He motioned toward the new canvas. “What’s that one going to be?”
And now it was back to paintings. Talk about one complex cowboy.
“Wait and see,” Sage said.
The phone rang again and Sage got it.
“Hello.” Sage put her hand over the mouthpiece. “It’s April. They keep an old rotary around for times like this too.”
* * *
Creed went to the living room and settled into a rocking chair. Noel left her blanket and stretched out at his feet. Angel got out of the basket and with a single leap landed on his lap.
He hadn’t liked the idea of being holed up with Sage at first, but it hadn’t been so bad. She was easy on the eyes, had scorchin’ hot lips, and she entertained him with her painting. Yep, he would miss her when she moved to the backside of the property, but maybe he could talk her out of one of the kittens. He peered over the edge of the basket and decided he wanted the yellow one. He could catch any field mice that came into the house and sleep in his lap like Angel was doing right then.
At first, Sage’s voice sounded excited and happy as she told April about building the snow family and going off in a new direction with her paintings. But then after a few minutes of silence, it turned serious and worried.
“April, you’ve got to talk to them both about this. It’s a big decision,” she said.
She listened a while longer and then hung up, picked up her lukewarm chocolate, and slouched down into the rocking chair beside him.
“They love you more than me,” she said.
As if she understood, Noel left Creed’s side and went to stand beside Sage.
Sage reached down and massaged her ears. “Thank you, Noel. I need some love right now.”
“All you had to do was tell me,” Creed said.
“Oh, hush. I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Some days a lonesome old cowboy don’t get handed nothin’ but bad luck. Well, if we aren’t going to talk about love then tell me what kind of trouble is your friend April in? I couldn’t help but overhear,” he asked.
“Big decisions. She wants to quit college and come home. The ranch will be hers someday and it’s the biggest operation in the canyon. She thinks she’s ready to start learning how to run it from the bottom up.”
“If she’s in college, she should already know the basics. By the time I was that age, Momma and Dad were leaving me and my brothers to run the place when they went places like rodeos and off to Graceland for their anniversary,” Creed said.
“Lawton and Eva, that’s her dad and mom, divorced when she was four. Eva took her to Oklahoma and she only comes to Canyon Rose Ranch in the summers and for three weeks at Christmas. Sometimes she sneaks down for a couple of days during her spring break and maybe a day at Thanksgiving. When she’s at the ranch she’s the adored pet, not a working ranch rookie.”
Creed whistled through his teeth. “Whew!”
“Yep! And there’s more. Eva hates the canyon. Didn’t like it when she married Lawton according to what little I know, but she managed to stick it out for a little more than four years. Story is that Lawton was the quarterback and Eva was the head cheerleader. They got pregnant toward the end of their senior year and married soon as they graduated.”
“Mercy!” Creed said.
“April will have a hell of a lot to learn if and when she quits school. And she’ll have to wade through Eva to get to the ranch.”
“How old is she?”
“Twenty. She’ll have two years of college finished in May.”
Creed stopped petting Angel and she left him for Sage’s lap.
“Fickle critter,” he said. “Can I keep a kitten here when you get your own place and move to the back of the property?”
“You can take a kitten with you when you go home to Ringgold. Oh, and speaking of going somewhere, April says if the roads get cleared off that Lawton is going ahead with the Christmas party at the ranch.”
“You are downright mean, Sage. I’m not going back to Ringgold and you just don’t want to share your kittens.”
“You got it, cowboy!”
* * *
Time had stood still the past several days. Sage had painted. She’d lived, slept, ate, and gotten to know Creed. Minutes drug by like a slow old turtle in the hot summertime. Hours sped by with the speed of lightning.
Limbo. I feel like I’m floating around in space.
It was hard to believe that just a week ago she was setting up in Denver for her final showing, the excitement mounting as the first people arrived to look at her work. There had been a room full of canyon pictures, most of them at least two feet by three feet in size. She’d figured out that the massive size of the canyon required a big picture even if the central focus was nothing more than an eagle or a lone wolf.
One critic said that he felt like he could crawl into the picture and smell the heat off the canyon walls. She knew what he was talking about as she stole a glance toward Creed. She could feel the heat all the way across the room. She was a moth and he was an open flame. She should not go any closer or her wings were going to catch on fire. Keeping her distance was the only way that she’d ever talk Grand into keeping the ranch.
He caught her before she could blink. “What? Do I have chocolate between my lip and nose?”
“No,” she said quickly and went back to work.
“Well, I’ve wasted enough time and I’ve gotten warm all the way to my bones so I’m going back out to plow some more snow. Maybe I’ll push it out of the way up the lane next so we can get out when
