“Yeah. Hungry.” That was probably the reason his defenses were down enough that he wasn’t telling her to take away the pine branches and pack up the nativity. Had to be the reason, he assured himself.
“Come on,” she said, scooping up Luke and heading for the kitchen without waiting to see if Jake was following. “You can eat and tell me what it’s like out there.”
He fell into step behind her and his gaze dropped unerringly to the curve of her behind in her faded jeans. His body tensed and despite the exhaustion pulling at his every cell, he found he might not be too tired. Whatever else lay between them, there was passion, bright and burning and damned hard to ignore.
Shaking his head, he walked into the kitchen and stopped her before she could take down a bowl and spoon. “I can serve myself. You don’t have to do it.”
Cassie set Luke into a high chair—no doubt also rescued from the attic—strapped him in and said, “I don’t mind. You’ve been out in this mess all day.” She glanced out the window at the wall of snow getting thicker by the minute and shivered. “Sit down.”
He sat beside his son and kept his gaze locked on the boy because he figured that was safer than watching Cassie making herself at home in his kitchen. Memories of Lisa and his failed marriage rushed up to nearly choke him. He didn’t remember a single time that Lisa had come to the kitchen to serve herself. His memories of her were more about what others could do for her. At Christmastime especially, it had been about gifts she expected, the more expensive the better. She never would have gone into the attic after an old nativity set. Never would have strung pine branches around the house.
Cassie wasn’t like her, he told himself, and yet the mistrust was still there. He was waiting, he knew, for Cassie to fail. To show him that underneath her facade, she was another Lisa. She was another invitation to misery. Cassie had come into his life, turned it upside down and shaken it like a child’s snow globe, and then left—only to return with a baby she hadn’t bothered to tell him about.
Didn’t that prove that she couldn’t be trusted?
His heart iced over as he watched her. He couldn’t afford to trust again. Couldn’t risk making another huge mistake. And yet...there was Luke to consider in all this. His son. Jake wouldn’t lose the boy—so that meant finding a way to deal with his mother.
Cassie was humming under her breath as she moved about the room and Jake’s instincts went on high alert. She was too damn cheerful. Here she was, trapped at the ranch, and judging by the strength of this storm she wasn’t going anywhere for quite a while. Yet she was humming. Acting as though she was happy. Why?
“Ben tells me you went out to lay down hay for the cattle before the storm hit.”
“Yeah. Made it back here just in time, too.” He ran one hand through his hair and handed the baby a cracker from the tray on the table. Smiling to himself, he watched as Luke took a big bite and then reached over the edge of the chair to try to share with Boston. Better, he thought, to talk about ranch business, the storm—anything other than what lay between them.
Sighing a little, he explained, “Rather than dig through snow to find grass, cattle will just stand there and starve to death. We laid out hay near a series of caves that will give them shelter if they want it. Best we can do for now.” He glanced out the window and hissed in a breath at the sight of a white wall flying horizontally past the glass.
Mid-afternoon and it was dark outside. He couldn’t see the lights from Ben’s house or the other cabins. The storm was a big one and was bound to get even worse. “After I eat, I’ll check the generator again, make sure it’s good to go if the power gets knocked out.”
“Ben and one of the guys did that earlier while you were gone,” she told him as she served up a bowl of stew that smelled like heaven. “They checked every one of them and they’re all good. Ben says you bought top-of-the-line generators to make sure everyone would stay warm during a power outage.”
Even as pleased as he was at the prospect of a meal, he felt a stab of irritation that she was so at home here. She was close with his grandfather. Had made friends with Anna and the hands who worked on the ranch. He’d seen it for himself the last time she was here. Again, one word echoed in his mind. Why?
Pushing all of his doubts aside for the moment, Jake picked up a spoon and dug in, relishing the warmth that spilled through him at the first bite. When he’d eaten half a bowlful, he glanced up at Cassie, who sat opposite him. Time to get a few things clear. Let her know that she couldn’t just rearrange his house and life as she wanted.