Texas Homecoming

by Carolyn Brown

  “Sit anywhere, darlin’,” Sonny said. “We don’t have assigned seats, except for Jesse and Cody. They can’t sit beside each other because they still don’t know how to behave.”

  “It’s Jesse’s fault.” Cody brought his food to the table, set it down, and pulled out a chair for Stevie. “You can sit beside me. You’re prettier than my brother anyway.”

  “That wasn’t very nice.” Jesse took a seat at the head of the table. “I even drove to the barn and rescued you.”

  “Whoa!” Addy threw up a hand. “Tell me more about these cats.”

  “It’s like this…” Stevie continued to tell the story of the cria and how the cats took her under their wing, so to speak. “We were afraid Dixie might die if your hembra didn’t adopt her, so we brought them with us.”

  “Cats, as in more than one?” Mia asked.

  “A mama cat named Dolly and her kittens Boots, Tammy, and Loretta,” Cody answered. “They’re out in the barn. Well, they’re actually in the stall with Maggie, the new cria, and Dixie. I can take them back when the roads are clear if you don’t want them out there, Dad.”

  “Poppa…” Mia whined. “If no one buys that ranch for a long time, they might starve.”

  Sonny’s old eyes sparkled. “What do you think, Pearl, darlin’. Can our budget afford to feed a mama cat and her babies?”

  Pearl pretended to have to think about the finances for a while, and then finally she nodded. “Well, if she’s a good mouser, she might be worth keeping around, but no cats or kittens in the house, Mia. I hate the smell of a litter box.”

  “Thank you, thank you!” Mia squealed. “I’m going out there to get acquainted with Miz Dixie and the cats soon as we get done with supper. I love their names, Uncle Cody, but why didn’t you name the boy Waylon or Willie or even Blake or Twitty?”

  “Because he’s black and white and has four white feet. He looked like a Boots to me,” Cody answered.

  “And, Mia, Boots Randolph was a fantastic country music saxophone player, so he’s kind of named after a star anyway,” Sonny said. “Look him up on that fancy phone of yours and listen to him play ‘Yakety Sax.’”

  “I will,” Mia said, “but before I do that, I want to go see the new animals. I’ve tried for years to tame those wild barn cats. Now I’ll have kittens I can hold and love on.”

  “And a brand-new baby cria,” Addy reminded her.

  “Life is good in spite of the snow,” Mia sighed.

  Yes, it is. Stevie agreed with a slight nod. In this household, she wasn’t a seventeen-year-old kid anymore. She was an adult who, like Cody reminded her, was an intelligent woman and a help to the community.

  “I’ll go with you,” Stevie offered. “I’d like to check on Dixie one more time before bedtime, just to be sure she’s settling in all right. But not before chocolate cake.”

  “Oh, Dr. Stevie, nothing comes between me and Nana’s chocolate cake, not even new pets,” Mia said with a giggle.

  The twins began to fuss and gnaw on their fists at the same time, and Addy pushed back her plate. “That’s my cue for bedtime. They’ve had their baths, so it’s bottle and rocking time. Save me a piece of cake!”

  “I’ll do daddy duty.” Jesse got up from the table and picked up one of the carriers. “Mia helped with baths, and she needs to go check on the new animals.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Mia said. “You’re the best. I promised to help with the bedtime duties tonight, but I really want to see the new cria and the kittens.”

  Jesse shook his finger at her. “But if there’s not any cake left when I get done, you’re in big trouble.”

  “Must’ve been nice growing up in this house,” Stevie whispered to Cody.

  “Yep, it was, at least, part of the time, but we weren’t the Waltons. We had our fair share of problems,” he told her. “You had mealtimes with your family, didn’t you?”

  “Not like this. Think about it. Mama, Daddy, and one child. We talked about our day, but when supper was over, Mama and I cleaned up. Daddy took care of whatever jobs needed attention around the place, and then we all went our separate ways. I did a lot of reading in my room,” she answered.

  “I didn’t mean to be eavesdropping on your conversation with Cody, but you missed not having brothers or sisters, didn’t you?” Pearl asked.

  Stevie nodded. “I really did, and it’s even worse now since Mama is gone. There’s no one to share the memories with, or to fuss about tattling when we were kids.”

  “I’ll be your little sister,” Mia offered. “We’ve already got stuff in common. I like alpacas and cats, and so do you. And I can argue with the best of them. Just ask Mama.”

  Addy and Jesse had each picked up a baby carrier and were headed out of the room, but Addy turned back and nodded. “She’s a professional at that for sure. But she’s too young to be your sister. I’ll take that job and she can be your niece.”

  “Aww”—Cody nudged Stevie with his shoulder—“they’re fighting over you.”

  “Too young!” Mia said. “There’s nineteen years between me and the twins. I bet there’s not that many years between me and Stevie.”

  “See what I mean,” Addy said with a smile. “She’s good at arguing.”

  “There’s probably about nineteen years between us too, but I’ve never had a niece.” Stevie remembered when she had first heard that Addy had a baby and that she wouldn’t tell anyone who the father of the little girl was. She had envied her for having that much backbone and for doing what she wanted, no matter what anyone else thought of her.

  Mia raised her chin. “Then I’ll be your niece, Aunt Stevie. Does that mean you’ll spoil me since I’m the only one you have?”

  “As long as you don’t expect me to give you my last bit of chocolate. I’m very stingy with that.”

  Pearl giggled. “Honey, you could be blood kin to Mia if you like chocolate that much.”

  “She does,” Cody said. “If it hadn’t been for two bites of a candy bar she had in her van, she wouldn’t have survived being stranded in the barn as long as we were.”

  Stevie shot a dirty look at Cody. “I’m not all that bad, but I will admit to being a chocoholic.”

  “Which would you rather have,” Mia asked as she carried her empty plate to the sink and cut herself a nice-sized wedge of the cake, “a cold beer on a scalding hot day, or a candy bar?”

  “Candy,” Stevie answered without hesitation.

  “Yep, we are kin, Aunt Stevie,” Mia told her and then asked, “want me to cut a piece for you?”

  “Love one,” Stevie answered.

  “And me?” Cody asked.

  “Are you asking me for a piece of cake?” Mia asked. “Or are you asking Stevie if she loves you?”

  Cody’s face turned scarlet. “Cake please.”

  “If I’m going to be the waitress, I’ll put a tip jar on the counter,” Mia teased.

  “I hope you aren’t planning on buying a new truck with all those tips that you’ll get for serving dessert,” Cody said.

  “Pennies mount up to nickels, and nickels to dimes.” Mia shot a look toward Sonny. “Poppa told me that, and Poppa does not lie.”

  “That’s my girl,” Sonny said with a broad grin.

  Stevie remembered her mother saying those very words to her just before she slipped into a coma. She couldn’t recall what they were talking about just before that, but her mother’s last words had stuck with her.

  The stars looked like diamonds on a bed of black velvet, and the quarter moon shone down on the white snow, giving the world an ethereal look that night as Stevie and Mia walked from the house to the barn. Stevie could tell that Mia was so excited about going to see the new animals that she didn’t even notice the beauty all around her, but then Stevie had been the same way when she was Mia’s age.

  When they reached the barn, Mia flipped on the lights and hurried back to the stall where Maggie and the babies were. She was already inside and sitting on the floor when
Stevie propped a boot on the lower rail and peeked over the top.

  Mia gathered both crias in her arms like twin babies and began to rock back and forth. “If Maggie hadn’t taken her, I would have volunteered to take care of her. I wish I’d never gotten crazy and sold my flock of sheep.”

  “Why did you?” Stevie asked.

  “I thought I was in love,” Mia answered.

  “We all do stupid stuff when we fall in love,” Stevie said.

  “I bet you didn’t.” Mia looked up at her with eyes as blue as her daddy’s. “I can’t see you letting any guy lead you down the wrong path.”

  Before Stevie could figure out what to say, Dolly slipped under the bottom rail and stretched out beside Mia. All three kittens tumbled over and under the rails to join the party going on up next to this new person in their lives.

  Mia laid the crias over close to their mama and picked up the cat. “You are beautiful, Miz Dolly,” she crooned. “I can’t believe that Maggie isn’t screeching at you, but I’m glad she isn’t. And just look at these babies of yours.” She picked each one up and kissed its little nose. “This is almost as good as candy.”

  Stevie was still thinking about what Mia said, and had to agree that no man had led her down the wrong path. She had taken that fork in the road all by herself. She realized in that moment that she had judged all the men she had dated in the past twenty years by Cody. That hadn’t been fair to any of them or to herself, and it was time to get past it and move on.

  That’s my girl, her mother whispered softly in her ear.

  With all the emotions of the evening lying on her heart, Stevie needed a little time alone to think about laying the grudge aside and really moving on with a clean slate. Cody would probably spend most of the evening with his family, so she could have the bunkhouse, and even better, that big bathtub all to herself.

  “I’m going to go on to the bunkhouse,” Stevie said. “You going to be out here awhile?”

  “Oh, yeah!” Mia answered without looking up from her lap full of cats. “I’m glad that things have worked out so you can be here with us until things thaw, Stevie.”

  “Thank you,” Stevie said.

  “Hey, a new face in the family is fun, and besides, I’ve been needing a friend to talk to about some stuff. Not tonight though. Mind if I come see you sometime tomorrow?” Mia asked.

  “Not one bit,” Stevie answered. “It’s not like I can go anywhere.”

  With a wave over her shoulder, she turned and walked away. Heading toward the bunkhouse with only a little bit of moonlight to guide her way, she touched the locket around her neck and wished for the wildflowers of spring instead of all the snow and ice.

  Chapter Eight

  Well, son, you had enough layin’ around with nothing to do?” Sonny asked when Stevie had left.

  “I kept busy, Dad,” Cody assured him. “I didn’t want Max to feel like we were eating all his food and using up his wood, so I chopped a whole stall full of wood, and Stevie and I cleaned the tack room for him.”

  Jesse pushed back his chair and brought the coffeepot to the table. “And now Max won’t ever know what y’all did, because he’s going from the hospital to his son’s place.”

  Cody held up his cup for a refill. “That’s a decision he probably should have made five years ago, and it’s all right if he doesn’t know about the work we did. Doing it made me feel good.”

  “I’ll make a deal with you.” Jesse refilled all three cups. “I’ll use the tractor to get you to any patients you might need to visit if you’ll help me do chores the next few days.”

  “I told you before that I’m willing to help any way you need me,” Cody said.

  “I know that, and you have helped a lot, but I’m going to depend on you even more for a little while,” Jesse said in a low voice.

  “Mia is worth her weight in gold”—Sonny lowered his voice too—“but all this cold has created extra chores—shoveling, chopping through ice on the water troughs—and I can tell it’s wearing her thin. I don’t want her to hear me, but I’m going to tell her that I need her in the house a couple of days to catch up on the computer work.”

  “I understand. What time do you want to get started tomorrow morning?” Cody asked.

  “Soon as breakfast is done,” Jesse answered. “It’s been taking me and Mia until almost noon to get everything taken care of, but I reckon the two of us can be finished a little earlier than that. The water pipes from the well froze up today, so tomorrow we’re going to have to carry water from the barn out to the pasture.”

  “Thank goodness we got a little forewarning and moved all the herd to the forty acres behind the barn, or y’all would have been running all over the ranch trying to feed and water,” Sonny said. “I hate that I can’t help you guys.”

  “You help us by supervising,” Cody said. “We were raised on this ranch, but we were gone for a long time. We still need some help from a wise old head like yours.”

  “It’s old, all right,” Sonny chuckled, “but I’m not so sure about the wisdom in it. I’ll tell you one thing, there’s more smarts up here”—he tapped his forehead—“than that rotten weatherman has. Telling us we might not get more than an inch of snow, and then changing his mind just about the time the blizzard hit. Your mother was the one who said we’d better get prepared for a big storm. She’s the smart one in the family.”

  “The storm made a sweep to the south that no one expected. Maybe Mama ought to take that weatherman’s place on the morning news,” Cody said.

  “She’d do a better job, but rest assured, there’s a reason for everything.” Sonny’s tone was dead serious. “We might not know what it is right now, but in ten years, we’ll look back and see things clearly.”

  “What do you see clearly, Dad?” Jesse asked.

  “That adopting you three boys was the best thing that happened to me and your mother. It’s time me and Pearl went to our house, if I can drag her away from Addy. When we first moved to Henry’s house after he retired, it felt strange, but now it feels like we’ve always lived there.” Sonny picked up his cane and headed toward the living room.

  “Need some help?” Cody asked.

  He had thought his folks might move to the house on the property across the road—the ranch they had bought from Addy’s parents when they sold out and went out to the Panhandle—when Jesse and Addy got married, but they’d opted to take over Henry’s place that was still right on Sunflower Ranch.

  “Not tonight but thanks.” Sonny leaned heavily on his cane as he shuffled out of the kitchen. “When I do, I’ll ask for it.”

  “Just remember, we’re all here for you, and don’t be too stubborn to ask,” Cody said with a smile.

  “I wouldn’t be where I am today without being stubborn.” Sonny disappeared around the corner and into the hallway.

  Jesse waited until he was out of sight to ask, “In your opinion, what happens next with him?”

  “Who knows?” Cody answered. “MS varies with the patient, and like he said, stubborn has taken him a long way, but I would think that he’ll need a walker before long.” Thinking about not being home to help his dad put a lump in Cody’s throat. He believed that nothing should ever be more important than family, and yet he had let his job stand between him and those most important to him. “One day at a time. That’s all any of us get anyway.”

  Jesse stood up and clamped a hand on Cody’s shoulder. “You might do well to remember that.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Cody asked.

  “Just think about it,” Jesse said. “If you were a woman, your biological clock would be tickin’ pretty loud. If you had a child in a year, you would be retirement age before that kid got through college.”

  “Old doctors are like old farmers,” Cody chuckled. “They never retire.”

  “Who’s retiring?” Pearl asked as she and Sonny had passed through the room and stopped in the utility room that was right off the kitchen.


  “No one,” Jesse said. “According to my brother here, old doctors and old farmers don’t know what retirement is.”

  “I knew I’d raised some smart kids.” Sonny shifted his cane to his left hand so Pearl could help him with the sleeve of his coat. “See y’all tomorrow.”

  Pearl slipped on her coat and then pulled a stocking hat down to her ears. “With all this snow, we’ve been coming up here sometime in the middle of the afternoon and having supper together, Cody.”

  “You and Stevie are welcome to join us every evening. Addy and Mia appreciate seeing some faces other than mine since we’re all stuck in the house,” Jesse said.

  Cody stood and headed toward the utility room, where he’d hung his own coat. “I know I’d love that, and I’m pretty sure Stevie would look forward to having someone to talk to other than me. I’ll see you in the morning, brother. And, Mama, if y’all need anything, we can be there in five minutes or less.” Cody turned back to Jesse. “Mind if I take a couple of slices of that cake with me?”

  “Not one bit. Addy said she was making pies for tomorrow’s dessert,” Pearl answered and came back into the kitchen. She cut two wedges of the cake and put them on a paper plate, then covered it with plastic wrap. “Since she’s not been able to get out and go places with you and the doctoring business, she’s been keeping busy in the kitchen. We’ll all have to go on a diet when this snow is melted. And, son, you know you can drop in at our house anytime you don’t want to make food for yourself.”

  “And bring Stevie with you. I like that girl,” Sonny said.

  “Thanks.” Cody picked up the cake. “I might do that.”

  “Y’all ever going to get past the fact that you broke her heart?” Jesse asked when Pearl and Sonny left.

  “Ever think that I had my reasons?” Cody asked.

  “Never doubted it for a minute,” Jesse said. “I’d love to hear them sometime, but right now, I’ve got a beautiful wife waiting for me in the living room. She told me that we’re watching a movie tonight. Want to join us?”