asked him about it, Judge said he hadn’t shot a picture in months. “Always months,” Ward said, running his fingers down the spine of the book.
Honestly, he hoped this gift would remind Judge of something he loved and spur him to action. He flipped open the front cover and found the envelope with the training sessions with Whitney there, and then he set it down and reached for the wrapping paper.
He wasn’t sure who’d drawn his name this year, as it was a secret thing until the family party. They usually held it the Sunday before Christmas, but this year, it had been scheduled on Christmas Eve as Christmas itself fell on the Sabbath. They’d be going down to town for church that day, and then having lunch together at Ace’s, and everyone had wanted to keep them as two separate events.
He thought of Dot, instantly wanting to invite her to the family party. Lots of his siblings and cousins had brought their significant others to family get-togethers. Maybe it was his turn to finally bring someone.
“Is she significant enough?” he asked himself as he folded and taped. They’d had a great lunch, and he’d asked her to dinner. She’d declined, saying she kept From the Ground Up open until eight o’clock on Thursdays, and she had to stay and close up.
She’s significant enough to you, he thought, but he wasn’t sure if he was significant enough to her. He couldn’t help getting a tad bit ahead of himself when it came to Dorothy Crockett, and he finished wrapping Judge’s gift and sat in the desk chair, his mind entirely consumed by her.
She’d been wearing jeans today—of course. The woman always wore jeans. Her tank top had been light green, with a peach-colored sweater over that. She stole his breath even now, and Ward wondered what that meant.
“Ward,” Preacher called, appearing in the office a moment later.
“Yep.” Ward stood up, glad his cousin could walk here by himself now. He’d been in a terrible car accident that had left him with a broken hip only a couple of months ago.
“Are you going to invite Dot to the family party?” He held his phone away from his mouth. “Ace and Holly Ann are grocery shopping and he said you must be in here, because he couldn’t get ahold of you.” Preacher’s light eyes searched Ward’s face, but he had no idea how to answer.
“Does one more mouth really make a difference?” he asked, thinking only of the gossip network Dot had mentioned and how his sisters-in-law were clearly part of it.
“Holly Ann says to invite her,” Preacher said, turning. He limped slightly, and Ward saw it all. He’d gone on enough walks with Preach to catch the carefully controlled pain in his eyes too. “He’s going to invite her,” he said as he moved into the kitchen. A moment later, Preacher called over his shoulder, “Hey, Ward, can I have some of this taco soup?”
Chapter Six
“Come on, boy,” Dot said, coaching her big, noisy dump truck to kick into a lower gear so she could get up this final hill to Shiloh Ridge Ranch. Beside her on the seat, her hound dog George panted and looked out the window lazily, not a care in the world.
Dot had a few cares on her mind, truth be told. First, she hadn’t seen Ward in a couple of days. She’d had to work late on Thursday night, so she couldn’t go to dinner with him. Friday, he’d texted several times but nothing had worked out, especially after he’d said he needed to check his turkeys and then he’d gone dark.
He’d called last night to say he’d found an entire pasture of them missing, and it had taken him and his brothers—or cousins, Dot wasn’t really sure—a few hours to find them. By then, he’d been “exhausted and freezing,” in his own words.
When she’d asked him what he was doing, he said he’d collapsed on the couch in front of the fireplace to let his clothes get a little drier before he showered. She’d then asked him what he was wearing, and he’d laughed right out loud and asked her if that was a pick-up line.
Humiliation had muted her last night, and she shook her head again now, just as Brutus kicked into the lower gear and steadily climbed the hill. She’d been up to Shiloh Ridge before, and she’d admired the arch over the road as well as all the outbuildings and houses she’d