Cody was stopped by former patients twice before they finally made it outside, where dark clouds had begun to roll in from the southwest. They had questions about the rumors going around that he’d wrecked his truck out by Max’s ranch and had been stranded for days. Cody took time to tell them the story of the buck that was the size of an Angus bull that had a rack a bushel basket wouldn’t fit over.

When he and Stevie made it outside, Stevie nudged him and said, “You just made their day, and they’re already on their cell phones telling everyone they know that they heard it from the horse’s mouth about that wrecked truck.”

“No, you did,” Cody chuckled. “Now they can be the first ones to tell their wives that the gossip is real, and that we were stuck in a tack room together for four days. Should we just go on to the courthouse in Bonham right now and make an honest woman of you?”

“Not until we have that fourth date, and I get my hamburger,” she answered.

He settled her into the truck and drove the familiar road toward the school. Her house, which was located less than a block away, was a little two-bedroom frame house with a railing around the front porch and a small, attached garage off to one side. He parked in the gravel driveway and again got out of the truck and opened the door for her.

“You don’t have to walk me to the door, Cody. Like I said before, you have things to do.” She picked up her bag and slid out of the truck.

“My mama would peel the leaves off a peach tree switch and take it to me if I wasn’t a gentleman.” He tucked her free hand into his and walked up the three steps to the porch with her.

She fished her key out of her purse and started to open the door but noticed that he was frowning. “What’s the matter?”

“There’s water all over your porch,” he said.

“Snow makes water when it melts,” she said with a smile and then realized that the water was coming from under the door. “Oh, no!” she gasped and hurriedly opened the door. A flood of water rushed out of the house so forceful that it splashed both of them halfway to their knees.

“You’ve got busted pipes.” Cody was already fishing his phone from his hip pocket. “I’ll call city hall and get someone out here to turn the water off at the meter, then we’ll see what we need to do after that. We might as well sit in the truck until they get here.”

“Look in there,” she gasped again. “It’s six inches up the walls and…”