Her eyes watched him as she considered his words. “When did she take it upon herself to become your guardian?”
That jolted him. He’d never thought of his elderly neighbor in that way—he was the one who did the guarding. “Nan and Mom were friends. They swapped newspapers in the morning, shared a cup of coffee, talked about the things two ranch girls have in common. When Mom died, Nan continued the paper swap with me.”
“It must be hard to lose a friend,” Tessa said softly. “Perhaps she feels that to break the routine would be to say goodbye for good.”
“I can understand that.” He reached out a hand to cover the pup’s soft back, feeling the delighted wriggle of loose puppy skin. “She still has a key, so sometimes on Sunday nights I come home to a loaf of banana bread baking or a stew in the Crock-Pot. Always warms me up.” He suddenly met Tessa’s gaze over the puppy, and she hugged the dog closer to her protectively. “I got a lot of dead ends today,” he admitted.
“We knew it wouldn’t be easy to find out anything.” Her blue eyes widened with soft inquiry. “Would you please take me home?”
His heart dropped into his stomach. “I will if that’s what you want.”
“I think it’s for the best.” She swallowed, snuggling the dog to her chin. “I have my furry friend here for companionship. So…I’ll be fine.”
He knew that. Tessa would be fine no matter what. She was a survivor. “What did you name it?”
“Her name should be Spoiled Rotten. But I’ve decided to call her Eleanor.”
“Eleanor?” He choked back his startled laugh of surprise.
She peered at him narrowly. “Are you laughing at Eleanor and me?”
“Absolutely not. Wouldn’t dream of laughing at two such beautiful ladies.”
She glanced down at Eleanor. “Don’t say that,” she whispered.
“Why not?” He lifted her chin with two fingers and a thumb. “You are.”
“Cord—” she pulled away and stepped back a pace “—I know you’re sincere, and there’s nothing a woman would rather hear more than she’s beautiful. But I don’t want to complicate matters. The worst thing in the world that could happen to me at this point is if I found myself in love with you. And I could, I think, fall for you,” she added, her voice soft and haunted. “I’m afraid of what would happen if I did. I would never know if I was so vulnerable I jumped at what you’re offering. So please, don’t tell me I’m beautiful because I’m having a real tough time right now.”
Her eyes filled with sparkling tears. Cord’s heart seemed to shatter. “I understand” was all he said.
“Do you?”
“More than you can probably believe.” He closed his eyes. “But stay another night, Tessa, until I’ve got a better idea whether the coast is clear or not. The morning might bring some word of Hunt.”
“Do you really want it to?”
“Yes,” he told her definitively. “My feelings for you won’t change, but I’d have my brother back, and that’s more than I’ve got right now.”
She stared into his eyes. “You’re a good man, Cord Greer. You put everybody else first.”
“Not always,” he countered. “Not always. Tonight, I’m putting myself first. Stay,” he asked again, his voice husky.
She nodded once, almost in slow motion, as if she wanted to change her mind even before she agreed to his request. “If you promise to get some sleep tonight.”
“Deal. But you have to make me some more toast in the morning.”
“You didn’t eat it.” She refused to smile at him.
“That’s why I need a second chance.” He really needed a first chance with her, but fate apparently didn’t mean for that to happen.
“Okay,” she agreed shyly. “But I can’t rely upon your charity for much longer.”
“Tessa, the last thing I regard you as is charity.”
“It is if you’re eating my cooking with a smile on your face.”
He laughed, taking Eleanor from her hands. “Eleanor, eh? All right. Ellie.” Come on, you crazy dog, with your big brown eyes and sweet temperament. You managed to get into her life a whole lot quicker than I ever did, you lucky pooch. “Let’s see how strong you are when you’re confronted with cold snow.”
Tessa followed behind, watching the pup skid on the icy patches. It kept her from focusing on the tall man in front of her, his back turned so she could stare at the broadness of his shoulders, the dark, well-trimmed hair just showing under the cowboy hat. Hunt was every bit as handsome, just not as filled out with corded muscle from working cattle and riding every day. She forced her mind to stop the comparison. It would do no good to start dwelling on how sexy this cowboy looked.
“Nan mentioned that she likes to walk in the woods out here. I suppose that’s safe for her to do?” Tessa didn’t think she’d go very far in the densely grown forest of black and gray bare trunks and branches reaching up into the winter-white sky with gnarly fingers. Shorter skirts of pine trees fringed the taller, naked trees, obstructing the view. It somehow seemed lonely beyond the open field, the woods an overgrown encroachment.
“Safe enough. Nan’s a big fan of stargazing, and she likes to do some bird-watching.”
“I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to find my way out. Or that I’d step on a snake.”
He chuckled, shooting her a wry glance. “I’m sure there are snakes, but they’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”
“I don’t think so!”
He grinned now. “Poison ivy in season would be more likely to get you. But you’d find your way out of there soon enough. Hunt and I used to play in the woods all the time, so Dad marked the trees well. Dad even built us a tree house where we used to bring our knapsacks of lunch. Mom used to call us home by banging on the triangle.” A soft reminiscent laugh escaped him. “One night, we insisted we had to sleep in the tree house, and we carried out sleeping bags and a lantern. Hunt and I spent the whole time telling each other ghost stories, each one more fantastic and scary than the last. In the middle of the night, Dad came out, silently climbed the ladder, then jumped onto our sleeping bags roaring like a mad bear. You never heard two boys yell so loud.”
His thoughts were far away now, dwelling on a tree house only he could remember, and Tessa felt a sharp twinge of sadness for the happy memories that might be all he had left of his brother. She had known Hunt as a lover in their adult years and as a schoolmate in their younger years, but Hunt and Cord shared a special, deep bond of brotherhood. They were very close, despite the fact that they’d chosen very different life paths.
“Did you stay outside the rest of the night?” She tilted her head to look up into his eyes.
“Heck, yeah.”
She raised one eyebrow. “Very brave of you boys.”
“Not really. We made Dad sleep with us for the rest of the night. At the crack of dawn, Mom brought us biscuits to eat and our fishing poles. She said she could hear our banshee yelling clear to the next county, and if Dad was going to scare the pants off her boys, he could darn well take us fishing to make up for it.”
Tessa