“Hey,” he said, making the sign as he said it. He glanced over to Dawson.
“Just tell him the situation quickly.”
Link did, making the signs and summarizing things as succinctly as he could. “And now, Dawson’s trying to see her or stay in her life without having a formal date on his calendar.” He looked over to Dawson and raised his eyebrows as if to ask,Did I get that right?
Dawson nodded, and Smiles said, “He goes too fast for me, Link, but he said ‘This is an easy one.’”
Link hurried to focus on Mitch again, because he could keep up with Mitch most of the time. Not when he got really animated and excited, but this wasn’t about him. Still, he knew Dawson well, and he loved talking about dating.
“An easy one, huh?” Dawson chuckled. “Maybe for Mitch.”
Link watched his hands and tried to translate at the same time. Since Mitch had moved over the summer, Link’s skills had gotten rusty at having to interpret, as he talked to Mitch all the time, but he didn’t have to take what his cousin said and relay it to someone else.
“Uh, he says that he’s a pro at flirting via texting, and he can send you some stuff, Dawson.” He didn’t dare look away. “He says it’s the little things that will win her over until you can have yourfirst real date.”
“Little things?”
Link signed the question from Smiles, and Mitch’s hands flew into motion again. “Yeah,” he translated. “You can have her favorite food delivered to her house. You don’t have to be there. Flowers, if she likes those. If she works a job where she might like a massage or a pedicure, you get a gift certificate and send it to her. Mail her a card for Valentine’s Day right now. And then another one next week.”
Link almost wanted to be taking notes for what he could do to make sure Misty didn’t fall out of love with him. At the same time, he knew Misty wouldn’t do that. She loved him, and he’d felt that deeply in his soul too.
“Maybe not every week,” he amended. “But something else next week, and not the same thing as other men.”
“What kinds of things?” Henry asked, and Link glanced across the table to him.
He signed the question, but Mitch hadn’t finished answering yet. He fluidly moved into the next answer anyway, and it took a moment for Link to catch up. “Uh, like where some guys send flowers, you don’t do that. You have to stand out. So you send an edible arrangement. Or you show up while she’s at work and you leave her favorite treat on the doorstep. Then she’ll know you were there, and she missed you. Shemissesyou.”
“This is really good,” Henry said. “Same concept as I said.”
“Then, you make sure the first date is really special,” Link said. “Because if you show her you’re listening to her texts and that you miss her too, then you have to follow that up with all the things you promised she’d miss.”
“As if a first date doesn’t already carry enough pressure,” Dawson grumbled. “But this is great.” He leaned into Link’s side and made a sign. “Thank you, Mitch.”
Mitch grinned at him, and Link could admit he looked better than last time he’d seen him. Link wanted to ask him why, or find out if he was nervous for the new semester to start, but he didn’t want to do it in mixed company. Mitch signed with Smiles for a few seconds, and then Link said, “I’ll call you again tomorrow, brother,” and Mitch ended the video call.
“Libby?” Dawson asked. “Am I on the right track?”
“I’d say so,” she said as she stood up. She collected Paul’s empty plate, then Henry’s and added, “Heck if a man actually listened to me, he’d be ahead of my last three boyfriends.”
She moved into the kitchen with all of them watching her, and then Paul, who sat on the end, turned to look at all of them. Link felt the same bewilderment running through him that Paul wore on his face, and then Finn burst out laughing.
That set them all off, and Link sure did love his friends. He laughed with them, and he could tell them anything. He counted himself lucky to be included in this group, and he thanked the Lord Above for Finn andEdith, who’d started having game nights and parties at their house. These cowboys-only lunches had stemmed from that, where they could talk about the concerns on their own ranches and farms, with men their own age, with similar experience levels.
Sometimes Link didn’t want to take his problems or concerns to Uncle Ward or Uncle Preacher, and especially not Daddy. He didn’t want them to know of his insecurities and his lack of knowledge when it came to things they did as naturally as breathing.
So these lunches, though they’d only met a few times now, meant a lot to him.
Then Dawson lifted one hand, and the laughter started to die. “Guys,” he said, his eyes glued to his phone. “Caroline just texted me.”
He looked up, and it sure felt like all the air had just been swept out of the room. He sucked in a breath. “It says, ‘I need some help. Like now. Could you come to my house right away?’”
Dawson looked around, his eyes round like full moons. Dinner plates. They held wonder and fear, and it was Finn who barked, “What are you still doing here, cowboy? Go.”
“Yeah, go,” Henry said, jumping to his feet. “Go, go, go!”
Dawson stood too, looked around wildly, and then streaked out of the kitchen and down the hall, muttering, “Shoes, I need some shoes that aren’t caked in mud.”
Link grinned at his back, then got up to help clear the table and put the sandwich fixings away. He took three cookies and looked at Smiles. “Come on, bro. We’ve got to get back and move those turkeys over to the east yard.”