“Yep, loved them. Hated to see them break up,” Cody answered. “Which song?”
“‘Seventeen,’” Stevie said. “It talks about always being seventeen in your hometown. No matter what you do with your life, or how long you’ve been away, folks still think of you like you were that same kid who left at seventeen. Coming back to Honey Grove, do you ever feel like people look at you like you’re that kid again?”
Cody started the engine and turned to face her. “I’m running those lyrics through my head. The song came out about the time I was doing my clinicals. I’ll always be one of the Ryan boys in Honey Grove. You’ll always be that little red-haired O’Dell kid who lived a block down from the school. We can’t change that or what people think of us. Does it bother you that folks still look at you like you’re that age?”
“Sometimes,” she admitted.
“Then chalk it up to being their problem.” Cody shifted into gear and drove toward the house. “You’ve done a lot with your life, Stevie, and you’re giving back to the community by coming home and putting in a vet business.”
“Thanks,” Stevie muttered.
“Anything else before we trade the peace and quiet for chaos?” Cody parked the truck close to the back porch.
“Not a thing.” Stevie slung open the passenger door and stepped out of the truck with Tex right behind her. “And after the past few days, I’m ready for chaos.”
Cody stepped out of the truck, crossed the short distance to the porch, and stood to one side of the door. “Ladies first,” he said.
“Who are we kidding?” Stevie said with a smile. “We both know the second I open that door, Tex will beat me inside the house, so in reality it’s dogs first.”
“Such is life,” Cody nodded.
The aroma of marinara and fresh bread wafted out to meet her the moment she and Tex stepped into the kitchen. Then Stevie got a whiff of something chocolate, and her mouth began to water. Coffee and candy had gotten her through too many long nights to count—from cramming for tests in college, to hours and hours of waiting for a calf to be born, to the times when she couldn’t sleep after her mother’s death—and she had sorely missed it while she and Cody were stranded.
“Hey!” Mia looked up from the counter where she had been spreading butter on the tops of hot yeast rolls. “Y’all made it just in time. We’re about to put everything on the bar and serve it up buffet tonight.”
Mia’s dark hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and she wore faded red sweatpants, an orange sweatshirt, and mismatched socks. Stevie wondered if the girl’s peers in school had called her a giant too. Nowadays, they called it bullying and were a lot quicker to take care of the issue than they had been twenty years ago. Stevie found herself hoping that Mia had never had to put up with those rude comments.
“Thanks for loaning me—” Stevie started to say.
“No problem. Good thing we’re both tall and the same size. As you can see, we all got dressed up for supper tonight,” Mia joked.
“You look beautiful to me.” Stevie remembered coming home crying because some little girl had made fun of her height or of her curly red hair, and her mother telling her that the important thing was to be beautiful on the inside.
The kids who were mean to you are ugly on the inside. You are pretty and smart, and they’re jealous, Ruth had said. Let’s have some chocolate cookies and milk. That will help you feel better.
Mia crossed the big country-style kitchen and gave Cody a hug. “We missed you, Uncle Cody. Dad said your truck is totaled. That’s scary.”
Cody gave her an extra hug. “Truck is, but I’m just fine. Is that lasagna I’m smelling?”
“Nope,” Mia answered. “Mama made rigatoni and Nana made the chocolate cake.” Then she turned around and wrapped Stevie up in her arms for a hug and whispered for her ears only. “Did everything fit okay?”
Stevie nodded.
“Let me know if you need anything else.” Mia took a step back.
“What can I do to help with supper?” Stevie hadn’t been hugged since her mother’s funeral, and warm feeling brought tears to her eyes.
Addy came from the dining room and gave Stevie a second hug. “We’ve got supper covered. Not that you had much choice in the matter, but we’re glad to have you spending some time with us here on the ranch.”
Addy’s dark brown hair hung down her back in a single long braid, and like Mia, she was dressed in sweats—only her top and bottom matched—and thick, fuzzy socks, one blue and one red.
Pearl and Sonny came into the kitchen. “We were glad to get that note from you before you lost cell service. We would have been worried about you and a baby cria stranded out in the middle of the blizzard with no help or warm place to hole up until it blew over. We’ve called around and made sure everyone on this side of Honey Grove has what they need. Jesse went out yesterday in the tractor and delivered some supplies to two of our neighbors.”
Sonny’s sickness had taken its toll on Pearl. Her face seemed a little more drawn to Stevie than it was the last time she had been at Sunflower Ranch to check the cattle before the fall sale. Her hair had more salt than pepper in it these days, and somehow, she seemed even shorter.
“That’s so sweet of y’all, and thank you for everything you’re doing for me,” Stevie said.
“Got to take care of our favorite vet.” Sonny leaned heavily on his cane, but he had a smile on his face. “Did our boy here behave while y’all were stranded?”
“You should ask if she was good instead of me,” Cody teased. “She was a cranky butt the whole time, and I even gave her the bed.”
“Tattletale,” Stevie said.
“See, Mama.” Jesse carried in two infant seats and set them at the end of the table. “I told you that he tattled all the time when we were little boys.”
“Pot and kettle, both black.” Cody went over to the twins and dropped down on his knees. “They’ve both grown a foot since I left on Wednesday.”
“That’s what babies do. You’d be worried if they weren’t right on schedule at two and a half months old,” Mia said.
“How do you tell them apart?” Stevie was drawn to them like a bee to a honeypot. She’d always loved babies and made quite a bit of money with her babysitting jobs from the time she was fourteen. “Look at those blue eyes and all that dark hair. They’ll have to have a haircut before they’re a year old.”
“Sam has a dimple on the left side.” Mia bent down and touched the baby on the chin, and he gave her a big toothless smile. “Taylor’s got two. I’ll show you.” She made a face at the other baby and he showed off his double dimples. “Other than that, they’re identical.”
“And I’m their favorite person,” Cody declared.
Mia air-slapped him on the arm. “You might be their favorite uncle now. When Uncle Lucas comes home, he might argue with you over that. But I’m their favorite person because I’m their sister, and that takes precedence over uncles.”
“An ongoing argument in this house,” Sonny chuckled. “If you want to know the truth, Stevie, I’m the favorite over all of them. I made them smile for the first time, and yesterday Sam giggled when I was making faces at him.”