“Then why is it so hard?” Landon kept Sally in his arms and opened the door for Dixie. “And who made you so smart?”
“I’m not smart, Landon,” she told him. “I’ve figured out that it’s just human nature to want to get even, not forgive. I hated Sally’s father for leaving, but then it finally came to me that he didn’t even know how I felt, and if he did, he wouldn’t care. So why was I hanging on to those feelings when I have a better life right now than I ever had before—and a lot better than if he had even stuck around?”
“Oh, no!” he said.
“You don’t agree with me?” she asked.
“No, not that,” he answered as he opened the back door to his truck. “We need a car seat for the princess.”
“It’s in the house. I’ll go get it.” She turned around and jogged back to the shop through the inch of snow that was on the ground. She still wasn’t sure about this whole idea of putting up a tree in the shop. Maybe she should ask Claire before she did such a thing. After all, Dixie only worked at the Quiltin’ House, she didn’t own the place. Claire was married to Levi, the foreman out on the Longhorn Ranch. Working for her the past year had been wonderful, and she had become a close friend. Dixie valued their working relationship and their friendship too much to jeopardize either one.
When she returned, Landon was sitting in the driver’s seat, letting Sally play with the steering wheel. They were both having so much fun that she couldn’t tell him she was having doubts about bringing a tree into the shop without asking. If Claire said that she didn’t want a tree in the shop, then Dixie would just move it into her bedroom.
“Give me a minute or two to get this thing roped down, and then you can hand her over.” Dixie talked as she worked. “First time I did this when I came to live here, we were in Claire’s car and it took me forever to figure it out, but Sally was only three months old at the time. I’ve had a lot of practice since then.” One of her insecurity tells was to chatter when she was nervous. Most of the time she wasn’t all jittery when Landon was around. He’d been in and out of the shop lots of times when Claire asked him to pick up something in town. She’d spent Thanksgiving at the ranch with all the extended family, and he’d been there too. But this was the first time she’d been alone with him in a vehicle, and it seemed an awfully lot like a date—and that made her tense.
She got the baby seat fastened down, and Landon handed Sally over the front seat to her. “I’ve never even tried to get a baby seat fastened into position,” he said. “Never been around babies until I came here to work a few months on the Longhorn Ranch. It’s like a big extended family out there. I feel like Emily is my sister as well as Tag and Hud’s, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned from Cade and Levi and Justin. I didn’t even know I liked babies until I moved over here from out in the western part of the state. Retta and Cade’s little girl, Annie, stole my heart, and Claire’s son, Wyatt, and Emily’s little Hayden, why, they’re the next generation of cowboys.”
“There’s even more on the way. Rose is pregnant with twin boys,” Dixie said. “And you, Landon Griffin, are a natural baby whisperer the way they all take to you.” She got into the passenger seat of the truck. “Nice vehicle here.”
“Thank you. I saved up my money from working for my brothers and bought it just before I came over here.” He started the engine and backed out onto the street. “I’ve never driven or even ridden as far as that trip was. Mama hated road trips, so we flew everywhere. What’s been the longest drive for you?”
She didn’t want to talk about road trips. She would rather ask him why he had to leave, but then that might open up a can of worms she didn’t want to deal with. She’d followed in her mother’s footsteps when it came to men. If forty good men were standing in front of them with roses in their hands and singing a love song just to them, they would pick the forty-first one who wasn’t worth crap—the one who wouldn’t work, wouldn’t stay with them in tough times, and was more interested in a six-pack of beer than buying them a rose. She didn’t trust men, but she also didn’t trust herself to pick out a decent one.
“Did you hear me?” he asked.
“I’m sorry. I was woolgathering. My longest trip was from southern Louisiana to over around Abilene.” She noticed a spiral of smoke coming from a nearby chimney and then caught a whiff of it. The fire that had almost taken her life and Sally’s had happened more than a year before, but the smell of smoke still made her shiver.
“Cold?” Landon asked.
“No.” Dixie shook her head. “It’s the smoke. Gets to me every time.”
“I heard that you and Sally were in a fire. What happened?” He drove straight to the barn on the ranch and pulled the truck through the double doors.
“Sally and I were hitchin’ rides, goin’ toward Sweetwater, and we got stuck in Bowie,” she answered. “We were going to sleep in the park, but we saw an abandoned house where we’d at least be out of the cold weather, so we went inside. It caught on fire, and Hud Baker rescued us. I spent a night in the hospital, and Hud took Sally to Rose’s place. The next day Claire offered me a job, and this is where I’ve been ever since. The whole extended family out at the Longhorn Ranch has become my friends since then.”
Landon laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“I keep telling myself that the worst thing in our lives turned out to be for the best, but I suppose the smell of smoke will always remind me of the fear of dying and leaving Sally without either parent.” She glanced over at him and their gazes locked for a few seconds. Then he turned back to watch the road. She wanted to read something into that moment but was afraid to let herself. To Landon, she was a good friend, and it was best to keep it that way.
She sighed and said, “Maybe it’s just to let me know that I shouldn’t take anything, not even the air I breathe, for granted.” She caught another whiff of smoke when he opened the truck door, and a vision of Hud coming through the gray fog to lead her and carry Sally to safety popped into her head. Had she and Sally slept in a park that night and hitched another ride the next day, she would never have met Landon. Sarah, one of the elderly people who lived down the road from her, often said that everything happens for a reason. Dixie believed it—almost. If everything really did happen for a reason, then why would fate bring Landon into her life, only to have him leave again?
Maybe it’s to teach you that you need someone other than a baby and a few friends in your world. Claire’s voice was loud and clear in her mind.
I don’t need anything more than what I’ve got, Dixie argued.
Chapter Two
Landon hopped out of the truck with intentions of helping Dixie, but she was already sliding out of the passenger seat when he got there. “I’ll get Sally out of the seat so she can go see Little Bit. He’ll be glad to have some company.” He pulled an apple from the console and handed it to Dixie. “Y’all can give him his treat tonight. I usually find a reason to come out here and bring him an apple or a carrot so he doesn’t get lonely.”