Aw. Such a gentleman. She liked that about him. Most guys she knew wouldn’t have thought to ask, and she wouldn’t have thought to suggest it. But Hank took bags out of her arms before she could even say a thing, and then he was loaded up and her hands were free. “I grabbed a few things to whip up for you guys. I hope that’s all right. Unless you’ve still got plenty of banana bread?”

He didn’t answer her, and when she looked over at him, she could have sworn his cheeks were slightly red.

Maybe he didn’t like bananas.

They went into the house in silence, and Hank set the groceries down on the table. She immediately started to put the food away while preheating the oven. The best thing she could do would be to make foods that they could grab easily on a quick trip into the house. Most cowboys spent all day out in the field and tended to grab food when they could anyhow, but it was worse in calving season, when cows would run off from the safety of the herd to give birth, or get sick, or any number of awful things. So . . . food that could be eaten quickly. She’d brought an entire box of protein bars and was going to make every kind of muffin she could think of. As she put on a pot of coffee, she glanced over at Hank, who was rubbing his eyes wearily as he watched her get to work. “Have the puppies been fed?”

He frowned, scratching his chin. “Don’t think so, but I’ve been too busy to keep track.”

Her heart squeezed. He looked exhausted. She was a little tired this morning, too, but she’d only had one night of little sleep and he’d probably had far too many. She moved to the table, grabbed him by his big arms, and parked him in the chair. “Stay there until the coffee’s done. I’ll check on your uncle.”

Ten minutes later, she was pleased to see that Doc was up, feeding the puppies, and his foot was hurting him less. She gave him strict instructions to go back to bed after the feeding and headed back to the kitchen to get started on baking. Hank was still there, sipping a cup of black coffee, and so she swept right past him and got to work.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said as she cracked a few eggs on the side of a bowl.