It took Gray a moment, but it finally dawned on him the Noah meant Rose’s herbed roasted potatoes.
Noah continued, “And she says she shouldn’t get the pecan pie but then she always gets it anyway.”He added, “Itispretty yummy.”
Gray paid cash so the transaction wouldn’t appear on a credit card statement anyone at the bank might see and gossip about, and he’d asked Rose to bag it in a plain bag without the diner’s logo on it.Rose had done so without comment, but the look on her face suggested she was filing this information for future questioning of him.
He drove up to the main house at the ranch at six forty-five.Jenna was there with Bobby.Sully was still in the barn finishing up watering the horses, which was just as well.If he ran into his brothers they would pick up on how nervous he was and harass him about it.
Bonnie’s car pulled up outside at seven o’clock.
Predictably, Noah was first through the kitchen door.Bobby immediately challenged Noah to a quicksand-building competition in the backyard involving the garden hose and a wheelbarrow of dirt, and the two boys disappeared.
Cassidy came in next.“She thinks you need her help looking at one of the heifers.”
“That’s what you told her?”
“I told her you sounded worried on the phone about one of the new calves and wanted a second opinion.She changed out of her work clothes.”Cassidy paused.“She also redid her make-up and put on perfume.To look at a sick cow.Draw your own conclusions.”
Jenna spun to face the sink and coughed conspicuously.
Gray drew several conclusions, all of which made it difficult to form coherent sentences when Bonnie came inside a moment later.She wore jeans and a dark green sweater with her blond hair down around her shoulders.It made her eyes look almost as golden as her hair.She’d put on earrings.Small gold ones.To look at a heifer.
“Which cow?”Bonnie asked, pulling a pair of gloves out of her coat pocket.
“There’s no cow.”
She stopped with her hand half in a glove.“What?”
“Cassidy made it up.I wanted to surprise you.”He glanced behind Bonnie.Cassidy, standing in the hallway, gave him a solemn thumbs-up and disappeared into the living room.
“Surprise me with what?”
“Dinner.Just the two of us.Somewhere private.”
Bonnie looked at him.Understanding arrived in stages—the confusion clearing first, then realization, then something softer and more startled as if she’d been handed something fragile and wasn’t sure she was allowed to keep it.
Noah burst through the back door, trailing mud.“Have fun on your date!I didn’t tell her!Cassidy, tell him I didn’t tell her!”
“You literally just said the word ‘date’, you numbskull,’” Cassidy yelled from the living room.
“She alreadyknowsnow!That doesn’t count!”
Bobby Foster appeared behind Noah, equally muddy.“Are you going on a date with Gray?My mom said you were going to, but it’s a secret.”
“You knew, Jenna?”Bonnie demanded accusingly of her friend.
Jenna merely shrugged and smiled.
“Jenna was kind enough to agree to look after the kids for a few hours,” Gray admitted.
Bonnie looked at her daughter, who had reappeared in the hallway with her book and an expression of quiet satisfaction.She looked at her son, who was literally vibrating with excitement.
Bonnie just shook her head and laughed.The sound of it went through him like a bolt of lightning.
“Okay,” she said, pulling on her second glove.“Let’s go on a date.”
He drove up the dirt track as the sky turned amber.Bonnie sat in the passenger seat with her window open.The chinook wind that came through the window was warm and dry, carrying the smell of dust and pine resin and the last of the snowmelt.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
