face with my hands and tell her that no matter what she wanted to say or not say, I didn’t care. I simply wanted to be near her, and she could hide whatever she wanted to.
A laugh tumbled out of her lips, and she rolled her eyes. “Okay, never had a guy try to use that approach on me before. Good try, cowboy.” She patted me on the chest, then reached for the door to open it. When she walked past me, I had to fight the urge to grab her and kiss her senseless. I wanted to know every single thing about Timberlynn Holden, but it was clear I would have to work a lot harder for it than I thought.
“Right on time, kids!”
I stopped when I saw my mother standing at the table in the small cabin. I should have known when she said she’d help me with the food that she’d stick her nose in my plan.
“What are you doing here, Mama? I thought Greg or Jimmy was bringing up the food for us.”
“They both needed to run into town to pick up some fencing supplies for your daddy, so I offered to bring it up.”
Timberlynn walked up to the spread of food and moaned. “Oh my gosh, this looks so good! I’m starving!”
My mother stood a little taller and smiled proudly.
So that’s where Blayze gets that from.
“I made my famous chicken salad and put it on homemade rye bread. I noticed neither of you ate breakfast this morning, so I was sure you’d both be hungry and wouldn’t mind an early lunch. I’ve got a fruit salad here with some dip.”
Timberlynn took a strawberry, dunked it into the white creamy dip, and then closed her eyes and let out another moan. “That is so good.”
“It’s our mama’s secret weapon,” I said as I took off my cowboy hat and set it down on the table by the door.
“Cream cheese mixed with marshmallow fluff,” my mother said with a wicked grin.
Timberlynn’s eyes widened in pure delight. “I could eat the whole bowl.”
I laughed. “You wouldn’t be the first.”
With a grin, Mom started to pack up a few things. “About six years ago we were hosting a huge Christmas Eve party for the ranch hands and some friends of ours. I made two batches of that dip. Two very large batches. When it came time to set out the food, it was nowhere to be found. I asked all the boys if they knew what happened to it, and all four of them claimed to have no idea. Two weeks later, I was in the barn when I stumbled upon the two bowls I had used for the dip. Licked completely clean.”
Timberlynn smiled wide and looked at me.
“Beck, Brock, and I snuck out to the barn and ate all the dip, even after Ty warned us not to.”
“Tell her about the black eye,” Mama said.
Timberlynn cocked her head at me.
I couldn’t help but chuckle as the memory came back. Plus, it was nice to hear my mother talking about Beck so casually. “Brock was, of course, older, so he got one bowl, while Beck and I had to share the other one. He wanted to lick it clean, and so did I. Brock told us we’d have to fight over it.”
“No!” Timberlynn gasped as she covered her mouth to keep from laughing. One look at my mother showed me she wasn’t the least bit sad that I was talking about Beck. She smiled in delight at the memory, and that warmed my heart. How crazy it was that Timberlynn and I had been talking about him.
“Yes. Needless to say, we fought, and I won. Beck walked around with a black eye our whole Christmas break, and when we got back to school, he told everyone he’d been kicked by a horse he was trying to break.”
My mother laughed softly. “God forbid he told anyone his younger brother had bested him.”
“Y’all had to have been sick as dogs!” Timberlynn stated.
“Let’s just say I didn’t eat that stuff for at least two years.”
“The joys of having boys,” Mama said as she walked up and kissed me on the side of the cheek. “You enjoy the early lunch and be sure to bring me back the dishes, please.”
“Thank you, Mama.”
She tossed a smile back over to Timberlynn. “Enjoy your lunch!”
“We will, thank you so much.”
When the door shut, I turned back to see that Timberlynn was smiling too.
“Sorry about that,” I