“You didn’t let me help.” Zaylie was fussing when they came out of the bathroom.
“But you were there if I’d needed you,” Claire told her.
Levi removed the lid from the skillet, flipped the hoecake over so it would brown on the other side, and carried the pot of soup to the table. “Did you hit your head on the steering wheel?”
Claire nodded.
“Airbags open?”
Another nod.
“Seat belt leave a bruise?”
“Yes, and it hurts,” Zaylie said. “And Aunt Claire’s got one on her leg too. Want to know how we got from the tree to here?”
“I sure do,” Levi answered.
“Aunt Claire got the suitcase and I got the tote bag,” Zaylie said. “And the snow was in my face and I fell down three times.” She held up the right amount of fingers. “And I cried because my face was cold.”
“I would have cried too.” Levi turned the cornbread out onto a plate and then made the fritters. “And you spent the night here in the cabin?”
“Yep, we did, and then you came.” Zaylie crawled up into a kitchen chair. “How did you get in here? Aunt Claire locked the door.”
“We keep a key under the mat just in case.” Levi smiled.
“I’m glad.” She made herself comfortable at the table. “I like chicken noodle soup.”
“Me too.” He finished putting the rest of the food on the table and held a chair for Claire.
She hesitated and glanced at her purse on the bunk bed, but finally sat down. “How long have you been foreman on this ranch?”
“Couple of years as foreman, but I’ve worked here since I was big enough to do a job. My dad was the foreman before me. Justin and Cade are more like my brothers than just friends since we were all three raised here on the ranch.” He chose the chair across from Claire. “It’s not my best cookin’, but it’s what I can do with what we’ve got to work with. Do you folks say grace?”
“I’ll do it.” Zaylie bowed her head. “Jesus, I’m a little mad at you for lettin’ Aunt Claire get lost, but I’ll forgive you since you sent someone to cook for us. Amen.”
“Amen.” Claire smiled.
“Amen.” Levi grinned as he cut the hoecake into pie-shaped wedges. “Don’t know how good it’ll all be, but it’s fillin’ and it’s hot.”
“Thank you,” Claire said.
“So you lived in Randlett your whole life?” he asked.
“No, I moved there three years ago to take care of my grandmother after she fell and broke her hip,” Claire answered as she filled three bowls.
“But Nanny died,” Zaylie said. “They put her in a fancy pink box in a pink dress, and Daddy gave me a pink rose to put on the box after the preacher said a prayer.”
“Six months ago,” Claire said. “Cancer.”
“I’m so sorry,” Levi said. “So you work in Randlett? At the casino, maybe?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve run a little Etsy business for six years—homemade quilts. It lets me work at home and be flexible enough to take care of Zaylie when my brother is deployed or away on missions.” Her voice had lost that high squeaky sound and settled into a husky tone that was downright sexy.
He wished his phone was working so he could research Etsy and see what kind of business that was. He’d never heard of it, but he’d bet dollars to cow patties that if it was like that Pinterest thing that Retta was always looking at on her phone that she could show him what Etsy was.
“I like this hoecake stuff,” Zaylie declared after the first bite. “It’s wondermous.”
“I’m real glad that you like it, Zaylie. I’m not the cook that Retta is, but when we get back to the ranch house, I bet she’ll make you a real good meal.” Levi dipped up a second bowl of soup. “Anyone else?”
“Not yet. I’m goin’ to save room for those fritter things. Never ate hoecake or them things before,” Zaylie said. “Have you, Aunt Claire?”
Claire shook her head. “No, ma’am.”
“Nanny didn’t ever make them, did she?”
“Nanny wasn’t much of a cook, remember?”
“But she could make real good hot chocolate when she didn’t burn it,” Zaylie said.
“Yes, she could,” Claire agreed. “Nanny liked to cook until she broke her hip, and then things went downhill from there. We thought the hip problem brought on dementia, but it turned out to be a brain tumor. That’s why I moved in with her. This is very good, and it warms from the inside out.” She ladled out another bowl full.
He met her gaze across the table, but she quickly looked away. Levi recognized something in her expression like one of the abandoned animals he’d brought to the ranch through the years. The eyes did not lie, and they couldn’t cover up deep pain. Regret, remorse, grief—there was something about her that needed rescuing.
“Read to me,” Zaylie said as she yawned.
“She takes an hour nap after lunch each day,” Claire explained to Levi. He’d been nothing but kind and hadn’t done one thing that would cause her to feel threatened in any way, but she still needed to keep Zaylie close.
“I’m too big for naps,” Zaylie declared. “Aunt Claire reads to me and sometimes I just doze off like Nanny used to do, but it’s not a nap. Just restin’ my eyes.”
“She sure talks big for a four-year-old,” Levi said.
“Been around adults her whole life.” Claire removed her coat and hung it on the back of a chair. “I didn’t think I’d ever be warm again, but I’m beginning to thaw out a little.”
Zaylie followed her lead but covered up with a throw when she reached the sofa. “My feet is still cold. Aunt Claire made me take off my shoes and socks when we got here ’cause they was wet. I put on dry socks, but they’re still cold.”
Levi went to the dresser and brought out a pair of thick gray socks and threw them across the room. “Put these on over your socks and pull them all the way up over the legs of your jeans. They’ve got wool in them, so they’ll help.”
“Can Aunt Claire have some too?” Zaylie asked.
“Sure thing.” Levi tossed a pair toward Claire.
She caught them midair. “Thank you.”
“Pretty good catch. You ever play baseball?”
“In high school, but that was a long time ago.”
“Aunt Claire is old.” Zaylie yawned again.
“Ouch!” Levi grinned.
“At that age, they don’t have filters on their mouths.” Claire blushed.
Zaylie threw both hands over her lips. “What is a filter? I don’t want one of them things on my face.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, this cabin doesn’t have any filters,” Levi assured her. “You just rest your eyes. I’m going to do the same thing over there on that other bunk bed.”
He crossed the floor, stretched out on the lower bed of the unused set of bunks, tucked his hands behind his head, and shut his eyes.
Claire settled down with Zaylie and made it through two pages of a children’s book they’d brought before the child was asleep. She tucked the throw up around her and tiptoed over to the bed where she and Zaylie had slept the night before.
She sat down and stared at Levi. Long lashes rested on his high cheekbones. A little scruff on his face testified that he hadn’t shaved that morning. His knit shirt hugged his chest like a glove, leaving little to the imagination. Her eyes traveled on down his body and stopped at a big silver belt buckle engraved with a bull rider. Was he a real cowboy or a wannabe who thought a belt buckle and boots would impress the women at the bars on Saturday nights?
She lay on her side so that she could keep an eye on both Zaylie and Levi. And that’s when it hit her—she’d failed at several of the tests that her brother had taught her. She’d told Levi where she was from, that she had no relatives who would be looking for her, that she had no cell phone, and he already knew she was stranded.
If Levi wasn’t really the foreman of the ranch, she and poor Zaylie mi
ght never be heard or seen again.
Chapter Two
Levi awoke to find Zaylie’s big blue eyes boring holes into his face. She stood back a few feet, but she wasn’t blinking as she cocked her head to one side and then the other as she studied him. It was even more unnerving than the hard north wind that rattled the windows. Who was she and how in the devil had she gotten into his bedroom? He glanced toward the ceiling, realized he was on a narrow bunk bed, and then it all came back to him in a flash. He shifted his eyes toward the window at the foot of the bed only to see nothing but blowing snow continuing to build up on the sash.
He bumped his head on the top bunk when he tried to sit up, but the little girl didn’t budge from her spot or look away. It was as if she saw straight into his soul. Grabbing his head with both hands, he moaned as he eased his way to a standing position.
“That hurted, didn’t it?” she said.
“Yes, it did,” he answered.
“It’s time for a snack,” she told him. “We get a snack after we rest our eyes.”
On a ranch the size of Longhorn Canyon, it wasn’t uncommon to lose cell phone power at the end of a day, so he’d learned to carry a simple pocket watch. Glad that he had, he worked it up out of his pocket and checked the time.
“Three o’clock. You’re probably right about snack time,” he said.
Claire shot up like a wind-up doll and was on her feet in a split second. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
Zaylie spun around and threw her arms around Claire’s waist. “We all rested our eyes. It’s snack time now. He said so.”
“How about crackers with peanut butter and hot tea?” Levi asked.
Zaylie raised one shoulder slightly. “I like milk better.”
“Sorry, princess, we don’t have any milk in the cabin,” he said. “But we do have tea bags and sugar.”
Zaylie sighed. “Got any candy bars?”
“Zaylie Noelle Mason!” Claire scolded.
Levi put another log on the fire and then crossed the room. “I see there’s a few cans of green beans if you’d rather have that for a snack.”
Zaylie’s nose curled as she shook her head from side to side. “Crackers and tea is fine.”
“And?” Claire coaxed.
Zaylie sighed. “And thank you.”
Levi brought an old blue granite coffeepot from the cabinet, filled it with water, and put it on the stove to heat. “I’m glad that we’ve still got runnin’ water and the pipes haven’t frozen. I can’t remember the last time we had a snow storm this early in the fall and without much warning.” He moved things around in the cabinets to see if there might be something Zaylie would like better than crackers and peanut butter. He almost shouted when he found a package of chocolate cookies and the expiration date was two weeks away. “Look what I found.” He held them up.
“Yay!” Zaylie pumped her fist in the air. “My favorite. You sure there’s not any milk up there?”
“Haven’t found any yet,” he said.
“Did you ride here?” Zaylie asked.
“I was on the four-wheeler tryin’ to find a bull that got out of the corral. When I realized I didn’t have enough gas to get back to the house, I decided to hole up here until the storm passed by.”
It would sure help if Claire would either add to the conversation or else stop looking at him like that.
Like how is she lookin’ at you? asked that aggravating voice in his head.
Like she’s afraid I’m going to hurt her or Zaylie, he answered himself as he found the box of tea bags, and right beside them was instant hot chocolate.
“So how far is your ranch house from where we are right now?” Claire led Zaylie to the table.
“A couple of miles,” he answered. “The Longhorn Canyon covers a pretty good chunk of land.”
Zaylie crawled up into the pink chair. “Can this be my forever chair?”
“Of course it can. Pink is for a princess, right?” Levi asked.
Zaylie giggled. “It’s my color, but I’m not a real princess. I’m just a little girl.”
“So you have a color and it’s pink. Do you like unicorns or dragons better?” Levi opened the package of cookies and set them in the middle of the table.
“Unicorns with pink wings and glitter on their horns.” Zaylie picked up a cookie.
“I didn’t find any milk, Miz Zaylie, but look at what was hiding at the back of the cabinet.” Levi showed her the box of hot chocolate mix. “Would you rather have this than tea?”
“Yes!” Zaylie squealed. “I love hot chocolate, and Aunt Claire makes the bestest in the whole world.”
“And it comes out of a package just like that.” Claire finally smiled.
“I bet the unicorns put it here while we took a nap because I sure didn’t see it when I was makin’ hoecakes for dinner.” Levi dumped a package into Zaylie’s cup and then raised an eyebrow at Claire. “Tea or chocolate?”
“I’d rather have tea. No sugar though.” Her eyes moved to the window. “It’s hard to judge time when it’s like this.”
He pulled the pocket watch out and took a couple of steps toward the table to show her. “Three fifteen.”
“Seems like it should be later. If I had my new fabric in here, I could at least be cutting out squares or patterns. I’m not used to being still,” she said.
“What?” Levi raised an eyebrow.
“Aunt Claire makes quilts,” Zaylie said. “And we got lots of stuff in the van.”
“I was just thinkin’ out loud,” Claire said.
“So you do pretty good selling quilts?” Levi asked as he made a cup of tea for Claire and hot chocolate for himself.
“I make a living at it. I probably won’t ever be a millionaire, but we pay the bills and have what we need,” she answered. “They are custom designs and usually one of a kind.”
“Do you have a store as well as this Etsy place?” He set Zaylie’s hot chocolate in front of her. “Be careful now. It’s really hot.”
“No, I just sell online,” Claire answered.
Her voice had a sweet Southern lilt to it that appealed to him so much he could’ve listened to her read the entire dictionary and not gotten bored. Add that to the fact that she was so danged cute with those green eyes and delicate face, and he wanted to gather her up in his arms and protect her.
“I noticed that Benjy left one of his sketch pads on the top bunk. I guess you could design new patterns while we wait.” He went back to the cabinet and picked up Claire’s tea and his hot chocolate to carry to the table.
“That’s a great idea.” She took a sip of the tea. “You don’t think he’d mind if I used a few pages?”
“Who’s Benjy?” Zaylie reached for a second cookie.
“He’s a young boy who is an amazing artist,” Levi answered.
Zaylie took a sip. “Yep, just like Aunt Claire makes for me. Can I dip my cookie in it?”
“I always dip mine.” Levi set the mugs down before he pulled out his chair. “But you better ask your aunt about that. She’s the real boss.”
Thank you, Claire mouthed toward Levi and then turned to Zaylie. “Yes, you may dip your cookies but only a couple more.”
“Daddy is the real boss,” Zaylie informed him seriously. “But when he’s gone, he lets Aunt Claire be the boss.” She dipped a third cookie into the hot chocolate and quickly put it into her mouth. “This is so good, and it’s not cold.”
Levi raised an eyebrow toward Claire, but before she could explain, Zaylie piped up again. “I’m glad that Levi found us and can cook.”
“Hey, I can cook,” Claire said.
“Yep, but he’s not afraid to turn on the stove,” Zaylie said.
“I’ve been replaced with nothing more than a cup of warm chocolate.” Claire sighed.
Levi shook his head. “I could use some help in the kitchen. I’ve exhausted my knowledge in the make-it-out-of-what’s-here department. The cabinets aren’t well stocked this time
of year, so if we’re stuck here another couple of days feel free to help me out.”
“And after we get rescued?” Claire asked.
“Then we’ll take your car to a repair shop and you can stay on the ranch until it’s fixed,” he said.
“Oh no!” She held up a hand. “Thank you for the offer, but I can’t impose on you and your friends like that. I’ll just go to the nearest hotel until the weather lets up. I have another car in Randlett that I can drive for a while,” she said.
“Not on these roads you won’t. It’s at least twenty miles to the nearest motel, and that’s not a decent one. You’ve landed in the country, lady. Matter of fact, you’ve kind of landed in the backwoods of the country. We’d be glad to put you up until your van is fixed.”
“What about turkey day and Miz Franny?” Zaylie groaned.
“Don’t worry, sweet girl.” Claire reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind Zaylie’s ear. “That’s not until the end of the week. The snow will all melt, and our van will be fixed; we’ll be home long before that. We’ll call Miz Franny as soon as I get my phone charged.”
“Good,” Zaylie said. “I don’t want to eat soup on turkey day.” She looked around the cabin. “We got to have chocolate pie and banana pudding.”
Levi nodded. “I agree. And mashed potatoes and giblet gravy.”
“And banana pudding.” Zaylie made a motion with her hand to include everything they’d mentioned.
“What’s your favorite side dish? Mine is sweet potato casserole,” he answered.
“Macaroni and cheese is my favorite vegabull.” Zaylie picked up another cookie.
“Mac and cheese is not a vegetable,” Claire said.
“It is in my make-believe world,” Zaylie declared.
“Mac and cheese is not a vegetable in any world,” Claire informed her.
The woman might be small, but with her sass, Levi wouldn’t argue with her, even if she didn’t tote around a pistol in her purse.
“Uh-huh,” Zaylie argued.
Claire rolled her eyes and then brought them to rest on Levi.
“Don’t look at me. I thought it was too,” he said with a big grin on his face. “And I love mac and cheese. Too bad we don’t have the stuff to make it.” It wouldn’t take that child long to completely wrap him around her tiny pinky finger. “Anyone for more chocolate or tea?”
Cowboy Honor--Includes a bonus novella Page 2