Rory (6 page)

The toast popping up made her
jump, almost knocking over her crutches.

“You okay?” asked Rory.

“Yep, but that’s a pretty fierce
toaster you have there.”

“Perfect thing
to wake me up every morning.”

Cass turned around when she heard
the side door opening, and saw Flynn standing there taking off his hat.

He looked exactly the same as he
had when she’d left. Well, maybe he gained a little weight probably because he
had a wife cooking for him. Hard to believe that he and Shane were now both
married men.

“Well, look who this is.” Flynn
walked over to her and hugged her so hard he lifted her off her feet.

She kissed him on the cheek “It’s
great seeing you again,” she said.

“Same here.
Sorry to hear
about the accident but Rory here will have you up and dancing in no time.”

“Let’s sit down and enjoy our
coffee and break before we have to get back to work,” said Rory.

The three of them sat at the
table, and Cass took a bite of toast. “I hear that you now have a wife.”

“I do, and we’re also having a
baby.”

“That’s wonderful,” said Cass,
patting his hand. “What does Emily think about it?”

“She’s over the moon.
Talks about it every day.”

“I told Cass that your wife is
Emily’s birth mother,” added Rory.

Flynn nodded. “I’m so happy they found
one another and that she was the one I fell in love with. I guess I should have
known anyone who could produce someone as wonderful as Emily had to be pretty special.”

“Do you know what sex the baby
is?” asked Cass.

Flynn took a sip of coffee and
shook his head. “We want to keep it a surprise, but Emily’s convinced it’s a boy.”

“She’s not been wrong so far with
the horses and cattle, and she predicted correctly for Shane and Lacey.”

“And what’s Shane’s son’s name?”

“Liam Ryan.”

Flynn had said the two names obviously
not realizing what he’d done because he glanced at Rory. She saw the look of
sadness and pity in their eyes.

Cass bit her lip. Hearing his
name was painful, but she was happy Shane had honored Ryan by giving his first
born his name.

“Now all we need to do is get
this guy a wife, and we’re all set,” said Flynn nodding toward Rory.

“Not me, I’ll be one of the town’s
last remaining bachelors,” said Rory.

Flynn winked at her.

“Are you dating anyone?” asked Cass

She hoped that had sounded like
she was just casually interested and not thinking of herself as a potential
candidate to become Mrs. Rory Malone.

“Who me?
Nope, too busy
for that sort of thing,” said Rory.

“All work and no play,” said
Flynn.

“Which reminds me we have a fence
to mend before lunch,” said Rory finishing his coffee. “Anything you need
before we head out again?”

Cass shook her head.

“You’re going to get bored here
so why don’t I drive you into town this afternoon. Did Rory tell you that my
wife and Emily now run a craft store next to Mom’s café? Rory knocked the
connecting wall down so people can wander back and forth. They’ll both be there
later so why don’t you go check it out?”

“That sounds like fun,” said Cass.

“I can drive her because I have
to go to the store to pick up some food,” said Rory.

“I guess my services won’t be
needed then.”

****

Cass looked so pretty. She
couldn’t wear pants because of the cast so she’d put on a denim skirt and pink
blouse to take a trip into town with him. Her perfume drifted over to his side
of the truck as they turned the corner and headed down the hill away from the
ranch.

He glanced over, noticing her
staring out of the window. He’d never left Timber Creek, and he could imagine
how strange it would be to go away and come back like this. He put his foot down
and sped by the road where she and her father had once lived. He didn’t want to
make it obvious, but when she turned to look at him he’d guessed she’d known
his motives for the sudden heavy foot.

“Did they ever rebuild the
house?” she asked.

Rory shook his head. The land was
still vacant. It had been rubble and charred grass for a year after the fire.
He tried to get the image out of his mind.

“Is there anything I can get you
while I’m at the store?” he asked, hoping that would take the edge off the
moment.

“Anything you’re eating is fine
with me. And please let me pay for my share of the food.”

“You’re not working and one more
mouth to feed isn’t going to bust my budget.”

“Then as soon as I get back to Tacoma
and start working again I’ll repay you.”

The thought of her going back to Tacoma
suddenly made him feel sad and lost. Just having her under the same roof for
one night had sparked something inside him that he hadn’t even realized was
actually dormant, or maybe even dead.

“So have you been in retail since
you moved to Tacoma?”

“Yes, the current job was the
second store I’ve worked at.”

“You like it?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “It
pays the bills. I tried beauty school but…I didn’t think it was a good fit
after all.”

“Maybe while you’re laid up you can
think about what you’re really like to do. Even train for a new career.”

“It’s definitely something to
consider.”

Rory pulled into the lot for the
café.

“Emily and Me,” said Cass reading
the sign above the craft store.

“They even have craft parties in
there every Thursday, and
it’s
standing room only now.
I never knew Timber Creek had so many ladies into knitting and crafting.”

Rory got out of the truck, opened
the door for Cass and then helped her out. He walked beside her as they
approached the café door.

Cass went inside, and his mom
looked up and smiled. She walked over to her, and Cass hugged her. “Look at
your pretty face all battered. I’d like five minutes with the person who did
this to you.”

They hugged again and then Emily
came running at full speed from the craft store.

“It’s Cass, she’s here,” said
Emily.

Emily threw her arms around Cass,
almost pulling her over as she did so.

“Hey, don’t knock her over, okay?”
said Rory.

“Sorry. I’ll be real careful with
Cass.”

“Look at you, all grown up,” said
Cass.

“You remember when you and Uncle
Ryan would read to me?” asked Cass.

Cass nodded. They’d been happy
times.

“You got to meet my mom. She’s
having a baby.” Emily tugged on her arm.

“Guess I’ll see you later,” said
Rory watching poor Cass trying to stay on her feet as Emily pulled harder on
her arm.

“She looks more beautiful than I
ever remember,” said his mom. “Is she doing okay?”

He nodded. “I think she’s healing
just fine.”

“No, I meant mentally.”

Rory shrugged his shoulders. “I’m
not sure. It can’t be easy. However, I would like us all to work on her so
she’ll think about coming back home. I think it’s for the best.”

“Rory Malone would that be best
for her, or for you?” asked his mom.

She winked at him. Surely she
couldn’t know that he’d always had harbored feelings for Cassandra Perkins.

****

“Mom, mom, this is Cass. She’s my
friend.”

A pretty dark haired woman, with
an unmistakable baby bump, turned around and smiled at her.

“Hi Cass, I’m Natalie.”

Cass held out her hand, and they
shook.

“Emily’s been so excited since she
heard Rory was bringing you back to Timber Creek. Sorry to hear about your
accident. That must have been scary.”

“It was, but I’m glad Rory could
be there for me.”

“Cass, Cass, come and
see
all our crafts.” Emily pulled on her arm.

“Emily, not so rough because
you’re going to make Cass fall over. Why don’t you both go and sit at one of
the tables and you can show her some of the things we’ve made.”

“This way,” said Emily, taking no
notice of her mother and tugging once again at Cass’s arm.

She smiled as she followed Emily
to some shelves. How wonderful that her mother and her had found one another.
If only her own mom was still around. She sat down, and Emily brought over an
assortment of necklaces and bracelets.

“We make these at our Thursday
night craft parties, and Gran serves lemonade and scones. I made this one,” she
said pushing a pink stone bracelet toward her.

“Emily, it’s beautiful.”

“You can have it,” said Emily.

“No, really I couldn’t.”

“I want you to.”

The last thing she wanted to do
was offend Emily. “Okay then,” said Cass, pushing it over her wrist.

“And you have to come here on
Thursday to do crafts with us.”

“Emily, Cass probably wants to
just stay home and rest,” said Natalie.

“No, really, I’d love something
to do. In fact, I might take a look around before I leave and buy something to
make while I’m recovering.”

“That reminds me, Rory’s new
paints and canvas arrived this morning. So the two of you should have great fun
in the evenings,” said Natalie.

Cass blushed. Some other activity
besides crafts and painting suddenly sprung to mind.

****

Rory lifted out his bag of paints
and the two canvases from the back of his truck. Now the town had a craft store
he didn’t need to drive into Missoula for supplies. He put them under his arm
while he put the other one on Cass’s arm making sure she didn’t fall over as
they made their way into the house. She’d bought a kit to make a necklace and
matching earrings. Emily was quite the sales girl.

“I’ll just take these into my
studio and then I’ll start on supper,” said Rory.

“You don’t need to. I can make
something for us.”

“You shouldn’t be on your feet
for too long.”

“I’m fine, and I can sit at the table
and maybe peel potatoes or whatever you need me to do.”

“Okay, then, there are some
potatoes and green beans in the fridge and I bought some ground beef that I’ll
make into hamburger patties.”

“I can get started on that.”

He left Cass in the kitchen and
carried his art supplies through to the back room. He’d love to paint Cass
while she was here.
Something to remember her by after she
left.
No, he was going to make her damn well stay. This was her home.
This is where she belonged. Or was he just being selfish thinking of her as
another lonely soul to hang out with?

Hearing something fall in the
kitchen, he rushed out and saw she’d dropped a saucepan and was in the process
of picking it up. Her butt was in the air, and her skirt got caught on her cast,
allowing him a generous view of her thighs.

The front of his jeans pulled
tight.
Another hard on.
He felt borderline guilty.
Yes, only borderline because any guy in his situation with a pretty girl
hanging around the house would react the same way. He should have let her know
he was standing in the doorway ogling her, but he was enjoying the view way too
much to stop.

A naughty thought of painting her
nude washed over him. Now that would be one sketch he’d never be able to share
with the rest of the family.

He coughed, finally letting her
know he was back in the kitchen.

“Finding everything okay?” he
asked.

“Yes. You know
Rory,
you’re such a neat housekeeper. You’ll make someone a mighty fine wife one
day,” she said and pulled a face at him.

He smiled and walked over to the
bag of groceries and pulled out the package of ground beef. Cass took the
vegetables and hopped over to the table and sat down.
Marriage.
Marriage and a family.
He hadn’t given either thing
much thought for years. With each turn of the calendar he guessed time was
slipping away, and he’d end up a bachelor the rest of his life. He hadn’t even
thought about it, been even the least bit envious, when Shane and Flynn had
gotten married. But now Cass was back in his life, being in a permanent relationship
was constantly on his mind. He watched as she peeled the potatoes. He could
imagine her sitting there doing the same thing when he came in from the ranch
every night.
Someone to greet him; kiss him, eat with him,
watch TV with him.
And finally someone to make love
to.
To snuggle with on cold winter nights, and someone who would still
be there the morning after.