Plowing put Hud in a tractor alone with nothing but the radio and his own thoughts playing all day. He remembered those days of eighth grade when Cactus Rose came to Tulia Junior High School. From that first handshake, something had passed between them. She wasn’t prettier than the other girls. She was smarter than most kids in the class, but that wasn’t it either—Misty Dawson was the smartest kid in school, and she didn’t take his eye.
He couldn’t put his finger on it then, or now, but just being in the same room with Rose jacked up his pulse and made his heart skip beats. Maybe it was that their hearts needed the other one to be truly happy—like they each had only half a heart without the other one, kind of like that necklace that Tag gave his first girlfriend. His name on the half that Daronda Smith wore, and hers on the half he wore around his neck.
Hud remembered that he’d invited Cactus Rose to the winter formal, but she’d said that her dad didn’t let her date. He asked her to the Valentine’s dance, but the answer was the same. They saw each other at school and rode the bus home together, but that was as far as it went—until that last day of school and he’d kissed her just before she got off the bus.
He’d figured it would be a long summer, since her folks didn’t have a telephone, much less a cell phone, but it had gone by fast. He couldn’t wait to get to homeroom on the first day of his freshman year. Maybe Cactus Rose was old enough to date now. Maybe she’d let him take her to church if nothing else, and her dad would let her go home to Sunday dinner with him.
She wasn’t there—and his heart felt like it had rocks on top of it for weeks. Even now, as he drove back home from the fields, Hud remembered how miserable he’d been all those years ago.
Paxton looked up at him from the kitchen table, where he was having a bowl of leftover chili for supper. “You look like you just lost your best friend. Did someone die?”
“No, but”—Hud hung up his coat and hat and dipped up the last of the chili for himself—“past memories and feelings.”
Paxton nodded. “Been there. Done that. I’m going to the Rusty Spur tonight. Go with me and dance those thoughts right out of your head.”
“Not tonight,” Hud replied. “I’ve got some bullet holes to patch up at the Rose Garden B&B.”
“You’ve got to what?” Paxton asked. “Who got shot?”
“A mouse,” Hud answered.
“For real?” Paxton asked.
“You remember meeting Alana’s friend at Maverick’s wedding—Cactus Rose?”
“Wasn’t that your first girlfriend?” Paxton asked. “The one that you told me about last year?”
“I’m not sure you could call her a girlfriend. We were fourteen, and the only time I saw her was at school. She couldn’t date, and I wasn’t old enough to drive.” Hud told him about the past week’s experiences. “And tonight we’re going to patch up holes and see what I can do about a picture that got shot up.”
“Man, you must really have a case of that first-love crap”—Paxton shook his head in disbelief—“to do that for a woman that you ain’t even hooked up with yet.”
“Would you do something like that for Alana?” Hud asked.
“Sure, but I’ve known her my whole life,” Paxton said. “When you get done with your drywall job, come on out to the bar. I’ll buy your first beer.”
“Maybe I will.” Hud headed out to the barn to get the supplies he’d need.
When he had everything loaded in the back of his truck, he drove from the ranch to Bowie. He carried an armload of tools up to the porch, and knocked.
Luna slung the door open and motioned to him. “Come right on in,” Luna said. “Rose is upstairs already, so you can go on up there. I’m not climbing the stairs. My knees are hurting tonight. I bet there’s rain on the way. But if you’d like to take Madam with you—just in case another rat comes around—I’ll trust you with her.”
“Who?” Hud asked.
“My pistol,” Luna whispered. “It hurts her feelings when I don’t refer to her by her name.”
“I think I can manage without her, but thank you for putting so much trust in me,” he said.
“I’m a damn fine judge of character.” Luna patted him on the shoulder.
“I appreciate that.” Hud started up the stairs with Chester right behind him. “Besides, a mouse would have to be suicidal to come out in the open with old Chester here to protect us.”
Luna giggled and waved over her shoulder as she went back to the living room.
“I’m in here,” Rose called out from a room at the head of the stairs.
He peeked into the room, and there she was, taking a picture off the wall. “Looks like it knocked a hole behind it too. Who’d have thought one bullet could travel so far?”
Her hair was twisted up and held in place with a long clasp, but a few strands had escaped. She kept blowing them away from her face, much like she did that first day when they were just young teenagers in homeroom. His gaze traveled down her body and back up again. Her waist nipped in from a perfectly rounded butt. She’d tied her T-shirt into a knot at the back so that it hugged her curves. His eyes went to her lips—so full and sweet tasting.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
She turned toward him. “I picked this outfit out special for you. The T-shirt and the jeans are vintage, and my hair was done by the wind when I stepped outside for a breath of fresh air.”
He chuckled. “Age didn’t rob you of your sense of humor.”
“You sayin’ I’m old.” She marched up to his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck.
The toolbox and supplies hit the floor with a thud. He cupped her cheeks in his hands, got lost in her eyes until they fluttered shut, and then his lips were on hers. The kiss started out sweet, but soon it deepened into more and got hotter and hotter with every second. They were both panting when she finally took a step back.
“That should prove that I’m not old,” she said.
“I’m not so sure,” he teased. “Maybe we should give it another try.”
“One more kiss like that, and, honey, I’ll be nothing but a melted pile of hormones layin’ on the floor, whining for more,” she joked right back at him.
“I’d sure love to see and hear that.” He drew her back to his chest and hugged her tightly. “But I suppose if that happened, Aunt Luna would be charging up the stairs with Madam and we’d have even more holes to patch.”
“You’re smart as well as sexy,” Rose told him.
“You think I’m sexy?” He leaned back and smiled down at her.
“Honey, I thought that the first time I laid eyes on you, and I damn sure haven’t changed my mind, not one bit!”
Hud had never been as outgoing as his wild twin brother, but he’d never had trouble with a flirty comeback—at least not until right then.
“I guess we’d best get to work,” Rose said. “I don’t know jack crap about drywall or fixing bullet holes, but if you’ll tell me what to do, I’ll be glad to help.”
“Well, darlin’, if I run out of steam, you could kiss me again.” He finally found his voice.
“It’s a deal.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “You’re a good man, Hud Baker, for helping take care of this, but if you have something you need to be doing, I’m sure the folks that Aunt Molly has hired to paint the place can patch the holes.”
“You going to kiss them if they run out of steam?” he asked.
She air-slapped his arm. “Of course not. I only kiss handsome cowboys that pull me up out of nasty bowls of water, and who save me from rats.”
“Well, that’s good to know.” He opened up his toolbox and went to work on the two holes in that room. “Looks to me like that picture may be shot. Unless it’s sentimental to Molly or an antique, I’d just replace it with another one.”
That sure didn’t sound romantic, but his heart was still pounding like he’d ridden a bull for eight seconds. If he didn’t get his mind off how much kissing her had aroused him, he’d shut and lock the door.
“I’ll ask her about it next time we talk. How long have you known Aunt Molly?” Rose asked.
“Not very long and not very well,” he answered as he cut away a six-inch square of drywall around the hole. “Met her at church when she sat on the pew with the Fab Five once, but I’m sure she’ll appreciate what we’re doing.”
Chester dragged a sock into the room and laid it at Rose’s feet. She bent to get it and then changed her mind. “That’s a man’s sock. Where did you get it?”
“Maybe Molly has some secrets,” Hud suggested.
Rose crossed her arms over her chest. “Guess maybe I’d better talk to her about that too.”
“I wouldn’t if I was you.” He cut a square of drywall from the scrap piece he’d brought with him and fit it into the hole he’d made. “She’s a consenting adult, and if she’s got a love life, then pat her on the back—don’t fuss at her.”
Rose narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you telling me what to do?”
“No, ma’am, just telling you what I’d do if a man’s sock showed up in my grandmother’s house,” he replied. “Now on to the next hole in the wall. I’ll get them all patched and then I’ll bed and tape. Have to come back later to sand.”
* * *
Rose wanted to dance a jig right there in the bedroom. Hud had a good excuse to come back later—not that he needed one in her book. “Want a beer when you get finished?”
“Sure.” He nodded, and then threw the hammer on the floor and grabbed his thumb. “Dammit! I swear, bad luck crawls out of the walls of this place.”
Chester let out a howl and took off down the stairs, carrying his dark brown sock with him. Aunt Luna yelled up from the foyer, “Y’all okay up there?”
“We’re fine. Just dropped a hammer,” Rose hollered as she picked up Hud’s hand and kissed his thumb. “I’m sorry. Looks like you just got the edge, so there won’t be a blood blister under your nail. Let’s go get that beer now and do this another time.”
“Hell, no!” Hud shook his head. “I won’t let a hammer win the war. It won’t take much longer to finish up, and besides, your kiss made it all better.”
“Okay, then,” Rose agreed. “Let’s get it done.”
Hud had been right about it only taking a little while longer in that room, and then they went to the next room, her bedroom. Chester came bounding back up the stairs with his dark sock still in his mouth, hopped up on the bed, and laid it on her pillow.
Hud raised an eyebrow. “Maybe Miz Molly needs to have a talk with you, instead of the other way around. Is Chester putting that sock back where he found it?”
“The only person who knows for sure is Chester, and he ain’t talkin’,” Rose said.
The crazy cat chose that moment to meow several times, pick up his sock, and march out of the room.
“Too bad I don’t understand cat language. I think he just told on you.” Hud set about patching up the last wall.
“Even though he’s a tattletale, I’d gladly adopt him if Aunt Molly would let me,” Rose said. “I always wanted a pet, but Daddy wouldn’t let me have one. He said I was too sentimental, and I’d cry when it died.”
“I did,” Hud admitted.
“You did what?” Rose asked.
“I cried when Willie died. He was a Catahoula puppy, I got him for Christmas when I was four. He died when I was a senior in high school. They’d wrapped him in the horse blanket he’d slept on in the barn and buried him under a shade tree. I spent the rest of that day at the back side of the ranch crying.”
“I’m sorry.” Rose’s heart broke a little at the thought of a big tough cowboy like Hud crying.
Luna poked her head in the door. “I’ve made some banana nut muffins to go with coffee when y’all get done up here. I heard what you said about your dog. Wilbur adopted an ugly old stray mutt that came around the last carnival we had. We named him Beggar because that’s what he did—begged for food from everyone in the carnival. When he died, we had a funeral for him, and one of our friends recited a poem called ‘The Rainbow Bridge.’ It seemed like a nice thing to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if Molly don’t have a funeral for Chester when he dies.”
“All finished,” Hud said. “I’ll bring some bedding tape and mud over tomorrow evening and finish up this job.”
Luna started for the stairs. “Wilbur should’ve called by now. It’s about time for him to apologize. Besides I’m gettin’ homesick.”
“Aunt Luna, I hate to see you leave,” Rose said, “but I can always take you to the bus station and get you a ticket back to Alabama if you’re ready to go home.”
“We’ll see about that tomorrow.” Luna nodded. “I’ve got money, darlin’, so I don’t need to hitch rides. I just like truck drivers. Me and Wilbur drove our own trucks back during the years when we owned our carnival. I liked sitting up high and the excitement of going from one place to the other. And, Hud, you ain’t comin’ back here tomorrow to work.”
“Why not?” Hud asked.
“Because tomorrow is Sunday and according to Molly, if you work on Sunday God is sure to send lightning bolts from heaven to strike you graveyard dead. You can mud and tape on Monday,” Luna answered with a wink at both of them. “Muffins are on the cabinet. Coffee is made. I’m going to my room and watch television. Be quiet when you leave, Hud. Wilbur says I can hear a mouse chewin’ cheese at fifty yards. I wouldn’t want to think you was an intruder and shoot you.”
* * *
“Would it be rude for us to bypass the muffins and coffee and go to the Rusty Spur for a beer and a few dances?” Hud asked.
“Yes,” she answered without hesitation, and picked a short leather jacket from off the coatrack inside the door. “I’ll just leave a note on the credenza for Aunt Luna in case she gets up and can’t find me.”
When they got to the truck, he opened the door for her, and Rose hesitated. “Maybe I should change into something more western.”
“I told you before, you’re beautiful. I’ll have to fight off the competition as it is,” he said as he shut the door and rounded the front side.
“How far is it to the bar?” she asked when he was behind the wheel.
“Maybe ten minutes,” he answered.
They’d gone about two miles when blue lights began to flash behind Hud’s truck. He slowed down and pulled over to the side to let the officer go on by, but the police car pulled right in behind him and turned on the sirens.
“Was I speeding?” Hud asked.
“I have no idea,” Rose answered.
Hud rolled down the window and the policeman asked for his driver’s license and registration. He pulled out his wallet and got the papers from the glove box, and handed them out the window.
“Step out of the vehicle.” He called for backup and a second officer got out of the car and came running toward the passenger side.
“You, too, ma’am,” the second one said. “Put both your hands out of the truck so I can see them.”
Holy smokin’ hell! she thought. There was no way Hud was going so fast that they should be treated like drunks or serial killers, but she did what she was told.
“So where’s the drugs, and why did you have to pistol-whip poor old Truman Wheeler?” the first officer said.
“I did what?” Hud frowned.
“You robbed the drugstore, and the pharmacist is in the emergency room getting stitches in his forehead right now,” the second one said. “Truman might have had blood in his eyes, but he saw a black pickup truck speeding away and he got the first three license plate numbers. You can tell us where the drugs are now, or we can rip this truck apart.”
“How many black trucks do you reckon are in this county, and how many of them have license plates that start with those three numbers?” Rose asked.
“Don’t you get sassy with me, woman,” the officer said. “We’ll sort all this out at the station. Give Officer Turnbull your keys so we can impound this truck.”
“Do y’all know Molly Wilson?” Rose asked. “She owns the Rose Garden Bed-and-Breakfast, and she’s my aunt.”
“Lady, I don’t care if the mother of Jesus is your aunt,” he said, “it looks to me like y’all have just got caught after robbing the drugstore in town. I don’t know why, but we’re going to get this all straightened out at the station, so get in the back of the patrol car.”
Hud was already in the backseat when she got in. “At least they didn’t handcuff us.”
“They’re going to be embarrassed when we call Luna and she tells them we’ve been at the B&B all evening,” he whispered.
Officer Turnbull drove them to the station in Bowie, and opened the back door. “Don’t either of you run.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, but I would like to make a phone call,” Rose said.
“After we get inside,” he said. “But it sure looks like you’re guilty of something when you want to call a lawyer before we even ask our questions.”
“I’m not calling a lawyer,” she told him.
Turnbull kept one hand on his holstered gun as he ushered them inside the station and told them to sit down behind a desk. “If you want to make that call, you can do it now before we fingerprint the both of you.”
Rose drew in a sharp breath. If the army found out she’d been taken in for questioning, it might have a bearing on her reenlistment. She hit the speed-dial number for the bed-and-breakfast and sent up a silent prayer that Aunt Luna wasn’t in the bathtub or sleeping.
“Hello, Wilbur,” Luna answered. “It’s about time you called.”
“Aunt Luna, this is Rose.” She went on to tell her what had happened. “Can you get a taxi to bring you down here to tell these people that we didn’t rob the drugstore? That we were at the B&B and you were with us all evening?”
“Hell, no!” Luna screeched. “You’re only four blocks from me, so I’ll walk. Ain’t no use in payin’ for a taxi, and I damn sure need the time to cool my temper. Them policemen had better have me a place cleaned off, because Luna is on her way and she’s bringin’ hell with her.”
“She’ll be here in fifteen minutes,” Rose told Hud and sincerely hoped that Luna left Madam at home.
Her great-aunt stormed through the door in ten minutes, and the poor policeman’s eyes popped out of his head so far that Rose was afraid they’d be rolling around on the floor any minute. Luna had not taken her hair out of its customary braids with the beads that made a clacking sound every time she did a head roll. She was wearing a floral flowing skirt and a striped blouse, boots that looked like they’d come right out of Granny Clampett’s closet, and a cowboy hat crammed down on her head. The hat was either Molly’s or one that a visitor had left behind, but Rose had seen it on the rack that stood just inside the front door of the B&B. The boots were about two sizes too big and muddy around the bottom edge where she’d probably waded right through mud puddles on the way to the station.
She came into the station with a full head of steam, and her forefinger waggling. She leaned over the desk and got nose to nose with the officer. “You sumbitches are about to get a lawsuit slapped on your sorry asses for this. My niece wouldn’t be robbin’ no damn store. She’s just served her country in the army for the past ten years, and Hud Baker is a respectable citizen of Montague County. He owns a ranch over there.”
“Aunt Luna, just tell them that we were at the B&B all evening. He needs to know that you were with us,” Rose said.
Hud slipped his arm around Rose’s shoulders. “It could just be an honest mistake. We were on our way to the Rusty Spur to do some dancing, officer. We haven’t been drinking and we sure didn’t rob a store.”
“Excuse me, sir.” The second officer popped his head in the door. “We had the drug dog sniff out the truck, and we didn’t find anything.”
“Can we please just go now?” Rose asked.
“Not without an apology for all this crap you’ve put us through. It’s supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, right?” Hud’s tone was cold as ice.
Luna started toward the new officer with blood in her eye and her hand in the pocket of the oversize coat. “Are you the other fool who thinks he’s some kind of hero? Well, right here sits the real hero.” She turned and pointed at Hud. “He’s the one who rescues babies from burning buildings. He don’t rob drugstores. This is just one of the reasons I hate Texas.”
The officer slammed the door in her face before she could back him up into a corner. “Run, you little sumbitch!” she yelled. “Just shows that you don’t deserve that badge when you can’t stand up to an eighty-year-old woman.” She returned to the desk and started in on Officer Turnbull again. “Is there a law in this gawd-forsaken town about havin’ a black pickup truck?” Daggers shot from her eyes straight at him.
“No, ma’am.” Officer Turnbull shook his head.
“Why did you stop Hud in the first place?”
“He was going a few miles over the speed limit, and we was only going to give him a warning,” the officer answered.
The young officer opened the door again. “We did find traces of fertilizer in the truck. You reckon these two were makin’ a bomb?”
“You ain’t nothing but a baby-faced kid,” Luna said. “Hud is a rancher. Of course he has traces of fertilizer in his truck. Did you find any explosives? How long have you been on the force?”
“This is my first day, ma’am,” he answered. “And no, I didn’t find anything but a few grains of fertilizer.”
“Like the lady said, I’m a rancher.” Hud’s tone hadn’t warmed a bit. “I hauled ten bags of fertilizer in that truck a few days ago. You can check with the feed store if you want to verify that.”
Luna narrowed her eyes at the officer behind the desk. “You were training him on how to make a stop and write out a warning, and then realized that the truck was the same color as the one that was used in a robbery. Are you crazy or just plain stupid?”
“No…well…I don’t have to…” the officer muttered, and then cleared his throat.
Luna gave him a go-to-hell look. Rose bit back a giggle, and Hud chuckled under his breath.
“Your truck is in impound,” the younger officer said.
“Then you can go get it out,” Luna turned on him. “This is your stupid mistake, and Hud’s not paying you one single dime.”
The young man looked over at Officer Turnbull. The older man shrugged. “Go on and do it.” Then he turned his attention back to Hud. “You are both free to go with our apologies. I didn’t recognize you as the firefighter who saved that kid.”
“Thank you,” Rose said.
Hud leaned over the desk and stared the man right in the eye. “You might want to give a person a chance to explain things a little more before you haul them in to the station.”
“That wasn’t much of an apology, and it don’t make up for the fact that you’ve done such a stupid thing,” Luna said. “I’m going home now. If I missed my call from Wilbur, I’ll be back to give you another piece of my mind. I’ll be waiting out front. I don’t like this place.” She stormed out of the police station and slammed the door behind her.
“She’s hell on wheels, isn’t she?” the officer said.
“Oh, yeah,” Rose agreed. “Just be glad that she wasn’t really mad.”
In less than ten minutes, they were free to go. Luna was sitting on a bench, smoking a cigarette. When she saw them, she threw it on the ground and put it out with the heel of her boot. “I give up smokin’ five years ago, and only have one when I’m mad. You kids can take me back to the house. If Wilbur called while I was gone, I may sue this city yet.”
“He can call back, can’t he?” Rose asked as she helped Luna into the backseat of the truck.
“Not until tomorrow. The office at the trailer park where we live closes up tight at eight o’clock.” Luna chuckled and then it grew to a full-fledged laugh. “I’m callin’ Molly soon as I get back in the house. She’s got to hear this story.” She stopped long enough to wipe her eyes, and then went on, “I swear to God, I wish I’d had one of y’all’s fancy phones so I could have taken a picture of them policemen’s faces when I cornered them; she would’ve loved it.”
Rose laughed with her, but she didn’t know if it was nerves or if the situation was really that funny. Then she suddenly stopped. “What does the trailer park office have to do with y’all calling each other?”
“We ain’t got a phone”—Luna wiped her eyes again—“never saw no need for one. Me and Molly like to write and get letters, and she’s the only one I’d ever call, so payin’ a phone bill seems like a waste of money.”
Hud pulled to a stop in front of the B&B and unfastened his seat belt. “You can stay in the truck if it’s too cold for you.”
“Honey, I ain’t no weakling,” Luna told him as she opened the door, “and I don’t need you to walk me to the door, either. It might make Rose jealous.” She cackled, “So you just go on and do some dancin’ and maybe even some makin’ out on the way home.”
Hud waited until she was inside the B&B before he backed out of the driveway and started toward town one more time. “That was a real circus back there.”
“I almost felt sorry for the policemen,” Rose said. “I bet they didn’t know what hit them and still don’t. First Luna comes in and goes crazy on them, and then you deliver a dose of cowboy pride. I bet they stop and consider before pulling over someone on a trumped-up charge again.”
“As for me, I’m wondering if you and I will ever have a date that doesn’t involve a catastrophe.”
“I think we’ve covered a lot of them.” She smiled as they passed the place where they’d been stopped before.
“There’s still hail, floods, and tornadoes,” he said.
“Shhh.” She shook her head at him. “Don’t say that out loud.”
She’d always wondered what Hud Baker would become, even when she’d known him as a lanky teenager. Now she’d had a little taste of the answer, and she’d never felt more alive in her entire twenty-eight years. Nothing was ever humdrum around him, and catastrophes seemed to follow him everywhere he went.
“You ever had this much bad luck in one week?” she asked.
“Nope,” he replied with a head shake, “or this much good luck, either. Guess one comes with the other.”
“Good luck?” she asked, incredulously.
“Got to go through all of them with you, didn’t I? Do you have your heart set on going dancing?”
“Not really,” she answered, honestly. “I just wanted to spend some time with you.”
“Then let’s go to the Dairy Queen and have some ice cream. I’d rather talk until they run us out than have to yell above the jukebox at the Rusty Spur,” he said.
“Or we could go out to your ranch and let me see where you live.” It might be brazen, but a girl didn’t get anywhere by being shy. She’d proven that more times than one.
“I’ve got ice cream in the freezer and cold beers in the refrigerator.” He turned the pickup around and headed in the opposite direction.
* * *
Hud’s hands shook a little when he turned into the lane leading up to the small ranch house. Everyone in Tulia knew that the Bakers had a ranch as big as a small third-world country, so what was she going to think about the little two-bedroom house he now lived in?
“Oh! My! Goodness!” Rose exclaimed. “Your place looks like something out of a magazine with the fence and all. When I retire, I want something just like this.”
“You really like something this small?” Hud had been reluctant to tell her too much about the run-down ranch that he half-owned. She deserved so much more than what he could offer. She’d been all over the world, and she spoke however many languages. Surely her dream home was more than a little ranch-style, clapboard frame house.
“Love it!” she said as she got out of the truck before he could even open his door. “I’ve always lived in small spaces. In the commune, it was a trailer. The two years I went to public school, we rented a house about this size, and now, I live in a dorm room in the army barracks. This is perfect.”
“Well, it does have about seven hundred acres surrounding it,” he said as he got out of the vehicle.
Rose had already let herself out when he reached her door. “That’s bigger than our whole commune. Do you make a garden? I love to putter about in the dirt, and I really like fresh vegetables.”
“We haven’t got one yet, but we’ve talked about putting one in this spring.”
“Do you realize that it’s only been since Wednesday that we’ve actually reconnected? Seems like I’ve known you forever,” she told him.
“I know,” he replied. “It’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? We did have that year together out in the Panhandle, even if we were just kids, and we saw each other at Maverick’s wedding the first of the month,” he said. “One thing for sure, there doesn’t seem to be a dull moment when we’re together.”
“Amen to that.” She started for the porch.
Suddenly, Hud couldn’t wait to show her his place. He beat her to the door and opened it for her. “Welcome to my house. Actually, I share it with Paxton right now, but he’ll be leaving soon to go back out around Daisy.” He reached around the door and flipped on the light, and a dog scooted in past both of them. The animal yipped once and then took off for the kitchen.
“That would be Red. He’s a little rude tonight, not stoppin’ to even say hello,” Hud said. “But it’s past his suppertime, and from the way he’s actin’, he didn’t catch a rabbit or even a squirrel.”
“Then I guess we’d better feed him, hadn’t we?” She marched through the living room and straight into the kitchen.
Lord, that girl had spirit and spunk. Nothing seemed to faze her, and yet that shouldn’t surprise him. From what he already knew, she’d grown up pretty much in a conservative commune. She’d had the nerve to join the military without telling her father until she’d already signed the papers. He’d just bet she’d locked horns with her dad on more than one occasion.
He hung up his coat and, when he made it to the kitchen, found her dropped down on her knees, scratching Red’s ears. “He’s named after the dog in Blake Shelton’s song. Since he looked a little like the hound in the video, we thought it was a fitting name,” he said as he filled a bowl with dry food.
“I love dogs.” She stood up when Red bounded off into the utility room to scarf down his supper.
“I thought you were going to adopt Chester.” Hud got the ice cream from the freezer and filled two bowls. “We’ve got caramel and chocolate toppings. Which one?”
“Both, please.” She stood up. “And I’d gladly take a dog and a cat, long as they didn’t kill each other.” She squeezed out caramel first and then chocolate onto her ice cream.
“Living room or kitchen?” he asked.
“Let’s take it to the living room.” She picked up her bowl and headed in that direction. “Think we might start a blaze in the fireplace.”
“That’s easy enough.” He set his ice cream on the end table and turned a knob to one side of the bricks. “The logs are fake and it’s gas powered.”
“I don’t care if it’s solar powered,” she said. “I just love to look at it while I’m eating ice cream.”
“Did you have one in your house?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Never even done this before, but I always imagined it in my head as a little bit romantic.”
So she wanted romantic? Hud could give her that for sure.
She sat down on the sofa, and he settled in beside her, and pulled a quilt over both of them. “Is this the way you imagined it?”
“Yep,” she replied. “Only we were fourteen, not almost thirty. I used to lay awake at night and think about how it would be if we went on a real date. That was my favorite scenario. Did you even think about me when the day ended?”
He set his ice cream to the side and pulled her in even closer to him. “I’ve dreamed about you for years and years, darlin’.”
“That sounds like a pickup line to me, but I like it.” She put her bowl on the coffee table, and snuggled up closer to him. “What did you dream?”
“That you were back in my life, and that we had times just like this,” he answered. “Sometimes in my dreams we were having a picnic by a creek, other times we were sitting on the porch watching kids playing in the yard.”
“How did you feel when you woke up from those dreams?” she asked.
“At peace,” he replied. “How’d your imaginations about a fireplace make you feel?”
“Excited.” She shifted her position so that she was sitting in his lap.
Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips, and then her eyes fluttered shut. The kisses started out with enough steam to fog the windows in the living room, and got hotter and hotter. She unbuttoned his shirt, and the touch of her hands on his bare chest made the pressure behind his zipper unbearable. He slipped his hands under her shirt and unfastened the hooks of her bra, and then moved around to cup her breast with his hand.
“Sweet Jesus!” she muttered. “I hope you have protection somewhere in this house because I’m not on the pill.”
That’s the moment when Red decided to jump on the couch and lick Rose from her chin up to her forehead in one long swipe. She wiped at her face with the back of her hand and then began to laugh. “Ask and ye shall receive.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Hud asked.
“I asked for protection. I wasn’t expecting it in the form of dog slobbers, but that sure ruined the mood,” she said.
He chuckled with her. “I guess it did. Maybe Red knows that it’s too soon for us to…”
“Have sex,” she finished the sentence for him. “Well, I usually do wait until the fifth or maybe even the sixth date. How about you?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a third date,” he answered, honestly. “Most of my dates”—he air quoted that last word—“have been one-night stands that I picked up at the bars.”
“Then we probably do need to slow down a little.” She threw back the quilt and picked up both bowls of melted ice cream.
“How long is a little?” he asked.
“Who knows,” she answered. “When Red don’t interrupt us, maybe?”
He followed her into the kitchen. “Does this mean you’re ready for me to take you home?”
“I think it does.” She headed for the front door. “Aunt Luna mentioned church tomorrow. Are you going?”
“I attend every week. Can I pick you up?” He helped her put her coat on.
“What time?” she asked as she got into the truck.
“Starts at eleven. I could get you at ten thirty. Emily and the rest of us go to the little church just down the road from here,” he said.
“Think it’s safe?” she asked. “With the luck we’re having, just being together on a church pew could cause a major fire or something.”
“Surely we’ll be safe in church,” he said.
“If something happens there, I’m going to take it as a sign that Fate definitely doesn’t want us to be together,” she said.
“Maybe Fate has a sense of humor, and she’s just throwing obstacles at us to see how serious we are?” Hud turned the key and then switched the heat on high.
“Guess we’ll find out tomorrow,” Rose said.
Before they got out of Sunset, dark clouds had gathered overhead, and a hard rain started pouring from the sky in great sheets. When they reached the B&B, he insisted on walking her to the door, gave her a good night kiss, and then jogged back to his truck.
This had been the craziest week he’d ever spent. If it could go wrong, it did. If it couldn’t, it did anyway. He was soaked to the skin, cold to the bone, and yet singing with Blake Shelton to “Honey Bee” on the way back to his ranch—and he’d never felt so good in his whole life.