“And bring Stevie with you. I like that girl,” Sonny said.
“Thanks.” Cody picked up the cake. “I might do that.”
“Y’all ever going to get past the fact that you broke her heart?” Jesse asked when Pearl and Sonny left.
“Ever think that I had my reasons?” Cody asked.
“Never doubted it for a minute,” Jesse said. “I’d love to hear them sometime, but right now, I’ve got a beautiful wife waiting for me in the living room. She told me that we’re watching a movie tonight. Want to join us?”
“No, but thanks anyway. Besides, you’ve got one kid at the barn playing with the new cats—you are welcome for that—and the twins are asleep. Might be nice for you and Addy to have a few minutes to yourselves.” Cody winked as he opened the door. “I’m going to leave the work truck and walk back to the bunkhouse. Tell Mia thanks for plowing a path for us, will you? I forgot to.”
“Hey, that’s not all she did,” Jessie said. “She worked over that forty acres the cattle have been moved to so they wouldn’t have to stand in a foot of snow. Sure makes the feeding and watering easier because we don’t have to wade it up to our knees.”
“That girl is a born rancher,” Cody said and waved as he closed the door behind him. He paused on the porch steps and thought about what Jesse said. He and Stevie definitely needed to bury the past and move on with their lives, but Stevie O’Dell could teach even Sonny Ryan a few lessons in stubbornness. If he tried to explain the whole story to her, she would set her heels for sure, and besides, he wasn’t sure he wanted to be completely honest about his excuse for rejecting her. That would mean he would have to voice the reasons out loud, and that would make them even more real.
Out there in the distance, light glowed through the barn window and around the big sliding door like a beacon, but he didn’t want to butt in on Mia and Stevie’s time together. Mia had hit a really rough patch the last year and hadn’t fully dug out from under her mistakes. Her friend Justine had helped, but she was about Mia’s age. Stevie was older and wiser, and then on other hand, Stevie had lost her mother and felt guilty. Sharing their feelings, like women did, would be good for them both.
Tex came out from his doghouse located beside the porch, tail wagging and head down. He butted Cody’s leg with his nose, as if pushing him to start walking.
“Well, old boy, all we’re doing out here is getting colder by the minute.” Cody headed toward the bunkhouse. Frozen grass made a crunching noise under his feet, and a couple of times his feet came close to slipping out from under him.
“I hate ice and snow almost as much as I did sand,” he muttered to the dog.
Tex bounded ahead and rushed into the bunkhouse the second the door was opened. Cody opened the door, Tex rushed inside and curled up in the middle of the sofa.
“Hey.” Stevie stepped out from the kitchen area. “Is that for me?”
Cody handed the plate to her before he even removed his coat. “One piece is. The other one is for my bedtime snack.”
“Thank you, but why wait until bedtime.” Stevie peeled back the plastic wrap, ran her finger through the icing, and then licked it. “We need to talk.”
“About?” Cody could tell by her expression that she didn’t want to discuss the snow, the ranch, or the chocolate cake. Even though he would have liked to have more time to think about the issue, if Stevie was ready to talk, then he’d plow through the discussion as best he could.
* * *
Stevie removed the rest of the wrap and tossed it in the trash. She carried the cake to the sofa and sat down on one end. She should have driven out to the ranch and had this conversation with Cody when he first came home, she had decided since she left Mia in the barn. But she’d been downright hateful and belligerent every time she saw him. Her mother always told her that every choice had consequences. That was the absolute gospel truth, she thought as she waited for him to come over to the living area. Today it was time to pay the fiddler, and Stevie was ready to get it over with and off her heart and mind.
“You can bring the forks and two beers. I’m glad I don’t have to choose between beer and chocolate tonight. I need both,” she said with a long sigh.
“So, it’s a serious talk?” Cody took two forks from the drawer and a couple of long-neck bottles of beer from the fridge and joined her on the sofa.
“This is more like a ‘come to Jesus’ talk for me, starting with I’m sorry for treating you the way I have since you came home, and especially since you’ve been so nice to me. I thought I was completely over you since we broke up in high school, and I thought I had moved on, but evidently I hadn’t.” Stevie was glad that Tex was between them.
“Well, then let’s hear it, love.” He set the bottles on the coffee table.
“I told you not to call me that, and this is serious, Cody, and this is not the time to tease me,” she said.
“Okay, then spit it out and let’s get it over with.” He said.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s tough to talk about the way I feel, and even harder to admit that I’m to blame for most of it.” She took a fork from him and cut off a chunk of cake with the edge of it. “I was in love with you when we were dating…” She sighed. “I know we were both just kids, but I would have followed you to the ends of the earth.”
“I know,” Cody whispered, “but I couldn’t ask you to do that, Stevie. We both had dreams to follow, and we would have both regretted not…” He hesitated. “At least I know I would have if I hadn’t…” Another pause. “Damn it, Stevie. This is hard. I just couldn’t let myself have a serious relationship with anyone. It wasn’t just you, but I did have feelings for you. That’s why I broke up with you that spring. If I was going to be a doctor, it would take all my time and energy. You deserved more than a small piece of me. You deserved someone who would give you one hundred percent, not two percent.”
“I understand that now, but it’s taken me a long time to sort it all out. It’s in my nature to finish a project before I start another one, so I thought I couldn’t fall in love with anyone else as long as you were around. This all sounds crazy, but bear with me,” she said as she took another sip of beer.
“I’m all ears,” he said, “and I do not mean that to be joking.”
Stevie took in a deep breath and let it out very slowly. Thank God for chocolate. That always helped get her through tough times. “I couldn’t believe you asked me to the homecoming dance that fall. I was a gangly red-haired girl with braces and freckles who wasn’t popular. I was smart, but not someone that a handsome Ryan boy would give a second look,” she said.
“Did you ever think that what you felt was just infatuation and not love?” Cody twisted the top off his beer and took a long drink. “I had a big crush on Brenda Jones when I was a freshman in high school, but she only had eyes for…”
“Darrin Black.” Stevie finished the sentence for him. “I remember them coming to church and holding hands when I was in elementary school. But you aren’t wired like I am. You got over your crush. Did you put her on a pedestal and measure every woman by her for the next two decades?”