“I’ve got another pair of sweats in the bag and they are pink if you’d rather have them,” she muttered.

“These are fine.” Cody hung his jeans, shirt, and a pair of boxer shorts on nails beside the door. “I just hope my jeans are dry by the time Jesse gets here. Thank goodness you’re tall so that the bottoms are long enough, but this sweatshirt is a little snug across my shoulders.”

She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “You’ll survive until your clothes get dry. As warm as this room is, I don’t reckon it will take long.”

“I am grateful for a change of warm, dry clothing, so thank you. What’s really on your mind, Stevie? You look like you’re about to cry. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, not this time.” Stevie kept her back turned to him. She had worked so hard to keep up a brave front in front of him that she was determined not to cry.

“Is it time to talk about that big gray animal?” Cody asked.

“No, that’s not what…” Her voice quivered.

“You talk and I’ll make breakfast,” he said.

She flopped down on the sofa and stared out the window at the sheet of white still falling from the sky. “I’m in a tack room with no shower, no electricity, with a baby alpaca and a litter of kittens, and my mother keeps popping into my head with advice. I don’t want to just hear her, Cody. I want to be able to sit at the table with her, to see her smile at me, to hear her talk to her, tell her about my day…”

Cody stopped peeling potatoes and sat down beside her. “This will pass. It will stop snowing, and we’ll get rescued, and then you can spend time with your mother.”

“My mama died before…” She willed the tears welling up in her eyes not to fall down her cheeks. “Just before Mother’s Day.”

“I’m so sorry, Stevie. I didn’t know. Mama might have mentioned it when I called, but then Dad was taken to the hospital when his meds disagreed with him, and with all the excitement of Jesse and Addy getting married, the twins coming into our lives and…” he said, stumbling over his words.

Stevie pushed her curly red hair back behind her ears. “I understand, but I miss her so much.”

He scooted over closer to her and draped his arm around her shoulders. “I can’t even imagine how it would feel to not have my folks around. When we thought Dad had a stroke a few months ago, it scared me really bad. I was in London, getting ready for another assignment, and all I could think of was why wasn’t I home with him and Mama.”