hands in both of his. He looked down at their fingers, the moment tender and real between them. “I’m scared of what might happen to my heart if I let someone as amazing as you into my life. I’m scared of letting Hailey get too close to you, only to have you abandon her.”
Etta didn’t think that would ever happen, but she couldn’t say so for sure. Not right now. She had dozens of dating horror stories, and she wanted more time with August to make sure she knew him, understood him, and that they had similar goals for the future before anything lasting was said or done.
“I don’t mind waiting,” she said.
“As long as you know it’s not because of you,” he said. “It’s a weakness inside of me. It’s a fear I’m working through.” He looked up and into her eyes, and time stutter-stopped again. He released one of her hands, reaching up, and brushed her hair back from her face. “Okay?”
She nodded. “Okay.”
They breathed in together, and that made Etta laugh. The sober moment and time for confessionals ended, and she held his hand as they went back into the kitchen. “All right,” she said. “Butter and jam with your bread? Or are you making barbecue rib sandwiches tonight?”
“Guess,” he said, teasing her. Flirting with her.
She cocked one hip and pretended to study him. “Butter and jam,” she said. “I know a man with a sweet-savory tooth when I meet one.” Not only that, but she’d seen no less than four jars of jam in his fridge when she’d slid the pea salad inside.
“I’ve got apricot, raspberry, peach, or strawberry-rhubarb,” he said, pulling open the fridge, looking at her with questions in his eyes. “I’ll just get out all of them.”
Chapter 8
Montana Glover knew her daughter would come around the corner in her husband’s truck at any moment. She may or may not have been following Aurora and Oliver’s journey since they’d crossed the Arkansas state line and entered Oklahoma.
They’d finished their semester at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and they’d be on the ranch for the next three weeks. Montana missed them so much, and tears pressed against the backs of her eyes.
“Stop it,” she told herself. “You will not cry when you see them.” Aurora and Ollie had been married for almost a year now, and they’d come back to Three Rivers a few times. This wasn’t the first, only, or last time Montana would see them.
Aurora loved her design and fashion classes at the SCAD, and Ollie had been taking more and more technology and animation classes instead of the equine studies he’d started with last January.
The big truck Ollie drove came around the corner, and Montana burst to her feet. “They’re here,” she said to Robbie, her little boy, and he looked up from the toy cars he’d spread out across the porch. She stepped over him and the toys and opened the front door. “Bishop, they’re here.”
She laughed as she turned and went down the front steps just as Ollie brought the truck to a complete stop in front of the house. “Mama,” Aurora said, spilling from the passenger seat.
“Hey, baby,” she said, her voice cracking as the emotion took over. She reached Aurora and gripped her tightly in a hug. “You’ve been driving forever. How are you?”
“So good,” Aurora said, her grip on Montana just as tight as her mother’s. Bishop came down the steps, Robbie in his arms, and Aurora squealed as she went to greet them. She loved Bishop as if he were her biological father, because he’d always acted like he was.
They laughed together, and Robbie kept saying, “Rowa, Rowa, Rowa,” as if no one but him knew who she was.
Montana grinned at Ollie and opened her arms to the boy. He was a man now, but Montana still struggled to think of him that way. He took good care of Aurora in Savannah, while managing his own studies, their household money, and all the lawn care.
“How are you, my boy?” she asked in a whisper. “You tell me straight. What can I do to make your life easier?” She knew she couldn’t do much. Ollie had plenty of resources should he need them, and he possessed a cheerful, optimistic outlook on life.
“I would kill for one of your cannoli cupcakes right now,” he said, his voice full of a grin. “And Aurora said if you don’t have Mexican corn in the house, she’s going to