Creed’s grin went to a chuckle which quickly turned into a belly laugh.
“It’s not funny!” she said.
“That was one fast rat.”
“I hate those things. They get in the barn and stare at me with their little beady eyes, and you can stop laughing at me.”
“I’m not laughing at you, darlin’. I’m laughing at the way that crazy rat turned you into a pretzel. Your pretty long legs and cute little butt were pretty close to break dancing. I hadn’t ever seen a real person do that kind of dance. Don’t worry about them pesky rats. Angel will take care of them for you. We’ll put her and the kittens out in the barn and believe me, there won’t be a rat problem.”
“We can’t put them in the cold. Maybe when they are older.”
Creed crossed the floor and hugged her tightly to his chest. “It startled me too when it dashed across my boots.”
She looked up. A kiss would go a hell of a long way to settling her nerves.
If you think that, you’ve lost your mind. Every time that cowboy kisses you, every nerve in your body starts wiggling and whining for more than kisses.
His eyes closed and his mouth settled over hers. His hands were suddenly under her shirt and on her bare back. This time she felt the hooks of her bra coming undone and his fingertips massaging from bra level to her neck. The rat was completely forgotten.
“Hey, anybody home? Sage, where are you?” a voice singsonged between the house and the bunkhouse.
She stepped back, quickly redid her bra, and adjusted her breasts into the cups. “It’s April,” she said.
“Didn’t sound like one of my brothers.” Creed grinned.
The door burst open. “You in here?”
* * *
Another ten minutes and they would have damned the torpedoes and rats and it would have been full speed ahead right there on the old worn-out sofa in the bunkhouse. If it wasn’t for bad luck, Creed wouldn’t have a lick of luck at all.
April looked from one to the other. “Hey, I figured y’all were decorating when I saw the lights around the barn. Got electricity yet?”
“Not yet. Y’all got any over on the Canyon Rose?” Sage left Creed’s side and hugged April.
The woman reminded him of Macy, his old flame. She was short, blond, and built on a small frame. Her face had those delicate features that took a man’s breath away and made him want to protect her forever.
Creed looked from one to the other. How could he have ever been attracted to someone like April? It was Sage, with her dark hair, chocolate-colored eyes, and long legs that threw extra beats into his chest.
“Have you met Creed Riley?” Sage asked.
April removed her stocking hat and shook out her blond hair. “No, I haven’t, but Daddy says that Grand said good things about him when he took her to the airport.”
“Well then, Creed meet April Pierce. And April, meet Creed. Since you are here, you can carry a box of decorations to the house and have dinner with us,” Sage said.
“I’ll help carry, but then I have to go back home. Hilda is bakin’ a ham and she’ll skin me alive if I’m not there for dinner. I was going stir-crazy in the house with all this snow and no electricity. Daddy called the power company. They said they’d have ours up and going by Monday or Tuesday. Lord, I didn’t realize how much I depended on a hair dryer and a curling iron until they weren’t available. How y’all been handling it over here?”
Sage handed April a box and led the way outside. “Not too bad, but we need to do laundry, so we’ll be glad to have the electricity back. It’s been early bedtimes with nothing but lamps.”
April giggled.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Sage whispered.
“With that hunky cowboy, there’s not a chance of that happening,” April whispered back.
Even though they were whispered, Creed heard every word. He wouldn’t have minded a trip to the gutter that morning. No, ma’am, not one bit!
Chapter 9
Sage and April set their boxes on the kitchen table. Noel didn’t growl, but her tail didn’t wag in acceptance of the new human either.
April pointed. “What is that?”
“That’s my new dog. Her name is Noel and she’s going to have puppies.”
“I don’t believe it,” April whispered. “You got a dog and a pregnant one at that. That is even more amazing that Grand selling the ranch. And it’s ugly, Sage. Grand would have bought you any kind of dog out there on the market and you buy that thing?”
Creed kicked the door shut with his boot. “She didn’t get the dog. The dog got her. Someone must have dumped her and the cat on the road just before the blizzard. They found their way here.”
He put the box he’d carried in on the table, hung his coat on the back of a chair, and went straight to the pantry for a mop and bucket. “I’ll get the water mopped up before it gets into Angel’s basket and she moves the kittens.”
April peeled out of her heavy coat and hung it on the coatrack before she slouched down into a chair. “You’re kidding me.”
Sage removed her work coveralls, set a pot of coffee to perking on a back burner, and joined Angel at the table. “No, Angel is the cat. We think she got tossed out at the same time Noel did. We found her and the newborn kittens in the barn the next morning and it was evident that Noel knew her. I’ll make a small pot of coffee. You can take time for a warm-up before you go back home. It’s not dinnertime yet.”
“A dog. A cat. A hunky cowboy that mops the floor. What happened over here?” April whispered.
“Crazy, ain’t it?”
Creed finished mopping up and emptied the water into the sink, used some dish soap to wash out the bucket and the mop, and carried them back
