Chapter 9 #2
Harper smiled as she went to her seat and Summer pushed several cheese burgers and onion ring orders her way, then pushed the drink carrier holding four more chocolate shakes at her. “Oh, yeah. This is what I need. And I even ate dinner already! Well, lunch, but it was really late, so dinner.”
“You’re behind if you only ate once today. You have to take better care of yourself, Harper. You are too active not to feed your body the calories it needs,” Travis said.
“I know, Dad. I usually try to make sure I eat right, but I just got distracted today trying to get everything done.”
He eyed her for a moment, and Libby just knew she was going to have to step in, but he surprised them. “Well, nobody can ever say you’re not a hard worker. You’re 1,000 percent at whatever you’re doing.”
Harper stopped chewing and looked up at Travis. “Thank you, Daddy. That really means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome, baby. Now eat up. And we have some leftovers from dinner, too, if you want some in the middle of the night.”
Summer sniffed the air. “Chili?” she asked.
“You got it. And cornbread, too. Some shredded cheddar cheese in a zip lock in the fridge and sour cream to go with it, if you want it,” Libby said.
Summer looked at the burger in her hand, then at the kitchen as she weighed her options. “I think I’ll have the chili during the night.”
Then she looked over at Harper. “Wearing enough perfume there?”
“I can’t get the horse smell off me tonight. Deal with it,” Harper snapped.
“Touchy much,” Summer said.
“Eat your burger. I warned you I was tired and I’m not always my lovely self when I’m tired,” Harper said.
“That is true,” Summer said. “Let’s hurry up and eat and we can go get in bed and trade gossip until you fall asleep. You’ll be nicer in the morning.”
Libby smiled indulgently at the girls. “Sometimes I forget you two aren’t little girls anymore. You still have so many of the same habits.”
“They’ll always be little girls to me,” Travis said warmly as he took a few seconds to really look at his daughter and her best friend, who also was considered his niece.
~~~
Clay did his best to ignore the hurt in his chest as he left Harper’s home and drove toward the Bigsby’s.
It always plagued him when he left Harper.
It was a little less intense this time, though, presumably that was because he was on his way to make arrangements for their future.
Or maybe it was because he’d partially mated her with the intimacy they’d just shared, and it had been her first time.
It would always be one of his most precious memories.
Either way, there was no doubt now that she had feelings for him, too.
They’d just not breached the mate conversation.
She still thought he had someone else on his radar though he’d told her he didn’t, and he wasn’t willing to confess exactly how committed he was to her yet, because she seemed so hell bent on avoiding anything to do with mating.
She’d even warned him not to bite her, which frankly, he might have done otherwise.
He smiled to himself when he thought about having her in his arms and taste of her skin.
“It’ll all fall into place in due time,” he said to himself as he turned onto the Bigsby’s driveway barely more than half an hour after he and Harper had left there.
He parked his car near the front of the Bigsby’s home and walked up onto the porch. He knocked on the door before backing up a step or two so he wouldn’t be crowding the door.
The door opened wide and Mr. Bigsby waved his arm toward the room behind himself. “Come on in. Didn’t figure it would take you very long to get back here. You hungry?”
“Thank you, Sir,” Clay said, walking into the house. “And, no, I’m not hungry. I don’t want to be any trouble.”
“After the way Harper worked you today… I’m pretty sure you’re starving. Come have a seat at the table. We’re about to have an early dinner and we’ll all get to know each other a little.
“I’ll sit with you, but I’ll opt for just some iced tea.”
“You’ll sit with us and have some dinner,” Mr. Bigsby said.
He gestured toward the table where Mrs. Bigsby already sat in front of an informal place setting.
Clay noticed that there were two other settings on the table as well.
“Hope you like shepherd’s pie. The missus loves it and it’s one of the things I’m not bad at making. So I make it by the pound.”
Clay laughed as he took the seat Mr. Bigsby pointed out. “If you have enough and it’s no trouble, I’d be honored.”
“Cora, this is Harper’s young man that I was telling you about,” Mr. Bigsby said as he took her plate off the table and went back over to the stove to fill it.
He put a serving of shepherd’s pie on her plate and two buttered dinner rolls, then took it back over to her and put it in front of her.
He reached for Clay’s plate and did the same, returning it to the table in front of Clay, then serving himself as well.
Mrs. Bigsby smiled happily at Clay as she sat demurely with her hands folded in her lap. “I hope he made shepherd’s pie. I love shepherd’s pie, and it’s been years since I had any.”
Clay realized at that moment that she was struggling with memory loss, since Mr. Bigsby had just told him that he made it often and by the pound and had even served both their plates already. “I hope so, too. I love it,” Clay said.
“If he made it, you’re in for a treat. He makes the best, but it’s like Christmas when he finally does make it because he’s out there working with those horses for so many hours a day.
But I don’t mind. He’s building a future for us!
” she said, nodding her head as she smiled, eyes shining with love for her husband as she watched him sit down next to her.
The moment he sat close to her, she reached out and patted his hand with her trembling one.
“We’re building our future together. One day we’re going to have lots of babies running around and filling this place with laugher. ”
Mr. Bigsby smiled at her as he picked up her fork and scooped up a bite of the food on her plate, placing it near her lips as he waited for her to take a bite. “And arguments, and yelling,” he said, encouraging her.
She leaned a little closer to the fork he held for her, but looked at Clay with joy on her face. “That’s part of a happy home. All the things in one place to be shared by everyone.” She took the bite of food and sat back as she chewed.
“Yes, it is, Cora. It certainly is,” Mr. Bigsby said as he loaded the fork with more food, then glanced over at Clay.
Clay met his gaze and gave a barely perceptible nod. “I hope to one day have the kind of love and family that the two of you share.”
“You will!” Mrs. Bigsby said. “All you have to do is make sure you choose the girl you just can’t live without. And don’t choose another because you grow impatient. Wait for the right one.”
“I will, Mrs. Bigsby,” Clay promised.
They took their time eating slowly, Mr. Bigsby pausing between bites of his own dinner to feed his wife. Once she was done, which honestly didn’t take long at all because she didn’t eat much, Mr. Bigsby excused himself. “I’ll be back in about thirty minutes. You okay until then?”
“Yes, sir. I’m not in a hurry. Take your time. Or if it fits you better, I could come back in the morning.”
“No, nothing will be any different in the morning. Give me a little time and I’ll be back. Enjoy another helping in the meantime.”
“Yes, sir,” Clay said.
Just shy of thirty minutes later Mr. Bigsby came back into the kitchen. He looked around and realized that Clay had put away the food, cleaned the kitchen and washed the dishes. “Well, would you look at that. Can’t even tell I made a mess in here.”
“My momma says that if you aren't making a mess, are you even really cooking?” Clay said.