AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You gave me good directions, although, with all the planted fields, I was starting to think I’d missed a turn or taken a wrong one somewhere.” She followed him up the steps, then walked through the doorway into a light-infused foyer. The floor appeared to be the original hardwood, and the light oak made the space feel warm and inviting. The pale-yellow walls with white trim looked fresh and created an ambiance that felt both cheerful and welcoming.
“I love it, Levi. The paint colors and the wood are just so … amiable and calming.”
He grinned at her. “Glad you think so. That was what I was going for. These days, I need all the peacefulness I can find.”
She started to shift into her nursing mentality. To ask him questions about his health, both physical and mental, but that wasn’t why she was here. Besides, she knew it would bother him for her to ask even one clarifying question.
Proof of that existed in how he’d reacted to her the day they’d met. For his sake, she’d make sure another nurse on staff was assigned to him for his next appointment. The last thing she wanted was for Levi to feel uncomfortable at the hospital in her presence because they’d started dating. It was a simple thing to surmise his male ego or pride might feel bruised if she was there when he likely felt quite vulnerable. Men were funny creatures that way, at least they were if Levi was anything like her father and brothers.
He led her through the dining room into the kitchen, where she set the container of cookies on the counter and glanced around at the white cabinets, the walls with the lightest tint of green, and the magnificent views outside through the large windows. She could see a pasture in the distance with horses grazing beside a small barn that was painted yellow instead of the traditional red.
“It’s lovely here, Levi. I can see why you wanted to remodel this place and live here.”
“Thanks. I have several more projects to finish, like furniture shopping, but it’s getting there. I’m afraid it’s going to rain at some point this afternoon. Do you want to go try out the pistol before it does?”
“Sure.” Grace opened the gun case Levi had placed on the counter and extracted the pink-handled pistol.
He whistled softly as she held it out to him and gave it a thorough inspection as he held it in his hand. “Nickel-plated, double-action, five-shot revolver. Boy, is it light. I bet it doesn’t even weigh a pound.” He moved his hand up and down, as though guessing the weight of the pistol as he held it. “Looks to be a .32 caliber. I’ve got plenty of ammo, and I’ve already set up some targets.”
“Then let’s go see how it shoots.” Grace closed the lid of the case and set her purse on the floor at the end of the counter.
Levi handed the pistol to her and led the way out the kitchen door and around the side of the house to a carport. He opened the door of an old blue pickup that had a double gun rack across the back window.
Grace glanced at the shotgun and rifle that were in the rack and a small wooden crate holding boxes of ammunition on the seat as she slid in. From the hay leaves on the floor to the shovel and pitchfork in the bed, the pickup was obviously used for work on the farm.
“Is this your work pickup?” she asked when Levi got in and backed out of the carport. It had room for three vehicles, although the only other one in it was his orange pickup.
“It is. What gave it away? The dirt and hay leaves? Or the smell of fertilizer I can’t get rid of no matter how long I leave the windows rolled down?”
Grace laughed. “The shovel in the back.” She looked into the bed again. “Are those gopher traps?”
Levi nodded. “Yes. They are a never-ending problem. Them and ground squirrels. Pop and I are about ready for our annual shooting competition, so it’s good I’ll get in some practice with you today.”
She wrinkled her forehead in confusion. “Shooting competition?”
Levi grinned at her as they drove away from the house on a dirt lane that wound past a pond where a few dozen head of Hereford cattle grazed in almost belly-deep grass. “Around the first of June, we are typically overrun with ground squirrels. They cause more damage than you can imagine, especially on a farm that raises root vegetables. We pick a day, go out, and see how many we can shoot. The winner gets bragging rights, and Ma generally makes the winner’s favorite meal for dinner the next day.”
“I had no idea the ground squirrels could get so bad here, but I understand how they’d be a nuisance on a row crop farm.” Grace gazed around with interest, fascinated with the well-tended fields they passed. Levi turned onto what appeared to be a path and parked the pickup a dozen yards away from a stack of straw bales. Several targets of varying sizes were propped in front of the bales on stands made from what appeared to be old pieces of plywood and two-by-fours.
“The straw is used for bedding, so don’t worry if the bullets go astray into a bale. It won’t hurt anything.”
“Good to know,” Grace said as she hurried out of the pickup before Levi could come around to open her door. She was too excited to test out the pink pistol to wait for social niceties.
Levi lifted the crate of ammunition and carried it to the tailgate of the pickup that he’d already opened. She couldn’t help but watch the muscles in his arm bunch beneath the cotton of the blue plaid western shirt he wore that made his eyes even bluer. His jeans were worn and faded, and the brown cowboy boots on his feet were dusty with scuffed toes, but the casual, comfortable way he wore his clothes assured her he wasn’t pretending to be a country boy but lived the life of one.
His right hand was bare, but he’d pulled a leather glove over his left one. It looked like he’d stuffed the empty fingers. She wished she could tell him to take it off, that his hand didn’t bother her, but she was afraid of offending him. Until Levi came to terms with his injury and stopped letting it rule his opinion of himself, there wasn’t anything she could do to help him.
Nevertheless, she found herself increasingly attracted to the good-looking farmer with a boyish smile and a tender heart.
“Here’s what you need for that little pistol,” he said, lifting a small box from the crate. “You know how to load it?”
Grace shrugged. She’d been shooting guns with her brothers since she was eight, but something held her back from informing Levi of the fact. He took a few bullets from the box, talked her through inserting the rounds into the chamber and closing it, then walked with her over to the targets.
He offered simple instructions for shooting the pistol.
She feigned a look of confusion and bit back a satisfied smile when Levi moved behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and lightly placed his hand over hers. Her intention had been to get him to help her, and her devious plan had worked even better than she’d hoped.
The scent of him—of sunshine and outdoors mingling with a hint of leather—intrigued her senses while his warmth enveloped her within its embrace. Electrical currents zinged through her from his touch as her limbs grew languid.
