Summertime on the Ranch by Carolyn Brown (leveled readers txt) 📗

This thing with Becca went way beyond that, though. Who would ever have thought that Dalton Wilson would be having a wonderful time flirting with no thought of getting lucky that night? Maybe his nana was right about him settling down. He glanced over at Becca, and yep, whether he believed it or not, he’d fallen in love with her at first sight. With his past and with her dream of a recording career just shattered, though, he would have to take things slow. Dalton was a patient man. He could take his time and follow the rainbow to its end when he knew there was a pot of gold waiting on him.

Only a few vehicles were parked in the Dairy Queen lot when they arrived, so he snagged a spot close to the front door. The stars had begun to pop out in the sky by the time they were inside and had ordered. Since there were few other customers, the waitress brought their order pretty quickly, and Becca dived right into the double-meat-and-cheese bacon burger.

“This is one thing I missed in Nashville,” she said between bites.

“They don’t have Dairy Queen in Tennessee?” Dalton asked.

“Yes, they do, and their burgers are good, but not as good as these. Maybe it’s because I’m home when I have one here,” she answered.

“You weren’t home out there?”

“Home isn’t a place. It’s a feeling,” she told him. “I was always scrambling out there. Here I’m just Becca McKay, someone who sings sometimes at church and entertains sometimes at a Watermelon Festival, but I’m not doing it to follow a dream of being a famous singer. I’m singing for fun.”

“Well, I for one am glad that you feel at home in this part of the world. Austin says that you’re the best help she’s ever had in the wine shed, and she hopes you don’t get the itch to go back to Nashville.” Dalton ate slowly so that they could spend more time together.

“I love working there. One of my part-time jobs in Nashville was working in a winery,” she told him. “Like I told you before, I wouldn’t mind having a vineyard of my own and trying my hand at creating my own label someday.”

“What would it be named?” he asked.

“I haven’t gotten that far,” she answered.

“I’ve got a name for you.” He grinned.

“Spit it out,” she told him.

“Southern Lady. That sounds classy like you.” His grin got bigger.

“Thank you, and I do like that for a label,” she said and then pointed at the huge Coca-Cola clock hanging on the wall of the burger joint. “The Dollar General closes at eight. That means we’ve only got thirty minutes to round up the stuff for the kittens.”

“Then we’d better get going.” He slid out of the booth and waited for her, then ushered her to the door with his hand on her back. Walking beside a woman like that wasn’t anything new to him, but the heat radiating through his hand damn sure was. This must be an extension of that love-at-first-sight thing Rye kept telling him about.

The Dollar General was right next door to the Dairy Queen, so it only took a couple of minutes to walk over to it. When they were inside, Becca latched onto a cart and pushed it right back to the baby section. Dalton followed behind her and located a rack with packages of three baby blankets in each.

“Pink,” she reminded him when he picked up the first one and it had a blue striped one in it.

He hung it back and riffled through the rest of the packages until he found two that had all pink ones. “Will this do? Some are striped and some are plaid.”

“If it’s got pink on it, Grammie will be fine with them,” she answered.

“Well, well, well!” Lacy Ruiz came around the end of the aisle with a cartload of merchandise. “So, this is why you…”

“We’re buying these for…” Dalton started to try to explain, but then he figured that telling his old standby with the credenza in her living room that they were buying blankets for cats would sound totally crazy. “A gift for a couple of new babies.”

“Yeah, right.” Lacy started at Becca’s toes and slowly let her eyes travel up to the top of her red hair. “I guess I’ll lose my five dollars.”

“I’m Becca McKay,” she introduced herself. “How are you going to lose five dollars because we’re buying blankets for new babies?”

“Lacy Ruiz,” she nodded. “We’ve got a pot goin’ at the Broken Bit about what kind of woman will finally rope Dalton, and I sure didn’t bet on it being a tall redhead. I guess there’s more than one way to get a cowboy to the altar.” Her eyes shifted from Becca’s stomach to the blankets in the cart. “I’ve got several things to get before the store closes.” She paused and patted Dalton on the cheek. “I just can’t see you as a daddy. I guess this will keep you away from the Broken Bit, but if it goes south, darlin’, you know where I live.”

“Sweet Lord!” Becca gasped when the woman had gone.

“I expect they’ll all be disappointed in nine months.” Dalton shrugged. “Let’s go find the cat toys now.”

“Why didn’t you tell her we were buying these for kittens?” Becca asked.

“You think she would have believed me? That sounds like a lame excuse,” Dalton said.

Becca giggled. “It does, doesn’t it? I guess I’d better tell Grammie about this as soon as I get home. I bet that hussy is calling everyone she knows on her cell phone right now, and I sure don’t want to have Grammie yelling at me because she heard it first from one of her friends.”

“So…” Dalton dragged out the word. “Are you going to marry me and make a decent man of me?”

“Nope.” She shook her head slowly as she tossed half a dozen cat toys into the cart. “I’d never rope a