Page 55 of Knox
And he smelled good—husky and clean—when he’d arrived at the dinner table.
She’d found herself in the kitchen, helping Gerri with dinner, the kind her mother used to serve. Baked potatoes, pot roast, chili, homemade cornbread, pie.
She had probably gained ten pounds in three days. And didn’t care.
Now, she sat on the back porch, the view silencing her. Jagged, gray, white-capped mountains framed the horizon to the northwest, and down inside a bowl surrounded by rolling green hills sat the tiny town Knox said was named after his great-grandmother. Geraldine.
Romantic, if you asked her. For a man to name an entire town after the woman he loved. She’d seen a picture of Jacob Marshall, the patriarch from the early 1900s, and decided Knox looked a little like him. Bold cheekbones, a square jaw, pensive, but kind, eyes. And a rare smile that could fill her entire body with heat and light and…
No. She could not fall in love with him.
She was just here short term. To breathe and heal and rest.
And eat cookies, apparently, because the door opened and Gerri walked out, a tempting plate of browned goodies in hand. “You have to try these,” she said as she sat down in the rocking chair next to Kelsey. “They’re my grandmother’s peanut butter recipe, but I added molasses to it, and…what do you think?”
Kelsey took a proffered cookie still radiating warmth from its recent escape from the oven.
It practically dissolved in her mouth, and she let out a groan.
“Oh good,” Gerri said. “I’m going to serve them for the birthday party.”
Kelsey took another bite of the cookie. “Knox says it’s a big one.”
“The big six-oh.” Gerri set the plate down and looked over at her. She wore a floral-patterned scarf in her hair, an oversized sweatshirt, and leggings, her feet bare. “You want to know a secret?”
Kelsey glanced over.
“I could care less about turning sixty. It’s just a number. I’m hoping to give my kiddos an excuse to show up. They haven’t all seen each other since…well, for a few years. I managed to get them all home one Labor Day a few years ago, right before Ford left for basic. Knox is beating himself up one side and down the other for not keeping the family together, and I wanted to show them that we can be together and still be off on our own journeys.”
She grabbed a peanut butter cookie, tore off an edge. “Might help him let me go a little.”
Kelsey frowned.
“I met a man.” She smiled, wagged her eyebrows. “He has a motorcycle.”
Kelsey couldn’t help but smile at the twinkle in Gerri’s eyes. “Is that bad?”
“Not in the least,” Gerri said. “In fact, Hardwin reminds me, in a way, of Orrin. Safe, sturdy, smart. But under all that is a man who might as well be seventeen, ready for adventure.”
She sighed. “Don’t get me wrong. I loved Knox’s father with everything inside me. I still ache with missing him—he’s everywhere here. He proposed to me right there—” She pointed to a knoll at the far edge of the property.
She dropped off into silence, as if remembering. “After he died, I’d go out there sometimes. Sit and listen.”
“To…what?”
Gerri glanced at her. “To the Lord. His voice, in the wind. In my heart. I’d pour out my grief. ‘From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge.’ And He was my safe place, every day. He gave me just enough grace for that day to keep going on with my life.”
She sighed. “Of course, I don’t know what I would have done without Knox. Poor man. He had dreams of making it big in the PBR, but I couldn’t run this ranch alone, and he knew it. Came out without a word and went to work. I handed him the reins and he took a chance on the bulls and it’s paid off. He’s got his father’s head for business, my creativity, and his own brand of get ’er done.”
“I’ll never forget the way he caught me in the arena, when I was falling,” Kelsey said quietly. “He’s amazingly strong.”
Gerri glanced at her. “He didn’t mention that.”
“Hmm. Let’s just say he refused to let me fall.”
Gerri nodded. “He refuses to letanyof us fall. I just worry about what it costs him.”
“What it costs him?”