Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(58)

“It’s leased land. The owners retired to Arizona last year and leased it to the folks who live across the road. The house has been up for rent. Last renters moved out at the end of the school year. Couple of teachers who decided Baird wasn’t for them. I suppose you’ll be wanting to buy it next?” she asked.

“I’ll buy all that we can afford,” he answered.

He slowed down in Albany, but it wasn’t easy to go the speed limit. When they were back out on the highway, he eased the gas pedal down until they were going eighty. Sophie sighed when she saw gray smoke spiraling toward the sky out ahead.

“I’m only ten miles over the speed limit,” he snapped.

“I wasn’t sighing because of buying the land or the speed you are driving,” she snapped right back at him.

This wasn’t the way the day was meant to go. They were supposed to have a lazy afternoon together. Sophie was going to think about things between her and Elijah, not fight with him. She was going to lie back in the sun with her straw hat shading her eyes and catch a catfish for supper, then tease Elijah because her fish was bigger than his.

“Then why were you sighing?” he asked.

“Smoke. Fire. I hate fighting fire, and it’s a constant worry in this part of the country when things are so dry. I’d love a wet spring, wet summer, and no drought, but this is Texas and I might as well wish for…” She stopped midsentence.

Elijah slowed down enough to slide around the corner into the lane leading back to the ranch. Smoke was as thick as fog and about the same color. There were no two-story flames dancing across the dry pasture. They came to a screeching halt in front of the house, and she didn’t hear the pained bawling of cows to the north, only the aggravated carrying-on of those being herded to safety back behind the house.

She hopped out of the truck, grabbed her straw hat, and crammed it on her head. “I’ll take the old tractor and start on up by the highway. Looks like Hayden has got the new one cuttin’ a groove toward the east.”

“I’ll go help Tanner herd cattle.” Elijah headed to the barn where the four-wheelers and horses were kept. Four-wheelers were better in the case of fire because it spooked the horses, so he mounted one and took off toward the south of the ranch.

It was near supper time when they all four met at the house. Kendall, Randy, and Frankie drove up just as they were walking up on the porch, and Tanner shot them a dirty look.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that,” Frankie said. “If you would’ve called, we’d have been here sooner. We didn’t even know there was a fire until we was coming home.”

Home! The word struck Sophie so hard that it brought tears to her eyes. The guys thought of the ranch as home already and that was where family resided.

“You kids stop your bickering. I don’t know how your momma raised nine of you.” She looked at Elijah. “Hayden, you and Tanner get on out to the bunkhouse and wash the smoke out of your hair and change clothes. You other three get on in the house before you get the smell on you. Elijah, me and you are going to have a shower, and then we’re going to make supper. We can all eat in the house tonight.”

Elijah wiggled his dusty eyebrows.

Sophie cocked her head to one side and then it hit her.

“Not together! Good grief! I don’t have time for your shenanigans any more than I do the kids. You go on and get a shower first. I’ll put a couple of frozen lasagnas in the oven and get a salad cut up. Mercy! Living with boys! I’m glad I never had brothers.” She mumbled as she headed toward the kitchen.



Elijah whistled all the way to the bathroom. He took a quick shower, shaved for the second time that day, and applied Stetson aftershave. He dressed in fresh jeans and a knit, three-button blue shirt the same color as his eyes, and brushed his black hair back. He’d be glad when it grew back out a little, especially since Sophie had made that comment about liking it longer.

When he reached the kitchen, she had already slid two big pans of lasagna in the oven, washed a head of lettuce, and was chopping tomatoes and green onions. He took the knife from her hands and was only slightly amazed at the tingle when their fingers brushed in the transfer.

“Go on and get your shower now. I’ll take over here. Garlic bread?”

She nodded. “And when the timer goes off, put that cobbler in the oven. We’ll have it warm with ice cream for dessert.”

She hurried down the hallway, but even rushing didn’t take the scent of his aftershave from her nostrils, and it sure didn’t do a thing for her already speeding pulse.

Elijah moved right into the position of cook with ease, and while the salad chilled, he whipped garlic with butter, slathered it on thick slices of Italian bread, and wrapped it all in foil. When the timer buzzed, he removed the lasagna pans and slid the cobbler into the oven, reset the timer, and set the dining room table for seven.

That’s what the table would look like if me and Sophie had five kids, he thought.

“Holy smoke, what am I doing?” he muttered. “It’s this living in close quarters and not seeing other women for days on end. I couldn’t live with that woman. She’s got a temper.”

And you don’t? His mother was back in his head arguing with him again. I like Sophie. You’ll never have a dull moment if you spend the rest of your life with her. She’ll keep you on your toes, son.