Holidays on the Ranch (Burnt Boot, Texas #1)(39)

“Got a confession. The last ten years I leased most of the ranch, and I just took care of the hundred acres around the house there. Grew a few acres of hay and a big garden but only ran twenty head of cattle most of the time. I didn’t have no idea how bad I’d miss them cantankerous old cows, but I guess in time I’ll get used to this place. There’s the buzzer that tells me they’re puttin’ our dinner on the table in the dining room, so I’ll go on down there.”

“You makin’ friends?” Finn asked.

“Oh, sure I am. I sleep with a different man every night.” She cackled.

“Verdie!”

“Don’t fuss at me. I ain’t got no cows, and they damn sure wouldn’t let me haul my mama cat into this fancy-schmancy place. A woman has to have an imagination, or she’d go crazy.”

Finn laughed with her. “You take care of yourself, and you know that you’re welcome here on Salt Draw anytime you want to come for a visit.”

“Thank you, Finn. I might take you up on that sometime. I’d like to meet your Callie,” she said. “Now the lady is knocking on my door, which means all those old worn-out cowboys who can’t remember how to put their boots on will be waiting for me at my table. Bye now.”

Finn put the phone back in his pocket and headed out across the pasture toward the house. “Hey, is that chili I smell?” He kicked off his boots at the back door, picked Callie up, and swung her in circles. “I’m so glad you’re here, Callie. That sounds wonderful on a day like today. The heater can’t keep up out there in the barn.”

Callie set the whole pot on a trivet in the middle of the table while he removed his coat, gloves, and hat. “I told you I could help you with that tractor. I’ve worked on lots of old machinery. Betcha it’s the power shaft. That might be the first year they came out with that feature so they didn’t have it down as well as they did later on. One of my sister’s boyfriends was a crackerjack mechanic, and he taught me a little about it.”

Finn sat down at the table. “Did he teach you to shoot?”

“No, that I learned from my first boyfriend. His idea of a perfect date was target shooting.” She dipped up a bowl of chili and handed it to him and scooted the bowl of saltines and the plate of corn bread his way.

“Callie, you are not like your sister,” Finn said.

“What made you say that?”

“I can read your mind.”

“What makes you think part of me isn’t like her?”

“The cats,” he answered.

She brought her head up, her aqua eyes locking with his blue ones. “What does that have to do with anything? And why is she in the barn during this weather? She might get cold. Bring her into the utility room, and I’ll make her a bed in an old laundry basket.”

“She has kittens out there, and they’re too wild to catch.” Finn’s eyes twinkled.

“I can catch them with a bowl of warm milk. I’ll set it down, and they’ll come up to drink it,” she said.

“Point proven,” he said.

She went back to eating. “What are you talking about?”

“You take in strays.”

“Lacy said it was a good thing elephants didn’t grow in Texas, or I’d want to bring them inside during the winter.” She smiled.

“Lacy was your sister? I don’t think I ever heard her name before now.”

“Yes, she was, and taking in strays isn’t settling down, Finn,” Callie said seriously.

“Folks who take in strays are putting down roots. Did your sister ever bring home homeless cats and dogs?”

Callie shook her head slowly. “And she didn’t like it when I did. Said it just made leaving harder to do. When Mama died, I was sixteen. I lived with Lacy two years before I enlisted.”

“Well, there you have it. You are a settler, not a runner. Plain and simple. Verdie called me this morning,” Finn said.

“She called me too,” Callie said.

“Maybe when it clears off, she’ll come up to visit with Gladys and Polly, and we’ll invite her for supper,” he said.

Callie refilled his tea glass. “I bet she’d like that a lot.”

Finn reached out and cupped Callie’s cheeks in his hands. “I meant it, Callie. You are a settler.”

“I hope so,” she whispered.

He pushed the chair back after the second bowl of chili and a piece of chocolate cake. “Want to come out to the barn with me and see the mama cat and the kittens after dinner? I could sure use your opinion on that driveshaft, too.”

“No! No! Cats in the house, dog,” Joe said.

She grabbed his hand and held it against her cheek. “I swear he’s going to show up on the table in alfredo sauce some night. I would love to go see the kittens, but I’ll have more fun doing mechanic work. It’s been a long time since I got to tear into a tractor.”

He bookcased her cheeks in his calloused hands again and bent at the waist to fall into her gorgeous eyes gazing up into his. Not even Lala had captured his soul the way Callie had since she’d arrived at Salt Draw. No woman had ever made him feel so protective, yet so protected at the same time.

He shifted his gaze to her lips. He had to taste them, had to claim them for his own right then, or his heart was going to jump right out of his chest and die on the floor at the ends of her cute little toes.