Page 60

A smile touched his soul and worked its way to the outside. To his face, where he let it show.

“What are you thinking about?” Misty asked. “I see that smile.”

“All the things I’m grateful for,” he murmured. “Don’t go thinkin’ you’re on the list.”

“I would never,” she said as she moved around his right side and in front of him.

Link opened his eyes and looked up at her. He felt like he was seeing her again for the first time. He reached toward her, expecting to get burned by her glorious light. She was simply so angelic, and Link had liked her from the very moment she’d twirled into him at that summer dance over a year ago.

She lowered her scissors. “What?”

“I don’t know.” He caught her fingers with his and tugged her onto his lap. “Is it okay if we don’t know everything?”

“I think that’s the very definition of life, Link.” She stroked his hair back. “Isn’t it?”

“Yeah, maybe.” He cradled her face in his hands. “After this, can we go get coffee?”

She gave him a small smile. “I’d like that.” Misty looked up to his hair. “But you won’t want to go like this.” She started to get off his lap, but Link’s grip on her tightened.

“Kiss me so I know the past couple of weeks haven’t broken us,” he said. “I honestly didn’t mean to push you anywhere you didn’t want to be. I didn’t—don’t know where I am, either.” He took a deep breath and looked up from the neckline of her tank top.

“You’ve been worrying,” she said. “When I told you not to worry.”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “It’s hard for me, with Mitch gone. I don’t have anyone to talk things through with, and the quiet here can drive a cowboy insane.”

“You can talk things through with me.”

“Not when the things I need clarity on are you.”

She smiled. “I suppose it’s nice to have Janie to bounce things around with.”

“I’m sure.” He wasn’t super-keen on her talking about him to Janie, but he wasn’t surprised. “Do you and Janie live together in Dallas?”

She gave half a laugh. “No, sir. I have my own place there. We just got paired for this assignment.”

“Tell me about your last assignment.”

“Can I cut your hair while I do it?”

Link released her, noting she hadn’t kissed him. He had kissed her in the past couple of weeks, and he really wished he could do what she’d asked of him—to stop worrying.

“I worked on this really great old church in the Texas Hill Country,” she said. “The state bought it a few decades ago, and it needed a lot of structural work.”

“Lots of art in a church.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I went for that, and the structural conservationist was this guy named Porky Dillard.”

“That was not his name.”

Misty giggled. “I swear to you, it was.” She took a breath, her scissors snip, snip, snipping away. “Anyway, our lead manager—like what Ralf does—was this woman named Clarice Terry. She didn’t like me much, and I managed to live with her for sixteen months.”

“So how much time do you actually spend in Dallas?”

“I’m usually there for a solid year or so between assignments,” she said. “We do trainings, take a couple of classes, and work on small projects in the area.” Before he could ask her something else, her phone rang. “Oh. It’s Janie. Just a sec, baby.”

She moved away to take the call, and Link searched his memory to see if she’d ever called him baby before. Nothing came to mind, and Link turned to watch her wander into his kitchen as she talked to her best friend.

Misty spun back to him, her eyes wide. Link got to his feet, a dart of worry spiking through him. “What?”