Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,69
is everyone else?”
“Dad wouldn’t park and come in,” Abi said with a frown. “He hasn’t changed in that regard. Mom convinced him to go down to the gas station and get a couple of candy bars. Nia’s back at the ranch, cooking up something for dinner. Huey’s going to meet us there.”
Jess nodded, and together, they walked over to the baggage claim area. Jess had decided to visit for ten days, but as she walked outside, she’d forgotten she wasn’t in Texas anymore. She sucked in a breath, which froze her lungs together.
“Holy cow,” she said as her teeth started chattering. “I need my coat.”
“Dad’s right there,” Abi said, but she flipped up her furry hood and cinched it tight to keep the wind out. Jess thought she might freeze to death before their father’s enormous black truck pulled to a stop at the curb.
Her mom spilled from the front seat, half-laughing and half-crying as she rushed Jess. They hugged, and Jess decided to just give up on holding back the tears. These were her parents, and she hadn’t seen them in a long time.
“Dad,” she said as he crushed her in a hug too.
“It’s so good to see you, Jess,” he said. “So good.” He beamed down at her, and he was just as large as his truck. Square shoulders and big muscles though he’d cut back on his work around the ranch. “Let’s get out of the cold.”
“Yes, please,” Jess said. “It’s at least a hundred degrees warmer in Texas.”
“I’ll bet it is,” her mom said. “It’s been clear for a few days now, after a big storm. They’re the coldest days of the year.”
Jess could feel that chill sinking all the way into her bones. She got in the back seat with Abi and looked at her as their dad loaded Jess’s bags into the back of the truck. She picked up Abi’s left hand. “Still no ring?”
Abi heaved a big sigh and shook her head. “Honestly, I’m not sure it’s going to happen.”
“It is,” their mother said from the front seat. She twisted all the way around, and Jess could only smile at her. She loved her mom, and she’d inherited the same crooked smile and the same dark complexion her mother had.
“Ready?” Dad asked as he climbed behind the wheel.
“Yep,” Jess said, and she looked at Abi and then her mom again. “What?”
“Abi says you said you were seeing someone.” Her mother looked so hopeful, and Jess once again thought about that elusive thing called hope.
Jess shot a look at her sister. She had mentioned Dallas in a text. A single text, and not by name. “Yes,” she said, seeing no reason to deny it. “His name is Dallas Dreyer. He’s the mechanical manager at the ranch.”
“Dallas,” her mother repeated. “Sounds very Texan.”
“Okay, Mom,” Jess said with a laugh. “It’s just a name.” She looked away, out the window, because she didn’t want to talk about Dallas.
“That’s all we get? His name and where he works?”
“Mom,” Jess said.
“Come on,” Abi said, and Jess suddenly felt ganged up on. Even her father met her eye in the rear-view mirror, and it was clear he wanted to know more. Jess supposed she hadn’t told any of them very much about her relationship with Dallas, and she probably should. If only they weren’t currently in the middle of something extremely trying.
“What else do you want to know?”
“How’d you meet him?” her mom asked.
“At Ginger’s wedding,” Jess said. “He’d just wiped up the floor, and I came running out in a new pair of boots. I slipped and fell, and there was Dallas.”
“He can’t have been working at the ranch for very long then,” her father said, and Jess sometimes wished he wasn’t so quietly observant.
“No, just for a few months,” Jess said. “He’s smart, and good with his hands. He can practically see the schematics of an engine and seems to know right where every part goes.”
“I’m surprised he’s not a cowboy,” Abi said.
“He wears the hat,” Jess said. “Rides the horses. His kids love them.”
Silence permeated everything, including the surprise on her mom’s face.
“He has two kids,” Jess said, backing up. “Thomas is ten, and Remmy will be seven in a couple of weeks.” She still hadn’t sketched out an idea for a princess cake, because she’d simply had too much going on.
“He’s divorced then?” Abi asked.
“Yes,” Jess said, and she definitely wasn’t diving down into that pit of snakes. It really was too bad there was