“Okay, Floss. Anything else I can help with?”
She pulled another potato from the bag and began peeling. “No, dear. You’ve been helping since you arrived. I think you’ve done plenty already.”
“I can peel these potatoes for you. I’m happy to help,” I said, reaching for one. “I don’t mind at all.”
She swatted my hand. Hard. “You sure don’t,” Floss stated firmly. “I said you’re done. Now don’t make me tell you again, young lady.”
I blinked, not sure what to make of her harsh tone.
Unfazed, Floss went back to work peeling the potato. “You’re a guest in my home, dear, and guests shouldn’t be doing all the work.”
Bobbie Jo sat at the nearby kitchen table with a smile on her face. “I warned you Floss was going to get onto you if you didn’t sit down.”
True. But she didn’t say the old woman would turn physically violent.
Emily stepped into the room with one hand up her shirt, adjusting her bra. “Okay, I fed Lily, and she’s out like a light.”
“Do you need me to move Austin?” Bobbie Jo asked her. “He fell asleep on my shoulder, so I laid him in Lily’s playpen.”
“Nah. I put her in the bassinet and wheeled her over beside him in the living room. They look so cute sleeping next to each other.”
“Aww,” Bobbie Jo said, leaning to catch a peek of the little ones sleeping together.
“Bet you two mommas won’t be saying that in another twenty years or so,” Floss said, giving me a knowing smile.
“Oh, jeez,” Emily said with a laugh. “Jake loves Austin like his own son, but he’ll kill that boy if he comes anywhere near Lily after puberty.”
“Cowboy swears it’s going to happen,” Bobbie Jo said, grinning.
At the mention of his name, I felt my body warm. “Well, they are so close in age,” I told them, nodding in agreement. “It’s probably kismet.”
“Nope, it’s all in God’s hands.” Floss winked at me. Then she gestured to a pitcher of iced tea and a pack of clear plastic cups on the counter. “Now that the babies are down for their naps, why don’t you three take some iced tea out to the fellas? I’ll keep an eye on the young’uns.”
Emily lifted the pitcher as Bobbie Jo reached for the stack of cups, leaving nothing for me to carry. And I desperately needed something to hold onto with my shaky hands. I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready to face Cowboy after what happened between us.
“I could stay behind and help with—” Floss cut her eyes to me, daring me to finish my sentence. “Okay. Well, if you’re sure…”
I was anything but.
To busy my trembling hands, I opened the back door off the kitchen and allowed Emily and Bobbie Jo to walk out first while I peeked over the railing. On the ground, the men all congregated around an old barrel-style smoker, where Hank was basting huge slabs of beef he must’ve put on the grill before we’d arrived.
Floss had introduced me to her husband, Hank, when he’d popped inside to grab what he called his lucky barbecue fork. I still wasn’t quite sure what sort of “luck” a barbecue fork could hold, but I found him to be a charming man.
Jake ribbed his uncle about “rubbing his meat,” while Ox and Judd stood off to the side, playfully arguing over which of them looked better in a Speedo. It wasn’t hard to recognize either of them, since Ox was almost always the littlest guy in the crowd and Judd was the giant.
Cowboy lounged in a nearby chair with one booted foot kicked over the other. He stared out into the pasture, as if he were lost in deep thought, and was relatively quiet compared to the others.
I followed the girls downstairs, but as we reached the bottom, Cowboy was the only person who looked our way. He tilted a bottle of beer to his lips, but his eyes never left mine. Unaware of his watchfulness, Emily and Bobbie Jo turned and headed for a nearby picnic table. But I just stood there empty-handed, feeling as useless as I probably looked.
Cowboy’s gaze burned into me, searing me from the inside out, as if he were reading my soul like a book. My gaze fixed on him, too, trying to decipher the hidden meaning behind the look he gave me, but I couldn’t think about anything other than the way his lips had felt on mine the last time we were together.
A low whistle broke us from our trance-like state as Jake slapped him on the shoulder and snared Cowboy’s attention. “Going to sit around all day ogling the women or are you going to give us a hand?”
“I wasn’t ogling,” Cowboy told him, glancing back at me to see if I heard, then his attention fell back on his friend. No doubt he noticed my blushing cheeks.
Jake grinned. “Yeah right. This is you we’re talking about.”
Cowboy glared at him. “I said I wasn’t ogling!”
The surprised expression on Jake’s face was enough to convince me I wasn’t the only one who thought Cowboy overreacted.
“Damn it, Jake. Leave the boy alone,” Hank said, closing in on the two of them. “If he said he wasn’t ogling the girls, then drop it. Don’t piss off the help.”
As Jake walked away, Cowboy grinned at Hank. “Afraid I’d get mad and leave before saddle-breaking that horse of yours?”
“Nope. I know I can count on you, son.” He leaned in a little closer, but didn’t bother whispering. “Now quit ogling the women and get back to work.”
The other men snickered.
Cowboy shot to his feet and tossed his empty beer bottle into the nearby trash can so hard it broke as it clanked against the other empties. Then he shook his head. “Everybody ’round here thinks they’re a goddamn comedian.”
He lit out for a swampy-looking pond at the back of the property, probably to blow off some steam. Everyone sat silent and slack-jawed for a moment until Cowboy was out of earshot.
Then Ox said, “Man, who kicked him in the sac?”
I wasn’t sure, but judging by Cowboy’s avoidance of me all week, and his sudden annoyance after seeing me again, apparently I had. And considering the smile and wink Hank gave me as he plopped down in a nearby plastic lawn chair, the old man agreed.
Thank goodness no one else had noticed me standing there and could connect me to Cowboy’s bad attitude or his sudden disappearance.
“Hey, fellas,” Jake said, gazing directly at me. “Look who’s here. It’s Anna.”
Crap.
The moment Jake mentioned my name, all eyes shifted onto me. Like he’d just crammed me under a very uncomfortable microscope. But even though I hadn’t seen some of them in ten years, each of them had a smile on their face. At least somebody was happy to see me.
With the others on his heels, Jake headed directly for me and gave me a friendly one-arm hug. “I had no idea you’d be here today.”
“Bobbie Jo talked me into coming at the last minute.” I offered him a genuine smile. “By the way, I saw your precious baby girl upstairs. You must be so proud. Lily’s a doll.”
“Of course she is,” he said with a wink. “She takes after her daddy.”
Ox tapped Jake on the shoulder from behind. “All right, Barbie, move it along. You’re holding up the line.”
Emily chuckled from somewhere behind me, and Jake glared at Ox. “If she starts calling me that, I’m going to kick your ass.”
Ox didn’t look concerned, though. He moved past Jake and leaned in to hug my neck and gave me a quick peck on the cheek. “Hey, girl,” he drawled. “Bobbie Jo said you moved to our neck of the woods.”
Ox moved aside to make room for Judd, who’d been waiting patiently for his chance to greet me. And he needed a lot of room. I’d thought it was impossible for him to get any bigger than the last time I’d seen him, but sure enough, he looked like he’d nearly doubled in size.
Judd swept me up in a big bear hug that cracked my back. “It’s great to see you again, Anna.”