Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,81
It was nice to see the man a little run down, just as a reminder that he wasn’t superhuman.
“How’s married life?” Dallas asked, and Nate’s eyes popped back open.
A smile crossed his face. “Great.”
“Are you and Ginger gonna have kids?”
“Probably,” Nate said. “She’s not in a hurry, and neither am I.”
Dallas nodded as Ted came back inside, sans kids. “The wedding is still on?” he asked Ted.
Ted glanced at Nate and back to Dallas. “We’re doing relationship updates?”
“I guess,” Nate said. “Mine was that married life is great, and we’ll have kids when we’re ready.”
Ted gathered a doughnut from the box and sat in the recliner. “The wedding is still on.”
“When is that happening again?” Nate asked.
“March tenth,” Ted said. “About a month now.” He stuffed a big bite of doughnut in his mouth and looked at Dallas.
Nate did too, and Dallas realized what he’d started. He wished he’d put his cowboy hat on the way the other two men had, but he hadn’t.
“What’s going on with you and Jess?” Nate finally asked.
“Nothing,” Dallas said, and that was the absolute truth.
“Come on,” Nate said, sitting up and leaning his elbows on his knees.
“Literally nothing,” Dallas said. “She broke up with me a while ago. I wasn’t ready, so she was right, and I don’t know. I’m trying to get ready, and I need a plan to get her back when I am ready.” He looked from Ted to Nate. “Any ideas for that?”
“When does Martha get out?” Ted asked.
“Nine days,” Dallas said. “Her sister is taking over.” Relief like he’d never known flowed through him, and he wondered why he’d thought he had to deal with Martha alone. She had other family to help, and he wasn’t even her family anymore.
“That’s a good idea,” Nate said.
“I agree,” Ted said. He polished off his doughnut and looked around the house. “Are you going to buy your own place?”
“Yes,” Dallas said. “I just haven’t had the gumption to start looking.”
“Maybe you should,” Nate said. “Get your own place for you and the kids. Somewhere Jess would really like. Then, you just go to her, Dallas. It isn’t complicated. You just go to her, and you tell her you love her, and you’re sorry for not being ready, but you’re ready now, and you see what she says.”
Dallas hung his head, though the brim of his hat wasn’t there to hide his face. “It can’t be that easy.”
“It is,” Nate said. “Right, Ted? Isn’t that what you did?”
“Actually, I figured out all of Emma’s favorite things, and I gathered those all together before I went to apologize.”
“She’s not perfect either,” Dallas said. “Not that I need her to apologize to me. It’s just…she seemed to go to Montana and listen to people who’ve never met me and make decisions based on what they told her.”
“Did she do that?” Nate asked, his eyebrows up.
“I don’t actually know,” Dallas said. “It just feels that way to me.” He looked up at his very best friends in the whole world. “How am I supposed to be with her now? Her family obviously doesn’t like me. Maybe it’s too hard.” He shook his head and reached for the remote control.
He flipped on the TV and turned the sound down so they could still talk. “Then I see her, and all these kinds of doubts and fears just go away.” He could picture her perfectly in his head from yesterday, and from the dozens of other times they’d spent time together.
“It’s not too hard,” Ted said.
“Not everyone gets their second chance,” Dallas said. “I have kids to consider. I’ll always have to deal with Martha. It’s a lot for me to handle, and for someone like Jess? She doesn’t even know what viper nest she’s crawling into.”
Misery ran through his veins, power-washing them out. “No wonder she broke up with me. Life would be much simpler for her if she found someone who’d never been married, never had kids, and never been to prison.” He held up three fingers, still staring at the TV screen so he didn’t have to face his friends. “Three strikes. I’m out, guys.”
“That’s just not true,” Nate said.
“It is,” Dallas said. “It could be, at least.” He finally tore his eyes from the screen and looked at Nate first, and Ted second. “You guys got your second chance, but you don’t have to deal with Connor’s mom. It’s easy.”
Nate’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t argue.
“Same for you, Ted. Missy’s dad isn’t going to