The Chosen Child. Brenda Mott

came so naturally when the two of them rode together. Lean from his saddle and kiss her.

      She braced herself. It had been a while since they’d shared more than a casual parting kiss. As a matter of fact, the farewell kiss Cody had given her when she’d left for Tennessee had been a long time coming. But as she was anticipating his lips on hers, Cody stopped, pulling the black horse up short.

      His expression sobered. “I’m also glad you rode out here.” The tone of his voice, the look in his eyes, put her on edge. “I have something to show you.”

      With that, he swung Raven around, and Nikki urged Cheyenne into a trot, following along after him. She felt disappointed and irritated. He hadn’t even asked her how her trip had been or how Amanda was. Hadn’t welcomed her home. But then, what had she expected? That three weeks apart would automatically solve their problems? That he would welcome her with open arms and everything would be the same as it used to be before the accident?

      Cody glanced over at her as the horses settled into a brisk walk side by side. “How was your trip?”

      “It was good.” Nikki’s heart pounded. Should she tell him now?

      He pursed his lips in a thin line, focusing on the trail ahead. “I meant to call so I could talk to Amanda. I owe her an apology.”

      “I’m glad to hear that. But I guess I’d better tell you her good news first.”

      “Yeah?” He watched her expectantly.

      “Amanda’s seeing a really wonderful man. His name’s Ian Bonner. They’re engaged.”

      “That’s great. I’m happy for her.”

      “That’s not all, Cody.” She took a deep breath. “She’s pregnant.”

      His head turned so fast, Nikki heard his neck pop. His expression shifted from shocked surprise to something she couldn’t quite read before he adopted the neutral mask he’d worn so often lately. A mask she hated worse than his anger and hurt.

      “That is good news,” he said. “Good for her, anyway.”

      Nikki scowled at him. “Well, I’m happy for her.”

      For a moment, she didn’t think he was going to answer. He reached down and absently flicked a wayward strand of Raven’s mane onto the right side of the gelding’s neck where it belonged. “I can’t say that I’m not,” he said, his voice low and husky. “But you’re going to have to give me some time to let it sink in.”

      The fact that Amanda could have what they couldn’t obviously bothered him.

      “How can you possibly begrudge her a child of her own after what she sacrificed, what she went through for us?”

      “I don’t. I just wish…forget it.”

      “No, what were you going to say?”

      The sorrow she saw in his eyes immediately washed away the resentment she’d felt moments before. “I just wish Anna hadn’t died.”

      Familiar pain laced through her. “Me, too. But we’ve got to get past this somehow. We’ve got to get on with our lives.” She guided Cheyenne around a dip in the trail, her movements automatic. “Cody, we’ve got to start with us.”

      “I know. I’ve done nothing but think about us while you’ve been gone. And I believe I’ve come up with a compromise.”

      Her hands felt like ice. “Are you moving in with Jordan?”

      “No.” He shook his head. At that moment they rounded a bend in the trail, and Nikki knew exactly what he had in mind.

      A three-room, white frame house stood butted up against the rock face in front of them. In days past, when their place had been a larger working ranch, it had served as a bunkhouse and later as a home for the many live-in hired hands that came and went. But over time, they had left it abandoned and empty, except for some ancient pieces of furniture and the cobwebs the spiders had taken to spinning in the undisturbed corners.

      Only from the look of things, there were no longer cobwebs in the house.

      The cozy building bore a new coat of paint, and the broken-down steps of the porch had been recently repaired. Two chairs sat side by side near the front door, facing the panoramic view beyond. And through the curtainless front windows, Nikki could see the inside of the little house had been cleaned and painted as well.

      She sat frozen in the saddle, her hands and legs numb. Her mind raced. “What have you done?” she asked, feeling betrayed. That he would fix up the bunkhouse—and so quickly—meant only one thing. “How on earth did you manage all this…?”

      “I’ve had some help,” Cody said, “which I’ll tell you about later. What do you think?”

      “It looks great.” Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he had something else in mind. “Why did you do it?”

      “I’m going to move in here,” he said quietly.

      She sat her horse in silence, not sure what to say. A temporary stay in the bunkhouse would’ve required cleaning the place up, even repairing the broken steps. But the new paint, the yard cleared of brush and rock…it all looked too permanent. Too much as though Cody meant to stay here, on the ranch that had been in his family for three generations. But away from the home they’d known together—away from their bed—for good.

      “Do you want to go inside and see it?”

      Nikki blinked and tried to focus on Cody’s question. Tried not to let her emotions show. She gave a casual lift of her shoulders. “Sure.”

      Telling herself to stay calm, that she could handle this, she swung down off Cheyenne’s back. The old hitching rail in front of the house had also been replaced, and she looped her reins around it before preceding Cody up the steps.

      His boot heels clipped against the porch’s wooden surface as he moved past her to hold open the door. The scent of fresh paint greeted her as she stepped inside and looked around. Arms crossed, Nikki turned to face him. “It looks great. You got a lot accomplished in a short time.”

      If he noticed the apprehension in her voice, he gave no indication. “Like I said, I had some help.”

      “Jordan?”

      “Some. But mostly I had a kid helping me. One of the boys I’m supervising during his community service.”

      She raised a brow. “The judge assigned him community service on our ranch?”

      “No, but his foster parents did.”

      “Who is he?”

      “Dustin Holbrook. He was in your class—what—five years ago?”

      Her jaw dropped. “Dusty?” She remembered a bright, shy, little boy with brown eyes and chestnut hair. A boy whose mother and stepfather had gone through a divorce the year he was in her kindergarten class. She’d heard whispered rumors around the school of the parents’ alcohol and drug addiction. “My God, I haven’t seen him in ages. What did he do?”

      Cody’s mouth quirked. “Painted his initials on the hood of my squad car.”

      “What? I didn’t see…” She gestured over her shoulder in the direction of the house, where his squad car was parked. “How did I miss that?”

      “It just came back from the body shop.”

      “I can’t believe he had the nerve to do that. What on earth possessed him?”

      “Gang initiation.”

      “In Deer Creek?” She wasn’t naive, and their little town was by no means immune to crime, but it usually came in the form of domestic disputes…and drunk driving.

      Nikki cringed inwardly and refocused on her conversation with Cody.

      “Apparently