LITMIR.BIZ

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stays here about half of the year. I have two great-aunts who live here part of the year, and I have Mr. Hickman, who is elderly. His family is in Dallas. He’s told me that his married sons run a business he had. They have asked him to move to Dallas and live with them, but he grew up here and came back here when he retired and his wife was still living. I think she’s the one who wanted to return to Beckett because she still had relatives here. His wife was my grandmother’s best friend, so he lives here. He has a little hearing problem, but he’s in relatively good health. There is an elevator the elderly residents can take, so they don’t use the stairs. My aunts and my grandmother are gone right now—my grandmother at Mom’s and my aunts visiting their families.”

      “Do you have to take care of them?”

      “No, not really. I have a van and drive them to town once a week, and I’ll take them to church. My brother or sister or I take them for haircuts, little things. They just need someone around. By living here, they have that. My great-aunts’ families have scattered and are on both coasts. They don’t want to move, but they may have to someday. Right now, they’re happy here with my grandmother and our part of the family.”

      “That’s commendable of you to let them live here. You’re young to be tied down to a bed-and-breakfast.”

      “I’m over twenty-one,” she said, smiling at him. “Twenty-five to be exact.”

      “This is a lot of responsibility,” he remarked, noting that her attire hid her figure, except for the V-neck of her sweater, which revealed curves. Also, even in suede boots, it was obvious she had long legs as she stretched them out and crossed her feet at her ankles.

      “It’s fun, and I meet interesting people. I can work here in my hometown, actually work at home.”

      “For some, working at home in your hometown is a drawback, not a plus,” he said, thinking he didn’t know a single woman like her with such a simple life.

      “For me it’s a definite plus. I’ve never been out of Texas and never been out of my hometown much beyond Dallas or north to Wichita Falls or around west Texas, south to San Antonio once. I don’t really want to go anywhere else. Everyone I love is here.”

      Thinking of his own travels, Josh smiled. “You’re a homebody.”

      “Very much of one,” she said. “I suspect you’re not, and you sound as if you’re a busy man. Are you married, Josh?”

      “No, I’m single, not into commitment at this point in my life. I travel a lot, and this is a job I like,” he said. “Or have liked. At heart I’m a rancher, which is why I came to Beckett to see about a horse.”

      Big blue eyes studied him, and he thought again how easy it was to look at her.

      “You have two vastly different interests—I guess, vocations—ranching and the corporate world,” she said. “Does your family live close?”

      My siblings are here in Texas, but our parents retired in California. Are both your parents next door?”

      “Mom is. She’s divorced. She’s Nell Donovan, a hairdresser who has a shop in her house. Her story is well-known in town, so it’s no secret—my dad ran off with a younger woman he met on his business travels. That was when I was fourteen. He traveled a lot.”

      “Sorry that he left your mother and your family.”

      “We hardly saw him anyway because of his job.”

      “So besides this inn and family, what do you like to do?”

      “Gardening, swimming. I’d like to have a pool here, but so far, that hasn’t worked out. I like little kids. Once a week I have a story hour at the library and read to preschool kids. I also like movies and tennis.”

      The thought flitted to mind again to ask her to dinner when the storm was over and the snow melted. Instantly, he vetoed his own thought. She was the earnest type who would take everything seriously. With a sigh, he turned back to look at the fire, trying to forget her sitting so close. It was even more difficult to ignore the tingly awareness of her that he couldn’t shake.

      “Is there a guy in your life?”

      “Sort of,” she said, smiling. “There’s someone local. We’ve grown up knowing each other, and we like the same things, so we occasionally go out together. I always figure someday we’ll marry, but we seldom talk about it. Neither of us is in a hurry.”

      “That doesn’t sound too serious,” Josh said, wondering what kind of man the guy was to have that type of relationship.

      She shrugged. “We’re after the same things. He wants never to move from Beckett, and I don’t either. Our lives are tied up here. He’s an accountant, and we’re both busy. It’s pretty simple.”

      They lapsed into silence. Josh wondered if in a few months he would even remember her.

      “I hope no one else appears on your doorstep and wants shelter,” he remarked after a time. “I have two blankets, and I’d feel compelled to give him a blanket and let him sleep on the floor in the room I have.”

      “I’ve turned off the porch light, and I can’t take anyone else. In the morning I’ll have to cook for thirty-five people. We barely have enough of certain food items, and my brother and sister are both out of town, so I’m without help. I can’t handle another person.”

      “I’ll help you cook breakfast,” Josh volunteered, the words coming without thought.

      She laughed softly. “Thanks. You don’t look like the type to have done much kitchen work.”

      He grinned. “I’m a man of many talents,” he joked. “I’ve cooked. I’ve camped and cooked, cooked as a kid. Occasionally I cook at home, but rarely, I’ll admit. I can help. I can serve and that sort of thing.”

      “Watch out, I’ll take you up on your offer.”

      “I mean it. I’ll help you,” he said, still wondering why he was so drawn to her. He should have gone to bed an hour ago or when he arrived. “What time will you begin cooking?”

      “About six. You don’t have to get up that early.”

      “I’m usually up that early. I’ll set the alarm on my phone,” he said, getting his phone from his pocket. “I haven’t had a call since I arrived,” he added, realizing that was a switch in his life, as different as so many other things about this night.

      “You surely don’t get many calls at night.”

      “Sometimes. Not getting any is a unique change in my life, and I can live with it tonight easily.” He put away his phone. “It’s like a holiday. Tell me more about your family.”

      He settled back in the chair, listening and talking to her as the fire died into gray ashes. It was after one in the morning when she stood. “I should go to bed. Six a.m. will come soon.”

      He stood to walk with her, stopping at the door to his room for the night. “I’ll see you at six. Thanks again for this room.”

      “Thanks for offering to help in the morning. Good night, Josh.”

      “Good night,” he replied in a husky voice, gazing into her eyes and as riveted as he had been the first moment he had seen her. Still puzzled by his reaction to her, he turned to his door.

      Then he glanced down the hall to see her ponytail swing with each step as she walked away. There was nothing about her that should set his heart racing, but it did. He still wanted her in his arms, wanted to kiss her at least, before he left Beckett forever. What made his heart beat even faster were the slight reactions she’d had—her blue eyes widening, a sudden breathless moment in which neither of them spoke—that told him she had felt something, too. He didn’t intend to let that go by without doing something to satisfy his curiosity.

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