Next to her, Iggy stood up on the couch. The short hairs on the back of his neck rose. He was watching Chance with a sharp eye.
Aww, he was a guard dog after all! Good old Iggy.
Cordy held the dog as she watched Chance walk to the door. He paused with it half-open and looked over his shoulder at her.
“How will you find a partner then?” he asked.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” she said coolly. “But again, thank you for offering.”
For a moment, Chance seemed ready to keep arguing with her.
Her mouth went dry. His unwavering gaze said he wasn’t giving up on her. Current raced up her spine.
But luckily, he left without another word.
After the door closed, Cordy sank into the couch. Her emotions rode close to the surface these days, and that had been intense. In more ways than one.
You need my help.His deep voice was clear as day in her memory. Despite her resolve, her stomach knotted. God, it would be nice to have some help.
But she’d have to make do without it, same as she always had.
The bag of donuts sat on the counter, the scent of warm strawberry icing filling the air. Cordy stared at it for a long moment before getting up and taking it back to the couch. No sense wasting good donuts.
She slowly ate them, her dog snuggled close, and pondered what the heck she was going to do next.
three
Chance staredat the coffee machine as it sputtered and spit, his fingers drumming against the counter.
The machine was working like usual, but it felt damn slow this morning. Probably because Chance needed some coffee before he called his sister-in-law. Ruby was good at taking charge of situations—she was a teacher, after all.
Cordy needed help. She might claim she didn’t, but she wouldn’t have put that ad up if she wasn’t desperate. He couldn’t stop thinking about the glint of panic in her eyes as she’d insisted she’d be just fine.
She might not want Chance’s particular help, but Cordy neededsomeone.
“Watching it ain’t gonna make it go faster,” his brother, Quint, said.
“I’m thinking.”
Rye, their younger brother, looked between them but said nothing. Rye was the quiet one.
The mid-morning coffee break was a Southwinds Ranch tradition. The Kessal boys grabbed a quick breakfast and got to work early, but at nine, they always came home to the old ranch house and had some coffee. The machine wheezing onthe counter had been there since Chance’s dad had been a kid. Wasn’t broke, so no one was going to fix it.
“Thinking about what?” Quint demanded.
Chance blew out a sigh. Yeah, Ruby was probably his best bet. However, Rye might be a good second choice. Rye was always calm, steady, which Cordy might prefer. She definitely couldn’t accuse Rye of being a player.
No, Rye only had one dark incident from his past, but it was a hell of a one. Back when he was a senior in high school while driving with two friends, he’d crashed his car into a tree. Poor Liberty had been hurt badly enough to end up in the ICU, although she was okay now. Still a little weird around Rye, not that she could be blamed for that.
Rye never talked about that night. Chance found it hard to believe his brother could have done something like that—Rye had never once gotten into trouble before that. But Rye had insisted he was at fault and had served out his probation with no complaints. And then went back to never putting a foot wrong. Rye definitely wasn’t sleeping with women he didn’t plan to see again.
Cordy might be right about Chance’s suitability as a partner. He wasn’t exactly the model of a settled man and certainly not the kind of man who would be in a birth class. Despite that, Chance was always careful. He’d never even come close to becoming a father.
Still, it rankled him to think of Rye helping her and not him.
“Cordy Johnson needs help,” Chance said. She might not admit it, but it was clear as day.
Rye merely raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Is she okay?”
