She tapped his number before she could change her mind. Nearly hung up when it started ringing, except now he would see a missed call from her—
“Heart?” It picked up on the first ring. “Heart, you there?” Just hearing his baritone voice was a balm to her frayed nerves.
“Hey,” she said, her voice thick from lack of use.
“She’s there!” A chorus of children’s voices and the rushing sound of wind through a moving vehicle’s windows met her ears. Her heart clenched at their excited voices, softening her resolve like butter in the sun.
“Hey, my two favorite boys,” she said, a smile trying to pull up her lips.
They all began talking at the same time.
“What about me?” Tyler’s voice.
“Seth’s got something to tell you!” Stevie’s.
“We gotta show you something…” Seth’s.
She bit her lip as her eyes misted.
“Boys—boys,” Tyler barked, attempting crowd control, quieting them. “Babe, where’re you at?”
Babe. It was as if nothing had happened, to listen to the way he was talking to her. Could he really have meant everything he’d texted?
“I’m at my house.”
“Can we come over?”
“Can you what?” She furrowed her brow. The nine-hour drive from his farm wasn’t exactly a hop, skip, and a jump.
“Never mind, just stay put, okay? Don’t. Leave.”
Her mind was a whirl as the line went dead and in the distance, on the long gravel drive that led to her bungalow, the sound of tires began to crunch.