Did you happen to go through my underwear drawer while you were there?”
“No. Did you want me to?”
She ignored that, and him. After setting a stainless steel funnel into the first bottle, she raised the bucket and began to pour.
“You’re in my old room.”
It was a testament to her upper-body strength that the flow from the bucket barely wavered.
“Do you want it back?”
“No, you keep it. I took the one next door.” He walked toward the back door, then paused. “I hope you don’t snore.”
* * *
GLEN DID A GREAT JOB of avoiding his granddaughter, but Heidi tracked him down shortly before dinner. It took her standing outside the bathroom while he showered and shaved. She listened to the familiar old songs he hummed as he worked. They reminded her of when she was a little girl and had been frightened of the thunderstorms that rolled across the plains states. Glen had always held her tight during the storms, humming music popular a generation before she was born.
She enjoyed the memories, but refused to let them sway her. They were in a lot of trouble, and Glen had the power to make their situation much worse.
He opened the bathroom door, saw her and paused.
“Heidi!” His voice was falsely cheerful. “What can I do you for?”
She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him toward his bedroom. When they were safely inside, she closed the door behind him and planted her hands on her hips.
“Stay away from May.”
His eyes widened in exaggerated innocence. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do, Glen. I’ve seen how you look at her. I’ve watched the flirting. You like her, which is great, but this time the answer is no.”
His back stiffened. “You’re my granddaughter. That’s not for you to say.”
“It is for me to say,” she told him. “If you hurt May, we’ll lose everything for sure.”
“I would never hurt her.”
Heidi sighed. “Yes, you would. You know how you are, Glen. Getting women has never been the problem. It’s keeping them that you’re not so crazy about. You walk away and the woman is crushed. If you do that to May, she’ll take the ranch.”
Her grandfather nodded slowly. “You’re right. I’ll be careful.”
She studied him, not sure if he was saying what she wanted to hear, or if he meant what he was saying. “You promise?”
He kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess, Heidi. I won’t do anything to make it worse.”
“DO YOU MIND?” MAY ASKED, her arms full of framed pictures. She paused in the middle of the living room, then turned to Heidi. “I’m intruding. My boys tell me all the time that I get too involved. I’m enthusiastic. Mostly that’s a good thing, right?”
Despite the fact that Heidi was now living in the bedroom next to Rafe’s, and that her grandfather was avoiding her, which meant he was either upset or still determined to seduce May, and that Heidi lacked money in her savings account, she found herself smiling.
“Not enough people are enthusiastic,” she admitted. “I don’t mind you personalizing the house. If you have a sofa or two in your suitcase, I’d love to see them.”
May laughed. “You don’t love the green-and-purple plaid?”
Heidi leaned against the hideous couch that had come with the place. “No. Weird, huh?”
“It was ugly back when we lived here. Now it’s ugly and old. Poor thing.”
She set three pictures on the sofa table. Heidi moved closer. She recognized Rafe at once, even though the photo was from at least a decade ago. He was wearing a black cap and gown, holding a diploma cover that clearly said Harvard. She wasn’t even surprised.
May followed her gaze. “Rafe was on an academic scholarship. There’s no way I could have paid for his books, let alone the tuition. But he worked hard and graduated at the top of his class.” She pointed to the middle frame. The man was handsome, in a rugged way, with an easygoing smile. He was leaning against a horse, one arm on the animal’s neck.
“My middle son, Shane. He raises horses. Breeds them. Mostly Arabians and stock for the rodeo. He’s in Tennessee right now. And this is my baby. Clay.”
Clay had the same dark hair as his brothers, and his features were similar enough to claim the familial relationship, but the similarities ended there. Clay was a whole new level of handsome. The plain navy T-shirt he wore outlined chiseled muscles and broad shoulders. He wasn’t smiling, but Heidi found herself wishing he would. Just a little.
“Wow,” she said, picking up the frame and staring at the picture. “He almost looks familiar.”
May looked uncomfortable and quickly took the picture back. “Rafe doesn’t like me to talk about Clay.”
Why? Was he in prison? Or worse, although she wasn’t sure what would qualify as worse.
“Then we won’t talk about him.” Heidi touched the other woman’s arm. “It’s all right.”
May nodded, her mouth tight with worry.
“Don’t you have a daughter, as well?”
May sorted through the other pictures she held and passed one to Heidi, showing the boys and their sister at the holidays.
Rafe’s baby sister was younger than Heidi had expected. The boys were obviously close in age, but Evangeline had to have been born six or eight years later. She didn’t look anything like the rest of the family, either. Her hair was a honey-blond, her eyes deep green.
“She’s lovely,” Heidi told May. “I notice you don’t have any other pictures of her. Is she…” Heidi paused, wishing she’d thought before speaking. “Did she, um, die?”
“Oh, no. She’s a classically trained dancer. I’ve only seen her perform a few times, but she’s wonderful. Elegant and graceful. I wish…” May drew in a breath. “We’re not close. We don’t speak much these days. Mothers and daughters. You know how that goes.”
As Heidi barely remembered anything about her mother, she couldn’t relate to any kind of mother-daughter relationship, but she nodded, mostly because she realized things in the Stryker household weren’t as they had first seemed. Not quite so perfect.
May quickly put out the rest of the pictures. Heidi saw that, except for the one photo of Evangeline, they were all of the brothers. Complications and questions, but not so many answers.
“We
