agree about much, though they managed to get along.
“I’d have ordered that,” he said. “I think we’d like the Dark Chocolate Express too.”
“All six?” Marc asked, glancing to Dot.
Ward did too, catching Dot nodding. “All six plates,” he said, grinning from ear to ear now.
“You got it.” Marc left, and Ward released Dot’s hand to sling that arm around her shoulders instead.
“I think we should eat at Small Plates all the time,” he said, leaning down to whisper the words against her hair.
“Yeah? Why?”
“Because we agree on the food,” he said, following the words with a chuckle as she snuggled further into his chest. That movement caused a sigh to slip from his lips, and he simply sat with Dot for a few moments in blissful silence, the shape and warmth of her next to him creating a memory he wouldn’t soon forget.
Then she said, “You will go back and see Ida tonight, won’t you?” and they started talking about his family, something they’d done in the past too.
A couple of hours later, Ward knocked on the heavy hospital door and nudged it open a couple of inches. “It’s just me, Ida.” His eyes caught on his sister’s, who held a baby in her left arm as she nursed him.
Brady held the other baby, this one wearing a pink hat and fussing for all she was worth. She wouldn’t take the bottle her father tried to give her, and Brady looked beyond relieved to see Ward.
“Come in,” Ida said, and Ward committed to entering the room.
He smiled at his sister and her new family, his heart warming with love for all four of them. “Looks like the waiting room cleared out.” He moved over to Brady and took baby Judith from him.
“Yes, finally,” Ida said with a sigh. She watched Ward settle the infant girl in the crook of his arm. He took the bottle from Brady and practically collapsed into the only chair in the room. A sigh came from his mouth and a wave of exhaustion pulled through him.
He had so much to finish for the Cowboys Provide Christmas program he participated in each year, but he reasoned that emails could go out in the morning. He could also do them from his phone, though using the computer in the office at Bull House would be faster.
He thought of Preacher driving when he was too tired, and as he bounced the baby and then tried giving her the bottle, he asked, “Can I sleep at your place tonight? I’m not sure I’m fit to make the drive up to the ranch.”
“Of course,” Brady said, staring at him as Judith took the bottle and quieted down to eat. “How did you do that? I’ve been trying to get her to eat for ten minutes.”
“He has a way with babies,” Ida said fondly. “They love him.”
“It’s the body heat,” Ward murmured, gazing down at the perfect, tiny human in his arms. “I think she has your nose, Ida. She looks like those baby pictures of Mother.”
Ward had been going through a lot of the family photo albums in the past month, digitizing them and uploading them to a folder his siblings could access. No one loved family history as much as Ward, and he’d been working on books for each of them, with childhood pictures and stories from Mother’s journals specific to each of them. It was a slow process, and one that Ward couldn’t spend as much time on as he’d like.
At the rate he was going, he figured he’d have a couple of the books ready for Christmas gifts next year. Maybe.
“Body heat,” Brady said.
“She does look like Mother,” Ida said.
Ward simply watched Judith suck on her bottle, finally asking, “Are you going to call her Judy?”
“Yes,” Ida said. “And Johnny. Maybe JR. We haven’t decided.”
Ward closed his eyes and rocked baby Judy in his arms as she ate. He dozed slightly, his mind never straying too far from Dot and the near-perfect evening they’d shared. A kiss, though not another one when he’d delivered her to her truck right here in the hospital parking lot. He’d learned about her family, and she’d told him something deeply personal about her past.
“I heard you went out with Dot,” Ida said, and that brought Ward’s tired eyes open.
“Yeah,” he said, smiling as he turned his head to meet his sister’s eyes.
Ida smiled too. “She’s done with that bottle, brother. Let’s switch, and you can tell me about Dot while she