The drive to Grace Memorial in Parrish Creek had been a silent one, unless you counted Romeo snoring, or the music playing on the radio. There were no words exchanged. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me—I’d missed the perfect opportunity to grill him and get the answers I’d been hell-bent on demanding when I’d gone on my wild goose chase and set up my Timmy-in-the-well scheme. But that was before the kiss.
Kiss. That noun didn’t sound right. It was such a passive, benign description of what had taken place between us. Another word needed to be invented to encapsulate the monumental, soul-deep experience that we’d shared, and it needed to be solely a verb, not a verb/noun combo. Because that was more than just a kiss, and whatever it was had short-circuited my brain. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. What to say. What not to say. Thus the silent thirty-minute ride to the hospital.
“I’m sorry, is it top secret?” Cara teased lightly after Hud didn’t respond.
When I saw the corners of his mouth twitch in amusement, I was pretty sure that the jury was in and the verdict had come back in our favor. I was on pins and needles as I waited to hear what the heck we’d been doing up there.
“It’s a ranch.”
Cara and I waited for him to continue.
When he didn’t her hands lifted, palm side up, as she leaned forward. “Sooo, you’re going to sell it? Flip it? Rent it out? Live in it? Are you moving there?”
Live in it? Are you moving?
My heart skidded to an abrupt halt. Was Hud moving up to Emerald Cove? Why did the thought of that terrify me more than the thought of watching The Shining on repeat?
I knew the answer before the question even fully formed in my head. It might only be a half an hour away, but if he moved to Emerald Cove, I wouldn’t be able to run into him at the Pit Stop, The Flower Pot, Sugar Rush, The Tipsy Cow, or any of the other places where I spotted him several times a week. If he lived there, I wouldn’t see him on Saturday nights when the town gathered for Movies in the Park. Or I couldn’t “happen” to stop by the softball fields on Tuesday nights when his league played.
“No. I’m not.”
A breath I didn’t even realize I’d been holding exhaled and my world righted itself again. Even when I’d dreamed of traveling, of living abroad, I’d always fantasized about seeing Hud when I came home. He was as much Wishing Well to me as the well itself that sat in the middle of the downtown plaza.
“My aunt and uncle are.”
“Oh that’s nice, so you’re renovating it for them?” Cara continued her line of questioning.
“No, they’re going to be the caretakers.”
Normally, I kind of thought that Hud’s man-of-few-words persona was hot, but right now…not so much.
Possessing the patience of a saint, Cara pressed on. “Oh, so they’re—”
“Oh for the love of Willie Nelson. Just tell us what the place is!” I cut her off.
Unlike Cara, my patience, which was more often than not in short supply, was at an all-time low thanks to weeks of being on the sexual frustration edge, culminating in a life-altering lip-lock that I had no idea how to process, what it meant, and most of all, when it was going to happen again.
“The love of Willie Nelson?” he repeated, his left brow rose in amusement, and that’s when I knew that all of these non-answers were just to mess with me.
I bit the inside of my lip as my hands fisted in my lap. If we weren’t in a hospital, I might’ve socked him in his jaw. Actually, that might be just the place to do it. If I caused any real damage, it could be tended to tout suite.
Hud’s face was spared when my brother Travis walked up, holding a cup of vending machine coffee. “Hey man, I heard that you might be able to take the calf and foal from old man Stiller’s place that didn’t sell at the auction.”
Old Man Stiller had passed away a few weeks ago and I knew that both Travis and Trace had been working with his sons, who had moved out of Texas decades ago, to find homes for all of the cows, horses, goats and chickens that he’d left behind. But I had no idea why my brother would be talking to Hud about them. Especially the calf that I’d heard him tell my dad was born with a deformity and the foal that was blind. Hud lived in a nice ranch-style house, but he didn’t have any cows or horses on his property, or any place to put them for that matter, much less ones with special needs.
“Maybe. When do you need an answer?”
Maybe?
“End of the week would be good,” Travis explained.
My eyes bounced back to Hud who answered in a nod.
In frustration, my hands flew up. “What are you two even talkin—”
“Nine pounds, six ounces!” My brother JJ, decked out in scrubs, announced loudly over the chatter of the packed waiting room. “Delilah Rose is here and both mommy and baby are doing great! They’re perfect!”
Tears sprang to my eyes and I covered my mouth.
Everyone stood, hugging and cheering and we only quieted when JJ spoke again. “Destiny wants to see Harmony and Cara first—we just have to wait for Mom and Dixie to vacate before they’ll let more visitors in. It might be a minute, but stay close.”
Yeah. Like I was going anywhere.