Chapter Seventeen
Cody was nursing a sore head and gingerly sipping black coffee when Claire and Lisa returned from Sidney’s place the next morning. Logan and Cade had had the right idea and were sleeping in. The two women headed straight for the coffeepot and frowned when they found it empty. With a heavy sigh, Lisa started making a new pot.
He attempted a shrug. “Sorry. The guys took some for the road.” The Wilders had left at first light and hadn’t been shy about helping themselves. Not that Cody minded. He’d made a killing last night at poker. He grinned at the memory.
“How was the game?” Claire asked.
“Excellent.”
“Hmm. Sounds like someone won.”
He batted his lashes. “I can’t help it. I have an excellent poker face.”
“Is that what it is?” Lisa said with a chuckle. She pulled out a coffee cake and warmed it in the microwave.
The delicious aroma filled the room, and he moaned. “I’m starving.”
“Really?” Lisa said in a tone that should have warned him. “Do you know what I heard?” she asked.
“What?”
“I heard a rumor that men have these things called fingers and they can use them to make their own food sometimes.”
“Really?” Claire gasped in an astounded tone. “What will they think of next?”
Cody scowled at them. “I can make my own food,” he insisted. “I just wasn’t hungry until I smelled that.”
Claire snorted. “You’re always hungry.”
“Not when he drinks that much the night before,” Cade said with a chuckle. He stepped into the room, fresh from his shower with his hair slicked back. He made a beeline to Lisa and kissed her long and hard. “I missed you last night,” he said.
She smacked him on the shoulder. “Like hell you did. You guys probably partied all night.”
“We did, but I still missed you.”
She finally softened and kissed him back. “I missed you too, but we had a nice time.” She and Cade carried plates, utensils, and that amazing-smelling coffee cake to the table. Cody quickly helped himself to a big slice.
“How are Hanna and Sidney doing?” Cade asked as he did the same, and Cody was hit with a wave of chagrin. He should have been the first to ask.
“Yeah. How are they?”
Lisa shrugged. “As well as can be expected. Naturally, they were both a little more distracted than usual.”
“Of course.”
“But it was nice. Just the girls.”
Claire nodded. “We had a great talk.”
“Sidney surprised me though,” Lisa said as she forked a hunk of cake into her mouth. Cody stared at her, waiting for her to elaborate. She didn’t.
“Surprised me too,” Claire said.
“I always thought she was happy.”
“I know.”
Cody frowned at them, one after the other. What? What? “What?”
Apparently his feral intensity surprised them, because they both jerked back and stared at him.
He cleared his throat and said in a far more . . . human tone, “What did she say?”
Lisa took a sip of her coffee and flicked a look at him. “It wasn’t what she said as much as how she said it.”
Claire nodded. “Right.”
He leaned forward, urging them to continue, but they didn’t. “And?”
“Apparently, she’s not as happy living in Dallas as we all thought.”
“Really?”
“Apparently, she doesn’t love her job.”
“Really?” What a thought. What an interesting, interesting thought.
“She’s thinking about moving back.” His heart leaped. His pulse pounded. Myriad thoughts whipped through his mind. How freaking awesome would that be? To have her close. To see her on occasion. To have that chance he’d hoped for, prayed for, to finally woo her the way she deserved to be wooed?
“So of course, we offered her the position here. The one we’ve been talking about.” For some reason, his sister’s attention was locked on his face. For some reason, she smiled.
But Cody was barely aware. His entire world had just caught fire.
To have her here, every day, by his side. Good God, that would be amazing.
“What do you guys think about that?” Lisa asked, but her gaze was on his face as well.
“Sounds great,” Cade said. “Better than hiring some college kid we don’t know we can trust to carry her load.”
“Right. Sidney would be one hundred percent present.”
“Just what we need.”
They all continued babbling on, but Cody was deep in sudden fantasies—or maybe schemes—to get Sidney alone. This was the best idea his sister had ever had. He could kiss her.
Until she shattered his bubble by poking him with a fork. “Hey. Earth to Cody.”
“Huh?” He blinked.
“I asked, what do you think?”
He reared back and skated a glance around the table. Everyone was staring at him. “What do I think?”
“Yeah.”
He couldn’t hold back his grin. “I think it sounds perfect.”
It did. Perfect.
“Great,” Lisa said with a too-chipper smile. “All we need to do is convince her to accept the job.”
And his mood plummeted. “She hasn’t accepted it?” Damn.
“Not yet.” Claire winked at him. “Maybe you can work your magic and charm her into agreeing.”
Oh he would.
Whatever it took.
He definitely would.
***
To Sidney’s delight, Cody showed up at the hospital around noon, with a drowsy-looking Logan in tow. As Hanna teased her fiancé about staying up all night with the boys, Sidney shot Cody a shy smile.
She wasn’t sure why she felt shy, but she did. Maybe it was her new determination to make changes in her life, or her decision to move back home, or simply the fact that his smile made butterflies sprout and flitter in her stomach.
She’d never had butterflies before, so she wasn’t sure what to think about that. Fortunately, he didn’t give her time to obsess. He pulled her into a hug and dropped a quick kiss on her lips.
Thank God he’d moved off the forehead.
“How’s your dad?” he asked.
She grinned up at him. “Awake and feisty.”
“Feisty! Excellent. And your mom?”
“She’s good. Mrs. Johnson is staying with her today.”
“That’s nice.”
“Lisa and Clare are awesome, but Mrs. Johnson was feeling left out.”
Hanna nodded. “She does love Mom.”
“And I think she likes feeling needed,” Sidney added.
“Well, we hope you guys are hungry,” Logan said, holding up a baker’s box tied with a ribbon.
“Ooh!” Hanna squealed. “What did Lisa send?”
“Lemon bars.”
“Mmm. My favorite.” Hanna shot her a smile. “Do you want some?”
Sidney wrinkled her nose. “Maybe later. I think I need some protein.”
Cody patted his tummy. “Me too. What do you say we walk over to Bubba’s for lunch?”
Sidney sent her sister a questioning glance. She didn’t want to desert her, but the thought of a nice Cobb salad was nearly irresistible. She hadn’t eaten anything remotely healthy for days.
Hanna made a shooing motion. “Go. Logan and I will hold the fort here.”
Logan grinned and waggled the box. “We will.”
Sidney shook her finger at him. “You’d better leave one for me,” she growled, and he laughed.
“We’ll see.”
Hanna smacked him. “He’ll leave you one, I promise.”
“Me too,” Cody insisted as he took Sidney’s arm.
Hanna shot him an impish grin. “You, sir, are on your own.”
“What?” His squawk was outraged.
“You can eat Lisa’s lemon bars any time,” Logan said.
“No, I can’t. Lisa whacks me with a spatula when I get too close. She calls me Hoover Lips.” His pout was adorable.
“Poor baby.” Sidney patted his arm. “We’ll get dessert at Bubba’s.”
“It won’t be the same,” he muttered, but she could tell he was teasing.
“Come on.” She tugged at him and he followed, waving at Hanna and Logan as they left.
It was a lovely day and a lovelier walk to Bubba’s. Of course, that delightful filter making everything so pleasant was probably caused by Cody’s arm around her. It felt natural and right and she gloried in it.
The restaurant was just finishing up their lunch rush, so it was no trouble finding a booth. Jesse, the waitress, hurried over with a smile and two menus. “How are you doing today?” she asked. And then she shot a commiserating look at Sidney. “Sorry about your dad, hon.”
“Thank you, Jesse,” she said. She should be used to the fact that everyone in town knew everyone’s business. But she’d forgotten.
No one in Dallas knew anything about her and didn’t care to.
It was sure nice to have one person after another stop by the table and ask after Henry Stevens. It almost made her want to cry. When Reverend Tillman came over and told her all the Methodists were praying for him, she couldn’t hold back her tears.
“Thank you,” she choked out.
“Your pa has always been a big part of the community,” he told her. “We’re all pulling for him.”
After he left, Sidney stared at Cody, unable to speak.
He reached across the table and took her hand. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “It’s just . . . just . . .”
“I know. I know.”
“It’s just so . . . nice.” It mortified her that it came out in a blubber. She wasn’t a blubberer. Surely she wasn’t. But he seemed to understand.
“You can’t be the kind of person your dad is and not have everyone in town love you.”
It was nice to know. Everyone in town loved her dad.
It made her . . . stronger somehow.
“It’s a nice town,” she said, bereft of other words, of anything more profound. With her education, she should be able to think of a word more evocative than nice, but somehow nice was more than enough.
He nodded and focused on the menu, probably sensing she was one sniff away from a nuclear meltdown. “What shall we have?”
“I need the Cobb salad,” she said.
He made a face. “You can’t have the Cobb salad.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m getting a burger and fries and you’ll make me feel like a pig if you sit there pecking at bird food.”
“It’s hardly bird food. There’s blue cheese and avocado. And bacon. Besides, I want the salad.”
“Well, okay,” he grumbled. “But I’m getting a burger.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
“But we’re definitely getting dessert,” she said.
His pout morphed into a dimple-spattered grin. “Excellent.”
It was a pleasant, relaxing lunch. They ate in silence most of the time, but when they talked, the conversation was light and amusing. Cody made her laugh, laugh so hard her stomach ached. More than once he caused her to spit take. She suspected he waited until she had a mouth full of water before he dropped a punchline.
So it was his own fault she sprayed him.
They’d finished lunch and were working on dessert—cheesecake for her and berry cobbler for him, though they each made it a point to sneak a taste or two from the other’s plate—when Cody brought up Claire’s offer.
“My sister says you’re thinking about staying in town,” he said with a quick glance at her.
“Mmm.”
“And she said you might need a job.”
She fiddled with her napkin. “I might.”
“Have you thought about working at the ranch?”
“I have . . . but what do you think about it?” It mattered what he thought. If he didn’t want her around, she would never accept. So it was with bated breath that she awaited his response.
He shrugged and stared down at this cobbler. “I, ah . . .”
Oh shit.
But then he looked up at her and smiled, and her anxiety faded. “I would love it.”
“Would you? Would you really?”
“I would.” His grin widened. “We really need the help, and frankly, I know you would fit in well.”
Her smile faded. Of course. Yeah. Sure. She poked at her cheesecake. “It would be fun, all of us working together.”
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard work. And sometimes frustrating because you have to please the customers and frankly, they can be difficult. Especially the socialites.”
Her mood dipped lower. Was he trying to talk her out of it? Oh, she hated that idea. She poked her cheesecake again.
His hand settled over hers. “Sidney, what’s wrong?”
“What makes you think anything is wrong?”
“You’re mauling your cheesecake.” She glanced at it. It was, indeed, mangled.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
He sighed. “Sidney, you can’t fool me. I can see through you. I know you.”
She glanced at him. He could. He did. She lifted her shoulder. “I was just thinking, perhaps his Nibbs doth protest too much?”
“What?”
“You’re not trying very hard to sell me on the position.”
A flush crept up his cheeks and he forced a laugh. “Seriously? I’m just trying to make sure you understand it’s not all canapes and roses. I wouldn’t want you to get there and think I’m a slave driver.”
“Are you?”
“Kind of. Sometimes. I mean, Lisa and Claire have occasionally mentioned something about, you know, me being an ass.”
“Oh, well, I already know that,” she said with a grin and was relieved to see him chuckle.
“I swear,” he said, slapping his palm to his chest. “I want you there. Need you there. Lose sleep at night because you aren’t there.” He peeped at her. “Is that better?”
She nodded. It was. “All right then. If you really want me to come work for you—”
“I absolutely do.”
“Then I will.”
He whooped so loud heads turned, and she bit back a snort. “Hush,” she said.
“I can’t. I’m too excited. When can you start?”
She leaned back and fixed him with a sober stare. “That depends on how Dad is doing.”
His grin faded. “Oh. Yeah. Of course. He comes first. Sure.” But it was there, that glint in his eye. One that made it clear to her beyond all doubt. He wanted her.
And that was certainly enough.
At least, for the time being.