“I’m going to put off having my dessert for a little while and go check on Dad,” Cody said. “After that long trip, I should be taking his vital signs every day. You ladies can have some time to discuss the dating game while I’m gone.” He pushed back his chair and stood up.
“You think all we talk about is you guys when you’re not around?” Stevie asked.
“I hope so.” Cody flashed a smile on his way out the door. “Be back in a few minutes.”
“I’m glad that Poppa isn’t any worse, but I was hoping that specialist would tell him he was getting better,” Mia sighed.
“Not any worse is a good sign,” Stevie said. “It’s kind of like being in remission if he had cancer. We’d be tickled with that news, right?”
“I suppose so,” Mia sighed again, “but I still believe and hope for a miracle.”
“You got one when you met Beau,” Stevie told her.
Are you talking to her or to yourself again? Her mother’s tone seemed to be happy.
“Amen to that,” Mia said.
“Where are you going tonight?” she asked.
“We are going to Sonic in Sherman,” Mia answered. “I’m having a double bacon cheeseburger, double fries, and a chocolate shake, and then we’re going to see that new spy movie that just came out last week.”
“Sounds like a perfect date. What made you choose a spy movie?” Stevie asked.
Mia finished chewing another carrot before she answered. “It’s about kick-ass women spies, and I like action films.” She checked her phone again. “Beau isn’t the type to be late, and I’m ready to go, but I should brush my teeth. I don’t want him to taste carrots when he kisses me.”
“Have fun.” Stevie started to serve herself some cobbler, but then decided to wait and have dessert with Cody.
* * *
Cody drove the mile from the bunkhouse to the other side of the ranch where his folks now lived in the old foreman’s house, a small two-bedroom frame house. He found his father and mother sitting on the front porch swing bundled up in coats. Sonny even had a blanket around his legs.
“What are y’all doing outside in the cold?” Cody called as he got out of his truck, went up onto the porch, and hiked a hip on the railing.
“We’re celebrating,” Sonny said. “Today is the anniversary of our first date all those years ago. I wasn’t allowed to take your mother out in my old pickup truck, but her daddy said I could sit on the porch swing with her and we could talk. Every year, we do this to remember that we fell in love that night.”
“We sit on the porch swing for one hour,” Pearl said, “because that’s how long my father said we could spend together, and then Sonny had to come inside the house and visit with my folks the rest of the evening.”
“Our hour is up.” Sonny pushed the blanket to the side and used his cane to steady himself as he got up from the swing. “Let’s go have coffee and some of that apple pie your mama made today.”
Cody folded the blanket over his arm and followed his folks into the house. “Mia brought peach cobbler to the bunkhouse, so I’ll pass on the pie, but I would like a cup of coffee.”
“What’s on your mind this evening, son?” Pearl asked.
“Can’t a guy come see his parents without…” He paused as he laid the blanket on a ladder-back chair in the foyer. “Something being on his mind?”
“Yes, but I know you.” Pearl made sure that Sonny was seated at the table, and then she got down dessert plates and ice cream from the refrigerator. “Sure you don’t want just a sliver?”
“Maybe a tiny piece,” Cody said as he poured three mugs of coffee. “I want to save room for some of Addy’s cobbler too.”
“Boy, as skinny as you are,” Sonny chuckled, “you could eat this whole pie and a cobbler too, and still need to gain weight. You’ve got muscles, but you could use thirty more pounds.”
“Dad, I’m six feet, four inches tall, and I’m pretty much at the right weight for my height now that I’ve put on ten pounds from eating such good food since I’ve been home.” Cody carried all three mugs to the table and then sat down. “If I keep having double portions of dessert, I figure, by summer, I’ll have to buy new jeans.”
Pearl cut the pie and put a scoop of ice cream on the slice she set before Sonny. “How much is just a tiny piece?” she asked Cody.
“Half as much as you gave Dad,” he answered. “You were right, Mama, I do have something on my mind, but I probably need to start from dirt…”
Sonny chuckled again. “I remember the days when you were a little boy, and I’d ask you a question. You always had to give me an hour’s worth of backstory before you ever got around to answering it.”
“And you got to where you would say, ‘Just the facts, son, not the story from back when God made dirt.’” Cody was so grateful his dad’s illness hadn’t stolen his memories and his mind.
Pearl slid his pie across the table and then cut herself a slice. “That’s right, but we’ve got time, so give us the full story.”
“You remember me telling y’all about my doctor buddy, Nate?” Cody asked.
“The British guy, right? I always kind of thought of him like Ducky on NCIS,” Sonny answered.
“He called me last week, but before I tell you the story and show you the pictures, I want you to know that I turned him down.” He told them what the conversation had been about between bites, and after he had shown them the pictures on his phone, he ended with “I want to be here in Honey Grove, living on Sunflower Ranch and doing exactly what I’m doing.”
“Something tells me that’s not all.” Pearl finished off her pie.
“This is kind of like Fate, but Stevie got a similar offer.” He sipped his coffee and set the mug back down. When he had finished that tale, he said, “But we talked tonight, and decided that we would like to see if we might be able to put down roots together. She deserves something more than a bunkhouse, and she has all that stuff from her mother’s house that I’m sure she would like to have around her.”
“Then why don’t the two of you move into the house over there on the other part of the ranch? The one over on what used to be the Hall Ranch,” Pearl suggested. “Lucas called us earlier today and postponed coming back for another year. He said that he wants to get more into horse therapy to help kids with disabilities, and he has an opportunity to do that. If he comes back at some point, the bunkhouse will be plenty big enough for him to stay in.”
“Lucas has always been the quietest one of us and needed more space for himself than me and Jesse ever did,” Cody said. “But I actually drove over here to ask if I could move into the old Hall house you mentioned, Mama, and to ask if it would cause a problem if Stevie and I live together. We need to find ourselves before we rush into anything more than that.”
Sonny laughed so hard that he had to wipe his eyes on a napkin. When he finally stopped, he asked, “What exactly have you been doing all this time, son?”
Cody hadn’t seen his father laugh that hard in weeks. “Well, Dad, I guess I lost my mojo, because we’ve just been roommates. I want to ask her to take it to the next level, and move in with me, but I didn’t want to do that unless I could have the house. She’s special, and she deserves more than I can probably ever give her, but that would be a good start.”