by Elena Aitken
Their first attempt was downright pathetic. Cole just about managed to copy her, as did Jake and Ethan. Jamie and Cab crashed headlong, then spent the next few minutes blaming each other. Cole wasn’t sure what Ned was doing—it wasn’t dancing. Luke began to laugh the minute they started to move and couldn’t seem to stop.
“Okay, okay,” Angelica said. “Let’s try that again.”
So it went—with Angelica walking through each set of steps patiently and the men trying to copy them with varying degrees of success. Cole had to hand it to her—she had the patience of a saint, although she did finally separate Cab and Jamie before either of them landed a punch on the other.
As they went, she added each new series of steps to the old ones until an hour and a half later, they could do a complete song. The routine had lots of repetition, but enough variety that it wasn’t dull. Cole felt like he’d actually accomplished something by the end of the lesson. At the very least, he was glad to find he didn’t have two left feet.
Ethan looked at his watch. “Hell—I’ve got to get home.”
“Chores?” Cole asked him.
“Arianna’s bedtime.” Ethan grinned sheepishly. “I give her a growly bear ride to bed every night. She doesn’t sleep as well if I’m not there to do it.”
“Lynn’s the same,” Jamie said, reaching for his coat. “Except she prefers a monkey ride. Sometimes it’s off the hook. Claire hates it.” He shrugged. “Thinks I’m going to drop her.”
“We’re not quite the hard-drinking crowd you used to know, huh?” Cab said to Cole, clapping him on the shoulder as he headed for the door. “Thanks, Angelica.”
“See you all in a couple of days. Good work, guys!”
Cole and Jake waited for the others to leave and thanked Angelica again. On the ride home, Cole thought about what Cab had said. He was right; everyone had changed. They were the same rowdy cowboys they’d always been, but they’d grown up a bunch, too.
Their priorities had changed.
“Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be,” Jake drawled as he turned the truck homeward.
“No,” Cole agreed. “It wasn’t.”
“You could stay with us,” Hannah said the next morning when she helped load their suitcases into the back of her truck, “but now that the rest of us have had our turn hosting you, Fila and Mia are clamoring for their turns. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” Sunshine said. It would be ungrateful to be anything but thankful that people actively wanted her to stay with them, but she was bone tired and still waiting to hear from Cole if he’d made up his mind. They’d gone to bed without saying much to each other again the night before, although Cole had kissed her soundly and stroked her hair before settling in to sleep. She sensed he was still deep in thought about the matter, and she had to appreciate that he hadn’t simply stuck to his first knee-jerk reaction. Cole was a thoughtful man under all that testosterone.
Meanwhile, she had to make up her mind, too. She’d been waiting to hear what he had to say, but she couldn’t put Carl off anymore and she had decided it wasn’t fair to rest her decision to sell or keep the ranch on Cole. She needed to think this through herself.
Hannah helped Sunshine move her things into the small cabin Fila and Ned inhabited on the Double-Bar-K and then took her to her ranch so she could finish cleaning before the painters came in the afternoon.
“I wish I could stay to help,” Hannah said. “Are you going to be okay out here by yourself?”
“Absolutely. To be honest, I’m craving a little time alone. I’ve got my cell phone—I’ll be fine.”
After Hannah drove away, the quiet settled in and soothed her jangled nerves, wrapping around her like a soft blanket. It began to snow, and—mesmerized—Sunshine moved through the house and out the door to the porch. She let the flakes fall on her face, shivering a little in the cold air. The hiss of the snow was the only sound and for the first time in nearly three years, Sunshine knew she was the only person for miles.
She let out a breath that she might have been holding since she boarded her original flight out from Chance Creek. She felt so much older now. Wiser, too.
At peace.
Sunshine nodded. She was at peace. She held her hands out and spun in a slow circle, letting the snow slip over her like a benediction. Of all the places in the world she’d traveled to, this was where she belonged. Life kept leading her here. She didn’t know why. Maybe she never would.
It didn’t matter.
She stopped her circling and peered out as far as the snow would let her see. Could she make this ranch her world? This town? These people?
She thought of all the women who’d come to help her over the previous week. Maybe she could.
Would she have to tailor her vision of her career? Probably, although her discussion with Emma last night had revealed a woman whose ambition nearly matched her own. Their ideas had bounced off each other until they’d hardly been able to breathe for the words spilling out of their mouths.
Had she found the kind of friend that made a place worthwhile?
Maybe she’d found a number of them.
She knew she’d found a husband she could love forever, despite his—she hesitated to call them flaws. She’d asked a lot of Cole by asking him to step into shoes society felt she should wear, but there were all kinds of compromises they could make. Even if he couldn’t do as much as she wished he could, there were other options.
She remembered Autumn and the way she, Claire and Morgan swapped childcare. She remembered the way each of them had put their lives on hold to help her. She already had a community in place and she’d only been back in Chance Creek for a few days. What possibilities would the next few years unfold?
There was only one way to find out.
Sunshine pulled out her phone and found Carl’s name in her contacts. A minute later he answered.
“Whitfield here.”
“Carl, it’s Sunshine.”
To her surprise, he chuckled. “I know, I know—no deal, right?”
“That’s right. How did you guess?”
“I should have known that first night. You were cleaning the place. Once a woman starts cleaning her home, she’s not going to leave it.”
“Well, that’s sexist.”
“I didn’t mean it to be. Men do it too in their own way. It just usually involves tools and sheds.”
It was her turn to chuckle. “Okay, I’ll grant you that. I’m sorry. I know you’re disappointed.”
“I can’t lie to you; I am. Can’t get the girl until I have the house.”
Sunshine went back inside and shut the door behind her. She crossed to the thermostat and turned up the heat. “Are you sure about that? Women kind of like to pick out their own homes.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. “Well, shit,” Carl finally said. “I’m being an idiot, aren’t I?”
“I’m not really sure.” After all, she knew nothing about him—or his girl, whoever that might be.
“Sunshine, you might have stolen my ranch, but you just gave me a Christmas present I won’t forget.”
“Really?” Carl was kind of weird, but she thought she liked him.
“Really. Happy holidays to you and yours.”
“You too—”
He was already gone.
Sunshine grabbed her cleaning supplies and moved into the family room, feeling happier than she’d been in a long time.
Chapter 8
“I haven’t tasted anything this good since we left Turkmenistan,” Cole said when he polished off a heaping plate of butter chicken nachos at Fila’s restaurant at lunchtime.
“You have to try the Tikka Masala tacos,” Ned said, pushing away his plate. “By the way—” He leaned closer. “This thing about keeping your restaurant a secret? It’s for my protection as well as yours. I really shouldn’t be helping the competition.”
“Well, sounds like Fila and Camila have
already been helping Sunshine brainstorm what to do next. I think you’re in the clear.”
“I generally am. Fila cuts me a lot of slack.” The cowboy’s fondness for his wife was all too evident. He kept glancing at the window behind the counter that separated the eating area from the kitchen where Fila and Camila were hard at work. “Good thing, too.”
“I’d like to hear Fila’s story sometime.” Cole had gotten bits and pieces about the way Fila had made her way back home from Afghanistan where she’d been held captive for over a decade. “Your wife sounds like a brave woman. And I can’t believe what I heard about that firefight. A shootout in Chance Creek?” When the terrorists who’d captured Fila came after her, things had gotten deadly.
“With the local gun expert thousands of miles away. We could have used you that night.” Ned looked grim.
“Sorry I wasn’t there.”
“You don’t realize what’s important until it becomes life or death.”
“I’ve been trying to decide what’s important,” Cole heard himself say. He found it far easier to talk to Ned than he’d expected. He knew the cowboy. He’d grown up with the Mathesons and had spent plenty of time with all four of them over the years, but he didn’t know Ned well. Still, it was hard to hold back what was on his mind.
“I kind of thought you had a plan. Marry Sunshine. Settle down?”
“My plan is beginning to take shape.” He told Ned about the free-range egg idea. “The thing is…” He wasn’t sure he could voice what Sunshine had asked.
Ned waited. He was patient, Cole would give him that.
“She wants my help—with our kids when we have them. Like, not just a little help. A lot.”
Ned scratched his neck. “Welcome to the twenty-first century.” He smiled wryly. “Remember all that hoopla about women having to do it all? I used to hear it on the radio out in the barn. Some woman would come on and talk about her career and her kids and her husband and how she couldn’t do anything well enough. I used to think they were crazy. Swore I near about grabbed the phone once, called in one of those shows and said, ‘Just pick something and do it, lady!’” He chuckled. “That would have gone over well, right?”
Cole nodded appreciatively. Many times he’d had a similar urge to sort out the callers on talk radio shows when he worked at the rifle range.
“But now I look around and it ain’t just women—it’s everyone. We’re all trying to do everything. And we’re competing with TV shows where the people are doing it perfectly. I reckon they got it worse in the city. At least out here we’re too busy to care about what we look like for the most part. We know if we work with horses we’re going to smell like manure. But even here—you seen what people are doing to their kitchens? I walked into a ranch house the other day and could have sworn I’d been teleported to Manhattan.” Ned shook his head. “The world’s gone nuts, man.”
“You said a mouthful.”
“But as far as babies and men and women? Maybe it’s not so bad. My dad sure could have been a little softer around the edges.”
Cole had heard the stories about Holt Matheson. “He raised you old-fashioned, huh?”
“Saw the back of his hand more than anything else. That’s just the way he knew. Took a long time to sort things out and get to a better place. When my kid’s born—” He broke off. “Hell. I just spilled the beans. No one knows about that.”
Cole leaned forward. “Fila’s pregnant?”
“Yep. Seven weeks.”
“Congratulations.” Cole reached across the table and shook his hand. “That’s terrific news.”
“Well, keep it to yourself; we’re going to announce it on Christmas. You going to the Cruz ranch Christmas Eve?”
“Yeah, we’re staying there.”
“We’ll tell everyone then.” Ned grinned. “I’m going to be a dad. How’s that for crazy?”
“You’ll do a good job.” Cole hesitated. “So what would you say if Fila asked you to step up and do a lot of the child care?”
“Fuck man, she didn’t have to ask. I volunteered.”
Late that afternoon, Sunshine took a taxi into town and joined both Fila and Camila for an early dinner. Finally she heard the full story of Fila’s journey from a remote village in the mountains of Afghanistan back to the United States. Sunshine couldn’t believe the courage it must have taken.
“We never went to Afghanistan,” Sunshine told her. “We spent some time in Turkmenistan, but that’s the closest we got.”
“I’m glad you’re both here now,” Mia said. She eyed Sunshine speculatively. “You look different tonight. Is your morning sickness settling down?”
“No. Ugh.” Sunshine still struggled from late morning through mid-afternoon. Then she became ravenous. “But I’ve sorted some stuff out that was on my mind.” She couldn’t wait to catch up to Cole tonight. Freed from worry about his choice, she felt so much better than she had in days. She wanted to reconnect with him. To start figuring out the future.
“You know, if you feel up to it, and if you have time, we could use some extra help during the next few weeks here at the restaurant.” Fila flipped her long, dark braid over her shoulder.
“We’ve both been working overtime for months. We need to back off our hours,” Camila put in. Like Fila, her hair was dark, but hers surrounded her face in wild curls. She was pretty and vivacious. Fila was calmer, but her eyes danced with fun.
They made a good team, Sunshine thought. She hoped she and Emma might become like them someday. They’d decided to wait until the Christmas craziness had died down to have another planning session.
“Would you consider coming on board? Only temporarily,” Fila said. “We know you have plans for your own restaurant.”
“That’s going to take a while. I’ve spent my money on the ranch.”
“But if you and Emma work together you’ll figure out a way,” Camila said.
“We’ll see.” She wasn’t going to rush anything. She’d decided that for now she’d be content where she was.
“Can you keep a secret?” Fila said, leaning forward. “I heard about your pregnancy.”
“I figured.”
“I’m pregnant too. But shh. You two are the only ones who know except Ned.”
“Oh, my goodness! Congratulations!” Sunshine wanted to hug her. “This is your first one, right? We’ll be newbies together.”
Mia laughed. “Welcome to the baby club, both of you. This is exciting!”
“So—will you come work for us?” Fila said.
Sunshine hesitated. “I’d love to—but you know I’m a vegan. I don’t cook meat.”
“We thought about that,” Camila said. “What we really need is someone to help prep and to take over ordering supplies. You can be queen of the vegetables. We use a lot of them.”
“And tortillas,” Fila said. “We desperately need a tortilla queen. We only use handmade ones.”
“I could do that,” Sunshine said. It would get her hand back in the business and introduce her to local suppliers. She’d get as much out of it as she’d be putting in.
“Terrific,” Camila said. She checked her watch. “We’d better get back to work.”
“I’ll walk over to Thayer’s and catch a ride back to the Double-Bar-K with Mia,” Sunshine said. “She’s—”
The door opened and Carl walked in. “Oh,” Camila said, cutting Sunshine off. “I’ll take this order.” She jumped up and moved behind the counter as Carl crossed to stand in front of it.
“Those two,” Fila said with another toss of her head. “Someday they’re actually going to date.”
Sunshine eyed them curiously as she stood up and put on her coat. “Maybe sooner than you think.”
After a long day’s work on the restaurant, and several hours spent helping Ned with his chores on the Double-Bar-K, the last thing Cole wanted to do was stumble through another dance class, but since all of his friends had been roped into it on account of him, Cole knew he could
n’t bow out. This one went better than the last one had, but it was still hard to watch Ned dance and keep a straight face.
Afterward, they milled around by the door to the restaurant as they pulled on their coats.
“Did you hear about Carl?” Cab asked. “Rumor has it he’s going after some ranch.”
“I heard he put the bank on notice he might need a lot of cash to buy it outright,” Jamie said.
Cole hid a smile. Small town living at its worst; no one should be talking about things like that, but somehow everyone knew.
“Who’s he going after?”
“I have an idea, but I’m not at liberty to say,” Cab told Cole. “But I sure as hell hope he doesn’t get it.”
“You’ve got something against Carl?”
“Nah, Carl’s all right, but this particular owner shouldn’t sell.”
That was all Cab would say despite their attempts to get him to cough up more. Cole went home with an uneasy feeling in his gut. It was clear ranches were hard to come by in these parts. He didn’t have a lot of cash left after purchasing the restaurant. He hated to think he might be forced to buy a small parcel of land instead.
Back at the house, he and Ned gathered with Fila and Sunshine in the living room for cocoa before heading upstairs. Ned turned on the television and surfed through the channels until he found a Christmas movie Cole had seen a half-dozen times. Still, with Sunshine next to him on the couch, and good friends close by, he relaxed, content. At some point he realized both Sunshine and Fila had fallen asleep watching the movie. He caught Ned’s eye, grinned and raised his cup of cocoa. Ned raised his cup, too.
“Happy Holidays,” Ned said.
“To you, too.”
It had become so habitual to pack their things each morning, Sunshine did it automatically and was ready to move to Mia and Luke’s cabin before breakfast the next day. Cole and Ned took care of transferring their luggage over, while Sunshine did her best to choke down a piece of toast and a glass of juice, fighting against the morning sickness that always hit her at breakfast time these days. She’d learned she had to power through it until the afternoon when it would subside.