As Sissy slapped corned beef slices on rye bread and made sure the sauerkraut had simmered long enough, she remembered that she’d promised Finn a meal. She glanced at the end piece of the corned beef, nodded her head, and cut a few more slices. Finn deserved the best. She pulled down another plate for the dog, embellished her offering with some leftover hamburger patties, and crumbled a corn muffin over the meat for an added treat. The dog had a loving, soulful gaze that she could meet with a feeling of peace and tenderness. Not like his master’s eyes, not by a mile. Gazing into Ben’s gave her about as much peace as standing by the tracks when the 12:20 freight train roared in every Wednesday and Friday.
She stepped onto the back porch to offer Finn his snack, mentally reminding herself to give him a full meal after Ben ate lunch. She had a hunch that Ben normally fed him whenever he ate. Finn greeted her with ecstatic whines, wagging his tail so hard she hoped his rear end didn’t come loose. Sissy granted herself a moment to simply appreciate the beautiful day. Clumps of wispy white clouds stood out against the robin’s egg blue sky. The pine trees in her yard and beyond the stream were shamrock green and swayed in the capricious wind currents like graceful dancers. All too soon, winter would descend upon Mystic Creek, and the tree boughs would bend low under the weight of snow until ice rendered them immobile. But today she could stand here, warm and happy, getting whiffs of the delicious Mexican food José was preparing next door.
Just then, movement caught her eye. Ben appeared from behind the bed of his pickup, bare from the waist up. Apparently he’d grown too hot and stripped off his shirt. Sissy’s mouth, wet from imagining the taste of José’s enchiladas, went as dry as sunbaked dirt. Ben’s upper body was slightly lighter in color than those parts of him always exposed to the elements, but it had the same butterscotch hue, accentuated with a mat of dark gold chest hair that tapered down to the fly of his jeans like an arrow. Every movement he made set muscles rippling under his skin. His broad shoulders, toned from physical labor, were well padded. His chest, wide and mounded with what looked like rock-hard flesh, glistened in the sunlight that played over him. She tried to look somewhere, anywhere, else, but her eyes weren’t getting the message from her brain.
As if he felt her staring, he snapped his gaze to the porch. Whatever he read in her expression made him grab his shirt from where he’d tossed it over the tailgate. With quick thrusts of his arms down the sleeves, he shrugged into the garment, leaving the front hanging open. From her point of view that didn’t do one bit of good. The partial display of masculine chest and abs was just as unnerving.
Just then, the café buzzer sounded, indicating that a customer had walked in. Sissy had never been so glad to hear anything. She spun around and nearly tripped over the still-chewing Finn. Doing an awkward hop-skip to avoid stepping on him, she careened through the back door and slammed it, stopping to fan her burning cheeks. What was wrong with her? Men stripped off their shirts all the time while they worked. There was nothing indecent about it. She’d seen plenty of shirtless guys, for heaven’s sake. She’d never felt even a twinge of arousal, let alone a slam that nearly buckled her knees.
She hurried through the storage rooms into the dining area. Blackie, the pawnshop owner, sat at the counter, moving a set of salt and pepper shakers on the surface as if he were playing solitary chess.
Finding her voice, she said, “What’ll it be, Blackie? Taking a coffee break during your walk?”
Every afternoon, the man closed his shop for an hour to get his daily exercise. Though stocky of build, he wasn’t overweight, and she admired his determination to be physically fit. He stayed mostly on pavement as he walked, sometimes circling the town center several times before reopening his business. He often stopped in at the Cauldron prior to that for a little refreshment, and she’d come to thoroughly enjoy their chats. With Blackie, she didn’t worry about guarding her tongue.
His black hair glistening in the artificial light, he settled a thoughtful blue gaze on Sissy, studied her for a moment, and said, “I’ve got a hankering for one of your blueberry muffins and a cup of coffee.”
Sissy made muffins and cakes three times a week for those customers with a sweet tooth, and, of course, she had desserts on her menu. She ordered pies and more complicated pastry creations from the Jake ’n’ Bake. “One blueberry muffin with coffee, coming right up.” She stepped behind the counter and washed her hands. Within seconds, she’d served Blackie his muffin and poured him a cup of coffee. “How did your outing go today?”
“Well, weather-wise it was fabulous,” he said, giving her a grin, “but during my walk, Ma Thomas dashed out of her shop to grab my arm. She’s in a tailspin. FedEx got some of her order wrong today and brought her two boxes of items that were supposed to go across the street to the Shady Lady.”
Along with most of the town, Sissy adored Ma Thomas. Every once in a while, Sissy invited her and Marilyn next door over to her café for lunch after the crowd thinned out. It was fun, but Sissy especially enjoyed the stories they told about her aunt Mabel. How much she loved bingo nights. How she cried while watching sad movies. And how proud she would be of Sissy for stepping into her shoes and making the café even more prosperous than it had been while she ran it.
“The Shady Lady?” The thought of Ma going in there made Sissy cringe. It was an adult store targeted mostly at men and women who wanted to liven up their sex lives. Sissy had gone in once, just to check it out. “Uh-oh,” she said. “Ma is such a sweetie. Whatever she found in the boxes probably shocked her to the core.”
Blackie chuckled. “She made me go inside her shop and look. She wanted me to tell her what she’d been sent so she could call the supplier and get her order straightened out.”
Sissy pictured some of the merchandise at the Shady Lady and mentally elbowed Ben out of the forefront of her mind. She smiled at Blackie. “So did you tell her what was in the boxes?”
Blackie lifted his muffin. “Hell, no. I pretended to be as mystified as she was. Dildos. Dozens of them in all shapes and sizes. I couldn’t tell Ma what they were. I didn’t want her to know I even knew what they were. She’d never look at me the same way again. So instead I pointed to the address labels and told her where the boxes should have gone.”
Sissy giggled as she topped off Blackie’s mug. The man loved his coffee. “That was probably a smart call. Now if only we could be flies on the wall when Ma goes across the street to the Shady Lady to exchange boxes with the owner!” Slipping into the kitchen to grill Ben’s sandwich, Sissy raised her voice to continue the conversation. “Imagine the look on Ma’s face when she sees all that stuff on display in the Shady Lady.”
Blackie sighed. “I probably should have gone with her. Call me a chicken, but I didn’t have the guts.”
Sissy flipped over the sizzling sandwich just as a timer went off, signaling that Ben’s fries were done. She hurried over to open the appliance and lifted the basket. “I don’t blame you, and you aren’t a chicken. Some of those gadgets are over-the-top. Maybe Ma won’t know what they’re for, and she’ll return to her store none the wiser.”
Blackie spoke around a lump of muffin in his cheek. “God bless her. She’s a woman in a million. She stuck by her husband and never strayed even though he was sick for a long time. If she was twenty years younger, I’d marry her.”
“You and half the population of the whole town,” affirmed Sissy. “She’s—”
Ben’s voice cut across her words as he entered the dining room. “You kidding, Blackie? I thought you swore off marriage after your divorce.”
As Sissy arranged Ben’s lunch on a plate, Blackie filled Ben in on the order mistake at Simply Sensational. She heard a rumble of laughter from Ben. “Dildos? Poor Ma. How did you explain what they were?”
“I didn’t! I acted as innocent as a kid and twice as dumb. There are some things that a dear heart like Mary Alice doesn’t need to know, son. I only feel bad because I left her to straighten out the order by herself. Now I’m worried that she’ll hotfoot it across the street and walk into that den of—hmm, I can’t think of the word. But ladies of her generation don’t need to know about that stuff.”
Sissy left the kitchen, carrying Ben’s food. Just as devastatingly handsome as he’d been minutes ago, Ben winked at her. To Blackie, he said, “I only went in once. Curiosity got the better of me. Let me just say it’s not a place I’d want my mom to visit.”
Sissy set napkin-wrapped silverware in front of her now fully clothed handyman and found herself still picturing him without a shirt. She set his plate down with a thump. Blackie stared at her in surprise but Ben didn’t seem to notice.
“Yum!” Ben said appreciatively. “Extra kraut? Lots of sauce. You’re a woman after my heart.”
She was not after his heart, and she almost said so. But there were other things about him that were getting more and more difficult for her to ignore. The sooner he was off her property, the better she’d like it.
“Man, it’s gorgeous outside today!” Blackie exclaimed. “It feels almost like summer again. It makes me want to close my shop so I can enjoy it.”
Over time, Blackie had become one of Sissy’s favorite customers, a friend who didn’t make her feel threatened or guarded. “Oh, me, too! I daydream about closing my café and sneaking away to play hooky. Even though I know it’ll never happen, I have it all planned out. I’ll hang a sign on the café door saying I’ll open again for dinner, climb into my aunt Mabel’s SUV, and drive the curvy mountain roads until I find the perfect grassy spot to enjoy a solitary picnic. One last day of summer.”
Blackie laughed. “I’ve done it a few times. Closed up and taken off. It was wonderful. Weather like this brings out my rebellious side.”
Sissy smiled. “Growing up, I sometimes hid in my parents’ backyard—when they’d rented a place with one—to watch the clouds drifting above me. I often wondered where they were going. I never came up with a satisfactory answer, but one thing was certain in my mind. Anywhere had to be better than where I was. Somewhere there had to be a place where everything wasn’t your fault, where no one beat your puppy to death because it barked at night, where kids felt like they were wanted instead of barely tolerated.”
A leaden silence blanketed the café. Sissy realized what she’d just said and wanted to disappear. Ben sat frozen with his teeth still sunk into one half of his sandwich. Blackie had settled a saddened gaze on her.
So embarrassed she could barely think, Sissy rushed to add with false cheer, “But that’s all behind me now. I’m twenty-six, on my own, and running a business. Despite the harsh winters, Mystic Creek has become my home. I have a good life here, and for the first time, I can call my own shots.”
Ben had finally swallowed the bite of sandwich. Blackie looked at her as if he’d never seen her before.
“Well, honey,” Blackie said, “tomorrow may be your last chance for that summer picnic somewhere beautiful. My weather app says it’ll be nice for the next few days, but I never trust what it says for more than twenty-four hours. Nobody but a fool tries to predict weather in Oregon. You should close up tomorrow and take a day off.”
“Oh, no, I can’t. Ben’s expecting his four meals for building my new run and coop, and Christopher Doyle counts on me for his as well.”
“Forget my four squares,” Ben inserted. “And what you need for your hooky day is a guide who knows the area. You can drive the windy roads around here forever if you don’t know where to go. Have you ever seen Crystal Falls? Not the town, but the waterfall.”
“Oh, wow, it’s incredible,” Blackie observed. “The water is crystal clear.” He glanced at Ben. “And that grassy bank? It’d be perfect for a picnic. I went once. Didn’t have a picnic, but I did get hungry because it’s so gorgeous you don’t want to leave. You should go up there. Ben would probably love to take you.”
Sissy felt as if she’d gotten stuck in a vise. “Christopher counts on me.” She speared Blackie with a look. “And you count on your muffin and coffee during your afternoon walk. I can’t just up and leave!”
“Sure you can!” Blackie insisted. “I can go over to the Jake ’n’ Bake for a muffin and coffee tomorrow. Just close up after you feed Christopher breakfast. Tell him you’re taking off and will come back before the dinner hour. Do your prep in the morning. Steal a few hours for yourself for a change. When I do it, I just say an emergency came up. People don’t stop patronizing my shop. And it isn’t a lie. My emergency is that I need a day to enjoy myself. Desperately.”
“The waterfalls are hard to find,” Ben commented. “GPS up in those mountains isn’t always accurate. I’d love to drive you up there. I’ll have to take Finn along, if you don’t mind. He gets in a pout if I leave him and chews things, like my furniture.”
Sissy felt mildly offended. “Why would I object to being around Finn? He’s a sweetheart.”
“So it’s a plan!” Blackie slapped his palm on the counter. When he saw what Sissy knew was probably a horrified look on her face, he added, “Think of it as a favor to me and my blood pressure. I worry about you, working nonstop all day, every day.”
Sissy tried to imagine taking part of a day off in the company of Ben, the cowboy who was way too sexy to go without a shirt. Apparently Ben interpreted by her expression that she was worried. “Just as friends. Finn will be our chaperone. He’s still just a baby. I can’t poison his mind with anything risqué.”
Sissy giggled. She didn’t know where that had come from, because she was totally not into this idea. She supposed her laughter sprang from near hysteria.
“So,” Blackie said, “when is Christopher finished with breakfast?”
“Eight thirty,” Sissy replied.
“Get your dinner prep done before then, throw his plate and flatware in the dishwasher, and you can be out of here by nine,” Blackie said. “Just do it. It’ll be good for my heart. You work way too hard. Money isn’t everything, Sissy. Sometimes we just have to live.”
Ben took another bite of his sandwich and chewed for what seemed an interminable time. “Blackie, you heard the lady. She can finally call her own shots. Stop pressuring her.”
Blackie hung his head. “I didn’t mean like it’d be a date or anything. Just a few hours for her to relax.”
Sissy realized that Blackie now felt awful. She blurted, “I’ll go. I need a few hours off.”
Beaming a grin, Blackie looked up at her. “Really? Oh, honey, I’m so glad. Normally it’s slow for me on weekdays, but tomorrow I’m doing a big trade with another pawnshop owner in Crystal Falls. Once we’ve held merchandise beyond the expiration date and it’s not moving for us, we switch with each other. Otherwise I’d take you to the falls myself.”
Ben said nothing and continued eating. More slowly now. When Blackie finally left, he finished off his meal in record time and then looked up at her. “Crystal Falls is beautiful beyond description. But don’t let Blackie push you into going if you don’t want to. If I show up at nine and you’ve changed your mind, I’ll just go to work on the chicken coop.”
Sissy’s heart squeezed, and it hurt so badly it nearly took her breath. This was Ben Sterling, one of the golden-haired favorites of Mystic Creek, the kind of man who, in her experience, felt privileged and entitled with women. They never played fair. When they got a woman backed into a corner, they went for it. But he had just offered her a way out.
“Thank you, Ben.”
He slid his plate toward her. “Thank you for the best Reuben sandwich I’ve ever eaten. I’ll be here at nine. Crystal Falls is truly incredible to see, and I’ll bring the picnic food. If you decide against going, no worries. With my appetite, I’ll empty the cooler and be hungry by dinnertime.” He swung off the barstool. “Don’t let Blackie pressure you. He means well, but he may not understand how you feel about some things. You’re independent now. Don’t let anybody screw with that.”
He turned and strode toward the back area of the café with that loose-hipped stride, filled with the strength and agility that always made her mouth water. When she heard the back door close, she allowed the sharp shards of her memories to flow from her lungs on the crest of a pent-up breath and closed her eyes. Tears slipped down her cheeks. It was far too soon for her to trust Ben. Far too soon. But no privileged, well-heeled male, young or old, had ever told her that she should make her own choices and let no one else pressure her to do otherwise.
Sissy sighed. She didn’t trust Ben enough to go with him tomorrow, but maybe, after a good night’s sleep, she’d decide to do it anyway. Against her better judgment. Go when all her alarm bells were ringing. Go simply because he’d respected her right to make her own decision. No demands, no pressure. Maybe he really was as nice as he seemed.
Just then Blackie reentered the café. “What is Ben building out back, anyway?”
“A new chicken coop and run. I’m paying him with meals.”
“That’d work for me! You’ve turned into a great cook.” He paused at the counter. “Do you mind if I go out to have a look?”
“No, not at all.”
Blackie nodded and trailed behind Ben through the storage rooms.
Sissy took that opportunity to do cleanup and find something for Finn’s lunch. She had scraps of corned beef left over from Ben’s Reuben and took them out to the pup, who was quickly becoming her most devoted customer, nonpaying though he might be.
Squatting beside him, she trailed her fingertips through his sun-silvered fur, thinking of his master with a troubled frown knitting her brow. Ben unsettled her, and she couldn’t kid herself about why. She was attracted to him. No, that didn’t describe how she felt around him. Turned on, hot for him. Brutal honesty was what she needed from herself, not toned-down excuses. If she intended to keep her life on course, she needed to bring these feelings to a screeching halt. And if that was impossible, she had to make damned sure he never found out.
She rested her palm on Finn’s back, thinking how easily she’d come to care about the little guy. She couldn’t allow herself to do the same with his master.
* * *
The next morning was summer bright with a light, balmy breeze that ruffled Sissy’s hair as she tended to her chickens and turned them out into their small but reinforced run. Sissy watched them stretch their legs, noting how crowded they still were. That would be the perfect excuse for her to give Ben for canceling the drive to see the waterfall. On the other hand, the hens could survive another few hours of bumping shoulders occasionally, and an outdoor excursion on such a beautiful day tempted her almost beyond bearing. Ben had said he’d work on the run when they got back late that afternoon. He might even get it finished before dark.
Waffling back and forth about whether she should go or not, Sissy found herself doing the dinner prep when she returned to the café. She guessed that meant she was going, even though she hadn’t completely made up her mind yet. Watching the clock, she felt the knots in her stomach grow tighter and tighter. At a quarter before seven, her usual opening time, she gave herself a hard mental shake. Did she want to visit the waterfall or not? Yes. So what if she felt nervous? She wasn’t going on a date. Ben wouldn’t expect sex, or demand it of her. Well—she hoped not, since he’d advised her to call her own shots. With a black Magic Marker, she wrote a note that read, CLOSED DUE TO EMERGENCY. WILL REOPEN AT FIVE FOR DINNER. Then, with quivering fingers, she taped the sign on her front-door window.
As always Christopher arrived at eight sharp, and Sissy greeted him by opening the door. “Ignore the sign. You’re a special customer, and I’m serving you breakfast before I leave.”
The old man tottered inside, using his cane to steady himself. “Well, I appreciate that. But what’s the emergency?”
Sissy couldn’t bring herself to lie. “I’m escaping for the day to have a picnic. I’ve never seen Crystal Falls—the waterfall, not the town.”
Christopher seated himself at his usual booth. “Oh, you’ll love it. My wife used to drag me up there once a month all summer long.” He smiled with fond memories. “I enjoyed it as much as she did, but I grumped at her about it anyhow. Made her appreciate me more.”
Sissy laughed. “You stinker, you.” She went to the kitchen for his breakfast. After setting his food before him, she took a seat across from him to chat while he ate. “What other outdoor things did you do with your wife?”
Christopher regaled her with stories about their fishing trips. After finishing his meal, he chuckled as he struggled to get up from the booth. “Never did get her to put a worm on a hook. I had to do it for her while she closed her eyes.”
Sissy ran his credit card, then walked with him to the door. “I’ll be open again for dinner.”
He stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Well, if you’re not, I’ve got frozen dinners to fall back on. You go and have a good time, and if you want to linger, which I always did, do it. It’s good for the soul, and my walks here are good for my heart, whether I get dinner or not.”
Sissy locked up behind him. Then she lowered all the window blinds before collecting his plate and flatware to stow them in the dishwasher. She’d just finished wiping off the booth table when Ben entered from the back. “Well, are we on? Or have you chickened out?”
For a split second, Sissy almost did exactly that. He looked fabulous in a brown Western shirt, collar open and sleeves rolled back over his muscular forearms. Physically, she was at a dangerous disadvantage with Ben. Memories of how badly things had gone for her in the past when she trusted men flashed through her mind.
But she pushed those thoughts aside, remembered that Christopher had said it would be good for her, and took a deep breath to bolster her courage. “Nope. I’m all ready to go.”
His burnished face creased in a grin. “Do you have another light jacket that Finn hasn’t destroyed? The falls are at a higher elevation. On a day like this, it should be warm up there, but it’s better to always go prepared.”
“Yes, I’ve got another one. I’ll grab it as we leave.”
“Fantastic.”
He followed her down the hall, pausing while she grabbed a coat off a hook and then got her keys so she could lock up. Finn waited on the porch and bounced around with excitement when he saw Sissy.
“No,” she said with a laugh as she secured the building, “I didn’t bring you food.”
As Ben descended the steps beside her, she cast him a questioning look. “You said you’d bring the picnic stuff. I hope you remembered that three of us will be eating.”
Ben chuckled. “Of course I remembered. While I made sandwiches, he drooled all over my boots, begging for bites.” They walked toward his truck. “I made three extra for him. You’ll be slumming it, I’m afraid. I stopped at Flagg’s last night for deli potato salad and other stuff, nothing as good as what you whip up at the café.”
“Well, I happen to like potato salad and sandwiches. Plus, it’ll be nice to eat something I didn’t make for a change.”
Ben opened the rear door on the driver’s side to let Finn leap up on the backseat. Then he arched a brow at Sissy as she circled the front of his truck. “You want a boost up? The floorboards are pretty high off the ground.”
“I’ll try it on my own first.” When Sissy opened the passenger door, she wished she was taller. But by grabbing a handle made for pulling oneself up and jumping, she got in by herself. “Wow. It is high off the ground.”
Ben smiled as he started the engine. “Running boards would help. But I use my truck on the ranch. They’d get hung up on something, sure as the world, and get ripped off.”
They fastened their seat belts, and Ben drove around Marilyn’s yard to reach Main Street. Sissy settled back to enjoy the ride. Her earlier anxiety had vanished. Finn, apparently accustomed to using the passenger seat, leaped over the wide console and made himself comfortable on her lap.
“Finn!” Ben scolded.
“It’s fine.” Sissy looped her arms around the dog. “We’re buddies now. I don’t mind holding him.”
“You sure?”
“I’m positive.”
* * *
Ben kept his attention on his driving as he maneuvered through town. Even so, he was acutely aware of Sissy beside him, fussing over the pup and whispering things to the dog that he couldn’t make out over the sound of the engine. Allowing himself one quick glance, he saw an expression of pure bliss on Finn’s face. The two of them truly had bonded. It felt strange to Ben, because most women he’d dated would be complaining about all the hair Finn was getting on their clothes and flapping a hand in front of their faces because he had dog breath.
Ben smiled slightly. Yes, it felt strange, but it also felt right. As he circled the town center and turned onto Huckleberry, sudden inspiration struck him. “Would you mind if I stop off at my place for a second? You need a hat to keep the sun out of your eyes.”
“No, I don’t mind. I should have thought to grab one.”
Instead of taking the Periwinkle Lane exit when he reached the man-made creek overpass, which would lead due east, he took the Bridge Road exit, which went straight to his ranch. He liked this woman. He liked her a lot. Before he allowed those feelings to deepen, he needed to see how she reacted to cows, horses, pigs, and manure. He knew for sure that she liked chickens and dogs, but if she was afraid of or didn’t like big animals, it was a deal breaker for him. Being a rancher or farmer ran in his blood. He’d been raised around critters. He sometimes thought loving the smells on his ranch had been stamped on his DNA. Probably not, looking at it rationally. He only knew he couldn’t change who and what he was, and though he’d thrown a wide net to find a woman who could accept that, he’d been unsuccessful.
Sissy gasped when he turned into his graveled driveway. “Oh, my gosh!” she cried. She gazed out over his land, taking in the tidy exterior of his refurbished farmhouse, the barn, the arena, and the fenced pastures that seemed to stretch forever, even to Ben. “You own all of this? It’s gorgeous.”
Ben parked beside his house. “It’ll take me a while to find the straw hat my mom always uses when she comes out. Would you like to come in?”
Sissy’s attention was fixed on the horses that were enjoying the morning sunlight in the paddocks outside their stalls. “I’d rather visit the horses. Would you mind? I’ve seen horses from a distance, but never up close.”
Ben pointed. “See those last two fenced areas holding the gray and the dun? Those horses aren’t mine. I’m working some bad habits out of them. All the other ones are safe. You can say hi to them through the fences if you want.”
Sissy popped out her side of the truck as if she’d just been issued free tickets to a petting zoo. Finn, delighted to have one of his favorite people visit his world, ran in circles around her as she speed-walked toward the paddocks. Ben kept his gaze locked on Sissy. Either she didn’t realize she might step in what Ben referred to as a poop bomb, or she didn’t care. He couldn’t help but grin. When she got back, she’d have to clean the shit off her shoes before he let her back in his truck.
He took his time finding his mom’s straw hat. Okay, he admitted to himself. This is a test, and I’m probably a bastard for not warning her to watch her step. But I’m tired of hooking up with fussy women who reject my world and want me to wear chinos with polished loafers. Ben recalled the girlfriend who’d given him a gift certificate for his birthday to get a manicure and have his back waxed. He shuddered at the memory. He filed his nails and kept them clean. As for his back, what hair grew there had roots, and getting it all jerked out had hurt like a son of a bitch. He’d called an end to that relationship in short order.
He found the hat and moseyed back outside. He expected to find Sissy already back at the truck. Instead she was jerking up handfuls of grass and feeding it to his horses. He walked slowly in her direction. He could hear her musical voice as she chatted away to his geldings and the red roan mare.
When Sissy saw Ben approaching, she cried, “They are so beautiful! Their noses feel like velvet.” She grabbed up more grass for the mare, which was in a separate pen because she was with foal, and Ben didn’t want to risk her getting kicked in the belly. Horses did that to one another occasionally. “This one’s a girl, isn’t it?”
“Well, now, you tell me,” Ben said with a smile.
“It’s a girl. She’s daintier than the boys. Look at her head.”
Ben normally looked lower to determine the sex of a horse, but Sissy was right. Katie did look daintier. But she was still hell on wheels when cutting cows. All the horses had been bred to be athletes and could go rump down to turn on a dime, but the mare was just a bit quicker.
“She’s my best cutter,” Ben told her.
“What’s she cut?”
Ben suppressed a chuckle. “Cows. Only it’s not like it sounds. I have forty beeves out yonder, and if I need to work on one, all I have to do is point Katie at it, and lickety-split, she separates that one steer from all the others and herds it into a chute with a head catch.”
Sissy gave Katie a final stroke along her neck and turned away. “Do you have any girl cows?”
Ah, so she liked girls. Ben could understand that. He liked them, too—especially this one. He led her toward the cow pasture. He was surprised when Martha, the she-monster, ambled over to the pipe fencing and poked her nose out through the slats to get it scratched. Sissy didn’t flinch. She just doled out some petting.
“She is so cute. I love her eyes.”
Ben didn’t ask how Sissy knew Martha was a girl. The bovine had dropped a calf last spring, and her bag, though smaller now that the heifer no longer suckled as much, was still prominent. “She’s my mean cow. My hired hand calls her the She-Bitch.”
Sissy didn’t retreat, and that settled it for Ben. She’d passed the test. Maybe it would work between them, or maybe it wouldn’t, but at least he knew she liked animals, big or small. As he had suspected, when they returned to his truck, she had to rub her sneakers clean on the grass that grew in haphazard clumps between his house and the outbuildings. Once in the truck, she tossed the straw hat he’d left lying on her seat into the back to make room for Finnegan to ride on her lap.
As Ben started the engine, she cried, “Darn it. I should have looked at your chicken coop.”
“Maybe another time. If we linger here any longer, we won’t be able to enjoy the falls for as long as we want.”
She settled against the seat with Finn in her arms as Ben drove back to the overpass to take Periwinkle Lane east. He knew the roads like the back of his hand and had visited the falls many times. Once out of town, he relaxed behind the wheel and enjoyed the scenery, mountain slopes of green pine boughs peppered with deciduous trees with leaves that were turning autumn brown and orange.
Then he noticed that Sissy was no longer talking. He glanced over and saw that she’d tightened her arms around Finn and that her shoulders were rigid with tension. He guessed that it had just sunk home that he was taking her into state and federal wilderness land, and she was alone with him. Judging by her stiffness, he thought she was growing nervous, possibly even frightened.
He saw a wide spot up ahead and slowed down. As he pulled over and stopped, Sissy shot a wary look at him. “Why are you stopping?” she asked in a thin voice.
“You look like you’re wound up tighter than a clock. I just want to be sure you still want to go. I can turn around here and take you back to town. We can picnic on your back porch, or like I said, I can inhale all the food while I work on your run.”
“How silly would that be?”
Pretty damned silly, Ben thought, but he wasn’t about to say so. Something really nasty had happened to this woman. Maybe more than once. She didn’t trust him any further than she could throw him. “It’s even sillier to keep going if you can’t relax and enjoy yourself,” he settled for saying. “That’s the whole point. Right? To forget about work, visit a beautiful place, and have a picnic.”
She released a taut breath. “You’re right. That is the whole point.”
Ben expected her to add, “Just take me home.” Instead she lifted her chin and said, “So let’s do it. I’ll relax. I’ll have fun.”
It sounded to Ben as if she were giving herself a pep talk. And that saddened him. She had to work at relaxing—and at trusting him. The realization made him nearly as nervous as she was. What if he said the wrong thing? Or made a sudden move that she interpreted as aggressive? Up at the falls, which were surrounded by nothing but wilderness, he’d have a devil of a time finding her if she panicked and ran off into the woods. Well, maybe not. Finn adored her, and he had a good nose on him.
Ben pulled back out onto the highway. To fill the silence, he began playing tour guide, pointing out landmarks. “That’s Cougar Rock. I climbed it once and saw no cougar, so I don’t know how it got its name.”
She leaned forward, being careful not to unseat Finn. “You climbed that? It’s nearly straight up.”
Ben chuckled. “It’s surprising what Mystic Creek boys will do during the summer. At least we never got bored. I went through a rock-climbing stage.” A few curves later, Ben said, “That’s Sky High Point. I used to hike up there as a teen. It’s a great place to see wildlife. One time we boys lay on our bellies to watch a beaver dam in the creek. We were quieter than church mice, hoping to see a beaver.”
“Did you?”
“Oh, yeah. A great big male with long teeth who waddled up behind us. He scared us so bad that one of my buddies wet his pants. We ran like scalded dogs, tripping over logs, running into trees. In retrospect, I think we all lost our minds. Beavers aren’t known for their speed. When it was all said and done, we’d inflicted far more injury on ourselves than the beaver could have. Ah, well, you live and learn. Now I know I could outrun a pissed-off beaver at a fast walk.”
Sissy giggled, and with a mental sigh of relief, Ben decided she was going to be okay at the falls alone with him.
* * *
Sissy had never seen anything so gorgeous as Crystal Falls. The creek was about thirty feet wide, and the water cascaded over a rock ledge in a magnificent rush that ended in a pool of churning foam that eddied out into depths so clear she could see the rocks far beneath the surface. Beyond that deep pool, the creek grew more shallow, calling to her to take off her shoes, roll up her jeans, and go wading—something she’d never been allowed to do as a kid and hadn’t had time for as an adult.
Ben spread a blanket on the grassy bank just far enough away to avoid the mist that spewed up from the collision of water. When they sat down, he placed the picnic cooler between them and then added an oversize basket to increase the barrier. Sissy realized that he was trying to make her feel safe. Instead she felt embarrassed. Ben hadn’t brought her here with nefarious intentions. On an intellectual level, she knew that. Emotionally, not as much.
As her chagrin faded, she bit back a smile. The buffer he’d created between them wouldn’t stop a man with Ben’s strength and agility. He could be over it and on top of her in a split second. But the fact that he’d tried to create a separation between them told her that jumping her wasn’t in his game plan, if he even had a plan, which she now doubted. He just wanted her to see how spectacular nature could be and enjoy a day off with him.
“I’ve never gone sightseeing,” she blurted. “I, um— Well, we traveled a lot when I was a kid, but it was always a race between point A and point B. We never veered off course to visit places.”
Ben handed her the straw hat. “The sun hasn’t reached its zenith, and you’re squinting to see. We’re sitting in shade, but light still beams through the boughs to blind a person. Besides, I don’t want you getting sunburned.”
Sissy stopped petting Finn, who’d cuddled on the blanket beside her. She put on the hat. The brim, just like the one on Ben’s Stetson, cast a shadow over her face. “Much better,” she said.
“It looks good on you.”
“It’s a Western hat, isn’t it?”
“Yep. Mom’s into Western.”
“Oh, look!” She gasped in delight. “Blue butterflies! I’ve never seen a blue one, not ever! With the sun in my eyes, I had no idea they were here.”
Ben followed her gaze. “This is the only place I’ve ever seen them. I think they’re misfits of nature, in an area they don’t belong, but they’re here every summer.”
“Oh, my.” The butterflies fluttered near a copse of moist riparian bushes, and they were countless. “Such a delicate blue, and they are so lovely!”
Ben stretched his arms and flexed his shoulders. His sudden movement startled Sissy. She so appreciated the pathetic barrier between them. Ben had signaled a message to her by creating it, that she was perfectly safe. “Whenever my dad comes to the falls, he always says ‘Never say never’ when he sees the blue butterflies. It reminds me that life is filled with the unexpected, and sometimes the unexpected things are the best of all.”
Relaxing again, Sissy focused on her surroundings. She loved the smells there, an intoxicating blend of pine, sun-warmed grass, and the pungent scent of creek-side moss and other plants that thrived in the moist soil. The sound of the falls was a pleasant background noise that had a certain rhythm to it that she’d failed to notice at first.
Ben began removing food from the cooler. Once it was empty, he closed the lid and arranged sandwiches and plastic tubs of other food on top of it, using it as a table of sorts. He held up a bottle of white wine. “I’ve even got plastic goblets. You care to join me? I’ve got juice and soda as well.”
Sissy narrowed her eyes at him. “You once told me that when you drink enough wine, anybody looks good.”
He laughed. “I did say that. But I don’t plan to drink that much. I have to get us home. One drink an hour, Barney tells me. I try to space them further apart than that, just to be safe. Barney might catch me driving under the influence and toss me in the clink.”
Sissy giggled. “Not really. He’d do that to his own brother?”
“In a heartbeat. He has no patience with idiots who get drunk and drive, endangering others on the road. Neither do I.”
“That policy gets my vote, too.” When he offered her a plastic cup filled with wine, she accepted it and took a sip. “Mmm. Nicely chilled chardonnay. Mild, slightly sweet.”
“You a wine expert?”
“I wish.” It was her turn to laugh. “I buy on the cheap and wouldn’t know a fine wine if it ran up and bit me on the leg.”
“I’m pretty much the same.” He took a taste and nodded. “Cheap tastes okay to me.”
He set out plates and plastic flatware. As they each selected a sandwich and dished up servings from the deli tubs, Finn stood and circled Sissy’s feet. “Uh-oh, he’s moving closer to all the goodies.”
Ben picked a sandwich for the dog. “Made especially for him, mayo and meat, no embellishments.” He laid the offering on a paper plate, but Finn wolfed it down so fast he needn’t have bothered. “Whoa, boy. Good thing I fixed you three.”
Sissy’s was made with thinly sliced chicken, crisp lettuce, tomatoes, and slivers of onion and dill pickle on cracked wheat sourdough. Ben had added a trace of Dijon mustard along with mayo. Finn wouldn’t enjoy the extras, but she did. “Delicious. So’s the potato salad.” She sighed and gazed at the waterfall as she ate and sipped wine. “It’s so peaceful here. I could stay forever.”
“I always feel the same way. Unless you decide not to open for dinner, though, we’ll have to head back soon.”
Sissy groaned. “It feels like we just got here. I haven’t played hooky long enough yet. If I don’t open for dinner, how long can we stay?”
“You serious?” He shrugged. “Until the sun starts to go down. We’ll get home after dark, but I don’t mind driving then. Headlights don’t blind me, and actually it’s safer if I can use my brights most of the way. I can see the gleam of deer and elk eyes along the road and slow down so I don’t hit one.”
“I could help watch for them. And Christopher, my customer that I worry about, told me he has frozen dinners at home to fall back on. He urged me to take the whole day off and enjoy the falls.”
He grinned. “So, you’ve had fun playing hooky, have you?”
“More than just that. Being here beats getting a full-body massage, not that I’ve ever had one.”
Ben, still nursing his first glass of wine, leaned back and braced himself on his elbows. His long sigh told Sissy that he didn’t want to leave any more than she did. And she felt fairly safe with him now. That was a good feeling and yet unsettling as well. She’d felt safe many times and learned the hard way that she’d been too naive for words.
It had been a very long while since she had trusted a man she knew found her attractive. It always ended with her getting hurt, humiliated, or demeaned. In high school, boys had targeted her because of her shabby clothes and the rumor that her parents were not only transients but also low-class and crazy. But Ben seemed so different. And the attraction was mutual. She couldn’t lie to herself about that.
He was looking up at the clouds. Sissy followed his gaze. After a long moment, he asked, “What do you think about when you watch the clouds drift by now? Do you still wonder where they’re going?”
She cringed as she remembered the secrets she had revealed to him and Blackie yesterday. “No,” she confessed. “I don’t care where they’re going anymore because there’s no place I’d rather be than right where I am.” She sent him a sharp look. “I mean that in a general way, not here, right now, although it’s beautiful. I mean Mystic Creek.”
He smiled. “You don’t have to guard your words with me, Sissy. And I knew what you meant.” He lifted his glass toward the sky. “So, let me teach you a new way to watch the clouds. Right now, I see a horse’s head up there.”
Sissy stared hard at the clouds and saw nothing.
“Don’t work so hard to see it. Use a broader scope and let the shape leap out at you.”
Sissy went back to staring. “I see it!” she cried. “It’s an almost-perfect horse’s head.” A few seconds later, she said, “Now I see a snow-covered pine forest around a small lake.”
Ben searched for that and soon found it. “Wow. It’s gorgeous.”
After cloud watching, Ben opened the cooler again to draw out the food for a second picnic. Finn, who’d been dozing, leaped to his feet. Ben called the pup a bottomless pit, which made Sissy laugh. When they’d all three filled their stomachs again, Ben took off his hat, removed his socks and boots, rolled up his jeans, and walked into the stream to go wading. He gimped over the rocks, crying, “Ouch! Damn! Ouch!” And then, “It’s freezing. I can’t believe I went swimming here as a kid. Now it makes my bones hurt.”
Finn joined Ben to play in the water. Sissy couldn’t resist following suit. Ben was right; the rocks were sharp on the soles of her feet and the water was as cold as snowmelt. But they had fun, the kind of fun Sissy had never been allowed to engage in as a kid.
Finn splashed Ben first. He reacted by sharing the experience with Sissy. She gasped at the shock and threw water back at him. In seconds they were both drenched and laughing so hard that only Finn had any energy left.
As they climbed from the creek and ascended the bank, the sun was starting to set. Sissy was shivering with cold. Ben, wet from head to toe, looked as miserable as she felt.
“What were you thinking?” he asked her.
Instantly indignant, Sissy said, “You splashed me first!”
Ben turned an accusing gaze on the dripping-wet pup and said, “Actually, he splashed me first, so it’s all his fault.”
Sissy couldn’t help but laugh. Ben came up with the idea of using the picnic blanket to dry off. He let Sissy go first. Then he took his turn before ruffling Finnegan’s fur until it was only damp. Ben’s hair stood up in haphazard spikes, poking every which way. His wet shirt clung to his torso, as did his jeans. Never had Sissy seen such a handsome man.
“Is my hair as awful looking as yours is?” she asked.
He gave her a long study. “Since I haven’t seen mine yet, I can’t really say. But don’t worry. You still look damned good.”
Sissy’s pulse kicked and sped up. Her stomach felt as if she’d swallowed dozens of fluttering blue butterflies. Trying to hide her reaction to him, she said, “I knew it was a mistake to let you have a second glass of wine. Now anybody looks good to you.”
Ben barked with laughter and tossed her the straw hat. “Put it on. It’s the perfect cure for a bad hair moment.”
Sissy put hers on. Watching Ben don his Stetson, she couldn’t truthfully say that he looked better. He was perfect just the way he was, wet clothes and all.
As he loaded all the picnic gear into the bed of his truck, Sissy carried items up the hill to him, but she was too short to lift anything over the side. Soon they were in the vehicle, headed back to Mystic Creek. Oh, how she wished the day didn’t have to end.
“I wish it didn’t, either,” Ben said.
Sissy hadn’t realized she’d voiced her thoughts aloud and felt a moment’s embarrassment. “It’s the first time in forever that I’ve taken a whole day off. I feel as if I’ve been released from jail.”
“No dinner crowd for you tonight. Who says the day has to end? When we get back to town, let’s do dinner out. I vote for the Straw Hat. José makes some mean enchiladas.”
“Looking like this? We’re both a mess.”
Ben kept his eyes on the road as he executed a sharp turn. “Okay, a drive-through, then. Finn will love that. He’ll get to have dinner with us.”
Once in town, Ben drove to the Mystical Burger Shack on Periwinkle Lane, a little place with a drive-through window that Sissy hadn’t realized existed. She ordered a jalapeño cheeseburger with fries and a layered ice- cream sundae for dessert. Ben ordered two of the same burgers with extra jalapeños and a sundae as well. Finn got six hamburger patties and a small tub of vanilla ice cream. Ben circled the building and backed his Dodge into a parking slot, telling Sissy they could watch people as they ate.
“This place’s bestselling hamburger is called the Heart Attack. I’ve never ordered one. I think in addition to two burger patties, it’s got cheddar cheese, avocado slices, an egg, and bacon. It may be fun to decide which people we think are going in for a serving of coronary arrest.”
Sissy laughed. “Why would anyone give a burger such a horrid name?”
“In warning?” Ben fished through the sacks and handed Sissy her burger and fries. “For whatever reason, it’s a moneymaker.” He fed Finn his patties and then relaxed to enjoy his sandwich. “Damn, Finn. You’ve got the whole cab smelling like wet dog.”
“Don’t be a baby,” Sissy told him. “He can’t help how he smells, and besides, a little wet-dog ambience lends the meal a touch of earthy elegance. It’s like having another picnic”
The yard lights illuminated the cab. Ben sent her a wondering look. “You actually don’t mind? For me, it’s kind of like using stinky socks as a dinner napkin.”
Sissy nearly choked on a fry. “It isn’t that bad.”
He grinned and took another bite of his burger. “Actually, the burn of the jalapeños in my sinuses is helping. I can’t smell much of anything now.”
After they finished their desserts, with Sissy holding Finn’s tub of vanilla ice cream so he could eat it without making a huge mess, Ben drove her home. Sissy stared at her building. She hadn’t thought to leave any lights on, and inside it would be blacker than smut. Thinking of her ghost—or whatever it was that played mind games with her—she dreaded going in.
“We’ll escort you to the door and wait until you get some lights turned on,” Ben said, as if he had read her thoughts.
“I’m sure I can handle it,” she said. “I need to close up the chicken coop first, anyway. And I’m sure you’re eager to get home and take a shower.”
“Our showers will wait, and I’ll close up the coop on my way back to the truck. It’d be bad manners on my part not to see you to the door and if my mom found out, she’d twist my ear. She’d have to stand on a chair to reach it, but trust me, that wouldn’t stop her.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to get your ear twisted.”
Sissy slid out of his truck, landed on ground that seemed to be several feet down, and caught her balance. Finn sailed out behind her. Ben met them at the front bumper and kept pace with Sissy.
“Oh, drat,” she said. “I need to turn the heat lamp on in the coop, too.”
“Not necessary. My weather app says it won’t freeze tonight. The hens will be fine.”
Once on the porch, Sissy fished for her keys. Finn bounced around as if he expected to go in and be fed again. As she turned the lock and opened the door, she said, “You had six hamburger patties and at least a cup of ice cream minutes ago. How can you possibly have room for more?”
“That’s not to mention the three sandwiches and the huge helping of baked beans he ate for lunch.”
Just then Finn wagged his behind with such enthusiasm that he farted. Waving a hand in front of his face, Ben leaned around to flip on both of the interior light switches, which illuminated the storeroom hallway and porch. “Oh, man, Finnegan. It smells like something crawled up inside you and died.” When Sissy laughed, he added, “Yeah, yeah, so very funny. You don’t have to sleep with him tonight.”
Sissy bent to give Finn a good-night pat. Then she turned to face Ben. “Thank you for being my tour guide today. I really enjoyed myself.”
“Thank you for being such a good sport. I shouldn’t have started the splashing incident.”
“Actually, that was one of the highlights for me.” She glanced down at the dog. “Thank you for starting it, Finn. It was fun.”
Silence fell between her and Ben. Sissy had never said good night to a man on her porch, but even she knew a good-night kiss—and often far more—was normally on the agenda. Ben leaned toward her. Her body tensed. But instead of putting his mouth over hers, he plucked the straw hat from her head.
“If Mom visits and can’t find her hat, she’ll be pissed.” He studied her face with a slight smile curving his lips. “Good night, Sissy. I’ll see you in the morning, ready to get back to work. The run may be finished tomorrow.”
“Good night,” she called after him. “Be a good boy tonight, Finn. Don’t lift the covers with bean farts.”
She heard Ben chuckling as he closed and latched the coop door. Then he climbed into the truck after his dog. Sissy stood on the porch to watch them drive away. Today had been incredible. She was so glad now that she’d taken a gamble and gone with him to the waterfall. How wonderful would it be if he asked her to go again before the weather turned too cold?
The thought jolted Sissy back to reality. She had created a good life for herself. According to Ma Thomas and Marilyn, she had greatly increased the business since her aunt’s death. Plus, she was starting to make a few friends and felt a little more self-confident each day. The people of Mystic Creek were embracing her with warmth and welcome, making her feel as if she was safe inside a small butterfly cocoon. Maybe she would emerge a beautiful blue like the butterflies at the falls.
She liked Ben. Today she’d managed to relax with him, trust him to a degree, and enjoy his company. But what if it was all a front? Men, in her experience, could be devious chameleons who pretended to be whatever they thought you wanted them to be until you let your guard down and gave them an opportunity to pounce. Every single time a guy had approached her with seemingly innocent intentions, the end result had been extremely unpleasant. How many times did she have to learn that lesson?
Ben seemed to be a wonderful guy. But Sissy had gleaned from experience that when a man seemed too good to be true, he probably was.