“It might be.” Cody flashed a brilliant smile. “Or who knows, in fifty years we might look back on tonight and think it’s about us. The only way we’ll ever know if every one of those long, lost roads has truly brought us back to Honey Grove is if we bury the hatchet and get to know each other better.”

“Think there might be a grander plan in all of this like they’re singing about?” Stevie asked.

“We can hope so,” he said and smiled.

She rolled the cold, sweaty beer bottle across her forehead. “Let’s watch a movie or reruns on television.”

“Reason?” Cody asked.

“Between the beer, the dancing with you, and you asking me out, I’m getting all emotional.” She was bluntly honest—the only way she knew how to be.

“Is that good or bad?” Cody asked.

Stevie was wondering if she would wake up tomorrow morning in her own house and discover that everything that had happened was just a dream. There had been no crazy winter storm. Her van would be sitting in the driveway with no flat tires, and she would realize that she hadn’t had a bad fall from a four-wheeler.

“It’s all good,” she finally answered. If this was a dream, she might as well enjoy it to the very end.

“I’m glad,” Cody said as he turned off the music, picked up the remote, and hit the guide channel. “Looks like we’ve got reruns of NCIS and Law and Order, or we can bring up Netflix and watch something there.”

“The Ranch,” Stevie said without hesitation.

“Yes!” Cody nodded and punched in the right buttons on the remote. “What season are you on?”

“Two,” she answered.

“I’ve been watching the third one, but I don’t mind going back and doing season two again.” Cody settled onto his end of the sofa.

How could he go from talking about a date on Sunday, to thinking about a television show? Stevie wondered. Her mind was still going around in circles, as she tried to figure out what she should wear to church, and how Addy and Mia would feel about her actually dating Cody. If the two of them decided that they didn’t like each other, would that interfere with Mia being her assistant? Or worse yet, would the ranch stop calling on her to do vet work for them? If Sonny quit using her services, then how many other ranches would stop calling on her?

“Want another beer?” he asked.

“Yes, thank you.” Her voice sounded strained in her own ears. “Maybe…” she started to say that dating might not be such a good idea.

“Maybe some pretzels?” Cody was already on his way back from the kitchen. “I was thinking the same thing.”