Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,1
the end of it.
The road turned from asphalt to dirt, and the sedan bumped over the new surface. He crossed a bridge, passed the trees, and the ranch spread in front of him.
A massive house sat just beyond a small patch of grass, which had a fence separating it from a large gravel pad, where Dallas pulled to a stop.
He peered out of the windshield, taking in the house that was really two houses—one on each side of a three-car garage. Nate and Ted had told him all about it, and Dallas could see the appeal of it.
And then Ted was walking toward him, a giant smile on his bearded face. Dallas started laughing and said, “Come on, guys. Let’s get out.”
He got out of the car and met Ted at the opening of the fence. The other man had four inches on Dallas, and at least fifty pounds. He really was like a big teddy bear, and Dallas clapped him heartily on the back as they embraced.
“Look at you,” Ted said, and that was all. Dallas didn’t need more; he knew what Ted meant.
Look at him outside the fences of River Bay. Look at him in regular clothes. Look at him, a single dad to two kids.
Those kids came up beside him, Remmy clutching her blanket, though it was far too hot to cart that around for long, and rubbing her eyes.
“Guys,” he said. “This is Ted Burrows. Do you remember him?”
“Yes,” Thomas said at the same time Remmy said, “No,” and shrank into Dallas’s side.
He put his palm on her back and gave her a quick squeeze.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Dallas said. “Ted, these are my kids, Thomas and Remmy.”
Ted crouched down, his smile bright and genuine. “Hey, guys. I’ve got something for you in the West Wing. It involves chocolate. You want to come see what it is?”
Remmy edged away from Dallas, and Ted straightened as he took her hand. Thomas looked up at Dallas, and he nodded. “I’m coming in too.”
Thomas went ahead of him, and Ted chatted with Remmy about her blanket and the character on her T-shirt.
“Oh, our clothes.” Dallas turned back to the car to get the small suitcase he’d brought with their dress clothes for the wedding. “I’ll catch up. I’m grabbing our clothes.”
He retrieved the bag and turned to follow Ted, but they’d disappeared. A flash of panic hit Dallas, and he worked to tamp it back. He hadn’t been alone for so long, and he didn’t like the feeling of not knowing exactly where to go.
The panic itself was new, and Dallas loathed it. He’d never had a confidence problem or been plagued with anxiety or other mental illnesses. But his incarceration had changed a lot more than the status of his marriage and the age of his children.
He walked down the driveway toward the wide garages, and Nate came out of a doorway, clearly looking for Dallas.
Relief rushed through him, and to his great surprise, tears pricked his eyes. “Nate,” he said, and Nate’s face burst into a grin.
“You made it.” He came down the few steps and engulfed Dallas in a hug. They embraced for several long moments, neither of them saying anything.
“Come on in,” Nate finally said, falling back. “There’s food, and you can change.”
“The big day,” Dallas said.
“Yeah, in a couple of hours,” Nate said, ducking his head so the big, black cowboy hat he wore hiding his face.
Dallas studied his friend—the man who’d literally saved his life on the inside. There was something so different about him, and yet so familiar.
“I like the hat,” he said, and Nate glanced up. He reached up and touched the cowboy hat as if he didn’t even know he was wearing it.
“It’s useful,” Nate said.
“And you like it,” Dallas said, because he may not have seen Nate for a while, but he knew the man didn’t do anything he didn’t like for very long. At least not by choice. Now that they were out, they could all choose.
“I like it,” Nate admitted. “Come meet Ginger.” He led the way up the steps and into the house, which had blessedly cool air conditioning.
Dallas immediately looked around for his children, and he didn’t have to look far. They sat at the bar with two other kids, one of whom Dallas recognized. Connor, Nate’s son. The other was a dark-haired girl who looked to be close to Thomas’s age, and he assumed that was Ted’s fiancée’s daughter.
Dallas couldn’t remember her