Page 55 of Texas Temptation

Caleb fell asleep on the ride back to the ranch.

Jordan was almost as tired asCalebwhen they arrived home. She didn’t know how Amelia managed. The woman was decades older, but she seemed as energetic and raring to go as ever. Wistfully, she wished she could sleep as Caleb had. But there wouldn’t be time before dinner for a nap.

At the evening meal, Cade suggested they go into Tumbleweed in the morning.

“Don’t you have work to do?” Jordan asked.

“I want us to choose rings.”

“Splendid. I wondered when you’d get around to that, nephew. Seems to me you had the ring in hand when you proposed to Marissa,” Amelia said.

“I wasn’t as uncertain of Marissa’s answer as I was of Jordan’s,” Cade said easily. “We’ll look at the jewelers in town. If you don’t see something you like, we can go into Dallas.”

“I’m sure they’ll have just the right ring in Tumbleweed.”

Jordan was thrilled he wanted to buy an engagement ring. He did care, just didn’t say the words. It wasn’t that long until the wedding. A plain gold band would have suited her. To have an engagement ring to show the world had to mean something.

“We’ll have lunch in town.”

“To celebrate. Actually, maybe you two should plan a dinner in Dallas. I’m sure the restaurants there are much better than the ones we have in Tumbleweed,” Amelia said. “I could watch Caleb for you. We could have a pleasant sleep over at my cottage. Would you like that, Caleb?”

The little boy nodded agreeably.

“We’ll rent a movie and watch it with popcorn and then he can sleep in Grandpa Eli’s feather bed. That’s a treat I remember from my girlhood.”

Jordan smiled as Caleb asked questions about the feather bed. His eyes grew bigger as Amelia told about plucking goose down from geese that grandpa Eli had raised and stuffing them in the ticking. She told about the time the ticking split and feathers went everywhere.

Jordan looked to Cade to share her delight, only to find he seemed miles away, totally unaware of Amelia’s story.

When he saw her gaze, he looked away.

“So, shall I plan on Caleb for tomorrow night?” Amelia asked, at the end of her story.

“Another time we’ll take you up on it, but tomorrow, lunch will have to suffice,” Cade said, rising. He left the table, his plate still half full.

After Caleb went to bed and Amelia returned home, Jordan went downstairs to the study. Cade retired there every evening after dinner. Would he continue to do so once they were married, or would the two of them share quiet evenings together?

“Am I interrupting?” she asked from the doorway.

“Not at all. Come in.”

Cade pressed a few buttons on his computer keyboard and shut down the program.

“I was just checking my e-mail. Which I can as easily do in the morning. Tell me more about what the doctor said about Caleb’s prognosis.”

Jordan wished he’d hold out his hand and draw her into his lap again, but he merely leaned back in his chair and waited.

She sat on one of the other chairs near the desk and told him about her day, then asked about his. For a while, the conversation flowed.

When it wound down, Jordan hesitated to ask any of the myriad of questions she had. There was so much about Cade she wanted to know—everything, in fact. Of course, she had the rest of her life to find the answers, but she was impatient, wanting to know it all right now.

She rested her head on the back of the chair, content that she’d been able to talk with him so easily. Maybe the other questions would come up naturally.

“Tired?” Cade asked.

“I am a little,” she admitted. “Amelia has lots more energy than I have. I think we visited half the stores in Dallas, and she would have covered the other half if we had had time.”

“If you’re tired, go to bed. We can talk more tomorrow.”

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