“Rosalie,” a weathered voice said, and she blinked away from the drama on the other side of the deck.

  “Miss Mildred.” Rosalie’s spirits soared as she hugged the elderly woman. “Tell me you brought brownies.”

  “Mint and walnut,” the woman said as she stepped back. She wore the sun in her smile, and it only died slightly when she turned to Lee. “I see the Forresters are causing plenty of trouble again this year.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” he said diplomatically. “They’re our guests.”

  “Well,” she said, stepping to Lee’s side so she faced the rest of the deck too. “Easton over there sure has got his sights on Jenni-Lynn again.”

  “What?” Lee practically roared. “Where?”

  Rosalie saw Jenni-Lynn with her arm through a tall cowboy’s, and the two of them seemed like they were chatting with the press at a red-carpet event, not standing on the back deck of a farmhouse while hamburgers and hot dogs roasted.

  “I’ll talk to her,” Lee said, already starting in that direction. “There’s no way she’s getting back together with him.”

  “Hmm.” Miss Mildred stayed with Rosalie as Lee marched across the deck, practically shoving people out of his way to get to Jenni-Lynn. She looked scandalized when he touched her and she turned toward him. She spoke, shaking her head, and Lee made a gesture for her to come with him.

  Unfortunately, someone was walking behind him at that precise time, and he hit them—and the plate of rice crispy squares they were carrying.

  A commotion ensued, and Rosalie started toward Lee. Will entered the fray, yelling something about being more careful with so many people nearby, and Lee fired back at him with, “I’m not an idiot, Will. It was a mistake. It’s not like you’ve never made a single mistake!”

  “It’s fine,” someone said. “They’re rice crispy squares. There’s more inside.”

  Jenni-Lynn didn’t bend to help clean up the fallen treats, and she pressed one palm to her heartbeat as the argument continued.

  “Lee,” Rosalie said, and she bent to help pick up a square that she’d just stepped up to. Their eyes met, and while he looked about as pleasant as a raging whitewater river, he didn’t throw another word in Will’s direction.

  They got the dessert cleaned up, and Rosalie noticed the plate and started stacking the deck-dirty squares on it. “Can I talk to you for a sec?” she asked Lee. She didn’t wait for him to answer before she went into the house. He followed, and it was much quieter inside the farmhouse.

  “What?” he barked at her.

  “You’ve got to go talk to Will,” she said.

  “Wh—at?” Lee’s question didn’t seem to have an identity. “Why?”

  “Because there’s obviously a problem between the two of you,” she said. “Go, now.” She took the treats to the trashcan and tossed them in. She turned back to Lee, who stood there, staring.

  “Well?”

  “Well, Will usually comes to me when he’s ready to talk.”

  “Oh, you and your Cooper pride,” she said.

  “It’s not pride,” he argued back. “It’s just the way we do things.”

  “Break the mold then.”

  “Rose,” he said.

  “Lee,” Daddy said. “We’re prayin’.”

  “Okay,” Lee said, but he didn’t turn away from Rosalie. The noise from outside came in, and Lee visibly flinched with it. “I can’t talk to Will right now. We’re prayin’.”

  “I heard,” Rosalie said, folding her arms and cocking her hip so he’d know her first motion wasn’t to send up a plea to the Lord for good food and good company.

  Lee turned around and stood still while someone out on the deck prayed. When the “Amen,” chorused into the air, he stepped outside, leaving the sliding glass door open for her. Rosalie sighed, shook her head, and sent up her own prayer that Lee would recognize his pride before the entire picnic got ruined.

  Hours later, he hadn’t snuck away to speak to Will, at least not according to Rosalie’s knowledge. The food had been delicious, even the store-bought items, and Rosalie could admit that everything the Coopers touched seemed to turn to gold. Even watermelon and definitely potato salad.

  “Fireworks starting in five minutes!” Spencer yelled. “Everyone find a seat and let’s get this show on the road.” He swung into the back of a pick-up truck, along with a couple of other cowboys, and they rumbled into the corn field.

  Rosalie sank into the chair Lee had set up for her. She’d eaten two cupcakes there, and she wanted another one. She watched Autumn and Ford on the blanket in front of her, and they seemed to get along well enough for a four-year-old and an eight-year-old. He showed her something on his tablet, and Rosalie wasn’t going to argue about screen-time today.

  Lee reached over and took Rosalie’s hand in his, his fingers tightening. “You ready for our second dessert?”

  Rosalie turned toward him, no explosions in the sky yet. Someone turned on some patriotic music, and it blared out over the yard.

  Lee got to his feet and bent down to say something to Ford. His son nodded, and Lee tugged Rosalie away from the rest of the people all set up on the hill, waiting for the fireworks to start.

  “Lee,” she half-whispered with a giggle. “Where are we going?”

  “I hid some cookies over here,” he whispered back. “Come on, we have time.” He ducked behind the shed and reached to lift the lid on his mama’s garden box. He’d tucked a zipper bag of cookies on the top, and he lifted them out triumphantly.

  Rosalie looked at the handsome cowboy, the light shining from the house going out. The crowd she couldn’t see made some noise, and she giggled. “Lee.”

  “Rose,” he whispered, pulling her closer and dropping the cookies on the top of the garden box. “I’m falling in love with you.” He didn’t give her time to respond properly. He simply kissed her, and Rosalie could feel herself falling in love with him too. She could feel the truthfulness in his words in the slow, deliberate way he moved, the way he kneaded her closer, and the way he let his actions speak louder than anything he’d ever said.

  He was still kissing her when the first big boom filled the sky. Rosalie jerked, and Lee pulled away. He breathed in deeply, and Rosalie did too, finally opening her eyes and looking up between the buildings.

  She couldn’t explicitly see the multi-colored sparks, but the sky definitely held more light than before.

  “Come on,” he said, his voice lodged in his throat. He picked up the cookies and tucked her hand in his again. “We don’t want to miss the fireworks.”

  Rosalie felt like the real fireworks show had started the moment he’d murmured the word love, and the pops, bangs, and spectacular light display of the Fourth of July bounced through her bloodstream.

  Back in their chairs, he opened the saved bag of cookies and let her take one first. He then took one, and then he offered them to the children. Beside him, Will asked in a hushed voice, “Lee, can Gretchen and I have one?”

  Lee handed over the bag without a word, and Rosalie knew the two brothers had made up. She didn’t know how, and she didn’t even know what the problem had been. Perhaps the Coopers did have their own way of communicating and working through problems, and perhaps she should just let Will and Lee do what they’d always done.

  She took a bite of her cookie, the salty peanut butter mixing perfectly with the semi-sweet chocolate. She leaned further back in her chair and smiled up into the bright white splay of fire in the sky as it began to drift downward, leaving a trail in the sky.

  She’d had no idea she wanted a country life, but the thought of putting on a skirt and heels come Monday morning made a pit in her stomach open which had nothing to do with the cupcakes and cookies she’d eaten that day.

  During the show, with the Stars and Stripes playing in the background, she started to fantasize about what being a farm wife would be like. Blue jeans, sunscreen, and freshly baked cookies every day.

  It sounded like heaven to Rosalie, and during the grand finale, with the sky full of sound and smoke and shockingly red lights, she kissed Lee again, hoping that her unspoken words of I’m falling in love with you too went through loud and clear.

  22

  Travis Cooper dismounted from his red mare before Pockets really stopped. “Stay,” he told the equine as if she were a canine. He bolted toward the house, sure his mare would find plenty to snack on to keep her occupied while he went inside.

  All he could hear as he ran up the steps was the pinched, high-pitched sound of his wife’s voice when she’d called. I need you to come home.

  He’d just finished the first milking of the day, and the sun had already started to reheat the Texas air. He’d been out in the stables working through a couple of their dirty stalls, and he’d saddled Pockets for a walk through the corrals later.

  Since she was ready, and Travis’s truck was on the other side of the stable, he’d swung onto the horse’s back and come.

  His heart pounded in the back of his throat as he twisted the doorknob and entered the house. “Shay?”

  She wasn’t in the small living room or the kitchen at the back of the house. He flew toward the hallway that sat between the two and led down to two small bedrooms with a bathroom between them.

  The cabin was nowhere near the mansion a queen like Shay required, but Travis had met with Lee, Will, and Daddy last week about building something bigger and more family-oriented for him and Shay.

  Lee’s cabin was already two stories and probably plenty big for the family he’d have. Not only that, but he’d move into the farmhouse soon. Probably when Mama passed away.

  Travis’s boots hit the floor hard as he rounded the corner and he spotted Shay in the bathroom at the end of the hall. “Baby,” he said. “What’s goin’ on?”

  She’d been out running with Will when Travis had gotten up and dragged himself over to the corrals where they kept their dairy cows. He and the cowboys he worked with were in a rotation right now, where they were switching out their cows, as a cow couldn’t give good milk forever. Or even for longer than six or eight months.

  Shay sat on the tiny vanity in the bathroom, and Travis caught sight of the blood on her leg as he neared. “I fell,” she said, her voice much calmer now.

  Travis crowded into the bathroom too and took the wet washcloth from her. It wasn’t warm, and he twisted the hot water handle on the sink and rewetted it. “How?” he asked. “I saw Will going into the admin office during the milking.” He looked at her, wrung out the rag, and reached to start wiping the blood from her shin.

  “He cut out about halfway through,” she said. “Said he had to shower and get over to the office for a call.”

  “Yeah, the Albertsons,” Travis said needlessly. Shay winced as he touched the warm cloth to her leg. There wasn’t a wound there, but her body trembled. Probably from shock.

  “I went up into the hills on the other side of the highway,” she said. “And back. I stumbled over this stupid rut literally a hundred yards from here.” She sniffled and wiped her face. “Went right down.”

  “It’s all right,” Travis said, steadily moving closer to her knee, where the actual injury lay. “This isn’t going to feel great.”

  “I’ve fallen before,” she said, her voice going super-high again. “I don’t know why I couldn’t clean it up. I just…couldn’t.”

  Travis looked up, questions running through his mind. “What do you mean?”

  “I couldn’t look at my own blood,” she said. “It’s making me queasy. So I called you.”

  Travis didn’t know there was anything that shook Shay, but as he searched her face, he could clearly see that his strong, capable, brilliant wife needed him.

  “It’s not making me queasy,” he said. “I can do it.” He went back to tending to her wound, and Shay’s teeth actually chattered while she pressed through the cleaning and bandaging of the wound. She cried quietly during the whole thing, and then Travis lifted her into his arms to take her back to bed.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and letting her head rest against his shoulder. “I swear I’ve taken care of myself before. I just don’t feel well.”

  “Maybe you should set your alarm for six instead of five,” he said. “Or take a few weeks off running.” She’d have to anyway, as that knee wasn’t going to support the hill hiking she did on a daily basis.

  “I love running,” she whispered.

  He bent and laid her in the bed they shared. “I know, sweetheart.” He helped her get her legs under the blankets and tucked her in, the comforter all the way up under her chin. “But not tomorrow, okay? And I’ll call Jade and Elaine and tell them you’re not coming in today.”

  Shay looked at him with wide eyes, but she didn’t argue. Surprisingly, as Shay owned her outdoor outfitters company, and she worked about as much as Travis did around the farm.

  He smiled softly at her and leaned down to kiss her. “All right. You’re all right.”

  “Will you come home for lunch?”

  Travis usually came home for lunch, unless he was driving to town to eat with his wife. “Yes,” he said. “I’ll make something amazing.”

  “I’ll cook.”

  His eyebrows went up. “Is that so?” He wasn’t sure he wanted boxed macaroni and cheese. They’d finally gotten through all of the leftovers from the huge Independence Day celebration at the farmhouse, and Trav was secretly glad. He couldn’t eat another bite of potato salad, even if his mama’s had won a Texas State Fair blue ribbon seven times.

  “Okay,” he said anyway, straightening and heading for the door.

  He turned back and watched Shay snuggle in deeper into her pillow and closed her eyes. He envied her with a powerful jolt, but he couldn’t join her. The farm never slept. It didn’t rest. The cows had to be milked, and Travis turned and walked out before he lost a battle to his desire to go back to bed with his wife.

  Hours later, Travis arrived back at his house, this time in his pick-up truck. Shay’s SUV still sat in front of the cabin, and he reached over to the passenger seat to get the folder of floorplans that had arrived at the farmhouse today.

  His excitement shot off the charts, and he hurried toward the house in much the same manner as he had that morning. He’d texted everyone for Shay that he’d said he would, and he’d talked to Lee and Will just before the second milking had gotten started.

  Will had said he’d go check on Shay, as he was going to be out this way to check on some leaking sprinklers in the fields behind the two cabins out here.

  “Travis,” someone called, and Travis looked right, finding Rissa coming down the front steps of the cabin next door.

  “Heya, sissy.” He detoured toward her, smiling at the way she held tightly to the railing, her front-heavy belly making her more unstable the closer her due date came.

  “How’s baby Trav?” he asked, his favorite joke for Rissa.

  “He’s great,” Rissa said. “We’re not naming him Travis.”

  “Come on,” Travis said, embracing his sister in a hug. “Maybe just a middle name.”

  “We’re using Spencer as a middle name.” She smiled at him as she stepped back.

  “So what’s his first name?”

  “We haven’t decided,” Rissa said, but Travis didn’t believe her any more now than he had the first time she’d said that.

  “Come on,” he said. “I’m so good at keeping a secret.”

  Rissa laughed and slapped at his chest. “You’re literally the worst secret-keeper there is.”

  “Worse than Lee?” Travis grinned and danced away from his sister’s reach.

  “Fine, I’ll give you Lee.”

  Travis looked over his shoulder to his cabin. It was still standing, with no smoke rising from the corner where the kitchen sat. Shay wasn’t the best cook in the world, but Travis didn’t really think she’d burn the place down.

  “Did you need me?” he asked his sister.

  “I was hoping to do something fun for Ford’s birthday,” she said. “Will and Gretchen are going to help. Mama and Daddy are on-board. I’ve even talked to Rosalie. You and Shay are the only ones I haven’t talked to yet.”

  “Thanks for coming right next door and running things by us first,” he said dryly. Travis already hated being the last son in the Cooper family, and he strongly disliked being left out in any way.

  “You and Shay work so much,” Rissa said, frowning. “I didn’t leave you out on purpose. I just talked to Rosalie on the phone this morning.”

  Travis swallowed back his hurt feelings. “All right,” he said. “What’s the plan?”

  “Is Shay home?” She nodded toward the SUV in front of Travis’s cabin.

  “Yeah, she fell on her run this morning.”

  Alarm passed through Rissa’s expression. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She whapped his bicep. “I could’ve taken her some lunch.”

  He flinched away from her. “Ow. Will checked on her, and she said she was makin’ lunch for us today.”

  “You’re making your injured wife cook lunch for you?”

  “I’m not making her,” Travis said crossly. “She volunteered. Come on.” He turned and started back toward his house. “She probably went to town and picked something up.”

  He waited for Rissa to come to his side, and he matched his pace to hers. It seemed to take forever for his sister to make it up the steps. She was six months along now and growing a lot every single day. Since she was so short, the baby had nowhere to go but out.

  Travis and Shay had talked about having a baby, but not in great detail, and they’d made no plans to definitely start trying to expand their family.

  He opened the door and called, “Hey,” as he entered. The balloons distracted him, and his step slowed to a stop.

  “Trav,” Rissa said from behind him, her voice none too happy. “Keep moving.”

  He couldn’t, because Shay stood in the kitchen, a brilliant smile on her face. The living room furniture and the island in the kitchen separated them, but Travis could clearly see the huge “Congratulations” banner she’d strung along the hanging pot rack above the island.