Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
H er heart in her throat, Leni sat up and looked around her bedroom. Chevy’s blue and white flannel shirt was still draped across the arm of her chair, but his cowboy boots and hat were gone.
Flinging the sheets aside, she pushed out of bed and hurried to the window. His truck was gone too.
Wow.
Last night, he’d been so caring and attentive. And that kiss .
She’d fallen asleep with her back spooned against his chest and his warm breath caressing her neck.
But now he’d left without even saying goodbye? She glanced around the room, hoping maybe he’d left a note.
Nope. No note. No goodbye.
No cowboy .
What a jerk. An ache tightened her chest as she tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter. She’d been good without him for the last decade— well, maybe not good, but just fine —so she sure as hell didn’t need him now.
But dang, it sure had been nice to step into the past and feel like she was his again. Just for a little while.
It took her longer than she’d meant to get dressed and brush her teeth and hair. Mainly because she kept getting distracted by thoughts of a certain cowboy who had apparently snuck out sometime in the night or early morning. She must have been really zonked out since she hadn’t heard him leave.
She peeked in on her sister and winced at the matted rust-colored blood dried in Lorna’s blond hair, but glad that Izzy was letting her sleep. The door creaked as she started to pull it closed.
Lorna stirred and lifted her hand in a small wave as she whispered, “It’s okay. I’m awake. Barely.” She lifted her head off the pillow. “Is Max up?”
“Yes. He wants to make you breakfast,” Leni whispered back. “So, get some more rest before Izzy wakes up. I’ve got it covered.”
She gently pulled the door closed, hoping her sister could sleep for a bit longer and then tiptoed down the stairs. She stepped into the living room to see Max kneeling against the back of the sofa and staring intently at something out the window.
“What are you looking at, buddy?” she asked, as she crossed the room. Wildlife was abundant in their neighborhood, especially since their house was so close to the creek, and she assumed her nephew was watching a deer or a bunny in the yard.
“I’m just watching all the people,” he told her as he pointed out the window. “Are we having a party?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” she said, coming up behind him. Her eyes widened at the cars and trucks that were pulling up in front of their house.
Including Chevy’s pickup.
She hurried to the front door and pulled it open. What the heck were all these people doing here?
Max followed her out onto the porch and waved excitedly to Chevy, who was unloading a stack of two by fours from the back of his truck. Another pickup had pulled up behind his, with Chevy’s brother, Dodge, and Maisie, the librarian he was seeing, inside.
Duke Lassiter and a tall curvy blond woman she’d never seen before got out of another car and walked across the lawn toward her.
“What are you all doing here?” she asked into Duke’s shoulder as he engulfed her in a big cookie-scented bear hug.
She’d never really known her grandparents, and Duke was the closest thing she’d ever had to a grandpa. Losing Chevy had been heart-achingly awful, but she’d also mourned the loss of the Lassiter family in her life. She let herself be held by him for just a moment. Why did this man always smell like fresh laundry and vanilla?
“Chevy came into the ranch house this morning loaded for bear, and he rallied the troops. He told us what happened to Lorna, and we’re all here to help,” Duke told her, giving her one more squeeze before letting her go. “It’s awful good to see you, Leni. We’ve missed you, darlin’.”
She swallowed back the emotion filling her throat. “Good to see you, too.”
“Hi, I’m Ford’s girlfriend, Elizabeth,” the woman with Duke said, holding up a box filled with orange juice, a couple of plastic containers, and a red casserole dish covered in foil. The smile on her face was warm and kind, like they were already friends. “We brought breakfast.”
Max grinned up at Leni. “I was just wishing that we already had breakfast and didn’t have to make it.”
She had spent the better part of the last twenty minutes wishing that Chevy hadn’t just snuck out in the middle of the night and that she would hear from him again today.
Apparently, both her and Max’s wishes had come true.
“Wow. You didn’t have to do this,” Leni tried to tell them, but Max already had the front door open and was pointing the way to the kitchen.
“We know,” Duke said with a wink as he walked past her. “But we wanted to.”
Dodge’s girlfriend came up the stairs, holding a blue grocery tote. Leni remembered her a little from school, and they had met again a few weeks ago when she and Dodge had come into the coffee shop. “I’m not sure if you remember me. I’m Maisie. I was in Lorna’s class, and I work at the library.”
Leni nodded. “Yes, of course, I do. You’re with Dodge, right?”
The other woman’s cheeks blushed pink, which Leni thought was kind of adorable. She didn’t know Maisie well, but she seemed very nice.
“Well, yes, I guess.” She held up the tote bag. “My grandma is Ruby Foster, I think you know her too, and she sent me with a baked ziti she had in the freezer, and I brought taco meat and all the fixings for you all. Some of the other women from the church will probably be dropping meals off later today or tomorrow. We didn’t want you or Lorna to have to cook.”
“Gosh, this is so nice. I don’t know what to say.”
Maisie smiled. “Just say thanks and then bring a meal to someone in town next time you hear they’re in need.”
“Thank you.” She could handle the ‘thanks’ part, but she wasn’t planning to be in town long enough to help the next person in need.
Although…her stomach dropped as she suddenly realized that she wasn’t going to be able to leave in a week or so, like she’d originally planned. Not with her sister hobbling around on crutches for the next six weeks. Lorna had done so much for her over the years and never asked for anything in return.
There was no way Leni was leaving, not when her sister needed her, and she could actually do something to help.
There was only one complication with her staying for longer, and he was wearing a sexy-as-sin grin as he walked across the lawn toward her.
“Good mornin’, darlin’,” he said, as he dropped a stack of boards and a pile of tools next to the porch. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Sorry I didn’t say goodbye this morning. I was up early, and you were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to wake you. I was hoping to get my chores taken care of and get back before you woke up. And I figured getting home to Duke and the ranch was the best place to start to round you all up some help.”
She didn’t know what to say. She was still stuck on the way her stomach had done a little belly flop when he’d called her ‘darlin’. And she appreciated the way he whispered and wasn’t announcing to the whole town of Woodland Hills that he’d spent the night with her.
Although his truck had been parked in front of their house, so word had probably already spread.
“What is all that for?” she asked as Dodge walked up with a circular saw and another handful of boards.
“Hey Leni,” Dodge said, his shit-eatin’ grin telling her he already knew where his brother had spent the night.
Chevy gestured to the stairs leading up to the front porch. “Those steps are treacherous enough as it is without trying to manage them in crutches like Lorna’s going to be doing, so I thought Dodge and I could build her a couple of railings. One for each side.”
“Um…wow…that would be a really nice surprise for her.” Had she mentioned the night before the trouble they’d had trying to navigate the stairs with Lorna’s broken ankle? Or had Chevy just noticed the need and come up with a solution?
“That’s not the only surprise I have for her,” he said, grinning like a kid who had just been given the new toy they’d been wanting.
Leni stared at him as he backtracked to the truck and pulled a blue knee-scooter from the bed.
He carried it back across the yard and set it down in front of her like it was a prize he was awarding. “Check this out. It’s going to make her life so much easier than trying to manage a set of crutches.”
“Where in the world did you get a knee-scooter already this morning?” she asked, not able to keep the incredulity out of her voice.
“One of the gals in the knitting club had one from when she got a knee replacement last year,” he explained. “You have to give it back, but she was happy to loan it to Lorna to use. It even has a basket.” He tapped the pink and white basket attached to the front of the scooter. “Her name is Betty.”
She raised an eyebrow. “The knee-scooter has a name?”
“Oh yeah. Betty the Balance Buddy. And from what I hear, she’d got a personality too. But if you’re good to her, she’ll be good to you.”
Leni let out a laugh. “I’ll let Lorna know.” Then her mouth went dry as he slung a tool belt around his lean hips and dropped a hammer into the ring on its side.
What was it about a man in a tool belt?
Holy hot handy cowboy .
Dodge had already pulled out a tape measure and was marking up two by fours with a pencil and a framing square. He looked up at her with a sheepish grin. “Guess we owe you an apology for the coffee gag we pulled on you and Chev. We just thought it would be a funny way for Chevy to find out you were still in town. We didn’t mean any harm. Sorry if we upset you.”
She sighed. “No harm done. And in retrospect, it was kind of funny to have Chevy rolling up to the counter and trying to order a…what was it…a purple unicorn volcano.”
Dodge laughed. “That one was mine.”
“Yeah, you guys were hilarious,” Chevy told him, with a playful shove to the shoulder.
Leni laughed along with them. It felt good to be around the guys she’d practically grown up with again.
Dodge held a board up to the side of the steps, marked it, then tucked the pencil behind his ear. He wore a baseball cap over his blond hair instead of a cowboy hat, and she could still see the boy she remembered—the one who used to find a shady spot on the farm and read for hours—in his features. It made perfect sense that a total bookworm like him would end up with a librarian.
She’d only seen him and Maisie together a few times, but they seemed totally in love and like a really great fit for each other. Lorna told her that Maisie had been in love with Dodge since the tenth grade—and why wouldn’t she be—the guy had always been sweet and was crazy good-looking.
All the Lassiter men were.
Including the one who kept sneaking glances at her and flashing her grins that made her pulse race like a car in the Daytona 500.
Stop looking at him.
Leni turned her attention back to the brother she didn’t used to be in love with and was glad that Dodge had found someone who made him happy. But she wasn’t so sure about the way he was fitting two of the boards together.
She eyed him skeptically. “Do you have any actual plans drawn up? Could I see the specs for these railings?”
Chevy laughed. “This isn’t rocket science, Len. But don’t worry. You know Duke’s been teaching us how to properly build things since we were all ten years old.”
“And we’ve all spent summers working in construction,” Dodge added.
“We can manage two stair railings,” Chevy assured her. “And I promise we’ll do it right.”
Her phone buzzed, saving her from offering any unwanted advice on their building skills, and she pulled it from her pocket to see her sister was calling.
“What is happening down there?” Lorna asked when she picked up.
“Apparently, Chevy called out the calvary, and the whole Lassiter clan, plus a few extras, showed up with food and offers to help. And he and Dodge are building you a set of railings for your front steps.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope. They’ve got boards and power tools and everything.”
“Oh my gosh. That’s so nice. I think I’m going to cry.”
“Wait until you smell the breakfast stuff that Duke just carried into the kitchen.”
“Are they all still here?”
“Oh yeah.”
“I want to come down. Will you come up and help me with Izzy and these stupid crutches?”
“I’ll be up in a minute.” She hung up and pushed her phone back into the pocket of her shorts.
“Everything okay?” Chevy asked.
“Yes. This sweet stuff you all are doing is making Lorna cry. And she wants to see everyone, so I need to go up and help her get down the stairs.”
“I can help too,” he said, unclipping and dropping his tool belt to follow her into the house. “You can get Izzy, and I’ll get your sister.”
It took them a few minutes to change the baby, but Lorna had gotten out of bed and hobbled around enough to get herself dressed and to the bathroom to get her hair and teeth brushed.
At the top of the landing, Chevy scooped Lorna up again and carried her down the stairs, to the cheers and greetings of his family and their friends.
“Thank you everyone,” she said, pressing a hand to her chest. “This is so nice.”
“Wait until you meet Betty,” Chevy told her with a sly grin.
She turned to Leni and mouthed, “Who’s Betty?”
“You’ll see,” she mouthed back as Chevy set her sister down and ran outside.
Chevy came back in hauling the knee scooter and placed it in front of Lorna. “ This is Betty.”
Lorna was thrilled with the knee scooter and laughed as Max climbed up on the seat and tried to ride it around the living room. “This is really sweet. Thank you, Chevy.”
He nodded. “It’s no problem. I know what a pain crutches can be, and I was worried about how you were going to manage getting around with them.” He eyed the knee-scooter. “We might even be able to rig the basket so you could set Izzy in it and not have to carry her while you’re trying to maneuver this thing.”
“Speaking of how you’re going to get around. I was thinking we needed to bring the bassinet downstairs and pull out the sofa in the family room,” Leni told her, referring to the living area at the back of the house behind the kitchen. “We can set it up for you to stay in there, at least for the first few weeks so you don’t have to mess with the stairs. I’ll still stay up there with Max, but we can construct a temporary changing station for Izzy and bring your toiletries down so you can use the main level bathroom.”
Lorna smiled at her. “I love the way your brain is always coming up with a plan.”
Chevy was grinning at her like a cat who’d just gobbled up a canary.
“What?” she asked, wondering if she had something in her teeth or had put her shirt on backwards.
He lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. “Nothin’. Except I think I just caught you telling your sister that you were going to be sticking around…at least for another few weeks.”