Lee nodded, but Mama was already gone. Ford stayed right at her side, his hand in hers as they went outside. Mama loved Ford with her whole soul, and Lee wasn’t surprised that she kept him outside in the swing with her. She could talk to him about anything and everything, and Ford loved his nana too.

  Lee decided the soup wasn’t going anywhere, and he left it to go check on his dad. Just as he stepped into the bedroom, his dad sat up. “Here you are,” Lee said, trying to decide if Daddy needed help standing or not. He’d been in this bedroom a lot over the years to help Mama, though Will and Trav had been doing that more than Lee lately.

  “Need a hand?” Lee fisted his fingers, hating how drawn and sunken Daddy’s face looked. He’d always been the harsh taskmaster around the farm. He’d loved hard, but he’d worked his sons harder. Lee had wanted nothing more than to please his father growing up, and strangely, that hadn’t changed for him as an adult.

  “Yes,” Daddy said, and Lee flew toward him. He helped his father to his feet and made sure he was steady before moving back. “It smells good.”

  “Mama made soup,” Lee said, remembering he’d left it on the stovetop unattended.

  “This is boiling over!” a woman yelled, and that would be his sister Clarissa. “Daddy?”

  “Just stir it,” Lee called as he moved toward the bedroom door. He turned back to his dad. “What do you need, Daddy?”

  “I’ll be out in a minute,” his father said. “I’m okay, Lee. Just tired and a bit under the weather today.” He gave Lee a smile, all of the glorious greens in his eyes lighting up when he did.

  Lee left the bedroom and heard Rissa say, “You can’t just walk away from French onion soup,” in a disgusted tone. “Baby, put those rolls down. Will, get away from those treats!”

  He braced himself to enter the kitchen, though the energy he’d find there actually drew him forward faster. Yes, his family was loud. They yelled at each other. Rissa would skewer him with a look that was ten times as loud as any lecture, and he didn’t pity any child of hers.

  At the same time, he couldn’t wait to hug her and feel if her baby had started to bump out in her abdomen yet, and he’d even put up with Will’s poll. He didn’t think for a moment that his brother would let that go. In fact, he was quite sure Will had texted the entire family about it, and Lee better be ready for the Presidential inauguration of speeches.

  He entered the kitchen and took a hard right, hoping to fly past the long table and out the doors at the back of the house. He hadn’t even taken two steps before Shayla blocked him. “Sorry,” she said, pressing herself into the wall behind her.

  “Where are you goin’ so fast?” Travis asked, stepping to the end of the table on Lee’s side. “Will, he’s here.”

  “I see ‘im,” Will said.

  Lee eyed Travis and then Will. They wore identical expressions of half-regret and half-determination. He could probably get them to keep their mouths shut if he tried hard enough. Lee battled with himself, and then he lowered his head and waved his hand.

  “All right,” Will called. “Everyone listen up.”

  The chatter in the kitchen died down as Gretchen and Rissa turned toward the dining room table.

  “Quick poll,” Will said. “We just need a one-or-the-other. Lee went out with a woman last week and said something embarrassing happened that’s preventing him from calling her.”

  “What happened?” Rissa asked.

  Lee gave her a sharp look, but she gazed right on back. “Did you know the soup was boiling over?”

  “Did you know Daddy isn’t feeling well?” he shot at her.

  Rissa blinked. “He said he was just tired.”

  “This isn’t about Daddy,” Will bellowed. “We just need a vote. Who thinks Lee should call this woman anyway? I mean, I had the nerve to go out with Gretchen even after my sister called the cops on us.”

  “You broke into my shoppe,” Rissa said.

  “I had a key,” Will whipped at her.

  “I went out with Shayla after I accused her of stealing her company,” Travis said.

  “The point is, we’ve all done stupid stuff,” Will said. “Embarrassing things. And yet, here we are.” He gestured around to all of Lee’s siblings. “We all have someone who forgives us and accepts us as we are.”

  “How do you know she’ll do that?” Lee asked.

  “Because she went out with you in the first place,” Gretchen said.

  Lee glared at her too, silently begging her to not say another word. Only she knew the lengths he’d gone to in order to impress Rosalie.

  “I’m with Rissa,” Shayla said slowly. “I think if I knew what the embarrassing thing was, I could make a better decision.”

  “You were going to be my favorite sister-in-law,” Lee grumbled to her.

  She burst out laughing, and that only fueled Lee’s ire. He faced the room, glad his son was still outside with Mama. “Fine,” he said. “Fine! I tried to kiss her after the date. She…wasn’t ready for that, and I ran away. Okay? Are you happy now, Rissy?”

  “Yes,” she said, but her voice had lost its punch.

  “Did she like, dodge, or just say something, or…?” Gretchen let her question hang there while Lee wished the floor would melt open underneath him.

  “I think that’s all we’re gettin’ from him,” Travis said, stepping closer. “I think that’s nothing, brother. I vote you call her.”

  “I’m with Trav,” Shayla said.

  “Big surprise,” Lee muttered as she continued with, “So you want to kiss her. Big deal. She should actually like that. In fact, she’s probably been kicking herself for not letting you.”

  “When did you go out with her?” Clarissa asked.

  “Thursday,” Lee growled.

  “Oh, she’s been kicking herself then,” his sister said. She turned back to the stove like this was a done deal. Decided. Over.

  “I’d call her too,” Will said.

  “Me too,” Spencer said. “I mean, you still want to kiss her, right? That’s not happening unless you call.” Out of all of them, he had the best point, and Lee did like his sister’s husband a whole lot.

  “I’d call,” Gretchen said. “Honey, she obviously likes you. She was probably just…nervous.” She looked at Will as she walked toward him. “She’s definitely been thinking about kissing you.”

  “She could call me,” Lee said.

  “Oh, boy,” Travis said, but Shayla laid her palm against his chest.

  “Honey,” she said to Lee. “Let me tell you something about women.” She laced her arm through Lee’s, and he didn’t want to shake her off instantly. He didn’t like the way she looked at him, but he let her lead him to his seat at the table. “She’s not going to call you, because she knows she made you feel bad. She knows, and she’s probably desperate for you to call so the very first thing she can say is she’s sorry.”

  “She doesn’t know how to call you first,” Gretchen said. “Trust me on that.”

  Lee looked up at Shay, and then over to Gretchen. Daddy entered the kitchen, surveying everything. “What’s goin’ on here?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” Will said, shooting a look at Trav. “Come sit down, Pops. You do look tired.” He moved to help Daddy sit, and Lee stayed right where he was, letting Spence get his son and then help Mama into the house so she could sit beside Daddy.

  He didn’t say another word during lunch, and he was grateful no one shot him any glances to see if he was about to explode or not. He wasn’t. He just needed some time to think.

  Hours later, after he’d taken Ford back to his mother, and after he’d plucked his way through all of the songs he knew, Lee sat on his front porch, the last light of the day fading fast.

  He set his guitar against the railing in front of him and pulled out his phone. “Now or never,” he told himself as he dialed Rosalie’s number.

  8

  Rosalie lifted her head from the armrest as the buzzing from her phone met her ears. It was probably another scam call, as she’d gotten several over the weekend. Her mom and sister had left that morning, and Rosalie had baked the rest of the hours in today away in her denial that she’d have to go back to work tomorrow, as well as sleep in her house alone tonight.

  “Momma,” Autumn said, and Rosalie glanced over to her daughter. A cartoon played on the television, which Rosalie had been facing but not watching.

  “Yeah, baby?” The phone vibrated against the table down by Rosalie’s feet, and she made no move to pick it up.

  “Look at my horse.” The girl held up a coloring page that had been ripped from the book, her face filled with pride. She’d made the horse yellow and orange and brown, and Rosalie smiled at it.

  “That’s great, honey,” she said, her stomach giving a vote of protest as she sat up. “Are you hungry? Do you want any dinner?” She’d eaten a lot of chocolate chip bread that day, as well as at least three cookies before she’d taken the rest next door to Tess and Frank.

  “I don’t know,” Autumn said, and that was about the answer Rosalie had been expecting. She didn’t usually rely on her four-year-old to tell her if she was hungry or what she wanted to eat. She fed her and took care of her.

  Rosalie got up and moved down to the end of the couch, the blue light at the top edge of her phone blinking. “I’ll make you a ham sandwich,” she said. “Then you have to get in the tub, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  She swiped on her phone, her eyes reading faster than she could comprehend. Her brain reacted, and the phone fell from her hands. Her heartbeat had also zoomed to epic speeds with the information from her brain, and she quickly stooped to pick up the phone, muttering, “Please don’t be broken.”

  For Lee Cooper had called her.

  Finally.

  It had taken him almost seventy-two hours, but he’d called. She’d missed it, but he’d called.

  Rosalie pushed her breath out of her lungs one ounce at a time, noting that her phone had not cracked or broken. While she held the device, it started to vibrate again. Lee’s name came up on the screen, and Rosalie dang near yelped.

  Instead, she glanced over to her daughter, who now held a green crayon in her hand. “Baby, I’ll be right back, okay?”

  “Okay, momma.”

  Rosalie clutched the phone to her chest and practically sprinted down the hall to her bedroom. With the door only slightly ajar, she swiped on Lee’s call. Running—or rather, the tip-toeing near-run she’d performed—had been a big mistake. Her breath felt stuck in her lungs, and she didn’t want to sound like she was panting.

  “Hello?” she asked, as if she didn’t know whose voice would come through the line.

  She did, and when Lee said, “Rosalie, I got you,” she sighed right out loud and let all the tension sag out of her shoulders. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, her brain trying to make sense of what “I got you,” meant.

  “Great.” He let a beat of silence go by. “Listen, I’m no good at any of this, so I guess I’ll just say it all, and then you can decide what it is you want to do.”

  “All right,” she said.

  He barely waited for her to finish with the last word before he said, “I had a great time the other night. I felt like you did too, so that’s why I…I don’t know. I think you’re beautiful, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, and I know it was real presumptuous of me to think I could kiss you. I’m sorry about that, and I won’t do it again, I swear.”

  Rosalie sank onto her bed, her smile warm and pleasant on her face. All of the worry and unrest that had plagued her since Lee had dropped her off on Thursday night simply evaporated. “It’s okay,” she said.

  Lee blew out his breath. “Is it?”

  “Of course,” she said, lifting her head and watching the crack in the door. Autumn could color happily for hours with Rosalie half-asleep on the couch, but the moment she wanted to take a private call or go to the bathroom, the child suddenly needed her. “Well, most of it.”

  “Most of it?” He seemed genuinely confused, and Rosalie’s guilt hit her right at the sternum. “I should’ve texted you,” she said. “So you weren’t worried all this time.”

  He said nothing, and Rosalie decided she better lay everything out between them too. “You were right about a lot of things,” she said. “I did have a great time on Thursday. I’m glad to know you think I’m beautiful, because what woman doesn’t want to hear that?” She gave a light laugh, beyond thrilled when Lee chuckled with her.

  “I hope all the thinking about me is good thinking,” she continued, trying to keep the conversation serious and not so flirty. “I think about you a lot too, Lee.” She did, and she didn’t see the point in trying to hide that fact. “There’s just one thing you said there at the end I didn’t like.”

  A couple of seconds went by, and then Lee said, “The apology?”

  “No,” Rosalie said, drawing the word out. “That was nice. Thank you for that. I don’t normally kiss a man on the very first date, even if he has called me flawless and then takes me on a perfectly flawless date.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I told you I haven’t been out with many people over the years.”

  “One apology is enough,” she said super-seriously. “I just didn’t like how you said you’d never try to do it again.” By the last word, Rosalie’s chest felt like she’d poured popping candy down her throat. A whole vat of it.

  “Kiss you?”

  “Yes, Lee,” Rosalie said with a giggle. “I definitely want you to try that again, maybe just not on the first date.”

  “There won’t be another first date.”

  “Precisely.”

  Lee exhaled again, and Rosalie could feel the weight he’d been carrying over the past few days. “I should’ve texted you,” Rosalie said again. “Or called you myself. I just…you seemed so upset when you left, and I didn’t know what to say.”

  “You’ve said great things,” he said quietly. “Am I to assume that we have a date this weekend for the wedding? You never did say if you’d go with me.”

  Rosalie straightened her shoulders. “Yes, sir,” she said, making her voice as cowboy-country as she could get it. “I’d love to go to the wedding with you this weekend.”

  “No other date to see how we get along?”

  “If you’d like,” she said. “I can consult my schedule.”

  “I’d love to see you,” he said, his voice throaty and downright sexy. “Maybe tomorrow afternoon? I usually send someone to pick up our farm supplies at the IFA on Mondays, but I can do it if you’re available.” He broadcast hope in his voice, and that made Rosalie smile.

  “Okay,” she said without consulting anything. If she had a meeting or a call, she’d change it in the morning. She wanted to see Lee too and tell him everything was okay. They were okay. He could kiss her another time.

  Her chest vibrated at the thought, because she still wasn’t used to the idea of being single, where kissing a handsome cowboy was allowed.

  “Say about three?” he asked. “You’ll be at work then, right?”

  “Yes,” she said. “But I can plan to be done about that time if you have an hour or something. We can get ice cream or just sit in your truck and talk. I don’t care.”

  “I’ll think of something,” he said. “Thanks, Rosalie.”

  “Lee,” she said. “You don’t need to thank me. I’m glad you called.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Oh, and Shayla said to make sure you know the wedding colors in case you care. Do you care?”

  “Sure,” Rosalie said, as she owned plenty of clothes and could see if she had something to fit in with the upcoming Cooper wedding. “What are they?”

  “Forest green, eggplant purple, and dusky rose,” he said. “I had to read that off a card, and I feel like an idiot.” He laughed, and that made Rosalie’s spirits soar toward the heavens.

  She laughed too and said, “All right. I’ll see what I’ve got in my closet.”

  “I’ll let my brother know so they’ll have a corsage for you,” he said.

  “I can’t wait, cowboy.”

  “Me either. I’ll see you tomorrow, baby.” With that, Lee ended the call, and Rosalie said, “’Bye, Lee,” in a whisper to only herself. Her phone rested in her lap while she tried to make sense of everything that had just transpired.

  Then she jumped to her feet and strode into her closet, where one-half of it still sat empty. She hadn’t moved her clothes over onto James’s half yet, and she gave the empty clothing rods and drawers a good, long look.

  She started leafing through her dresses, pulling out ones that seemed like the right color. She hung each of them on her ex-husband’s side of the closet, slowly starting to fill up the space that had been empty for so long.

  She thought of Lee’s things here in the house, and such a thought would’ve normally scared her. Tonight, she didn’t let the fear in, but thought about what it would be like to have a family again. She didn’t want to raise Autumn alone, and Lee already had a son. He’d be a fantastic dad to a little girl, and Rosalie’s eyes filled with tears.

  Could she possibly have the future she’d always dreamed of? After the explosion that had hurt James and blown up her life, Rosalie had watched her future drain from her view.

  Now, Lee emerged from the smoke and debris, and he offered family and fatherhood in the palm of his hand.

  The following day, Rosalie paced in front of the windows at Curious Kids. She’d changed her clothes four times that morning, and she’d just barely passed Autumn to Charity twenty minutes ago. Every one felt like a lifetime, because Lee still hadn’t arrived.

  She knew he couldn’t stay long. After he’d called last night, they’d texted a little bit more, and she’d woken up to several more from him that had come in an hour before her alarm had gone off. She’d teased him about being an early bird, and he’d said that a dairy farmer had work to do at five a.m. no matter the season.

  Rosalie wasn’t great at text-flirting, and she had very few people she could consult for help. She’d called Charity and asked her to pick up Autumn a little later today, as that would allow her to stay later at work—or rather, out with Lee.