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“I’ve been bringing iced coffee,” he said. “But this has a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream in it.”

“Vanilla ice cream?” She shook her head in appreciation. “Genius.” She passed him the thermos. “You drink this all day long. You must be buzzed constantly.”

He took a big swallow. “I need it,” he said.

“Why? Not sleeping?” Edith knew that burden, as she hadn’t slept well in the days, weeks, and months following Levi’s diagnosis and death.

“Would you believe me if I said I lie awake all night, thinking of you?”

Edith was the one who tipped her head back and filled the porch with laughter this time, but Finn nudged her with his shoulder. “Come on,” he said. “It’s not that funny.” But he chuckled too.

She once again liked how their voices sounded intertwined together, and when they settled into silence, Edith tucked her arm around his and leaned her head against his bicep. “I’d love to go look at your place with you tomorrow.”

“Great, then I’ll come,” he said. “Would you be game to come to the Fourth celebration at the ranch in a couple of weeks? Momma makes a red, white, and blue feast, and we have our own fireworks show, and it’s a big deal.” He tilted his head down to look at her, and Edith looked up at him.

She could tell from the expression on his face that it was a big deal that he’d asked. “Like a big deal with capital letters?”

He smiled softly. “I forgot we used to say that in high school.”

“It’s a big game,” she said, letting her mind flow back to the things she and Finn had experienced in years gone by. “With capital letters.”

“It’s a nasty final,” he said, playing along. “In all capital letters.”

Edith grinned too, so comfortable with him.

“But yeah, sweetheart, this Fourth thing is a big deal with capital letters.”

Edith’s pulse played a symphony through her body. “And you want me to come?”

“Yeah.” Finn said, just like that. “I’d like you to come. All the cowboys come. All the kids. We’ve got a couple of the Walker boys who just graduated from high school working for us this summer, so Daddy invited their family.”

“All seven of them?”

“Well, Wyatt’s already up in Wyoming with his family,” Finn said. “But otherwise, yeah. I think they’re coming too. But we have a big lawn, and we can sneak away and find somewhere more private for the fireworks show.”

While Edith enjoyed teasing with him and making him say all the things she wanted to hear, she also wanted to be real with him. Because she was falling for him in a very real way, and she didn’t need to play games with anyone, least of all Finn.

So she snuggled into him further and said, “I’d love to come out to the ranch with y’all on the Fourth of July.”

Chapter Eighteen

Finn schlepped in the last box—the library in Amarillo did not have a cart for Edith’s books—and slid it onto the last half of the second table. Edith had been busy while he’d been going back and forth, and she’d gotten one banner set up that showed the front half of a horse while she bent over, wrestling with the second one.

“Can I do it?” he asked, moving around the table to help her.

Edith looked up, and Finn stopped completely. For his beautiful, blonde Edith had dark hair now. “What…is happening?” He blinked at her, trying to put all the familiar pieces in the right place. They didn’t seem to want to line up.

“My author photo is me with black hair,” she said, pure nerves running through her expression. “It was this—this—this phase I went through in New York.” She reached up and combed her fingers through the short locks. She could probably gather it into a low ponytail that might be three or four inches, and Finn told himself that her regular hair wasn’t much longer.

“It’s just a wig,” she said. “Do I look ridiculous?”

“No,” he said quickly. “You just don’t look like you—to me. You don’t look like you to me.”

She huffed out her breath, clearly frustrated. “I can’t get that one to unlatch.”

“I’ll do it,” he said. “The books are all in.”

“I’ll start on those.” Edith in her dark-haired glory turned to the boxes in front of her, and by the time Finn got the banner unlatched and extended, she’d set up the table with her books, stickers, and miniature horse figurines.