drove home, his thoughts on fire with possibilities.
She hadn’t known his face before. She knew it now. He’d rescued her. He had her car to tow, and a standing date with her on Monday morning. He’d left his blanket with her. He had her keys.
There were endless opportunities to see her again, not just that Santa crap. He needed to take advantage of these opportunities, too. If he was just chauffeuring her around like a nice guy, he’d get the chance to talk to her, more than just the blurted-out responses he kept flinging at her. He could hold a real conversation with her.
He could bask in her presence.
This was everything he’d wanted from the moment he’d seen her . . . and he needed to not mess this up. Caleb had to tread a thin line—he didn’t want to scare her and be too pushy, but he also didn’t want her to get away, not when he had the chance to romance her.
So he drove home, his thoughts whirling, and when he got to the Swinging C Ranch, instead of heading to his private cabin back behind the main house, he raced over to Jack’s and pounded on the door.
Jack didn’t answer—not right away. He slept like the dead, Caleb knew. Years of dealing with Hank’s snoring and Caleb’s habit of reading by flashlight, and Jack had learned to sleep through anything. So Caleb continued to pound at the door, waiting patiently for his brother to wake up.
“Okay, okay,” Jack finally called out hoarsely. “Jesus. Give me a moment.” He came to the door a few seconds later, his hair standing straight up, and gave Caleb a red-eyed look. “Is someone dead?”
“No.”
“Well, someone’s about to be.” He glared at Caleb. “What the hell’s so important?”
Caleb pushed inside, ignoring his younger brother’s sour attitude. “You have to help me. This is my big chance to win Amy.”
“Win Amy . . . what the heck?” Jack scrubbed at his face with a tired hand. “What are you talking about? And where have you been?”
“Amy’s car broke down by the side of the highway,” Caleb said, sliding into the recliner by Jack’s TV. He kicked up his legs and watched his grumpy brother as Jack settled on the side of his bed. “She said she didn’t have anyone to call so she called me and I went to go rescue her. She cried the entire time I was there, too.”
“I’d cry if your ugly ass showed up to save me, too,” Jack teased, and Caleb tossed his hat at his brother. “You think she wants to date you now?”
“I don’t think she was thinking about anything except her car being broken down.” He thought about the two humping Santa dolls in the trunk of the car and felt his face get hot. That was . . . damned odd. “I’m picking her up Monday morning to take her to work and I told her I’d get her car fixed.”
“What? Ya damned sucker.” Jack shook his head. “I should have known. She’s gonna bat her eyes at you and use you like a sponge.”
Caleb shook his head. Jack hadn’t seen how distressed Amy was, how utterly alone and adrift she’d looked. “She’s not using me. And she needs help. You should see her place. It’s a mess. Leaky faucets and a hole in the roof, and she acts like she doesn’t know what to do with it. She doesn’t know how to take care of anything.” He hesitated for a moment. “And she rescued a dog, too. A blind one.”
“Oh man, don’t tell Uncle Ennis. He’s going to practically invite her into the family when he hears that.”
Invite Amy into the family? Caleb was okay with that . . . as long as it meant she was marrying him. As long as they weren’t, like, siblings or anything. “I need to use this opportunity to talk to her,” Caleb said to his brother. “Help me think of what to do.”
“And this can’t wait until morning?” Jack yawned.
“No, I have to start working on a plan now. I’m giving her a ride to school Monday because her car’s busted, remember? Pretty sure it’s the alternator.”
“If it is, you can fix that,” Jack said absently. He rubbed his head, thinking. “Okay. So you want to use this time to romance her, huh?” He squinted at Caleb. “How’d it go tonight? You say anything stupid?”
“Oh yeah,” Caleb muttered. “But maybe if I’m around her enough she