crouching down now. “Plus, you had cake when we got here. Momma said you couldn’t have very many sweets tonight, because you didn’t eat much dinner.” He pushed his son’s hair off his forehead, so tender and so caring despite his initial irritation with his son. “Remember when you don’t eat real food and then eat a lot of cake? You get sick. Do you think Auntie Etta wants a sick boy in her bed?”
August arrived right at the end of Ranger’s question, and Etta caught the look of shock on his face. She stepped into the light coming from the entrance of the barn and said, “Hey, everyone.”
“Auntie Etta!” Wilder flung himself into her arms, and she laughed as she picked him up. “I no sick, Auntie.”
“I hope not,” she said. “We’re making that tater tot casserole tomorrow morning, and you won’t want to miss that.”
Wilder looked at her collar and put his hands on her face and in her hair. He was a tactile child, and Etta was used to his touch. “I sleep with you?”
“Not if you’re sick,” she said, glancing at her brother. He nodded his appreciation at her. “How much cake have you had?”
“A little.” Wilder looked at her, tears in those dark-as-tar eyes. “I not sick.”
“Okay,” she said, bending to set the boy back on his feet. “You go find the other cousins and have fun. When I’m ready to leave, I’ll come find you, okay?”
“Okay.” He started back for the doors of the barn, and Ranger looked from August to Etta.
“Thanks, Etta,” he said. “Howdy, August.” He shook August’s hand, though he’d obviously been inside True Blue already. “Mister, what are you and Libby doin’ out here?”
“Just talkin’ to Etta,” Mister said, which so wasn’t true. He grinned at her as he passed, and then Etta and August stood alone in the lamplight outside True Blue.
He wore his cowboy hat, which threw his face into shadow, but plenty of flirtatiousness came out in his voice when he said, “Do you just let anyone come sleep with you?”
Etta wasn’t sure if she should be horrified or laugh right out loud. “Most people under age five,” she said. “As long as they’re not sick, clearly.”
He laughed, and Etta moved toward him, sliding her hand into his without hesitation. “How was your day with your mother?” he asked, dropping his head and taking a deep breath of her. Etta loved it when men did that, as it made her feel so good about herself, like they couldn’t get close enough to her or couldn’t truly experience her without their sense of smell.
“Tiring,” she said. “I think she’s losing quite a bit of her hearing, and I have to yell everything at her.”
“Mm, I’m sorry.”
Etta sure could hear the sexy, husky quality of August’s voice, and she closed her eyes and let him hold her, breathe with her, move with her. “I think we should go inside to dance,” she said. “This is just swaying.”
August chuckled, but he didn’t move or let go of her. “Hailey said I should take you out to dinner,” he said.
Etta jerked away from him as if he’d emitted a painful shockwave that would gel her blood if she stayed too close for too long. “She did?”
August wore the brightest smile Etta had ever seen, and she didn’t know what to make of it. “She said that you could be my new wife.”
“My word.” Etta pressed her palm to her pounding heart. “What were you talking about?”
“I asked her if she liked you, and she said yes. She asked me if I liked you, and apparently, she has a single reading teacher who’s really been working hard to find a boyfriend and husband.”
“Sheri Grimes,” Etta said. Everyone knew Sheri Grimes had been out with a lot of men. Etta had started to gain on her in the past year or so, as much as she didn’t want to admit that.
“Apparently,” August said again. “So Hailey said if I liked you, I should take you out. You could be my girlfriend, like her mom.”
“Oh.” Etta’s breath flowed out of her body. “And you said something like there’s a difference between a girlfriend and a wife.”
“Something like that, yes.”
Etta reached for his hand again, feeling a bit outside her body as she watched her skin touch his. “Did you tell her we were seeing each other?”
“I hadn’t quite made it there yet,” he said. “But the door is open now, Etta. I’m going to