Chapter 3
Grayson “Cade” Cumberland had spent a long day riding the fenceline on the north portion of his ranch.
He was already bone tired and was on his way back home when the weather began to change.
Urging his horse to pick up the pace, he’d just made it to the corral when the sky opened up.
He quickly continued into the barn and dismounted.
After putting his horse in his stall, he took off his saddle, rubbed him down, and fed him.
When that was done, he ran to the house, his drenched clothes making the short distance feel longer.
Taking the porch steps two at a time, he quickly came to a halt. Someone was lying in front of his door. From what he could tell, it was a woman. He quickly looked around before approaching her prone body. After checking for and finding a pulse, he gently shook the woman to wake her.
Tessa woke with a start and was momentarily speechless as she looked into the face of a man with intense blue eyes. She shook her head to clear it, then realized the man was speaking to her.
“Are you okay?”
“I think so.”
“Are you sure? You’re soaking wet, and it looks like you’ve been lying here for a while.”
“I’m okay. I got lost coming out of the maze.”
“What maze?”
“The corn maze. The one set up for Halloween.”
Cade was starting to suspect that the woman might have suffered a blow to the head, as she was not making any sense. There was a cornfield down the road, but there were no mazes.
“Are you sure you’re okay, ma’am?” He repeated his earlier question.
“Other than wearing these wet things, I’m okay.” Tessa was more than ready to get back to her room and get out of her cold, wet clothes. Cade, however, was not convinced that she was without injury.
“Why don’t you let me help you into the house?”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, took her hand, and helped her to her feet.
Once inside she followed him through the house to the kitchen, watching his movements as he lit a lantern.
He told her to take a seat, then walked over to a cast iron stove.
After checking what Tessa assumed was the damper, he fed kindling into it, and started a fire.
As he worked, she took the time to observe him.
He was tall, maybe six foot five, give or take an inch.
Strands of black hair fell over his forehead despite him repeatedly pushing them back.
When he turned back toward her, she got a better look.
His face was all angles, with full lips, sharp cheek bones and a chiseled jawline covered by a five-o-clock shadow.
Dark lashes framed eyes with a black outer ring around blue irises–definitely his best feature.
With those looks, she thought he might be one of the actors that had been hired for the weekend.
“It won’t take long to warm up in here once the fire gets going.” After working at the stove, he moved to the pump at the sink, washed his hands and excused himself. “I’ll be right back.”
Tessa took a moment to look at her surroundings. She remembered that the section of the ranch where the weekend activities were being held had been made over to resemble the Old West. Whoever planned this did a great job. This looks very authentic.
“This might help you warm up a bit.” The man handed her a glass filled with an amber-colored liquid.
“What is it?” She eyed its contents suspiciously as he sat down next to her.
“It’s whiskey.” Raising his glass to take a drink, he watched her as if to see if she’d do the same. After a little more hesitation, she took a drink from her own glass and immediately began to cough.
“Maybe start off with a smaller sip,” he told her with a grin.
“Noted.” Tessa took a smaller sip which went down a little easier. “That’s better.” Once she’d gotten past the initial burn from her first sip, the whiskey wasn’t half bad.
“Now that we have that out of the way, can you tell me again how you ended up on my porch?”
“I was walking through the cornfield which had been turned into a maze for Halloween. I was trying to finish it before the sun set. I’d just gotten to the exit when the sky turned dark and it started raining. I thought this was the building where my friends and I are staying.”
“Did you get separated from your friends?”
“No. I went in without them and was supposed to meet them at the saloon when I got done. They’re probably looking for me now.” Tessa drained her glass and stood up. “I should go back to the maze. I probably just came out of the wrong exit or something.”
“I don’t know about any maze around here. There is a cornfield up the road, but it’s not a maze. The closest saloon is in town and it’s a couple of miles away. The way the rain is coming down right now, this storm is bound to get a lot worse as it passes through.”
Tessa looked out the window and saw that the man was right. It was coming down in buckets. The sky was black as pitch, interrupted by the occasional bolt of lightning.
“You can’t be thinking to go out in that.” The man came to stand beside her. “It’s best to wait until it stops. Your friends are probably somewhere indoors riding out the storm. I’ll take you to where the field is when it’s done.”
“I guess I don’t have much choice.” Tessa didn’t feel threatened by the stranger, but she wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable with being alone with him either. No matter how handsome he was.
“In the meantime, why don’t I find something for you to change into so your clothes can dry while we’re waiting for the storm to blow over?” With that, he left the room again and returned shortly, asking her to follow him into the next room which turned out to be a small bedroom.
“I got this for Christmas a few years back. It’ll be a little big, but it should be okay.
” He handed her was a nightshirt and pointed to the quilt at the end of the bed.
“You can cover up with that.” He moved toward the fireplace.
“This fireplace is two sided; it heats up both this room and the room on the other side. I’ll get a fire going here, and after you change you can hang your clothes on that chair so they can dry. ”
“Thanks,” Tessa told him as she watched him closely.
“When you get changed, come back to the kitchen and I’ll fix us something to eat.” With that, he left, closing the door behind him.
Watching him leave, she suddenly remembered she had her phone with her.
She pulled it out of her skirt pocket and sent a text message to her friends’ group chat.
Noticing the message didn’t go through, she checked her phone and saw she had no service.
She attributed it to the storm or her location causing the disruption of cell service.
Once again, Cade wondered how the woman had managed to find her way to his home.
It was a long way from town, with the nearest neighbors being three miles away.
He had moved out West three years ago to work on his uncle’s ranch.
His uncle didn’t have children and Cade was like a son to him.
Initially, he’d been planning to move out with his wife and young son, but they died of influenza that winter before they’d planned to leave.
He’d been devasted. His life had revolved around his wife and young son.
He had no idea how he could continue on without them.
His uncle encouraged him to come as he’d originally planned and stay while he decided what he wanted to do with his life.
Cade took him up on his offer and along with his best friend, Joel, he left for the Double C Ranch. The ranch saved his life.
Cade thought about the woman in the other room as he moved around the kitchen pulling out ingredients for dinner.
He hadn’t thought to ask her name. Since she was staying for dinner, he probably should ask her what it was.
As surprised as he was to find a woman on his doorstep, he was even more so when he saw she was Black.
There were only a few Black families in the area, besides the two who lived on his ranch.
This woman was unfamiliar to him. Maybe she’s related to one of the other families.
When she awakened, hazel eyes with flecks of brown, green and gold looked back at him from a beautiful golden-brown face, leaving him both fascinated, and momentarily speechless.