Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(94)

She was glad that he’d been close by when that damn tire decided to blow out. But sitting with him in the truck, traveling at a snail’s pace? The air in the cab of the black, club-cab truck was way too thin. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly and was glad it was only half a mile to her home because his coat around her shoulders suddenly made her hotter than blue blazes.

That he didn’t seem to be in a hurry was fine with her. She needed a few minutes to get a grip on her hormones and her racing heart before she arrived. It couldn’t be Jud Dawson with those sexy eyes and dreamy body causing her to sweat in the middle of a damn blizzard. It was the fact that she was back in Dry Creek, starting all over from scratch. But she’d had two choices when the groceries and rent played out at the same time. She could either go home or go homeless, and the former, even though she’d have to eat all of her pride, was better than living in a cardboard box and eating from Dumpsters.

He parked beside another big fancy truck, and she sat there, staring at the house, unable to open the door. She wanted to go into the house and surprise her family, so why couldn’t she make herself open the damn door? Lights shining out through the windows threw rays of yellow onto the snow-covered yard and beckoned her to come on inside where there was comfort and unconditional love. But first, she needed something, anything, to calm her shaky nerves. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap and waited.

“You going to get out or sit here and watch it snow all day?” the cowboy asked.

She frowned, a smartass remark on her lips. But that little voice inside her head reminded her that Jud had helped her out. She swung the truck door open, stepped out into the blowing snow, and grabbed the suitcase from the backseat. It thumped along like a miniature snowplow all the way to the porch where she tugged it up the three steps with both hands. She parked it beside the door and reached for the cold handle, but she could not turn it.

“Go on inside and I’ll bring the suitcase and the box,” Jud said.

Every step took her a foot closer to the porch and he was right behind her, box in hand, with two cans of milk sitting on the top of the cardboard box.

With the driving force of a north wind behind them, the snowflakes felt more like hard sleet pellets when they hit her face, so she walked a little faster—until she reached the porch and opened the storm door.

This was it! She’d made a full circle. Left home to go to college right out of high school. Got a fantastic job with the law firm in Houston when she graduated. Married the son of the firm’s senior partner a year later. He divorced her last year and made sure her name was ruined when it came to getting another job. She’d worked at a coffee shop until a week ago when the whole business closed down. And now she was back home, right where she said she would never, ever return to, not even if she had to stand on a street corner to make a living.

“You’ll freeze if you don’t go inside,” Jud said. “And this milk will have to be thawed before it can be used.”

She looked over her shoulder. His warm smile melted a few snowflakes but didn’t do jack shit when it came to easing her nerves.

“Please open the door…please. This damn box is heavy.” He chuckled.

What was so damn funny? Matter of fact, what could be humorous right now in anyone’s world? There was a freaking blizzard going on in Texas. That should wipe the smile off anyone’s face. She wanted to weep because she’d made it home. She quickly gave thanks that the old bald tires had gotten her that close and there was someone who’d brought her the rest of the way. But there was still enough anger over the way fate had treated her that she’d like to kick a few more tires. She brushed away a single tear and inhaled deeply as raw emotions raced through her body, leaving her with still another case of jitters. Finally, she slung the door open into the foyer.

“Fiona!! Oh. My. God! Allie! Mama! Fiona is home,” Lizzy squealed, and turned into a bright red blur as she ran from the kitchen. Fiona’s eyes barely had time to focus when she was engulfed in a hug that came close to knocking her square on her butt. And then her mother and Allie were both there and it became a big group hug that kept them all steady and on their feet.

“Surprise,” she said weakly.

Jud stood inside the door, that wickedly sexy smile on his face as if he was Santa Claus and had just shimmied down the chimney with a big bag of toys. He sat the box on the floor and then effortlessly pulled the suitcase in from the porch.

“Jud, where’s the milk?” A tall dark-haired cowboy carrying a pink bundle stepped from the kitchen out into the foyer.

“Right here along with the store keys.” He headed to the kitchen with both in his hand.

Sweet Jesus!

He’d told her that he lived at Audrey’s and that he was Jud Dawson. But it didn’t sink in until that moment that she would be sharing a house with him.