Christmas at Blue Moon Ranch (20 page)

“You need to
take care of yourself, too, you know.”

His words broke
something deep inside of her. She buried her face in the pillow, hoping to
stifle the sound of her sobs.

“Willa…”

When Willa woke
up again, the morning sun shone brightly through the blinds on her
windows…she’d obviously slept through her usual 5:00 a.m. alarm. The phone
rested on the pillow beside her head. She’d cried herself to sleep, with Daniel
on the other end of the line. And she’d slept better than she could remember
having done in weeks.

He didn’t answer
his phone when she pressed Redial—he’d be outside working, as she should be. What
did you say to a man you’d left hanging on the phone while you sobbed and
snored?

Once showered
and dressed, Willa hurried to the kitchen, planning to breakfast on coffee and
a piece of toast before starting her belated chores. She stopped dead on the
threshold, though, and let the swinging door hit her in the rear end.

“’Morning, Mom!”
Toby waved a piece of toast in her direction. “Susannah and I fed and watered
the horses already.”

“I’ll make you
an omelet.” Lili got up from the table and went to the stove. “Spinach, cheese
and bacon?”

“Um…sure.” She
couldn’t quite focus, couldn’t quit staring at the man across the room. “Has,
um, anyone seen Robbie?”

“He left a
cereal bowl in the sink and a note saying he was going out on Tar for a long
ride.” Rosa smiled at her. “And, as you see, Daniel finally took us up on our
offer to stop by for breakfast one morning.”

He sat between
Toby and Susannah, calmly buttering his toast. But his gaze searched her face
as he looked up. “How are you today?” Did everyone hear the meaning behind his
words, or was she extra-sensitive?

“I’m good,” she
told him, realizing she meant it. Lili poured coffee into the mug at her
regular seat and Willa sat down. “I don’t usually sleep this late.”

“Well, it is
Sunday,” Rosa pointed out. “There’s no harm in taking a Sunday off now and
then.”

“But—”

“In fact, we
were just talking about making up a picnic lunch for you and Daniel to take
with you on your ride today.”

Willa choked on
her coffee. “Ride?”

“I thought we
could ride the fences on my place and yours,” he said. “Check the herds.”

“So you really
would be working.” Lili set a plate in front of her, laden with a large omelet
and a healthy pile of hash brown potatoes. “The weather is supposed to be cool
and clear.”

Resistance would
be futile. “What can I say?” Willa toasted Daniel and then her family with
coffee. “Here’s to a full day’s work.”

A
S THEY HAD EVERY
S
UNDAY OF
their lives except when they were
sick, Rosa and Lili left the Blue Moon at ten-fifteen and drove into Zapata to
attend church. They brought Toby and Susannah with them—their youth group would
be spending the afternoon giving puppet shows and enjoying a pizza party with
some of the town’s disadvantaged children.

Once the van
carrying the group had left the parking lot after the service, Lili and Rosa
turned toward their own car…and found Nate Hernandez parked right next to them.

Rosa glanced at
her sister, who had started to blush. That meant Lili would be feeling too shy
to speak to the man. So she would have to.

“Good morning,
Nate.” She kept her hand at Lili’s elbow and drew her forward as they approached
the foreman. “Isn’t the weather wonderful?”

He removed his
hat and gave them a courtly nod. “’Mornin’, ladies. Doesn’t get any better than
this. How are you today, Miss Lili? Miss Rosa?”

Rosa waited,
giving Lili the opportunity to answer. “Fine, Nate,” she murmured after a
hesitation. “How are you?”

“Real good, now
that I’ve seen you two pretty ladies.”

A pause fell as
the two of them gazed everywhere but at each other. Again, Rosa waited, until
she thought she might scream in frustration.

“Are you working
today, Nate?”

“No, ma’am. The
boss insists I take Sundays off, even if I don’t want ’em.”

“He and Willa
were going to ride the fence lines today on the Blue Moon and-and the New
Moon,” Lili said unexpectedly. “You shouldn’t worry about not being there one
day a week.”

Nate looked
almost as surprised as Rosa at Lili’s speech. “Well, that’s good to know. The
boss is the one who really needs a day off, though. He works himself hard
enough during the day. I think he’s been spending nights keeping watch on the
pastures, trying to catch them rustlers. Cain’t be getting a whole lot of
sleep.”

After having
said so much, both Lili and Nate relapsed into silence.

When a figure
across the parking lot caught her attention, Rosa made an instantaneous
decision. “I’m going home alone,” she declared, pulling the car keys out of her
purse. She pushed them into Lili’s open hands. “You two should find somewhere
to have lunch while the children are busy with the youth group. Either you’ll
figure out a way to talk to each other, or you’ll have a very peaceful meal. The
children will be back here at the church at four o’clock. I’ll see you sometime
after that, Lili. Have a good day.”

She nodded at
them and walked quickly away, catching up with Luis, the young hand who worked
for Daniel. He saw her coming and waited with a sweet smile. “Can I help you,
Miss Rosa?”

“Luis, would you
mind taking me to the Blue Moon? Lili needs the car to bring Toby and Susannah
home later.”

Whatever his
plans, Luis politely agreed to drive her home. They chatted about the weather,
the rodeo and other minor topics for most of the ride. As they approached the
ranch entrance, though, Rosa said what was on her mind.

“I knew a Luis
once, a long time ago. Luis Medina.”

Luis nodded.
“That was my uncle, my mother’s brother. I was named after him.”

For once, Rosa
was speechless. How could she have known that this boy was related to
her
Luis?

But she had
known in her heart. “You look much like him,” she said, fighting to keep her
voice steady.

“That’s what they
say.” Luis glanced in the rearview mirror before taking the turn into the Blue
Moon gates. “I’ve seen a couple of pictures. He got drafted, during that war in
the sixties.”

“The Vietnam
War.”

“That’s it. And
he was missing in action for a while before they finally declared him dead.”

“Yes.” Rosa
fingered the bracelet she never took off, then pulled it down her arm, out from
underneath her sleeve. “This has his name on it.” She held her hand up to show
Luis.

“Really?” He
slowed down to look, then glanced at her with a puzzled expression. “How did
you know my uncle? I mean, the Medina family isn’t on the same level with the
Mercados, you know? He was just out of high school when he got drafted.”

“He worked for
my father, helping with the horses. I loved to ride, then, and I was determined
to gentle this wild pinto gelding, who was equally determined not to be ridden.
Luis and I worked together that summer.” She sighed. “We never did tame the
horse. Father sold him to a rodeo, and my Luis went to war.”

The young man
stopped his car on the driveway in front of the house. “Your Luis? You had a…a
thing?”

Rosa smiled at
him. “We had a thing. My father was furious, of course, and so we were going to
run away. But then…”

“Man.” Luis
shook his head. “My mom doesn’t even know about this. She’ll be surprised when
I tell her.”

“I’d like to
hear from her if she wants to call.” Opening the door, Rosa got out of the car.
“Thank you for the ride, Luis. And for telling me about your uncle.”

“Thank you, Miss
Rosa. I’ll see you again, I hope.”

She watched him
pull out of the driveway and waved as he headed back toward the gates. A link
had been made, connecting past and present. Luis and she had not been able to
share children. But he lived on in a new generation.

And for Rosa,
that would have to be enough.

W
ILLA AND
D
ANIEL
SPOT
TED A CUT
through the fence wire just before
noon, almost as soon as they crossed onto New Moon land. No effort had been
made to disguise the vandalism. Hoofprints indicated that cattle had left the
pasture.

Daniel stood for
minutes just staring, jaw clenched and hands fisted. Then he dragged himself
onto his horse and urged the gelding into a lope, heading toward a distant
ridge that overlooked a creek bed where the herd tended to gather.

“I count
thirty-five out of fifty,” he said, when Willa caught up with him. “Thirty damn
percent of the herd stolen.”

“You’ll have to
call the sheriff.” She put a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I feel
responsible for your loss.”

He shrugged one
shoulder. “Your cattle or mine…I’m not sure it makes much difference. But it’s
got to stop.” After a minute, he blew out a long breath. “Want to eat lunch
down by the creek?”

“Sure.”

They made their
way down the hillside at a walk, so as not to spook the cattle, and forded the
shallow stream to keep the horses well away from the herd. Willa pointed out a
stand of willows with a nice stretch of grass underneath where the horses could
graze during the picnic.

A huge,
flat-topped boulder right by the creek served as a luncheon table and seating. “The
kids and I used to come here a lot.” She spread a blue-checked cloth over the
rock. “In summer and fall, the banks are gentle and the water’s so low that I
never worried about them swimming here.”

Daniel looked
around, trying to get past the rage still pulsing through him. “Peaceful,” he
agreed. “And safe. I find the herd hanging around here most of the time.”

Willa paused in
the process of taking food out of the saddle bags. “It’s not so safe when the
rains come. This dribble can turn torrential in a matter of hours. Further
downstream, the sides of the creek get high and the water moves fast.” She
shook her head. “Sometimes it seems like there are two sides to everything in
Texas—and you’re never sure whether you’ll get the good side or the bad.”

“Most of the
world is like that, I think. Iraq is largely barren desert, but I saw some
really beautiful places there, too.”

“Maybe that’s
just life?”

Daniel thought
about the pleasures—and the pain—of the past two months. He’d started building
his dream, only to find that it wouldn’t be complete without Willa to share it.
“Yeah, I think that’s just life.”

After a quiet
lunch, they packed up the empty food containers. Then Willa sat down on the
rock beside Daniel. “Do you want to continue checking fence? Or we could go
back to your place and call Hobbs Sutton.”

“Both, I guess.
We can check the fence, and I’ll call tonight. There’s nothing he can do right
now.” Putting a hand on her shoulder, he turned her slightly to face him. “Thanks
for riding out with me today. I know you have other work to do.”

Her cheeks
turned a bright red. “I owe you, after waking you up in the middle of the
night, sobbing in your ear and then falling asleep on the phone.”

“You don’t owe me
anything, Willa.” He skimmed his knuckles along the smooth line of her jaw. “But
I’ll take whatever you want to give.”

Her palm covered
the back of his hand. “I think Bev may be right. You are too good to be true.”
Slipping her fingers through his hair, Willa drew his head down and pressed her
lips against his mouth.

Daniel stayed
still, eyes closed, and let Willa direct the moment. Each of his remaining
senses came sharply to life. He heard the breeze rustling through the leaves
above their heads and the grass in the pasture, the trickle of water over rock.
The smells of cattle and dirt and water came to him, along with a sweet scent
of flowers that belonged to Willa alone.

Most powerfully,
he knew the shape of her mouth as she kissed his throat, his jawline, his chin.
The firmness of her lips, the press of her fingers against his skull and the
nape of his neck—each separate touch stoked the need inside him. Her mouth
returned to his, and she bit gently on his lower lip, then slipped the tip of
her tongue over the same spot.

He could endure
only so much. Closing his arms around her, he pulled her against him and took
control with deep, demanding kisses, with his hands on her skin under her
shirt, with husky words muttered as they gasped for breath.

“I love you,
Willa. Do you know that, yet? God, I love you.”

Willa gasped as
she heard the words. Caught up in the frenzy of desire, she didn’t have the
breath to respond, except with her mouth, with her hands and body. Desperate to
be closer, she pressed her hips, her breasts, into him. He gave a laugh that
was half groan and let her weight send him backward, to lie on the rock.