“Hi, Mommy.”
Toby ripped his arms away, and Rose jumped apart from him.
“Hey, sugar,” she smiled, running her hand over her cheek and neck nervously, then reached to him to give him a hug.
“You wu’ kissing.”
He always stated the obvious, which caused redness to creep onto her cheeks now as she gave him a squeeze.
The boy continued, “They kiss in movies, and you said it’s because they’u falling in love. Are you and Mister Dixon falling in love?”
Said so matter-of-factly, out of the mouths of babes.
Her face raged red, and she froze. She tried to force words out. They remained lodged in her throat like a cog in the gears. Toby coughed beside her, though the sound was clearly designed to muffle his surprise.
“I, uh…” She looked at Toby helplessly, hoping to determine from his expression what he was thinking. It was much too soon to tell if she and Toby would even last, but who was she kidding? And he was offering no rebuttal, either. “Well, it’s, uh—”
“Are you his girlfriend? Boys at school have girlfriends, and girls at school have boyfriends.”
“Really? In elementary school?” she said with surprise, then shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Mister Dixon and I, uh…”
A lot of help her cowboy was right now. She pierced him with her helpless eyes once more when he chuckled, then grinned, then squatted down with his back to her and took a knee. He pulled Sage into a one-armed hug, like he was offering fatherly advice.
“Is it all right with you, son, if I call your momma my girlfriend?”
Sage, who’d always had trouble looking people in the eye, turned away to think and respond. He nodded as if it weren’t the profound question that it really was. But it was profound.
“Uh, yeah. You have light sabers.”
Sage turned and went back into the kitchen. A moment later, the sound effects of the incoming bomb, crash, and metal clinking resumed. Toby pushed to standing again. My, he looked like a fine specimen, his shirt coming untucked from his jeans, his sleeves rolled up to reveal that old tattoo on the back of his forearm. He waited a second and jammed his hands into his back pockets before turning around.
Finally, their eyes connected. “That all right with Sage’s momma?” His expression grew sheepish. Sheepish? On a man like Toby Dixon? “If I call her my girlfriend?”
She took a deep breath, filling her chest and letting it out slowly. Take that leap and give him an inch more, Rosalinda. She nodded and smiled. “I’d like that.”
Relief washed over his face as if he’d gotten a monumental task off his plate that had been bearing him down. Just how long had he wanted to ask her that? Clearly, they’d both wanted to know where they stood, and her son had been the catalyst to force them to address it.
“I mean, because Sage is right. You do have light sabers,” she added on a laugh, gaining a chuckle from him.
“I ain’t above Star Wars bribery.”
He dragged her back into a hug, leaning over her to rest his chin on her shoulder.
“Are we, you know, exclusive?” she managed to say as her smile fell and her brows drew together.
He pulled back, his arms still cinched around her waist, and looked down at her with a furrow on his brow.
“No need to ever ask that,” he grumbled protectively, as if offended, and she felt trepidation in her chest ease a degree. “I ain’t dating anyone else, and when you go back to A-town with all those hot academics”—a twinkle lit his eye, and she couldn’t suppress her grin—“with their sexy library IDs and big, hard books, I expect the same. No matter what you decide to do about my job offer, I’ll drive into town to see you, and I want you and Sage to come out here to see me. All I know is I don’t want you leaving, but I know you have to.”
She did.
As much as she loved it here, she couldn’t rush this thing. She had so much to consider. If she accepted his job offer, she’d need to decide where to live. It would be easy to throw caution to the wind and move to the Legacy. But what if they didn’t work out? She’d be in the same predicament, scrambling for a new place to live. Not to mention all the changes for Sage, letting him grow closer to Toby than he already was, only to rip them apart. Sage had responded incredibly well to Toby. He was at ease around him, and Toby had extracted several smiling photos of Sage—a feat of impossibility.
She gave herself a mental slap. So quickly she’d gone from cautiously tallying all the possible what-ifs that could go wrong to justifying why he was right for her son. But was Toby right for her? That trepidation in her heart, relenting a moment ago, squeezed harder now. She feared he was. And he was trying his damnedest to show her.
Jeez, you’re acting as if this is rocket science, Rose.If things didn’t work out, she could still finish her job if they drew up a solid contract. It would do wonders for her career. And she couldn’t help but think a life in a smaller town would be good for Sage, too. He was always happiest on the ranch with her dad and Peanut Butter, away from the commotion of the city. Recording the art and heading the excavations at fifteen other unknown sites would, in fact, take years, too. She could finish raising Sage here. Sul Ross State University was here, and although it wasn’t a huge institution, it was respected. She didn’t need a big university to hire her. She needed a good fit, whether it was big or small. Perhaps she could keep her eyes open for a faculty position in Alpine.
The metal clanged again from the kitchen, complete with the explosion sound effect.