Guess what, Retta?” Zaylie did her usual twists and turns into the house on Thanksgiving morning. “Aunt Claire says that she might buy a store.”
“Oh really? What kind of store?” Retta bent to hug Claire.
“A quiltin’ one,” Zaylie said.
“Would you like that?” Retta asked.
“Yep, because it’s not far from this ranch, and maybe I can come back and see my kittens and Little Bit sometime…” She paused and bit her fingernail.
“If?” Claire prompted.
“If it’s all right with you,” Zaylie finished.
“Of course it’s all right with me,” Retta said.
Claire slipped an apron over her head and started a pot of coffee. “I talked to Mavis yesterday, and it seems like there’s enough interest in this area that a store might work.”
“There’s not in Randlett?” Retta asked.
Claire shook her head. “Nope, I tried but couldn’t attract anyone, not even with newspaper ads offering free classes. I figure if it was meant for me to stay in Randlett, then something would have happened. And my grandmother left her house and car and all her possessions to me and Grant. Someday he’s going to need a house to move into and…” She paused. “I’d like to be completely set up before that time comes.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought this out,” Retta said.
“It’s been on my mind for more than a year. Now what would you like me to fix for breakfast?”
“I’d thought about omelets with peppers and onions, but…” Her expression said that even the thought of something spicy might send her to the bathroom.
Claire patted her on the shoulder. “Not ready for spicy yet, are you?”
“Might not ever be again,” Retta answered.
“Good mornin’ and happy Thanksgiving.” Levi wore faded jeans and a denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up. “What can I do to help with breakfast?”
“Aunt Claire is going to buy a store, and Retta says that I can come see you and the animals!” Zaylie ran to him and wrapped her arms around his legs.
Levi picked her up and swung her around until they were both dizzy. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
Zaylie was giggling when he set her down. “We’re havin’ special thanks this mornin’.”
Levi smiled at Claire and met her eyes in the middle of the room, holding the gaze for several seconds. Warmth spread through her like a cup of hot chocolate on a bitter-cold day. After talking to Mavis, she felt like looking at the house was the right decision. Maybe, just maybe, all this happened to steer her toward settling in Sunset.
“What’s this about a special Thanksgiving?” Justin came into the kitchen.
“Well, if it’s all right with you guys”—Claire glanced at Retta—“we’ll do a brunch now and dinner in the middle of the afternoon.”
“That sounds great,” Retta agreed.
“I’m game for whatever makes my beautiful wife happy.” Cade came up behind Retta and slipped his arms around her waist.
The way they looked at each other—that’s what Claire wanted someday. It didn’t really matter if it was a military guy or someone who sold used cars. Money, power, or prestige could never buy the kind of love that Retta and Cade had, and if Claire couldn’t have that, then she’d simply be Zaylie’s old maid aunt who made quilts.
“Okay, then, y’all clear out of the kitchen and let Claire have some room.” Retta tiptoed slightly and kissed Cade on the cheek. “Go take care of the chores so that we can all have the rest of the day to enjoy the holiday.”
“Zaylie and I’ll have it on the table in an hour,” Claire said.
“Breakfast and then parade,” Cade said.
Zaylie pumped her fist in the air. “And then the football game.”
Claire wished that she had a camera to capture the three cowboys when they whipped around to stare at her with stunned expressions. It was as if they thought little girls only played with dolls and didn’t know how to throw a football.
“What’d I do?” Zaylie asked.
“Nothing, princess,” Levi said. “Do you really like to watch football?”
“Yep, I do.” Zaylie nodded. “Am I really a princess?”
“Of course you are,” Levi answered.
“She likes football, but it’s the cheerleaders that take her eye,” Claire explained.
“Who are you rootin’ for?” Levi asked.
“The Dallas Cowboys,” Zaylie said. “I’m goin’ to cheer for the Sooners someday.” She showed off with a couple of snappy little arm movements.
Cade, Justin, and Levi all groaned in unison.
“You think you’d ever be a cheerleader for the Longhorns?” Levi asked.
“Why would I do that?” She pulled a chair up to the bar. “Them Longhorns don’t like my Boomers.”
“Smart girl you’re raisin’.” Retta hugged Claire again. “I’ve enjoyed havin’ y’all here, but I feel a little like I’ve…well, like…” she stammered.
“You were good to take us in. This won’t begin to pay for what you’ve done for us,” Claire said.
The three guys were talkin’ about the fastest way to get the cattle feed out as they slipped out the back door, but Levi turned around and smiled at Retta. Thank you, he mouthed.
Retta swiped at a tear. “I’m overwhelmed right now with this pregnancy coming along so soon, and having another woman in the house has helped so much.”
Claire hugged Retta and asked, “Why?”
“Cade and I’ve only been married a month, and I’m six weeks pregnant. I was terrified for him to tell his folks.”
“So you’re worried that his folks will think you were a gold digger and got pregnant just to get your hooks into this ranch?” Claire asked.
Retta nodded. “I would never do that to Cade, and it wasn’t on purpose. We’d actually thought we might wait a year before even trying.”
“Don’t you know that first babies are not bound by the nine-month law? First babies can come anytime from before the wedding to six months after or just whenever they want to arrive. All the rest take nine months,” Claire teased.
“Here’s hoping that Cade’s mama thinks that way. See you at breakfast.”
“Here’s hopin’ you can eat and it will stay down.”
“Amen,” Retta said as she left the room.
Claire laid a hand on her stomach. What would it be like to be pregnant? Would she have morning sickness or sail through the pregnancy without a single symptom? Would the baby look like Levi?
“Whoa!” she said abruptly.
“What?” Zaylie asked.
“I was talkin’ to myself.” Claire almost blushed at the vision of Levi holding a tiny baby in his arms. She blinked away the picture and vowed that she wouldn’t go there again.
Levi hefted a fifty-pound bag of feed onto each shoulder and carried them from the barn out to the pasture. Using his pocketknife, he split the first bag and dumped it into the feeder, then did the same with the second as the cows gathered around him.
When he finished that, he went back into the barn to find Moses bellowing loud enough that Claire could probably hear him in the house. Justin was busy in the tack room, and Cade had tossed a bag of feed into a wheelbarrow and pushed it toward his stall. Levi picked up a flat-edge shovel and threw a bale of hay onto a second wheelbarrow.
Cade slung open the gate to Moses’s stall and slipped a rope around the bull’s neck. “Come on, you big baby. I’ll be glad when this stuff melts so you can go back outside.”
“Amen to that.” Levi went right to work with the shovel.
“Have you got a thing for Claire?” he asked bluntly.
Levi stopped and propped his arm on the top of the shovel. “Where did that come from, and why would you ask such a thing?”
“She seems to be a great person,” Cade said. “And there’s just something in the way you look at her.”
“Claire has a prosperous business, and she’s about to expand.” Levi told him about her idea for buying the old Harris house. “What have I got to offer a woman like that?”
“We might not be kin by blood, but you’ve always been as close as a brother to me and Justin, and you know it. And speakin’ from that standpoint, you’ve got a lot to offer a woman. First of all you’ve got your heart to give her.”
Levi rolled the filled wheelbarrow out of the stall. “Don’t seem like a lot from my standpoint.”
“Hey, you two lazybones got your jobs done?” Justin called out. “Cattle out in the side pasture is fed and watered. I called Mama from the tack room. She says that they’re comin’ for Christmas and wants to know if Levi has a thing for Claire.”
“Good Lord!” Levi threw up his hands. “How come it’s me everyone is worried about and not you, Justin? You’re the next in line to settle down. I’m the youngest one of us three.”
“Because you’ve been flirtin’ with her, not me,” Justin said.
“And if she puts in a quiltin’ shop in Sunset, she’ll be just down the road from the ranch,” Cade commented.
“Lucky you.” Justin grinned.
“Gangin’ up on me ain’t fair, especially when I’m starving,” Levi muttered as they all headed for the door.
Brunch was served buffet-style on the coffee table so no one had to miss a single float or band in Macy’s parade. Retta slathered two pumpkin muffins with butter and added a small vegetarian quiche tart to her plate. “I swear this baby is going to love pumpkin.”
“Give it a couple of days. Tomorrow you might be craving pot roast and hating pumpkin,” Claire said.
“Or craving watermelons right here in the middle of winter,” Justin said.
“Or strawberries,” Levi chimed in.
“Stop it!” Retta covered her ears. “Now I want both of those things.”
“So do I, and I’m not even pregnant,” Claire said.
“Me either and a good cold watermelon does sound good,” Levi said.
Claire tilted her head to the side so she could see him. “Well, I sure hope you aren’t pregnant. Do you think we should get a test for you to take?”
“Shhh…” He put his fingers on his lips. “What goes on in the cabin stays in the cabin.”
“If you are, I want a DNA test to prove I’m the mother,” Claire declared.
“I think you’ve met your match, Levi.” Justin chuckled.
“That’s just kickoff. We’ve still got lots of game,” Levi said.
“The parade is still on.” Zaylie frowned. “The game ain’t even started.”
“That’s right, baby girl.” Claire started to gather up the dirty dishes. “I’ll leave the leftovers in case you guys want something to nibble on during the game. If Levi gets to craving pickles and ice cream, y’all might want to see if his belt is gettin’ too tight.”
Justin laughed out loud. “If he and Retta start racing to the bathroom first thing in the morning, will you bring him tea and crackers?”
“We’ll see when it happens,” Claire said.
Retta carried the rest of the dishes and followed her to the kitchen. “I can help with this cleanup and whatever else you need me to do. I’m a lot less nauseated today.” She lowered her voice. “These guys are smothering me to death. So help me get them out the door in the mornings, please.”
“You got it. Together we can conquer the world.” Claire smiled. “Now shoo. Get on out of here and go protect your interests in there when the ball game starts. I heard you make that bet with Cade about your team winning.” Claire motioned toward the living room with her hand.
As she was leaving, Levi came in and opened the fridge. “Just gettin’ us guys a beer and Zaylie a glass of chocolate milk. You want anything, Claire?”
“Not a thing,” she answered.
“How about some strawberries, picked fresh from the garden?” He took out a gallon of milk and the chocolate syrup.
“Why don’t you go bring in a couple of quarts for Thanksgiving dinner?” she smarted off.
“I would if I could,” he said.
The serious look on his face said that he wasn’t joking. He would actually go to the garden and pick strawberries if it were possible. Something pinged in her heart—kind of like an internal text message saying that this really was an honorable cowboy. But what kind of message did she send back? That she was self-reliant and she’d always picked her own strawberries or that she would love for him to do something so sweet for her.
He stirred the syrup into the milk. “Dark enough?”
“Not nearly. She likes chocolate.” She reached for the bottle of chocolate and accidentally knocked it to the floor.
They both grabbed for it at the same time and bumped heads as they fell to their knees. His hand closed over hers when she picked up the syrup. His free hand tipped up her chin, and she barely had time to moisten her lips before he brushed a sweet kiss across them. Her first thought when the kiss ended was that she’d gladly let him pick strawberries for her.
“Why, Claire Mason, you’re on your knees. Does that mean you’re proposing to me?” he teased.
“I reckon I could ask you the same thing,” she shot back. “But if you were, the answer would be no. I don’t marry a man just because he’s pregnant and craving strawberries in the winter.”
He straightened up and pulled her with him. “Rejected, again. Some of us old cowboys just can’t win.”
She squirted more chocolate into the milk. “C’est la vie.”
“Did you just cuss at me in a foreign language? I don’t understand anything but English and redneck. Remember, I’m just a ranch foreman who’s only got two pairs of boots. One for work and one for Sunday. I don’t wear them fancy shoes like men do who spout off things like say-la-vee.”
“It means ‘such is life,’ and you don’t fool me with that poor old country boy line, Levi Jackson.” She put her hands on his chest and gave him a push. “You’d better get on out of here before they come lookin’ for beer and find that you’ve got lipstick smeared on your mouth.”
“Are you serious?” He ran the back of his hand across his lips.
“Nope, I didn’t even put lipstick on this mornin’,” she answered.
“That was evil.”
She patted him on the cheek, and sparks flew when her palm touched his face. “What? The kiss or the teasing?”
“The kiss was wonderful.” He picked up a six-pack of beer from the fridge in one hand and the glass of milk in the other. “I’ve wanted to taste your lips all day.”
“And how did they taste?” She was surprised that her voice wasn’t high and squeaky.
“Like what I imagine heaven will be like,” he whispered as he left the room.
She opened her mouth to smart off, but not a single word would come out.
While Cade gave thanks for the Thanksgiving meal, Levi opened one eye enough to glance down the length of the table. It was a fine spread with a golden brown turkey taking center stage. His eyes strayed to Claire sitting across the table from him. Both she and Zaylie had their eyes shut, and they were holding hands. On the last Thanksgiving before his mother married and left Texas with her new husband, they had sat across the table. He’d been between Mavis and Skip, and it had been Mavis who’d helped cut up his turkey that day and who had held his hand while Skip said grace.
Suck it up, cowboy, that irritating voice in his head said. Mavis didn’t give birth to you, but you couldn’t ask for better parents than what you had, or friends either. You are a blessed man.
“Amen,” Cade said. “We have a Maguire family tradition that says before we start carving up that beautiful bird that we express something that we’re thankful for. I’ll go first this year. I’m thankful for my wife, Retta, and that by this time next year, we’ll have a new baby sitting at this table with us.”
Justin raised his hand. “I’m grateful for the Longhorn Canyon Ranch and all the sacrifices that went on even before our time that has kept it running.”
Retta wiped one lonesome tear from her cheek. “I’m thankful that Cade hired me to supervise a cabin full of little girls back in the summer. I’m not sure I ever believed in fate, but I do now because it’s brought me love and happiness.”
“My cats and that Aunt Claire can’t drive too good on ice,” Zaylie piped up when the adults looked at her.
All eyes went to Levi.
“Family, friends, and tastes of heaven,” he said.
Then everyone shifted their gaze to Claire.
Two dots of color flushed her cheeks. “That Levi rescued us.”
“We’ve got a lot to be thankful for.” Cade pushed back his chair and picked up the carving knife. “And we want to thank you, Claire, for all you’ve done today to make this a great Thanksgiving.”
“Amen!” voices said, blending together in agreement.
Zaylie held up her plate. “I want one of them legs.”
“And I’ll share it with her,” Claire said.
After dinner, everyone helped with cleanup and then went right back to the living room to watch another ball game. Retta curled up next to Cade on the sofa and fell asleep. Zaylie stretched out on the floor with her arm around Beau, and they had a kid and dog snoring contest. Justin leaned his head back in a recliner during a commercial, and before it ended he was napping.
Claire had kicked off her shoes and had drawn her feet up under her on the love seat. She looked downright cute in those tight jeans and an orange T-shirt with HAPPY FALL Y’ALL embroidered across the front.
“Looks like we’re the only ones awake. You’ve traveled a lot, different countries as well as states. Of all the places you’ve ever lived, which was your favorite?” Levi asked.
“The little house in Randlett with Nanny,” she answered without a second’s pause.
“Why?” He was shocked at her answer.
“It was more like a home instead of a house,” she answered.
“What’s the difference in the two?”
“I like to think of home as a feeling, not a place. It’s where a person feels loved and, well, words don’t actually describe what it’s like to feel like you are home,” she answered.
“I felt all that at Mavis and Skip’s place. I was born in Bowie and my mama brought me home to their house. Other than this ranch, that’s the only place I ever lived,” he said.
“Your mama must have loved you very much,” Claire said.
Levi felt his jaw drop. “Why would you say that? She abandoned me.”
“No, she saw that you had a home and chose to leave you in it.” Claire’s dark brows knit together. “I lived with a mother and father both, at least most of the time. This is hard to explain, but feeling like you’re a nuisance…” She paused as if searching for the right word and then went on. “Did you ever think that maybe she loved the new husband, but she wasn’t sure how you’d feel about being uprooted from the only home you’d ever known? She had to have known that Mavis and Skip loved you and were willing to raise you in a wonderful home. From what little y’all have told me about them this week, I’d say they are amazing people,” Claire answered.
Home—she’d said home, not house. And Levi had surely had that his whole life. First in his growing-up years. And then when he’d graduated from high school and the Maguires gave him a job and a room in their home—there was that word again—as part of his benefit package to help Justin on the ranch until Cade could finish his degree. Then they’d given the ranch to the boys, and he’d been made foreman. So yes, he’d always had a stable home.
“I never looked at it like that,” Levi said. “If Randlett is the place you liked best, then why are you leaving?”
“I want to expand my business, and there’s no opportunity there.” She went on to tell him that the house had been left for her and Grant together.
“Have you always thought about everyone but yourself?” Levi asked.
“I’d say that moving to a new place and starting up a business is thinking about myself,” she told him.
“Not really,” Levi argued. “It’s thinking about your brother needing a place to live when he needs it.”
“Then why do I feel guilty about it?” she asked.
“Why should you feel like that? Sounds to me like you’ve pretty much taken care of folks your whole life. It’s time for you to do something that you want to do,” Levi answered.
“Who’s winnin’?” Cade yawned and pointed toward the television.
Levi quickly glanced that way and rattled off the scores. “Looks like you might owe Retta another five bucks if your team don’t get their heads together and start playin’ some offensive ball.”
“Did I hear my name?” Retta asked. “And is there any more of that pecan pie?”
“Yes you did, and yes there was one more slice when I checked last time,” Levi said. “Want me to get you a slice? I’m on my way to the kitchen for a beer.”
“Love it,” Retta said.
Justin awoke, stood up, and rolled the kinks from his neck. “I’ll go with you. I’m thinkin’ about a piece of that banana nut cake.”
“You could bring me a cold beer,” Cade yelled as Justin and Levi made their way toward the kitchen.
“I was awake for part of that conversation,” Justin confessed. “Claire is a smart woman, and I can tell that you are definitely interested in her.”
“And you aren’t even a little bit interested?” Levi asked.
Justin had far more to offer a woman than he did—place, prestige, all of it. He was half owner of the Longhorn Canyon Ranch. He was a good-lookin’ cowboy with maybe even more swagger than Levi.
“No sparks. She’s cute, but…” Justin’s shoulders raised slightly in half a shrug.
“But?” Levi asked.
“Just that. Cute, smart, and funny, but no sparks. If I can’t have the whole package I’ll be the bachelor uncle to Cade and Retta’s kids. I want what they’ve got, and I’m not going to settle for anything else.”
Levi nodded. “Don’t we all?”