Texas Homecoming by Carolyn Brown

Author:Carolyn Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2022-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Cody had been in and out of the bunkhouse since he was a toddler. There were times when it was completely full, and when Henry had the foreman’s bedroom. In those days, the place seemed huge to him. As years went by more and more of the hired hands lived in town and commuted to the ranch. Nowadays with the newer equipment, they could make do with hiring spring, summer, and weekend help, and there were always teenage boys willing to work. And somehow, as Cody grew up, the bunkhouse got smaller. There were now two sets of bunk beds on the far wall, the foreman’s bedroom and bathroom with a tub and shower, and a large living room, kitchen, dining area all combined.

“Did things seem bigger to you when you were a kid?” Cody asked as he brought a beer and a bottle of sweet tea out of the kitchen, twisted the top off the tea, and handed it to Stevie.

“Thank you, and of course they did. I remember when our backyard was enormous and the walk to school, which was barely a block, seemed like a mile,” Stevie answered.

Cody settled on the other end of the sofa from her, laid his phone on the coffee table, and hit an icon. “Here’s to country music at the end of a long day.” He held out his bottle of beer toward hers.

Stevie touched her bottle with his. “Music and cold beer. It don’t get no better than this.”

“If you get tired of it, we can watch something on television, or just talk,” he said.

“I don’t get tired of music.” Stevie swayed to Chris Stapleton singing “Broken Halos.”

“Do you think of Dineo when this song plays?” she asked.

“Yes, I do,” Cody answered. “But I got to admit that I didn’t do what the lyrics say about not asking Jesus why, because I did many times.”

“I’ve seen my share of broken halos too, and I didn’t let it go without asking God why he had to take them from me since they were all I had. First my dad and then my mama, and I still want answers now, and I don’t want to wait to get them until the by-and-by, like the words say.”

“Evidently, we aren’t supposed to know the reasons why.” Cody took a long drink of his beer. “Are you still feeling all right, Stevie? It’s been twenty-four hours since your fall, and a brain bleed can hide and present a little later. I would sure feel better if we could have gotten an MRI.”

“I feel just fine,” Stevie assured him. “Not even a headache. Did y’all get the four-wheeler checked out? Did it need an MRI?” Her eyes twinkled when she joked.

“Nope”—Cody flashed a smile—“when I set it up on all four wheels and turned the engine over, it started right up. I drove it back to the barn. Nothing wrong with it but a slight dent on the front, which matches the one on the other side where Jesse dented it last fall.

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