“If we’re going to survive until Jesse gets here, maybe we should cut out the sarcasm.” She opened the refrigerator door. “Oh, look! I found some frozen steaks and hamburger. And there’s canned goods on this shelf. We might not starve or have to live on baby formula after all.”

Cody had worked so hard that he was too tired to eat too many times to count when he was working for the firm that was a lot like Doctors Without Borders. He’d spent almost a decade in third world countries, working from before daylight until long after dark. Beans and potatoes and an occasional steak didn’t sound too bad at all to him.

Living with a sassy redhead in a room that was smaller than his bedroom at the bunkhouse on Sunflower Ranch—now that sounded far worse than seeing patients in blistering heat seven days a week, or even sleeping on a narrow cot or shaking spiders out of his boots.

*  *  *

Stevie stole a long look at Cody as he left the room again. Why couldn’t he have gotten fat and bald and started wearing slippers and baggy pants rather than those tight-fitting jeans and those cowboy boots? At thirty-nine, he still looked every bit as sexy as he had when he was a senior in high school.

Burn me once, shame on you, she thought as she set the supply of canned goods down from the shelf and peeled off a paper towel from a roll that she found at the back of the shelf.

Burn me twice, and I’ll kick your sexy butt all the way to the Red River. She put a new twist on the saying as she dusted the shelf and the tops of the cans.

“Where do you want these?” Cody asked as he brought in two big brown bags of food and one of potatoes.

“You can just set them on the worktable,” she answered.

He pulled what was left of a chocolate bar from his pocket and handed it to her.

“And the most important thing of all,” he said with a smile.

She had to remind herself not to smile back. He’d broken her heart, damn it! And as much as she wanted to admit she was over him, she also hadn’t been expecting him to move back to Honey Grove when she returned to help after her mom’s cancer diagnosis. Cody was supposed to be off playing Dr. Superhero in far-flung parts of the world until the day he died. But Sonny Ryan was having some health issues too, and two of his three sons had come home.

She peeled the paper back and took a bite of what was left of her chocolate, then offered the rest to Cody.

“No, thanks,” he said and shook his head, “I would never get in between a woman and her chocolate.”

“Smart man,” she said. “Truce while we are stranded?”