A Cold Creek Noel (The Cowboys of Cold Creek)

by Thayne, RaeAnne

  Chapter Four

  “But I like staying at the hotel. We have Alex and Maya to play with there and someone makes breakfast for us every day. It’s kind of like Eloise at the Plaza.”

  Ben swallowed a laugh, certain his bristly nine-year-old daughter wouldn’t appreciate it. If there was one thing Ava hated worse than eating her brussels sprouts, it was being the object of someone else’s amusement.

  Still, as lovely as the twenty-four room Cold Creek Inn was, the place was nothing like the grand hotel in New York City portrayed in the series of books Ava adored.

  “It has been fun,” he conceded, “but wouldn’t you like to have a little more room to play?”

  “In the middle of nowhere with a bunch of cows and horses? No. Not really.”

  He sighed, not unfamiliar with Ava’s condescending attitude. He knew just where it came from—her maternal grandparents.

  Ava wasn’t thrilled to be separated from his late wife’s parents. She loved the Marshalls and tried to spend as much time as she could with them. For the past two years, since Brooke’s death, Robert and Janet had filled Ava’s head with subtle digs and sly innuendo in an ongoing campaign to undermine her relationship with her father.

  The Marshalls wanted nothing more than to take over guardianship of the children any way they could.

  He blamed himself for the most part. Right after Brooke’s death, he had been too lost and grief-stricken to see the fissures they were carving in his relationship with his children. The first time he figured it out had been about six months ago. After an overnight stay, Jack had refused to give him a hug.

  It had taken several days and much prodding on his part, but the boy had finally tearfully confessed that Grandmother Marshall told him he killed dogs and cats nobody wanted—a completely unfair accusation because he was working at a no-kill shelter at the time.

  He had done his best to keep distance between them after that, but the Marshalls were insidious in their efforts to drive a wedge between them and had even gone to court seeking regular visitation with their grandchildren.

  He knew he couldn’t keep them away forever, but he had decided his first priority must be strengthening the bond between him and his children, and eventually he had decided his only option was to resettle elsewhere to make the interactions between them more difficult.

  “It’s only for a few weeks, until our house is finished,” he said now to Ava. “Haven’t you missed Mrs. Michaels’s delicious dinners?”

  “I have,” Jack opined from his booster seat next to his sister. “I looove the way she makes mac and cheese.”

  Ben’s mouth watered as he thought of the caramelized onions she scattered across her gooey macaroni and cheese.

  “If we move into this new place, that will be the first thing I ask her to make,” he promised Jack and was rewarded with a huge grin.

  “It hasn’t been bad going for dinner at the diner or having stuff from the microwave in the hotel room,” Ava insisted. “I haven’t minded one single bit.”

  He sighed. Her constant contrariness was beginning to grate on every nerve.

  “What about Christmas? Do you really want to spend Christmas Eve in the hotel, where we don’t even have our own tree in our rooms?”

  She didn’t immediately answer and he could see her trying to come up with something to combat that. Before she could, he pursued his advantage. “Let’s just check it out. If we all hate it, we can stay at the hotel through the holidays. With any luck, our new house will be done by early January.”

  “Will I have to ride the bus to school for the last week of school before Christmas vacation?”

  He hadn’t thought that far ahead. He supposed he should have considered the logistics before considering this option. “You can if you want to. Or we can try to arrange our schedules so I can take you to school on my way to the clinic.”

  “I wouldn’t want to ride a bus. It’s probably totally gross.”

  That was another lovely gift from his late wife’s parents, thank you very little. Janet Marshall had done her best to turn his daughter into a paranoid germaphobe.

  “You can always use hand sanitizer.” This had become his common refrain, used to combat her objections for everything from eating in a public restaurant to sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall.

  She sniffed but didn’t have a response for that. Much to his relief, she let the subject go and subsided into one of her aggrieved silences. He had a feeling Ava was going to drive him crazy before she made it to the other side of puberty.

  A few moments later, he pulled into a side road with a log arch over it that said River Bow Ranch. Pines and aspens lined the drive. Though it was well plowed, he was still grateful for his four-wheel drive as he headed up a slight hill toward the main log ranch house he could see sprawling in the distance.

  Not far from the house, the drive forked. About a city block down it, he saw a smaller clapboard home with two small eaves above a wide front porch.

  He couldn’t help thinking it looked like something off of one of the Christmas cards the clinic had received, a charming little house nestled in the snow-topped pines, with split rail fencing on the pastures that lined the road leading up to it.

  “Can we ride the horses while we’re here?” Jack asked, gazing with excitement at a group of about six or seven that stood in the snow eating a few bales of alfalfa that looked as though they had recently been dropped into the pasture.

  “Probably not. We’re only renting a house, not the whole ranch.”

  Ava looked out the window at the horses too, and he didn’t miss the sudden light in her eyes. She loved horses, just like most nine-year-old girls.

  But even the presence of some beautiful horseflesh wasn’t enough. “You said we were only looking at it and if we didn’t like it, we didn’t have to stay,” she said in an accusatory tone.

  Oh, she made him tired sometimes.

  “Yes. That’s what I said.”

  “I like it,” Jack offered with his unassailable kindergarten logic. “They have dogs and horses and cows.”

  A couple of collies that looked very much like the one currently resting in his clinic watched them from the front porch of the main house as he pulled into the circular drive in front.

  Before he could figure out what to do next, the door opened and Caidy Bowman trotted down the porch steps, pulling on a parka. She must have been watching for them, he thought. The long driveway would certainly give advance notice of anybody approaching.

  She wore her dark hair in a braid down her back, topped with a tan Stetson. She looked rather sweet and uncomplicated, but somehow he knew the reality of Caidy Bowman was more tangled than her deceptively simple appearance would indicate.

  He opened his door and climbed out as she approached his vehicle.

  “The house is just there.” She gestured toward the small farmhouse in the trees. “Why don’t you drive closer so you don’t have to walk through the snow? Ridge plowed it out with the tractor this morning so you shouldn’t have any trouble. I’ll just meet you there.”

  “Why?” He went around the vehicle and opened the passenger door. “Get in. We can ride together.”

  For some reason she looked reluctant at that idea, but after a weird little pause, she finally came to where he was standing and jumped up into the vehicle. He closed the door behind her before she could change her mind.

  The first thing he noticed after
he was once more behind the wheel was the scent of her filling the interior. Though it was a cold and overcast December day, his car suddenly smelled of vanilla and rain-washed wildflowers on a mountain meadow somewhere.

  He was aware of a completely inappropriate desire to inhale that scent deep inside him, to sit here in his car with his children in the backseat and just savor the sweetness.

  Get a grip, Caldwell, he told himself. So she smelled good. He could walk into any perfume counter in town and probably get the same little kick in his gut.

  Still, he was suddenly fiercely glad his house would be finished in only a few weeks. Much longer than that and he was afraid he would develop a serious thing for this prickly woman who smelled like a wild garden.

  “Welcome to the River Bow Ranch.”

  He almost thanked her before he realized she was looking in the backseat and talking to his children. She wore a genuine smile, probably the first one he had seen on her, and she looked like a bright, beautiful ray of sunshine on an overcast day.

  “Can I ride one of your horses sometime?”

  “Jack,” Ben chided, but Caidy only laughed.

  “I think that can probably be arranged. We’ve got several that are very gentle for children. My favorite is Old Pete. He’s about the nicest horse you could ever meet.”

  Jack beamed at her, his sunny, adorable self. “I bet I can ride a horse good. I have boots and everything.”

  “You’re such a dork. Just because you have boots doesn’t make you a cowboy,” Ava said with an impatient snort.

  “What about you, Ava? Do you like horses?”

  In the rearview mirror, he didn’t miss his daughter’s eagerness but she quickly concealed it. He wondered sometimes if she was afraid to hope for things she wanted anymore because none of their prayers and wishes had been enough to keep Brooke alive.

  “I guess,” she said, picking at the sleeve of her parka.

  “You’ve come to the right place, then. I bet my niece Destry would love to take you out for a ride.”

  Ava’s eyes widened. “Destry from my school? She’s your niece?”

  Caidy smiled. “I guess so. There aren’t too many Destrys in this neck of the woods. You’ve met her?”

  Ava nodded. “She’s a couple years older than me but on my very first day, Mrs. Dalton, the principal, had her show me around. She was supernice to me and she still says hi to me and stuff when she sees me at school.”

  “I’m very glad to hear that. She better be nice. If she’s not, you let me know and I’ll give her a talking-to until her ears fall off.”

  Jack laughed at the image. Ava looked as if she wanted to join him but she had become very good at hiding her amusement these days. Instead, she looked out the window again.

  “Here we are,” Caidy said when he pulled up front of the house. “I turned up the heat earlier when I came down to clean a little. It should be nice and cozy for you.”

  How much work had she done for them? He hoped it wasn’t much, even as he wondered why she was making this effort for them when he wasn’t at all sure she really wanted them there.

  “So all the rattraps are gone?” he asked.

  “Rats?” Ava asked in a horrified voice.

  “There are no rats,” Caidy assured her quickly. “We have too many cats here at the River Bow. Your father was making a joke. Weren’t you?”

  Was he? It had been quite a while since he had found much to joke about. Somehow Caidy Bowman brought out a long-forgotten side of him. “Yes, Ava. I was teasing.”

  Judging by his daughter’s expression, she seemed to find that notion just as unsettling as the idea of giant rodents in her bed.

  “Shall we go inside so you can see for yourself?” Caidy said.

  “I want to see the rats!” Jack said.

  “There are no rats,” Ben assured everybody again as Caidy pushed open the front door. It wasn’t locked, he noticed—something very different from his security-conscious world in California.

  The scent of pine washed over them the moment they stepped inside.

  “Look!” Jack exclaimed. “A Christmas tree! A real live one of our very own!”

  Sure enough, in the corner was a rather scraggly pine tree as tall as he was, covered in multicolored Christmas lights.

  He gazed at it, stunned at the sight and quite certain the tree hadn’t been there a few hours earlier. She had said the house was empty, so somehow in the past few hours Caidy Bowman must have dragged this tree in, set it in the stand and strung the Christmas lights.

  She had done this for them. He didn’t know what to say. Somewhere inside him another little chunk of ice seemed to fall away.

  “You didn’t need to do that,” he said, a little more gruffly than he intended.

  “It was no big deal,” she answered. In the warmth of the room he thought he saw a tinge of color on her cheeks. “My brothers went a little crazy in the Christmas tree department. We cut our own in the mountains above the ranch after Thanksgiving, and this year they cut a few extras to give to people who might need them. This one was leftover.”

  “What about the lights?”

  “We had some extras lying around. I’m afraid this one is a little on the scrawny side, but paper garland and some ornaments will fix that right up. I bet your dad and Mrs. Michaels can help you make some,” she told Ava and Jack. As he might have expected, Jack looked excited about the idea but Ava merely shrugged.

  He wouldn’t know the first thing about making ornaments for a Christmas tree. Brooke had always taken care of the holiday decorating and his housekeeper had stepped in after her death.

  “Come on. I’ll give you the grand tour. It’s not much, as you can see. Just this room, the kitchen and dining room and the bedrooms upstairs.”

  She was too modest. This room alone was already half again as big as one of the hotel rooms. The living room was comfortably furnished with a burgundy plaid sofa and a couple of leather recliners, and the television set was an older model but quite large.

  One side wall was dominated by a small river rock fireplace with a mantel made of rough-hewn lumber. The fireplace was empty but someone—probably Caidy—had stacked several armloads of wood in a bin next to it. He could easily imagine how cozy the place would be with a fire in the hearth, the lights flickering on the tree and a basketball game on the television set. He wouldn’t even have to worry about turning the volume down so he didn’t wake Jack. It was an appealing thought.

  “Through here is the kitchen and dining area,” she said.

  The appliances looked a little out-of-date but perfectly adequate. The refrigerator even had an ice maker, something he had missed in the hotel. Ice from a bucket wasn’t quite the same for some reason.

  “There’s a half bath and a laundry room through those doors. It’s pretty basic. Do you want to see the upstairs?”

  He nodded and followed her up, trying not to notice the way her jeans hugged her curves. “We’ve got a king bed in one room, a queen in the second bedroom and bunk beds in that one on the left. The children won’t mind sharing, will they?”

  “I want to see!” Jack exclaimed and raced into the room she indicated. Ava followed more slowly, but even she looked curious about the accommodations, he saw.

  The whole place smelled like vanilla and pine, fresh and clean, and he didn’t miss the vacuum tracks in the carpet. She really must have hurried over to make it ready for them.

  “There’s
a small bathroom off the master and another one in the hall between the other bedrooms. That’s it. Not much to it. Do you think it will work?”

  “I like it!” Jack declared. “But only if I get the top bunk.”

  “What do you think, Ava?”

  She shrugged. “It’s okay. I still like the hotel better but it would be fun to live by Destry and ride the bus with her and stuff. And I get the top bunk. I’m older.”

  “We can work that out,” Ben said. “I guess it’s more or less unanimous. It should be great. Comfortable and spacious and not that far from the clinic. I appreciate the offer.”

  She smiled but he thought it looked a little strained. “Great. You can move in anytime. Today if you want. All you need are your suitcases.”

  The idea of a little breathing space was vastly appealing. “In that case, we can go back to the inn and pack our things and be back later this afternoon. Mrs. Michaels will be thrilled.”

  “That should work.”

  “Can we decorate the tree tonight?” Jack asked eagerly.

  He tousled his son’s hair, deeply grateful for this cheerful child who gave his love unconditionally. “Yeah. We can probably do that. We’ll pick up some art supplies while we’re in town too.”

  Even Ava looked mildly excited about that as they headed back outside.

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Caidy said suddenly. “What are you doing all the way down here, you crazy dog? Just want to make a few new friends, do you?”

  She spoke to an ancient-looking collie, with a gray muzzle and tired eyes, that was sitting at the bottom of the porch steps. Caidy knelt down, heedless of the snow, and petted the dog. “This is Sadie. She’s just about my best friend in the world.”

  Ava smiled at the dog. “Hi, Sadie.”

  Jack, however, hovered behind Ben. His son was nervous about any dog bigger than a Pekingese.