Texas Homecoming

by Carolyn Brown

  “So, we’re not going to talk about the elephant that’s been hanging around all these years?” he asked.

  “I killed that elephant years ago,” Stevie said. “Speaking of animals, other than her legs being longer, Dixie isn’t much bigger than your cat. I bet Dolly even weighs more than Dixie.”

  “You are changing the subject, and the elephant is not dead,” Cody argued.

  “Yes, it is.” Stevie might consider herself strong and smart, but she still got a lump in her throat when she remembered the way she had felt that night when Cody told her that he didn’t have room in his life for a relationship. “Someday we might be good enough friends to talk about you breaking my young heart, but someday is not today. Go ahead and prop the door so she can romp and play in the barn with the cats. We’ll see how that goes before we make her stay in the house while they get to go out and play.”

  Cody put on his coat, crossed the room with the cats right behind him. He waited on the other side of the door to see what the cria would do. When Dixie had sucked down all her bottle, she slowly made her way across the room, sniffed the air out in the barn, and returned to her blanket behind the stove.

  “Smart girl,” Stevie said with a smile as she put the sofa to rights. “It’s cold out there.” She refilled the coffeepot with water, added coffee grounds to it, and set it on the stove. The coffee would probably taste like crap, but it had to be better than the road tar they had in the dorm when she was in grad school.

  You need to really talk to Cody, not just argue and dance around this attraction. Her mother’s voice was in her head.

  “We will when the time is right.” Stevie missed her mother so much. After the funeral a few months ago, she’d thought she would find closure, but it hadn’t happened—not yet.

  * * *

  “Women!” Cody muttered as he picked up Stevie’s duffel bag from the van. “They don’t ever forget anything.” He went to the sliding door and pushed it open a couple of inches to see just how fast the snow was falling. He could see tree limbs on the other side of the lane, which meant the storm was slowing down slightly. He started to shove the door closed, when he caught a blur of movement in his peripheral vision. The black-and-white kitten made a jump through the open space and landed on top of the snow banked up against the door. Another leap and the little ball of fur disappeared completely into the snowdrift.

  Cody had only planned on making a quick trip to the van and back, so he hadn’t put on his gloves. But he couldn’t let Boots freeze to death out there in the snow. After all, he and Boots were the only two guys in the barn, and Cody felt like he could use all the support he could get. He dropped Stevie’s bag on the barn floor and opened the door just wide enough that he could slip out. Snow came up over his boot tops and filtered right down to his toes. He strained his ears, trying to hear the kitten’s cries, but couldn’t hear a thing except the tree limbs still breaking all around him. Snow clung to his eyelashes and his hair, and his hands were already freezing. He was about to give up, when he saw a slight indentation about two feet ahead of him, but snow was already filling in the hole.

  Instantly, he was down on his knees and shoving his bare hand down into the cold snow, searching for the kitten. After feeling around and finding nothing, he thought he heard a slight meow. The sound was faint, but it was definitely a kitten, and it was coming from behind him. He turned to find Dolly and her other two babies at the doorway, staring at him as if they were begging him to find Boots.

  “I’m trying.” He raised his voice and then noticed another little indentation six inches ahead of him. He reached out and sunk his hand into the snow again, found fur this time, and brought up Boots all covered in snow and limp as a dishrag.

  Cody tucked the kitten into his coat close to his chest, hurried back inside the barn, and pushed the door shut. Dolly and her other two kittens went running to the safety of the tack room, and barely beat Cody.

  “Boots got out of the barn and fell in a snowdrift. I tried to get to him faster but…” He laid the kitten on the sofa and jerked his coat off.

  Stevie was all over the place. She grabbed Boots and carried him to the back of the stove, where Dixie was sleeping, and then picked up the edge of the blanket and began to rub the kitten’s fur.

  Cody dropped to his knees beside her. “He wasn’t in the snow more than two minutes, tops. Is he alive? I never should have opened the door.”

  Stevie ignored his question, which made Cody wonder if there was hope for the kitten.

  “What can I do?” he asked.

  “Keep the barn door closed,” Stevie said. “You must have gotten him just as he went under because there’s no snow in his nose. That’s a good sign. Water in the nose could mean sinus and lung problems later. He’s just scared and cold. Look, he’s opening his eyes. Time for Dixie to be a good big sister.” Stevie tucked the kitten against Dixie’s belly, and then Dolly made her way over to him. “It’s a good thing you saw him run out of the barn. Now about your hands…”

  Cody held out his hands. They were bright red and tingling. Another few minutes and he might have suffered frostbite. “They’ll warm up in a little while.”

  Stevie rolled up on her feet, went to the worktable, and came back with his gloves. She warmed them on top of the stove for just a minute and then stretched them onto his hands. Even though his fingers felt like icicles, her touch shot desire through his body.

  “Don’t reckon I could get you to pull my boots off?” he asked. “The snow went over the tops, and…”

  “Good God! Did you roll in the snow?” Stevie asked.

  “Nope, just crawled in it. I couldn’t let a kitten freeze to death,” he answered. “Are you sure he’s going to be okay?”

  Stevie nodded toward Boots, who was now up and nursing on his mother. “He’s fine, but you’ve got to come out of those jeans as well as your boots.”

  “And what am I going to wear?” he asked.

  “I’ve got a pair of sweatpants and extra socks in my go bag. They’ll keep you warm while your jeans and socks get dry, but they are pink,” she answered as she set about removing his boots and socks. “You’re a doctor. You know how fast frostbite can set in when you’re wet like this. You should have taken all this off while I was working on Boots. Now, you need to get those wet jeans off.” She set his cowboy boots beside the stove and started for the door.

  “And let you see me half-naked?” Both his eyebrows shot up.

  “This is not the time to joke around,” she threw over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her.

  “Day one, and I have to wear pink sweats,” he muttered as he shuffled into the bathroom to take off his wet jeans. “I hope Jesse doesn’t get here before my jeans get dry.”

  “Cody? Where are you?” Stevie raised her voice.

  “Bathroom.” He cracked the door and held out a hand.

  She put a rolled-up pair of sweats in his hand, and he quickly closed the door. He laid everything on the back of the toilet, unrolled the gray sweats and found the toothpaste and brush.

  “These are not pink,” he said as he looked in the mirror. “I’ll get back at you for this, Stevie.”

  Most blond-haired men couldn’t grow much of a beard, but Cody was the exception, and a day’s worth of his stubble was equivalent to a week for most men. His hair stuck up in all directions, and his eyes had bags under them. He pulled a comb out of the hip pocket of his jeans and tamed his hair with a little water, brushed his teeth, and wished for his electric razor.

  “At least Jesse won’t find me in pink sweats,” he said with a grin.

  The sweats were soft and warm, like Stevie had been when he held her in his arms those few months they had dated. He’d missed that feeling when he went to college—maybe even more than he’d missed his family, because he could talk to them anytime he wanted.

  Stevie had caught his eye back in junior high school, but it had taken him several years to get up the nerve to ask her out. L
ooking back, maybe it would have been best if he hadn’t ever made that first phone call after they had started school that fall of his senior year. By spring, he had really developed feelings for her, and knew that he had to choose between his dream and Stevie. He couldn’t ask her to give up her plans, and Doctors Without Borders didn’t need veterinarians.

  He brought the sweatshirt to his face and inhaled deeply, and wondered what his life would have been like if he’d made a different choice.

  Chapter Four

  In my wildest nightmares, I never would have thought I’d be stuck in a blizzard with Cody Ryan,” Stevie said as she picked up her bag and dug around in it, hoping that she had tucked in a candy bar, but all she located was a couple of pieces of peppermint that came in the sack with the last hamburger she got from Sonic.

  When Cody came out of the bathroom wearing gray sweats and white socks, he asked, “Are you color-blind?”

  “Just messin’ with you,” she said.

  She turned away as if she didn’t want him to see her expression, but he thought he heard a catch in her voice.

  “I’ve got another pair of sweats in the bag and they are pink if you’d rather have them,” she muttered.

  “These are fine.” Cody hung his jeans, shirt, and a pair of boxer shorts on nails beside the door. “I just hope my jeans are dry by the time Jesse gets here. Thank goodness you’re tall so that the bottoms are long enough, but this sweatshirt is a little snug across my shoulders.”

  She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “You’ll survive until your clothes get dry. As warm as this room is, I don’t reckon it will take long.”

  “I am grateful for a change of warm, dry clothing, so thank you. What’s really on your mind, Stevie? You look like you’re about to cry. Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, not this time.” Stevie kept her back turned to him. She had worked so hard to keep up a brave front in front of him that she was determined not to cry.

  “Is it time to talk about that big gray animal?” Cody asked.

  “No, that’s not what…” Her voice quivered.

  “You talk and I’ll make breakfast,” he said.

  She flopped down on the sofa and stared out the window at the sheet of white still falling from the sky. “I’m in a tack room with no shower, no electricity, with a baby alpaca and a litter of kittens, and my mother keeps popping into my head with advice. I don’t want to just hear her, Cody. I want to be able to sit at the table with her, to see her smile at me, to hear her talk to her, tell her about my day…”

  Cody stopped peeling potatoes and sat down beside her. “This will pass. It will stop snowing, and we’ll get rescued, and then you can spend time with your mother.”

  “My mama died before…” She willed the tears welling up in her eyes not to fall down her cheeks. “Just before Mother’s Day.”

  “I’m so sorry, Stevie. I didn’t know. Mama might have mentioned it when I called, but then Dad was taken to the hospital when his meds disagreed with him, and with all the excitement of Jesse and Addy getting married, the twins coming into our lives and…” he said, stumbling over his words.

  Stevie pushed her curly red hair back behind her ears. “I understand, but I miss her so much.”

  He scooted over closer to her and draped his arm around her shoulders. “I can’t even imagine how it would feel to not have my folks around. When we thought Dad had a stroke a few months ago, it scared me really bad. I was in London, getting ready for another assignment, and all I could think of was why wasn’t I home with him and Mama.”

  “I gave up a partnership in a big vet firm in Tulsa, to move back here.” Stevie laid her head on his shoulder, glad for even that much human touch. “When I talked to her on the phone last spring, Mama said she wasn’t feeling so well. I started making arrangements to move at that time, but I didn’t know until I got here that she had terminal cancer. When I fussed at her, she said that she didn’t want to worry me, and she didn’t want me to change my life because of her.”

  “I remember Ruth being a kind, sweet person. She and my mama were on that historical planning committee together, right?” Cody asked.

  “She loved to volunteer both on city projects and at the hospital, just wherever she was needed, after she retired from teaching at the elementary school,” Stevie said.

  “Have you talked to anyone about how you’re feeling?” Cody asked.

  “What good is talking?” Stevie sighed. “It won’t bring her back. If she would have told me when she was first diagnosed, I could have been home six months before and spent more time with her.”

  “No, it won’t bring her back, but talking to someone like a therapist might help you find some measure of closure,” Cody said.

  “Maybe,” Stevie agreed. “Just talking to you has helped. I heard that Sonny had to be taken off that trial medication he was on. Is that why you came home?”

  “I felt so helpless sitting there, waiting four hours before I could catch a plane, and that seemed like the longest trip I’ve ever taken,” Cody answered. “My heart was heavy, and I kept asking myself why in the hell I hadn’t just gone to ranching. Dad raised all us three, and not a one of us stayed on the ranch.”

  “But he was and is so proud of all of you,” Stevie said.

  “I know, but…” Cody sighed. “He was already out of the hospital when I got home, but it could have gone the other way. I understand how you feel, Stevie, and I’m so sorry.”

  “Thank you.” She managed a little bit of a smile.

  “Tell me your earliest memory of your mother.” He removed his arm and went back to the stove.

  “Only if you’ll tell me your first memory of Pearl.” Stevie missed the warmth of his arm lying softly around her shoulders. “But first I’m going to brush my teeth and put on fresh clothes.” She stood up and headed to the bathroom.

  “How do you like your steak?”

  “Medium rare.” She picked up her bag and closed the bathroom door behind her.

  Once inside the tiny restroom, Stevie put the lid down on the toilet and then sat down. She leaned forward, covered her eyes with her hands, and let the tears come.

  That’s enough! her mother scolded. Wash your face. Get cleaned up and go talk to Cody. You need this, Stevie.

  “What I need is to be out of here and back to work,” Stevie argued, but she stood up, ran a basin of cold water, and wet a couple of paper towels. She shivered when she peeled out of her clothing but felt like a new woman when she had clean sweats on her body and her teeth brushed. She even took the time to get all the tangles out of her curly red hair and pull it up into a messy bun.

  “Best I can do, Mama,” she said to her reflection in the tiny mirror above the sink.

  You are beautiful. You are smart. I’m proud of you. Her mother had told her that so many times she couldn’t count them on both hands.

  “Thanks, Mama,” she said, and managed a weak smile.

  When she opened the door, the smell of sizzling steaks filled the air, and Cody was singing “Millionaire” and surprisingly enough his deep voice had almost as much grit in it as Chris Stapleton’s.

  “What brought that song to mind?” she asked. “Is there a woman in your life that makes you a millionaire like the lyrics say?”

  “Not yet, but I can always hope there’s one out there in the future that will make me feel like I’m rich in a way that doesn’t have a thing to do with dollar bills,” he answered. “When I was in the Doctors program, I couldn’t ask a woman to give up her life and follow me around in countries like I’ve been in, but now that I’m home, things are different.”

  Stevie breathed a sigh of relief. “Don’t we all hope to find that kind of person. Those steaks about ready?”

  “They are, and the potatoes are done too. Wait ’til you taste the coffee,” he said.

  “Good, bad, or ugly?” she asked as she poured herself a cup.

  “You be the judge,” he said.

  S
he took a sip and shivered even worse at the taste of it than she had because of cold. “Beyond ugly, even beyond downright nasty.”

  “It should clean out the bathroom drainpipes,” Cody teased as he forked up a steak and put a good-sized portion of potatoes on each plate.

  “Probably eat right through them.” She opened the window behind the stove and tossed what was in the cup out on the ground, then closed the window. “You can drink it if you want. I’d rather have water.”

  “Me too, only I poured mine back in the pot,” he told her.

  “Yuck!” Her nose crinkled. “That’s not very sanitary.”

  “Honey, no self-respecting germ would ever live in that horrible stuff.” He sat down on the sofa and began to eat. Dolly came from behind the stove and began to rub around his legs. “I’ll save the bone for you, pretty girl, but you can’t share with Dixie. Alpacas don’t eat meat,” he said and then glanced over at Stevie, “unless this redhead wants it. I owe her for saving my hands, so if she wants to gnaw on it awhile, then she should have it.”

  Stevie picked up her pocketknife from the worktable and sat down on the other end of the sofa. “You’re not even funny.”

  “And I tried so hard.” Cody heaved a long sigh but there was no denying that it was all fake.

  “Seriously.” Stevie rolled her eyes. “You know when I miss Mama the most?”

  “At mealtimes.” Cody turned serious. “That’s when I missed my folks the most.”

  Stevie cut off a piece of steak and started toward her mouth with it. “We shared two meals a day with each other, even when she was sick. I would carry our plates to her room and sit beside her bed while we ate.” She finally put the steak in her mouth.

  “I understand,” Cody said. “I really do. I thought I was ready to get away from the ranch, but I was so lonely in college that sometimes I thought of quitting and going home. There were people all around me in the cafeteria, but not a one of them to talk to about my day. Mama always said breakfast and supper were our best family times. Even as little boys, we talked about our day at the supper table, and I missed that so much.”