Gina nodded. “Go ahead. You’ll have other presents to open after your friends are here for cake and ice cream.”
While Toby worked to free the horses from their plastic enclosure, he said, “What time is Daddy getting here?”
The timer beeped and Gina turned to pull the cake from the oven before she answered. “He should be here any time.”
“Good. Today is an important day. You only turn six once.”
Gina leaned to the side and glanced out the screen door at the driveway. No sign of him yet, but she’d told him 2. He still had time.
Gina had just finished frosting the still-warm cake when she heard the rumble of a pickup truck in front of the house.
She glanced out the window and felt a little thrill run through her body when she recognized the dusty white truck. Aidan had come! Had he been forced to, or had he volunteered?
Aidan and a shorter, wider man pulled fence panels out of the truck.
Gina hurried out the door to greet them. “Thanks so much for coming!”
The shorter man only grunted in reply, but Aidan stopped in mid-reach and his jaw dropped. He blinked twice, then a smile spread across his face. “Gina! I didn’t realize this was your house. Glad to oblige. Where do you want us to set up?”
“Right around here. I can’t tell you how excited the kids are going to be about this.” Gina led them around the side of the house and watched as the two men quickly arranged the panels in a slightly irregular square.
Aidan nodded toward the house. “So this is where you live?”
She straightened. “Yes.” Her house wasn’t as big as the Diamond J, but she was proud of her little place.
“Nice.” He said as he helped the stouter man clip the fencing together, leaving one panel open as a door. “So you have kids?”
“One.” She swallowed hard and nodded. Well, that cinched it. He’d lose interest now. “A little boy. Toby. Today’s his 6th birthday.”
He nodded, but she couldn’t read his expression under the shadow of his dark cowboy hat. The two men returned to the front of the house and Aidan reached into the back seat of the truck to retrieve two cotton leads. The shorter man swung the trailer door open, then Aidan stepped up and clipped the leads to the calves’ halters.
Just as Aidan led the animals out of the trailer, Toby burst out the front door. “Are those for me?” His eyes were big as half dollars.
Gina was surprised it had taken him this long to figure out what was going on, but noticed a smidge of frosting at the corner of his mouth. She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from scaring the calves. “They’re for your party, not for you to keep.”
Aidan handed one lead to his cohort and together they led the young animals to the back yard and put them in the pen. Toby skipped along beside them, barely able to contain his excitement. He pestered the men with questions as they walked.
“Are they boys or girls?”
“What are their names?”
“How old are they?”
The shorter man ignored the boy’s questions, but Aidan took the time to answer each and every one. After the calves were safely corralled in the makeshift pen, Gina looked up at Aidan. “You’re both welcome to come in for cake and ice cream.”
One corner of his lips curled up in a grin. “Thank you, but we’ll stay here with the little ones.”
“I’ll bring you a drink when we come back out, then.” Gina nodded to him, then took her son’s hand and went to greet his guests. Within minutes, the kitchen was overflowing with sugar-fueled kids devouring chocolate cake and cookie dough ice cream.
As soon as the kids finished the refreshments, they went to the backyard to see the calves. They gathered around the little makeshift pen and pulled grass to feed the babies. The fuzzy red calves were jumpy at first, but put up with the mass of hands rubbing them to nibble at the tender green shoots offered to them.
One little girl tugged on Gina’s shirttail. “I need to go potty. Can you show me where the bathroom is?”
Gina glanced around. Midge was still inside cleaning up. Gina looked up at Aidan, eyebrows raised. “Do you mind?”
He looked around at the kids intent on the calves and shook his head. “Go ahead. They’ll be fine for a minute.”
Gina took the girl inside. The girl went into the bathroom and hollered for help almost immediately. “My zipper is stuck!”
It took Gina quite some time and a bit of ingenuity to get the girl’s pants unzipped, thanks to one of Toby’s stubby crayons. Squeals and screams drifted through the open windows. Whatever Aidan was doing with the kids seemed to have them excited. She left the girl to her business and hurried out the back door.
She stopped on the back step, one hand still on the door handle, unable to believe her eyes. The kids pressed against the hog panels, fingers entwined in the wire. The shorter ranch hand stood in the midst of the kids, the lead rope in one hand with a calf contentedly munching on the grass. But it was the man and boy inside the pen with the other calf that caught her attention.
She sighed deeply and smiled. Aidan had let Toby get in the pen with the calf. Her son’s eyes sparkled with excitement as he ran his hands over the red hair of the animal. When she’d met Aidan at the store, she’d known he was something special, and here he was, going the extra mile to make Toby’s birthday the best it could be.
As she watched, Aidan leaned down and spoke into her son’s ear. Toby nodded eagerly.
Aidan grabbed Toby under his arms, scooped him up and deposited him on the calf’s back. Aidan stepped back against the fencing. The calf quivered a moment, flipped its tail back and forth then sprang into action. It spun in a circle, put its head down and bucked forward once, twice, three times. Toby hunkered down, his arms wrapped around the animal’s neck as it bawled its displeasure at being ridden. Gina watched, rooted to the spot, unable to believe her eyes.
The calf bolted forward, then lowered its head and planted his front feet. Toby tumbled forward over the animal’s head and hit the ground with a dull thud.
That sound jolted Gina out of her frozen state. She leapt off the back step and ran across the yard. The crowd of kids parted as she pushed her way through, then she yanked the fence open and shoved Aidan out of the way. She dropped to the ground next to her son. She touched his back as he pushed himself up. He lifted his head and looked at her, blood at one corner of his mouth.
“Oh, my God!” Gina wailed. She ran her hands over his body, down his arms, down his legs, then gingerly touched his mouth. Her blood pounded in her ears. For a moment, she felt as if she might pass out.
He grinned. “Did you see me, Mom? That was awesome!” One of his front teeth was gone.
She took a deep breath, blinked away the tears that threatened to spill and told herself to be strong. She scooped him up and pushed herself to her feet, then spun and faced Aidan, pinning him with her eyes. “You! What the hell were you thinking? You did this to him! I leave you alone with my son for one minute and this is what you do?”
Aidan blinked. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Finally, he managed to croak out two words. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, you are.” She strode through the crowd of kids, who stared at her with rounded eyes, stunned into silence. She took Toby inside and sat him in a chair at the kitchen table. She cleaned him up with a cool dish cloth, carefully wiping away the dirt and grass from the scrapes on his arms and face.
The entire time she worked on him, Toby chattered on about how exciting his ride had been. “I want to be a cowboy when I grow up. Aidan says I’m a natural.”
Her heart was still racing. “He does, does he?” She worked quickly. She’d left all those kids outside alone with those ranch hands. She needed to get back out there before someone else got hurt.
A knock on the back door sounded. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Aidan looking at her, his face shadowed under the brim of his black cowboy hat. He spoke through the screen. “Is he okay?�
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She nodded, then turned back to her task. Damn it. He did sound concerned. “Come on in,” she called out, clipping off the words.
He stepped into the kitchen. “I’m sorry.” He swept his hat off and clutched it in front of his broad chest.
Toby leaned to the side so he could see around Gina. “That was fun!”
Gina shifted so she was in her son’s line of vision. “But it was very dangerous.” She pointed to his mouth. “You lost a tooth.”
The boy’s eyes rounded and his grin widened. “I did?”
Gina lowered her chin and gave Toby the sternest look she could muster. “That’s not a good thing. You didn’t have any loose teeth.” Her heart beat was finally returning to normal. Relief washed over her. Her son was okay.
Aidan stepped forward. “At least there was no harm done. A few scrapes and a lost tooth—”
“No harm done?” Gina held up one hand, cutting him off. She turned, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “He could’ve been hurt badly. Broken an arm. Or worse.”
His blue eyes darkened like a Missouri sky during a thunderstorm. “I didn’t think—”
She gazed up at him. “That’s right. That’s exactly right. Now, please, go load those calves up and leave.” She stretched her arm out and pointed.
He nodded, settled his hat on his head and shoved it down. He tapped the brim, turned and left without another word.
Gina helped Toby down and took him outside to help gather the kids together. She brought them all inside, leaving Aidan and his cohort to take care of the calves.
She got the kids started with a balloon game and turned to look out the front window. Aidan and the other guy had both calves at the trailer, but the calves balked, not wanting to jump inside. As she watched, Aidan stroked them, rubbed them behind the ears. He bent down and scooped the bigger calf up and lifted it into the trailer, while the other ranch hand yanked on his calf’s lead rope to no avail. Aidan stepped down, then gathered that calf in his arms. The animal struggled, feet kicking, then seemed to relax in his arms. He lifted that calf into the trailer. Once the door was secure, he turned and looked at the house.
Gina turned away quickly. She’d been so angry with Aidan, but when her gaze settled on her son as he proudly recounted for his friends what it felt like to ride a bucking calf, she wondered if her temper had flared too hot.
She heard the rumble of a truck again and went to the front door, expecting to see Aidan again. Instead, Steve slid out of his truck and hurried up the walk, arms laden with presents.
At least he’d shown up.
Toby ran to him and ripped into the presents, encouraged by the whoops and hollers of his little friends. Steve beamed at his son as he pulled a pair of red cowboy boots out of a box. The boy whooped, then dropped to the floor. Within a minute, he’d stripped off his sneakers and put on the new boots.
Her ex looked up at her and grinned. He mouthed, “Sorry I’m late.”
After Toby opened the last present, he got right up in Steve’s face. “I rode a calf today.”
“Really?” One of Steve’s eyebrows raised. “Do tell.”
“Mom’s friend, Aidan, brought these two calves over and they put a pen in the back yard and we all got to see them and pet them and feed them.”
Gina felt Steve’s gaze bore into her. He said, “Mom’s friend, Aidan, huh?”
Toby plunged forward, telling his story. The kids around him chimed in, anxious to relay what they had seen, and tell how they’d been involved.
Soon, parents began to show up to pick their kids up.
When the last child left with his parents, Toby stood in the doorway waving.
Steve grasped Toby’s shoulder and squeezed. “Happy birthday, little bud. Hope you had a good one.”
“I did,” Toby said seriously. “Aidan was very nice to let me ride his calf. That was a once in a lifetime thing.”
Gina busied herself cleaning up after the party. After Steve helped Toby put some of his toys away, he returned to the kitchen. “So, this Aidan.”
Gina looked at him and arched an eyebrow. “What about him?”
“Why haven’t I heard about him?”
“Nothing to hear. Just a ranch hand at the Diamond J that delivered the calves I requested for the party.” She ran a hand through her thick hair and pulled it back over her shoulders.
Just a ranch hand.
Who made her heart flutter.
Who put her son on a wild animal.
He’d looked so contrite when he’d come into the kitchen to check on Toby, wringing his hat in his hands, those blue eyes focused intently on her, as if her opinion was the only one in the world that mattered.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Fear
Gina’d lain awake the past two nights. Aidan made a bad decision, and her little boy paid the price with a lost tooth. But really, how bad was that? Toby had gone right along with it. What kid wouldn’t?
After Aidan had pulled away in his truck, Gina couldn’t get Christine’s words out of her mind, either. How could a cowboy - a ranch hand - afford a ranch, even a small one? There had to be something more to the story. Where could he have possibly gotten the money? Everyone in town had been talking about the cattle thefts. Was he in on it? He did have an edge to him, an air of danger. She’d seen that firsthand Saturday, the way he’d acted without considering the consequences.
She’d also noticed how different he was from the other ranch hand who had come to the house. Aidan carried himself in a confident manner. He met her gaze, spoke to her as an equal, spoke to the other man like a boss would. His voice didn’t have the same country twang as most of the folks in Wilder.
She glanced at the big round clock on the wall. It was nearly eleven. She’d called yesterday and left a message with an older woman at the Diamond J that the invitations were ready, and the woman had said she’d make sure Aidan came by to get them before noon. Ever since, she’d worried about being face to face with him.
Toby hadn’t stopped talking about the calf. Maybe she’d been too hard on Aidan.
She was in the back room when she heard the bell over the front door jangle. She pushed her way out of the back room with her arms loaded with boxes of scrapbooking supplies ready to be put on the shelves and a pencil clutched between her teeth. Her eyes met his and nodded at her.
A couple of days had dissipated her anger. What he’d done was stupid, but Toby was okay. In fact, Toby couldn’t quit talking about his riding experience. But she didn’t want to seem too eager. Aidan could wait a few minutes.
Her back stiffened and she held her head high, chin up. She called out, “I’ll be right with you.”
He nodded and tapped the brim of his hat.
She strode to the racks and sorted the papers into their respective slots. She considered herself lucky to own her own business. When her job at the water cooler factory closed just a couple of years out of high school, she had taken a job as a receptionist for one of the law firms on the square. Her boss was good to her and was even understanding if she needed to miss work because Toby was sick.
Unfortunately, Milton Proctor suffered a heart attack before she’d even celebrated her first anniversary with the firm. He’d survived, but it changed him. He became focused on family and a couple of pet charities. He didn’t have to work, so he didn’t.
It scared Gina, the changes that she saw happening in Milton. Without him, the firm wouldn’t be able to keep going. Gina was surprised when Milton invited her to lunch over at the Come On Inn grill one day. She expected to be let go. Instead, he handed her a lease. She was confused at first. Thought that perhaps he had taken her to lunch to discuss a difficult client. Then she saw her name on the lease.
Her gaze flew to his face. One dollar rent. She raised her eyes and met Milton’s gaze. A huge smile spread across his wrinkled face, breaking the map of wrinkles.
And so her dream of owning a scrapbook store had come true.
> She peeked around the paper rack at the cowboy standing in the front of her store. He was tall, easily six foot. His shoulders were broad, his arms well muscled. A pair of work gloves tucked in his back pockets drew her eyes to his butt. Red dust covered his black cowboy hat, and his boots were scuffed.
Yes, she thought, he was a real cowboy, not one of those wannabes that walked around in polished boots made out of some exotic leather like shark or ostrich. He’d been such a natural on Saturday with the calves, but he had no idea how to take care of a child.
She scooped up the box of supplies and hurried toward the crafting table, eager to drop them off and get up front. She smiled around the pencil in her teeth, hoping it looked like a smile and not a grimace.
Something dark and fuzzy came into her field of vision, from below, right across the top of the box. It was big, and it was getting bigger. Her focus shifted from the cowboy to the thing crawling across the papers in the box clutched to her breast.
Spider!!
Horror didn’t even begin to explain the depth of emotion that she felt. Her blood ran cold, her mouth went dry and a shiver ran all the way down her body, starting at her scalp and traveling all the way down to her toes. The spider was hairy, ugly and had a round body at least as big as a quarter. It froze for a moment, then the legs started to move again, first one then another, moving toward her.
She screamed. Not a horror movie scream, but a high pitched girl scream. She pitched the box and the contents flew through the air, papers and envelopes and glue and glitter going every which way. As the papers fluttered to the ground like leaves, Gina’s eyes searched the mess for some sign of the spider. She looked down and saw it about two feet in front of her, moving fast across the old linoleum tiles, straight toward her.
She shook and screamed again, then jumped onto the nearest chair, but didn’t stop there – she climbed on top of the folding table and squatted there, watching the spider. It moved with her, as if it were drawn to her, and stopped just inches from the leg of the table she was perched on top of. Its two front legs felt in front of it, as if it were trying to find her.
Diamond in the Rough (Diamond J #2) Page 8