Harlequin Superromance December 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: Caught Up in YouThe Ranch She Left BehindA Valley Ridge Christmas

by Beth Andrews

  When Ellen again began grilling Ed, Penny turned impulsively to Max. Without even realizing it, he’d helped her so much today. She wanted to offer something—anything—that would make his life easier, too.

  “I’m going to be working at Bell River next week, giving some art lessons. If Ellen would like to come, I’m sure there’s room.”

  She’d thought Ellen wasn’t listening, but apparently she’d been naive. Ellen undoubtedly kept her ears tuned to her father’s conversations every second, whatever else she might appear to be doing.

  At Penny’s words, Ellen made a squealing sound that she swallowed back almost instantly. She didn’t say a word, but she turned imploring eyes toward her father, and her hands were clenched tightly in fists against her midriff.

  “It’s just a couple of hours each day,” Penny added. “We’ll be taking some nature hikes, drawing some of the things we see. There will be lots of supervision.”

  Max seemed to hesitate. Penny wondered what the hitch was.

  “Dad.” Ellen’s voice rippled with longing. “Dad, can I? Please?”

  “It’s a transportation problem, more than anything,” Max said finally. “You’ll be at Mrs. Starling’s camp the first part of the day, and—”

  “I’d be glad to pick her up,” Penny interjected. “Or, even better, if she’d like she could spend this week doing the Bell River children’s activities. We have programs scheduled all day long, so that the parents staying there can do adult things. Rowena and Bree have really put together some fantastic classes.”

  He was still frowning. “I’m sure it’s great, but—”

  “Dad, please. Please.” Ellen’s intensity was radiating out in waves of desperation. “I hate Mrs. Starling’s camp. The kids there are mean, and there’s hardly any art stuff at all. Everything is so boring. It’s like nursery school.”

  He looked at his daughter for a long moment, then turned to Penny. “Are you sure it wouldn’t be an inconvenience?”

  “Not at all. I really think she’d like it, and I’d love having her there. So would Alec.”

  Max smiled, finally. “Okay. Check with the others first, though, to be sure they have room for an extra kid.”

  “I will,” Penny started to say, but Ellen was squealing so loudly she couldn’t hear her own words. The little girl grabbed her father’s waist with one hand, and Penny’s with the other, and wrapped them both in a joint bear hug.

  The force of her embrace tilted Penny toward Max, and, as she corrected her feet to find her balance, she ended up practically face-to-face with him. Their eyes were just inches apart, with only the ecstatic little girl between them, her face buried in her father’s rib cage.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Ellen said, her voice muffled by Max’s jacket.

  It was the first time Penny had seen Ellen voluntarily embrace her father since they arrived. She looked up at Max, and saw the surprise—and the deep, wordless relief—in his honey-brown eyes.

  “Thank you,” he said softly to Penny, his lips moving the words more than speaking them.

  “My pleasure,” she answered, also in a whisper. And she was shocked to realize how true that was. His joy seemed to ignite a similar sense of satisfaction in her own heart.

  Somehow, in just these past few days, this little family’s happiness had become very important to her.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THE NEXT MONDAY, the first day Ellen spent at Bell River, Max nearly quit the Silverdell Hills project about a hundred times. Acton Adams unexpectedly showed up at the headquarters again, with his girlfriend in tow, and Max spent the entire endless day finding ways to talk the two rich idiots out of making design changes that would turn the golf resort into a Vegas-style monstrosity.

  He got home so tired he just barely could stay awake to hear about his daughter’s day. He fought to keep his eyes open while Ellen showed off her watercolors of fall foliage and quizzed him with flash cards identifying the native birds of Colorado.

  He hoped she didn’t sense his exhaustion, which she’d undoubtedly read as indifference. He did his best, registering even with his foggy mind that day camp at Bell River was a darn sight more educational—and apparently more fun—than Mrs. Starling’s camp had ever been. And he must have done well enough, because for the first time in a long time, Ellen hugged him good-night.

  That night, he slept like a stone. Though Acton drove him nuts, peaceful sleep was one fringe benefit—Max was so exhausted he didn’t wake up even once with the Mexico dream. And he didn’t have to lie there afterward, thinking about Penny and wondering whether she ever dreamed of him.

  But by Thursday, fringe benefits or not, Max had endured all the Acton he could take. In frustration, he directed Olivia to nix the girlfriend’s new brainstorm—lobby columns shaped like golf clubs, and a glass ceiling filled with thousands of golf balls, which she thought would be “classy, like Chihuly or something.”

  “Talk her out of it. Or hell, don’t talk her out of it. I honestly don’t care. Just make sure they understand that either this new lobby goes, or I do.”

  And then, with Olivia staring wide-eyed at his back, he left. He couldn’t handle another minute of this place. If he hurried, he could get to Bell River before Ellen’s camp activities were over for the afternoon.

  He wanted to see the dude ranch for himself. Ellen had been practically an angel all week, yes-sir-ing and no-sir-ing Max till he wondered whether the Wrights were putting something funny in the water over there.

  He’d driven by Bell River before, of course, first out of curiosity, and then, when he agreed to let Ellen attend the camp, with a more discriminating eye. It was a pretty place, great location just east of town, old enough to look established, but fresh and updated. Obviously well loved and well run.

  Now he wanted to get up close and personal.

  He knew to drive around back to find the car park. When he got out, though, he hesitated a minute, trying to decide whether to head toward the barn or toward the main house. Ellen had explained that mornings were spent outdoors, hiking, horseback riding and playing sports, but afternoons were mostly in the barn, painting, or listening to guests talk about nature and wildlife and local lore.

  “Thorpe?”

  Max glanced over to the west, toward a building that looked as if it must be the stables. Dallas Garwood was walking toward him, hand outstretched and smile in place, offering the welcome that had been so conspicuously lacking the last time they met.

  But what the heck. Max wasn’t the type to hold a grudge.

  “Garwood.” He accepted the other man’s handshake, noticing that the man looked warmer, more down-to-earth here in this setting, with his jeans and flannel shirt and cowboy hat instead of a suit.

  Also in his favor, Dallas held a wrench in his other hand. Not merely the sheriff, then. Not just the eye candy husband for an heiress wife. Dallas was a working partner in the family endeavor.

  Max liked that. On his grandfather’s farm, everyone had pitched in on everything. He couldn’t remember ever seeing his grandfather without a hammer or a pair of pliers in his pocket.

  “I’m glad to see you, Max.” Dallas’s handshake had been warm and sincere, almost like an apology. “I’ve been meaning to stop by and say I’m sorry about what a jerk Alec was.”

  For a minute Max couldn’t remember what Dallas meant. He tilted his head quizzically. “Jerk?”

  “Yeah. I hear he made quite the fool of himself at your place. Went after Ellen with a sewing needle, and then keeled over in your living room.” Dallas shook his head. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d skinned him alive on the spot.”

  “I have to admit I thought about it.” Max smiled, thinking back on that crazy day. “Let’s just say Alec has a clever way of disarming his opposition.”

 
; “I know. Believe me, I know.” Dallas chuckled. “One of these days, though, the little devil is going to meet someone he can’t charm, and then God help him. Anyhow, I’m sorry he made such a hash of everything. He’s mucked out about a hundred extra stalls as punishment, and he’s not done yet.”

  “Might be time to let him off the hook,” Max suggested. “I don’t think he was to blame for that escapade. You remember how, in chemistry class, if you took the perfect two ingredients, and put them in the same beaker...”

  Dallas laughed, tipping his hat back on his brow. “Oh, yeah. I’ve met Ellen.” He glanced toward the barn. “She’s got some serious spunk. Plus, she’s the first kid who’s ever introduced Alec to the concept of humility. I’m definitely a fan.”

  Max felt himself mellowing, completely forgiving Dallas for their rocky start. There really was no better basis for a friendship between two fathers than this: you like my kid, and I like yours.

  “So. Are you here to pick Ellen up?” Dallas stuffed the wrench in his back pocket. “Or are you here to see Penny?”

  Max raised his eyebrow, surprised that both options seemed acceptable to Mr. Silverdell Sheriff Garwood, who little more than three weeks ago apparently had stood ready to slap him in jail if he so much as looked funny at the youngest Wright sister.

  “I’m here for Ellen,” he said. “Penny ordinarily brings her home, but I got free early, so I thought I’d pick her up myself.”

  “I don’t think they’re back yet.” Dallas shaded his eyes and looked off toward the western slope. “Ro and some of the youth counselors took them out on a short ride. Nothing to worry about. The younger kids are on our slowest, laziest ponies, so they don’t always make it home on time.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll wait in the car.”

  “No, no. Come on in. Penny and Bree are inside. They’re working on the wedding plans, of course. All day every day.”

  “Wedding plans?”

  “Bree and Gray. It’s next weekend, so we’ve officially reached crazy time. Swatches everywhere, and if I have to eat another piece of sample cake or give my opinion on another bridesmaid dress, I’m moving out till it’s over.”

  Dallas grinned again. “I’m not trying to scare you, Max. Just offering fair warning. This is seriously something borrowed–something blue stuff. If wedding plans give you hives...”

  Max tilted his head and raised one brow. “Hives?”

  “Well,” Dallas shrugged. “I mean, if you don’t give a hoot whether a petticoat is made of satin-edged tulle or tulle-edged satin, you can always come back later. I won’t even mention you were here.”

  Max nodded, thoughtfully digesting the offer. Then he smiled.

  “As you may have noticed, I’m not that easy to scare. Wedding planning is not a problem. I’m a tulle-edged satin man, actually. And I’m happy to tell anyone who asks.”

  Dallas narrowed his eyes briefly, searching Max’s face, as if the two of them had just exchanged an important piece of information. Then, relaxing, he slapped Max lightly on the back.

  “Well, good for you, Thorpe,” he said. “Good for you. Come on, then. I’ll show you where to find the fun.”

  * * *

  PENNY KNELT ON the floor in Ro’s living room and put her elbows on the coffee table, so that she could get a better look at the pictures she’d spread out there.

  The photos Bree had rejected had been tossed aside, into a stack on the far side of the table. The “like” pile was now fanned out so that Penny could study them more carefully, looking for a common thread. She rose onto her knees and stretched, rear end high in the air, so that she could check out the farthest ones.

  She thought she spotted a pattern. Bree had picked out all the pictures that—

  “Hi, there. You look busy.”

  Max? Oh, hell. Penny almost tipped the chair over, trying to get back in a normal position. She cursed her clumsiness internally, but tried to smile on the outside. She had probably looked like someone’s pet monkey, baboon behind in the air....

  “Max! I didn’t know you were coming to get Ellen.” She smoothed her shirt down. “You didn’t have to, you know. I was planning to bring her home, as usual.”

  “I thought I’d surprise her,” he said. Then he stopped, just inside the doorway. “You cut your hair.”

  “Yeah.” Self-consciously, she reached up to touch the long bob that now barely brushed her shoulders. Ruth had always told her she shouldn’t cut it. A woman’s crowning glory...men like it long...

  “Does it look that bad?” She tucked one side behind her ear. “It’s so much more comfortable. So much easier to take care of...”

  “It looks fantastic.”

  Amazingly, he sounded absolutely sincere. And the look on his face was not disappointment. It was something more complicated. Something that made her insides warm slightly.

  The hairdresser had assured her it was a much-sexier look. More approachable, more adult, than the long, straight fall that she usually scraped back in a ponytail. Hearing Ruth’s voice in her head, Penny had been skeptical—but in the end she shut the voice up and forged onward. The haircut was for her own aesthetic pleasure, and her own convenience. It wasn’t done to appeal to anyone but herself.

  However, now she knew that the hairdresser had been right.

  Seeing this admiring look on Max’s face...this was a fringe benefit she would gladly accept.

  “Thanks,” she said, fighting down a blush. “It’s no big deal. Just another check on the list. Compared to something like the tattoo, or the white-water rafting, a haircut seemed like a cinch.”

  “I bet.” Max came into the room and took one of the other chairs around the table. He leaned back comfortably. “So you must be burning up that list by now. How many is that?”

  She smiled. “This makes five. I’ve got twelve, so I’m almost halfway through. Not exactly burning it up, but pretty good. Especially considering I’d expected to give it a whole year. If I keep this pace, I may have to make a second list—one that’s a little more daring.”

  “Five.” He smiled. “Does that count juggling?”

  Suddenly her mouth tingled, and without conscious thought she found herself staring at his.

  “No.” She pulled her gaze free and pressed her lips together. “No, I don’t think I’m ready to cross that one off just yet. I tried it again yesterday. I’ve even bought the right kind of beanbags, and a video. But I’m hopeless.”

  Like a fool, she found herself wanting to add something flirtatious, something obvious, like, “I probably need a few more lessons.”

  But she didn’t. She wasn’t that foolish, thank goodness. Nothing had changed since their last talk. They’d agreed that night that neither of them could afford the distraction of a fling right now. They were both recovering from huge, life-altering events—and everyone knew you shouldn’t rush into anything at a time like that.

  He’d made vows to Ellen. She’d made vows to herself.

  Not that keeping those vows was going to be easy.

  Sometimes, when she lay awake at night, listening to the silence and feeling so painfully alone, she tried to argue herself out of it.

  Why shouldn’t they fudge on their promises, she asked herself? Just a little? They didn’t have to hurt anyone in the process. They could flirt...kiss...even be lovers—all without letting his daughter find out. People had secret affairs all the time.

  And so what if she was trying to build a reputation in town as a woman you could send your children to for art lessons—while everyone around her was waiting to see if she had grown up to be crazy, like her dad, or slutty, like her mom? They could keep it a secret from the whole darn town, too.

  It didn’t even matter that Max was going to be around for only nine months, so that any relationship could never be any
thing more serious than a fling. She was an adult—she could control her emotions. She could master these feelings, this strangely powerful attraction that came over her like a tidal wave whenever she got near him.

  She could be sure he didn’t break her heart.

  Except that she already knew she couldn’t be sure of that. Just sitting here beside him right now, she already could feel the temptation of his gentle kindness, his steady strength.

  The sad truth was, it would be so easy to fall for him. To put off trying to stand on her own two feet, which was turning out to be so much lonelier than she’d ever bargained for.

  Easy—but cowardly. And she refused to be that kind of coward. To those who said it was her destiny to lean on a man, any man, even a man who would hurt her, she could only say...watch me.

  “Yeah,” she repeated. “I’m definitely hopeless.”

  “You’ll get the hang of it,” he said gently, as if he could hear her inner turmoil and wanted to assure her that he wasn’t a threat. As if he wanted to promise he wouldn’t take advantage of her ambivalence. “You’re tougher than you realize, Penny. If you decide to do something, you’ll do it.”

  She smiled appreciatively, though she couldn’t quite meet his eyes—they seemed to see so far into her.

  “Thank you,” she said. She bent her head over the pictures and began shuffling them around meaninglessly. It was time to change the subject.

  “Has Ellen mentioned that Bree asked her to be in the wedding?”

  Max hesitated, then laughed. “I didn’t know till five minutes ago there was going to be a wedding. Apparently the dad is always the last to know. Be in the wedding...how?”

  “As a flower girl.” Penny wondered why Ellen hadn’t mentioned it to Max. Bree had asked her days ago—maybe the second day she was here—and she had reported that she’d been given permission.

  Maybe Max would think it was inappropriate, given how new their friendship was. Penny wondered if he understood how quickly Ellen had been integrated into the Wright nucleus. Perhaps it was Ellen’s motherless, vulnerable aura, or maybe it was her friendship with Alec, but all three of the Wright sisters had taken to the girl instantly. She wasn’t the sweet, immediately adorable kind of kid—but then, they hadn’t been that kind, either.