“We met once when you came out to the ranch with your little boy. Matty, is it?” Cody answered and then introduced Stevie as Dr. O’Dell.
“Just Stevie,” she said with a smile. “Glad to meet you. Mia has mentioned you.”
“Tell her that I’ll try to get out to the ranch this next week. Now, can I get y’all some coffee or juice to start off the morning?” Justine asked. “Breakfast special this morning is two scrambled eggs, biscuit and sausage gravy, either bacon or ham, and a stack of pancakes. Or you can order from the menu.” She pointed to the single sheet of laminated paper between the salt and pepper shakers and the old-fashioned napkin holder.
“Coffee,” Stevie said. “Black.”
“Same, and I’ll have that special you’ve got listed right here with ham.” Cody pointed to the item on the menu.
“Me too, only I want bacon,” Stevie said.
“I’ll get that coffee and have your order out in a jiffy.” Justine put her order pad in her hip pocket and went back toward the kitchen.
“I like the hamburgers here almost as much as I like their breakfast,” Stevie said. “But I’ve got to admit, the breakfast at the bunkhouse was even better.”
“Well, thank you, ma’am. I try to keep a well-stocked kitchen and pantry. I missed bacon, eggs, and pancakes when I was in impoverished villages,” Cody said.
Justine returned with their coffee. “Your orders will be out in a few minutes.”
“Thank you.” Stevie picked up her mug and held it in her hands to warm them for a minute before she took the first sip. “I believe we’re supposed to talk on our first date. Tell me something about yourself.”
“I’m a general practitioner or a family doctor, as I like to tell people. I don’t like being tied down to a nine-to-five in an office, so I decided to put in a concierge practice where I treat the patients in their homes,” he answered. “I’m drawn to women with green eyes, and I really like the gold flecks in yours.”
“Compliments of my father.” She smiled across the table at him.
“Your turn,” Cody said. “Etiquette for first date and all.”
“I’m a veterinarian in a small town. I love what I do, and we have that business of being tied down to an office in common, so I take my van to my animal patients for the most part. For small animals that need spaying or neutering, I’ve turned my mother’s garage into a little clinic,” she answered.
“Well, now, that’s something I didn’t know. When Dolly weans her kittens, I should make an appointment with you to have her fixed,” he said.
Justine brought out a tray loaded with full plates and all kinds of condiments. “Here you go, folks. Y’all enjoy, and just wave me over if you need anything else.”
“Thanks,” Cody said. “It all looks great.”
She rushed off to wait on a man and a woman who had just come in with a couple of children. Stevie glanced out the window and noticed an SUV with an Arkansas tag. “Looks like those might be folks from out of state. If you were traveling with kids, would you stop at a local diner or find a McDonald’s?”
“I’m not much of a fan of fast food.” Cody salted his eggs and then used pepper for his gravy.
“Me either, except for hamburgers from Sonic.” Stevie picked up a piece of bacon with her fingers and took a bite.
“Well, now, if we’re talking hamburgers, I’m all in for a good, old greasy Sonic burger,” he said. “That can be our fourth date. We’ll drive over to the Sonic in Bonham and order burgers, fries, and chocolate shakes.”
“I might go out with you on the second and third date, just to get to the fourth one if you can guarantee me that,” she told him.
“It’s a promise,” he said, and nodded.
Stevie had her coffee refilled twice and had finished her breakfast when she finally said, “We should probably go, Cody. You’ve got a truck to rescue, and I need to clean out the refrigerator and go to the grocery store.”
“You’re right, but this has been fun.” Cody waved at Justine and she brought the check right over. He handed her a bill, told her to keep the change, and then slid out of the booth.
“Yes, it has and thank you,” she said.
Cody was stopped by former patients twice before they finally made it outside, where dark clouds had begun to roll in from the southwest. They had questions about the rumors going around that he’d wrecked his truck out by Max’s ranch and had been stranded for days. Cody took time to tell them the story of the buck that was the size of an Angus bull that had a rack a bushel basket wouldn’t fit over.
When he and Stevie made it outside, Stevie nudged him and said, “You just made their day, and they’re already on their cell phones telling everyone they know that they heard it from the horse’s mouth about that wrecked truck.”
“No, you did,” Cody chuckled. “Now they can be the first ones to tell their wives that the gossip is real, and that we were stuck in a tack room together for four days. Should we just go on to the courthouse in Bonham right now and make an honest woman of you?”
“Not until we have that fourth date, and I get my hamburger,” she answered.
He settled her into the truck and drove the familiar road toward the school. Her house, which was located less than a block away, was a little two-bedroom frame house with a railing around the front porch and a small, attached garage off to one side. He parked in the gravel driveway and again got out of the truck and opened the door for her.
“You don’t have to walk me to the door, Cody. Like I said before, you have things to do.” She picked up her bag and slid out of the truck.
“My mama would peel the leaves off a peach tree switch and take it to me if I wasn’t a gentleman.” He tucked her free hand into his and walked up the three steps to the porch with her.
She fished her key out of her purse and started to open the door but noticed that he was frowning. “What’s the matter?”
“There’s water all over your porch,” he said.
“Snow makes water when it melts,” she said with a smile and then realized that the water was coming from under the door. “Oh, no!” she gasped and hurriedly opened the door. A flood of water rushed out of the house so forceful that it splashed both of them halfway to their knees.
“You’ve got busted pipes.” Cody was already fishing his phone from his hip pocket. “I’ll call city hall and get someone out here to turn the water off at the meter, then we’ll see what we need to do after that. We might as well sit in the truck until they get here.”
“Look in there,” she gasped again. “It’s six inches up the walls and…”
When he finished his call, he took her by the hand and led her out to the truck. “We can’t do one thing until the water is turned off. Then we’ll figure out the damage and what we have to do to fix it.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “But everything that was on the floor is ruined.”
“We’ll worry about that in a few minutes. They said they were already looking at a house not far from here that got flooded, so…look, here they are now,” he said.