“Nope. I like my meals and men hot.” He reached for the bottle of hot sauce on the table and shook it over his stew for a solid minute. The brown gravy was now scarlet with spice. “The redder the better.”
I nearly choked on my bite of beef. “That was ridiculously cheeky,” I said after swallowing. He snickered as he spooned some stew into his mouth, moaned in a sensual way that made my balls tighten, and broke out into a sweat. I snorted in amusement. He dove back in for more, unwilling to let that hot red sauce be the victor. As we ate and he perspired, we chatted about small things. He was quite charming, a terrible flirt, and an intelligent person. He read but preferred audiobooks to print, was a member of his tribal youth council, and volunteered at the Lilac Hills Home for Independent Living.
My phone pinged with an alarm notice. “Time to pick up Dahn at the rec center.” I wiped my mouth on my napkin and placed it over my empty bowl. “This was nice.”
“Would you like to do it again sometime?” he enquired, plucking the bill from Lolly’s fingers before she could place it on the table with our muffins in to-go bags. She was also pretty observant, so I slipped her a chunky tip before she hustled off.
“I’d like that. Maybe when I come to town for the next class at the rec center?”
“Perfect. Why don’t we swap numbers so you can contact me privately?”
That seemed like a great idea. We swapped phones. I entered my number, and he started to type his in when my phone buzzed.
“It’s Granny B,” he said after putting his number in and handing it back.
“Oh, sorry, let me take this.” Granny dove right in with a request for sugar for the peaches that someone had brought over. I quickly told her I would pick some up and ended the call. “She needs sugar to put up peaches. Someone brought her a few bushels.”
“Mm, I wonder if she’ll make her famous peach cobbler?” He rose, placed his hat on his short hair, and gave me a wink. “I might just head out to the ranch with you since my shift is done and see if she’s baking today. If you don’t mind me following you out?”
“No, I don’t mind at all,” I rushed to say. Well, no taking it back now. With a nod to Lolly, we left, him heading off to the station to get his car, and me filled with stew and an hour of flirtation that fluffed my saggy ego.
Dahn was outside the rec center playing tag with a small group of boys. I had to toot the horn to get his attention. He dashed over, sweaty, his clothes grass stained, and happier than he had been since the news about Chris was delivered. The fact that my ex had yet to call or touch base with our son was a festering sore that would probably pop the next time I spoke to Chris.
“Hey, you.” I smiled over at him as he buckled in, panting like an overworked mule. “Did you have fun today?”
“I had so much fun! The kids in the ag group are really cool. They taught me how to wash my goat and trim it, and then we sat around and talked about school. They said they would show me around and everything on the first day. Then they found a worm on the ground that had gotten dried out in the sun, and Larry, that’s one of them, Larry and Keith and Tim and Kevin, they’re cousins or something. I wish I had cousins! Anyway, Larry threw the dry worm at one of the girls in the rabbit club but missed, and it hit Keith right in the face, then we started playing tag withthe dry worm, and anyone who got touched by the worm had to crawl on the ground like a zombie worm! It was fun! I can’t wait to go back tomorrow!”
How the boy didn’t pass out from that run-on sentence was a miracle. I had to laugh to myself as we pulled away from the rec center.
“Sounds like you had a good time,” I said, taking the left out of town.
“I did,” he chimed up as he fiddled with the window button. “Hey, Dad, are we in traffic trouble?”
“I don’t think so. Why?” I looked in the rearview to see Ollie behind us in his Jeep. “Oh, that’s just Sheriff Ahoka. He’s coming out to the ranch to visit. We had coffee while you were playing zombie worm with your new friends. He’s very nice. Be polite when you speak to him, okay?”
“Sure, yeah. Does he have a gun?”
“He does. You are not to touch it.” I gave him a fast but stern look.
“I know, jeez. I know about guns. Granny gave me shooting lessons that time. Kevin said his dad takes him out to hunt for woodchucks. He said they make holes in the fields that cows and horses step in and break their legs. We should go shoot some woodchucks.”
Great. This was not a discussion I wanted to have. I understood that some animals were considered pests by farmers and ranchers. I just wasn’t the person who wished to eradicate said varmints with a gun. I’d never even been near a firearm until moving out here, where guns were as common as cough drops. Also, understandable. When you shared the land with bobcats, coyotes, bears, and mountain lions, you had better bring firepower when you rode out. I’d become used to rifles and handguns being used—sometimes at the crack of dawn—but I wasn’t comfortable using them yet. I’d not had to kill somethingcoming after me or any of our new livestock. Maybe I needed to have Baker run me through the basics again and actually try to plink a can.
“Why don’t we discuss it with Baker and see what he says?” I offered. When trying to avoid something, push it off on your sibling.
“Okay!” He seemed placated enough with that sketchy reply. We made a fast stop at the store for sugar. The rest of the ride home was spent being regaled with the seemingly glowing virtues of Keith, Larry, Kevin, and Tim. Dahn burst out of my SUV to meet Ollie, his mouth going a mile a minute as we made our way to the front door. Which Dahn raced through and let slam back in my face. Good thing I had quick reflexes.
“He’s a chatterbox,” Ollie chuckled, entering the house after I waved him in and instantly removing his hat.
“He found some new friends at the rec center,” I explained, following Ollie to the kitchen. Obviously, he knew this house well. The whole family was packed into the steamy kitchen, scalding tubs of peaches. The room was like a sauna.
“Well, knit my knickers, Ollie Ahoka. It’s been a while since you stopped by for a visit,” Granny said from her seat at the table, pitting gently scalded peaches then packing them into jars. Bella sat beside her, her usually stylish blond hair hanging limply around her face. Linc and Ford were scalding the peaches at the stove, Baker was cooling them down in the sink, and Hanley was toting the cooled peaches from the sink to the table. They had quite the assembly line going.
“I heard the words peaches and Granny B in the same sentence and hoped that might mean you were going to make that blue ribbon peach cobbler of yours,” he said, standing behind Bella, hat in his hands like a schoolboy. A mountainous schoolboy, that is.
“I should have figured your love of my cobbler would lead you here,” Granny teased, sticky peach juice coating her hands all the way up to her elbows. “If you want to stay for cobbler, you got to earn your slice. Sit down and start halving. Dodge, you help with putting the hot lids on and getting the canners on the stove to boil.”
“What can I do?” Dahn asked after stealing a cooled peach to eat.
