just enjoying that cool breeze blowing my hair back from my forehead and cheeks.
We pulled up to the barn a few minutes later. Pete’s truck was in the driveway, and the barn door was open just a crack. Besides that, no one was around.
“What the hell is he doing?” I muttered.
“Let’s go on up to the barn,” Daddy said.
We climbed out of the truck and walked over to the barn. He slid open the alleyway door, and I stepped inside. I froze just inside the doorway, my mouth dropping open and eyes trying to look everywhere at once to take in everything.
The other alleyway door at the rear of the barn was closed, sealing out the sunshine. Behind me, Daddy slid the door I’d just come through shut, not coming in himself. There were twinkling electric lights strung from banister to banister and all along the alleyway. Red rose petals were strewn all over the roughened concrete floors. Someone had put wreaths of colorful wildflowers around the horses’ necks and decorated their shining manes with more flowers. They were so beautiful. At the other end of the barn, Pete was standing with a big smile on his face, his hands folded in front of him, clearly waiting for me. He was dressed in a brand new dark blue suit, tie, and shiny brown dress shoes, his dark hair cut and swept back off his forehead.
“Pete?” I said, but I couldn’t think of a damned thing to say besides his name.
He walked towards me, his grin getting a little wider with every step. He stopped a foot short of me, and I could smell the sweet aroma of his cologne. I was too stunned to speak. I could only look at him. He never dressed like this, never wore cologne, not even when we went out at night.
“Emma,” he started. “My life hasn’t been the same since you started on the ranch. I never knew how happy I could be before you entered my life.” He paused, swallowing hard and shifting his hands, which were still folded together in front of him.
“I remember my daddy telling me about the moment he knew he loved my mama. They hadn’t been dating long, but he made her smile and something inside him just melted, and he knew. That’s how I’ve felt around you since the morning we went to the Texan the first time.”
I smiled, blinking to hold back tears at how steadily he was looking at me with his gorgeous blue eyes.
“I’m sure you know how much I love you,” he continued, swallowing again. “And, I can’t imagine my life or the farm without you. I don’t ever want to be without you again.”
He moved his hands now, and I could see he was holding a small silver whistle. He brought it to his mouth and blew into it. I didn’t hear anything at all, but Riley came running around the corner from the direction of the tack and feed room. I’d never seen that dog run before. I smiled as Pete dropped to one knee on the alleyway floor and Riley ran right to him.
“What have you got there, boy?” Pete asked.
Riley had a big red ribbon tied around his neck, the full bow just below the back of his head.
“Did you do all this?” I said, smiling just a little.
Pete turned the ribbon on Riley’s neck until I could see a black velvet ring box hanging from it. He untied the ribbon and gave the dog a good scratch behind the ear.
“Good boy, Riley,” he said. The dog laid down right where he was, his job well done, and curled up, nose to tail.
Pete looked up at me, opening the ring box and turning it so I could see the tiny ring inside of it — a yellow gold band with a sparkling diamond right in the middle that flashed in the twinkling lights.
I brought my hands to my mouth, drawing in a breath that I couldn’t let out again right away.
“Emma Flowers, will you do me the great honor of marrying me? I can’t think of another person on this Earth that I’d rather spend my life with.” He gazed up at me, so much love brimming in his wide blue eyes that I could only stare at him for a few moments, my heart ready to burst from my chest with how much I cared for him.
I nodded, tears spilling from my eyes as I dragged in a stuttering breath. “Yes,” I whispered, but behind my hands. I dropped them and, still nodding, answered a second time. “Yes!”
He grinned and rose to take me into his arms. I kissed him deeply, the excitement spinning between us stealing our breath away too quickly. We broke apart, gasping and giggling. He put the ring on my finger, and I couldn’t take my eyes away from how lovely it was and how perfectly if fit.
“I love you so much, Emma,” he whispered.
“I love you, too,” I whispered back.
He took me in his arms again, and this time we kissed for a long time, not pulling away until Daddy knoc
ked on the door behind us to find out how it went. Smiling, we opened the door to Daddy – and to the rest of our lives.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Claire Adams