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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.
