LITMIR.BIZ

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been cooking all day.” Kate shut the door.

      “I’ve been thinking about your cookin’ all day,” he said.

      “I hope you brought your appetite,” the pretty rancher said. “I think my daughter cooked for ten.”

      “Trust me.” He took his place at the kitchen island. “I brought my appetite.”

      For the second night in a row, Liam sat in the King home and felt right at home. He liked watching the mother and daughter, so close in their relationship, work together to get ready for dinner. Now that it was his second time sitting at their dinner table, Kate handed him a stack of plates with the silverware so he could help set the table. That gesture alone made him feel even more “a part of it.”

      They sat down together, held hands for a prayer, and then Liam dug into the incredible fare Callie had prepared. He didn’t stop eating even when he began to feel stuffed. The only time he got this kind of cooking was any Sunday he made it out to the family ranch for breakfast. Home-cooked dinners were far and few between for him. So was the conversation they had during dinner. It had been a long time since he had someone to share his day with, talk about his passion of caring for animals. Kate got it. They weren’t exactly in the same business, but the animals on her ranch were more than just part of her business—they were part of her family.

      “I’ll have Callie fix you some leftovers,” Kate said with a laugh. She must have noticed him still eyeing the food on the table after had already filled his plate twice.

      “Are you sure?”

      The horse trainer smiled at him again, and this time the smile reached her eyes. “I’m sure. It’ll give the chef an excuse to cook something new tomorrow. Isn’t that right, Callie?”

      The young woman nodded, but her attention was distracted by the sound of a video call coming in on a tablet on the counter. Kate’s daughter jumped up, ran to the counter looked at the screen and then squealed with excitement.

      “I-it’s Tony!” Callie snatched the tablet off the counter, accepted the call and hurried down the narrow hallway leading to the three small bedrooms at the back of the house.

      Kate sighed, staring after her daughter.

      “Tony?”

      She stared down the hallway a moment longer before she responded. Kate’s shoulders lifted ever so slightly. Was it a sign of frustration or resignation? He couldn’t be sure.

      “Callie’s boyfriend. They met in an online support group for young adults with Down syndrome. If I had known this was going to happen, I’m not sure I would have been so excited to sign her up.”

      That shocked him. Just like Callie’s amazing talent in the kitchen, it hadn’t crossed his mind that she would have a boyfriend.

      They began to clear the table with the sound of Callie’s laughter and excited talking drifting down the hall.

      “Serious?” He put the last dish on the counter.

      Kate breathed in deeply and sighed again. She tucked a couple of wayward hairs behind her ear, a gesture he’d seen her do many times that night. “I think she’s taking it way too seriously. She thinks she’s in love.”

      Liam stood at the sink, turned on the water and waited for it to get hot.

      “You don’t have to do that.” She frowned at the running water.

      “I’ve got this.” He wasn’t ready to get kicked out just yet.

      While he rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher, Kate fixed him containers of leftovers, giving him the lion’s share of the rest of the food.

      “So, you think being in love is a bad thing?” He asked his hostess.

      “No.” Kate frowned at the question. “I don’t. But Callie doesn’t always see the big picture. She thinks that what she sees in the movies is what love is all about. That’s not real life.”

      “No. It’s not. Marriage is hard work.”

      And he was living proof that hard work wasn’t enough to sustain a marriage.

      Kate sent him what he assumed was a sympathetic look, dispelling any notion that news of his divorce hadn’t spread all over the small town.

      “Relationships, in general, are hard,” she said.

      “Well, Calico is mighty lucky to have you to help her navigate through life.”

      Kate laughed as she snapped the Tupperware lid into place. “Trust me. My daughter has grown weary of my advice.”

      “That’s about as typical as it gets, isn’t it?”

      “Yes.” That made Kate smile. “I suppose it is.”

      They didn’t talk much after that, and that was okay with him. Kate wasn’t chatty—she was quiet, inward in her thoughts, and even though he’d like for her to open up to him, he wasn’t in any hurry. He had a feeling that if he wanted to get to know Kate better, he was going to have to work the long game.

      “Coffee?” she asked him. “For the road?”

      He knew that was her not-so-subtle way of letting him know that it was time for him to begin to be on his way.

      “I could sure use a cup. I’m fighting the desire to take a nap on your couch.”

      He’d gotten her to smile more than once tonight—he was making some progress. Kate had always been focused, determined and serious, even when they were in high school, but she seemed to have lost some of her joy. Had he even heard her laugh?

      “Mommy!” Callie came bounding into the kitchen clutching the tablet to her chest. The young lady, her brown eyes shining, her round cheeks flushed, spun around in a circle, giggling happily.

      “Do I even need to ask how the phone call went?” Kate brushed back her daughter’s hair and then put her hands on her Callie’s shoulders.

      “He asked me to be his date for the dance!” Callie told her mom excitedly, giving a little jump. “I can’t wait!”

      “Callie,” Kate said gently, but seriously, “you know we can’t go this year. We talked about this.”

      The young woman’s face fell. “You can’t go. Why can’t I—I go? I—I’m old enough. I—I can go b-by myself.”

      Callie started to cry; Kate brushed her daughter’s tears away with her thumbs, her eyes soft with understanding and something else—sadness.

      “Callie, we have company,” she said. “We’ll talk about this later. Okay?”

      “Okay.” Callie frowned. “B-but I-I’m old enough to go b-by myself!”

      The young woman stomped out of the living room, down the narrow hallway, and slammed the door to her bedroom.

      Liam and Kate took a cup of coffee out to the porch and sat on the porch swing, with the warm summer air filled with the sound of crickets and a night owl howling in the distance.

      “I appreciate you indulging me.” He held up the coffee cup. He was actually too tired to think about driving the nearly hour home.

      Kate nodded as she took a sip of her own coffee.

      After a moment of staring after her daughter, Kate said with a sigh, “Sorry about earlier. It’s the annual Down syndrome conference. I try to take her every year. Now that Tony is going, missing it is going to be tough for her.”

      “No need to apologize.” Liam tried to reassure his hostess. “Love is serious business.”

      “That’s true. But Callie’s disability makes all of this so much harder to navigate.” Kate tucked her hair behind her ear. “I never even thought about a boyfriend when she was growing up. Now she wants to get married. Have babies.”

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