“Can’t be clearer than that, right?” Now he just had to wait for Caroline to respond. She seemed to have her phone surgically attached to her fingers, so it shouldn’t take long. He prayed it wouldn’t—and that her answer would be positive—while he nervously took another bite of soup.
Chapter Eight
Caroline kept stroking Judy’s hair as she pressed her into her stomach. Belle hung on her arm, and Caroline wondered when she’d become the strong one. When people had started relying on her to know what to do and where to go.
They’d gone to lunch once she’d returned from the Rhinehart Ranch, and they’d barely finished before the sky had opened up. Since they’d gotten a seat in the garden, and it had a woven grass roof, they’d been able to weather the first ten or fifteen minutes.
Then the hail had started. That had forced everyone to empty the outdoor tables, and now Caroline stood inside the restaurant, wondering how much longer it would pour like this. She’d seen others rushing by outside, and they were drenched to the skin. They’dparked down the street, and they’d all be soaked within two steps.
“It’s going to let up soon,” Caroline promised. A rumble of thunder decided right then was a good time to make its voice known, and she slowly closed her eyes. She needed more patience, but she didn’t know where to find it.
She didn’t mind standing at the window, looking outside, but she needed a jar of Biscoff spread and a spoon if she was going to do it for much longer. Crunchy Biscoff, not the smooth kind.
Her phone emitted abloopety-bloopnoise, and her heartbeat went wild. Dawson. Dawson had just texted her. Maybe he’d be in the area with a giant umbrella that would cover the whole block and everyone in this bistro could get where they needed to go without getting a single drop of water on them.
She tugged her phone out of her purse and angled it away from Belle, though her sister was engrossed in her own phone.
Hey, Caroline, I have some bad news. Not sure if you’ve seen the weather, but it’s pouring, with some hail, and I’ve been summoned to an emergency meeting with my brother tonight, so I’m not going to be able to make our date work.
One big sentence, and she could only imagine the cowboy saying all of this in one breath. Literally, could only imagine it.
He’d texted again, right after that, and he’d said,I don’t want you thinking I don’t want to see you. I do. Badly. So…I was thinking breakfast. My place. Tomorrow morning. Then I thought that was too cliché. Totally overdone. So now I’m thinking I can pencil you in for lunch, barring any other weather or brother emergencies. Let me know what you think.
What she thought was that Dawson Rhinehart wanted to see her. Badly. She smiled, something like a soft sigh slipping from her lips. Then she let her fingers fly.
Too bad about tonight. But as luck would have it, I’m free all day tomorrow, what with it being Saturday and all.
She lowered her phone to her side, but she didn’t put it away yet. She did press on the volume button on the side to get it to quiet, because Belle would eventually catch on that someone kept texting her. Someone with a specialized chime.
Her phone buzzed, and Caroline glanced down at it.Great. At the risk of being that cowboy, I have to let you know I only get an hour for lunch.
I’ll bring something to your cabin, she typed out before she could think too hard about it. He wouldn’t even be able to drive to her house and back in an hour. Then, feeling flirty and outside the boxes of what made her Caroline, she added,You can’t make your own schedule? Or take a longer lunch? It’s the weekend.
The ranch does not care what day of the week it is, Miss Thompson.
She giggled before she could stop herself, and Judy looked up at her. Caroline dropped the smile from her face, cleared her throat, and tucked her phone back into her purse.
“It’s letting up a little,” someone said, and she took that as her cue to leave. Then she wouldn’t be able to look at her phone, even though it tempted her.
“Let’s try to get home.” She smiled down at her niece. “I don’t think we’ll be able to go to the petting zoo this afternoon.”
Judy’s face fell, but she hurried to look toward the window as another round of thunder rumbled through the sky.
“Belle,” Caroline said, maybe a bit too harshly. But her sister had semi-disappeared into her device. When she looked up, her eyes contained a hazed layer that took a few moments to dissipate. “We need to go now.”
“Okay.” Belle moved with her just fine, but Caroline suspected that if she hadn’t guided Judy, Belle would’ve left her behind. Impatience and irritation threatened to kick their way up her throat, and then she reminded herself that Belle was only one month into a divorce that she hadn’t wanted.
Caroline could be kind instead of snappy, and she took a deep breath as she followed someone out onto the sidewalk. The rain still drizzled, but she wouldn’thave to drive home dripping all over her SUV. She wouldn’t have to help Judy get out of her wet clothes—or Belle.
They made it to the SUV, and Caroline opened the back door for Judy with a “Up you go, little lady.”
Her phone blooped again, and Caroline took a precious moment in the intensifying rain to silence it all the way. The last thing she needed was Belle noticing and offering to check it for her. Behind the wheel, she smiled over to her sister. “What should we do this afternoon now?”
“Hot chocolate,” Judy said from the back seat. “Caramel popcorn. And a Barbie movie.”
Caroline smiled at her niece, though the last thing she wanted to put on was a Barbie movie. Judy loved them, though, and she looked in the rearview mirror. “Do you want the mermaid one, or the princess one?”
“Mermaids!” Judy swung her legs that didn’t quite reach the floor in the SUV, and Belle did smile over her shoulder to her daughter.