by Mia Ross
Most of what she told them came straight out of the new flyer she was designing, listing the services the clinic offered, along with their hopes for future expansion. When she was finished, she spread her hands open wide. “Okay, those are the basics. What would you like to ask me?”
Small hands shot into the air, and she called on each kid in turn, answering their questions carefully and honestly. One girl asked, “Are you going to keep Rosie?”
“Oh, no,” Bekah replied, shaking her head for emphasis. “She’s a wild creature, and she wouldn’t be happy living in a cage for very long. We’re going to release her later this month, from a clearing in the woods out near the center. The details will be on our new website soon, so if any of you want to come, you can have a grown-up help you find the information there. You and your families are welcome to join us.”
Brilliant, Drew congratulated her silently. Folks these days were so wired in, these kids and their parents were probably online every day. Directing them to the newly revamped website was a great way to get the word out that the center was not only expanding, but solidly up-to-date on the latest technology, too.
When she called on a young boy, he said, “Hawks eat mice and stuff. How do you catch those for her?”
Bekah looked him dead in the face and with just the hint of a smile replied, “With cheese.”
The kids all laughed, and Lily gave her a subtle “okay” sign. Despite Bekah’s concerns that this presentation would be a disaster, Drew thought that she had handled every single question with the perfect blend of sincerity and humor. Knowing how far she’d come from the skittish woman he’d first met on that deserted country road, Drew couldn’t have been prouder of her.
When the class finally ran out of questions, Lily stood back up to regain their attention. “All right, guys, that’s it for now. Let’s give Miss Holloway and Rosie a nice, gentle round of applause.”
Somehow, they managed to show their appreciation without spooking the bird, and Drew set the camera on a nearby desk to keep it rolling while he went over to help Bekah wrangle the oversize cage.
“Great job,” he murmured as they dropped the canvas into place. “They all loved you.”
“It’s Rosie,” Bekah corrected him with her usual humility. “She’s so beautiful and smart, people can’t help loving her.”
Drew wanted to echo the compliment for her, but he knew she’d just brush it off. Instead, he said, “You both did a terrific job here today. For yourselves and for the center.”
After saying goodbye to Lily and her class, they headed out to where he’d parked his truck.
While they got Rosie’s cage latched tightly into place, Bekah asked, “Did the video come out okay? Was I speaking loud enough? My heart was racing so fast, I felt like my voice was shaking the entire time.”
“Why don’t we head to the clinic and get Rosie settled? Then we can watch the recording and see what you think.”
“But what did you think?”
“I told you, I thought you did great.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled, ducking her head in the hesitant old gesture he hadn’t missed in the least. “I didn’t mean to hassle you.”
It hadn’t occurred to him that she’d interpret his comment as irritation, and he wanted to kick himself for not being more considerate. This woman had been abused in more ways than he cared to think about. While he’d done everything he could to make her feel safe, what she needed most from him was patience. And after he’d given her that, more patience.
Sneaking his finger under her chin, he gently tipped her face up so she was looking directly at him. He wasn’t humble by nature, but he recognized that he’d handled the situation badly, and he wasn’t about to let the moment pass without at least trying to make it right. “You weren’t hassling me. If what I said gave you that impression, then I apologize.”
“Really?” When he nodded, she gave him a wan smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I can be a little dense sometimes, so you’ll have to let me know when I screw up. Okay?”
He could almost see the wheels turning in that quick mind of hers, examining his request for some kind of trick. Mistrustful as she was in general, it amazed him that she was standing here, looking him in the eye, discussing something so deeply personal. To his mind, that was progress. For both of them.
* * *
Saturday night.
Sprawled out on the sofa in the clothes he’d worn all day, Drew was trying to convince himself to get up and throw some of his mother’s leftovers in the microwave. Or take a shower. But so far he’d barely managed to toe off his work boots, listening to them thud on the battered wide plank floor before the house fell silent again.
Pathetic, he scolded himself with all the energy of a snail going uphill. At least the snail had a plan, he thought wryly. Him, he had nothing. And considering how bushed he was, he didn’t envision that situation changing anytime soon. Working his usual long hours at the farm and extra time at the rescue center had finally worn him out.
When someone knocked at the front door, he ignored it. After all, the cottage was dark, so if he kept quiet, they might just assume he’d hit the sack early. Then he heard Bekah’s voice.
“Drew, I know you’re still awake in there. Open the door.”
If it had been anyone else standing on his porch, he wouldn’t have moved an inch. But since it was Bekah, he hauled himself up off the couch and trudged to the door. Pulling it open, he hung on it with a wan smile. “Hey.”
“Wow, you look terrible.”
“Thanks for noticing. What’d you need?”
In answer, she held up a large box. “I made you dinner.”
“Seriously?” Fingering open the top, he got a whiff of a rich, homey smell that made his mouth water. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Roast beef and potatoes.”
Despite his exhaustion, he felt a smile creeping in. “My favorite.”
“That’s what your mom said when I asked her. I splurged on a slow cooker the other day, and I decided to try it out.”
“What’s the occasion?”
“There isn’t one,” she admitted shyly. “I got this month’s tutoring fee from Sierra today, and now that I have a new windshield, I didn’t need it for anything in particular. Then I remembered that I was supposed to make dinner for you, to pay you back for the gas you put in my car when you came by to make repairs at the kennel.”
He almost told her to forget about the debt, then recalled how adamant she’d been about paying what she owed. The fact that she felt confident enough in their friendship to oppose him on something, even something this trivial, was a good sign. “Okay, then. Come on in.”
He reached out for the box, but she stubbornly held it out of his reach. “I’ll handle this while you go get cleaned up.”
“Is that a hint?”
She wrinkled her cute little nose. “I could make it more direct if you want.”
“No,” he replied with a chuckle. “I get the drift. Help yourself to whatever’s in the kitchen. I’ll be out soon.”
“Sierra’s at the clinic doing inventory with some of our volunteers, so I’ve got a couple of hours. Take your time.”
Drew wasn’t a fussy kind of guy, so ten minutes later he was scrubbed from head to toe and had shed his filthy jeans and T-shirt for clean ones. Padding out of the single bedroom in his bare feet, he smelled something that was almost unheard-of in what Mom called his Bachelor Cave: fresh, home-cooked food.
Leaning on the pass-through that went into the living room, Bekah gave him a chiding look. “Your fridge is full of take-out containers and plastic cups.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not much of a cook,” he confided with a laugh. “I pretty much exist on leftovers and pizza.”
�
�So you’re saying I should leave you the extra?”
She was taunting him, and he wondered if this was the same woman who could barely look him in the eye only a few weeks ago. Picking up on her teasing, he retorted, “Only if it’s good.”
“I guess that depends on how you like your beef. I do a nice peppercorn rub and then simmer it for a few hours in my secret sauce.”
She held up a bottle of commercial seasoning, and he laughed. “What a coincidence. That’s just how I like it.”
“You’re not fooling anyone here, farm boy,” she informed him, waving a wooden spoon for emphasis. “You’d probably say that no matter what, just to get a free meal.”
The meal wasn’t what he was interested in, he thought as he strolled through the archway into the kitchen. It was the chef. While it was the absolute truth, he knew she’d probably think he was handing her a well-rehearsed line. So he made a show of looking around and asked, “What can I do to help?”
“I was just hunting up a knife to cut the bread before I warm it in the oven.”
She’d given him the easiest, most foolproof job possible, he mused while he dug out the gourmet knife set Erin had given him last Christmas. There was a dusty red bow on top of the box, and Bekah gave him an amused look. “Let me guess. You’re not much good in the chopping and dicing department.”
“Guilty as charged. My little sister would scream if she knew these things were still in the original box.”
“And then some,” Bekah added, taking out the shiny slicing blade and washing it off before handing it to him. “You boys must know you drive her completely bonkers.”
He just grinned, and she shook her head at him. “That’s mean.”
“Yeah, but she makes it so easy.”
“With Lily in the family now, the balance of power around here is shifting over to the girls. Pretty soon Abby will be old enough to give you a hard time, and you guys will have to start behaving yourselves.”
“Don’t count on it,” he challenged her, snapping the end from a celery stick with his teeth. “Things work fine just the way they are, and we’re not likely to change ’em anytime soon.”
“We’ll see.”
Her cryptic response was accompanied by an equally cryptic smile, the kind women wore when they believed they knew significantly more about something than he did. Drew was mulling that over when it occurred to him that she’d implied she’d be around to see his brothers and him get their attitudes adjusted. The idea of her staying in Oaks Crossing appealed to him a lot more than it should have for someone committed to keeping this beautiful, perplexing woman at arm’s length.
And then there was Colorado. He still hadn’t made up his mind about that, and he knew Nolan couldn’t wait much longer.
Eager to get something decided, Drew searched for a way to find out her plans without making it sound as if he was overly invested in her decision. “Y’know, I was thinking earlier that if you’re planning to stay in town, you should find a more permanent place to live. That old office isn’t heated, and it’s gonna get pretty chilly in there come January.”
Her eyes narrowed in a suspicious feminine look he recognized immediately, and she pinned him with a hard stare. “What are you getting at?”
“Nothing,” he insisted, cutting up the bread as though his life depended on it. “Forget I said anything.”
After several incredibly awkward moments of silence, her small hand settled on his, and he stopped slicing. When he looked up, he saw understanding in those soft blue eyes. “Are you trying to ask me when I’m leaving?”
Other women he’d known were much easier to fool, accepting whatever he told them because they didn’t bother looking beneath the surface for a deeper meaning. Maybe because it didn’t occur to them that he might have another level beyond the one he showed them.
Bekah was a different story altogether, and there wasn’t much point in fencing with her. He’d never win. “Actually, I’m trying not to ask you.”
“Why?”
“’Cause it’s none of my business. If you want to go, you should go.”
“What if I want to stay?”
“You should do that, too.” He winced at the moronic turn this conversation had taken. Normally, he was smooth and self-assured around women, but right now he reminded himself of Josh, who still got tongue-tied around girls he liked. Giving himself a mental shake, Drew made a desperate attempt to redeem himself. “I mean, you should do whatever makes you happy. You’ve had a tough time, and you deserve to be happy.”
She rewarded him with a heartwarming smile that made him feel slightly less stupid. “That’s very sweet. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Fortunately for him, the oven timer went off, and her attention shifted from him to their dinner. Anxious to put all this foolishness behind him, he quickly laid two place settings on the breakfast bar he used as a table. After rescuing the spare stool from its television-holding duty, he went through the fridge, hoping to find a stray pitcher of something to drink.
“Sorry,” he apologized when he came up empty, “but all I’ve got is water.”
“That’s okay. I prefer that, anyway.”
“Haven’t gotten a taste for sweet tea?” he asked as they sat across the counter from each other.
“Not really. I like the strawberry lemonade at the café, though. It’s delicious.”
Drew tucked that bit of information away for later and finally thought of asking her about her day. If only he’d done that earlier, he groused, he wouldn’t have lost his footing and made a complete idiot of himself.
“Actually,” she told him in between bites, “the animals are all doing well. It’s the website that’s giving me fits.”
“Computer problems again?”
“No, I zapped all the viruses, and it’s fine now. The problem is I’m not thrilled with the site design, and I’ve stared at it so long, I can’t figure out what’s not working. Another set of eyes would really help, but I hate to ask Sierra when she’s so stressed about her finals.”
“I’ve got a set of eyes,” he reminded her with a grin. “I’d be happy to take a look and give you some unhelpful advice.”
That made her laugh, and he realized that he’d been hearing the joyful sound more and more lately. The cloud that had been hanging over her when she’d arrived in town seemed to be losing its grip, leaving a brighter, more optimistic outlook in its place. He wished he could come up with a way to tell her that without making both of them feel uncomfortable, but he couldn’t.
Instead, he settled for being practical. “I’ve got a laptop in the living room. After dinner, we can take a look at the screens you’re worried about.”
“Are you sure? I mean, you look totally beat.”
“You’ll be doing the hard part, so I can manage.”
A little grin tugged at the corner of her mouth, giving her a playful look he hadn’t noticed before. “Do you ever get tired of being my hero?”
“Not so far.”
The instinctive reply startled him, but her grateful smile made him glad he’d said it. The connection he felt with her was unusual for him, to say the least. Since Kelly had left, his relationships with women had been either friendly or romantic. Hard as he’d tried, he still couldn’t figure out where he and Bekah fell on that scale, and the uncertainty should have scared him to death.
But it didn’t. What that meant, he couldn’t say. But he had a feeling his nice, quiet little life was about to become very interesting.
Once they were finished eating, he piled the dirty dishes and pans in the sink. When Bekah started the water running, he waved her off. “You cooked, I’ll get these.”
“When?” she asked, eyeing the stack that constituted a significant portion of the cookware and dishes he owned.
“Tomorrow after church.” She gave him a skeptical look, and he laughed. “Really. You can even come back and check to make sure I did it.”
“Is that your cool-guy way of inviting me to visit again?”
“Actually, I thought it was pretty straightforward.”
“I’m sure.”
Her tone was hard to interpret, but the sparkle in her eyes told him he’d hit the right note this time. It wasn’t easy with her, but for some reason, he kept on trying. She was the most challenging woman he’d ever met, and not long ago he never would have put in this kind of effort to get to know her. But something kept nudging him forward, convinced that in the end, everything he was doing would be worth it.
“So,” he commented, tossing the oven mitts onto the counter by the sink, “let’s have a look at the website.”
They settled side by side on his hand-me-down sofa and powered up the one high-tech gadget he’d splurged on not long ago: a shiny new laptop. When the screen blossomed into an aerial view of the farm, Bekah said, “Wow. I had no idea how big Gallimore Stables is. What’s all this over here?” she asked, pointing to a section of unused land to the east.
“Dad used to call it the Buffer Zone. It’s about fifty acres and separates us from the dairy farm in the next valley.” Drew looped a finger farther out from the developed acreage, circling all the land the Kinleys owned. “There’s a great stream running through it, with trout and bass nearly as big as you are.”
That got him another dubious look. “Seriously?”
“They’re big,” he assured her with a grin. “I’ll take you fishing out there sometime. You can bring along a tape measure and judge for yourself.”
Gazing at the screen, she commented, “It’s really pretty, all wild and untamed like that. I’ve never spent a lot of time outdoors, but around here everything’s so beautiful, it’s impossible not to.”
“Yeah, I like it, too. We all do,” he added quickly to avoid sounding too personal. The moment stretched out awkwardly, and Drew covered his discomfort by handing off the computer. “Take it away.”
