“No doubt,” Clayton chimed in before eating the last bite of his fritter. She smiled at that notion, as long as Kade Parker wasn’t one of them. She made a mental note to warn LuAnn about him.
Lydia wanted to reassure them. “LuAnn won’t be disruptive or anything like that. She would’ve been here sooner, but she wanted to give her two-week notice.”
“Will you be able to manage okay in the meantime, Lydi?”
“Sure. I handled working at the Oasis Café. This will be a piece of cake compared to that. I’ll enjoy the quiet and probably accomplish more by myself than I did in the last two days. So what did you think? Is it the best thing you’ve ever eaten?”
Both men smiled, and Chance replied, “Second best, baby.”
Clayton’s lips were sweet as he gave her a kiss after his brother, and they both returned to their work. She spent the next two hours in a cleaning frenzy, making up for lost time. Upstairs was spotless and fresh smelling when she was done, and she still had time left to fix lunch. She knew it was probably old fashioned but she loved taking care of things for them and cooking in their nice, big kitchen felt more like play than work. Once lunch was in the oven, she raided the big pantry for all the ingredients to make enchiladas for supper and realized she’d forgotten to get dried guajillo chiles for the sauce.
Over lunch, Clayton told her he would run her into town for whatever she needed. Somehow they got on the subject of the ranch, and she asked whether they had any other animals beside their horses or the cattle.
Clayton said, “We had a black Labrador named Rudy. He lived to be twelve years old before he died last spring.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you miss him?”
Chance nodded. “Sure, he was a good dog. We’ve just never looked into getting another. He’d be kind of hard to replace.”
Clayton nodded in agreement. “How about you, Lydi? Did you have a lot of pets growing up?”
Lydia nodded to the men. “Yeah, we all had pets. My parents believed that it taught responsibility. I had this Great Pyrenees puppy…he was wonderful. The best dog I ever had. He was also the last dog I ever had.”
Lydia remembered the way her puppy Jake used to follow her everywhere she went with adoration in his little brown eyes. Thinking of Jake still made her misty, and she felt herself blush self-consciously when she noticed both men gazing at her with compassion in their eyes.
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared from our yard one day while I was at school. The locked gate had been forced open and someone had taken him.”
“Sorry, baby,” Chance said.
Lydia tried to shrug off the sadness that thoughts of Jake always inspired. “It was a long time ago. Since I moved out on my own, I’ve never been someplace where I could have a large animal for a pet.”
Lydia rose from the table and rinsed her plate at the sink. She noticed that Chance yawned widely and asked, “How are you both doing? You must be really tired.”
Chance replied, “All of us are dragging our asses today.”
“I’ll bet.”
Clayton joined her at the sink and said, “Unfortunately, when it’s as dry as it has been this summer, grass fires are a fact of life.” He rinsed his dish and placed it in the dishwasher for her and then kissed her. “Don’t work too hard this afternoon, baby. Save some energy for us tonight.” His blue eyes ignited a low flame inside her, promising more passion like she’d experienced that morning.
In a daze, Lydia replied, “I will. I mean, I won’t. I mean…oh, you know what I mean.” Clayton nodded and kissed her again.
“I know what you mean, Lydi. I’ll see you in a bit,” he replied and then left through the back door.
She took Chance’s plate from him when he brought it to the sink.
“See you in a little while, baby,” Chance murmured then pressed a kiss to her temple. She looked into his eyes and saw love there, pure and simple, and she wanted him to know she felt it, too. The words slid from her lips without a second thought. “I love you.”
Chapter Seventeen
The little lurch in Lydia’s chest wasn’t one of fear but excitement, because it felt so good and so right to say it. She giggled at the way Chance’s expression shifted from surprise to joy. Looking in his playful blue eyes, Lydia felt like her heart would burst with the feeling.
“Well, that’s music to my ears, baby. I love you, too.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and gladly allowed him to lift her off her feet and hold her, with her legs around his waist and her ankles locked at his lower back. He supported her with his hands on her ass, and she rubbed her nose against his nose as he squeezed her to him. “I love you, too.”