Page 76 of Knot in Trouble
“This is different.” He gets to his feet and offers me his hand. “Want to go join ’em?”
There’s a playful Murph beneath that gruff, serious demeanor?
My eyebrow shoots up. “Youwant to play?” My eyes flick to Joel and Ben. They’re racing, and Joel is definitely letting Ben win.
“Win keeps trying to introduce me to the idea of fun.” He rolls his eyes as if Win were doing him a great injustice, but his mouth twitches, betraying the smile he’s hiding from me.
“So you’re doing it for him?” I get to my feet, though I make no move to walk down the last step of the porch.
“Nope. For Ben. For me. Maybe a little bit for you, too. I might be a gruff former rancher who likes to hide in quiet corners, but I used to know how to have fun. I’ll race you.”
“Race?” I shake my head, giving the grass a wary look. “I’m not sure about that.”
His concerned gaze flicks to my belly. “Because of?—”
Tearing my hand from his, I leap down the porch steps and sprint away, taking full advantage of his distraction to build a nice, big lead. “Gotcha!”
I hear his muffled curse, his chuckle, and pounding footsteps. Suddenly, I’m in the race of my life, sprinting toward Ben and Joel, who turn at the sound of my laughter.
Murph passes me as if I’m standing still.
“Hey!” I shout after him.
He salutes me as he sprints past with humiliating ease. “Grew up on a ranch, sweetheart. I can run circles around you.”
I pick up the pace, but he’s so much faster than I thought he’d be. He scoops up Ben and speeds past Joel, who chuckles, and Ben, who roars with laughter and orders him to go faster.
“That was a cruel trick you played on the man.” Joel grins.
With no chance of catching up to Murph, I stop beside him to catch my breath. “I did no such thing.” I sniff, playing coy.
Murph warned me that he ran wild on his family’s ranch.Multiple times. Clearly, I wasn’t listening because if I had been, I’d have known I'd lost that race before it started.
Joel bounces his shoulder against mine. “I saw you sprinting away from Murph and the look on his face while you were laughing.” He chuckles. “You jumped the poor guy.”
“Maybe,” I concede.
His smile fades. “It’s good to see you laughing. Today must have been hell.”
Win called him right after we left the appointment to reassure him that everything went well, but from the sigh of relief I heard over the phone, he’d been worried while waiting for news.
“You all made it better.” I wrap my arm around his waist, snuggling in as I breathe in the scent of cherry and wood smoke. “I would not have been laughing at all if I didn’t have you.”
He kisses my forehead.
“Given up on catching us?” Murph shouts from near the bottom of the yard.
Ben is sitting on Murph’s shoulders.
Joel hums and his eyes narrow. “They are far too smug for my liking. Wanna team up and take ’em down?” He takes his arm from around my shoulders and rolls his neck as if getting ready for battle.
That is very true. Both are smirking, and I expect they’ll be rubbing their victory in our faces for the rest of the day. I can definitely see Ben crowing about it when I give him his bath later. I gauge the distance between us. “Murph can’t run fast with Ben on his shoulders, and putting him down gives us a chance to close the gap. We can catch them.”
Murph must sense what we’re planning because his eyes narrow and he starts backing away.
“Ready?” Joel asks, glancing at me.
“I’m—”
