A Cold Creek Reunion (8 page)

“Oh, good. I was worried things might be weird between the two of you.”

But you invited him along anyway?
she wanted to ask, but decided that sounded rude. “No. It’s perfectly fine,” she lied.

“I thought he could lend a hand with the children. He’s really patient with them. In fact, he’s the one who taught Gabi to ride. Gabi is the daughter of Becca, Trace’s fiancée. Anyway, it’s always good to have another experienced rider on hand when you’ve got kids who haven’t been on a horse before.”

“Caidy?” he called again.

“Back here, with the puppies,” she returned.

A moment later, Taft rounded the corner of a support beam. At the sight of him, everything inside her seemed to shiver.

Okay, really? This was getting ridiculous. She huffed. So far since she had been back in town, she had seen the man in full firefighter turnout gear when he and his crew responded to the inn fire, wearing a low-slung construction belt while he worked on the renovations at the inn, and now he was dressed in worn jeans, cowboy boots and a tan Stetson that made him look dark and dangerous.

Was he purposely trying to look as if he just stepped off every single page of a beefcake calendar?

Taft Bowman—doing his part to fulfill any woman’s fantasy.

“Here you are,” he said with that irresistible smile.

She couldn’t breathe suddenly as the dust motes floating on the air inside the barn seemed to choke her lungs. This wasn’t really fair. Why hadn’t his hair started to thin a little in the past decade or his gut started to paunch?

He was so blasted gorgeous and she was completely weak around him.

He leaned in to kiss his sister on the cheek. After a little awkward hesitation, much to her dismay he leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, as well. She could do nothing but endure the brush of his mouth on her skin as the familiar scent of him, outdoorsy and male, filled her senses, unleashing another flood of memories.

Before she could make her brain cooperate and think of something to say, her children noticed him for the first time.

“Hi!” Maya beamed with delight.

“Hey, pumpkin. How are things?”

“Look! Puppies!”

She thrust the endlessly patient black puppy at him and Taft graciously accepted the dog. “He’s a cute one. What’s his name, Caid?”

“Puppy Number Five,” she answered. “I don’t name them when I sell them as pups without training. I let their new owners do it.”

“Look at this one.” Alex pushed past his sister to hold up his own chubby little canine friend.

“Nice,” Taft said. He knelt right there in the straw and was soon covered in puppies and kids. Even the tired-looking mother dog came over to him for affection.

“Hey, Betsy. How are you holding up with this brood?” he asked, rubbing the dog between the ears and earning a besotted look that Laura found completely exasperating.

“Thanks for coming out,” Caidy said.

“Not a problem. I can think of few things I enjoy more than going on a spring ride into the mountains.”

“Not too far into the mountains,” she assured Laura. “We can’t go very far this time of year anyway. Too much snow, at least for a good month or so.”

“Aspen Leaf is open, though, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Destry and I checked it the other day. She was disappointed to miss the ride today, by the way,” Caidy told Laura. “Becca was taking her and Gabi into Idaho Falls for fittings for their flower-girl dresses.”

“And you missed out on all that girly fun?” Taft asked, climbing to his feet and coming to stand beside his sister and Laura. Suddenly she felt crowded by his heat and size and…maleness.

“Are you kidding? This will be much more enjoyable. If you haven’t heard, Trace is getting hitched in June,” she said to Laura.

“To Pine Gulch’s newest attorney, if you can believe that,” Taft added.

She
had
heard and she was happy for Trace. He had always been very kind to her. Trace, the Pine Gulch police chief, had always struck her as much more serious than Taft, the kind of person who liked to think things through before he spoke.

For being identical twins, Taft and Trace had two very unique personalities, and even though they were closer than most brothers, they had also actively cultivated friendships beyond each other, probably because of their mother’s wise influence.

She did find it interesting that both of them had chosen professions in the public-safety sector, although Trace had taken a route through the military to becoming a policeman while Taft had gravitated toward fire safety and becoming a paramedic.

“Why don’t we give the kids another few minutes with the puppies?” Caidy said. “I’ve already saddled a couple of horses I thought would be a good fit.”

“Do I need to saddle Joe?”

“Nope. He’s ready for you.”

Taft grinned. “You mean all I had to do today was show up?”

“That’s the story of your life, isn’t it?” Caidy said with a disgruntled sort of affection. “If you want to, I’ll let you unsaddle everybody when we’re done and groom all the horses. Will that make you feel better?”

“Much. Thanks.”

The puppy on Maya’s lap wriggled through her fingers and waddled over to squat in the straw.

“Look,” she exclaimed with an inordinate degree of delight. “Puppy pee!”

Taft chuckled at that. “I think all the puppies are ready for a snack and a nap. Why don’t we go see if the horses are ready for us?”

“Yes!” Maya beamed and scampered eagerly toward Taft, where she reached up to grab his hand. After a stunned sort of moment, he smiled at her and folded her hand more securely in his much bigger one.

Alex rose reluctantly and set the puppy he had been playing with down in the straw. “Bye,” he whispered, a look of naked longing clear for all to see.

“I hear the kid wants a dog. You know you’re going to have to cave, don’t you?” Taft spoke in a low voice.

Laura sighed through her own dismay. “You don’t think I’m tough enough to resist a six-year-old?”

“I’m not sure a hardened criminal could resist
that
particular six-year-old.”

He was right, darn it. She was pretty sure she would have to give in and let her son have a dog. Not a border collie, certainly, because they were active dogs and needed work to do, but she would find something.

As they walked outside the barn toward the horse pasture, she saw Alex’s eyes light up at the sight of four horses saddled and waiting. Great. Now he would probably start begging her for a horse, too.

She had to admit, a little burst of excitement kicked through her, too, as they approached the animals. She loved horses and she actually had Taft to thank for that. Unlike many of her schoolmates in the sprawling Pine Gulch school district, which encompassed miles of ranch land, she was a city girl who walked or rode her bike to school instead of taking the bus. Even though she had loved horses from the time she was young—didn’t most girls?—her parents had patiently explained they didn’t have room for one of their own at their home adjacent to the inn.

She had enjoyed riding with friends who lived outside of town, but had very much considered herself a greenhorn until she became friends with Taft. Even before they started dating, she would often come out to the ranch and ride with him and sometimes Caidy into the mountains.

This would be rather like old times—which, come to think of it, wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Since moving away from Pine Gulch, she hadn’t been on a horse one single time, she realized with shock. Even more reason for this little thrum of anticipation.

“Wow, they’re really big,” Alex said in a soft voice. Maya seemed nervous as well, clinging tightly to Taft’s hand.

“Big doesn’t have to mean scary,” Taft assured him. “These are really gentle horses. None of them will hurt you. I promise. Old Pete, the horse you’re going to ride, is so lazy, you’ll be lucky to make it around the barn before he decides to stop and take a nap.”

Alex giggled but it had a nervous edge to it and Taft gave him a closer look.

“Do you want to meet him?”

Her son toed the dirt with the shiny new cowboy boots she had picked up at the farm-implement store before they drove out to the ranch. “I guess. You sure they don’t bite?”

“Some horses do. Not any of the River Bow horses. I swear it.”

He picked Maya up in his arms and reached for Alex’s hand, leading them both over to the smallest of the horses, a gray with a calm, rather sweet face.

“This is Pete,” Taft said. “He’s just about the gentlest horse we’ve ever had here at River Bow. He’ll treat you right, kid.”

As she watched from the sidelines, the horse bent his head down and lipped Alex’s shoulder. Alex froze, eyes wide and slightly terrified, but Taft set a reassuring hand on his other shoulder. “Don’t worry. He’s just looking for a treat.”

“I don’t have a treat.” Alex’s voice quavered a bit. These uncharacteristic moments of fear from her usually bold, mischievous son always seemed to take her by surprise, although she knew they were perfectly normal from a developmental standpoint.

Taft reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of small red apples. “You’re in luck. I always carry a supply of crab apples for old Pete. They’re his favorite, probably because I can let him have only a few at a time. It’s probably like you eating pizza. A little is great, but too much would make you sick. Same for Pete and crab apples.”

“Where on earth do you find crab apples in April?” Laura couldn’t resist asking.

“That’s my secret.”

Caidy snorted. “Not much of a secret,” she said. “Every year, my crazy brother gathers up two or three bushels from the tree on the side of the house and stores them down in the root cellar. Nobody else will touch the things—they’re too bitter even for pies unless you pour in cup after cup of sugar—but old Pete loves them. Every year Taft puts up a supply so he’s got something to bring the old codger.”

She shouldn’t find it so endearing to imagine him picking crab apples to give to an old, worn-out horse—or to watch his ears turn as red as the apples under his cowboy hat.

He handed one of the pieces of sour fruit to her son and showed him the correct way to feed the horse. Alex held his hand out flat and old Pete lapped it up.

“It tickles like the dog,” Alex exclaimed.

“But it doesn’t hurt, right?” Taft asked.

The boy shook his head with a grin. “Nope. Just tickles. Hi, Pete.”

The horse seemed quite pleased to make his acquaintance, especially after he produced a few more crab apples for the horse, handed to him by Taft.

“Ready to hop up there now?” Taft asked. When the boy nodded, Caidy stepped up with a pair of riding helmets waiting on the fence.

“We’re going to swap that fancy cowboy hat for a helmet, okay?”

“I like my cowboy hat, though. I just got it.”

“And you can wear it again when we get back. But when you’re just learning to ride, wearing a helmet is safer.”

“Just like at home when you have to wear your bicycle helmet,” Laura told him.

“No helmet, no horse,” Taft said sternly.

Her son gave them all a grudging look, but he removed his cowboy hat and handed it to his mother, then allowed Caidy to fasten on the safety helmet. Caidy took Maya from Taft and put one on her, as well, which eased Laura’s safety worries considerably.

Finally Taft picked up Alex and hefted him easily into the saddle. The glee on her son’s face filled her with a funny mix of happiness and apprehension. He was growing up, embracing risks, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

Caidy stepped up to adjust the stirrups to the boy’s height. “There you go, cowboy. That should be better.”

“What do I do now?” Alex asked with an eager look up into the mountains as if he were ready to go join a posse and hunt for outlaws right this minute.

“Well, the great thing about Pete is how easygoing he is,” Taft assured him. “He’s happy to just follow along behind the other horses. That’s kind of his specialty and what makes him a perfect horse for somebody just beginning. I’ll hold his lead line so you won’t even have to worry about turning him or making him slow down or anything. Next time you come out to the ranch we’ll work on those other things, but this time is just for fun.”

Next time? She frowned, annoyed that he would give Alex the impression there would be another time—and that Taft would be part of it, if she ever did bring the kids out to River Bow again. Children didn’t forget things like that. Alex would hold him to it and be gravely disappointed if a return trip never materialized.

This was not going at all like she’d planned. She and Caidy were supposed to be taking the children for an easy ride. Instead Taft seemed to have taken over, in typical fashion, while Caidy answered her cell phone a short distance away from the group.

After a moment, Maya grew impatient and tugged on his jeans. “My horse?” she asked, looking around at the animals. She looked so earnest and adorable that it was tough for Laura to stay annoyed at anything.

He smiled down at her with such gentleness that her chest ached. “I was thinking you could just ride with me on my old friend Joe. What do you say, pumpkin? We’ll try a pony for you another day, okay?”