Montana went to sit by Mother and Aunt Lois, and Etta wandered that way too. The four of them sat on a single sofa, the twins more loved than they even knew.
“Stay there,” Ward said, dropping to one knee right there in the hospital. “Look at me, and let me take your picture for Ida. She’ll like that.”
The women looked up at him, and he tapped his phone to get several pictures. “Perfect,” he said, looking at the picture as one of the infants started to cry.
A flurry of activity happened around him as Brady got loaded up with both babies so he could take them back to their mother. Ward stayed down as he used his favorite editing app to make everyone look better by taking down the shadows and pushing up the contrast.
“Why are you down on the floor like that?” a woman asked, and Ward’s attention got jerked from his device. “Are you praying or proposing?”
He looked up at Dorothy Crockett, his pulse shooting through every vein in his body simultaneously. “Dot,” he managed to say. The problem was, he tried to get up at the same time, and shove his phone in his pocket, and combined with his sudden nerves, he stumbled forward.
He managed to catch himself before he fell flat on his face, but he had to grab onto Dot to do it. She grunted and braced herself, and because she owned and operated a landscaping company and shoveled bark and gravel for a living, she was strong enough to hold him for a moment. Long enough for him to get his footing, release her, and clear his throat.
“Sorry,” he said.
Dot looked around at his family, most of whom were watching the two of them. Preacher looked mildly horrified, and Ward suddenly knew why Preacher had kept his relationship out of the Shiloh Ridge limelight. Then he didn’t have to deal with awkward situations like this.
Of course, he now held hands with his fiancée, and Charlie fit right in with all the Glovers.
Ward turned his back on the group and stepped over to partially shield Dot too. “Did I miss a text?”
“You said we could talk about the delivery of your gravel.” She looked from him to his family and back, a hint of nerves in her eyes. “I thought I might get to see the babies.”
“You just missed them,” he said. “Look.” He turned his phone toward her, and she took it from him.
“Oh, they’re perfect.” She looked at him again, and as he’d crowded in beside her, their faces were only a few inches apart. He took a breath of her and got something green with dirt and something cottony fresh. Her tank top was a dark eggplant color, and it clung to all of her curves and revealed the muscles in her arms.
“What did they name them?”
“Jonathan and Judith,” he said.
“Judith sounds just like Ida,” Dot said with a smile. She focused back on the picture, studied it for a moment, and then handed it back to Ward. “Are you staying here for a while? I know you and Ida are close.”
“I’d like to see her,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “But her husband said they had her in a recovery room. She’ll be here overnight for sure. I can come back.” He took a step closer to her, though they were already practically touching. “Might be better, since there’s so many of us. We can be a lot to handle.”
“You’re kidding,” she said without the trace of a smile. “I had no idea you Glovers could be hard to deal with.”
“Hey, I’m not hard to deal with,” he said. “Am I?”
“Oh, Ward,” she said, patting his chest and sending excited tremors through every muscle in his body. “You’re the worst one.”
Chapter Two
Dorothy Crockett could admit that a day hadn’t gone by since she’d smashed her raspberry cream whip into Ward’s white church shirt that she hadn’t thought about him. She’d seen a different version of the cowboy that day at the church potluck, and when he’d called and said she intrigued him, Dot had changed her opinion of him completely.
At the same time, he still used his good looks against her, along with that Texas twang she found so sexy. Of course, Dot had always been a sucker for a strong, tall cowboy, and Ward had all the strength and all the height in the world. He could wear a cowboy hat like no man she’d ever met, and she’d never seen him without jeans and cowboy boots too. He changed up his shirts, and as the weather had cooled, he’d started wearing a leather jacket that made her heart pirouette every time she thought about it.
Today, he wore a T-shirt with the outline of Texas on it, and he must’ve bathed in pine needles and sugar, because he smelled masculine and delicious all at the same time.
He looked at her with those blue eyes that had probably broken dozens of women’s hearts, and Dot saw the confusion he harbored there.
“I’m the worst one?”
Dot blinked, trying to remember what she’d said to him and what he’d said before that.
“What have I done that’s been hard for you to deal with?” he demanded, and he fell back a step. Two, then three. He looked like she’d insulted his dog and his daddy, and Dot regretted teasing him.
“Do you know how many times you’ve called my office about gravel?”
“Do you know what it would’ve taken to get me to stop calling?” He folded his arms, and Dot didn’t want to have a stand-off with him in the hospital. Especially not the maternity wing, with his whole family watching.
“One returned phone call, Dot,” Ward said, rolling his eyes. He turned from her as if he’d really walk away.
“I’m returning your latest call,” she said, and that got him to face her again. Something sparked in those eyes now, and Dot really wanted to get burned by it.
No, she told herself. You don’t.
She’d told herself that a lot when it came to Ward Glover, and every time, she hadn’t been able to convince herself.
“You want to go to dinner?” he asked.
Dot shook her curly hair over her shoulders as she drew them back, making herself taller. “Yes.”
He took one step toward her, and it almost felt menacing. “Okay,” he said. “But if we go to dinner, you have to tell me why you quasi-broke up with me three weeks ago.”
Twenty-seven days, Dot thought. That’s four weeks. But she didn’t argue with him. She searched his face, wondering how he’d take the news.
“I thought we were going to discuss the delivery of your gravel.”
“Oh, we are,” he said, giving her a smile that made her stomach quake. “Are you okay to hang out for a minute? I need to talk to my brothers for a sec.”
“Yeah, okay,” she said.
He nodded, his hand finding hers and squeezing before he walked away. That simple touch was what made Ward so extraordinary. It wasn’t the things he said, but the small, minute details he did that told her what was really on his mind.
She didn’t mean to stare after him, but she did. Her diverted attention meant she didn’t notice immediately when two women sidled up to her and paused.
“I’m Etta,” she said. “Ward’s sister.”
“Zona,” the other woman said. “His cousin.”
“Hello,” Dot said, disappointed with herself that she’d let her guard down. She’d never gotten along all that well with other women, as she’d been a tomboy and an athlete her whole life. She was taller than the average woman, and she towered above Etta but not so much Zona. She’d dated a lot throughout high school and college, but she’d made bad decision after bad decision that had taken her a long time to come to terms with. Sometimes, she wasn’t sure she’d made peace with her past, and she wasn’t sure the Lord had forgiven her.