Texas Homecoming

by Carolyn Brown

“We would have loved to have that when we were stranded in the barn, wouldn’t we?” Cody asked. “Hey, I hear that Mia spent a couple of hours with you this afternoon. Did she talk about Beau? The whole family thinks he’s a good guy, and we’re wondering if maybe the fact that we like him will…”

  “No worries. She likes him a lot, and she even asked me how to tell if a guy was the one.” She air-quoted the last two words.

  “After only one day?” Both of Cody’s eyebrows shot up. “That would almost be like love at first sight, which is downright crazy even for kids their age.”

  “I guess he kisses real good, and you don’t need to knock that love-at-first-sight business.” She put the container of ham in the refrigerator. “Didn’t you ever wonder on a first date if the woman you were with could possibly be the one you would spend your life with?”

  “No, did you?” Cody asked.

  “I’ve never been on a date with a woman,” Stevie answered.

  “You know what I mean,” Cody scolded. “Have you ever been on a first date and thought the guy you were out with was the one?”

  Stevie hip-bumped him out of the way so she could put the pecan pie away. “Of course I have. It’s normal, and after the second or third, I knew he wasn’t the one and I cut him loose and stopped wasting my time.”

  “How do you know for sure if a guy is the one?” Cody asked.

  “How do you men tell if a woman is?” she fired back at him.

  “I have no idea. I never got that far into a relationship. Six months in one spot was usually the limit with the doctor program I was working with. That’s not long enough to think about a permanent relationship.” Cody helped put the containers of food away in the refrigerator. “Now you?”

  “You already know that answer. I thought I’d missed my chance at the one because you were that cowboy and you had rejected me. I figured I’d be settling for someone who came in second in my heart,” Stevie answered. “Now that we’ve had time to get to know each other, and for me to even bury the hatchet, I think that it takes getting to know each other a lot better than just one date and a make-out session to know if you want to spend your whole life with someone.”

  “You really are blunt,” Cody said.

  “You asked.” She shrugged. “I answered.”

  “I wouldn’t call what we had a make-out session.” He got a bottle of water from the fridge. “Want one, or a beer, or a…”

  “Maybe a bottle of orange juice,” she answered. “And you are so right. What we had was not a bona fide make-out session.”

  From the change in his expression, it looked like Cody had seen the light. “Oh! So Mia and Beau did some kissing? When? In the barn when she was showing him the alpacas?”

  “I don’t tattle on my friends,” Stevie said with a grin.

  Cody handed off the orange juice to her and said, “If after our fourth date you know that I’m the one, will you be honest with me and tell me?”

  “Of course I will, and I will also tell you if you are not the one, so that neither of us waste our time.” She twisted the top off the juice, took a drink, and headed toward the sofa. “I guess, since you brought leftovers home, we aren’t going to the ranch house for supper, right?”

  He sat down at the same time she did, kicked off his boots, and propped his feet on the coffee table. “Right. Sunday nights we’re on our own. So, movie, television, or…” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Were you going to say strip poker?” she teased. “If that’s what you had in mind, then I don’t play that until after the fifth date, and even then, you better be sure about dealing the cards. I do not have a tell, and I’m very good at poker. I won enough at the Thursday night games in college that my folks didn’t have to give me spending money.”

  “Another surprise layer of the mysterious Stephanie O’Dell,” Cody answered, “but I was going to say Monopoly.”

  “Sure you were,” Stevie chuckled.

  Before either of them could say anything else, her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number but answered it anyway. “Hello?”

  “This is Bobby Blalock. Sonny Ryan called me this afternoon about a house that you own that needs repair, or at least a look over to see if it’s worth remodeling. I’ve got an hour or two free in the morning if you could meet me there about nine,” he said.

  “I’ll be there. Thanks for calling and getting to it so fast. Can you make up a couple of estimates for me to give to the insurance adjustor?” Stevie said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Bobby said. “I’ll bring the forms with me. See you there.”

  “Nine o’clock,” Stevie said and ended the call, not sure if she was glad that Sonny had talked to him, or if she was a little aggravated that he had made the call rather than just giving her the name and number.

  You wanted a family, her mother reminded her. That’s what families do. They get into your life and take care of you.

  “That was Bobby Blalock,” she explained. “I’m supposed to meet him at the house tomorrow at nine.”

  “Do you remember Bobby?” Cody asked. “He graduated from high school a couple of years before I did. He never left Honey Grove but went right into construction with his dad. He took over the business when his father retired. Dad says he’s really good at what he does, and he’s honest.”

  “That’s good, but I’m really afraid my house is like that truck of yours sitting out there by the barn—a total mess. Mama complained for the past few years that one side of the foundation was sinking and making the floor slope. I have to be ready to accept whatever happens, but it breaks my heart. And yet, Mama would tell me not to hang on to the past, just to get a new lease on life and move forward without looking over my shoulder.” Stevie sighed.

  “Sounds like something my mama would tell me.” Cody drank down part of his bottle of water and then set it on the coffee table. “Do you ever hope you’re as wise as they are when you get to be their age?”

  “Only a dozen times a day, and especially when I hear her voice in my head,” Stevie answered.

  “Sometimes, I hear Dineo laughing or saying something cute, and I turn around to see if he’s there before I remember what happened.” Cody’s voice seemed to crack a little and he stared off into space.

  Stevie reached across the distance and laid her hand on his shoulder. “But we’re glad for the memories those little voices bring back to us, aren’t we?”

  “Dineo was such a bright little boy,” Cody said, and finally smiled. “I had even thought about creating a scholarship for him so he could go to a boarding school.”

  “Wasn’t he in school over there?” Stevie asked.

  “Yes, but those remote little schools wouldn’t have challenged his mind. He was so bright, Stevie. He might have grown up to be a doctor if he’d had a chance,” Cody said.

  “You did what you could.” She gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze.

  He laid a hand on hers and said, “Thank you for that. Sometimes I play out scenarios in my head about what I could have done to prevent him and his father from being shot. If I’d grabbed him and run to the caves where we hid in dangerous times, or if Bodi had done the same thing, but it all happened so fast.”

  “That’s because those people wanted the element of surprise,” Stevie said, and remembered the shock she had felt when she turned around and Cody Ryan was standing right there in front of her in Max’s barn.

  “Let’s watch something funny on television to take our minds off the sadness,” he suggested.

  “How about Blue Collar Comedy Tour? Last time I checked, it was on Netflix,” she said, and nodded.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “You’ve never seen it? It came out not long after we graduated from high school,” she answered. “Comedians Ron White, Jeff Foxworthy…”

  He picked up the remote. “Oh, I remember that, but I never got around to watching it. I was more into books than television back in those days when it first came out on DVD. Is it gu
aranteed to make me laugh?”

  “If it doesn’t, then you’ve got a heart of stone, and there will be no second date with me.” Stevie already knew that she was going to miss bantering with Cody and having his family around her every day when she got back to a place of her own and had to move away from Sunflower Ranch.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Stevie’s house always smelled like scented candles. Her mother had especially loved gingerbread, hazelnut, or butter pecan that came in a jar. Ruth had burned one so often that the scent had permeated the walls, and that aroma was what Stevie was used to when she opened the front door. But that day, something nasty like musty old quilts or maybe a wet cat that had been caught out in the rain met her when she entered the place. The carpet was still soaking wet, and the tile in the kitchen had curled up on nearly every corner. She was glad that Cody and Addy had a full morning of appointments because she wanted some alone time with the house before Bobby arrived to give her an estimate on remodeling.

  Anything that had been sitting on the floor was definitely ruined. Table legs were swollen, the sofa skirt had soaked up the water and carried it right up to the cushions. The same thing had happened with the dust ruffle on her bed and her mother’s. Both mattresses and box springs had big brown spots on them from the dirty water. The adjustor that had come out on Saturday said there was no use in trying to salvage any of the furniture and had written up a report that said everything in the house was ruined.

  “What do I do?” she whispered as she walked through the house and barely kept the tears at bay. “Do I tear this place down and rebuild right here on the same lot? Do I sell it and build somewhere else with more room for a proper vet clinic?”

  “Hello! Anybody home?” a strong male voice yelled from the open front door.

  Stevie whipped around. Bobby Blalock was a tall, lanky man with a crop of dark hair that was dusted with a sprinkling of gray around the temples, and big brown eyes that looked even larger behind thick glasses.

  “I’m Bobby Blalock.” He stuck out his hand. “We talked on the phone yesterday.”

  “Stevie O’Dell.” She shook with him. “I’m glad you wore rubber boots. It’s still a mess in here.”

  “Yep, I can see that. My son, Tilman, is under the house right now checking the foundation. Is it okay if I pull up some of this carpet, and maybe knock a hole or two in the drywall?” he asked.

  “Do whatever you need to do,” Stevie said with a grimace.

  “I’ll bring in my tools then,” he said.

  Stevie had expected that the carpet would have to be taken out, but it didn’t make it any easier to watch Bobby pile the soggy furniture to one side. He rolled the wet carpet to the middle of the room and slowly shook his head.

  “Where are you, Tilman?” he yelled.

  “Right here, Dad.” A guy who looked like a younger version of Bobby, only his coveralls were muddy, entered through the front door. “Go ahead with whatever you need to do up here, but it sure doesn’t look good under this place. Of course, it’s muddy, but, Miz O’Dell, you’ve got a bad case of termites under there, as well as black mold.”

  Bobby drew back a claw hammer and knocked a hole in the wet part of the Sheetrock. Chunks of it crumbled like chalk, and more disintegrated as he pulled half a sheet free. He shook his head in disappointment and pointed to the studs. “I was trying to give you a little bit of hope, but I’m sorry, Stevie. See the Swiss cheese look in these studs? If this house was a person, I would tell you that it has bone cancer. This is dry rot.” He pointed to part of the two studs, and then to the wet part below that. “And that is black mold.”

  Stevie looked at the mess and wondered if that had caused her mother’s cancer to start or to be worse. She knew the house had to come down, but knowing did not lessen the disappointment one bit.

  “I remember when you were a little girl riding your bicycle up and down this road with your red ponytail swinging back and forth,” Bobby said. “I knew your daddy and your mama very well. Your dad and my mama worked together at the bank. I don’t like to have to tell you this, Stevie, but this house is not worth saving. You should have it torn down and have the ground treated to get rid of the termites. Then you can either rebuild right here or sell the lot, and that’s my honest opinion on just what I’ve seen here.”

  “I was afraid that’s what you would say.” She sighed. “Thinking about doing that isn’t easy, though.”

  “No, ma’am, I’m sure it’s not. I’d hate to have to make that decision, but you could always build a new house on the same floor plan as this one since this is your childhood home,” he said. “I can check the other rooms if you want me to.”

  “No need. What do I owe you for this?” she asked.

  “Not a thing, but I will write up something for you to give to the insurance company,” Bobby said. “If and when you decide to tear it down, Tilman and I have the equipment to take care of that for you.”

  “Thank you,” Stevie said with a heavy heart.

  Both men left her standing in the middle of a spongy floor and went out to their truck. In a few minutes Bobby came back with a signed estimate form, and said, “I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I can’t imagine having to tear down my folks’ place, but if it looked like this, I wouldn’t hesitate to do just that.”

  “I appreciate your honesty,” Stevie said.

  “Can’t be anything but that. My mama would take a switch to me if I was dishonest, even if I am over forty.” Bobby smiled. “Just let me know if you need me to take it down.”

  “I sure will.” Stevie waited until he was gone to let the tears flow down her cheeks. “Damn it!” She wiped at them and stomped her foot so hard that it went through the floor and set her firmly down on her butt. She jerked her leg back up through the hole and groaned when she realized that her jeans were not only wet but torn, and that they were a pair that Mia had loaned to her. The cold air hit her butt when she stood up. She had not only poked her leg through the floor, and most likely tore Mia’s jeans on a nail, but she had also sat down on the soaked carpet.

  “Damn it!” she said again and then noticed that it wasn’t water running down her leg but blood from a gash, and Mia’s rubber boot was catching it. She went to the bathroom and wrapped one towel around the wound and took a second one with her out to her vehicle. When she got inside, she put the extra towel on the seat to sit on, got in, and called Cody before she even started the engine.

  “Where are you and Addy?” she asked.

  “At the ranch,” he said. “We finished earlier than we thought. Want me to come to the house? What did Bobby say?”

  “We’ll talk about that later,” Stevie said. “I fell through the floor, and I think I tore my leg on a nail. I didn’t check to see if it was rusty or not, but I’m on my way home. Can you meet me at the bunkhouse? It might need stitches, and I know I’ll need a tetanus shot.”

  “Are you sure you can drive? Do you need me and Addy to come get you?” Cody sounded genuinely worried.

  “I can make it home. I’ve got it wrapped in a towel to keep from getting blood on Mama’s car seat. See you in ten minutes or so,” she told him.

  By the time she reached the bunkhouse, blood was seeping through the towel, but by keeping her leg turned just right, she avoided getting any on the seat. She opened the door and got out carefully, then limped toward the porch. Cody and Addy must have heard the car’s engine because they rushed out and helped her the rest of the way into the bunkhouse and onto a kitchen chair.

  Cody already had his tools laid out on the table and dropped down on his knees in front of her to remove the towel. “Good grief, you really did a number on this. Addy, we’ll need to cut her jeans off her, and this boot is ruined.”

  “These are Mia’s rubber boots…” Stevie said.

  “And they’re the least of your worries. We buy these things by the dozens,” Addy said as she began to cut the jeans away. We’ve got to clean it out first, and then it’s goi
ng to need stitches. My guess is at least ten.”

  “Fifteen or more if we want to keep them close enough together that she doesn’t have a bad scar,” Cody said. “These first shots are going to sting a little.”

  “Ouch!” Stevie almost yelled. “That hurt.”

  “But it will numb your leg up so that you won’t feel the stitches,” Cody said.

  “I know,” Stevie said, “but I’m usually not the one on this end of the needle.”

  “I can’t get at this thing from this position,” he said with a frown. “I’m going to pick you up and lay you on the table.”

  Addy brought a pillow from the top bunk and had it ready to put under Stevie’s head when Cody scooped her up in his arms and laid her out on the kitchen table. “There, that’s much better. I swear, I can’t let you out of my sight for five minutes that you don’t hurt yourself, woman. The wound on your head hasn’t healed, and now you’ve torn up your leg.”

  “Don’t call me woman,” she scolded.

  “Okay, then love it is,” Cody teased as he started suturing up the gash.

  “Not that either,” she told him.

  Addy giggled. “You two remind me of how prickly Jesse and I were when he first came home. I’m going to get a tetanus shot ready. You want it in the arm or in the butt?”

  “Arm,” Stevie answered. The very thought of baring her butt in front of Cody caused heat to rise to her cheeks.

  “When you get done, Mia and I have to go check on Raymond’s horse,” Stevie said, trying to take her mind off what was happening on the calf of her left leg.

  “You really should stay off this at least for today,” Addy said. “From that tear, I’d guess that you caught it on a nasty old nail when your foot went through the floor. I don’t see any wood fragments, so that’s a plus, but the nail could have been rusty. This shot and a round of antibiotics will take care of any infections.”

  “Does our local drugstore deliver medicine all the way out here?” Stevie asked.

  “Don’t need to,” Cody said. “I’ve got samples that you can use, and you can’t go to Raymond’s on this leg. It’s going to be numb from the knee down for a while.”