Claire awoke the next morning with doubts. Had she gone too fast? She’d known Levi less than a month. Even with her first boyfriend in college, she’d known him a whole semester before they’d had sex.
But what you had last night went beyond plain old sex; Levi made love to you, a soft voice in her head reminded her.
Even that couldn’t erase the niggling uncertainty of her actions. She’d only been a notch above the bar bunnies that he’d taken home for a weekend. She’d instigated the whole thing just like they’d do. Now what? Would he have as many second thoughts as she had and avoid her like the plague?
Zaylie rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her knuckles as she crawled up in bed with Claire and flopped back on the spare pillow. “Are you goin’ to come see me sing tonight at the nursing home?”
“Of course I am,” Claire answered.
“And Levi?”
Claire’s cheeks burned at just hearing his name. “You’ll have to ask him.”
“’Kay.” She yawned and then sat up with eyes wide open. “I have to call Teresa and see if she can come too.”
Claire patted her on the arm. “Teresa lives too far away to come to the singing, but I’ll video it and you can send it to her. How would that work?”
Zaylie’s lower lip rolled out. “I miss her.”
Claire picked her up and held her close. “I know you do. I miss your dad and Angela and Teresa and even Franny. But Christmas isn’t far away, and we’ll see them all then.”
“Is that when we’re leavin’?” Zaylie asked.
“Maybe,” Claire answered.
“But I don’t want to leave my kitties and Retta and Levi,” Zaylie whined. “Daddy can come home and we can live in this house happy ever after.”
If only things were as simple as they are seen through the eyes of a five-year-old, Claire thought as she set Zaylie on the floor and got out of bed herself. “We’ll see what happens when the time comes,” she said. “But for right now, we’ll think about the ranch party. It’s coming up real soon. What are you going to wear?”
“My pretty Christmas dress.” Zaylie’s tone changed to excited as she raced off to the living room. “We can send Daddy a picture of me and the kitties on party day.”
“Yes, we will,” Claire agreed.
She picked up the shirt that she’d tossed on the dresser the night before and buried her face in it. Inhaling deeply, she could still smell Levi’s aftershave mixed with the scent of the tack room. She was definitely going to miss seeing him every day when she moved away from the ranch.
Levi had been dreaming about Claire and was reaching out to touch her face when he awoke to find that he was caressing a pillow. He picked it up and threw it against the wall.
That’s no way to treat the woman you are seeing. Skip’s laughter rang out in his head so clearly that he looked across the room to see if he was sitting in the rocking chair by the window.
“It wasn’t Claire. If it had been, I wouldn’t be in this mood.” He threw the covers back and jerked a shirt over his head. The one he’d worn the night before still smelled faintly of her perfume, so it didn’t go into the hamper but was left draped over the rocking chair.
“Mornin’.” He nodded to Mavis, Skip, and Retta when he made it to the kitchen.
“What’s got you all grumpy? You usually get up in a good mood,” Mavis asked.
“Nothin’,” he muttered. “And what makes you think I’m grumpy. I said good mornin’ to all y’all.”
“The look on your face,” Mavis told him.
Retta laid a hand on his shoulder. “Must be a male thing. Cade and Justin neither one are real perky this morning either. They’re in the livin’ room if you want to join them.”
“I’m good right here.” He took a sip of his coffee and turned toward Mavis. “Why did you and Skip come so early? Didn’t you have to take Benjy to school?”
“The FFA is giving the 4-H club a breakfast this mornin’. And we got us a little miracle this holiday season. Benjy made a friend. He goes to a special class a couple of hours a day, and there’s a little girl in there who’s also high-functioning autistic, and they’ve been talkin’ on the phone. She remembers numbers like he does details.”
“That’s fabulous. Do we get to meet her?” Levi perked up.
“Maybe. I’ve asked her mother to come to our church,” Mavis answered. “She said that she’d be happy to attend. They only moved here a few weeks ago.”
“Levi! Levi! Where are you?” Zaylie’s voice echoed off the walls.
“In the kitchen, princess.” He raised his voice.
She bounced into the room dragging her jacket behind her and stopped abruptly when she saw Skip and Mavis. “Where’s Benjy?”
Mavis told her about the FFA breakfast and then nudged Levi when Claire entered the room right behind the child. “Well, that sure enough put a smile on your face,” she whispered.
“Guess it did.” His grin got bigger.
“Hello, everyone. It looks like it’s goin’ to be a sunny day.” Claire’s eyes locked with Levi’s and held for a few seconds.
“Yep, and we can use some good days to get decorated up for this party.” Skip tucked his hands into the bib of his overalls. “Me and the boys are goin’ to do that today. Cade just thought he’d get out of helping.”
“Can I help?” Zaylie asked.
“You can help me,” Mavis told her. “I’m going to bake cookies all day, and I could use someone to help decorate them.”
“Santa cookies?” Zaylie whispered.
“Iced sugar cookies,” Claire interpreted.
“Yes, Santa cookies. We’ll make reindeer and Santa and maybe if we have time even some gingerbread men,” Mavis told her.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Zaylie did a couple of twirls.
“But first breakfast. I could eat a dozen biscuits with sausage gravy this mornin’,” Retta said. “It’s great to be over mornin’ sickness.”
“I think I’ll refill my cup and go on in the living room with the guys after all,” Levi said. As he passed by Claire he bumped her on the shoulder and whispered, “Good mornin’, beautiful.”
Heat crawled up from her neck to her cheeks. The song that had been playing while they made love the night before played through her head as her face went from red to crimson.
“Little warm there?” Retta asked.
“Nope, downright hot,” Claire answered.
“You’re too young for hot flashes.” Mavis put a large pan of biscuits in the oven.
“Depends on who’s makin’ you hot,” Retta said. “Mavis, I don’t think you’ve ever told me about when you met Skip. Did you ever get a hot flash when you first met him?”
Mavis chuckled. “Oh, honey, you might not know it now, but Skip was the sexiest cowboy in the whole state of Texas at one time, and I was one lucky girl that he fell in love with me.”
“How old were you?” Retta winked at Claire.
“Sixteen. We married when I was seventeen. That was fifty years ago. We ran off to Wichita Falls, got married at the county clerk’s, and spent a night in a motel. Then we came home to face the music.” Mavis crumbled sausage into a big cast iron skillet and handed a wooden spoon to Claire. “You can keep this stirred while it browns.”
“Face the music?” Retta asked.
“My daddy thought Skip wasn’t good enough for his little girl,” Mavis answered.
“Ever have any regrets?” Claire asked.
Mavis whipped around to stare at her. “Not a single one.”
“I love that story,” Claire said. “It reminds me of the one that Franny told me when I was…” She started to say home, but if it was true that home was where the heart is, she wasn’t sure where it was that morning. She cleared her throat and went on. “When Zaylie and I went to Randlett.”
Retta got down the plates to set the table. “Changing the subject. Are you and Skip coming to the nursing home to see my Sunday school girls sing to the old folks tonight?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Got lots of friends in the home,” Mavis said.
“Are you like Cinderella?” Zaylie asked Mavis. “Did you live happy ever after?”
Mavis touched Zaylie on the cheek. “I was at one time. Now I’m the fairy godmother.”
“Oh!” Zaylie’s blue eyes widened. “Do you have a magic wand? Can you turn a pumpkin into a coach?”
“I’m sure Mavis can do anything.” Claire smiled.
“Then she can do her wand like this.” Zaylie picked up a spoon and waved it around. “And my daddy will come home forever.”
“I bet she can.” Claire’s smile turned to laughter. “But right now we’ve got breakfast to think about, so put the spoon down and come help.”
“Let’s talk about them Santa cookies,” Zaylie said as she returned the spoon to the table.
“I agree,” Mavis said. “One more question. What is your brother going to say?”
“I run my own life, not my parents or my brother. They’ve lived the way they wanted all their lives, so they don’t have any room to be tellin’ me how or what to do with my heart,” Claire answered.
Retta bumped her hip against Mavis’s. “Who does that remind you of?”
“You,” Mavis answered.
“I was thinkin’ someone a little shorter, older, and with kinky hair.” Retta laughed.
“Like Mavis?” Zaylie asked.
“Out of the mouths of babes,” Retta said. “Zaylie, would you go tell the guys that by the time they get washed up, we’ll have breakfast on the table.”
Because there were too many for the kitchen table, the one in the dining room had been set up for breakfast. Levi usually sat across from Claire in the kitchen, but that morning he chose the chair right next to her. When Cade asked Skip to say grace, Levi laid his hand on Claire’s knee. She tucked her hand into his, and he squeezed it gently. That simple gesture meant more to her than a room full of expensive roses or a dinner at a five-star restaurant.