by Sabrina York
Cody frowned at them, one after the other. What? What? “What?”
Apparently his feral intensity surprised them, because they both jerked back and stared at him.
He cleared his throat and said in a far more . . . human tone, “What did she say?”
Lisa took a sip of her coffee and flicked a look at him. “It wasn’t what she said as much as how she said it.”
Claire nodded. “Right.”
He leaned forward, urging them to continue, but they didn’t. “And?”
“Apparently, she’s not as happy living in Dallas as we all thought.”
“Really?”
“Apparently, she doesn’t love her job.”
“Really?” What a thought. What an interesting, interesting thought.
“She’s thinking about moving back.” His heart leaped. His pulse pounded. Myriad thoughts whipped through his mind. How freaking awesome would that be? To have her close. To see her on occasion. To have that chance he’d hoped for, prayed for, to finally woo her the way she deserved to be wooed?
“So of course, we offered her the position here. The one we’ve been talking about.” For some reason, his sister’s attention was locked on his face. For some reason, she smiled.
But Cody was barely aware. His entire world had just caught fire.
To have her here, every day, by his side. Good God, that would be amazing.
“What do you guys think about that?” Lisa asked, but her gaze was on his face as well.
“Sounds great,” Cade said. “Better than hiring some college kid we don’t know we can trust to carry her load.”
“Right. Sidney would be one hundred percent present.”
“Just what we need.”
They all continued babbling on, but Cody was deep in sudden fantasies—or maybe schemes—to get Sidney alone. This was the best idea his sister had ever had. He could kiss her.
Until she shattered his bubble by poking him with a fork. “Hey. Earth to Cody.”
“Huh?” He blinked.
“I asked, what do you think?”
He reared back and skated a glance around the table. Everyone was staring at him. “What do I think?”
“Yeah.”
He couldn’t hold back his grin. “I think it sounds perfect.”
It did. Perfect.
“Great,” Lisa said with a too-chipper smile. “All we need to do is convince her to accept the job.”
And his mood plummeted. “She hasn’t accepted it?” Damn.
“Not yet.” Claire winked at him. “Maybe you can work your magic and charm her into agreeing.”
Oh he would.
Whatever it took.
He definitely would.
***
To Sidney’s delight, Cody showed up at the hospital around noon, with a drowsy-looking Logan in tow. As Hanna teased her fiancé about staying up all night with the boys, Sidney shot Cody a shy smile.
She wasn’t sure why she felt shy, but she did. Maybe it was her new determination to make changes in her life, or her decision to move back home, or simply the fact that his smile made butterflies sprout and flitter in her stomach.
She’d never had butterflies before, so she wasn’t sure what to think about that. Fortunately, he didn’t give her time to obsess. He pulled her into a hug and dropped a quick kiss on her lips.
Thank God he’d moved off the forehead.
“How’s your dad?” he asked.
She grinned up at him. “Awake and feisty.”
“Feisty! Excellent. And your mom?”
“She’s good. Mrs. Johnson is staying with her today.”
“That’s nice.”
“Lisa and Clare are awesome, but Mrs. Johnson was feeling left out.”
Hanna nodded. “She does love Mom.”
“And I think she likes feeling needed,” Sidney added.
“Well, we hope you guys are hungry,” Logan said, holding up a baker’s box tied with a ribbon.
“Ooh!” Hanna squealed. “What did Lisa send?”
“Lemon bars.”
“Mmm. My favorite.” Hanna shot her a smile. “Do you want some?”
Sidney wrinkled her nose. “Maybe later. I think I need some protein.”
Cody patted his tummy. “Me too. What do you say we walk over to Bubba’s for lunch?”
Sidney sent her sister a questioning glance. She didn’t want to desert her, but the thought of a nice Cobb salad was nearly irresistible. She hadn’t eaten anything remotely healthy for days.
Hanna made a shooing motion. “Go. Logan and I will hold the fort here.”
Logan grinned and waggled the box. “We will.”
Sidney shook her finger at him. “You’d better leave one for me,” she growled, and he laughed.
“We’ll see.”
Hanna smacked him. “He’ll leave you one, I promise.”
“Me too,” Cody insisted as he took Sidney’s arm.
Hanna shot him an impish grin. “You, sir, are on your own.”
“What?” His squawk was outraged.
“You can eat Lisa’s lemon bars any time,” Logan said.
“No, I can’t. Lisa whacks me with a spatula when I get too close. She calls me Hoover Lips.” His pout was adorable.
“Poor baby.” Sidney patted his arm. “We’ll get dessert at Bubba’s.”
“It won’t be the same,” he muttered, but she could tell he was teasing.
“Come on.” She tugged at him and he followed, waving at Hanna and Logan as they left.
It was a lovely day and a lovelier walk to Bubba’s. Of course, that delightful filter making everything so pleasant was probably caused by Cody’s arm around her. It felt natural and right and she gloried in it.
The restaurant was just finishing up their lunch rush, so it was no trouble finding a booth. Jesse, the waitress, hurried over with a smile and two menus. “How are you doing today?” she asked. And then she shot a commiserating look at Sidney. “Sorry about your dad, hon.”
“Thank you, Jesse,” she said. She should be used to the fact that everyone in town knew everyone’s business. But she’d forgotten.
No one in Dallas knew anything about her and didn’t care to.
It was sure nice to have one person after another stop by the table and ask after Henry Stevens. It almost made her want to cry. When Reverend Tillman came over and told her all the Methodists were praying for him, she couldn’t hold back her tears.
“Thank you,” she choked out.
“Your pa has always been a big part of the community,” he told her. “We’re all pulling for him.”
After he left, Sidney stared at Cody, unable to speak.
He reached across the table and took her hand. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “It’s just . . . just . . .”
“I know. I know.”
“It’s just so . . . nice.” It mortified her that it came out in a blubber. She wasn’t a blubberer. Surely she wasn’t. But he seemed to understand.
“You can’t be the kind of person your dad is and not have everyone in town love you.”
It was nice to know. Everyone in town loved her dad.
It made her . . . stronger somehow.
“It’s a nice town,” she said, bereft of other words, of anything more profound. With her education, she should be able to think of a word more evocative than nice, but somehow nice was more than enough.
He nodded and focused on the menu, probably sensing she was one sniff away from a nuclear meltdown. “What shall we have?”
“I need the Cobb salad,” she said.
He made a face. “You can’t have the Cobb salad.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m getting a burger and fries and you’ll ma
ke me feel like a pig if you sit there pecking at bird food.”
“It’s hardly bird food. There’s blue cheese and avocado. And bacon. Besides, I want the salad.”
“Well, okay,” he grumbled. “But I’m getting a burger.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
“But we’re definitely getting dessert,” she said.
His pout morphed into a dimple-spattered grin. “Excellent.”
It was a pleasant, relaxing lunch. They ate in silence most of the time, but when they talked, the conversation was light and amusing. Cody made her laugh, laugh so hard her stomach ached. More than once he caused her to spit take. She suspected he waited until she had a mouth full of water before he dropped a punchline.
So it was his own fault she sprayed him.
They’d finished lunch and were working on dessert—cheesecake for her and berry cobbler for him, though they each made it a point to sneak a taste or two from the other’s plate—when Cody brought up Claire’s offer.
“My sister says you’re thinking about staying in town,” he said with a quick glance at her.
“Mmm.”
“And she said you might need a job.”
She fiddled with her napkin. “I might.”
“Have you thought about working at the ranch?”
“I have . . . but what do you think about it?” It mattered what he thought. If he didn’t want her around, she would never accept. So it was with bated breath that she awaited his response.
He shrugged and stared down at this cobbler. “I, ah . . .”
Oh shit.
But then he looked up at her and smiled, and her anxiety faded. “I would love it.”
“Would you? Would you really?”
“I would.” His grin widened. “We really need the help, and frankly, I know you would fit in well.”
Her smile faded. Of course. Yeah. Sure. She poked at her cheesecake. “It would be fun, all of us working together.”
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard work. And sometimes frustrating because you have to please the customers and frankly, they can be difficult. Especially the socialites.”
Her mood dipped lower. Was he trying to talk her out of it? Oh, she hated that idea. She poked her cheesecake again.
His hand settled over hers. “Sidney, what’s wrong?”
“What makes you think anything is wrong?”
“You’re mauling your cheesecake.” She glanced at it. It was, indeed, mangled.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
He sighed. “Sidney, you can’t fool me. I can see through you. I know you.”
She glanced at him. He could. He did. She lifted her shoulder. “I was just thinking, perhaps his Nibbs doth protest too much?”
“What?”
“You’re not trying very hard to sell me on the position.”
A flush crept up his cheeks and he forced a laugh. “Seriously? I’m just trying to make sure you understand it’s not all canapes and roses. I wouldn’t want you to get there and think I’m a slave driver.”
“Are you?”
“Kind of. Sometimes. I mean, Lisa and Claire have occasionally mentioned something about, you know, me being an ass.”
“Oh, well, I already know that,” she said with a grin and was relieved to see him chuckle.
“I swear,” he said, slapping his palm to his chest. “I want you there. Need you there. Lose sleep at night because you aren’t there.” He peeped at her. “Is that better?”
She nodded. It was. “All right then. If you really want me to come work for you—”
“I absolutely do.”
“Then I will.”
He whooped so loud heads turned, and she bit back a snort. “Hush,” she said.
“I can’t. I’m too excited. When can you start?”
She leaned back and fixed him with a sober stare. “That depends on how Dad is doing.”
His grin faded. “Oh. Yeah. Of course. He comes first. Sure.” But it was there, that glint in his eye. One that made it clear to her beyond all doubt. He wanted her.
And that was certainly enough.
At least, for the time being.
Chapter Eighteen
It seemed to take forever before Sidney was finally able to come work at the ranch, though it was actually only a couple of months. Cody tried to be patient, because he knew she was worried about her father and she had a lot to do. He went with her to Dallas and helped her move out of her apartment, but they had little time to be alone, because Cade, Lisa, and Claire came along as well. While many hands made light work, he would much rather have had his hands on her.
And then, Henry’s recuperation took longer than expected. Though he tried to be all gruff and independent, it was a difficult façade to maintain when a man couldn’t come down the stairs without help. Though Sidney tried to protest Cody’s help—she was a lot like her father in that—he insisted on coming by at least once a day to check in and spend time with them both.
Again, he would have preferred to have alone time with her, but it was nice getting to know her dad better, and the three of them enjoyed many meals, chats, and snark-fests.
Cody discovered that Sidney had inherited her wicked wit and passion for really bad movies from her dad. He spent many nights with an aching gut from laughing so hard at their pithy observations and running monologues during execrable films.
It was a pleasant time, a time of renewal between them, learning each other all over again. And every day, he felt more and more convinced that she was the woman he wanted to spend his life with.
It bugged him that she seemed to be holding back though. There was ever and always some kind of wall between them. It wasn’t as stony as it had once been, but it was still there. He had no idea how to knock it down. Or even, if he should.
He opted for patience.
But damn, it was hard.
He was hardly a patient man.
Finally, the day came when Henry Stevens rebelled against his daughter’s coddling. The doctors had given him a clean bill of health—with restrictions, of course—and Henry was itching to get back to his life.
“Not that I don’t enjoy sipping tea with you,” he said to Sidney. “But I need to get back to normal.”
Sidney had protested, of course. Cody sensed that she’d really enjoyed this time with her father, that some sort of renewal had been blossoming there as well. But in the end, she had to accede that her father was more than ready to shake off the constraints of an invalid.
And it wasn’t just that he was getting antsy. He’d been watching Cody and Sidney together with growing interest. He’d even gone so far as to pull Cody aside and mention that, as men went, he was a fine one. He made it clear he wouldn’t object if Cody had the inkling to date his younger daughter.
Which was excellent.
One less hurdle at least.
Beyond that, Henry also approved of the idea of Sidney working at the ranch. She needed something, he said. Something more in life. It was pretty clear he liked having her close and wasn’t sorry in the least that she’d left her job as a bikini barista.
So finally—finally—Sidney presented herself for work.
And, as they expected, she fit right in. More than that. She seemed to have a second sense about what would be needed before anyone else thought of it. More than once, he’d gone to her to ask her to complete a task, only to have her smile and say, “Already did it.”
All this only validated his conviction that she was perfect for him.
Now all he had to do was convince her.
But he wasn’t sure how to do it.
Before they’d become friends he would just have seduced her. Cornered her in some quiet alcove and kissed her silly. But no
w, for some reason, he was leery to make the first move.
It was an unfamiliar awkwardness for him. He’d never second-guessed himself with a woman or a seduction before.
But it had never meant this much to him before.
It was much easier to make decisions when a man didn’t really care about the outcome.
Not the case here. Cody really cared about her, about their relationship, about everything. To the extent it nearly paralyzed him.
It took a lot of effort to remind himself to take it slow. Take it easy. Be patient.
One day as he and Claire were going over the bookings in the office, his sister threw him for a loop. “So,” she said, apropos of nothing. “How is it going with Sidney?”
He blinked. “What?”
“Sidney. Remember her? Reddish hair? Brown eyes? Snarky attitude?”
He glared at her. “What’s your point?”
“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?”
He sighed, sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Apparently not.”
“She’s here because you’re interested in her.”
“I thought she was here because you were whining for more help.”
“I never whine.”
“You know what I mean. And she’s working out beautifully.”
“She is. Better than I expected. But that’s not what we’re talking about, is it?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I have no idea what we’re talking about. You started this.”
Claire leaned in and hissed, “You and Sidney.”
“Sidney and I are . . .” He cleared his throat. “Friends.”
“Yeah. Right. I see the way you look at her. Are you trying to tell me you don’t have the hots for her?”
“I would never say that.” That would be an absolute lie.
“Then . . . what?”
“What, what?” God, his sister was so annoying sometimes. “Why don’t you just come out and say what you mean?”
“Are you two . . . an item?”
“Ah.” He shot her a cold smile. “None of your beeswax.”
“Don’t get flip. I deserve to know.”
He gaped at her. “You absolutely do not deserve to know.” Anything between himself and Sidney was private. Beyond which, Claire was the absolute last person he’d want to discuss it with.
