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Afraid to close his eyes again, he stood and began pacing from one end of the room to the other. On one of his trips, he noticed two little beady eyes peeking out from underneath the sofa and came close to jumping up on the workbench, but then a little gray kitten inched its way toward the stove. In a few seconds, a yellow one and then a black-and-white one did the same. And then a big calico cat came from the tiny bathroom with a dead mouse in her teeth. She dropped it beside the kittens, and they began to growl and fight over their dinner.
“I’m not afraid of mice or spiders, and I’ve seen rats as big as possums and spiders that would cover a dinner plate,” he told the cats, “but snakes are a different matter, and for a second there, I thought for sure you were one of those.”
He went back over the symptoms of hypothermia—fumbling and confusion. He ripped his gloves off and held his hands out. No tremors. That was a good sign, but talking to himself and seeing snakes instead of kittens wasn’t.
The mama cat came right over to him and began to rub around his legs, her purrs so loud that they covered up the crackling sounds of the fire. Cody squatted down and rubbed her fur from the top of her head to the tip of her tail. “Are you depending on mice to raise these kids of yours, or has Max got some dry food hiding somewhere in this room?”
As if she understood him, she went over to a plastic bin shoved up under the worktable and sniffed it. Cody pulled the lid off, and sure enough, it was filled to the brim with dry cat food. He found an empty margarine container and scooped out enough to fill it, then set it beside the stove. “That should keep you for a day or two, but you’re a good mama to give your kids a taste for mice. That will keep the varmints out of the barn.”
His hands and feet finally stopped tingling, so he removed his hat and coat and tossed them on the end of the sofa. The room was warming up nicely, and there was nothing to do but settle in for the duration. He laid his head on the sofa arm and closed his eyes. With all the work going on at the ranch, and his doctoring business, he was usually on the run from daylight until after dark. Jesse would come rescue him by morning, so he might as well take advantage of a free evening.
***
Dr. Stephanie O’Dell, Stevie to the folks around Honey Grove, figured when she left her place that morning that the going could get rough. The roads were icy, and noise similar to shotgun blasts filled the air as the tree limbs laden with a thick layer of ice snapped off. But Dale Watson had called with the news that both of his female alpacas had died giving birth that morning. He was able to save one baby, but he had no idea how to care for it.
She had made a call over to the Sunflower Ranch and talked to Sonny before she ever set out on the twenty-mile drive to rescue a tiny little newborn alpaca—a cria. Sonny had alpacas and was more than willing to see if one of his female alpacas—a hembra—would adopt the new baby. She determined that even on slick roads, she should be able to drive to her destination and back in two or three hours, but she hadn’t figured on the blizzard-like wind and snow that hit when she was returning home.
The weatherman on the television that morning had said there was a possibility of an accumulation of two to three inches of snow in the area. But after she had picked up the cria and was on the way home, she caught a report on the radio that said the storm had taken a sudden turn. Residents of the area should be prepared for at least a foot of snow on top of the ice that was already on the ground.
Stevie still thought she could make it to Sunflower Ranch, pass the cria off to Sonny, and head back home by suppertime. She sure didn’t want to get stuck at the ranch, not with Cody Ryan there. They had dated in high school, and she’d fallen head over heels in love with him, but then he went off to college when she still had her senior year to do. He had his heart set on being a doctor, and according to what he told her that last night they were together, he had to devote all his time to study. He had made the decision to help other people, especially those in foreign countries, and to be involved with a girl would get in the way of his dreams.
“We both knew this day would come,” Cody had said. “I like you, Stevie, but…”
He had left the sentence hanging, and she had managed to keep the tears at bay until she got home that evening. When she finally stopped crying, she vowed that she would prove to him that she would have been worth the wait. She would study hard, become a veterinarian, and show him that he made a wrong choice.
She let go of the steering wheel for a brief moment to touch the locket around her neck. Inside was a tiny picture of wildflowers as a reminder to never give every bit of her heart to a man again. She’d taken the picture the last night she and Cody were together, and she didn’t have to open the locket to see the photo of the sun setting over a field of yellow, purple, and red flowers. She had taken the picture out the window of the bunkhouse out on Sunflower Ranch. In the foreground was a blue vase filled with wild daisies and small purple flowers. That had been more than twenty years ago, and she had moved on since then, but the picture was still with her urging her to go on with life like the wildflowers that popped up every spring.
Stevie really thought she had moved past that teenage love until Cody Ryan came back to Honey Grove. Just seeing him again made her angry—proving that she still carried a little torch for him.
The cria began to hum, which meant the poor little girl was missing her mama.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. In another hour or two, we’ll have you in a herd of your own kind, probably in a nice warm barn. You’re going to be fine,” she told the baby. “Just hang on. I’m going as fast as I can.”
Stevie still thought she could get home before the storm hit—right up until the gray skies opened up and began to dump flakes on her so thick that she couldn’t see two feet in front of her van. The wipers could hardly keep up, so in between swipes, she felt as if she were driving blind down the country road. She was still a long way from Sunflower Ranch when she felt a pull to the right and realized she was getting a flat tire. At the same time, she remembered that she was already using her spare tire and had left the other one at the garage to be fixed two days before.
“Sweet Jesus in heaven!” She turned in to the next lane she saw. “I hope I’m where I think I am,” she muttered as she slowed to a crawl and fought with the steering wheel. “Max Hilton’s barn should be right up ahead of us. If I am right, we can stay there until this damn thing passes over us, and we can get some help. Don’t you worry, little darlin’. I’ve got alpaca colostrum in the van to get you started and milk to mix up for you after the first twenty-four hours.”
She glanced down at her phone lying on the console. The last time she had come out to this area, she hadn’t been able to get a bit of service, but today she could see one bar up there at the top of her screen.
“This is damn sure not what I expected when I made up my mind to move back to Texas,” she grumbled.
Up ahead, she saw the shape of the barn and tapped her brakes, but that put her van into a long, greasy slide that ended when she slammed into the big, sheet metal barn doors.
Stevie picked up her phone and tried to call Sonny but got a busy signal. So she sent a text:Had a flat tire. Am at Max Hilton’s old barn. I’m fine. Cria is fine. Send help when this blows over please.
Sure enough, when she opened the van door and glanced down at the phone to see if she’d gotten a response, she had aNO SERVICEmessage.
“Hope it went through,” she said as she grabbed the handle of the big sliding door and gave it a shove with all the strength she had, but nothing happened. Then a force from the other side slid the door wide open, and there was Cody Ryan standing right in front of her.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she gasped.
Cody folded his arms over his chest. “I might ask you the same question, except that I figure with those two flat tires, you got as far as you could and then tried to plow through the doors and into the barn.”
“I just need to get my van inside so my supplies don’t freeze, and I’ve got a baby cria to take care of.” Stevie pushed past him. “Don’t just stand there letting the snow blow all over you. Help me get the van inside.”
“Give me your keys. The tack room is heated up. Take the baby in there, and I’ll take care of the vehicle. Tires are ruined anyway so it won’t matter if I drive it on the rims,” Cody said.
Stevie shook snow from her red hair and slid the van’s side panel door open.
