The three of them trooped inside the house an hour later and kicked off their boots on the kitchen mat. Avery swept the white hat from her head, looking rosy cheeked and gorgeous. Tucker wanted to kiss her—feel how cold her nose was when it brushed his cheek, taste the warmth of her lips. He held back and rubbed at his forehead instead, trying to dispel the lingering headache.
“Shanna, grab my phone, would you? I want to see if we’ve got service yet.”
Shanna trotted across the kitchen and grabbed Avery’s phone from the counter. “One bar, Mom!” She turned to the landline phone, hooked in its customary spot on the wall. “No landline, though.”
Relief, all tied up in a strange disappointment, flashed across him.
“I’d better send a message to my brother.” Tucker went upstairs to the guest room, where his phone waited on the bedside table. One bar there, too. He dialed Cade’s number and got a busy signal. Tried again—same signal. All right, then. Tucker settled for a quick text. The phone seemed to take forever to send, but at last it indicated that the message had gone through.
At least, he hoped it had. He didn’t want his brothers to worry. He’d be just fine.
4
The thing Avery wanted most in the world was to send Tucker on his way. Back to the Wells Ranch over the hill. Back to his family. Back out of her life, where he couldn’t taunt her with how terribly handsome he was. Those green eyes, that blond hair…and the smile. God, the smile. If he could just keep it under wraps a bit more, she’d be able to survive this. She knew in her heart it wasn’t a good idea to send him back through the snow on horseback—not with his probable concussion and his memory loss. So they’d have to stick it out until the storm was well and truly done.
“Mom, you’re not paying attention.” Shanna glared at her from over their game of Uno, then burst out laughing. She rocked back in her seat at the kitchen table. “It’s your turn, Mom. Are you going to go?”
“Are you gonna hassle me about it? Huh?” Avery scooted closer, coming around to sweep Shanna up in a big hug. “Don’t you hassle me about my turn. It’s gonna be Uno for you.”
“That’s the point.” Shanna laughed harder, her pink cheeks reminding Avery of when she was a baby, so soft and new. “You’re supposed to get to Uno.”
The kitchen door banged open, and Tucker came in on a gust of icy wind. Avery shivered, but honestly, it felt good. Her face had gone red from being caught out thinking about Tucker. The temperature in the kitchen had gone up a hundred degrees. The blast of cold from outside evened it out.
Then he came all the way inside, shrugging off his coat. “Shoveling’s done…for the moment.”
“Hey, Tucker, you want to play?” Shanna stuck out her tongue at Avery. “I bet you could pay better attention than my mom.”
“Oh, I doubt that.” Tucker took a seat at the table.
“I think we should have hot chocolate.” Shanna threw down her cards on the table and hopped up to make it. “You look kinda cold, Tucker.”
“I’m all right—oh.” Shanna was already clattering around in the cupboards. Tucker turned to Avery. She tried not to look too deeply into his eyes. “Do you know when they’ll come by to plow the road? I checked it out while I was shoveling, and it doesn’t look like it’s been done yet.”
“I don’t know.” Avery stacked her cards, then collected the others so they could start a fresh game. “The snowplow driver was very pregnant last time I saw her. She might’ve had her baby. If she has…” If she has, then we’re stuck together until someone takes her spot, and I might actually burst into flames from having to sit so close to you. “There could be a little delay in getting the main roads plowed. I’m not sure who her replacement is.” Shanna slid a mug of hot chocolate into her hands, then stepped over and did the same for Tucker. “And I don’t have a contract to plow the private road, but I figure I could hire one of the local teens to take care of it for me.”
Tucker opened his mouth to answer, but Shanna took her seat, surveyed the table, and gasped. “Did you take all my cards?”
“I thought you wanted a new game,” Avery said. “Can’t do that with the same old cards, can you?”
Shanna gave her a fake pout, topping it off with a giggle. “New game, then.”
Avery dealt the cards, and the three of them settled in for a game of Uno.
“Hey, Shanna, did you know that they made a show out of those books?”
Avery was instantly on alert. “What books?”
“Animorphs, Mom.” Shanna gave her a big, enthusiastic grin from across the table. “Really? A show?”
“Yeah, and they got a lot of it right too. I bet we could find it on DVD somewhere.”
Shanna snorted. “DVDs are so old. But we have some. So I bet we could still watch it.”
“DVDs are not old.” Tucker took a long drink of his cocoa. “They’re still making DVDs. Tons of them. Plus, what are you supposed to do if you live in a farmhouse that doesn’t have high-speed internet? Makes it pretty hard to watch Netflix.”
“We’ve never had Netflix,” Shanna said wistfully. “Mom never thought it was—”
“Okay, okay.” Avery set down her cards. “I think it’s about time we got started on dinner.” She got up from the table and went over to the fridge. Avery opened it and surveyed the contents without really seeing any of them. It was too much, having Tucker at the table. It felt too much like family time. And he
