“Scotty is blissfully sleeping. He’s a sound sleeper which is great.”
“That’s wonderful.” She handed him a mug of cocoa, taking a sip of her own. She turned to walk to a nearby hutch, pointing to a picture of a dark-haired woman holding a baby. “Is this a picture of your wife and Scotty?”
“Yes,” Mike said. A muscle worked in his jaw as he gazed at the picture. “That’s Elise.”
“She was beautiful. I’ve noticed her other pictures.”
“Since Scotty lost her when he was too young to really remember I feel better with her pictures around. She loved him beyond measure.”
“I’m sure. A baby is a treasure,” she said. “That’s nice to have a lot of her pictures around for him. It’ll help him. He really looks like you, but maybe that’s because I know you a little and can see a resemblance.”
“People say he looks like me. Right now I don’t see it so much except for his curly hair and brown eyes.”
He led the way back into the family room, to their spot in front of the fire.
“So would you like to tell me how you met Elise?”
“Sure. We were in college and had an elective class in world history together and just gradually did homework together. We both were dating other people. I broke up first and then she did and we got serious fast. As soon as we graduated, we married and moved to the ranch. After a couple of years we had Scotty. She was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after he was born and she died right after he turned one.” Mike stared into the fire, looking as if his thoughts were far away in another time and place. He turned to face her.
“So what’s your life been, Miss Neonatal Nurse?”
She smiled at him. “College and work. I started dating Kirk and got engaged to him last spring. We’d planned to marry in July.”
“That’s a long engagement.”
“It was a long engagement, but we didn’t talk about the things we should have. Even though I’ve known him for years, I didn’t know about his feelings on a lot of subjects. We never talked about kids.”
“You’re a neonatal nurse and you didn’t talk about kids?”
“No. I didn’t talk about the babies I cared for at the hospital because they all had health issues and that’s personal and confidential, even when the patient is hours old—not something to share with others. I should have at least found out his feelings about babies and wanting kids. Kids just didn’t come up between us until the breakup. I found out he didn’t want to have children. At least not for the next fifteen years while he’s young and the business is growing.”
“Wow. That would be a shock. Seems like he might have mentioned this to you.”
She nodded. “Kids are definitely in my future.”
“They will be unless you get a new career. Sorry.”
“Well, any feelings between us are over, but I’m still eager to leave for a while. If I don’t like living in California, I’ll go back home.”
“You’ll miss your family. I would miss mine since we’re fairly close. If you’re here long enough, you’ll probably meet some of my family. We see each other often.”
“I don’t plan to be here long. Hopefully, my car is fixable.” She took a sip of her cocoa. “So tell me about your rodeos. You mentioned them as something you like.”
“Have you ever been to one?”
“Yes,” she answered. “Arkansas isn’t that far from Texas in more ways than one.”
Mike leaned back against a chair, pulled off his boots to set them aside and crossed his long legs at his ankles. She sat cross-legged facing him while they went from one subject to another.
“Don’t you get lonesome way out here by yourself?” she asked.
He gave her a lopsided grin. “I’m not exactly by myself.”
“I know you have Scotty.”
“I have a lot of employees, some have been with my family before they came to work for me, so we’ve known each other for years. Ray’s one of them. We have close, good relationships. I see some of them almost daily. I have a cook, a nanny, a housekeeper, my house staff actually. I see my brothers and my sister fairly often. I do okay. Sometimes it’s lonesome, but that just goes with losing Elise. When I was single, I used to go out a lot, honky-tonks, friends, stay in Dallas, go out of town. With Scotty, life has changed and I’ve become a homebody. It’ll change again—it always does, but that’s it for now.”
“I’m glad you’re not as alone as I thought. If I hadn’t come along, you and Scotty would have been home alone tonight. He goes to bed early, so what do you do with your evenings?”
“Different things. Sometimes I take care of my personal expenses. Each day I’m up before dawn, out on the ranch with the others and work until dusk or later, depending on what we find. I have an accountant for the ranch and business. At night I’m with Scotty until he goes to bed. Then I read and work out—I have a gym here.”
“That’s impressive,” she said.
Finding Mike good company as they talked, she lost track of time. Occasionally, she glanced beyond him and saw big snowflakes swirling around the outside lights. She felt warm, cozy and fortunate to have found Mike. Stretching, she glanced at her watch. “Mike, it’s past one and that’s late for me.”
“Sure,” he said, standing and picking up the bowl and mugs.
“Now it’s just snow coming down. Our fire has about died,” she said, looking at the glowing orange embers.
“Snow on top of ice. Not a good combination. I imagine everything will be closed today and maybe Monday, too. Depends on the temperature. You may have to wait a little longer for your car,” he said as they walked out of the room. “You’re welcome here as long as you need. There’s room and a staff and I don’t have any big agenda right now.”
“Thank you. I hope I can get on with my drive.”
He left the bowl and mugs in the kitchen and they headed down the hall. “If you want anything—that door at the end of the hall is mine. Don’t hesitate to come get me,” he said as they reached the door to her suite. She turned to face him. He stood only a couple of feet away and his proximity made her breath catch.
“Thanks for everything today. You were the knight to the rescue, burning car and all.”
“I’m glad I was. Today’s Sunday, so my cook, Millie, who usually watches Scotty when my nanny is away, is off. But because of the earlier sleet and the fresh snow coming down, the guys will need help first thing. We’ll have to get feed to the cattle, break ice for the livestock. Thing is, when the sun comes up, so does Scotty.”
“If he doesn’t mind being with me when he barely knows me, I can take care of Scotty and his breakfast. You go do what you have to do. I get up early and I can fix my own breakfast and his,” she said, looking at Mike’s dark eyes that were fringed with thick, curly black lashes. “I hope I didn’t make you miss your workout tonight,” she said.
“No. I worked out yesterday morning and it doesn’t hurt if I miss sometimes. There’s a track if you run. Just head in the opposite direction—the gym is at the other end of this hall in the opposite wing and downstairs.”
“I won’t be working out. Maybe later tomorrow, I’ll walk around the track—how many times around for a mile?”
“Eight.” Taking a step closer, he placed