After everything she'd been through, she'd thought she was too shaken to react so viscerally to a man. Maybe her body was a traitor, reminding her of what she shouldn't want.
He caught her looking, and she quickly turned to the microwave just as it began to beep.
Iris hadn't noticed him. "So if you aren't dating Cord, are you...?"
Molly reached to take the plates from the microwave. Her face burned a little. "I answered a 'help wanted' flyer, which apparently Cord didn't post."
Cord entered the room, and, for a moment that stretched long, he and Iris stared at each other.
Iris's smile had disappeared. "Asking for help isn't Cord's style."
A muscle in his jaw twitched. "You posted that flyer?"
Iris shrugged. "I knew you wouldn't. And this place is a mess." She didn't even wear a guilty expression.
Molly set the plate of breakfast burritos in the middle of the table. Neither Cord nor Iris made a move toward the chairs.
"You're welcome for this morning," Iris said.
Cord ran one hand through his hair.
Molly just stared.
He laughed, and it sounded both sheepish and a little desperate. "Iris. It's been a long time."
But Cord's tone clearly said it hasn't been long enough.
"About ten years." Iris wasn't frowning, not exactly, but some fine tension had entered her expression. Disappointment?
Molly poured the coffee into three mugs. She handed one to Cord and gave another to Iris before returning to the counter to pick up her own.
Iris sipped. "This is good. Cinnamon?"
Molly nodded. "Cord's not a fan."
"I'm not surprised," Iris murmured into her mug.
Molly shot him a look, but his brows were drawn, expression fierce as he stared into his mug. Not the time for teasing. Got it.
"How's your sister?" he asked.
Iris’s entire expression went blank, as if she'd flipped a switch. Her mug hit the table with a clunk. "She's fine." But there was an undercurrent to the words. "How's your brother?"
Cord gave her the same shuttered expression. "West is fine, too. He's stationed overseas."
Iris and Cord stared at each other for another silent minute, saying too much without saying anything at all.
Cord's eyes were shadowed as he watched Iris stand and take her coat from the back of the chair. "I've got to get home. Plenty to do, and the storm isn't going to clear up. At least that's what they're saying."
She donned her coat and picked up the hat she'd put on the chair next to her. "Molly. Nice to meet you. Thanks for the coffee." She waved her hat in Cord's direction.
"Wait," he said when she was about to step over the dog and go out the back door.
The little hairs at the back of Molly's neck went on alert at the rough tone of his voice.
"How is he?"
Iris looked back over her shoulder. "About how you'd expect."
She left. After a few moments, Molly heard the rumble of her truck starting and then heading slowly up the drive.
The breakfast burritos had gone cold again.
And Molly had lost her appetite.
She started cleaning.
Cord seemed frozen, staring into the space where Iris had disappeared.
"Who were you talking about?" she asked as she turned the tap water on hot to fill the sink again. "A friend?"
"Not anymore." Cord left his half-full coffee mug on the counter and disappeared into the living room. "Ten minutes and we're heading to town."
5
"So, you left town after high school?"
Cord swallowed a groan. Apparently, Molly couldn't handle silence, because they'd barely made it out of the driveway before she asked the question.
She was still wrapped in that stupid jean jacket, but at least she'd pulled a toboggan hat down over her ears. Her feet were extended all the way under the dash, soaking up what the heater was blowing out.
He grunted.
He didn't owe her anything, not even an answer. He was still reeling after taking a call from the bank manager in town, who'd informed him that Mackie had been almost six months delinquent on the ranch's mortgage.
He felt so stupid. He'd spent three days cataloging everything that needed to be fixed on the ranch. He hadn't even looked at the pile of junk mail that had taken up the kitchen table.
What other unpleasant surprises was he going to find when he started going through the mail?
He'd thought spending a couple of weeks doing repairs on the ranch was going to reward him with a profit, one he could sink into his business.
He knew West had a nice nest egg in his bank account. He was stationed overseas and didn't have an apartment stateside. Whereas Cord had scrounged for years to start his own business.
He could ask his brother for a loan.
Except for the pride burning bright and hot in his chest. No way. He wasn’t calling West. He would take care of the No Name himself.
If he wasn't able to make a profit on Mackie's place, was he wasting his time?
He didn't know, and right now, he needed to get rid of his unexpected houseguest.
Who was staring out the window pensively. "All I wanted was to go away to college, but now I can't remember why. Look at how pretty it is, everything covered in ice."
Since he was rolling to a stop at an empty intersection, he let his gaze wander out her window to the ice-covered vista. The barbed-wire fence was forming little icicles. Scrub oaks in the distance were rattling icy branches, and a green cedar's branches were drooping from the weight.
It would've been beautiful if they weren't out in it.
He went back to her last statement. He'd pegged her at eighteen. "How old are you, anyway?"
A pause. "Twenty-one."
Not as young as he'd thought. He still had seven years on her, but the difference wasn't insurmountable.
And those kind of thoughts weren't helpful.
"Where'd you grow up?" he asked.
The pause this time was even longer. "On a ranch like the No
