4. Cody

 

 

She was his mate.

She was his mate.

Remy was going to be telling him I-told-you-so until the end of time, and he didn't even care.

He wasn't sure if it was just the mate-bond making her seem perfect, or if she really was perfect, not that it mattered much. She was the perfect height, the perfect amount of curvy. Her dark ponytail flipped in the perfect way. Even the smudge of dirt on her dusky cheek drew his attention to her full lips and accentuated the perfection there.

She was cute and beautiful and amazing and he got, oh how he got, why Remy had been willing to fight a whole shifter biker gang for Saffron, why Gannon had challenged a much bigger alpha grizzly in a fight he couldn't possibly win for Daisy. He would have fought a thousand alphas if Crystal's life was in danger.

Crystal. Even her name was perfect. It sounded small and delicate and lovely, but with rugged toughness underneath. Like her.

"Have you lived here for long?" Crystal asked, as he drove through the small creek at the base of the hill. "Oh, wait, you said you knew my grandfather, so you must've lived out here all your life, or at least most of it."

"All my life," Cody confirmed. "We've owned the place next door for generations. My cousin Alec owns it now."

"Do you like it?" she asked, giving him a sultry look from those long-lashed eyes.

"I love it," he said wholeheartedly. "Ranching is my life."

But even as he said it, he wasn't sure if it was true anymore. His entire life had been devoted to the ranch, but now ...

Now, a part of his life belonged to her. And maybe all of it, soon.

"What about you?" he asked. "This must be a big change for you, moving back here."

"Moving?" Her quick look was wide-eyed. "Oh, no. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I'm not fixing up the ranch to move into it. I'm fixing it up to sell."

"Sell?" he repeated, thinking for an instant that he'd heard wrong.

"Yes, I'm only here for two weeks and then I'm headed back to Missouri. I live in St. Louis."

Cody's bear, which had been curled contentedly in his chest, basking in the presence of their mate, woke with a gruff snort. Leaving? What? No, she can't!

Settle down, you big idiot, Cody retorted. She hardly knows us yet. She just got here. And she's human, so I don't know even know whether she feels the mate bond at all.

But she definitely felt something. He could see it in her heated gaze, smell it in the faint tang of arousal on her skin.

So he pushed down the burgeoning panic, most (but not all) of it coming from his bear, and asked, "What do you do in St. Louis?"

"I work in a bookstore. I'm the assistant manager."

A bookstore. Well ... there were little businesses all over, right? There was a used bookstore over in Spring Meadow. Tara and Saffron liked to take trips down there. Maybe she could work there. Or maybe clerking at the gas station in Wildcat Forks would be almost the same thing ...

Stupid, stupid, he accused himself. It's not the same thing at all. But anyway, she just got here. She doesn't even know the place yet. We've got two weeks to show her that she has something to stay for. We can do that, right?

A glimmer of sunlight alerted him to something ahead in the overgrown driveway, and a minute later he pulled to a stop in front of Crystal's little car. He almost wanted to laugh, looking at it. Out in the boonies like this, everyone drove trucks or Jeeps or Subarus. No wonder she'd worried his truck couldn't make it through the creek, if this was what she was used to driving. This little thing didn't even look like it could make it up the hill.

"You drove all the way out here in that?"

"I'm hearing judgment. That's definitely judgment."

"No, not at all," Cody said quickly. "Hey, I bet that car is great for running you around in town. It's just, out like this, you need something that's got some ground clearance."

"It's not like I'm going to buy a new car for a two-week trip." And there it was again, the reminder that she wasn't here for long. Cody wondered if it was only his own hopes that made it sound like there was regret in her tone. "Anyway, you're gonna cut the tree out of the way, right?"

"Right." He opened his truck door and hopped down. As he got the chainsaw out of the back, he said over his shoulder, "Sorry to just leave you hanging. I hope you won't be bored."

"No," she said, sounding slightly choked as she watched him casually sling the chainsaw out of the back of the truck one-handed. "No, I'm sure I won't be bored at all."

He decided to take her at her word. "Well, stay back there by the truck so you won't be in any danger."

He revved the machine and got to work sawing the log out of the way. It was a hot day; his shirt was quickly drenched with sweat, clinging to his skin. He looked up to make sure Crystal was staying back. She was leaning against the truck, and her gaze on him was hot enough to scorch.

She feels the bond. His bear was smug.

We can't be sure of that. But the way she was looking at him made him think his bear was right.

He needed to talk to one of his cousins' human mates. Tara or Charmian or Daisy could tell him if they'd felt the bond immediately or if they had needed some time. It was a subject that he'd never even thought to broach with them before. Of course, when he didn't have a mate of his own, it was also a subject he'd never had much desire to dwell on.

Things were different now.

What happens to us if our mate leaves? His bear was plaintive.

Nothing. We aren't going to lose our mate.

But she wants to leave.

Cody gritted his teeth and bit the chainsaw into the log, sending up a shower of sawdust. Nothing was as single-minded as a bear once it got fixated on something.

Even if she did leave, though—even if the worst came to pass and he couldn't convince her to stay—there was another option.

He could go with her.

He'd never been able to imagine himself living anywhere other than here. Even when he'd left to take some college courses in agribusiness, he'd known all along that he was coming back. And it had still been difficult.

Could he live in the city?

If our mate is there, it's home. But even his bear sounded uncertain.

"There we go." He swiped the back of his hand across his sweaty forehead and put the chainsaw back in the bed of the truck. He'd cut the log into segments, each about a foot and a half long. "Want to help me load these?"

"In the truck bed, you mean?" But she gamely picked one up. Oh yes, city girl Crystal had all the makings of a rancher. She would love it here, he just knew it; all he had to do was show her.

"Yeah, no sense letting perfectly good firewood go to waste. I can split it up for you."

"What, for the ranch house, you mean? Oh, that's so kind of you. It'll be a great benefit for the new owners."

Cody tried not to let the mention of her all-too-imminent departure puncture his pleasure at working side by side with his mate. He enjoyed her voluptuous curves as she bent to pick up each piece of cut wood. When they'd loaded it into the truck bed, Crystal leaned on the side of the truck and wiped her forehead.

"The day's really getting too hot to work outside. I should've done it the other way around, started with the yard work in the morning and then cleaned the house in the afternoon. Not to mention that, after cleaning all day, I'm bushed now. And starving." She turned to him with a smile. "Cody, have you had lunch yet? Want to show me where the good restaurants are?"

He'd had a sandwich back at the ranch, but he was already hungry again. Anyway, even if he'd just had a seven-course meal, he wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to have lunch with his mate. "I could sure eat. Trouble is, we don't really have a lot of five-star eateries around here. Nothing like what you're used to in St. Louis, I'm sure. Actually, the only restaurants in the nearest twenty miles are Marge's Diner in Wildcat Forks, and the Boss Hog, but that's a biker bar on the highway."

"Wildcat Forks is the little town at the crossroads, right?" Cody nodded, and she grinned. "I'm staying in the motel there. I had dinner last night at the diner you're talking about. It's a nice place; I like it."

"They have great burgers, and pretty good meatloaf on Thursdays."

"I could really use a burger right now."

"I'll buy," Cody offered. "Let me welcome you to Pinerock County with one of Marge's famous burgers."

"I will absolutely take you up on that." She had dimples, he noticed. There was nothing about her that wasn't perfect. Just being this close to her made him yearn to reach out and stroke her skin with his fingertips, find out if it was as soft as it looked ...

"And you can tell me about my grandfather," she went on, and Cody jolted out of his brief fantasy. "I'm sure you must have some stories about this place when it was still a working farm."

"I didn't know your grandpa very well," Cody protested. "I was just a teenager when he died. Don't want you to be disappointed or anything."

Dimples again. "Tell you what. I promise not to be disappointed if you'll tell me what you remember."

Dazzled by her smile, by the intoxicating presence of his mate, what else could he say? "Of course I will."