Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(50)

“And you kept in touch all those years?” he asked.

The waitress brought their tea and set it on the table, along with their salads and a basket of assorted crackers.

Sophie shoved a mouthful of lettuce and tomatoes in her mouth. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she sat down and smelled the aroma of food wafting from the kitchen.

“Oh yeah,” she said when she swallowed and took a sip of tea. “There were letters, then phone calls, then cell phone calls and texting, and then we were back in the area all within a year.”

“I never had lifelong friends like that. I’ve got military buddies that might come see me sometime, and of course my brothers. I’ve always been closer to Hayden and Tanner than the four older boys.”

“Isn’t there one closer to your age?”

Elijah nodded. “Noah is closer to me in age. He’s married. Has four kids. He did not take to ranchin’.”

“A Jones that doesn’t like dirt and cows? You sure your folks didn’t find him in a bar ditch along side of the road and just take him in?” she teased.

He chuckled. “That’s exactly what we told him all those years growing up. He hated to go outside, would rather stay in the house and help Momma or else read a book. It wasn’t a surprise when he told us he was going into the ministry.”

The waitress brought their steaks at the very moment they’d finished their salads, set the plates in front of them, refilled their tea, and disappeared again.

“Very good,” Elijah said after the first bite.

They settled right into their food, the silence between them as comfortable as the hiking at Fort Griffin and the ice cream in Baird. It all felt right and that scared Elijah, who had a sudden case of “what ifs” with every bite.



Sophie hated to get off the bike at the ranch when they returned, but it was time to do chores. Check the cattle, feed the chickens, take care of the dogs and cats, and make sure Hayden and Tanner had gotten moved in. They’d already been working with the other three hired hands during the sale, so everyone was acquainted.

She hung the helmet back on the handlebars and sighed. The day had come to an end too quickly. If Elijah had offered to ride all the way to the Pacific Ocean, she would have been game. Tanner could take on the job of foreman immediately and run the ranch for a couple of weeks. But Elijah was slinging a leg off the bike and plucking his helmet from his head, strands of hair sticking to his forehead.

“Well?” he said.

“What?”

“Still up for another trip next Sunday and some serious fishing?”

“Already looking forward to it. Don’t suppose we could take it to the sale on Friday, could we?”

“No, because if I buy that truck, I’ll need you to drive our ranch truck back home.”

Two words stood out and made those butterflies start two-stepping around in her heart again: “our” and “home.” She liked the way they sounded.

She started for the porch. Her boot sunk into a gopher hole right beside the first step and she fell backward. One minute her feet were firmly on the ground even though her head was in the clouds. The next she was falling in slow motion and then strong arms were holding her tightly.

How she got turned around in his arms, facing him and plastered tight against his chest, she’d never figure out. But she would never forget the soft, dreamy way his eyes looked at her just before he kissed her, or the shocking electricity between them that lingered when he stepped back.

“Guess we’d best go in the house,” he said hoarsely.

Her ringtone set up a howl in her shirt pocket. The old K. T. Oslin song let her know it was either Kate or Fancy. She walked around the end of the house and sat down under a shade tree before she answered it.

“Hello.”

“It’s Kate, and I was about to hang up.”

“We just got back. I was angling for a shade tree before I answered it,” Sophie said.

“Where have you been? I just met a whole raft of Ducaine cousins, and I’m about to set you up with a date for Friday night. Will it be Reed or Luther?”

“Neither.”

“You promised, girl. After the sale, you promised if you didn’t have a date, then me and Fancy get to set you up until you found your life after wife.”

“I had a date, so you don’t have to fix me up.”

Well, it was a date. They’d gone out, had ice cream, which he paid for, went to a museum type thing, which he paid for, and then he paid for dinner, so that was a date by definition. And he’d even kissed her, so it went one step beyond definition.

“With who?”

“With whom,” Sophie corrected her.

“You know exactly what I mean.”

“With Elijah.”

“Bull!”

“We went to Baird on his motorcycle for ice cream,” Sophie went on with the details leaving out the kiss, “and the only bull I saw was a longhorn beauty up in Fort Griffin.”

“I’ll be hanged. Aunt Maud was right.”

“Oh, no she wasn’t! But I did have a date, and you and Fancy are free from your obligation. See you next Sunday.”

“And you’d best bring details and lots of them,” Kate said.

“I only have an hour because we are going fishing.”