“Yes, I will definitely think about them and give you an answer by Monday,” she agreed.

“That’s fair enough,” Rodney said. “I’ll be looking to hear from you then. Bye, Stevie.”

“Goodbye,” she said and laid her head back. Could she really leave Honey Grove? Could she walk away from Cody? Would she be giving up the opportunity of a lifetime? The chance to travel? Or to run her own clinic in Oklahoma? Only to have things fall apart in Honey Grove?

So many questions, and not one single answer.

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Stevie’s mother had often told her that work would take her mind off whatever was stressing her. So, when she got home, she parked her van beside the barn and went to the tack room. All kinds of stuff had been left on the worktable—jars of screws, nails, tools, and even a can of paint. The small refrigerator had an apple in it that had probably come over on the Mayflower, and carrots that were growing beards.

“If cleaning this doesn’t de-stress me, nothing will.” Stevie removed her jacket and filled a bucket with water from the bathroom sink. She found a bottle of cleanser that was so old that the label had faded, but it still smelled lemony, so she poured some into the bucket, grabbed a sponge, and went to work on the refrigerator first.

When that job was done, she began to organize the shelves. First by taking all the stuff from the cabinets and wiping them down, and by arranging all the items in a logical order as she put it back. “Mama, it’s not working,” she mumbled. “I’m still tied up in knots worrying about the house, the job offers, and this thing, whatever it is, with Cody.”

Her phone pinged, and she dragged it out of her pocket to find a message from Cody: We are at the hotel. Will call this evening. Dad is exhausted.

Her thumbs quickly typed, Okay.

She had just hit send when her phone rang. She hadn’t realized that it was suppertime until she saw that the call was from Mia and checked the time.

“Hello, Mia,” she said.

“Daddy has a volunteer fire meeting in town this evening, and they always have it catered in by the diner. It’s just us girls, and the twins of course. You are coming to eat with us, right?” Mia asked.

“Be there in just a few minutes.” Stevie rushed through putting the last of the things on the shelf, decided she’d better use the crutches to go to the house, and made sure her van was locked before she started that way. Mia was waiting with the back door slung open when she arrived.

“You should have called. I would have come and got you in the work truck,” Mia scolded her. “And why is your van at the barn? Are the alpacas all right?”