âBodie can sleep on the ride back.â
âLet me take her,â Rex offered. âThe brim of my hat will give her some shade.â
Callie looked down at her sleepy baby. âAll right.â
He tightened the cinches on the saddles again while Callie fashioned a sling for her daughter. Bodie whimpered a mild protest as they slung her sideways against Rexâs chest, her head nestled in the hollow of his shoulder, but then she reached up a little hand and laid it against his throat, as if feeling the beat of his pulse was all she needed to lull her to sleep.
Callie heard herself whisper, âShe loves you.â
âI love her, too,â Rex said softly. He looked up then, his blue eyes as pale and warm as the summer sky. âIâll miss the two of you if you leave the ranch.â
If, not when. Confused, Callie dared not reply to that. Anything she said would lay bare her heart, and that simply was not wise.
In memory of my dad, William Fred âBillâ Roper, who taught me that country men are strong, resilient, capable, patient, accepting, funny, interesting, knowledgeable, talented, intelligent, clever, kind, neighborly and loving. I miss you.
Chapter One
Never let it be said that God did not answer prayers. Callie Devinerâs answer walked into the War Bonnet Café on the morning of the last Thursday in May, ordered breakfast, which he wolfed down with three cups of black coffee, then calmly announced to all within hearing distance that he was looking for a live-in cook and housekeeper.
Callie set aside the heavy metal spatula she was holding and pushed a wisp of fine blond hair from her forehead with the back of her wrist before speaking to the freckle-faced teenager at the grill beside her.
âFill this next order. I have to go out front.â
The teen boy gaped at her. Johnny had been working at the café for more than six months and knew his way around a grill, but the regular cook, Chet, who was out with a toothache and as set in his ways as her father, still hadnât trusted the kid to do more than dish up fries and make toast. Callie ignored the youngsterâs sputtered assurances and moved toward the swinging metal door that separated the kitchen from the dining room, sweeping the hated net from her short hair as she did so.
Tucking the hairnet into the pocket of her apron with one hand and fluffing her bangs with the other, she moved swiftly behind the counter, past the middle-aged waitress, Jenny, and came to stand directly behind the tall, brown-haired man in the worn plaid shirt.
âDid I hear you say you were looking for a cook and housekeeper?â
His elbows slipped from the counter, and he spun on the stool to face her, his pale blue gaze quickly sweeping over her. He looked oddly polished despite that worn shirt. Without it, sheâd have pegged him for a city boy, though she judged him to be in his thirties.
âThatâs right. For my father. We need someone live-in, as soon as possible. Dadâs ill, and Iâve come to help out. My sisters will be along as soon as they can arrange it, but that could be several weeks, and until then, weâve got to have help.â
âWho is your dad?â
âWes Billings.â
âOh. Out at Straight Arrow Ranch.â
âThatâs right.â
âI had heard that Wes was ill.â
âVery ill, Iâm afraid.â
A murmur of condolence went around the room. Wes was well thought of around War Bonnet, Oklahoma. He was known to be a fair, honest, upright Christian man willing to help a neighbor in need. This had to be Rex Billings, Wesâs son. He was quite a bit older than Callie, eight or ten years, so she didnât really know him. Even in a town as small as War Bonnet, that many years apart in school practically guaranteed theyâd be strangers unless they both stayed in town, and to her knowledge Rex had never returned after leaving for college, except perhaps to visit.