He got the water hooked up, and he returned to the bay. “I took two showers already this morning,” he said. “So you hold still now, y’hear?”
Storm Warning moved one hoof, and Ted stroked his hand down the side of his face. “You’re a good boy.” He smiled at the horse. “I think you already know it, though.” He started bathing the horse. “So do you know Emma? What do you think of her?”
The horse didn’t answer of course, and Ted decided to whisper his secrets to him, getting how he felt about Emma out into words. When he finished, he was a little bit wet, but it wasn’t anything the hot Texas sun couldn’t dry quickly.
He put Storm Warning out in the pasture, cleaned up the wash bay, and headed toward the homestead. From a couple hundred yards away, he saw a car pull up to the fence. His heart started beating triple-time, and he broke into a jog when he saw Britta get out of the driver’s side.
His breathing came quickly by the time he reached the lawn. “Ma,” he called as Britta helped his mother out of the passenger side.
They both turned toward him, and Ted’s emotions rose in his throat. “Mom.” The word barely left his mouth, and he couldn’t get to her fast enough.
“Oh, my Teddy,” she said as Ted swept her into his arms. He held her so tight, a smile touching his mouth as he tried to hold onto his emotions so he wouldn’t cry.
But hugging his mother was like coming home, and Ted hadn’t been able to do either in so long. This—hugging his mother—was like heaven to Ted.
Chapter Twelve
Emma watched Ted’s reunion with his mother and sister through the bay window in the living room. She pressed one hand to her heart as she saw the joy on his mother’s face. They hugged for a long time, and then Ted stepped over to his sister and did the same thing.
Two girls got out of the car, and Emma sucked in a breath. She was good at judging age, and it looked like one was nine or ten, with the other a couple of years older than that. Her heart beat irregularly in her chest as she thought about Missy.
Emma should be on the road to San Antonio this morning, but Fran, Matt, and Missy had gone to Florida. She missed her daughter with a fierceness she’d never experienced, and it had only been two weeks since she’d seen her.
Ted hadn’t seen his mother in three years. Three. Years.
Emma couldn’t even fathom that. Her heart throbbed in the back of her throat as Ted picked up both girls. Through the window, Emma heard their laughter and witnessed the joy on their faces.
“Emma,” Ginger called, and she spun away from the happy family reunion on the front lawn. “There’s a timer going off.”
Emma bustled into the kitchen, where Ginger stood at the stove trying to get the beeping to stop. She really was useless in the kitchen, and Emma gave a short laugh. “It’s the top one, G.”
She picked up the oven mitts, and Ginger got the timer off. “Scootch over,” Emma said. Ginger got out of the way, and Emma pulled the cookies out. There was nothing that said welcome to a ranch better than oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
Ted didn’t bring his family to the West Wing right away, and Emma suspected he’d taken his mother to see where he was living. She wandered into the office and sat down to get some things done. She’d been so distracted this week, and she’d missed a day and a half of work, so she was quite behind in the things she needed to do.
She had managed to get payroll processed, so everyone had gotten paid yesterday. She’d sent out the invoices, and she’d paid the bills for the week. She’d ignored all the emails about the monarch butterflies, and she really needed to start confirming those for school groups, Girl Scout troops, and their family evenings on Monday night.
So, with the task of clearing out her butterfly email account, Emma pulled her schedule book in front of her and clicked to get the email open. It was much easier to keep track of things on paper as she went through the email digitally. Then she didn’t overbook or double-book, and everyone was happy.
She sorted the email by schools first, as she could schedule them during the day. She started with the oldest email first—first-come, first-served, after all—and she started scratching names and class sizes into the grid she had for the two weeks of monarch butterfly hatching and migration.
Sometime later, Ginger called, “Emma,” again, and she immediately dropped her pencil and left the office. In the kitchen, Ginger wore a warm smile to go with her jeans and a cute yellow tank top with tiny black butterflies on it.
Emma always felt a shade darker than the light Ginger put off, but she’d never minded it. Her best friend held Nate’s hand, who grinned at Ted’s mother with pure joy. “You probably don’t remember,” he said. “But I met you once, my first month in the facility.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Ted’s mother said, her voice pretty in a high, throaty sort of way. Emma’s chest tightened, because she sounded elderly and motherly, and Emma hadn’t spoken to her mother in a while.
Nate hugged her as Emma moved to Ginger’s side. “This is my fiancée, Ginger,” he said.
“She owns the ranch, Ma,” Ted said, flicking a glance to Emma. His smile was wide, his teeth bright white, his beard trim and neat. He’d also had a haircut since she’d seen him last night, and he wore a bright blue and white button-down shirt that made all of his dark features lighter. Sexier.
Emma realized in that moment how much she liked him. She couldn’t believe he’d
