Of all the scenarios he’d imagined, this certainly wasn’t the way he intended to meet Sage Presley. Keeping his eyes straight ahead, he stole a sideways glance toward her. She looked at the dog as if she could wish him out of the house. It wouldn’t work. If she wanted him out of the house, she’d have to grab him by his wiry fur and throw him out, and then she’d better shut the door real fast or else he’d beat her back inside.
So much for visions of having a friendship with the woman; hell, he’d be lucky if she didn’t try to murder him in his sleep. He’d have to start locking the bedroom door at night, maybe even putting a chair in front of it for extra protection.
He wiggled his toes and said, “Ah, that does feel good.”
“When did all this happen?” she asked.
“What? The storm?”
“Hell, no! When did you come here, and why did she sell the Rockin’ C to you? The first I heard about this was yesterday morning, and I had no idea you were already here. At first I thought she was teasing, but then she made me understand that she was serious, so tell me what you did to make her sell to you,” she asked coldly.
He stared right into her eyes. “Are you asking or demanding?”
“I’m not asking or demanding. I’m wondering how this all happened so fast.” She stared back and it became a battle of wills as to who would blink first.
The dog growled and they both looked down at the same time. Poor old boy was probably fighting off a coyote in his sleep because his eyes were still shut.
“Okay,” Creed said. “I can tell you when and what happened. I don’t know why she sold to me and not to someone else. You was gone off to your artist thing when I called and asked if I could come to the ranch and talk to her. She showed me around. I liked what I saw and she gave me a price. We shook and I put up the escrow, but she says she won’t sign the papers or cash the check until three weeks are up so we both have time to think about it.”
The dog whimpered again, and Creed glanced at him before going on. “I went back to Ringgold and got my things. When I arrived yesterday morning, she told me about the storm, showed me where everything was again, including the generator, and one of the neighbors came to take her to the airport in Amarillo. Said she was going to Shade Gap, Pennsylvania, and she’d be back in three weeks, just before Christmas.”
Sage sighed. “Aunt Essie is sixteen years older than Grand, and she’s been trying to get Grand to come out there for years. She has a little place in one of those godforsaken valleys.”
Creed stopped the motion of the rocking chair and stared at her wide-eyed. “And what do you call this big hole in the ground? Paradise?”
“I call it home,” she smarted off. “I suppose we’d best set up some ground rules. First of all, exactly where are you sleeping?”
“This place only has two bedrooms and one is yours. You do the math.”
Her eyes popped open even wider. “In Grand’s room!”
He nodded. “She took all her personal things with her. Cleaned out the closet and the drawers. When she comes back she said she’ll have a mover take her furniture to her new home in Pennsylvania, and I’ll make a trip over to Ringgold to get the rest of my stuff.”
Sage’s face lost all its color and her jaw set firmly. Her eyes went to the shotgun hanging above the mantel and back to him.
Lord, was he going to die on his second day on the ranch?
“It’s just a bedroom, for God’s sake!” he said.
“It’s her room.”
“I don’t have cooties. And it’s only for three weeks. And I like Miz Ada right well, but darlin’, she ain’t God. That place ain’t holy.”
She shrugged. He could see the gears working in her mind, trying to figure out ways to get rid of him. She could try her damnedest, but he wasn’t going anywhere.
He smiled. “Glad we got that straight. Are you making breakfast?”
“Hell, no!”
“Well, I am and I’m willing to make enough for two people and one scraggly old mutt. Pancakes all right? There’s sausage in the fridge and I make a mean pancake.”
She nodded. “That dog really doesn’t belong to you? Tell me the truth.”
“One thing a Riley does whether it’s painful or not is tell the truth. We’re honest, hardworking, and we state what’s on our mind. The answer is no, ma’am. That dog does not belong to me. I’d never seen him before he ran around my legs and shot into the house, but I guess he’s adopted us.”
* * *
Us!
There wasn’t going to be an us no matter what her grandmother said or did. She didn’t care if Creed had a halo under that thick brown hair and wings tucked up under his flannel shirt; he was not going to take over the Rockin’ C.
The dog whimpered and sat up when he smelled the pancakes cooking in the big cast-iron skillet. He stood up, yawned, and rested his head on Sage’s knee. She wasn’t going to pet the critter, and he was going outside right after breakfast. There was no way that ugly thing was staying in the house, and she was not changing her mind—right up until he looked at her with big brown eyes, whined, and wagged his tail.
She scratched his ears and decided maybe he could stay in the house until the storm passed and the sun came out. Grand had probably arranged for him to appear in the blizzard knowing that Sage couldn’t throw him out to freeze. She’d been trying for years to bring a pet into her granddaughter’s life. But Sage didn’t want anything or
