Snowbound with the Cowboy Page 17

  “Any luck finding property?” Just asking made her heart still.

  “Not yet. The ranch listings closer to Denver were too pricey for what they were, and without enough acres for rodeo livestock. The properties farther out needed too much work. I’d need to bulldoze the house and barn and start over, on all of them.”

  If she tried to express sympathy it would just be a lie. She managed a faint smile.

  He tossed the duffel up onto the porch and sat on the top step to survey what she’d done. “So all of those little weedy things are flowers?”

  Dusting the dirt from her hands, she rolled her eyes at him. “You have no idea. The entire foundation of the house and the perimeter of the yard were once an absolute showpiece—a profusion of wildflowers my aunt planted so there would always be beautiful color from late spring through early fall. It was quite a feat, up this high in the foothills. She was once featured in a local magazine. They called the place a jewel—a miniature ‘Monet’s Gardens of the Rockies.’”

  “She really loved this place,” he said slowly.

  “Warren did too. It was their home for over forty years.” Sara sat down next to him. “If I can nurture these flowers along, I want to bring Millie up here so she can see them again before...well, before someone else moves in.”

  He leaned forward to rest his forearms on his thighs and wove his fingertips together. “I—I’m no longer sure that will happen.”

  “What? I thought the place would be rented or sold after you left.”

  “That was the original plan, yes.”

  She watched him quietly, expectantly waiting. “What changed?”

  “I had a lot of time to think during the drive back from Colorado, and I’m not sure I should let this go.”

  Her breath caught.

  “I keep thinking about something Abby said to me. I just don’t want to lose something important that I can’t get back.”

  Their eyes met, locked. She felt a shiver of hope and anticipation race down her spine.

  “I don’t know if I’m even capable of putting down roots...or real commitment,” he admitted. “You know what Dad was like. My parents’ marriage was a disaster from day one. I think my mom was even more miserable that last year of her life because of him...and me.”

  “What?” Startled, she searched his face, wondering if he’d misspoken. “After losing Heather she must have treasured you boys beyond measure. How could a sweet little boy of six ever make his mother miserable?”

  He stared off toward the mountains. “I managed pretty well.”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  “I was wild. Disobedient. I acted out all the time. My grieving mother had to deal with a perpetually wild kid who drove her crazy.”

  “She said that?” Sara asked carefully. “Really?”

  “She didn’t have to. Dad made it very clear.”

  Sara felt her heart wrench for the little boy he’d once been, grieving his sister’s loss as much as anyone but too young to be able to express that tumult of emotions. His parents might have been too wrapped up in their own sorrow to see it. She reached out to rest a comforting hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Be sorry for my mom. When she died of a heart attack, Dad figured the stress I caused played a big part in that.”

  Aghast, Sara tightened her fingers on his arm. “That isn’t true. And frankly, it was horrible of him to say it.”

  “It always made sense to me.” He lifted a shoulder. “I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe that’s one reason I left home and rarely came back—it was always easier to stay away than come home and face the truth and the memories.”

  “The truth? If I could stand in front of Gus Langford right now, I’d give him a piece of my mind—and then some. Why would anyone burden a child with such horrific guilt?”

  Tate didn’t answer.

  Please, Lord—let me say the right thing. “I...I took a class on death and dying while I was in premed. I read that young kids have a hard time understanding the finality of death. If it happens, it’s like an earthquake in the family—everything changes. Mom and Dad are grieving and seem like different people. There’s little joy. The feeling of security is lost.”

  Tate nodded.

  “I also read that young kids can be so desperate for everything to go back to normal that they’ll subconsciously try to distract parents from their loss and grief. Act out. Cause trouble.” She tilted her head. “I have absolutely no doubt that your mom understood that and loved you to pieces. Your dad was wrong.”

  He stared somberly at his hands. “I’d like to think that.”

  “No, believe it. Even if you were difficult at times, all little kids are. Have you taken a good look at Bella and Sophie and heard them whine and bicker?” Sara thought about her own parents, their marriage repeatedly torn apart by unfaithfulness. Her lonely childhood. “But I do know what you mean about commitment. Trust is hard when you haven’t come from a stable home.”

  “Or one where everyone got along.” Tate fell silent for a long time, then he cleared his throat. “I’m thinking about staying right here, and running this ranch.”

  “Really?”

  A corner of his mouth hitched up into a wry quarter smile. “Six months ago I would have laughed at the thought, but I like being here. Ranching. The stability. Being with family...and with you.”

  And with you.

  Those three simple words seemed to shift the earth off its axis. And yet, did he truly realize what that meant for the future he’d always dreamed of? “What if you lose your chance to buy that rodeo company and no other opportunities come up for years? Will you regret it?” She held her breath, praying for the right answer.

  “What I’d regret is not choosing to stay right here.” He rested his hand on hers. “So now that we have that settled, Dr. Branson—it’s Saturday night. Can I take you out to dinner?”

  * * *

  After their talk on the porch they went to a little steak house in the next town and talked until midnight over coffee and candlelight.

  Then the next day they went to church and the usual Sunday dinner at Jess and Abby’s place. Probably a mistake, because everyone except the twins seemed to sense a change in their relationship, and Jess and Dev began making premature assumptions about the future.

  At some point during the chatter over the dinner table Abby announced that she, Jess and Betty were going out of town Monday to handle a routine doctor’s appointment for Betty, and Tate found himself offering to do Jess’s chores and watch the twins overnight. What had he gotten himself into?

  He found out when the little live wires got off the school bus at three o’clock on Monday afternoon.

  They raced to the barn and climbed high into the hayloft searching for new kittens—which made him imagine falls from high places, broken bones and emergency room visits.

  They wanted to ride their elderly pony.

  Play with their dog, Poofy.

  And they begged at least fifty times for a drive over to his place to see the puppies and the irritable parrot, though the prospect of turning them loose in a house still filled with sharp tools and electric saws and building materials filled him with dread. At that, he gave them an emphatic no.

  Once he herded them into the house they wanted one snack after another and then managed to turn the place upside down with toys and dolls and art projects. By the time Sara showed up at five thirty, he was ready to collapse in a chair.

  “So,” she said, hiding a smile as she surveyed the damage. “It looks like you’ve all had a very good time. Was it fun playing with your uncle Tate?”

  “I wish Momma was here,” Sophie said with a bleak expression. “I miss her.”

  “Me too,” Bella added glumly.

  “Well, here’s the score, ladies. I’m going to make supper while
you two put everything away. The toys, the art projects and the dolls scattered everywhere.”

  Bella stuck out her lower lip. “But we’re still playing. And Sophie made the most mess. Not me.”

  “Did not!”

  “Both of you, get to work. After supper, your mom’s directions say you’ll have some homework, bath time and books, and then you go to bed.”

  “But—”

  “Everyone will be home before your bus arrives tomorrow afternoon, so we can’t have the house all messy for them, right?”

  An hour later Tate loaded the last of the supper dishes into the dishwasher, then turned to watch Sara calmly helping the twins with their homework at the kitchen table. Who knew that first graders had homework these days?

  Or that it took an entirely different skill set to corral two rambunctious little girls? He had a feeling that they’d instantly sized him up as a pushover, and that he needed to learn the power of simply saying no.

  Now, sitting quietly at the table with Sara, they were perfect little sweethearts.

  All three had long blond hair that gleamed beneath the rustic chandelier hanging over the table, and he felt his heart catch at the way the girls had pushed their chairs right next to hers. If Sara ever had kids, he imagined they might look just like the twins with their gleaming molten-gold hair. The thought made his heart warm.

  Kids. Family. When had he ever given that sort of life a second thought? Yet now...

  Sara looked up at him and gave him a curious look. “You’re staring. Is something wrong?”

  “Nothing at all. Thanks for coming over to help out,” he said with a heartfelt sigh. “What did you think, girls? Did you like Sara’s macaroni and cheese?”

  Bella looked up from the worksheet in front of her. “It was yummy. The biscuits too. But I wish Momma and Daddy were home.”

  “And Gramma Betty,” Sophie chimed in. “They promised to come home tomorrow. But maybe they’ll miss us and come sooner.”

  Sara shook her head. “They had to take Betty to an early doctor’s appointment in Bozeman, sweetie. But one of them will be at your bus stop when you get home from school tomorrow.”

  Bella industriously labored over her worksheet for a few minutes and then looked up. “You’re staying with us overnight, right?”

  “I’ll tuck you into bed, but then I’ll go back to my cabin. Tate will be here, though. He’ll be in one of the guest rooms just down the hall.”

  Sophie’s eyebrows knit together with worry. “But we want you to stay. Uncle Tate doesn’t know how to make ponytails or help us get ready for school. And he prob’ly doesn’t know how to make breakfast, either.”

  “Or about the school bus,” Bella added.

  “It’s a little disheartening, hearing that I’ve been judged a flop in the temporary-dad department by a couple of seven-year-olds,” he said dryly. “I haven’t even tried making a ponytail. Maybe I’ll be a prodigy.”

  Sara chuckled. “Abby left three pages of detailed notes, so everything is covered, girls. I’m sure Tate can manage ponytails, and before bedtime I’ll help you pick your outfits for tomorrow, okay?”

  Tate glanced at the wall clock. “While you three are busy, I’d better go out and check on a mare. Jess figures she’ll be foaling sometime in the next twenty-four hours.”

  “Which means you could end up in the barn for a long while sometime tonight,” Sara said slowly. “Do you need me to stay so there’s someone in the house for the girls?”

  “Yes!” Bella cried at once. “You can have a sleepover with us. We could make a blanket tent and everything.”

  Tate was pretty sure that would mean a lot of giggling and no sleep. “Let’s think about that,” he said as he pulled on his jacket and boots. “And we’ll talk when I get back from the barn.”

  There’d been nothing in the forecast. But during the last couple hours the wind had come up, bringing sleet that encased everything in a thick layer of ice and made the barnyard treacherous. Out in the barn, he found the mare in active labor and foaling perfectly well on her own, but by the time he got back to the house an hour later the precipitation had changed over to a heavy curtain of snow.

  No one would be going anywhere, for a very long time.

  * * *

  “I miss Momma,” Bella said, her eyes filled with tears. “And Daddy too. What if they don’t come home? What if they got frozen?”

  It was so sweet to hear the girls finally referring to Jess and Abby as Mom and Dad, but their deepening attachment also made the separation harder. “We know they’re safe, right? They’re still at a hotel in Bozeman, nice and warm. When the highways open they’ll come home right away.”

  Sara wrapped both twins in a hug in front of the wall of windows in the great room. The world outside was nothing but an expanse of white, but inside the fireplace crackled merrily and at least there hadn’t been a power outage. With plenty of food in the pantry plus the chest freezer downstairs, they’d be fine for however long the snow lasted.

  Tate had used Jess’s snowmobile to get back and forth to do his own chores, take care of Sara’s animals and move Lucy and her puppies out to a warm box stall in his barn. With over two feet of new snow on top of heavy ice, and drifting that made everything even more impassable, the main highways were still closed. In Montana, one just never knew. Even in late spring.

  “It’s been forever,” Sophie whispered. “Is everyone at school but us?”

  “All of the schools are closed. And it hasn’t been forever. We’ve been snowbound for just two days. You’ve had fun, right?” Sara surveyed the network of blanket-covered chairs creating tents and tunnels throughout the living room. “You two have the best forts ever. And did you ever guess what a good storyteller Uncle Tate is? Or that he knows some magic tricks?”

  Bella’s expression filled with worry. “But he’s been outside a long, long time. What if he got frozen and doesn’t come back?”

  Sara involuntarily glanced at the time on her phone. “Well, nothing is easy with all of the snow to deal with. The chores here seem to take about two hours, then there’s all of the chores over at the other place plus the long snowmobile round trip to make it back and forth.”

  With chores twice a day at each place, he seemed to be working from dawn till dusk, and by the time he came in for supper she could see it in his weary expression.

  Still, bless his heart, he had played with the girls and read to them each evening while Sara cleaned up the kitchen and got the girls’ bathtub ready.

  When she’d arrived Monday night the house had been a disaster zone and he’d clearly been out of his element with the young girls. But by the second night he’d certainly hit his stride—hearing all of the laughter and listening to him tell them tall stories with his deep, expressive voices had charmed her completely.

  “I hear the snowmobile!” Sophie shouted. “He’s coming!”

  The girls ran to the windows and pressed their noses against the glass, eagerly watching as the bright headlights cut a swath through the lightly falling snow, then veered toward the barns.

  He would be a wonderful dad, someday, Sara thought with a little tug at her heart. Though when the date of that rodeo auction came would he really decide to stay here, or would he follow his heart?

  She was pretty sure she knew.

  * * *

  Two weeks after the blizzard the snow was gone, the sunshine bright, and even before she got out of her truck, Sara could see the twins were over the moon with excitement.

  Abby and Chloe waved as she strolled over to greet them, then they all turned to watch Tate unload a black-and-white paint pony from the horse trailer.

  “He’s beautiful,” Bella exclaimed. “Is he mine?”

  “We’ll see how each of you girls do with him, and then we’ll decide,” Abby said. “This one is Charlie.”

&nb
sp; Sophie gave Abby a worried look. “Is there another one?”

  Abby kept a firm hand on each of the twins’ shoulders to hold them back. “Let’s wait and see.”

  Devlin and the pony disappeared through the door of the horse barn, and soon Jess backed a bay-and-white paint pony mare out of the horse trailer. He led her into the barn and cross-tied her in the aisle.

  Abby smiled. “This one is Francis. I just love her name, don’t you?”

  “Can I pet her?” Sophie cried, fidgeting impatiently. “Please?”

  To Sara’s eyes the ponies looked about as excitable as manatees, but it still was important to take things slow at first. “It’s up to your parents, but they might be a bit nervous right now, so they need to settle in first. This place is all new to them.”

  Abby nodded. “We can watch while Sara does a health exam on them, girls. You can pet them after she’s done. But you won’t get to ride them for a couple days.”

  They all trooped into the barn, then stood aside as Sara examined each pony carefully. “Excellent,” she said at last. “They both appear sound and healthy. They’ll need their teeth floated, but I’m due at the Parker ranch in forty-five minutes to check on a new foal, so that will have to wait. I’ll do their springtime vaccinations today, though. Do you have any tubes of paste wormer handy?”

  Jess looked at his watch. “In the house, so I’ll give it to them later. Dev and I need to head out in a few minutes.”

  Sophie and Bella looked up at Francis with awe, then edged closer and began petting her. “Do you think Lollipops will be sad ’cause we got new ponies?”

  He was probably relieved that they’d outgrown him and delighted with his retirement to pasture, but Sara just smiled. “You can always pet and brush him too. He’d like that.”

  “We won’t ever sell him, girls,” Abby said. “He’ll always have a home with us. And who knows—maybe he’ll have a new little rider someday.”

  Everyone turned as one to look between Abby and Jess. That small, secretive smile and the glow in her cheeks were a dead giveaway.