“Thanks,” she whispered. She tried to ignore the scent of him, shampoo and spearmint gum, even as it tangled through her senses. He hadn’t mentioned the kiss or shown any sign that he even remembered pulling her into his arms. Maybe he’d stayed away from the house last night because he’d feared she’d try to seduce him.
He’d made no secret of the fact that he believed her mom to be a gold digger and Lucy to be cut from the same cloth.
She had to keep that in mind. Her mother wanted her to convince Caden that having Maureen as a stepmom was a good thing. That was Lucy’s only purpose in Colorado. It definitely wasn’t in anyone’s best interest to lose a piece of her heart to this man.
Caden threw her a sidelong glance as he climbed behind the wheel. “Everything okay?”
“Yep. Let’s find a Christmas tree.”
Caden looked like he wanted to call her out on her lie, but instead he shifted the UTV and they rumbled out of the driveway and down the snow-packed trail that led toward the forest.
Lucy had never been one for nature outings. A chair on the beach and her toes in the water were about as adventurous as she got. But riding in the off-road vehicle was exhilarating. They raced across the landscape, bumping slightly as the trail dipped and pitched. Soon they were in the trees, and her breath caught at the beauty surrounding her.
The pine tree needles were laced with snow, and icicles hung suspended from some of the longer branches. The forest was dappled in sunlight, although she definitely felt a drop in temperature as they made their way up the trail and left the open fields behind them.
Caden seemed to know the area well and maneuvered the UTV around corners and across a frozen creek bed. The trail grew narrow in some spots and Lucy laughed as the roll bar on the UTV brushed a low-hanging branch and they were dusted with snow.
Eventually they drove into a clearing, and Caden abruptly cut the engine.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, grabbing his arm. Although there was no doubt Caden knew his way around the forest, the city girl in her didn’t like the thought of being stuck out in the woods in the middle of December.
Caden leaned close and used one finger to turn her head to the side. “Look over there,” he whispered, pointing with his other hand to the far edge of the meadow.
Lucy’s breath caught in her throat as her gaze tracked to the massive animal staring at her through big black eyes. “Reindeer,” she whispered.
Caden’s soft chuckle was warm against her jaw. “Elk,” he corrected her. “You know the herd bull because he has the antlers. Six points.”
The elk’s antlers were massive but she had no experience with wildlife in the...well...the wild. “Unless you’re talking basketball, six points means nothing to me.”
“Count the tips sticking out on each antler. He’s called a six by six.”
“And the rest are girls?”
“Cows,” Caden clarified.
“Does that one bull service all the ladies?”
Caden laughed again. “Yeah. During the spring and summer, the cows and young elk are often on their own. But there are usually one or two bulls with the herd through the winter.”
“So he’s a busy guy.”
“I doubt it’s a problem for him.”
Lucy couldn’t help but smile. “Right.”
The elk made a noise and the females who were nosing in the snow looked up. A few pawed at the ground and snuffled. Then the herd moved forward and disappeared into the trees.
“That was amazing.” Lucy turned to Caden, surprised to find that he hadn’t moved away from her. Her nose grazed his cheek and he sat back like she’d burned him. “I didn’t realize elk were so beautiful.”
“They’re majestic,” he agreed. “That herd stays on the ranch most of the year.”
She looked around. “Is this still your property? I thought we were on public land here.”
“A few miles up the trail it becomes forest-service land,” he told her, pointing to the other side of the clearing. “Garrett has almost two thousand acres. He inherited a lot from his dad but has added acreage as land became available over the years.”
“You don’t work the whole thing, do you?”
“A lot of it is natural prairie or forest. The cattle are free-range so in the summer they spread out pretty far. But Crimson has grown quite a bit even since I was a kid. Garrett wants to make sure some of the open spaces are preserved.”
“You do that a lot,” she murmured.
He cocked a brow.
“You refer to him as Garrett and not Dad.”
A muscle ticked in Caden’s jaw. “He’s my dad.”
“I know that.” But she got the distinct impression that Caden didn’t quite believe it even after almost twenty years of living on the ranch.
“Let’s find a tree before the weather turns.”
“What are you talking about?” Lucy pointed a finger toward the sky. “It’s a perfect day.”
“There were storm clouds gathering on the peak as we left the ranch. They should get to us within the hour.”
“Um...okay.” Lucy had always gotten her weather forecasts from the local news, but she wasn’t going to argue. Instead, she hopped out of the UTV. “What tree do you want?”
“Whichever one makes you happy.” Caden pulled an ax from the trailer and came to stand next to her.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I can’t pick. I don’t know what makes a good Christmas tree.”
He gave her an incredulous look. “You’ve celebrated Christmas before, right?”
“Well, yes. But never with a real tree. Or even a fake one that’s full-size.” She tugged on the hem of her pink parka. “Except at some of the stores where I worked. But I didn’t pay much attention as we were putting them up.”
“You’ve never had a real tree?”
She waved a hand in the air. “Too much trouble.”
“Not even when you were a kid?”
“Definitely not,” she admitted. “My mom didn’t like the mess of pine needles on the carpet.”
He studied her for a moment as if weighing an important decision. Then he handed her the small ax he held. “Let’s go find the biggest, most beautiful Christmas tree that will fit in the house. We have a lot of years to make up for.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned and started into the forest. Lucy stared after him, blinking away unbidden tears. She’d told herself for so many years that there was no such thing as Christmas spirit—it was just a materialistic holiday that produced fake cheer and the need for people to spend money they didn’t have.
Although working retail did that to a person, even before endless hours spent at a cash register, she’d given up on Christmas. Year after year of having her mom care about the holiday only when there was a man around to impress had worn on Lucy. Some years there was an abundance of over-the-top gifts and some years, when depression had its claws dug deep, Maureen could barely rouse herself out of bed. Lucy didn’t trust Christmas. It had shown itself to be a fickle friend.
The idea that Caden wanted to make up for that overwhelmed her. She hadn’t even admitted to him her pathetic history, yet he still knew just what to do to give her the happiest holiday moment she could remember.
Maybe it was silly, but the thought of a real Christmas tree made Lucy feel like a little girl again. Anticipation bubbled up inside her and she didn’t bother to tamp it down. This afternoon had nothing to do with her mother or convincing Caden that the marriage was a good idea.
This moment was all about Lucy’s happiness. It was long past time she made herself a priority in her own life.
Caden paused and looked over his shoulder. “Are we doing this?”
She quickly swiped at her eyes and held up the ax. “Call me Pau
la Bunyan,” she said and hurried to join him.
Chapter Six
Lucy stopped so suddenly that Caden almost ran into her. “That’s it,” she whispered.
He followed her line of sight and frowned. “What’s it?”
“The perfect Christmas tree.” She moved forward awkwardly, her boots crunching as she sank into the snow.
They’d been walking through the woods for almost forty-five minutes. As Caden predicted, clouds had rolled in and the temperature had dropped. Snow flurries whirled through the air, and Caden was slowly losing sensation in his toes. He hadn’t realized how long the outing would take and regretted not wearing insulated boots.
Despite her years as a Floridian, Lucy seemed strangely undeterred by the cold or snow or waning daylight. It was like he’d unleashed a kid in a Christmas tree candy store. She’d vetoed at least a dozen beautiful trees that would have fit perfectly on Sharpe Ranch. But the one she was proudly standing in front of now...
“Are you going for the A Charlie Brown Christmas look?” he asked, rubbing his gloved hands together.
“This is a beautiful tree,” she argued. “Not too big and not too small.”
“You sure about that, Goldilocks? It looks a little scraggly from where I’m standing.”
She rolled her eyes and turned to the tree, holding up her palms to each side of the branches like she was covering its ears. “Don’t listen to him. I see your potential. You are perfect just the way you are.”
The words were like a fist to Caden’s gut. They were eerily similar to what Garrett had said when he’d first spoken to him about adoption. Ironically, the conversation had taken place after Caden purposely knocked over a big bag of horse feed in the barn. Garrett had sent Tyson to the house and ordered Caden to sit down on a bale of hay so they could “talk.”
From what Caden had then deduced from both his mother and his more recent foster parents, on good days a “talk” meant the back side of an adult’s hand or on bad days, the sharp sting of a belt on his bare skin. Instead Garrett had reached behind the hay bale and picked up a squirming kitten from the litter the resident barn cat had given birth to weeks before.
He’d dropped the ball of fluff into Caden’s arms and waited. Caden had tried to stay still and withhold any emotion, but the sweet kitten was too much—even for a surly kid. He’d lifted the kitten and cuddled it to his chest, all the while muttering about how much the animal annoyed him.
Garrett had smiled and said, “You’ve got potential.” Then he’d asked Caden how he’d feel about coming to live on Sharpe Ranch permanently.
Sometimes Caden wondered if he’d ever live up to the potential his adoptive father had first seen in him.
“Let’s bring it home, then,” he told Lucy now.
“Really?” Her cheeks were pink from either cold or excitement. He couldn’t tell which. Snowflakes clung to her gaudy pink hat, and her hair looked even darker as she swung it over her shoulder. “I thought you didn’t like this one.”
“It’s your tree. Plus I’m freezing. I want to get the hell out of the woods.”
“Come on, baby,” she crooned to the tree, and unwanted heat pooled in Caden’s belly at her voice’s sultry cadence. “You’re mine now.”
It was a miracle Caden’s tongue didn’t loll out of his mouth. For a moment he suspected she was talking to the tree in that tone just to mess with him. Then she lifted the ax and waved it around with so much disregard for her own safety that he forgot all his lustful thoughts and concentrated on keeping her from chopping off her own head.
“This isn’t The Walking Dead,” he warned. “You don’t have to mutilate it.” He strode forward and turned her so her back was to him. “I’ll show you.” He adjusted her grip on the ax and demonstrated the proper technique for felling a tree.
The Douglas fir was barely taller than a shrub. He watched as she bent low and swung forward, the ax’s sharp blade thunking into the trunk.
“You do the rest,” she said, leaving the ax stuck in the tree. “I feel like I’m hurting him.”
He gave her a long look. “It’s a tree.”
“Trees are living things,” she countered.
“Right.” He’d never met anyone like Lucy, a mind-boggling blend of sophistication and innocence. But despite his frozen toes, Caden couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much fun.
He pulled the ax from the tree and chopped it down with several well-placed swings. The good thing about Lucy’s scraggly tree was that the size made it easy to haul back to the UTV. Although they’d walked through the woods longer than he expected, Lucy had actually circled back toward the main path, so it didn’t take long to reach the vehicle.
“The snow is really coming down,” Lucy said as he hefted the tree into the trailer.
“We’re supposed to get six inches overnight.”
He turned on the UTV and climbed in next to Lucy. The blanket covered her lap, but he could see the shivers passing through her.
She turned to him and made a face. “I didn’t notice the cold when I was searching for the perfect tree, but now...”
“Come here,” he told her, and she scooted toward him on the bench seat. She smelled like flowery shampoo and the cold, and he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her even closer. His body tightened when she snuggled against him.
The ride back to the ranch was slower than he would have liked with visibility lowered because of the blowing snow.
He finally pulled to a stop in front of the house and turned to Lucy. “I’ll bring in the tree, and then I need to check on the animals in the barn. You should go inside and warm up.”
“Do you need help?” she asked through chattering teeth.
“I need you to not turn into a Popsicle on my watch,” he answered and pulled the blanket from around her.
“I think I can manage that.” She got out of the UTV and walked up the porch steps and into the house.
He got the tree onto the porch and dusted it off, then covered it with the tarp he had in the UTV’s trailer. He headed to the barn next and made sure all of his animals were warm and dry.
Chad came in just as Caden was about to head to the house. “There’s a problem with the propane heater near the trough in the west pasture.”
Caden cursed under his breath. With the temperatures dropping and snow in the forecast, he couldn’t afford for the herd’s drinking water to freeze.
“I need to put on my other boots and I’ll be ready to go.”
Chad eyed his feet then raised a brow. “You’re liable to lose a toe to frostbite wearing those in this weather.”
“Don’t be a drama queen,” Caden muttered. “I’m fine. I didn’t expect to be out so long.”
“I saw you and Lucy heading for the woods earlier. Hot date?”
“No date at all. We went to get a Christmas tree.”
“How romantic,” Chad said in a singsong voice.
“Shut it,” Caden told him.
“It’s okay to admit you’re human,” Chad shot back. “Any man with two eyes and half a heartbeat would be into her. She’s hot as hell. I mean, if Jessica and I don’t work out, I could give you some competition.”
Caden leveled a look at his young ranch hand. “Lucy is off-limits for you.”
He expected an argument or some kind of smart comeback, but Chad only grinned. “I figured as much.”
Caden finished pulling on his heavy work boots and stood. “Let’s take care of the heater before we lose all our daylight.”
* * *
It was almost six that evening when Lucy heard the front door open and shut. She pushed away from the computer where she’d been working for the past hour and ran a hand through her hair.
She didn’t want to admit, even to herself, th
at her feelings were hurt because Caden had ditched her at the house with the Christmas tree. It had been foolish to read so much into their jaunt to the forest.
She wanted it to mean something that he’d suggested she pick out the Christmas tree for the house. Clearly, all it meant was that he didn’t want to be bothered with the task.
As cold as she’d been on the ride home, it had felt amazing to press herself against Caden’s strong body, the heat of him warming her. It embarrassed her now that she’d run into the house and changed into her best jeans and a red V-neck sweater, spritzing herself with perfume as she anticipated a late afternoon spent trimming the tree and cuddling in front of the fire.
She’d even made hot cocoa, which had long ago cooled in the pan on the stove. She’d finally realized he wasn’t coming back to the house. Her stupid little fantasy about a picture-perfect holiday moment was just that. A fantasy. She should have known better. It’s why Lucy didn’t like Christmas to begin with—as soon as she allowed herself to have holiday expectations, she was disappointed when things didn’t work out the way she wanted.
Just to prove that she wasn’t waiting for him, she’d dragged the tree into the house, leaving a trail of pine needles in her wake. She’d found a tree stand in the bottom of one of the ornament boxes and managed to get the tree upright in one corner of the living room. Who needed a man, anyway?
Maybe Caden had been right about the size. It looked a little scraggly now that it wasn’t surrounded by other trees, but she still loved it. Even though it had been cut down on Sharpe Ranch property and now stood in Garrett’s house, the tree belonged to Lucy.
And she hadn’t waited to decorate it because she was still hoping Caden would show up. Nope. She’d just wanted to put in some more time on the financials before she had her own private tree-trimming party.
She quickly turned back to the computer when footsteps sounded on the stairs. Let him come to her, and she could blow him off just as easily.
“Hey, there.”
She glanced up and pretended to be surprised to see him standing in the doorway, as if she’d been so engrossed in her work she hadn’t heard him come in. She most certainly hadn’t been waiting for him.
Sleigh Bells in Crimson Page 7