The temperature had risen several degrees while they were out, leading everyone to unbutton their coats and peel off their mufflers as they’d worked. Now, with all the horses again inside the draped stable area, the place soon felt toasty warm. Ryder removed his coat and hung it on a recessed hook. Jeri did the same, but Wyatt kept his on.
“Hurry it up,” he ordered as he went to pull the truck out of the barn and close the big doors. “Otherwise you’ll be eating dinner instead of lunch.”
“Be right behind you,” Ryder called. He shook his head, chuckling.
“Did I miss something?” Jeri asked. She hadn’t heard anything funny in Wyatt’s tone or words.
“I was just thinking that Wyatt can’t stand being away from Tina for any length of time. It was that way even before he started worrying about her and the babies.”
“What’s to worry about?” she asked. “Women have been having babies since the Garden of Eden. Is there cause for concern?”
Ryder shrugged and dropped the curry brushes into the work bucket. “She’s been having some cramps, I think. Doctor says to just keep an eye on it.”
Jeri couldn’t help wanting to put him at ease. “Way I hear it, that’s pretty common in the last months of pregnancy—it’s the body’s way of getting ready to deliver.”
Ryder looked at her, his brow creased with concern. “The babies aren’t due until April.”
In other words, the first week of January was much too soon to deliver a healthy baby, let alone twins. Jeri nodded, now sharing his concern.
“I’ll pray for them.”
The smile he sent her was so sweet that she had to shut her eyes against it. He picked up his jacket and the bucket. She grabbed her own coat and followed him as he carried the curry bucket into the tack room. He came out a heartbeat later, shrugging into his jacket, but when she swung hers around to do likewise, he caught it by the shoulders and helped her into it.
Why that felt like such an intimate gesture, Jeri didn’t know. It wasn’t as if she’d never before been helped into her coat by a handsome cowboy. She told herself it was just because she was predisposed to dislike him but somehow couldn’t. Not yet. Not until he showed his true colors. Once the man who had killed her brother came out, it would be different. Wouldn’t it?
They walked across the dusty yard in silence. As soon as they stepped up into the carport, Ryder peeled off his gloves and stuffed them into his coat pockets. They reached the back door. Ryder opened it and stood aside to let her enter first.
Warmth hit her in a wave, letting her know just how cold it really was out there. As she shucked her gloves and coat, hanging the latter on the back of a chair at the table, she saw that Wyatt hadn’t waited for them before starting to eat. Tina fluttered around, dishing seconds onto his plate from an enormous potpie in the center of the table and then calling Jeri and Ryder over to eat. They obeyed, washing their hands side by side at the kitchen sink before picking up plates from the counter. Ryder dished food onto Jeri’s plate before helping himself. Jeri set her plate in front of the chair with her coat.
Another man occupied a chair at the table. Even if he hadn’t been holding Kathryn Smith’s hand, Jeri would have known he was the middle Smith brother. Jake was as tall as his brothers and had the same dark eyes and heavy beard shadow, but his hair was more brown like Wyatt’s than black like Ryder’s, and he wasn’t as heavily built as the other two. Ryder set his plate on the table and introduced them.
“Jeri, this here is our brother Jacoby. Jake, Jeri Bogman.”
Jake nodded at Jeri but spoke to Ryder. “Heard you’ve had quite a day already.”
“Nothing much out of the ordinary,” Ryder said lightly, pulling out the chair for Jeri.
She glanced around, feeling surprised by that small gesture and foolish for the surge of pleasure it had given her. Ryder stood with his hand on his own chair while she took her seat, aware that everyone was looking at her. Only after she was seated did Ryder pull out the chair next to her and drop down into it.
“How come you’re so late then?” Jake asked. “I thought I was gonna have to go looking for y’all.”
Ryder calmly started eating. “No need for that. So, how’s business? This storm going to put a kink in things?”
“Already has.” Jake talked about charging batteries at two different farms that morning. “The cold weather zaps a weak battery. But I wound up hauling in a broken-down Jeep for restoration. Thing must be sixty years old.”
“Which means you can’t wait to get your hands on it,” Ryder said, grinning.
“Mechanics make house calls here?” Jeri asked.
Everyone else laughed. “Mechanics, veterinarians, doctors, even the grocer if the need is great enough,” Ryder said.
“The grocer in town kindly delivered for us a few times after Mom first came home from the hospital,” Kathryn said softly, “but he’s so limited in what he can offer.” A brief explanation of the accident that had paralyzed Kathryn’s mother followed.
“Folks have to be real neighborly when most conveniences are thirty or forty miles away,” Ryder commented.
“I don’t mind driving out to help someone,” Jake said, glancing at Jeri. “Good way to scope out the surrounding area.”
Obviously, he’d been told that she was shopping for property.
“If this storm is as bad as they’re predicting,” she said, “I may have to wait a few days to start looking around.”
Jake rose then. “Speaking of the weather, I better get back to the shop while I can.” Grinning at Ryder, he added, “Unless the roads ice over, I’ve only got an hour or so to tear into that Jeep before Dean drops off his grandmother’s car for new brakes.” Kathryn quickly rose and followed her husband to the door, where the two whispered farewells and briefly kissed.
Leaning toward Jeri, Ryder softly muttered, “Newlyweds.”
The sound, so close to Jeri’s ear, sent shivers through her. Frowning, she leaned forward and focused on her plate. That wasn’t the thrill of attraction, she told herself; that was revulsion. Whatever it was, it sank her mood into the doldrums.
Wyatt quickly finished his meal and got up to carry his plate to the sink. Kathryn rinsed it and placed it in the dishwasher while Wyatt headed toward the door.
“Where are you off to now?” Tina asked, following him.
“I’m going to rearrange the storage room,” he told her. “Since Jake moved out, it’s been a jumble in there.”
“He says he left some things behind,” Kathryn remarked. “If you’ll set aside anything of his, we’ll get it out of your way.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Wyatt told her, taking his coat from a peg on the wall.
Ryder gulped down a big bite and pushed back his chair. “I’ll help you.”
“No, no. You’ve barely had time to warm up. Finish eating, then go lift your precious weights or see if Jake needs help. Better yet, see to that foot.”
As Wyatt pulled his gloves and muffler from his coat, what sounded like a herd of cattle rumbled down the stairs. A heartbeat later, two small boys and two dogs ran into the room. The dogs, one a pup, went straight to the food and water bowls next to the stove and parked there hopefully, tails wagging.
The older boy, a strawberry blond whose shirtsleeves were too short, went to Tina, declaring,