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“You get on,” Cody Banks said quietly. “I’ll hand Lucy up to you.”
She mounted and let him position the child in front of her.
“Go carefully,” he said, standing back. “The snow will make the trail slick if it sticks more than this, and it probably will.”
She nodded. She forced a smile.
“No more wandering off chasing cats, young lady,” he said, but he smiled.
“I won’t,” Lucy said. “Bye. Bye, Anyu,” she added, smiling at the dog.
They rode away. Cody was standing where they left him, his big hand on his dog’s head.
“THATWASEVERso nice a man,” Lucy said. “He cut me out of the thorny bushes. I crawled under them after Myra, but when I stood up, I couldn’t get loose. There was a lot of bushes. His dog was pretty! Who was he, Aunt Abby?”
Abby hesitated to say. She’d just had a look at a totally different Cody Banks than the one she was certain she knew.
“Aunt Abby?” Lucy persisted.
“That was our sheriff,” Abby said finally. “Cody Banks.”
CHAPTER THREE
LUCYLOOKEDUPat her aunt with a surprised expression. “That was our sheriff?” she asked. “But he was so nice! He got me loose and let me pet his dog!”
“People change, peanut,” she said, using the old familiar nickname that her brother had given to his and Mary’s only child. She smiled. “Maybe our sheriff has changed also.”
“His dog was really pretty,” Lucy said. “And she had blue eyes!”
“She’s a Siberian husky,” Abby said absently. “I think a lot of them have blue eyes.”
“Oh, not like Anyu’s,” Lucy countered. “They were as bright as the sky on a clear cold day.”
Abby smiled at the expression. Cody Banks had surprised her, too, with his tenderness toward the child and his lack of aggression. The man who’d frightened the woman and the child all that many years ago faded in their memories with this new one of a man who rescued little children and loved his dog. She could only imagine how much he’d loved Debby. She’d never really been in love, although she thought she had, once. That had ended badly. Of course, she’d had crushes on movie stars. But she was wary of men. Her father’s brutal behavior even in memory was enough to keep her single. Her mother had said once that he was a wonderful person before alcohol got such a hold on him. So how did you know what a man would be like behind closed doors? You didn’t. So Abby did her job and kept to herself. She had Lucy, too, who gave new meaning and happiness to a formerly lonely life. She missed her brother and Mary, but Lucy was an ongoing blessing.
In all her life, Abby had only had one moderately serious boyfriend, when she was a senior in high school, and he’d just dated her because his father was looking for a job in Abby’s brother’s law firm, and he hoped he’d get his brother on the inside track by hanging around with Abby. It had been like a shot of cold water when she found that out, because she’d fancied herself really in love with the boy. It hadn’t helped when he dumped her, and added quite a few personal insults about the way she looked and dressed and acted, emphasizing her refusal to sleep with him. She’d only been eighteen at the time, and she had low esteem anyway because of the way she and Lawrence had been brought up. Their furiously, frequently drunk father had done that to them. She tried not to think back, but sometimes memories intruded on daily life. Her memories of men were either frightening or sad. She kept to herself. Now that she had the responsibility for Lucy, if she even found a man who wanted to marry her, he’d probably be put off by the child. But Abby loved Lucy and she’d never agree to putting her up for adoption. Even the thought of it was distasteful. Lucy was her own flesh and blood, her late brother’s only child. The fictional man would have to be willing to take on Lucy as well as Abby. So it was probably a good thing that Abby didn’t have much interest in men.
She thought about the new image of Cody Banks she’d had. He hadn’t been frightening at all. He’d been so kind to Lucy, so gentle with her. Probably he was always like that with children. Someone had told her that he was godfather to several children in the community and he never forgot birthdays or Christmas. The shouting, grieving man of six years ago seemed to have been consumed by this new, patient and kind one.
To be fair, he’d loved Deborah obsessively. People said he was never the same when she decided to work for a big teaching hospital in Denver and only came home infrequently. It was as if Cody was an afterthought in her life, while she was his whole world.
She couldn’t even imagine being loved like that; to have a man care so much about her that nothing else in life mattered. And sadly, the only thing that had mattered in life to Deborah was being a doctor. To be fair, it was a noble profession, and Deborah was good with people. She was a good doctor and she was on her way to being a well-known one in medical circles, especially when she began to specialize in neurosurgery. But all that work was gone in a flash when she died. Cody was left alone.
In fact, he was totally alone now, after the death of Charlie Butler, whose ranch his great-niece by marriage, Abby, had inherited. Cody was only related to Charlie by marriage and although they were fond of each other, it was Abby who inherited the ranch. She hadn’t questioned that legacy before, but now she did. Cody had a ranch of his own, of which some little bit adjoined the land that Abby had inherited. Why had Charlie passed over Cody and given his estate to Abby? It was a question she wished she’d asked while Charlie was still alive. While fond of her, he’d showed no great affection for her and he was frank about not liking Lucy underfoot when his kinfolk visited him. He didn’t like children, which might explain why he never married.
“I don’t guess we could get a dog?” Lucy asked wistfully, bringing Abby out of her thoughts.
“We might just do that, a little later on,” Abby said without actually promising anything. She smiled. “But let’s wait until we’re properly settled first, okay?”
Lucy grinned. “Okay!” She cocked her head. “Could we get a husky dog like the sheriff has?”
Abby felt her pulse leap. Odd reaction, she thought. “And we’ll see about that as well.”
Lucy hugged her aunt’s legs. “I love you, Aunt Abby.”
Abby laughed and picked her up. “I love you, too, peanut!”
CODYBANKSWASdisturbed by the fact that he hadn’t noticed Anyu’s limp. The child had seen it at once. Nice child, he thought as he drove to the vet with Anyu in the passenger seat of his SUV. She had a sweet smile and pretty manners. Her aunt loved her, that was apparent. He’d wanted children a lot, but Deborah wanted a career more. He cared so much for her. He’d have given her anything she wanted, even her work as a doctor, without complaining that he only saw her rarely, and usually only for a day or two at a time. He went on with his job, and tried not to worry that if she’d loved him as much as he loved her, she might have settled for a job at the local hospital and not wanted to work a state away down in Denver. But she’d been ambitious, and there were no children to feel neglect, so he’d said nothing.
