deep breath of the heated evening air. “I’m sorry I stayed away from the ranch for so long.”
“I don’t blame you.” He ran the tip of his nose down the side of her face. “I don’t know why you felt like you needed to, but it’s okay.”
“I needed to, because I knew once I saw you, everything would be okay again, and I needed to decide if that’s what I wanted.”
He pulled away, and Etta offered him a smile. “August, I think I knew the moment I saw you bent over, helping Hailey in front of the barn, that you were the man I’d been waiting for.” She’d been out with three other men in the months leading up to meeting August last fall, and she’d liked two of them quite a lot. But there hadn’t been this urgent, kicking motion of her heart.
“Remember how I asked for your number before I could leave? How Mrs. Lambert was all frowns and folded arms?” He laughed lightly, and Etta’s grin widened. “What did she say to you after I ran off to get on the bus?”
Etta loved the feel of his hands in her hair, and she closed her eyes and just breathed in the scent of him. “She asked me if I knew you. I said I didn’t, but that you were new to town, so I was being nice.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. “I think she knew you’d asked for my number. We’ve been friends for a while.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide my attraction to you.” He kissed her again, but this one only lasted a moment, as someone came around the corner of the barn with strange shuffling steps, someone else stomping alongside them.
August broke the kiss and stepped away from Etta to let her come away from the barn too.
“Willa?” she asked as the woman leaned against a barrel there. Her hands flew, but she didn’t speak her signs to her son the way she normally did. Etta knew sign language, but wow. Willa and Mitch flew through the signs, both of them talking at light-speed.
Willa finished and held up both hands, pressing her eyes closed. She drew a deep breath and looked at Etta. Unhappiness and discomfort lived there, and she leaned into the barrel again, panting.
“Are you okay?” She signed slower and looked at Mitch too. His chest heaved, and he was clearly furious. She loved that boy, though he stood taller than her now. He’d turned fifteen this year, and he was all arms and legs, with muscles filling them out as he worked the ranch with Cactus, Bear, and Link.
No, he signed for his mother. She is not okay. She’s pregnant, and she didn’t tell me. She’s not strong enough for this.
Etta could barely keep up with him, but she got the signs before switching her gaze to Willa. Thankfully, she spoke this time, and Etta didn’t have to read her hands.
“I am okay,” Willa said. “I just wanted you to help me get home.”
She definitely didn’t look fine to Etta, and Willa wasn’t moving away from the barrel either. “Let me get Cactus,” she said, but Mitch’s hands flew about how he didn’t need Cactus to come in and save the day the way he always did.
“You will not talk about him like that,” Willa said angrily. “That man has loved you from the day he met you, and he has done nothing but take care of you and love you and give you everything you want.”
Mitch lowered his arms, his dark eyes blazing with energy. Frost, his hearing dog, stood at attention at his side, and Etta had no idea if she could step between Willa and Mitch without getting punched in the face with their angry energy. She wanted to take August’s hand and slip away, but she wasn’t sure how to do that either.
“Cactus and I are a team,” Willa said in a calmer manner. “He is my husband, and your father, and I am okay.”
“No,” Mitch said out loud, his voice warbled and lower than Etta imagined it would be. She hadn’t heard the boy vocalize much, and she looked at him in surprise. “Not okay.” He signed something else that looked like I can’t believe this, and stalked away.
Willa sagged into the barrel, tears flowing down her face.
“August,” Etta said quietly, and he didn’t need to be asked. He moved over to Willa and put his arm around her.