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He paused for a moment, and Mike had gotten to know him over the past few weeks at Pony Power. He was a good man, with plenty to say if someone got him talking about baseball or cattle, and Mike knew he wanted his own hobby farm, the same as this one he’d worked for fifteen years.
“Father,” he said, his voice a touch higher. “We ask for Thy favor on Mike. He’s goin’ in for a big surgery tomorrow, and we don’t want him to be afraid. Bless the doctors to have steady hands and knowledge in anything they might see or encounter. Bless his family and all of us, his friends, to feel comforted.” Cord cleared his throat, and the only sound Mike could hear was the distant crackling of the fire.
He hadn’t felt the Holy Spirit this strongly since he’d talked to his daddy about joining the Marines and learning to fly helicopters. That had simply been right, and Mike had felt it with every ounce of his spirit.
“Bless all the Hammonds,” Cord said next. “Amen.”
“Amen,” chorused through the crowd, but it wasn’t as loud as Mike would’ve expected it to be. Someone nearby sniffled, and he glanced over to his mother, who stood with her arm wrapped around Aunt Elise’s waist.
They both wept, and Cord turned to Uncle Gray and shook his hand. Gray pulled him into a hug and said something right in his ear. Cord nodded, and they separated.
He faced Mike and said, “Sorry, buddy.”
“It’s fine.” Mike hugged him quickly. “Thank you, Cord. It was mighty fine to hear you pray for me.”
Cord ducked his head and practically ran off the deck. Chatter picked up again as people came up onto the deck to get their dinners, which Mike had delayed by at least fifteen minutes.
He backed up, because he didn’t want to go first and slow everyone down. Gerty leaned into him and whispered, “Mighty fine?” She giggled. “You keep that up, and you might just become a cowboy yet.”
With that, she reached up and positioned his cowboy hat back on his head. Her eyes skated down to his, where they held. She exuded life, and if Mike had the use of both of his hands, he’d have taken his new first kiss with Gerty right then and there, all the onlookers notwithstanding.
Her eyes danced, and she grinned at him. Before he could unfreeze his thoughts enough to say or do something, she swept her mouth along his cheek in a quick yet sizzling kiss. “I know you don’t want my help,” she said. “But I could bring you some food if you wanted.”
“All right,” he said, deciding not to fight this. “You do that, and I’ll attack the desserts for us.”
“Good plan,” she said. “Meet up in five?”
He eyed the line for the food. “Better make it ten.”
10
Wesley Hammond loved driving his family somewhere in his truck. The mood today wasn’t the same as when they’d done road trips as the kids grew up, that was for sure, but his heart only experienced joy as he looked in the rear-view mirror and found all three of his kids sitting on the back bench seat.
Mike sat behind Bree, his eyes out the window as the miles rolled by from the farm to the city hospital, where he’d have his shoulder replacement surgery today. Wes marveled at modern medicine, because it only took two hours for his son to get a brand-new shoulder.
He and Bree were taking Opal and Easton to lunch while Mike was under the knife, and his stomach growled. He’d been fasting since last night’s dinner, simply to try to pull more of the Lord’s favor onto his son.
Opal rode in the middle, the same way she always had as a girl. She looked out the windshield, her eyes coming up to meet his. He smiled at her, and Opal returned it. She was an interesting mix of him and Bree. She had the brains required to excel in medical school, but she knew how to laugh and have fun too.
She worried too much, like her mom, and she didn’t hold anything back, like him.
“Anything new in California?” he asked her.
That drew Easton’s attention from behind him, as he’d been looking at his phone. Probably a baby name website or something, as he and Allison had not stopped talking about names since their announcement last night. He looked from Opal to Wes, and Wes knew instantly there was something new.
“No,” Opal said, delivering the fib without a flicker of an eyelash or any pitch in her voice.
Mike didn’t look over from whatever held him captive out the window, and Wes cut a glance at Bree before looking back to the road.
“Whatever happened with Steven?” she asked, clearly picking up on what Wes had put down. He wasn’t sure if Opal was dating someone new or not, but there was something afoot with her.
“Ugh, Steven.” Opal rolled her eyes. “He moved to another hospital, thankfully. He made everyone so uncomfortable.”
“I thought you went out with him,” Bree said.
“No, Momma. I haven’t been out with anyone in years.” She folded her arms, and that was the key.
Wes grinned, because there was the lie. He’d expected it to be personal, because Opal didn’t seem to have a filter when it came to co-workers and her job. She loved emergency medicine, and she was really, really good at it.
