Page 32 of Kicking Up Dust

“Tatum Marie, what did I say?” another woman chides as she comes out the front door, her dark hair streaked with gray.

“Seems like Mama calls you Tatum too, huh?”

“Shut up, Colton.”

“You shut up, Cricket.”

“Don’t call me Cricket,” Tate seethes back.

“Why? Only Tylie-kins is allowed to call you that?”

“Both of you shut up,” Mama says, smacking Colt with a dish towel. “You’ll scare my new daughter-in-law away.”

I let out a surprised laugh as the woman wraps me up in a hug.

“Mama, I told you—” Colt starts, but she ignores him.

“My name’s June, but almost everybody just calls me Mama. I’ll take either one, as long as you don’t call me Mrs. Whittaker. Let’s get you inside out of this heat. Colton, get her bags. Tate, shouldn’t you be at work?”

Colt and Tate huff.

“Yes, Mama,” they say in sync.

“Here’s your room… for now,” Colt says a bit later when we finally make it upstairs. His mom was so sweet, but just like he’d warned, she was a bit smothering too. Colt puts my suitcases on the floor by an old wooden dresser.

“I wasn’t sure what you’d like and since this is a bit temporary, I didn’t want to decorate too much, but the bed stuff is new and Mama washed it a few times so it’d be nice and soft for you.”

I run my fingers along the sage bedding before taking a seat on the edge of the bed. A flutter in my stomach lets me know baby bear appreciates it.

“Come here,” I tell Colt, cutting off his rambling about the towels in the bathroom.

“Is everything okay?” he asks with nervous eyes, looking down at where I’m holding my stomach.

I nod, taking his tattooed hand and placing it where I just felt the baby move. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to feel her yet, but she’s getting comfortable in there.” He stares at me, laser-focused, but when she rolls again and he doesn’t light up, I assume it’s too early for her to be felt by people touching my stomach.

Colt deflates a little, but still manages to smile down at me. “Are you tired?”

“I’m always tired.”

He snorts. “Fair. Do you want to take a nap before I show you around the property?” Even the thought of a nap makes me yawn, and he laughs at me while I’m too busy to defend myself. “I’ll take that as a yes then,” he says, standing up and pulling me with him so he can turn down the covers for me.

“You said your room is just next door?”

“Yeah, but I’m gonna go out and check in with Maddie. See if he needs extra hands anywhere for a couple of hours. If you text me when you wake up, I’ll come back. Or you can just hang out with Mama. Whichever you want.”

“Alright,” I say through another yawn, lying down.

I feel the blanket cover me and can’t help but nuzzle into the pillow a bit more. This might be the softest bed I’ve ever slept in. It’s like a cloud.

Colt’s fingers push my hair back away from my face and if I were in my right mind, I’d have something to say about him pressing a kiss against my forehead and calling me baby as he tells me goodnight and leaves.

But I’m half asleep before his boots ever meet the hallway.

EIGHTEEN

COLT

“Hey man, where do you need me?” I ask Maddie when I find him standing under the shade of a tree with Jamie and Tyler. They’ve clearly just started on a break, all of them covered in sweat from the July sun and dust.