Christmas at Blue Moon Ranch (6 page)

“I don’t expect
you to be ‘nice.’ Honest is good.”

“Okay, then.” She
pulled in a deep breath and took the risk of meeting his eyes. “Last night
can’t ever happen again. It wasn’t—wasn’t
me.
I can’t afford to be so
irresponsible. And the kids—they’re still grieving—”

Daniel held up a
hand. “It’s okay. I get it.” He put his weight on the cane and pivoted toward
his truck. Once on the other side of the hood, he looked at her again.

“I’ll keep my
distance from you and your family,” he promised. “You’ll have to come looking
if you want to find me. And, Willa…” That sexy, inviting grin curved his lips.
“I can guarantee last night won’t happen again—until
you
ask for it!”

“I
LIKE THAT YOUNG MAN
.” Lili set a stack of dirty plates
on the kitchen counter.

“I do, too.”
Rosa breathed in a lungful of steam as she filled the sink with soapy water. When
they’d realized they would have a guest for lunch, they’d decided to use the
second-best china, which had to be washed by hand. “He’s very handsome.”

“Oh, yes. He
reminds me of…” Lili shook her head. “I think he’ll be a good neighbor.”

Rosa didn’t have
to hear the rest of the sentence to know whom her sister was thinking about. “Willa
seems doubtful. And very disturbed by him.”

“That’s good,
isn’t it?”

“Could be. She’s
barely aware of poor Sheriff Sutton, no matter how hard he tries. But…” Rosa
shook her head. “Willa’s a stubborn one. Even if she couldn’t resist falling
for Major Trent, I doubt she’d admit it, to herself or anybody else.”

“Do you think
he’s interested?”

“Oh, yes. There
was a smile in his eyes every time he glanced at her.”

“Well, he’s our
neighbor now, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing quite a bit of him. He’ll want
Willa’s advice on hiring hands, to start with.”

Rosa paused in
the act of sponging off a plate and stared out the window over the sink for a
moment. “He’ll need a foreman, too, won’t he?”

“I expect so.” Lili
put the leftover lasagna in the refrigerator. “He did say he hadn’t done much
ranching.”

“Yes. Yes, he
did.” And she might know just the man for the job. Biting back a smile, Rosa
looked down into the suds again. “I’m sure Willa could make getting his ranch
going much easier for Major Trent, if she wanted to.”

Drying the plate
Rosa had just washed, Lili wrinkled her forehead in distress. “Why wouldn’t she
want to?”

“She may take a
while to get used to the idea of another man in her life.” Rosa handed over the
sparkling-clean fruit bowl and winked. “But when it comes to Major Trent,
there’s three of us and only one of her.”

Lili’s face
cleared and she gave one of her delightful rippling laughs. “How true. Dear
Willa doesn’t stand a chance!”

The van
delivering Daniel’s worldly possessions pulled into his driveway at nine
o’clock Saturday morning. The Mercado kids arrived on horseback ten minutes
later. They galloped up the road in a cloud of dust and slid to a stop on the
bare dirt in front of the house. Toby sat on a sturdy brown-and-white horse
with a friendly face. His sister—the image of her mother—rode a beautiful
palomino with a dark gold coat and a cornsilk mane and tail, while the older
boy seemed completely comfortable on his very tall, very black mount.

“Hi,” Toby said,
before sliding to the ground. “We came to help you move in. This is Robbie and
Susannah. My horse is Patches. Suze rides Lustre, and Robbie’s horse is Tar.” He
nodded toward his siblings. “We’ll put them in the corral.”

“Wait a minute.”
Daniel suppressed the smile he was feeling. “I don’t recall asking for help.”

“We’re
neighbors,” Susannah said. “That’s what we do.”

He was pretty
sure they hadn’t checked with their mother before heading his way. And he
didn’t want to come between Willa and her children. “Well, you see those two
big guys right there?” He waved his cane at the movers who were levering his
new recliner out of the van. “They’ve got everything under control. I
appreciate the offer, but I think you three had better head back to your house.
You must have chores to do for your mom.”

The shock and
disappointment on their faces would have been comical, if he hadn’t felt like
such a heel turning them away. Toby stood with his jaw hanging loose, as if he
couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “But—”

“Come on, Toby.”
Robbie, who looked the least like his mother, with bigger bones and a fuller
face, wheeled his horse. “We’ve got work to do at home. We don’t have to stay
where we’re not wanted.” He pressed his heels into the black horse’s sides and
took off at a fast lope. With a glance back at Daniel, Susannah shrugged and
followed.

Toby threw his
own disgusted look in Daniel’s direction, pulled himself into the saddle and
kicked his pony to a gallop. Daniel watched in admiration and a little envy as
they charged back down the hill. All three kids rode like they were part of the
animal underneath them.

That was why he
was so shocked to see Toby’s horse buck several times, then rear straight up on
its hind legs—not once, but twice. The second time, Toby fell off.

Daniel heard one
of the kids shout. By the time he had his truck backed out of the carport, he
saw that Robbie and Susannah had returned to help their brother. A minute
later, he stood beside Susannah as she knelt in the dirt with Toby. Robbie
waited nearby, holding the three horses.

“He’s knocked
out,” Susannah said, a thread of panic edging her voice. “I don’t know what
happened. He never falls.”

Daniel mentally
cursed his inability to get down on his knees. “Do cell phones work out here?” Susannah
shook her head. He looked over at the older boy. “You have to go home and get
your mother. If she can get a doctor to come, that’s a good idea.” The boy
stared at him blankly. “Go on, Rob. Move it!”

The military
tone worked. Robbie managed to mount his horse while still holding the reins of
the other two, and then set off down the road at a trot.

“Now, let’s see
what’s with Toby.” Daniel leaned as far as he could over the prone little boy. “Can
you tell if he’s broken a bone?”

Susannah felt up
and down Toby’s limbs and shook her head. “Nothing feels weird.”

“Run your
fingers over his scalp, under his hair. Any cuts? Bleeding?”

She did as
instructed. If Daniel hadn’t been watching closely, he’d have missed the wince
that passed across Toby’s face. Coupled with the good color in his cheeks and
the even rise and fall of the boy’s chest, that flinch suggested to Daniel that
they might be dealing with injuries more pretended than real.

“Okay, then,
let’s check his ribs.” Balancing on his cane, he reached down and tickled his
fingers up and down Toby’s rib cage. The little boy made a really valiant
effort…but in the end, he had to laugh.

“Don’t! Stop,”
he pleaded, giggling, and curled into a ball. “That—ouch!” The sudden gasp of
pain was real. “It hurts!” He folded his arms over his midriff and opened his
eyes. “Something really hurts.”

“Show me where.”
When Toby put his fingertips on his rib cage, Daniel nodded. “You may have
cracked that rib, big guy. Do you feel okay, otherwise? Headache? Dizzy? How
many fingers am I holding up?”

“Three.”

“Yep.” Daniel
straightened up, ignoring the scream of his own muscles. “Let’s see if we can
get you on your feet. Susannah, take his arm and I’ll take the other hand.” Carefully,
they levered Toby to stand. “How’s that feel?”

“Okay, ’cept I
have this ache…” He curled his torso around his arms.

“Come lie down
in the back of my truck. We’ll wait for your mom and I can drive you down to
your house or the doctor, whichever she wants.”

Toby climbed
gamely into the backseat of the truck and even agreed to lay his head on
Susannah’s leg as she sat beside him.

“What happened?”
She brushed a fringe of black hair off her brother’s forehead. “What caused
Patches to spook like that?”

“I dunno.” Toby
shrugged, then winced. “Maybe he saw a snake. A rattler, coiled up on the side
of the road, ready to strike.”

Susannah
frowned. “I didn’t see a snake when I went by.”

“That doesn’t
mean there wasn’t one.”

“But the other
horses—”

“Are stupid.” Toby
shoved himself away from his sister. “I said I don’t know what happened.”

“That’s okay.”
Daniel touched Susannah’s shoulder lightly. “We won’t worry about why right
now. You need to stay still, Toby. Lie back down.”

But the boy had
his lower lip stuck out and refused to relax. “Let’s just go home.”

“No, we’ll get
your mother here first.” At the sound of an approaching engine, Daniel glanced
down the road. “There she is, now.”

Willa dropped
down from her truck and strode toward Daniel. “Is he hurt?” Her dark eyes were
fierce with worry.

“He might have
cracked a rib. Otherwise, I think he’s okay.” He stepped back as she reached
him, allowing her to peer into the backseat.

“Toby, what have
you done this time?”

“Patches spooked
and reared,” Susannah said. “He says it was a snake on the road, but I don’t
believe him.” She slid out, and Willa took her place next to Toby.

Robbie had come
back with his mother, and he walked up while Willa talked to Toby. “Come on,
Suze. Let’s get in the truck. Mom wants to take him into town to the doctor.”

She rolled her
eyes at him. “Can’t you be polite?” Then she looked at Daniel. “Thanks, Major
Trent. I appreciate your help.”

Daniel gave her
a smile. “I’m glad I was close by.”

Susannah smiled
back and started to say something else, but Robbie grabbed her arm. “Come on.”
With a jerk, he got her started toward Willa’s vehicle. She glanced back at
Daniel and waved, before her brother urged her with both hands into the
backseat. The door slammed shut. Despite the shadowed interior, Daniel saw the
twins arguing.

Willa backed out
of his truck and looked over. “You might be right. He’ll need an X-ray, I
guess.”

“That’s a good
idea.”

“Thanks again
for taking care of him.” Blowing out a deep breath, she tented her fingers
against her lips for a moment. “I can’t imagine what happened, though. Patches
has always been bomb-proof—he never spooks. I’ve been on him when a snake
actually crossed his path. On the other hand, Toby usually sticks like a burr. He’s
been riding his whole life.”

Daniel decided
to keep his thoughts to himself. “Maybe he was thinking about something else. I’m
just glad he didn’t hit his head.”

“Me, too.” Her
gaze met his for a second. “Robbie said your furniture arrived.”

“Yeah, what
there is of it.”

“They rode up to
help you, I guess.”

He nodded. “I
doubted you knew they’d come over.”

“No.”

“So I sent them
home.”

Looking away
from him, she nodded. “Um…I appreciate that. Now, we’ll get out of your way,
let you move in.” She walked quickly to the other side of the truck, helped
Toby out and led him to her vehicle with an arm around his shoulders. Once
behind the wheel again, she gave Daniel a wave, echoed by Toby and Susannah,
then executed a precise three-point turn and headed back down the hill in a
cloud of dust.

Daniel returned
to his house to find that the movers, with no direction, had deposited his
bedroom furniture in the living room and were ready to be on their way. He
offered them fifty bucks in cash to assemble the bed where it belonged and
place the dresser and chest of drawers that had belonged to his
great-grandmother. Gritting his teeth, he also requested them to unstack the
boxes so he could open each one without having to lift. Then, embarrassed, he
let them leave.

Sitting in his
recliner a few minutes later, he heard the distinct sound of a car engine
shutting off outside his door. When he’d levered himself to stand and reached
the living room window, he could see that an ancient station wagon—the kind
with real wood panels on the sides—had pulled into the yard. As he watched, one
of the Mercado ladies came around to the back and lowered the tailgate, at the
same time as someone knocked on the door.

The other aunt
stood there, as he’d expected. “Good afternoon,” she said brightly. “Lili and I
thought you would need some help getting settled. If you’ll hold open the door,
we’ll bring these things inside.”

He’d had trouble
telling the twins apart at lunch. Now he noticed that Rosa wore a metal
bracelet, the kind used to remember prisoners of war and soldiers missing in
action. That would help him keep them straight. “Miss Rosa, you don’t have to…”

His protest fell
on deaf ears. She went back to the wagon and collected a big basket, as Lili
approached carrying a cardboard box. “Hello, again, Major Trent. These go to
the kitchen.”