Liz patted him on the leg. “And you will. After we have a long, hot steamy bath—together.”

“You don’t stutter when it comes to speaking right up, do you?” Raylen’s tone was serious, but his eyes twinkled.

“I told you about riding that pony when I was four. I get something in my head, I do it. I got something to say, I say it,” Liz told him.

Raylen parked the truck, and asked, “Then why didn’t you tell me that summer when we were teenagers how you felt about me?”

“I was just finding out that I could have feelings for a boy,” she said.

She hopped out of the truck before he had time to open the door for her and hit the porch in a dead run. Hooter looked up, but she didn’t invite him or Blister into the house.

“You sure are slow.” She grinned as she kicked off her boots and headed for the bathroom, leaving a string of clothes to mark the path for him.

“Who’s slow?” He shucked out of his clothing and beat her to the bathroom.

Her phone rang somewhere out in the hallway, but she wouldn’t have answered it if it had been right beside her. Nothing mattered but Raylen and the next moment.

Chapter 26

“Blaze, what are you doing here?” Liz squealed when she answered the doorbell.

“Standing out here in the rain freezing my butt off,” he said. “What are you doing dressed like Mrs. Santa Claus?”

She slung open the door and stood back. “Come in and warm your hands. There’s a fire going in the fireplace, and I brought home leftovers from the café. They’re on the stove if you are hungry. And I’m dressed up because this is the first night of my light show. Raylen and I will be giving out candy canes for the next couple of hours.”

“Hot coffee?” He stepped inside, gave her a hug, and removed his heavy work coat before heading to the warmth of the fire.

“In the pot. I’ll pour us each a cup,” she said as she headed for the kitchen. “Why didn’t you let me know you were coming?”

He warmed his backside and then turned around and rubbed his hands. “For a fireplace like this, I might…”

She carried two mugs of coffee to the living room and handed one to him. “No, you wouldn’t, so don’t say that or even think the words.”

“I wasn’t going to say I’d leave the carnival business. I was going to say that I’d consider building a house on the property for the winter months. Fireplace wouldn’t do me a bit of good in the summertime anyway,” he said.

She curled up in her favorite recliner and pulled a fluffy throw over her bare feet. Hooter had raised his head when Blaze came into the house, but he’d settled back down. Blister had barely opened one eye from her new bed on a pillow at the end of the sofa beside the bookcases.