Chapter 9
“I can’t believe this is our last day of the trip,” Sharlene said with a sigh the next morning.
The others, who were sitting around the table on the balcony having doughnuts and coffee for breakfast and gazing out at the reflection of the sun on the water, just nodded in agreement.
Billy Joe’s sigh was even louder than Sharlene’s. “I hope we all live until Christmas so we can go to Disneyland.”
“Oh, stop it!” Nita scolded. “This is just the last day at the beach. We’ve still got three days left after today, and I’m planning places for us to see and eat along the way home. Besides, we need to remember the fun we’ve had, not be sad that it’s over.”
Joelle reached over and patted her aunt on the shoulder.
“We’ll all be talking about this trip for years to come.
” This would be a perfect time to tell them that she was resigning her job as a teacher and moving to the ranch that summer, but she and Ford had decided to tell them after they’d loaded up the van and started home the next day.
She glanced over at him just in time to see him slide a sly wink toward her.
“I’ve planned something special for today,” Ford said. “We’re going on a dinner cruise out to see the dolphins.”
“Are you serious?” Sharlene’s expression went from sad to happy in an instant. “I’ve been hoping to see them, but they haven’t come up close to the shore while we’ve been here. What time do we need to be ready?”
“Ten o’clock would be great,” Ford answered. “By the time we get home from the three-hour cruise, it will be time to get things packed and ready to load up in the morning.”
Joelle nudged him with her shoulder and whispered, “Well done!”
“Can’t have the children pouting because they have to leave,” he said in a voice for her ears only.
“What are you two whispering about?” Billy Joe asked.
“I was saying that we’d better not forget our phones so we can take pictures,” Joelle answered and then, like a little child, crossed her fingers under the table.
“Oh, honey, I’ve taken more than four thousand pictures since we left home and plan to take even more on the way back,” Sharlene said.
“I’ll have to sort them out when we get back and decide which ones to put in the memory album I’m planning to make.
” She pulled her phone from her shirt pocket and began to show Billy Joe and Nita all the photos she’d taken.
“Now, they’re excited again. You did a good thing,” Joelle told Ford.
“Can we call this our first real date, then?” he asked.
“Depends on whether you kiss me good night at the door,” she teased.
“Then it will definitely be a first date,” he said with a grin.
***
Joelle felt like butterflies were flittering about in her stomach all during the cruise. The older folks had gone to get a better view of the dolphins for their pictures, leaving her and Ford at the dinner table alone.
Joelle hadn’t dated in a while, but when she had in the past, she hadn’t had this antsy feeling.
While they ate the supper on the open-air cruise boat, she tried to figure out if it was because Ford was right there beside her or if it was because they would be heading home the next morning.
She had less than twenty-four hours to change her mind about ranching.
Once she and Ford let the cat out of the bag and told Sharlene, Nita, and Billy Joe that they were going to move to Whitewright, they couldn’t take it back.
Or was she feeling what she was because she’d always been in love with Ford, and now the life she’d only dreamed of could be a reality in a few months? Those pesky what-ifs popped into her mind—the major one being, what if after a few dates, one of them decided they weren’t happy?
Ford nudged her on the arm. “Penny for your thoughts. You seem to be fighting with yourself.”
“I was,” she admitted. “We’ve only got a few hours to be sure.”
“I’m at peace,” he said with a frown. “How about you?”
“Yes, but worried about us,” she said. “What if…”
He laid a hand on her arm. “No regrets, darlin’.
We’ll watch sunrises and sunsets together and have no regrets.
It takes most people a long time to figure out how they feel about each other.
They have to get to know one another and go from there.
But we’ve known each other since we were kids.
Other folks go on a date or maybe two a week, talk for a few hours during each one.
We’ve been together twenty-four seven for three weeks.
I figure that’s maybe a year’s worth of conventional dating. ”
What he said made sense, and the doubts that plagued her disappeared, leaving her with nothing but peace.
“You’ve given this a lot of thought,” she said.
“Yep, I have,” he admitted. “Two dates a week for maybe four hours each multiplied by fifty-two weeks in a year is a little over four hundred hours a couple would spend together. We have spent more than five hundred hours together.”
“And even slept together without sex,” she said.
“Hopefully, we’ll remedy that when the time is right,” he said with a smile that melted her heart.
“Maybe we’ll save that milestone for when we move in together at the ranches?” she suggested.
“So, it’s a milestone?” he asked, and his smile widened even more.
“Yes, it is,” she answered.
He took both her hands in his and leaned forward. “I’ve fallen in love with you, Joelle Cheadle. You make me happy and take away all the sadness from my heart.”
Her heart thumped so hard in her chest that it sounded like a drum in her ears.
“I’m not sure that there was a lot of sadness in my heart, but I can honestly say that you make me happy and bring peace into my life”—she stopped for a breath—“and that I’ve fallen in love with you all over again on this trip.
I loved you when I was a teenager, but now I love you as an adult, and that’s even better. ”
***
Ford slid in behind the steering wheel and started the engine the next morning just after the sun had risen.
Joelle fastened her seat belt and shot a brilliant smile toward him.
The idea that he could wake up every morning with her beside him for the rest of his life was almost more than he could even imagine.
“Wagons ho!” Billy Joe said from the back seat.
“I’m actually looking forward to going home,” Sharlene said.
“Me too, but this has been too wonderful for words,” Nita agreed. “Let’s build a bonfire and roast hot dogs and make s’mores when we get home to celebrate marking things off our bucket list.”
“Sounds good to me,” Billy Joe said. “You kids ain’t got to be in a rush about leaving, do you?”
“Nope,” Ford answered. “Matter of fact, I’m not planning on leaving at all.”
“Me either,” Joelle said.
Time stood still in the bus for several moments. All that Ford heard was the rustling of paper behind him. No one said a word or even squealed, like he thought they might.
“Did you hear us?” he finally asked.
“We heard,” Sharlene answered. “We’re marking off the real first thing on all our bucket lists before you can change your minds. Once we cross them out, then we can hold you to what you just said.”
“Real first thing?” Joelle asked.
“Everyone of us have wished for, hoped for, and even prayed to God that you would come back to the ranches and take over,” Nita answered. “Now it’s all taken care of, and…one…two…three…”
They all shouted to the top of their lungs, produced a bottle of champagne from what seemed like the air, and Billy Joe popped the cork. He took a long swig of it right out of the bottle and passed it over to Sharlene, who downed a good bit and gave it to Nita.
“Life is good now,” Billy Joe said.
“Yes, it is!” Ford reached over and took Joelle’s hand in his.