A Second Chance in the Show Me State - Jessie Gussman Page 0,2

them up and squishing them in a group hug.

They were probably too old for it, and they would soon be too big for him to pick up anyway. He wanted to take advantage of these last few years while he was still bigger than they were.

They weren’t too old to enjoy it, and their skinny little boy arms came out and wrapped around his neck and back.

“Missed ya, son. You’ve been off drinking hot chocolate and skiing in the Alps, letting your old man do all the farmwork by himself.”

“Hey, Dad. You had me,” Dallas protested.

“And that’s another thing, you left me with this crazy kid that acts just like me. Can’t sit still, can’t stop talking, and has about six thousand ideas every three seconds.”

“That’s because he takes after you. That’s what Mom says anyway,” Houston said seriously.

Reid set the boys down and grinned. “Your mom and I don’t agree on everything, but I suppose that’s something she’s right about. As much as it pains me to say it.” He was kinda teasing about that. He never said anything bad about Emerson to the boys. Nothing more than he would tease her about if she were with them.

That had been one of their unspoken rules.

They got along so well that once in a while, okay, about once a day, Reid wondered if he ought to get on a plane and fly to Switzerland. He’d regretted their split since the day she left. And he never stopped loving her.

But he supposed a man had his pride. A lot of times it was a stumbling block.

“I can’t believe we get three whole days together,” Dallas said, bouncing around Houston. “I have everything all planned out. If it’s warm enough, we’re going to go camping, and we’re going to go swimming, too. And we can spend some time with the cousins, but not too much, because we need to spend time together since we never see each other. And they’re in school anyway. And Dad said we don’t have to do school for the three days that we’re here. We’ll have to make it up some other time. But don’t tell Mom until it’s over, or she won’t let us. Because she’ll be upset, because she’s real strict about school. You know. And Dad said that Uncle Loyal might let us borrow some of his horses, and we can take a trail ride. We can stay at Grandma’s house one night, but no more, because we have to go camping too. We only have three days.” Dallas wasn’t nearly done, but Reid interrupted him.

“Come on, boys, let’s head out to the truck. Is that all the luggage you have?” Reid asked, looking at the suitcase Houston had sitting beside him.

“Yeah. I’ve pretty much outgrown everything, and Mom said you’re gonna have to buy me new clothes while I’m here. She didn’t bother sending any of the stuff that was too small.”

Dallas put his arm around him, and Houston returned the gesture.

“You have no idea how angry Mom was when she found out you weren’t going to be there when you were supposed to be.” He shook his head and looked up at Reid. “I think if you’d been there, she would’ve yelled at you. Although I’ve never actually heard Mom yell. But I’m pretty sure she would’ve. Because her face was really red.”

Reid’s lips twitched. He tried not to let them turn up.

He put an arm around Dallas and an arm around Houston and turned them toward the exit. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m half the globe away from her. I wouldn’t want to get yelled at.”

He could tell the boys that Emerson had yelled at him once before.

It wasn’t a good memory. Although at the time, in the heat of the moment, even though he was more angry at her than he’d ever been at anybody in his entire life, he remembered very clearly thinking how beautiful she was.

It wasn’t that she was a raving beauty. Everyone else in school had considered her very average, he supposed. She had those flashing brown eyes and that dark hair that reminded him of an expensive walnut floor. Shiny and swirled and so alive.

Even when he was angry at her, he couldn’t keep from admiring her.

Unfortunately, it hadn’t been enough to keep them together.

He’d been twenty-four and young and dumb. Now, at thirty-two, he wished he’d just swallowed his pride and done what she wanted him to.

Even though he was between them,