Light the Stars

by RaeAnne Thayne

  She opened her mouth and he braced himself for the lecture he was sure would follow, but to his surprise, she closed it again.

  "Fine."

  The chill in her voice annoyed him, for some reason. He deserved it, he reminded himself, and swallowed what was left of his pride.

  "I'm sorry I left you alone with them so long. I should have called or something but we had to work our tails off to get the hay in before the rain hit."

  "We were fine. Tanner's hand was hurting before bed so I gave him another dose of his painkiller. I hope that's okay."

  "Yeah. I, ah, appreciate your help."

  "You're welcome."

  "Are you sure you don't mind staying a day or two, until I figure something else out?"

  "Of course not. I'm more than happy to help."

  He couldn't quite understand why she was so willing to step in and help him but he was too tired and hungry now to figure it out.

  "Do you have a spare room I could use while I'm here?" she asked. "I left my luggage in my car because I wasn't quite sure where to put it."

  "Oh. Of course. I should have thought of that earlier. There are two guest rooms on this floor and a couple more upstairs. Of the eight bedrooms in the house, only four are being used right now since Cody and Tanner share."

  "Upstairs near the children is fine," she said.

  "Go ahead and pick one and I'll go get your luggage and find you."

  He came back five minutes later with a single suitcase from her trunk, a laptop case and what he guessed was a makeup bag.

  He found her in the room across the hall from his own and he tried not to let his imagination get too carried away with what might happen if he crossed that hall in the night.

  "Thank you," she murmured and he could tell by the exhaustion in her voice that she would be asleep in minutes.

  "You're welcome. Uh, good night."

  He brushed past her on his way out the door and was immediately assailed with the delectable scent of vanilla ice cream and warm, sleepy woman, and it was all he could do to keep from reaching for her.

  He was definitely going to have come up with another caregiver solution until Marjorie came back. He wasn't sure he was strong enough to withstand having Caroline Montgomery in his house.

  Chapter Five

  Caroline had no clue what time the day started on a big cattle operation like the Cold Creek so she decided to err on the side of caution. Her travel alarm woke her at 5:00 a.m. and by 5:30 she stood in the large ranch kitchen with a spatula in one hand and a pencil in the other.

  With the coffee brewing, biscuits cooking in the oven and bacon sizzling and popping on the huge commercial stove, Caroline tried to organize her thoughts and make some order out of the chaos that had suddenly become her life.

  Quinn's latest escapade and her inevitable efforts to clean up the mess he left behind threatened to wreak havoc with her business. She had phone coaching sessions set up with a half-dozen clients today that she would have to reschedule and a speech she was supposed to give to a woman's meditation group over the weekend would have to be canceled.

  The timing was lousy, a complication she could ill afford, but it wouldn't destroy her either. One of the advantages of coaching—one of its big appeals to her when she found herself burning out physically and emotionally in her work counseling abused women at a shelter—was that her schedule could usually be flexible.

  Sometimes that flexibility took a little creative time management, though, like now.

  She glanced out the window over the sink and saw the sun beginning its slow rise above the mountains. She hadn't done her own meditations and affirmations yet this morning so she turned down the bacon, grabbed her sweater and slipped outside to the deck outside the kitchen.

  This area must be Marjorie's handiwork, she thought with a fond smile for her client.

  Fall-blooming flowers and herbs filled a variety of containers, from an old metal washtub to a rusted watering can. Several sets of whimsical wind chimes hung from an awning, their music gentle and sweet. Under the awning, protected from the cool breeze, a swing covered in green-striped fabric faced the mountains, a welcoming spot to greet the morning.

  She sat on the wide, comfortable swing, enjoying the soft swaying, and looked around the Cold Creek.

  She wasn't really sure what she thought of Wade Dalton yet, but one thing she could tell just by looking at his ranch—the man ran a tight ship.

  The barns she could see from here were freshly painted, the fences near the house gleamed white in the predawn light and she couldn't see any old farm machinery or junk parts sitting around. Everything was neat and organized.

  She watched a light flicker on in a small cedar house twenty yards away and wondered if that was the guest house where Wade's brother lived. She hoped she'd made enough bacon for two hungry men and three children.

  The air was sharp with fall but sweet and clear, heavy with moisture from the storm the night before. She drew it deep into her lungs and closed her eyes, mentally taking a broom and dust-pan to all the stress cluttering up her mind.

  It took some effort this morning, as she had worried for a long time before she fell asleep about Quinn and Marjorie. That negative energy still flowed through her but she breathed in the sweet mountain air until she could feel herself moving back toward center.

  When at last she opened her eyes she could see the promise of day in the pale rim above the jagged Tetons.

  Though she had a vague memory of seeing those stunning mountains from the more familiar Wyoming side, she didn't think she'd ever been to Idaho before. How had she and Quinn managed to miss it in their rambling life?

  She thought they'd been everywhere as they moved from town to town, her father charming and scamming his way across the country, always after the next big deal.

  Please, God, not this time, she prayed silently as part of her meditation. Quinn's intentions toward Marjorie had to be just what they seemed. She couldn't bear thinking he might be cooking up another of his schemes. Her father knew how hard she had worked to build Light the Stars, how very much she cherished the career she had created for herself.

  Her success meant everything to her. It was her mission in life, the one thing she had discovered she excelled at.

  Knowing how much she loved it and how hard she had worked for her success, would Quinn have risked it all by exploiting her connection with Marjorie for less than altruistic motives?

  She couldn't bear thinking of it, not now after working so hard to find serenity this morning. But in her deepest heart, she knew she must suspect it or she wouldn't have dropped everything to come after him. She wouldn't be in a stranger's house right now, cooking his breakfast.

  She would be burning his bacon, if she didn't stop woolgathering out here, she reminded herself with a grimace, and slipped back inside the warmth of the house to turn it over.

  Ten minutes later, she had a tidy pile of notes and an even bigger pile of bacon strips when Wade Dalton walked into the kitchen.

  He must have come right from his shower as his hair was damp, his strong, chiseled features freshly shaved. Her insides quivered a little at the sight but she forced herself to push away the instinctive reaction and offer him a friendly smile.

  "Good morning."

  He headed straight for the coffee maker. "Didn't expect to see you up this early."

  "I wasn't certain what time you started your day and I wanted to be sure to have breakfast ready. How do you like your eggs?"

  His eyes startled, he studied her over the rim of his cup. "Um, scrambled is fine," he said after a moment. "But you didn't have to get up so early just to do that. I'm not completely helpless. I can usually manage to toast a couple pieces of bread."

  She grabbed three eggs out of the refrigerator and started cracking them in a bowl.

  "I enjoy cooking," she assured him as she poured a splash of milk into the eggs and beat them vigorously. "Besides, I wanted to catch you before you left
the house anyway. I have a couple of questions for you."

  As she added the eggs to the frying pan, she saw Wade shift his weight and realized he looked less than thrilled at the prospect of conversing with her. "What about?"

  "Yesterday was so crazy, with Tanner's burn and everything else, that we really didn't have a great deal of time to discuss your expectations."

  "My…expectations?" He seemed uncomfortable with the word, though she wasn't quite sure why.

  "What you want from me, as far as the children are concerned."

  "Oh. Right. As far as the children are concerned." He paused. "I don't know. Whatever you did yesterday is probably fine."

  The day before she'd been flying blindly and she disliked going into a situation unprepared. "Last night before I went to bed I made a list of everything I feel I need to know about the children's schedules and their preferences and daily chores. I thought perhaps we could discuss it over breakfast."

  She transferred his eggs to a plate, added several strips of the crispy bacon, a couple of the warm biscuits and some strawberry jam she'd found in the refrigerator.

  She set it all on the table at one of the place mats she'd found earlier, along with a pretty matching cloth napkin. Wade studied the place setting with a baffled kind of expression on his face but he finally sat down and took a bite of eggs.

  Caroline contented herself with a biscuit, a peach yogurt and a glass of juice and sat across from him at a matching place setting.

  "That's all you're having?" he asked. "It looks like you fixed enough bacon to feed the whole county."

  She shrugged, a little embarrassed that she'd overestimated what was needed. "I'm not much of a breakfast eater."

  The kitchen was quiet and she thought how intimate it was sitting with a man while he enjoyed his breakfast. She found the thought disconcerting and quickly spoke up to divert her attention from how very attractive Wade Dalton was.

  "Do you mind if I ask you some questions while you eat?"

  "I guess not," he said in a tone that plainly conveyed he didn't think her interrogation would improve his digestion.

  She plunged forward anyway. "I suppose some kind of rough schedule is the first thing I need to nail down. What time does Nat need to be ready for the bus?"

  He swallowed a mouthful of eggs. "Um, you'll have to ask her when she gets up. I think it's about eight or so but she can be more specific."

  Caroline wrote a question mark next to bus pick-up.

  "And what time does the bus usual bring her home?"

  "About three-thirty or so. You're probably going to want to ask her that for more specifics. I'm usually not around when she comes back."

  Next to bus drop-off, she wrote 3:30 and then another question mark.

  "Natalie told me she has Brownies after school today. I need to know what time she is supposed to be there, how long it lasts and directions to her troop meeting."

  "I hate to sound like a broken record but you'll have to ask Nat. She'll know all that."

  What do you know about your daughter? she wanted to ask but held her tongue. So far she wasn't very impressed by Wade's parenting skills. He had ignored his children completely the day before and now he seemed oblivious to the small routines that made up their lives.

  Something of her thoughts must have showed on her face because his expression turned defensive.

  "Sorry, but my mother took care of those kind of details."

  "All right. I'll ask Natalie. She most likely at least has the name of the troop leader I can call."

  She studied her list and wondered whether she'd be able to get any information from Wade at all. "I suppose that leaves the boys. It would help me to have some idea of their usual routine. Does Tanner go to preschool?"

  "He goes a few days a week but, uh, right off the top of my head I'm not sure what days those are. Nat might be able to tell you that too. Or maybe Marjorie wrote it on the calendar or something."

  "I checked there. No luck."

  "Well, with his burn and all, he probably ought to just stay home for a while anyway."

  "You're probably right."

  Wade rose from the table, deciding even if she was a great cook, the fluffy biscuits and crisp bacon weren't worth the price of this awkward conversation. "Thanks for the breakfast but I should be on my way."

  "I'm not quite finished. That still leaves Cody. Can you tell me what kind of schedule Cody might be on as far as nap time? Does he nap in the morning or afternoon?"

  "Um, afternoon." It was a total guess, judging by what had happened the day before, but Wade decided she didn't have to know that.

  How could one small, delicate woman make him feel like such an idiot? he wondered. He didn't much like the feeling that he knew nothing about his own children.

  It wasn't true anyway. He might not be up on every single detail but he knew Nat adored horses and Tanner liked helping him fix farm machinery and asked a million questions while they were doing it and Cody enjoyed snuggling with his daddy at the end of the day.

  "My mother is the one who kept things running around here." Wade's guilt at his own ignorance made him testy. "She would still be keeping them running if not for you and your Don Juan of a father."

  Heat flashed in those huge brown eyes but it was gone so quickly he wondered if he'd imagined it.

  "We're all trying to make the best of a less-than-perfect situation, Mr. Dalton."

  "You don't need to call me Mr. Dalton in that prissy, annoyed voice. You can call me Wade."

  "Wade, then. I've known your children less than twenty-four hours. I know nothing of their likes and dislikes, their routines, their favorite activities. You're asking me, a total stranger, to jump right in and take care of all these details that you don't know and you're their father!"

  He stared her down. "I didn't ask you to do anything. You insisted on staying."

  She folded her hand together. "You didn't exactly throw me off the ranch when I offered to help."

  Just because something was true didn't make it any easier to swallow. Yeah, he'd taken her help and agreed to let her stay. He hadn't had a whole lot of options. He still didn't.

  "I've known you less than twenty-four hours but already I know you well enough to doubt you would have gone. You're like a cocklebur, lady. You stick to something and don't let go."

  She opened her mouth to respond but before she could, the back door opened and Seth came inside—in search of coffee, no doubt.

  He was grateful for the interruption, Wade told himself as he watched Seth spy Caroline. Seth instantly shed his typical morning grouchiness to offer her that slow smile of his that seemed to make every female within a hundred-mile radius sit up and purr.

  From the cradle, it seemed as if Seth could charm any female into doing anything he wanted. Wade didn't know he did it, he had just seen it hundreds of times. From the checker at the grocery store to the eighty-year-old church organist, every woman in Pine Gulch adored Seth, probably because he adored them right back.

  Usually he found his brother's fascination with the opposite sex—and their inevitable response—mostly amusing. He wasn't sure why but today it bugged the hell out of him.

  "Morning. You must be Caroline." Seth aimed the full force of that killer grin in her direction.

  "Yes. Hello."

  Just because Wade was annoyed didn't mean he could ignore the manners Marjorie had drilled in them. "This is my brother Seth," he said stiffly. "He lives in the guesthouse out back and is the second in command on the ranch. Seth, this is Caroline Montgomery."

  Seth smiled at her again. "I always wanted a baby sister. I just never expected to get a full-grown stepsister as pretty as a columbine. Welcome to the family."

  Caroline blinked several times but seemed to soak in the whole load of baloney. "My goodness. Stepsister. I hadn't thought of that."

  She slanted a quick look at Wade and he wondered why color was suddenly creeping across her cheeks.

  He wasn'
t sure what annoyed him more—her blush at Seth's teasing or the idea that she might be related to him in any way, shape or form.

  "What a crock of sh…sunshine. She's not a step-anything."

  "Her dad married our mother. Seems to me that's clear enough."

  Seth poured coffee and took a sip, then made an exaggerated sigh of delight. "That is one fine cup of coffee. Somebody who can make coffee like that is just what this family needs."

  She shook her head. "It's just coffee. Nothing fancy."

  "Not just coffee, trust me. I'm something of an expert and this is delicious."

  "Would you like some breakfast?" Caroline asked. "I'm afraid I overdid it a little on the bacon so you can have as much as you want. There are fresh biscuits, too and I'd be happy to scramble some eggs or make an omelet to go along with it."

  Seth grinned. "Beautiful, and she cooks, too. I'd have tried to marry Marjorie off a long time ago if I'd known about all the fringe benefits that would come from having a stepsister."

  Her laugh sounded like music and Wade decided he needed to leave before he lost his breakfast.

  He stomped up from the table and shoved on his Stetson. "I've got work to do," he growled.

  Caroline looked startled. "But what about the rest of my questions about the children?"

  "Why don't you ask Seth?" he snapped on his way out the door. "Apparently he's got nothing better to do this morning than sit around flirting with anything that moves."

  He slammed the door after him, knowing they were both probably watching him like he'd lost his marbles.

  The bitch of it was, he wasn't so sure they'd be wrong.

  Chapter Six

  Caroline's day improved considerably from its inauspicious beginning, though not at first.

  Natalie nearly missed the bus since she insisted it didn't come until 8:05 and instead it showed up ten minutes earlier. She managed to make it, just barely, leaving Caroline with a cranky Tanner, who was hurting and mad at the world for it.

  Cody slept in until about nine and woke with soaking wet sheets. She couldn't find anything clean to replace them, so the three of them spent the morning tackling mountains of laundry.