The heelers picked themselves up and came toward him. Ted crouched down to pat them, and added, “This is Simon. And Paula.” He stroked her head. “And Ryan, and Randy.”
Randy licked Missy’s hand as she reached to pat him, and she giggled. “What kind of dogs are they?”
“They’re blue heelers,” he said. “They like to herd things. Cattle, usually.” He glanced over at Missy. “But they’ll keep our horses together. And I’ve heard they drive the wild pigs around here.” Ted straightened, and Missy did too.
He started walking down the road, and it was so very hot. Missy slipped her fingers back into Ted’s, and all the dogs came with them.
“Momma was right,” Missy said.
“About what?” Ted asked, his heart melting for this girl, and that made zero sense.
“The dogs just came with us.” She smiled down at them.
“Did you know they didn’t even have names when I got here?” Ted asked. “So I named them, and they seemed to like that. So now they come around with me.”
“I’ve always wanted a dog,” Missy said. “But my dad is allergic, so we never got one.”
Ted nodded, because her family situation was so unique.
“What’s your favorite food?” she asked, and Ted relaxed a little bit. They chatted about simple things, and he took her to meet Storm Warning and a couple of other horses before finally stopping in front of Emma’s babies.
“These are the horses your momma takes care of,” he said. “She makes sure they get a bottle in the morning and evening, and I take them out to their mommas in the pasture.” He pointed them out and named them, and Missy looked up at him.
“What?” he asked.
“My mom said she likes you.”
“Did she?”
“Yeah. Do you like her too?”
Ted’s immediate reaction was to deny it. He looked away from the ten-year-old and all of her perfect innocence. “Yes,” he finally said. “I like her. I think she might be mad at me though.” He sat down on the low stool in front of Patches. “Has she ever been mad at you?”
“Yeah, a couple of times,” Missy said. “Once, I let go of her hand at this big Easter egg hunt, and I got lost. She was so mad when she found me. So I asked Fran, and she helped me make her favorite cookies.”
“The ones with the M&M’s in them?”
“Yeah,” Missy said. “She likes banana bread too. I could help you make some, and then you could give it to her, and she might not be mad at you anymore.”
“Does that work?”
“Yeah, when I gave her the cookies, she wasn’t mad anymore.”
Ted longed for the innocence of a ten-year-old. “So me and you, tomorrow. We’ll make banana bread or cookies?”
“Well, you have to have black bananas for banana bread,” she said matter-of-factly. “Do you have those?”
“No,” he said.
“Do you have M&M’s?”
“I can get some,” he said, though he’d have to send Nate to the store.
“Maybe the cookies then,” she said.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Ted said. “Do you want me to talk to your mom about you coming over?”
“Sure,” Missy said. They started back to the West Wing then, and Ted let her pet all four of the dogs before she went up the steps and inside. He didn’t follow her, because the ideas in his mind had him turning to face the wide-open sky.
Cookies—Emma’s favorite.
Time—he had two more months at Hope Eternal Ranch. He didn’t want another day to go by where he couldn’t talk to Emma. He was tired of the dance. It was exhausting trying to plan his day so he wouldn’t run into her.
Something romantic—he could get more wildflowers from the fence line where he liked to walk. That reminded him of their first date, and maybe it would bring back good memories for Emma too.
“What else?” Ted asked the pure blue sky.
His apology—that he’d pressed her too hard. He could own that, and he could try to fix it.
One of his dogs barked, and Ted looked down at Randy. His pulse jumped too, because the last time his dogs had barked, Robert Knight had been nearby.
This time, though, he heard the squeal of a wild boar in the distance, and everything came together.
Grinning, he hurried to the Annex, where he could use the computer to find the final piece of his plan to make up with Emma and get her back into his life.
Ted returned to the homestead the next morning about the time the sun fully painted the day gold. He’d just reached the driveway when the rumble of Nate’s engine came up behind him. Ted moved out of the way as Nate pulled into the garage closest to the Annex, and he opened the passenger door for Connor.
“Hey, bud.” Ted grinned at the boy and held the flowers he’d just gathered from the fields out of the way as he gathered the child into his arms.
Connor clung to him as he babbled about the doughnuts they got that morning and that Nate had promised to take him to the beach next weekend.
“That’s great,” Ted said, setting the boy on his feet. He expected Connor to run into the house while he helped Nate carry in their groceries. Instead, he stood there, and Ted looked to see what had frozen him.
Missy stood several feet away, and she lifted her hand in a wave as Ted’s heartbeat picked up. “Morning, Missy,” he said. “You’re up early.” He scanned the front yard for Emma, but he didn’t see her.
“Is it too early to make the cookies?” she asked.
“Nope,” Ted said, glad Nate had gotten up at the crack of dawn to go to town.
“And we have doughnuts,” Nate said, lifting the box. “C’mon in. Connor, get at least the bag with the chips, okay?”
The boy moved to the back of the truck, and Ted did too, the flowers in
