Page 55 of The Cowboy and the Baby

Sacred.

A little bit mine . . . at least it used to be.

I must not have hid my apprehension well, because Cade said, “It’s an idea, Noelle. Just think about it. We’ll be happy to help however we can. Keep it really clean, clear out the basement and the back rooms, show them you’re not alone.”

But what stability is there? ran through my mind.

This wasn’t my house.

I was little more than a temporary fixture here. If Sarah and Thomas probed too deep, they’d see that I was here on Cade’s good graces, and what insinuations could they make next? That wouldn’t add to any credibility.

The only stability I had was this old ranch house, and the kindness of a man who was a complete stranger not long ago.

But Cade and Cody and Wyatt seemed so eager, so generous. They were trying to fix my problems. They softened my hardening heart, the anxiety layers that tried to reinforce themselves.

“Let me think about it,” I said.

Cade nodded.

19

CADE

The barren bathroom looked lonely, and smelled acidic.

The pungent smell of the glue that I put around each individual tube and attachment in the plumbing lingered in the air. I’d propped open the window for a few minutes to vent it, allowing icy tendrils inside.

Noelle held onto a garbage bag while she gathered up sawed-off chunks of pipe, stuffing them in the bag. She wore her hair in a high ponytail. A hint of dirt smudged her cheek, and I’d spent the last hour stopping myself from swiping it off. At some point, I’d have to do something about this attraction, because it was making me inefficient and frustrated.

What that something was, I couldn’t guess. Staking a claim? Sounded a little too patriarchal and 1800’s. She wasn’t property. But dancing sounded nice. Holding her close, free to smell her hair, feeling her hand in mine . . .

. . . yeah, that wouldn’t help.

Yet, now I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

I stepped away from the plumbing, satisfied. The glue would dry overnight. Nelson, a local plumber and friend, would swing by later to approve it, and we could board up the floor with plywood again, before we went to tile. Cody and Wyatt were about to learn a steep lesson in grout and patience.

“Impressive,” Noelle declared.

Her sincerity thrilled me, but I hid it with a scoff. “We’ll see. Nelson will approve it, if it works. You have to have the angles just right. I think I do, but you never know.”

She set the garbage bag outside of the room and pulled a folded paper from her pocket. “As soon as the floor is done, we can move onto drywall, tape, and mudding?”

“Yep.”

“How long will the floor take?”

Frowning, I said, “Longer than I’d like, because I’ve got to teach Cody and Wyatt how to do it.”

“Who taught you how to do all this?”

I smiled. “A few other bosses, but mostly Morgan. We helped another family redo their bathroom when I first started working for him, and I’ve had odd jobs repairing things that fell apart here. He taught me all kinds of skills.”

The edges of her face softened. A hum issued from her throat as she skimmed her list again, folded it, and stuffed it into her pocket. Tired bruises still lingered beneath Noelle’s eyes, but not as deeply as before. Slowly, she recovered from lost sleep at night. I wanted to wake up with Lily and help more, but didn’t want to be too eager, too intrusive. Just another sign that I needed to do something about this attraction.

We sat in a calm lull, lost in our own thoughts, before she broke the quiet.

“Do you have to do that?”