Cara’s reddish-blond hair threw the scene off-kilter, as if warning him he shouldn’t let her into his kids’ lives. Look what happened the minute she’d set foot in his house.
All right, he couldn’t blame her for Mark’s misunderstanding. And being a friend of Andi’s would normally provide a solid recommendation for her. Emphasis on normally. Throw that scheming Jed Garland into the mix and all bets were off.
“Clear off the table, buddy,” he told Mark. “You don’t want to get ice cream on your pictures.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
As he and Cara put the crayons into the box, Wes set their bowls near them and took his own chair at the head of the table. He eyed Cara. “You said you’re here staying with Andi.”
“Yes.” She started in on her ice cream. “I’m between jobs, so right now my time is my own. Eventually, I’m going back home. Probably sooner than later. But don’t mention that if you talk to Jed or Andi. She’s trying to convince me to stay permanently.”
“Will she succeed?”
For a moment, her spoon hovered over her bowl. “No. I have to go back home.” Her voice matched her expression. Determined. Or just this side of grim.
She said nothing else. Normally, Wes could rely on Mark to carry any conversation, but now not even a mumble came from his son. Somebody had to break the dead silence. “You and Andi been friends a long time?”
Immediately, her expression lightened.
“Best friends. We met at the gym a few years ago, then found out we’re the same age and like a lot of the same things. Not everything, though.” She smiled. “I knew Andi was close to Jed and loved to visit the Hitching Post, but I’d never thought she would be happy living on a ranch.”
“Not everybody’s cut out for it,” he said evenly, forcing himself from going down another rocky road.
“Well, meeting up with Mitch again changed everything for Andi. And as the saying goes, the rest is history. When they got married, I came to be maid of honor. I...guess you weren’t there for the wedding.”
“No.” Or much of anywhere else this past year or more.
She glanced at Mark, who had his entire attention focused on his dessert, then said carefully, “As I told you earlier, Jed and Andi thought I might be able to help out, but that’s completely up to you.”
The look in her eyes made his stomach clench. After all these months, he still couldn’t handle the sympathy, the kindnesses he didn’t deserve. Kindnesses he—
Pull yourself together, man.
She was talking about Jed’s call. The reason behind it hadn’t come as a surprise. He’d had repeated offers of a helping hand from Jed and his granddaughters, some of the older ladies in town and Patty’s friend Marianne. Everyone wanted to help him.
And he didn’t want everyone he knew getting into his business.
Maybe that was why he’d agreed to Jed’s plan to send this woman over here tonight. Better to have assistance from someone he didn’t know. Keep things formal and businesslike. Keep him away from well-meaning friends with questions he didn’t want to answer and concerns he didn’t want to face.
But he didn’t need to share any of that with this stranger.
“I guess it’s about time I took care of clearing out some of the stuff upstairs. There’s an office full of crafts, too. My wife talked about starting a business selling things over the internet but never got very far with that plan.”
“When you say an office full, what do you mean?”
“Just that. There’s a spare room with boxes and bins piled halfway to the ceiling, filled with all kinds of stuff she sewed and knitted and crocheted. She’d developed kind of an obsession about her crafts.”
An expensive obsession, almost as costly as the one she’d once indulged in with her friends, the trips to Santa Fe and Albuquerque and Las Vegas.
I’ve got to do something with all my spare time, she’d said resentfully after Mark had come along and she’d had to cut back on her travels.
Wes wouldn’t have minded her overdoing it with the crafts, if she’d just spent less money on them and more on the kids.
“She was planning to sell all that inventory online?” Cara asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“I was just thinking Andi might want to try some kind of online business. She’s been looking for a job, but opportunities are slim here in town.”
“Yeah, Patty used to complain about that, too. She said there wasn’t enough of anything here.”
Why can’t Cowboy Creek have a few name-brand stores? Some trendy restaurants? A nightclub or two? And while they’re at it, can’t the town council bring in a casino? That’s what his wife had always wanted. The bright lights and excitement of the big city, not all the stale, dusty air in this hick town.
No, she’d never been happy in Cowboy Creek.
Too bad she hadn’t said so until long after their wedding.
He dragged his thoughts back to the present to find Cara looking thoughtfully at him. Those clear blue eyes unnerved him. Why, he didn’t know, but he rose from his chair as if he’d been lassoed and jerked to his feet.
“You done with your ice cream, buddy?” When Mark nodded, Wes took his and Cara’s empty bowls to the sink.
A whimper erupted from the monitor on the counter.
The sound of a startled gasp came from behind him. He looked over his shoulder. Cara’s face had turned candle-wax white, and she’d rested one hand against her belly.
What now? He set the bowls on the counter. “You feeling okay?”
“I—I’m fine. The monitor just startled me. You have a baby?”
As if on cue, Tracey let out a louder cry. Sounded like they were in for another bad time. “My daughter. She’s fifteen months and lately not too happy about sleeping through the night. Or at all, sometimes. I’d better get up there before she starts yelling.”
Showing off her perfect timing once more, Tracey gave another yelp.
He shook his head. “See what I mean? And Mark, it’s bath time. You need to get out some clean pajamas.”
“Okay, Daddy.” Mark climbed down from his bench.
Wes watched him leave the room, then turned back to Cara. “Listen, I appreciate your offer of help. But you’re right, it’ll be better to hold off on that till tomorrow.”
No matter what she’d told him about feeling fine, the relief now flooding her face said otherwise.
Her expression now...her blue eyes and the contrast of her hair with Mark’s earlier... Why was he taking note of anything about her? A typical male reaction? A reflex?
Those had better be his reasons, because he wasn’t interested. His kids had already lost their mother, and he wasn’t letting them get attached to anyone else, especially not to a woman planning to leave town soon.
CHAPTER FIVE
NIGHT HAD FALLEN by the time Cara returned to Garland Ranch.
She found Andi on the front porch, perched on the wooden swing. Joining her, Cara pushed against the floor with one foot, setting the swing into motion.
From inside the hotel came a shout followed by an outburst of laughter.
“Don’t tell me. The Garlands and their guests have settled down in the sitting room for their usual evening’s entertainment.”
“Good guess. And you know if you’d come back earlier, you’d be in there with us.”
“You’re right.” As ordinary as the card and board games would have seemed back home, here they fit right in. Just the way her best friend had settled in to her new home with her new husband. Though Cara missed Andi more than she could ever say, on her first visit to Cowboy Creek she had been thrilled to see that perfect match.
“I have news to report,” Cara said. “Wes Daniels agreed to let me help with his wife’s things.”
“What a relief. He told Grandpa he w
as okay with the idea, but we weren’t sure he’d actually let you go ahead with it.”
“And here’s something interesting. His wife planned to open an online store, selling crafts she made herself. Wes says he has a roomful of them at the house. If you’re interested, I’ll ask to take a look. If the quality’s good enough, maybe you could pick up her plans where she left off.”
“That’s a great idea.” Andi pulled her feet up beneath her on the swing and turned to face Cara. “We’ve got a website for the ranch. Jane does all the updates, and Tina handles the online registrations and email. Between the two of them, I’d have all the help I’d need with that end of the business. And if I sell Patty’s crafts, I could split the profits with Wes.”
With a laugh, Andi went on, “I don’t expect quality to be a problem. Patty once told me that in grade school, her mom dragged her to the local women’s club meetings. She hated having everyone trying to teach her to knit. But I’ll bet she learned something there.” She shrugged. “Anyhow, you’ll see for yourself when you go back to Wes’s.”
“I will. I’m meeting him tomorrow morning after he takes his kids to their sitter’s. Which reminds me. Andi, why didn’t you tell me he has such young kids?”
Andi sat facing the light over the door, which left Cara able to read her puzzled expression. It seemed genuine, but...
“What does that have to do with anything?” Andi’s confusion sounded like the real thing, too. “You said you’re meeting him after he takes Mark and Tracey to their sitter’s. They won’t get in your way while you’re working.”
“It’s not that.” She gave the swing a bigger push. “It’s all that buildup you and Jed did, feeding me info about your old friend, the widower. You had me thinking Wes was an older man. Instead, he’s our age, and he has two small kids.”
“Actually he’s almost two years older than we are.”
Cara rolled her eyes. “That’s not the point.”
Andi laughed. “It sure sounds like it. And you sound like you’re interested in him.”
“After what happened with Brad? I won’t be interested in a man again for a long, long time. If ever. No, I’m just wondering what you and Jed are up to.”
“Nothing. You’re thinking of Grandpa and his chief hobby, aren’t you?” Suddenly serious, she said, “Cara, I would never do anything to hurt you. You know that.”
“Of course, I do.”
“Then you know I understand you’re not ready for Grandpa’s matchmaking services. Our reason for sending you to Wes was to help him. And trust me, you’ve already made great progress.”
“I suppose.” Andi did sound sincerely happy about Wes.
Maybe she had jumped too quickly to her suspicions about Andi and matchmaker Jed. Maybe tonight had just been too much for her at once—hearing Mark call her mommy. Feeling so much sympathy for Wes. Learning he had a little girl... All that must have rattled her more than she’d realized.
She had been so relieved when he’d agreed to postpone getting together until tomorrow.
“It will be good to have something to take your mind off Brad,” Andi said. “And being around Wes could let you see how someone—with help—can get through a major loss. You’re dealing with grief, too.”
More grief than Andi knew. “He told me about his wife. Only that she’d been in a car accident sometime last year.” Cara shook her head, trying to drive away the image of Wes’s blank expression. “It must have been so hard on him and the kids.”
Especially Mark. He seemed so smart, so aware of what was going on around him, especially for a three-going-on-forty-year-old. At the memory of Wes’s teasing description, she wanted to smile but couldn’t push away her concern. Did Mark know the details of his mother’s accident? Had he managed to make the connection, understanding she was never coming home again? Is that why he had looked so imploringly at her when he had asked if she was his new mommy?
“It has been really hard on them all,” Andi said. “That’s why agreeing to let you help him is such a big step—the biggest step Wes has made since Patty passed away. Seriously, Cara. Grandpa managed to get him out here to the ranch with the kids a while ago, but we all could see his heart wasn’t in it.”
Cara couldn’t tell Andi how well she understood that. After she lost the baby, she’d spent her days at her friend Shelley’s house pretending nothing was wrong, her nights curled up in her borrowed bed until she finally fell asleep, her mornings... Mornings were the worst of all, when she woke up with her mind blank for a few seconds, until the memories came crashing down.
Then she would force herself out of bed and go through it all again.
Obviously, Wes Daniels’s answer was to shut himself off, to become nearly a hermit, as Jed called it.
If Cara was going to help the man, if she had questions while she was sorting his wife’s personal possessions, she had to know what painful topics to avoid. “What happened to Patty?”
Andi shivered, wrapping her arms around herself as if she’d gotten a sudden chill. “Let’s take a walk.”
They went slowly down the steps and along the front of the hotel. Moonlight added just enough glow to reveal shadowy shapes across the ranch.
“It was awful,” Andi said, her voice hushed. “Patty had gone up to Santa Fe for a friend’s birthday party. She was driving back home after midnight and crossed over into oncoming traffic. Somehow, she avoided hitting anyone head-on—or they avoided her. But her car spun out, slammed into a guardrail and flipped over. And she didn’t have her seat belt on.”
“Then...she didn’t survive the accident?”
“At first she did, if you can call it that. They had to cut open the car to get her out. She lasted a few days in the hospital, in a coma.” Andi shook her head. “Wes and the kids never had the chance to talk to her again.”
Cara’s breath caught in her throat.
Driving back here, she had wondered about the accident. Reality was so much worse than her imagination. No wonder the man had isolated himself and his family. She would have, too...if she’d had a family.
She blinked rapidly, staring into the shadows.
She didn’t want to go to Wes’s house tomorrow, to talk about his adorable son or think about his baby daughter or, worst of all, to see the sorrow in his eyes.
Wes still grieved. Her wounds hadn’t healed.
We have nothing at all in common and yet we’re so alike.
Knowing Andi and the rest of the Garlands were waiting for her to visit had given her a lifeline she’d desperately needed. Wes Daniels had their support, too, if only he would reach out and take it.
He had always refused. Until tonight. She had gone to his house and offered her help, and he had accepted.
She couldn’t walk away now.
* * *
WHEN WES OPENED his front door the next morning, Cara gave him the most natural smile she could manage. He swung the door wide, and she stepped inside. “Good morning. Am I too early?”
“Right on schedule. I’ll take you up.”
His abrupt response surprised her. He hadn’t seemed uncomfortable talking to her last night. Maybe he wasn’t a morning person. Or more likely, he had a long day of work ahead of him and didn’t have time to chat.
On the second floor, he gestured toward a doorway halfway along the hall and waited for her to enter his bedroom ahead of him.
Trying not to seem overly curious, she quickly surveyed the room. A large bed almost lost in a sea of dressers and chests. Table lamps on two of the dressers. Another lamp and an alarm clock on one side of the bed. Mini blinds covering the two windows. That was it. No curtains or bedspread, no designer pillows, no knickknacks or framed pictures or family photos.
She’d stayed in hotel rooms with more personality.
Chances were Wes had made changes here after his wife passed away. B
ecause he preferred a pared-down bedroom? Or because he couldn’t bear the reminders in this private space Patty had once decorated for them both?
“You can skip the nightstands. But I’d appreciate it if you’d go through my wife’s share of the bedroom and the closet. These are hers.” He pointed out various pieces of furniture and indicated Patty’s sections of the walk-in closet.
Patty’s share included most of the dressers and chests, as well as nine-tenths of the closet. With all the sweaters and shirts and skirts and jeans, his wife could have opened a clothing store of her own.
Cara stepped in to take a closer look. “Most of her clothes in the closet don’t look very worn. A lot of them still have the price tags attached.” Why did Patty have so many clothes she didn’t wear? But that wasn’t her question to ask. “From what I can see already, it looks like most of the decisions are going to be easy to make. Once I go through the tagged clothing and accessories, I’d recommend you try selling them at a clothing consignment shop or flea market. I’ll divide the rest into donate and toss piles.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be out on the ranch until late this afternoon. You’ll have the place to yourself.”
He had almost reached the doorway before she could blink. “A minute?”
He turned back, his brows raised.
“You remember last night, when I said starting an online business might be a good idea for Andi?” He nodded. “I mentioned your wife’s crafts to her and she’s definitely interested. I was wondering if I could take a look. Andi might be able to use some of it to get herself started. She said to tell you she would be happy to sell it for you, on consignment if you’re interested or just outright if you’d prefer.”
“Forget it. I don’t want charity.”
She resisted the urge to snap back at him. “Andi’s not offering you any. She’d just like to have stock on hand. She’s willing to sell the crafts for you and split the profits.” She added in a softer tone, “I think Jed would call this being neighborly. I have the impression the Garlands all consider you a good friend.”
Unfriendly seemed a better description, both now and when she’d met him at the Big Dipper. What he’d gone through this past year didn’t excuse his attitude but could very well explain it.
The Rancher's Family--A Clean Romance Page 4