Maybe you can’t see it. I bet if you were in Ringgold, Ace could tell you if you have the look, the voice inside his head said.
He forgot about what he could or could not see when Sage started humming “White Christmas” behind him.
He turned and faked a cough to cover up the quick intake of breath. She had just finished pulling her dark hair from the rubber band holding it into a ponytail. As it fell to her shoulders, she shook her head slowly from one side to the other. That movement bringing all that silky black hair tumbling down to frame her face was sexier than anything he’d ever seen.
“If you really are dreaming of a white Christmas, I figure you are about to have your dreams come true,” he said hoarsely.
The movement stopped and a worried look crossed her face.
“Are you getting a cold? I told you we shouldn’t stay out all morning,” she said.
“Just a frog in my throat. I’m fine and you aren’t remembering right, woman. It was me askin’ you if we shouldn’t come in out of the cold and get warm,” he said.
“Doesn’t matter who said what right now and don’t call me woman. I’ve got a name. There’s no way in or out of here for at least one more day and maybe more. Neither of us can get sick,” she told him.
“Yes, ma’am. It will be so. The great Sage Presley has spoken,” he said shortly.
“That’s tacky.”
“No, it’s funny.”
“You’re making fun of me.”
He smiled. “I was not making fun of you. I was teasing.”
She held up a long-bladed knife with a serrated edge. “You’d better be. All you got is a wooden spoon and look what I’m holding.”
Noel growled from her blanket in front of the fireplace.
“She’s tellin’ us that the fire is getting low and that all that energy she used up out there helping plow a path and make snow people made her hungry too. And she’s also saying we shouldn’t be arguing when all we got is each other in this house until the snow melts. Dip her stew out before it boils and she won’t have to wait for it to cool down. As soon as we can drive on the roads, we’ve got to go buy real dog food and cat food.” Sage crossed the floor and tossed a couple of sticks of wood into the stone fireplace.
Sage’s head bobbed one time. “Children do have to be fed.”
She put a paper towel in a basket, shuffled the slices of bread into it from the cutting board, and carried it to the table. Her job was finished. The rest belonged to Creed, so she left the kitchen and went to the basket of kittens. She picked the yellow one up and held it close to her breast.
“At least they don’t have to be clothed,” she yelled over her shoulder.
He chuckled. “You sure about that?”
“Of course I am. Little girls might put their doll clothes on puppies and kittens, but adults don’t, do they?” She remembered seeing a picture of a movie star in a magazine. She had one of those tiny lap dogs and it had a bow in its hair and wore a pink sweater.
“I knew a woman who had a special walk-in closet for her toy poodle. It was completely full of clothing for each season and the critter had a different bed for days when it rained or the sun shined.”
Sage put the kitten back and picked up a black one. “You’re teasing again, right?”
He dipped out enough for the pets’ dinner and set it on the cabinet. “I wouldn’t tease about something that crazy.”
“Did you date her very long?”
“Twice. Took her to a rodeo over in Wichita Falls one Friday night and the next week we went to dinner. She asked me in to meet her daughter, Fiona. She sure didn’t act like she had a child, but what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t think fast enough to make an excuse, so I went inside with her.”
“And the daughter had a puppy, right?”
“No, the puppy was the daughter. Imagine my surprise when Fiona had gray hair and four legs.”
Sage laughed. “Don’t make me laugh. I always get the hiccups, and I don’t hiccup or sneeze like a lady.”
Creed held up a hand and crossed his chest with the other one. “I swear to God. It really happened. I’m not joking.”
“What happened?”
“The dog got all excited and squatted on the floor.”
Sage laughed harder.
Creed went on. “The lady grabbed some scented wipes, soaked it up, and told the poodle that if she wasn’t good that she’d have to sit in the time-out chair. She pointed to a mink-lined bed in the corner of the room.”
“Real mink?”
“Probably not, but it didn’t look like much punishment to me.”
“And you never dated her again?” Sage asked.
“Couldn’t get out of there fast enough. So answer my question, are you going to buy clothing for these animals?”
“Hell, no! They’ll do good to get cheap dog food and cat food.”
Visualizing a big, rough man’s-man cowboy like Creed cooking a pot of stew was stretching the imagination. Walking a toy poodle dressed up like a movie star and prancing along on a shiny pink leash brought on even more laughter.
She put the kitten next to Angel, gathered up the last one to give it some attention, and said between gasps of giggles, “You were a wise man, Creed. She would have made you be friends with that critter and you’d have had to walk her. I just can’t see you walkin’ a little bitty dog wearing a tutu and a pink bow.”
Creed shook his head. “Me either. When she showed me the dog’s closet, I about had a stroke. If the dog was
