“How cute is my butt?” From the slight redness in his face, he hadn’t meant to say those words out loud.

“Cutest one in the house tonight.” And then she whipped around to face her mother, Tressa, and Blaze. “I told him that his butt was cute when he was up on a ladder.”

“Thank you, and darlin’, you look amazing tonight,” Raylen said.

“Yes, you do,” Blaze said with a grin.

Raylen drew her even closer to his side. “She always does. She wore this the first time she came to Sunday dinner at my folks’. I thought she was a princess.”

“She is.” Blaze smiled. “You two go on in the living room and sit with Marva Jo. Tressa and I will finish up in the kitchen. I still have a few adjustments to make to the table. I need to put out glasses for the wine.”

“He cooks?” Raylen whispered on the way to the living room.

“Yes, he is a chef in the kitchen, and he’s a neat freak and even does his own ironing because a laundry wouldn’t do it to suit him.”

“No wonder the women love him,” Raylen said.

She shrugged. “Hadn’t thought about it that way, but you are right.”

Marva Jo caught the last of the conversation and pieced the rest together. “Liz does not cook. She knows how to do laundry and hates to iron. She had no choice but to keep things neat, but it’s not by nature like it is with Blaze. It was by necessity because we lived in a small trailer.”

Raylen sat down next to Liz. “Are you tryin’ to scare me off?”

“Maybe,” Marva Jo answered. “Is it working?”

“Not a bit,” Raylen told her.

Liz patted Raylen on the knee. “He’s not a neat freak, but he’s not sloppy. His biggest problem is that he’s organized and a perfectionist.”

“Then he’d better reconsider a relationship with you,” Marva Jo said.

“How does Colleen fit into the picture? She’s your sister?” Marva Jo asked.

“We are peas in a pod, but she only cooks when she has to. Mama made all of us learn everything from kitchen work to cleaning to ranching. Boys had to learn just like girls, but she also made sure my sisters were able to run a ranch just like us boys. In the O’Donnell household, there is no division of men’s and women’s work.” Raylen made lazy circles on the palm of Liz’s hand with his thumb.

Liz vowed she’d get even later. It wasn’t fair for him to heat her to the boiling point with nothing but his thumb, and right there in front of her mother.

The doorbell rang, and Liz started to hop up, but Raylen held her hand tightly and yelled, “Blaze, would you get that door?”

Liz shot him a look, but he just winked at her and said, “Us guys got to stick together.”

“That’s not fair. Why does she get to go to the kitchen?” Liz whispered.