by Peggy Jaeger
His knee snaked between her legs, opening them and finding a place to nestle against her. Stacy didn’t think he even realized he’d made the move, it felt so natural.
“I went a little crazy after I found out you’d left,” he continued. “It’s a good thing the show was in the can because I can tell you, honestly, the crew would have mutinied. I was so angry.”
“At me?”
“No, sweetheart, not you. Never you. Myself.”
The endearment pushed her anger and hurt to the side as the word crept into her heart.
“I believed Jade even though I knew what a spiteful hag she is,” he continued. “That was my first mistake. Not letting you explain was the second. I called Teddy the minute I calmed down.”
“Teddy? Why?”
“I wanted to hear from his mouth the reason he’d sent you. I wanted proof that what Jade said was true. Before I could even ask, he mowed over me, wanting to know how you were doing. Told me he’d known sending you was a big risk—to you—but he was so confident you’d stick it out. That’s when I asked him about Jade. I thought I was mad about the situation, but Ted went ballistic. Read me chapter, book, and verse about how he’d coerced you into going to Montana because he knew how beneficial you’d be for the production. And for me. Even if you’d refused, he told me, your project was still a go because it was that good of an idea. I told him I agreed.”
He pulled back, cupped her cheeks in his hands. “I know you left because I hurt you,” he said, rubbing his thumb across her bottom lip, “and I’m so sorry for that.”
“I think you can share some of that hurt,” she told him. Looking at his actions with a little distance had given her the ability to see that now. “You thought I’d used you. That everything we’d…shared together was just a means to an end. I can understand your anger.”
He dropped his chin, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, the piercing emotions swimming in them impaled her.
“No one likes to think they’ve been used. I’ve experienced it firsthand and believe me, it’s soul-sucking.”
It was her turn to take his face in her hands. “I know. Jade told me about your wife. She knew how it would look if you found out about the paper I’d had Teddy sign. How my actions would seem to you.” She shook her head. “She was right.”
“I should have realized it was all Jade’s doing, not yours. She’s the one who uses people as stepping-stones. I should have known you’d never use anyone, never hurt anybody, just to get something you wanted. That’s not you. It’s not how you are.”
“You really don’t know who I am,” she said, softly. “Or what I’m capable of.”
“That’s not true.” He splayed his hands, the tips of his fingers spread over her butt. “I know you better than you think. You’re smart, conscientious, kind.” He slid his knee against her, and she realized right then and there he knew exactly what he was doing to her. “You’re a born leader, even though you don’t see yourself that way. You’re warm and open and accepting. And you’re the bravest woman I’ve ever known.”
She huffed out a laugh. “I’m not brave.”
His hands tightened around her again. “You are,” he whispered as he bent his head, his lips hovering over hers. “And you’re one more thing.”
A gentle swipe of his mouth against hers had her knees softening. “W—what?”
“You’re loved.” He kissed her again. “I love you, Stacy. I swear to God I think I fell for you the second I stepped out of Dixon’s truck. You were all professional and polished, strong and determined, with that take-no-prisoners attitude.”
Stacy’s body stilled, despite being engulfed in fire every time his lips pressed against hers. “Is that really how you see me?”
For an answer, his mouth took hers again, the soft insistence of his lips pressing, torturing, delighting.
“That, and so much more.” A swipe of her bottom lip with his tongue and she opened for him. As he deepened the kiss, showing her the truth of his words, she let herself accept them.
He loved her.
Her.
He lifted his head and peered down at her, that familiar, furrowed glower she’d come to cherish covering his face again. “Tell me I haven’t ruined us. Haven’t ruined what was between us. I don’t know how I’ll get through the days if I have.”
“Nikko.” She sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she felt the sting of tears.
“Please, Stacy. Just tell me. I have to know.”
Through a jagged breath, she told him what she’d never been able to tell any other man. What she’d never felt for any other man. What she felt only for him.
“I love you too.”
Before she could tell him everything in her heart, he lifted her off her toes in a bone-rattling hug and rained kisses all over her face and jaw.
“Thank God,” he said when he finally put her down again.
They stood, gazing at one another for a few seconds. Then, a heart-stopping grin split his face and it was all she could do to keep her balance steady.
“So.” His eyes hooded as he dragged and flattened her up against him again. With one hand squeezing her butt, the other snaked around her neck, he asked, “Does this mean I got the job?”
He swallowed Stacy’s laugh with his kiss.
Chapter Twenty-six
“What can I get you folks?”
Stacy smiled up at the buxom, middle-aged waitress waiting to take their order. A tinged-with-gray black-pixie haircut engulfed a plump face that had a sweet-eyed expression and a mouth that looked used to smiling.
Nikko ordered the meat loaf, while Stacy opted for a cheeseburger. When it was Melora’s turn to order, the teen’s lips pulled into a pout as she perused the broad menu. “I can’t make up my mind. There’s so many choices.”
The waitress—or Maybelle, as her name tag read—smiled. “Sure are. Menu’s been voted best in the state for the past three years. You like mac and cheese?” Her eyes roamed across Melora’s face and torso. “Never met a teenager who didn’t, and Earl’s cheesy mac will spoil you for the rest of your life for anyone else’s.”
Melora’s face split into a wide, open grin. “Sold.”
Maybelle grinned, nodded, and said, “I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
“This place looks exactly like it was described,” Nikko said, glancing around the crowded, noisy diner. “If the food is half as good as we’ve been told, the crew will never want to go home.”
The research she’d done on Earl’s Diner was extensive. Stacy knew all about their numerous dining and people’s-choice awards from articles she’d read online. Today’s stop at the diner was a preproduction go-see for her and Nikko to determine the logistics of filming the place. She hadn’t contacted the owner yet, preferring to see the diner in its natural, everyday state, first.
So far, she hadn’t been disappointed.
“So, this is like, the last one, right? Before you know if you’re going to get renewed?” Melora asked.
Seated across from Stacy and next to her father, the teen’s questioning gaze settled on Stacy.
“Yes. So far, the footage we’ve gotten on the others is good.”
“Better than good,” Nikko said. “But, yes, after this one is filmed, you’re off the hook for following us around for a while.”
To keep Melora in the mix and not home alone while he traveled, Nikko and Stacy had worked out a filming schedule that took them all across the country two weekends a month. Traveling with Nikko and his daughter to the various location shoots had been some of the happiest times in Stacy’s life, compared only to the times she and Nikko spent alone.
From the moment they’d left Teddy’s office, the two had spent every minute they could together. Nikko had asked Stacy to watch the edited footage from Beef Battles, wanti
ng her opinion. He’d done an outstanding job and the show was guaranteed to be a ratings winner, of that she had no doubt.
Since declaring his feelings for her, Nikko’s entire demeanor had changed; lightened. Melora had commented more than once about how much happier he was whenever Stacy was around. Privately, the girl had questioned Stacy about her own feelings. When Stacy admitted how much she loved Nikko, Melora had cried and thrown her arms around her. She was still so much like a little girl and her mother’s death was still such a recent occurrence, that Stacy wouldn’t have blamed Melora in the least if she’d resented her, or squawked at the amount of time she spent with the girl’s father. But Stacy’s heart had simply filled with the acceptance Melora had given her, and with her own love for the teen.
“It’s been fun,” Melora said, smiling at the waitress as she delivered their drinks.
“You folks just passing by or visiting?” Maybelle asked.
“Visiting,” Nikko said.
“Well, if you’re looking for things to do, sights to see, just let me know. My cousin, Donny, is the head of the Chamber of Commerce and I can have him give you a rundown on the area. We get a lotta nice families like yourselves passing through while vacationing. It’s nice to stop a while and get the local flavor of a place, you know?”
With a wink, she ambled to the next table.
“She thinks we’re, like, a family passing through town,” Melora said, pointedly staring at her father.
Confused at the look, Stacy took a sip of her water, then said, “Makes sense she’d think that. Look around.” She swiped a hand across the diner.
The tables and booths were packed with people of all ages, from toddlers in infant seats to an elderly couple holding hands across a table.
“It’s a family place.”
“Yeah,” Melora said, her eyes still settled on her father’s face. “It is.”
Nikko’s ears turned a quick shade of pink under his daughter’s scrutiny.
“What’s going on?” Stacy asked, her gaze bouncing between the two of them.
“Yeah, Dad. What’s going on?”
“You know,” he said, laying his palms flat on the table, and addressing his daughter, “I’ve been giving serious consideration lately to enrolling you in a boarding school. Run by nuns. In Switzerland.”
“Yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen.” She cocked her head toward Stacy and widened her eyes.
“Melora.” There was a subtle warning in his voice Stacy couldn’t fathom.
“Nikko.”
The scowl that had been missing for the past few months popped up on his face while they stared at one another.
“Okay, look.” She rose from the booth. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” Staring down at her father, she added, “Use the alone time wisely.”
When she sauntered off, Stacy looked over at Nikko.
“Alone at last,” he said with a sigh as he grabbed her hands across the table. “I’m serious about the boarding school.”
“No, you’re not. What was that all about?”
He shook his head and squeezed her hands. “I made the mistake of telling her something in confidence last week and she’s like a tick. She won’t let it go.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Just something I was planning on doing.” He stared out of the window to the parking lot.
When he didn’t say anything further, she asked, “Care to share?”
He drew his gaze back to her and she was surprised to see the identical expression swimming in his eyes he’d had the day in Teddy’s office.
He was nervous.
“Nikko?”
He dropped his gaze down to their joined hands and then back up to hers again.
“Stacy. Sweetheart.”
When he went no further, she said, “You know, don’t you, that I melt a little inside, every time you call me that, right?”
His mouth twitched at the corners. With a nod, he let go of one of her hands.
“I’d planned on doing this in a much more romantic setting. Not,” he glanced around, “in the middle of a diner when we’re working.”
“Do what?”
He brought the hand he held to his lips, gently kissed her knuckles.
“I’m melting again.” She chuckled. The laugh stopped cold when he drew his other hand back up to the table. In it was a small, blue, square box. The blue was so familiar, so iconic, she gasped when the meaning of it hit her.
“But Melora has a point. This is a family place, so it seems appropriate to ask you this here. Now.”
With this thumb and index finger, he shot open the box to reveal an enormous emerald-cut diamond. Stacy’s eyes started to burn and she couldn’t decide if the tears were from joy or because the boulder staring back at her was so brilliant and bright.
“Stacy Peters, I love you. So much, there are times I can’t breathe the feeling is so overwhelming.”
She smiled at him.
“I know we had a rocky start. I was in bad place physically, emotionally. But if I’ve learned anything in the past year, it’s that love can go a long way in healing a person. In making you feel whole again. So. I’m asking you to marry me. To take me, and my annoyingly perceptive daughter”—she laughed, her vision blurring through the tears—“as your own and making us a new family. One we can grow with. Love with. Spend together. For the rest of our lives.”
Her hand squeezed his.
“Please don’t say no,” he added, his mouth quirking up at one corner. “There are at least fifty pair of eyes trained on us right now and I think I’d die of mortification if you said no.”
She did a quick pan around them, saw the smiling, expectant faces of the diner’s patrons all zeroed in on their table, and chuckled.
When she settled back on his handsome face, she said, “Well, I can’t have your death on my conscience, so I’d better say yes.”
When his grin split his lips in two, she repeated it so everyone could hear.
“I said yes.”
Nikko slipped the ring on the appropriate finger on the hand he still held and when he leaned over to kiss her, through the sound of clapping, his baby girl’s voice loud and clear called, “It’s about, like, freaking time!”
RECIPES FROM THE DIXON RANCH
Sweet and Saucy Barbeque Sauce
This is the sauce recipe that Riley MacNeill used in the Beef Battles challenge that won him the first-place prize. He smothered his rack of ribs in it and the judges loved the sweet, juicy, and subtle tangy flavor profile.
2 cups ketchup
1 cup water
½ cup apple cider vinegar
6 tablespoons light brown sugar
6 tablespoons sugar
½ tablespoon black pepper
½ tablespoon minced onion
½ tablespoon ground mustard
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Combine the ketchup, water, vinegar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Set aside.
Mix together the brown sugar, white sugar, black pepper, minced onion, and mustard together.
Add liquid ingredients to dry ones. Mix thoroughly by hand—do not mix in a blender or with an electric mixer.
Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Can be left overnight.
Prior to using, remove from refrigerator and “paint” over meat, chicken, or pork prior to cooking. If possible, let “painted” protein marinate for 2–4 hours prior to cooking. Then baste at 5-minute intervals while cooking until protein is cooked to satisfaction.
Chicken Fried Steak
A cowboy favorite!
¾ cup breadcrumbs, unseasoned
1 ½ teaspoons fresh basil, chopped fine
&
nbsp; ½ teaspoon table salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon whole milk
plus
1 ⅓ cups whole milk
2 tablespoons oil (canola is best.)
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose white flour
The best cut of steak to use is top round steak, each individual steak cut at least ½ thick each, and 4 oz each. You can take a one-pound steak and cut it into fourths, if you want.
Pound each steak between two pieces of parchment paper with a cooking mallet until each is approximately ¼ inch thick. This not only tenderizes the meat, it makes it easier to cook.
In a small bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, basil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper.
In another bowl, combine the beaten egg, and 1 tablespoon of the milk.
Dip each steak into the egg mixture, shaking off excess, and then roll in the breadcrumb mixture.
In a large skillet (12–14 inches) heat the oil over medium heat and cook each steak for 5–7 minutes, turning once, until both sides are brown.
Then, reduce heat to low-medium. Cover and let cook for 45–60 minutes, or until meat is tender. Transfer to a serving plate or platter and keep warm. Do not discard the skillet drippings.
To make the gravy, cook the onion in the reserved skillet drippings until tender, but do not overcook. If the onion turns brown, you have cooked it too long. Add in the flour and then slowly add in the milk (1 ⅓ cups) a little at a time, continually stirring until the gravy is thick and bubbling. If desired, add in a little extra salt and pepper to taste.
Pour over the steak and serve hot.
Spicy Short Ribs
Another ranch-hand favorite!
4 pounds beef short ribs cut into small, serving-sized pieces
⅓ cup ketchup
⅓ cup hot chili sauce
¼ cup molasses OR ½ cup brown sugar
