“Talk to you then.” Stevie ended the call, finished her breakfast, packed herself a sandwich for lunch, and drove her mother’s car out to the barn so she wouldn’t have to use crutches. She still needed to think, and the tack room was far from finished.

Her hair stuck to her sweaty neck as she swept the floor. She stopped long enough to tuck the errant strands back up into her ponytail and had started to mop when the door opened. She didn’t need anyone to tell her that Cody had made it home earlier than planned, or that she looked and probably smelled horrible. The afternoon sun caused his body to be nothing more than a silhouette, and even though she wanted to hug him, she hung back and kept the mop in her hands.

He crossed the room in a couple of long, easy strides. When he picked her up, the mop hit the floor with a thunk, and he spun her around half a dozen times. “I missed you, Stevie O’Dell, so much,” he said when he finally set her down on the floor.

“I’m a mess…you’re early…” she stammered. “I was going to go home and get cleaned up.”

“Home! That’s the important word,” he said. “I’ve never been so glad to be back here on the ranch again, and we were only gone two days.” He wrapped his arms around her and then kissed her.

When the steamy, hot kiss ended, her knees felt like they had no bones in them. “Welcome home, Dr. Cowboy.” She had to catch her breath between words.

“Best place in the world…love,” he whispered.

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

The tack room hadn’t been so clean and organized since Cody and Jesse were fourteen and fifteen and had to straighten it up for punishment. That memory put a smile on Cody’s face as he passed through the room on the way to the barn. He and Jesse had snuck out of the house after bedtime one night and met a couple of boys who were old enough to drive out on the road.

Jesse came through the back door and shook his head. “Are you remembering what I am?”

“Yep,” Cody said with a grin, “but we agreed the party was worth it.”

“It was at the time but spending every evening cleaning this place taught me a lesson,” Jesse said.

“When Mama says no, she means no, and Dad will back her up on it,” Cody said.

“That’s right.”

“Just think about those twin boys you’ve got and how much trouble we used to get into when we were kids and teenagers,” Cody teased.