A Cold Creek Noel (The Cowboys of Cold Creek)

by Thayne, RaeAnne

  “I’ll, um, see you later,” she mumbled. “Thanks for...everything.”

  “You’re very welcome.” His low voice thrummed over her nerves. She did her best to ignore it as she grabbed the end of Luke’s leash and escaped.

  Chapter Eleven

  Two nights later, Ben pulled off the main road onto the drive into the River Bow, wishing he could hang a left at the junction, climb into his bed at the cottage and sleep for the next two or three days.

  His shoulders were tight with exhaustion, his eyes gritty and aching. When he finally found time to sleep, just past midnight, he had only been under for a few minutes when he received an emergency call to help a dog that had been hit by a car on one of the ranch roads. He had ended up packing his sleepy kids—poor things—into the backseat of the SUV and taking them inside his office to sleep while he attended to the dog.

  He really needed Mrs. Michaels—or someone like her. At least the kids had fallen quickly back to sleep. He considered that a great blessing. Even after he packed them back to the ranch and into their beds, they had again fallen asleep easily.

  He had envied them that as he tossed and turned, energized by the case and the successful outcome. Before he knew it, the alarm was going off and he had stumbled out of bed to face a packed schedule of people rushing to take their animals into the vet before the clinic went on its brief holiday hiatus.

  So far, he hadn’t seen any slowdown in business after taking over from Dr. Harris. Another blessing there. Although he was grateful for the business and glad that the people of Pine Gulch had decided to continue bringing their animals to him, right now he was too tired to savor his relief.

  As he pulled up to the River Bow ranch house, Christmas lights gleamed against the winter night and the darker silhouettes of the mountains in the distance and the pines and aspens of the foreground. Warm light spilled out the windows into the snow and that big Christmas tree twinkled with color.

  The place offered a cheery welcome against the chilly night. He couldn’t help thinking about his grandparents’ home in Lake Forest. In sheer square footage, Caldwell House was probably three times as big as the River Bow, but instead of warmth and hominess, he remembered his childhood home as being sterile and unfriendly to a young boy, all sharp angles, dark wood and uncomfortable furniture.

  His grandparents hadn’t wanted him. He had known that from the beginning when their daughter, his mother, had dropped him and his sister off before running off with her latest hard-living boyfriend.

  She hadn’t come back, of course. Even at age eight, he had somehow known she wouldn’t. Now he knew she had died of a drug overdose just months after dropping him and Susie with her parents, but for years he had watched and waited for a mother who would never return.

  Oh, his grandparents had done their duty. They had given him and Susie a roof over their head, nutritious meals, an excellent education. But he and his sister had never been allowed to forget they came from a selfish, irresponsible woman who had chosen drugs over her own children.

  He had his own family now. Children he loved more than anything. He would never treat them as unwanted burdens.

  Eager to pick them up now, he pulled up in front of the River Bow. The night was clear and cold, with a brilliant spill of stars gleaming above the mountains. Inside the door, he could hear laughter and a television show, along with a couple of well-mannered barks.

  The door opened just seconds after he rang the bell. His stomach rumbled instantly as the spicy, doughy smells wafting outside immediately transported him to his favorite pizzeria in college.

  “Hi, Dad!” Jack let go of the doorknob just an instant before launching himself toward Ben. With a laugh, he held his arms out and Jack did his traditional move of spider-walking up his legs before Ben flipped him upside down, then scooped him up into his arms.

  He always found it one of life’s tiny miracles that his exhaustion could seep away for a while when he was reunited with his kids at the end of the day, even if Ava was in a cranky mood.

  “How was your day, bud?”

  “Great! I got to help feed the horses and play with some kittens. And guess what? I don’t have to go back to school until next year.”

  “That’s right. Last day of school and now it’s Christmas vacation.”

  “And Santa Claus comes in three days!”

  He had so dang much to do before then, Ben didn’t even want to think about it. “I can’t wait,” he lied.

  As he spoke, Ben became aware of what Jack would have called a disturbance in the Force. Some kind of shift in air currents or spinning and whirling of the ions in the air or something, he wasn’t sure, but he sensed Caidy’s approach even before she came into view.

  “Hi! I thought I heard a doorbell.”

  She was wearing a white apron and had a bit of flour on her cheek, just a little dusting against her heat-flushed skin.

  “Sorry I’m a little later than I told you I would be on the phone,” he answered, fighting the urge to step forward and blow away the flour.

  “No problem. We’ve been having fun, haven’t we, Jack?”

  “Yep. We’re making pizza and I got to put some cheese on.”

  His stomach growled again and he realized he hadn’t had time for lunch. “It smells great. Really great.”

  Jack grabbed one of his hands in both of his. “Can we stay and have some? Please, Dad!”

  He glanced at Caidy, embarrassed that his son would offer invitations to someone else’s meal. “I don’t think so. I’m sure we’ve bothered the Bowmans long enough. We’ll find something back at our place.”

  Exactly what, he wasn’t quite sure. Maybe they would run into town to grab fast food, though right now loading up into the vehicle again and heading to the business district was the last thing he felt like doing. Maybe there was a pizza restaurant he hadn’t discovered yet—because that smell was enticing.

  “Of course you’ll stay!” Caidy exclaimed. “I was planning on it.”

  “You’re doing us enough favors by letting the kids come hang out with you. I don’t expect you to feed us too.”

  She narrowed her gaze at him. “I just spent an hour making enough pizza dough to feed the whole town of Pine Gulch. You can stay a few minutes and eat a slice or two, can’t you?”

  He should make an excuse and leave. This house was just too appealing—and Caidy was even more so. But he didn’t have plans for dinner. If they ate here, that was one less decision he would have to make. Besides, pizza on a cold winter night seemed perfect.

  They could stay for a while, just long enough to eat, he decided. Then he and his children would head for home. “If you’re sure, that would be great. It really does smell delicious.”

  “I’m going to be a lousy hostess and ask you to hang your own coat up because my hands are covered in flour, then come on back to the kitchen.”

  Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and walked back down the hall, Jack scampering after her. After a pause, Ben shrugged out of his ranch coat and hung it alongside Jack’s and Ava’s coats on the rack in the corner.

  He expected to see a crowd of children when he walked into the kitchen but Caidy was alone. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, leaving another little smudge of flour, and gave him a bright smile that seemed to push off another shackle of his fatigue.

  “The kids are just getting ready to watch a Christmas show in the other room. You’re more than w
elcome to join them while I finish throwing things together in here.”

  He should. A wise man would take the escape she was handing him, but he didn’t feel right about leaving her alone to do all the work. “Is there anything I can help you do in here?”

  Surprise flickered in her eyes, then she smiled again. “You’re a brave man, Ben Caldwell. Sure. I’ve got a cheese pizza cooking now to satisfy the restless natives. Give me a minute to toss out another pie and then you can put the toppings on.”

  He washed his hands, listening to the familiar opening strands of a holiday television special he had watched when he was a kid in the big rec room of Caldwell House. He found something rather comforting about the continuity of it, his own children enjoying the same things that had once given him pleasure.

  “Would you like a drink or something? We don’t keep much in the house but I can probably rustle up a beer.”

  “What are you having?”

  “I like root beer with my pizza. It’s always been kind of a family tradition and I apparently haven’t grown out of it. Silly, isn’t it?”

  “I think it’s nice. Root beer sounds good, but I can wait until the pizza is done.”

  She smiled as her hands expertly continued tossing the dough into shape. “What about you? Any traditions in the Caldwell family kitchen?”

  “Other than thoroughly enjoying whatever Mrs. Michaels fixes us, no. Not really.”

  “What about when you were a kid?”

  Traditions? No, not unless she might count formal family dinners with little conversation and a serious dearth of kindness. “Not really. I didn’t come from a particularly close family.”

  “No brothers or sisters?”

  “A sister. She’s several years younger than I am. We’ve lost touch over the years.”

  Susan had rebelled against their grandparents by following in their mother’s footsteps, burying her misery in drugs and alcohol. Last he heard, she was in her third stint at rehab to avoid a prison sentence.

  “I can’t imagine losing touch with my brothers.” Sympathy turned Caidy’s eyes an intense green. “They’re my best friends. Laura and Becca are like sisters to me now too.”

  “You Bowmans seem a united front against the world.”

  “I guess so. It hasn’t always been that way, but it’s the now that counts, right?”

  “Yes. You’re very lucky.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, then appeared to think better of it. “I think this should be ready now.”

  With a twist of her wrist, she deftly tossed the dough onto a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal and crimped the edges before handing the whole peel to him with a flourish.

  “Here you go. All yours.”

  “Uh.” He stared helplessly at the naked pizza dough, not quite sure what she expected of him.

  “You haven’t done this before, have you?”

  He gave a rough laugh. “No. But I can tell you by heart the phone number of about half a dozen great pizza places in California.”

  She shook her head and stepped closer to him, stirring the air with the scent of wildflowers, and suddenly he forgot all about being hungry for pizza. Now he was just hungry for her.

  “Okay, I’ll walk you through it this time. Next time you come over for Friday night pizza, though, you’re on your own.”

  Next time. Whoever would have guessed those two words could hold so much promise? He knew darn well he shouldn’t feel this little kick of anticipation for something so nebulous and uncertain as a next time.

  Better to just enjoy this moment. As she said, it was now that mattered. In a few weeks, he and his children would be moving away and Caidy Bowman and this wild attraction to her would be conveniently distant from him.

  For now, she was here beside him, her skin unbelievably soft-looking and her hair teasing him with the scent of flowers and springtime.

  “Okay, first thing you do is spoon a little sauce on. I like to use the bowl of the big spoon to spread it to the edge of the dough. That’s it. Good.”

  He supposed it was fairly ridiculous to feel the same sense of pride in spreading sauce on a pizza dough as he had the first time he helped deliver a difficult foal.

  “Now sprinkle as much cheese as you usually like. Perfect. I see you like it gooey.”

  She smiled at him and he suddenly wanted to toss the unfinished pizza to the floor, press her up against that counter and kiss her until they were both breathing hard.

  “Okay, now put your toppings on. I was planning a pepperoni and olive for the next one but you can be creative. Whatever you think the kids might like.”

  “Pepperoni and olive sounds good.” He cleared away the ragged edge to his voice. “My kids always like that.”

  She didn’t appear to notice. “The third one can be a little more sophisticated. By then, Destry and her friends—and Ridge, when he’s home—have had their fill.”

  Who made three homemade pizzas on a Friday night? Caidy Bowman apparently.

  She was a woman of more layers than a supreme pizza and he was enjoying the process of uncovering each one.

  “Now your toppings. Don’t skimp on the olives.”

  He picked up a stack of pepperoni and dealt them like cards on poker night, then tossed handfuls of olives to the edge of the crust. This was going to be the best damn Friday night pizza she had ever had, he vowed.

  “Okay, now another layer of cheese and then a bit of fresh Parmesan on the top. Oh, that looks delicious.”

  “Thank you.”

  “If the vet thing ever gets old, you can always get a job at the pizza place in town.”

  He laughed. “A backup plan is always helpful. Good to know I can still feed my kids.”

  She smiled back at him and he knew he didn’t imagine it when her gaze flickered to his mouth and stayed there long enough to send heat pulsing through him. The moment stretched between them, heady and intoxicating, and he again wanted to kiss her, but she stepped away before he could act on the urge.

  “I guess this one is ready.”

  “Now what?”

  “Now I take the cheese pizza out, then we call in the locusts and watch it disappear.”

  He watched while she did just that, shoving a second pizza peel under the cooked pizza on a stone in the oven and deftly working the dough onto the peel before pulling the whole thing back out.

  The cheese bubbled exactly the way he loved and the crust was golden perfection.

  “Des!” she called. “The first pizza’s ready. Can you pause the show and bring everybody in here?”

  The herd of children galloped in a moment later, a few more than he expected. Ava was deep in conversation with Destry and Gabi while Jack was chattering away with Caidy’s nephew, Alex, and niece Maya.

  “Hi.” Maya grinned at him in her adorable way and he couldn’t help smiling back.

  “Hi there.”

  “Did I mention I was babysitting Maya and Alex for a few hours tonight? Taft and Laura had some last-minute Christmas things to take care of. Laura’s mom usually helps them out but she had a party tonight so I offered. I figured, what’s a few more? And when Gabi heard Ava was coming over, of course she had to come too.”

  Now he understood why she was making so many pizzas.

  Six kids. How did she handle it? He was overwhelmed most of the time with his own two, but Caidy seemed to juggle everything with ease. After transferring the other pizza from the peel to the
stone in the oven, she poured drinks for the younger children, handed plates to the older girls and passed out napkins to everyone.

  “Better grab a slice fast or it’s going to be gone,” she advised him. He snagged one of the few remaining pieces and a glass of frothy root beer and took a place at the kitchen table next to Jack.

  All the children seemed ramped up for the holidays but Caidy managed to keep them distracted by asking about the show they were watching, about their school parties that day, about what they wanted Santa to bring them.

  He was too busy savoring the pizza to contribute much to the conversation but after the first blissful moments, he decided he had to try. “This is really delicious. I grew up in Chicago so I know pizza. The sauce is perfect.”

  “Thank you.” She probably meant her pleased smile to be friendly and warm but he was completely seduced by it, by her, by this warm kitchen that seemed such a haven against the harsh, cold world outside.

  “What about the third one? What’s your pleasure?”

  He could come up with several answers to that, none of them appropriate to voice with six children gathered around the table. “I don’t really care. What’s your favorite?”

  “I like barbecue chicken. The kids generally tolerate it in moderation, so that only leaves more for me.”

  “I didn’t realize you were such a devious woman, Caidy Bowman.”

  “I have my moments.”

  She smiled at him and he was struck by how lovely she was, with her dark hair escaping the ponytail and her cheeks flushed from the warmth of the stove.

  He was in deep trouble here, he thought. He didn’t know what to do about this attraction to her. He was hanging on with both hands to keep from falling hard for her, and each time he spent time with her, he slid down a few more inches.