“I don’t mean to be unappreciative.” Stevie’s tone changed.
“I know,” Cody assured her.
“Hey,” Mia yelled. “Y’all ready for some chili and a spoiled dog named Tex? If so, someone needs to open the door for me.”
Cody rushed across the floor to let her in and took the box from her arms. He took it to the kitchen, set it on the table, and returned to the living area. Tex beat Mia inside and ran right to the sofa, where he curled up beside Stevie and laid his head on her lap. Mia took off her coat and hung it on the back of a kitchen chair, then sat down in the rocking chair. “Mama says you could have a slight concussion. How are you feeling?”
“If I’ve got one, it’s not a bad one. I’ve had a couple before, so I know how they work. Thanks for supper,” Stevie said.
“How’d you get that cut on your forehead? Do you remember?” Mia asked.
“I thought I was a flying squirrel and could land on a branch of a tree. I went through it and the ice on the limb cut me, then I landed on my back, and it was lights-out.” Stevie rubbed Tex’s head the whole time she talked. “Where have you been, old boy? You could have helped the donkey keep those coyotes away from me.”
“What coyotes?” Mia’s eyes widened out. “Did you have to fight them off?”
“No, the donkey you talked Dad into buying did his job,” Cody answered for Stevie. “But when I got out there, the donkey was braying, and they were out there by that grove of scrub oak trees.”
“I knew that donkey would pay for his keep,” Mia said. “I don’t know where that lazy dog has been, but it wasn’t at the ranch house. He was on the porch when I got here.”
“He was with me and Jesse.” Cody dipped chili into two bowls. “Crackers or cornbread?”
“Crackers,” Stevie answered.
“Do you have a headache?” Mia focused on Stevie. “See double? I had a concussion a year ago when…” She stopped talking and put a hand over her mouth.
“When what?” Cody asked. “You never told me that you’d had an accident.”
She removed her hand, but two scarlet spots dotted her cheeks. “It wasn’t an accident.”
“Did someone hurt you?” Cody handed Stevie a bowl of chili and a package of crackers on a lap tray, and then brought food to the coffee table. He sat down on the floor and took the first bite.
“It wasn’t any big deal.” The blush deepened even more. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Was it Ricky?” Stevie asked.
Mia nodded. “He pushed me one night when I told him we had to keep back part of the money I made that week for groceries. He wanted to use my whole paycheck to place a bet on a game. I fell and hit my head on the edge of his gaming system.”
“Did you tell Addy and Jesse about this?” Cody laid his spoon to the side and his hands knotted into fists. Anger rose up from depths that he didn’t even know he had. Losing Dineo and Bodi had made him both angry and sad, but the thought of Ricky hurting Mia went above and beyond that.
“No, I didn’t,” she said and shook her head. “How could I? Mama and Daddy both thought that I was still living in the dorm and going to class, not working for minimum wage in a café. But I did go to the health clinic and they diagnosed me with a concussion. I had a headache for a few days, but I didn’t miss any work. In those days, I didn’t even blame Ricky. I figured I deserved it because I didn’t let him make that bet.” Mia clamped her mouth shut tightly and then said through clenched teeth, “He didn’t ever let me forget it either. Even though his team didn’t win, and he would have lost the money anyway, he said I was bad luck because we had to use his betting money for doctor bills and medicine for me. I was pretty stupid, wasn’t I?” She glanced up at Stevie. “And I didn’t mean to bring all this up.”
“You didn’t,” Stevie said. “We kind of pried it out of you.”
“But I do feel better for talking about it,” Mia admitted.
“He was a real loser,” Cody growled. “Why did you put up with that kind of abuse?”
“Ricky is what happens to us girls who feel too ugly for boys to notice,” Mia declared, “but it won’t happen again. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Now, eat up because I brought chocolate pie too.”
“I have to know one thing,” Stevie said, “Why would you ever feel ugly? You look like a runway model.”
“Ricky used to say that, but hearing it and believing it is two different things,” Mia said.
Cody was glad that Stevie could talk to Mia, because at that moment all he wanted to do was find that kid and give him a concussion. No wonder she hadn’t dated anyone since she’d come home.
“I understand.” Stevie nodded and went back to eating.
“Knowing I’m not the only one who has felt that way helps more than you’ll ever know,” Mia said. “Mama says to tell you that Cody is supposed to bring you to the house tomorrow morning.”
“I would love to spend the day with y’all, but I don’t really need babysitting,” Stevie said.
“Then consider it as you keeping us sane rather than us watching over you. We’re all getting stir-crazy. I actually wished someone would need Uncle Cody and Mama to go do some doctor stuff so she could get out for a little while,” Mia said.
“In that case, thank you,” Stevie said, “and thank you for this supper too. After four days of scrounging for what we could make in Max’s barn, I won’t take food for granted again.”
“You are so welcome.” Mia’s face lit up in a smile.
History can’t be changed, Cody thought. But if it could and Stevie and I had gotten together when we were young, would we have a daughter just younger than Mia?
Mia left after a few more minutes, and Tex followed her. When Cody was sure that she was gone for good, he looked across the coffee table at Stevie. “You said you understood. Did someone like Ricky hurt you?”
“Not physically, but I grew up thinking that because I’m tall and have freckles and red hair, that I was ugly. My first boyfriend in college told me I was beautiful, and I was putty in his hands for about six months,” she answered.
“And after six months?” Cody asked.
“I found out that he was cheating on me with a petite blond cheerleader, or maybe he was cheating on her with me. That’s the more likely story. He took her on real dates, not just rides in his car for ice cream and a booty call in the back seat,” Stevie said.
“I’m sorry. Seems like you and Mia didn’t have much luck with past boyfriends.” Cody felt horrible for both of them even if he couldn’t do anything about the past.
“Thanks for that. It took me a while to figure out that all guys aren’t trustworthy. Enough about all that. Didn’t Mia say she brought chocolate pie?” Stevie started to get up.
“Oh, no!” Cody said. “You sit still. I’ll get the pie.”
* * *
Stevie awoke the next morning, and for a split second, she wondered where she was. Nothing looked familiar, and then in a flash, the fog cleared, and she remembered everything.
“Good morning!” Cody brought her a cup of coffee. “How are you feeling today. Headache? Memory problems?”
“I feel great,” she answered. “Why did you let me sleep so long? The sun is already up. Shouldn’t you and Jesse be taking care of chores, or do you have doctor appointments today?”
“Jesse is picking me up in about ten minutes,” Cody answered. “After being wakened every hour all night, I thought you could use two full hours of sleep. If you have a concussion, it’s a minor one. Mia says to call her when you get dressed, but not to bother with breakfast. They’ve got waffles up at the ranch house.”
“Did you already eat something?” Stevie threw off the blanket, sat up and glanced across the living room at the bunk beds. “Your bed hasn’t been slept in.”
“I sacked out on the floor beside the sofa in case you needed me in a hurry,” he said. “It was better than the floor in the tack room. I had several blankets und
er me, a real pillow, and the room is warm.”
“Thank you for doing that for me.” Stevie remembered being downright grouchy a few times when he woke her from a deep sleep to ask her a stupid question like what her mother’s name was, or what the name of the ranch was where she was staying.
“No problem,” Cody said, “you would do the same for me.”
Would you? the voice in her head asked. After all these years of being angry with him, would you take care of him if the roles were reversed?
“Have a good day.” Cody put on his coat and settled his cowboy hat on his head. “Weatherman says this is supposed to start melting today, so maybe by the weekend we can get into town.”
She cut her eyes over at him. “You ready to get rid of me and have your bunkhouse to yourself again?”
“Been kind of nice having someone around, so that would be no,” Cody answered as he shoved his hands into his gloves. “And there’s Jesse. See you at noon.”
“Be safe,” she said. “There’s potholes out there.”
“I will,” he threw over his shoulder as he left.
Stevie stood up slowly, but there was no dizziness. In her opinion, she didn’t have a concussion at all, but all those symptoms she had experienced were from having the wind knocked out of her, and from lying so long in the extreme cold. She went to the bedroom and changed into jeans and a sweatshirt, then sat down on the edge of the bed to put on her boots. She had sat right there in that same spot when Cody dressed her in the flannel pajamas. She closed her eyes and got the same sensation of his hands on her bare skin as she’d had the evening before. The time had come for her to figure things out where he was concerned, but she didn’t even know where to begin.
Her phone pinged and she picked it up from the nightstand to find a message from Mia: Call me when you’re ready. I’m waiting to have breakfast with you.
Stevie’s thumbs quickly typed out, I’m ready now.
She shoved a stocking hat down over her red hair and put on her coat. She stepped outside and heard the rattle of a four-wheeler coming down the path. A visual of the gray sky dropping down to cover her with darkness made her chest tighten. She wasn’t ready to get back on one of those vehicles, but the sound was getting louder and louder, and then Mia was right there at the end of the porch steps.
“Crawl on behind me,” Mia said.
Stevie wanted to shake her head and say that she would walk, but Mia needed to see a strong, fearless woman, not a whimpering weakling that was afraid to get back on the horse—so to speak. She walked down the porch steps, slung a leg over the seat, and willed her heart to stop beating so hard.
The trip up to the house only took a few minutes, but Stevie gripped the edge of the seat so hard that her knuckles began to ache. A coyote howled out in the distance, and she remembered that scary feeling when she barely came to and thought the coyotes were going to eat her.
“We’re here.” Mia’s voice came through her fear. “Are you okay, Stevie?”
“I’m fine”—she managed a weak smile—“just thinking about the other four-wheeler and hoping that it can be repaired.”
Mia had killed the engine and was already off the vehicle. “My dad can fix anything. Trust me. Let’s get inside where it’s warm and have some breakfast.”
Stevie let go of her grip and got off the vehicle. “After that supper you brought us and a second piece of pie before I went to sleep, I shouldn’t be hungry for a week, but I’m starving.”
“It always seems like we need more food when it’s so cold.” She held the back door open for Stevie to go inside ahead of her. “The weatherman said that the temperatures will start rising today and tomorrow. That means by the weekend, the roads might be clear, and we can go back to normal.”
Stevie wondered just what her new normal would be when she got to go home. Would she slip right back into her veterinarian job, and into the depression she’d been fighting since her mother’s death? No answers came floating down from the ceiling, so she tucked her hat and gloves into the pocket of her coat and hung it on a hook right inside the door of the utility room.
“Good morning,” Addy said from the kitchen. “How are you feeling?”
Stevie crossed the small utility/mudroom and stopped in the kitchen. “I’m really fine, not sure I even have a concussion. I think maybe what I was feeling was the result of getting the wind knocked out of me and being so cold.”
“Better treat it as a concussion and be safe rather than sorry,” Addy told her. “Pour yourself a mug of coffee and have a seat at the table. Mia made waffles and sausage this morning, and she’s got strawberries and whipped cream if you’d rather have that instead of syrup.”
“I feel like I’m saying this all the time but thank you. Can I help with anything?” Stevie asked as she filled a mug with coffee.
“Yep, you can.” Mia poured batter into the waffle iron. “I’m studying agribusiness so I can understand more about running that end of the ranch. Here lately I’ve been thinking that I would like to be a vet tech, so I enrolled in a couple of animal husbandry courses this next semester. Can I pick your brain a little while you’re here?”
“Sure, but why do you want to do that in addition to the business part?” Stevie took a sip of her coffee, made strong like she liked.
“That way, I can be of more help on the ranch. I could do some of the things that you do,” Mia answered.
“The courses will help, but hands-on will teach you a lot,” Stevie said. “I can’t pay you much, but if you want to assist me a couple of days a week, I’d be glad to have you.”
“Are you serious?” Mia squealed and dashed across the room to give Stevie a hug. “I would love that.” Then she hesitated and looked over at Addy. “Mama, can you and Dad spare me two days a week?”
“Of course we can when it’s all about learning more,” Addy said, “and we should be paying you, Stevie, just like we pay for college hours.”
Stevie shook her head. “Not after what all y’all have done for me. Besides, it would be nice to have a sidekick a couple of days a week.”
“What days?” Mia asked.
“You talk to Jesse, and y’all decide that. I’m on call right now seven days a week,” Stevie answered. “So, the days and times could vary, but if you’re busy with something here, we can always get together on another day. We’ll just keep it flexible.”
“I’m not glad that you’ve got two flat tires, but I’m glad you got stuck with Uncle Cody.” Mia dished up waffles onto a plate and set them in front of Stevie.
Stevie slathered butter on her waffles and then covered them with maple syrup. “It’s crazy how all this has happened, but I’m glad it did.”
“Us too,” Addy said. “Why did you decide to go to vet school?”
“I loved animals more than people, or I would have been a doctor like Cody, or maybe a nurse like you,” Stevie answered between bites. “Do you like being a concierge nurse with Cody?”
“Love it,” Addy said. “I’ve got a support system with Pearl and Sonny and Mia to help with the twins, so I don’t have to feel guilty about leaving them. But then, I can do what I love at the same time. It’s the perfect job for me.”
“It’s not so different from what you do.” Mia brought her breakfast to the table. “You go to the animals. Folks don’t bring them to your house. Mama and Uncle Cody go to the houses of the older folks and those who don’t want to go to a clinic. It’s about the same thing only the patients have two legs instead of four.”
Stevie nodded in agreement. “That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.”
“I know your mama was sick, but why did you stay after you lost her?” Addy finished making a pan of yeast bread and set it to the side to rise. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down across from Stevie. “If that’s too personal, you don’t have to answer it.”
“I might ask you the same thing. Considering the circumstances of Mia’s birth, why would you ever come to work here o
n Sunflower Ranch?” Stevie asked.
“Fair enough,” Addy answered. “This was home, and something kept drawing me back here. Maybe it was Fate, or just a longing in my heart, but whatever, I’m glad I listened to it. When the Ryans offered me a job helping take care of Sonny after he was diagnosed, well…” She took a sip of her coffee. “I learned years later that they figured out that Mia was their granddaughter and considered it an extra bonus to get to spend time with her and have me as Sonny’s private nurse.”
“When did you tell Jesse?” Stevie asked.
“He kind of figured it out on his own,” Addy answered. “Now, your turn? Did you come back to get closure with Cody?”
“Not really, but that is an added bonus to my Texas homecoming.” Stevie finished off the last bite of her waffles. “I’ve tried to steer clear of him the past six months, but I guess Fate, as you called it, had different plans.”
“Sometimes it works that way,” Mia said, adding her two cents. “I couldn’t wait to get out of this place, but before many days passed, I felt like the prodigal son. I didn’t care what I had to do, I just wanted to come home. I guess age doesn’t matter when the heart longs for home, does it?”
“You are so right about that.” But if that was the case, why did Stevie feel more at home in Addy’s kitchen than she had anyplace she’d been in a very long time—including her own house?
Must be the town of Honey Grove, or maybe the state of Texas calling us home, not a particular house, she thought.
Chapter Twelve
Cody had been in and out of the bunkhouse since he was a toddler. There were times when it was completely full, and when Henry had the foreman’s bedroom. In those days, the place seemed huge to him. As years went by more and more of the hired hands lived in town and commuted to the ranch. Nowadays with the newer equipment, they could make do with hiring spring, summer, and weekend help, and there were always teenage boys willing to work. And somehow, as Cody grew up, the bunkhouse got smaller. There were now two sets of bunk beds on the far wall, the foreman’s bedroom and bathroom with a tub and shower, and a large living room, kitchen, dining area all combined.
Texas Homecoming Page 13