by Elena Aitken
“That sounds wonderful.” Autumn led the way into the dining room. “I love the wainscoting and the chair rail.”
“I’m not such a fan of the color,” Claire said critically.
“Which is why I brought you,” Sunshine said. “Let’s brainstorm as we go. I want cheerful colors, but not wild ones.” They passed into the kitchen and all three stopped short.
“Well, it’ll need a little updating,” Autumn said tentatively.
“You mean it needs to be gutted. Sunshine, I hope you got a discount on the place,” Claire said in dismay.
Sunshine swallowed in a suddenly dry throat. She had gotten the place for a reasonable price, but reasonable when you were talking about a ranch wasn’t that cheap. The pictures had made it clear she’d need new appliances, and so had her realtor, but Sunshine hadn’t realized the kitchen would be this bad. The countertop was badly scarred, several shelves were missing from the cabinets and the linoleum floor was turning yellow with age.
“Well, so much for having the place done by Christmas,” she said.
“Not completely done but you can spiff it up a lot,” Autumn said.
“Autumn’s right. Some new paint and a whole lot of cleaning will go a long way. You and Cole can pick out appliances together,” Claire said.
“We’ll all help you get as far as you can.” Autumn shifted Arianna to her other hip. The little girl surveyed the place with interest, wriggling as if she’d like to get down. “Claire, you can help pick out colors and arrange for the painting to be done. Sunshine will oversee the project, of course, but we’ll all stop by whenever we can and help clean it up before the contractors come.”
Autumn’s words were music to Sunshine’s ears. “Do you really think that would work?”
“We need to make an overall plan. We’ll clean and paint before Christmas, then do the rest afterward,” Claire said thoughtfully. “I’ll squeeze your project in.”
“But you can’t tell the men,” Sunshine rushed to say. “Cole absolutely can’t know a thing about it until Christmas morning.”
“No one will spill the beans,” Autumn said.
They moved on to tour the rest of the ground floor. Sunshine loved the formal living room, but the family room was so cozy with its huge fireplace she knew they’d end up spending most of their time there. Upstairs they found the bedrooms generous, although the closets were small.
“You’ll need to buy a wardrobe or two,” Claire noted. “I’ll be sure to send you links to some examples.”
“That’s a great idea.” Sunshine was thankful Claire was being so positive.
They returned to the front hall. “Thank you both so much,” Sunshine told them.
“No problem. It’s exciting. I wish I could be there when Cole sees his present,” Autumn said.
“Where are you spending Christmas?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know. We’d booked our hotel room through the holidays, but now that’s not an option.”
“Well, that’s simple,” Autumn told her. “You’ll stay with us. One of our rooms opens up Christmas Eve.”
“Thank you.” Sunshine was overwhelmed by her generosity.
“Don’t mention it—”
All three women turned around when a loud knock sounded on the front door.
“Who could that be?” Sunshine stepped to the front entrance, afraid Cole had somehow tracked her down. When she opened the door, a man she didn’t recognize stood outside.
“Carl? What are you doing here?” Autumn asked.
“Are you Sunshine Patterson?” Carl asked, ignoring Autumn. He was a tall, rugged-looking man and Sunshine estimated he was in his thirties. He had a sharp, no-nonsense air.
“Yes.”
“Glad to finally meet you.”
“What’s going on?” Claire asked. “Is something wrong, Carl?”
Sunshine knew why she asked; the man looked displeased. “I’m here to make Sunshine an offer. I’ll pay double what you did for this ranch. In cash. Today.”
Sunshine’s mouth dropped open. “Why?”
“Because I want it. I was supposed to buy it—I don’t know how you got the jump on me.”
“I told my realtor I wanted to make an offer. When I did, it was accepted.” There wasn’t anything underhanded about it, but Carl’s tone suggested he thought there was.
“Well, now I’ve offered you twice as much to sell it to me.”
“You can’t just barge in here and try to take Sunshine’s ranch,” Claire said. “This isn’t California, Carl.”
“Money talks all over, Claire. And I want this ranch. I’ve been trying to buy land around here since I let go of my old place. I keep losing out.”
He was obviously distressed about the situation and Sunshine felt bad for the man, but that didn’t mean she would sell to him…
Or should she?
Once again she thought of the bright, modern restaurant she could buy in Chicago. The hordes of patrons she could feed. The write-ups she might get in the city papers—or even the national ones.
Did she really want to trade all that for a ranch—in Chance Creek where women like Fran held sway?
“Double the money,” Carl said again. “If you sign it over today.”
“Carl, that’s crazy,” Claire said.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Sunshine said, although the thought of turning down all that money made her a little dizzy. She consoled herself that the man had to be joking. No one would pay double for her little ranch.
“Of course you can’t; this is your new home,” Autumn said.
“Are you sure?” A muscle worked in Carl’s jaw. “Don’t you want to even think about it? I’m good for the cash; either of these women can vouch for me.”
Autumn and Claire, both looking unhappy, nodded. “It’s true; Carl can afford it,” Claire said. “But he should wait and find a ranch of his own.”
“I think you should take some time to think it over,” Carl said to Sunshine. “What do you say?”
She couldn’t help but nod. “Okay—I’ll think about it. Just for a day or two.”
Carl pulled out his wallet and handed her a card, the look of satisfaction on his face telling her he thought he’d won. “Take your time—within reason, of course.”
“She doesn’t want to sell the ranch,” Autumn told him.
“She might,” Claire said slowly. “Sunshine wants a restaurant.”
“I’ll help find you one,” Carl told her. “Call me, day or night.” He left as suddenly as he’d arrived.
Autumn shut the door behind him. “He’s had a bad string of luck with property,” she explained. “Ethan told me he’s lost out on a couple of places, and Carl’s not accustomed to losing when it comes to money.”
“That’s a hell of a deal he offered you,” Claire said. “You might want to take it. There’ll be other ranches, sooner or later.”
“Don’t do it,” Autumn said. “They don’t come up that often and most of them are a lot bigger, and a lot more expensive. This place isn’t big enough for Carl, anyway; he’s just getting desperate. He’d sell it again the minute he found another one.”
“I don’t remember seeing him before.” Sunshine walked back into the kitchen to survey it again. After Carl’s offer it looked even more woebegone. Was she crazy not to take him up on the deal? Maybe the place wasn’t right for them after all.
“He arrived in town right after you and Cole left. Stole Ethan’s fiancée away from him, thank goodness,” Autumn said. “Then he lost her.”
“That’s the man who stole Lacey? Wow.” She wondered why Lacey had left him. From everything she’d heard about the woman, Lacey liked the finer things in life.
“Should we start making lists of things to do?” Autumn asked her.
Claire checked the time. “I have to go pick up Lynn.”
“And I should probably think about it overnight,” Sunshine added.
“Don’t do anything rash,�
� Autumn said.
Too late, Sunshine thought.
“Did you have a good time with Claire?” Cole asked late that night when they were heading to bed. Sunshine had been quiet all evening, which worried him. Down the hall, baby Lynn was crying. A small, dark-haired sprite, she’d been tearful on and off since late in the afternoon, which had made everyone a little tense. He was ready for bed, but first he wanted to make sure Sunshine was all right. He’d come home to find her and Claire sitting at the kitchen table having a heated discussion. There was a piece of paper between them with two columns on it. He’d only gotten the chance to read the headings—pros and cons—before Sunshine snatched it off the table and crumpled it up. When he’d tried to find out what they were up to, they’d refused to answer his questions. The whole incident left him uneasy.
“I did.” She turned down the covers of the bed, rummaged through her suitcase and gathered her toiletries. Lynn’s wails hit a high note, subsided for a moment, and started again. “Poor little girl. She sounds over-tired.”
“She sure does.” Cole stood a moment in front of one of the tall windows. It was dark outside, but the contours of the land were visible in the starlight. “Can’t beat the view from here.” Pasture spread out as far as the eye could see. In the distance were mountains—dark shapes against an inky sky. “Nothing says home like this.”
Sunshine sighed and Cole frowned. Didn’t she feel the same way? Something had been off about her for the last couple of weeks. Cole didn’t know what it was, but after his conversation with Ethan yesterday he was beginning to worry she didn’t want to settle in Chance Creek after all. Suddenly he needed to know. Instinct told him this wasn’t the time—not with Lynn’s wails building up into a crescendo—but he couldn’t help himself.
“This is home, isn’t it?” he asked, watching Sunshine carefully for her reaction to the question.
She just shrugged and kept looking through her suitcase.
“I had assumed we were in agreement about that.” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the window frame.
Sunshine stood up. “You know what they say about assumptions.” Her tone was teasing, but Cole’s frown deepened. What did that mean? Was she saying she didn’t want to live here?
As Lynn’s cries turned into high pitched screams, Sunshine headed toward the bathroom. Were Claire and Jamie torturing that baby? Probably just changing a diaper or something, he decided. He felt bad for them; they had more company coming in the morning and they needed a good night’s sleep.
“Are you saying you want to live in Chicago?” God, he hoped not. He’d do a lot for Sunshine, but he didn’t think he could endure that.
“I’m saying let’s take a little time to decide where we want to live.” She paused at the bathroom and glanced toward the door to the hall, frowning as Lynn’s wails went on and on. Cole knew how she felt. He wanted to stride down to the nursery room, take the baby and fix the problem, whatever it was.
“I thought you were ready to settle down.” Damn, that was gruffer than he’d meant to be, but the baby’s cries were really getting to him.
Sunshine looked almost guilty as she turned toward the bathroom again. “It’s almost Christmas, Cole. Let’s wait to figure things out until after the holidays.”
He wasn’t sure how to interpret that. Maybe he should give up the topic for tonight and try again tomorrow. He was tired. So was Sunshine. And the queen-sized bed looked all too inviting. Should he simply lead Sunshine over to it, undress her and celebrate their love the way they had so many times before?
Judging from her body language—and the screams down the hall—the answer was no. There wouldn’t be any lovemaking tonight.
“Something’s been bugging me,” he heard himself say. It was as if the baby’s screams were chiseling away at his common sense. This was no time for a serious conversation, but now he’d started, he didn’t know how to stop. “I saw the way you handled small village life. You were a trooper, and for a while I thought you fit in there pretty well. Then everything changed. Why was that?” It was something they should have discussed long before, but when Sunshine first dragged him to a city after their wilderness adventures, he’d been so busy enjoying hot showers and European cuisine, he hadn’t thought to ask. He’d thought it was going to be a brief change before they plunged into the grittier aspects of travel again, but it hadn’t been.
Sunshine shrugged. “I can deal with any hardship for a little while. Then it gets too much.”
Lynn let out a series of screams like a haywire teakettle. Cole lost his cool.
“Is that how you see Chance Creek? Like a hardship? Jesus, what is wrong with that kid?”
“Of course not.” She made a face. “Cole, she’s a baby. She’s overtired. Sometimes they have to scream it out.”
“Thank God we don’t have children.”
She recoiled and Cole stifled a curse. That wasn’t what he’d meant to say at all. He wanted kids. Someday. When they were ready for them. “I mean tonight. I don’t think I could handle that tonight.”
“With a baby you don’t get a choice about when you want to handle it.” She disappeared into the bathroom. Cole followed her and stopped her from shutting the door.
“Let’s get back to the real topic. I thought we were going to make a life here together.”
“I thought so, too.”
What the hell did that mean? Cole had lost all sense of the conversation and the baby’s screams weren’t helping. They’d had such a good time in this town together before they left on their trip. They’d been head over heels in love—
Cole’s thoughts skidded to a halt. Was that the problem? Had Sunshine fallen out of love with him? She’d been plotting something with Claire this afternoon. He’d thought it had to do with Christmas. Was he wrong?
“Look, Cole. I’d like to be by myself.” She indicated the bathroom door. “Do you mind?”
He retreated, the floor suddenly unsteady beneath his feet. Sunshine shut the door firmly—then locked it with a loud click.
Well, that sent a clear message. She didn’t want him around. Maybe she was sick of him.
As Lynn shrieked in a series of ear-splitting wails, Cole crossed the room in three steps, pulled open the door and left. If Sunshine wanted space, he’d give her space.
A whole lot of it.
Thank God we don’t have kids.
Cole’s words boomeranged around Sunshine’s brain as she paced the bathroom floor, trying to shut out Lynn’s wailing down the hall. Her brain told her Cole didn’t mean it. He was tired and angry, and Lynn’s screams would drive a saint to blasphemy. But her heart was as sore as if he’d stomped on it. She tried to remind herself of how good he’d been with the children they’d met on their travels. Like the night he’d played soccer barefoot with a straggling group of children in a tiny village on the edge of the Sahara Desert, or the way he’d created a bat out of a stick of wood and taught the children of a Nepalese settlement American baseball.
Cole shone with kids as long as the setting was bucolic, she realized. He’d avoided them like the plague once they’d hit the city centers of Europe.
Why?
The answer came all too easily, summed up in a statement he’d made one day in London as they passed a playground surrounded by chain link fence.
“Is that a school or a prison?” he’d asked.
“You know it’s a school,” she’d said, annoyed by the question.
“But do those kids?”
She wanted to rail against his words the way Lynn was protesting her bedtime, although Lynn seemed to be finally winding down, her cries lacking the volume they’d achieved previously. Cities weren’t so bad; Sunshine had grown up in one and she’d loved it. Pastures and horses weren’t required for a childhood.
Although they were nice.
As Lynn’s crying finally subsided, Sunshine admitted something she’d refused to think about since she’d taken the pregnancy test.
By choosing Cole—and parenthood—was she saying no to the career she’d always thought she had? Cole had made it all too clear he didn’t want to put his children into daycare, but where did that leave her? She’d always seen herself as a career woman. She’d gone on their round-the-world trip to become a better chef. Just because she was pregnant, did she have to give that up?
They’d never actually hashed out how they’d handle children, and if she was honest, that was one reason she been in no hurry to tell him about her pregnancy. Of course it was going to be fun to reveal it along with the ranch she’d bought on Christmas morning, but by waiting she’d also been able to put off the day they’d have to discuss the arrangements for after the baby was born.
She’d tried to believe she could be happy regardless of where they lived, or whether or not she worked. But if Cole didn’t even want children, all bets were off. She might as well take Carl’s money and run.
That triggered a whole new line of thinking. Should she accept Carl’s offer? Cole would never have to know she’d even bought the ranch in the first place. She could turn around, demand they move to Chicago and have the restaurant she’d always wanted. Why should she be the one to put off all her dreams?
When she exited the bathroom, she hadn’t decided anything, and Cole still hadn’t returned. She turned out the lights and climbed into bed, prepared to wait and question him. She wouldn’t tell him about her pregnancy, but she could find out where he stood on children—and on marriage in general.
She’d always thought that Cole was a man who could handle commitment, but Fran’s stories had shaken her to the core. Back in high school, at least, he’d been nothing but a good-time boy. When she’d met him he’d still been a confirmed bachelor.
Why did she think he’d change for her?
She woke up to find the night had passed and light was streaming in through the windows. It was eight in the morning and Sunshine sat up, still half-asleep but fully aware that something was wrong.
“Cole?” she whispered, unsure if the others were awake yet. She turned to his side of the bed…