Chapter Eight #3
Dahn was leaning on the car when I arrived, covered in sweat—dear Lord, would this humidity and ragweed ever let up—and feeling a little lightheaded from all the caffeine I’d ingested.
“You’re late,” the lad said with a chilly glance at me. “You look funny. Were you off kissing the sheriff again?”
“I was at Ollie’s, yes. We had lunch together.
I look funny because I drank a monster-sized can of something called Jolt Your Sox Off or something and now feel like I could outrun Willy the goat buck.
” That made him smile, just for a second, but I saw it.
“Maybe we should go back to the ranch and have goat races?”
“Nah, it’s too hot.”
“True.” I belched for so long I thought I might pass out. That my son found hilarious. “Wow, that was a ten for sure. Let’s go home then and not race goats.”
We bundled ourselves into the car and sat quietly for a moment, waiting for the air conditioning to get itself in gear and blow cold. Once it did, we both sighed.
“Did you have a good livestock handling class?” I asked, backing out and heading through Bastian Grange at a slow twenty-five miles per hour.
“Yeah, I think I’ll do good at the fair.
Mr. Williams, the head of the junior livestock show, said they would be pushing the fair back two weeks to let the fields dry out.
So that gives me more time to get my goat in shape.
We need to call the vet to come out and give her an exam, then we need to shampoo and clip her. Do you think Uncle Baker can help?”
“Maybe? I don’t know if clipping cows and clipping goats are the same or not. Do any of your friends know?”
He shook his head. “They all show cattle or pigs. Phil does goats though…”
“Then you should ask Phil.” I slowed to stop at the only red light on Main Street. I shot my boy a look as we waited for the green. “Did you apologize to him like I asked you to?”
“Yeah, he said it was cool. He’s kind of okay, I guess.” He seemed unwilling to discuss it further, so I let it go. About five miles out of town, he looked at me. “Are you going to marry Sheriff Ahoka?”
I nearly choked on my spit. That was not a question I’d been prepared for. “No, no, we’re not anywhere near marriage yet. That takes time. Rushing into marrying someone is pretty foolish.”
“So like Dad marrying his twink is foolish,” he stated factually.
Where he had heard the term twink I didn’t know, but if I had to guess, it was from me. I did tend to popoff about Topher being a twink. So yeah, I’ll take the hit for that one.
“You should call him Topher, and yeah, I think jumping from one marriage into another is foolish. They’ve been together for close to a year now though, so maybe that’s long enough? I don’t know, buddy, romance and love are complicated.”
He nodded sagely as if his ten-year-old life had granted him knowledge of such adult things.
“But I do not want you to worry about that. Ollie and I are just getting to know each other. We’re going to go on some dates, and I will be spending time with him, but I’m not planning on anything serious yet.
When I do, I will talk to you about it since that would impact you as well as Ollie and me. Does that make you feel less worried?”
“Yeah, sort of,” he confessed as acres and acres of corn whipped past his window. “I’m mad at Dad.”
I suspected as much. “I know, and it’s fine to have that emotion. I’m not happy with him either, but we’ll work through it. Do you want to call him tonight and talk to him?” He shook his head. “Okay, well, how about we call Grannie Helen and talk to her?”
His expression lifted. “Cool, yeah, I have so much to tell her about the goats and fair, oh, and school starts the week after the fair, so I need stuff.”
“Fine, yeah, we’ll go shopping. I hear there’s a mall about an hour from here. Why don’t we make a day of it, say in the middle of the week? Just you and me?”
“Can I get new sneakers and a tablet?”
“We’ll see.” The new shoes were a for sure as his were busting out the seams. The tablet was an iffy item.
I had done my best to keep him away from social media as much as possible by owning one laptop, mine, that had strict parental controls for him when he was logged in.
In the city, they were far ahead of the technology and were relying more and more on digital assignments.
Out here, they’d just started to expect children to have a device of their own.
Since a cell phone was a big nope yet, a tablet with controls was a possibility.
This way, he could do his own research and any assignments that may come in, especially in the winter when the weather made attending school in person impossible and not be spilling soda all over my tech.
“And some new jeans. And a jacket and boots. The guys say they get lots of snow.”
I nodded along, happy as a lark in spring to have my boy chattering away with me once more while enjoying the afterglow of time spent with Ollie.
I liked that man a lot. A whole lot. And while marriage was a distant and blurry thing I was not ready to think about, a deeper relationship with my sexy lawman was something I could easily envision.
The rest of that day was an easy one, thank goodness.
Everyone seemed to be in good spirits at the ranch.
Granny had made meatloaf, and Bella had finally granted poor Linc one of her fey smiles over dinner, which made him glow like a firefly.
That night, around ten, as Dahn snoozed in his bed and I lay in mine reading over some paperwork my lawyer in California had forwarded to me, a text rolled in.
I saw it was from Ollie, so I quickly read it.
I am SO damn sorry for crashing on you. That was so rude. Please forgive me. ~O
Nothing to be sorry about. You were exhausted. ~D
Still, shit, that was uncalled for. I just woke up. Guess I was more tired than I thought. ~O
Bone-weary was more the term. Don’t worry over it. Did you see my note? ~D
I did. It was very sweet. You’re a good man, Dodge. ~O
Right back at you. I’m not going to be able to do lunch Wed. Taking Dahn shopping for school supplies. ~D
That’s fine. Disappointing but fine. We still on for Friday? ~O
I wouldn’t miss it. ~D
Excellent. I’ll let you go. I’m very much infatuated with you, just so you know. Pleasant dreams. ~O
I was rather sure my dreams would be beyond pleasant. With him on my mind, they’d be incredible.