Page 27 of The Cowboy Who Came Home
Edith hung her leg over the side of the hammock and pushed herself back and forth, most of her attention on her phone. Frankie, Otto, and Gumbo had jumped up into the hammock with her, and her feet and shins would probably overheat in another few minutes.
But she didn’t mind so much. She didn’t really feel the muggy heat of today, because she and Finn had been texting back and forth like wildfire. Sometimes their conversations stopped abruptly at night, because he’d fallen asleep.
Edith liked to tease him about that, and he didn’t deny it. He’d been coming by Coyote Pass every day, even if he only stayed for an hour and helped them get their animals fed.
The water receded a ton today, she tapped out to him. He’d been getting closer and closer to more personal things, and Edith wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him about certain things via text.
“They feel like in-person conversations,” she muttered to herself. But when Finn came over, they’d been catching up on other things. What she’d been doing the past several years. What he’d been doing. He’d told her he’d lived in Washington D.C. for a while, then Germany. She’d told him about her time in Long Island, her internship, the creative writing classes at NYU, all while skirting around Levi and why she’d come back to Three Rivers when seemingly everything back East had been going so well for her.
Finn wasn’t a stupid man, and his next text came in only a breath behind hers. I was wondering what brought you back to town.
Edith needed some time with him to talk about that. She wanted to be in his physical presence, so she could see his face, watch his reaction, hold his hand. She hadn’t had the warming contact of another human being she wasn’t related to in so long, and while Finn had only held her hand a couple of times—it was kind of hard to cuddle and snuggle and intertwine fingers when they were shoveling out stalls, changing bandages on a horse, and fixing fences.
Edith sighed out her frustration, because it was only with herself. She tapped to call Finn, something she’d not done before. But the cowboys from his ranch would be at Coyote Pass tomorrow, and she needed things to accelerate a little if she wanted to take a step forward with him.
He’d been a little too laid back, and Edith hadn’t realized it until this moment.
“You’re calling me,” he said.
“You don’t say,” she teased.
“I’m just—what’s up?” His voice pitched up happily, and Edith smiled too.
She closed her eyes and felt the movement of the hammock beneath her. “I want to tell you why I decided to come back to Three Rivers,” she said. “But Finn, it…it…it’s something I want to do in person, so.” She took a breath, trying to find the forward version of herself.
She’d never really asked out a man before. They usually asked her, the way Finn had that day in the parking lot at Courage Reins over two weeks ago now.
“So I’m wondering when you’re going to ask me out,” she said, lifting her chin as she did. Her eyes popped open, and she took in the bright blue sky above. “I mean, I know we’re both running at both ends of the candle, so maybe—I don’t know. Maybe you’d like to?—”
“Stop talking,” he yelled, and Edith snapped her mouth closed, her dinner invite at the farmhouse tomorrow night dying in her throat. Finn sighed heavily over the line. “I’m sorry, Edith. I just—didn’t want you to ask me out.”
“Okay,” she said, that warmth starting to glow inside her chest.
“We have been busy with all the flooding and all the work at all the ranches,” he said. “I’ve been looking at the community calendar, trying to find something I think you’d like to do, but they’ve canceled so much.”
“You know what I like to do?” she asked.
“I have some idea,” he said, his voice somewhat defensive. “I’ve been getting to know you with the texts too. But since you’re so anxious to see me, what about dinner tomorrow night? We can go out, or I can bring something to the ranch and just…stay after everyone else leaves.”
Edith had been about to offer to cook for him but going out or having him bring something sounded better. She and Alex would feed lunch to everyone who came to help. It wouldn’t be anything like the women from Shiloh Ridge Ranch, but Edith had ordered sandwich boxes from The Bread Company. She had to get up extra-early to go pick them up.
“So if you’ve been gathering ideas,” she said. “Where would you take me for dinner in town?”
“That’s a trick question,” he said. “Not everywhere is open.”
Edith grinned and even allowed a light laugh to come out. “I was going to suggest you stay here for dinner.”
“At the farmhouse?”
“Yes,” Edith said, the word only scratching slightly in her throat. “Here. I can arrange for Alex to be somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else? Where would he be?”
“Well, he’s been retreating to his bedroom the moment he can,” she said. “He’s exhausted, and he’s got that little cold, so if I feed him and give him some meds, I’m fairly sure we’d have the farmhouse to ourselves for a couple of hours.”
“You’re going to drug your brother?” Finn started to laugh, and the sound of it filled her from head to toe with joy.
“You should know I’m not a great cook.”
