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Chapter Three
“Hey lady! Wake up!”
Caroline barely registered the voice, completely caught up in a perfectly lovely dream. She was riding a little paint mare up a mountain trail, the air sweet and clear, and their way shaded by fringy pines and pale quaking aspen. She’d never been on a horse in her life and might have expected the experience to be frightening, bumpy and precarious, but it wasn’t. It was smooth, relaxing, moving in rhythm with a huge, powerful creature.
The mountains promised peace, a warm embrace of balance and serenity she realized she had been seeking forever.
“Lady!” the voice said louder, jerking her off the horse’s back and out of the dream. “You want to tell me what you’re still doing here?”
Jarred, disoriented, Caroline blinked her hazy way back to awareness. Instead of the beautiful alpine setting and the horse’s smooth gait beneath her, she was in a large, open room gazing directly at a painting of a horse and rider climbing a mountain trail.
Beneath the painting stood an angry man glowering at her from beneath a black cowboy hat, and it took her sleep-numbed brain a moment to figure out who he was.
Wade Dalton.
Marjorie Dalton’s oldest son. In a flash, she remembered everything—Quinn’s gushing e-mail about his lady love, her shocked reaction to find his lady love was her client, then that frenzied trip to eastern Idaho in a mad effort to stop him from doing anything rash.
She’d been too late, she remembered. Instead of Marjorie and Quinn, she had found only a surly, suspicious Wade Dalton and his two darling, troublemaking boys.
Striving desperately for composure, she drew in a deep, cleansing breath to clear the rest of the cobwebs from her brain, then sat up, aware she must look an absolute mess.
She pushed a hank of hair out of her eyes, feeling at a distinct disadvantage that he had caught her this way.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I sat down to wait for you and must have drifted off.”
“Why?”
“Probably because I traveled all night to get here.” To her embarrassment, her words ended in a giant yawn, but the man didn’t seem to notice.
“I wasn’t asking why you fell asleep. I was asking why in the …” He looked over at his son and lowered his voice. “Why in the heck would you think you had to wait for us? As far as I’m concerned, we’ve said everything we needed to say.”
She followed his gaze to the boy, noting the bandage on his hand. “I wanted to make sure Tanner was all right.”
“He’s fine,” he answered. “Second-degree burn but it could have been a lot worse.”
“Uncle Jake put lots of stinky stuff on it,” Tanner piped up from the other couch, “and said I have to keep it wrapped up for a week ’cept at bedtime, to keep out the ’fection. This is my mummy claw of death.”
He made a menacing lunge toward her with his wrapped hand and Caroline laughed, charmed by him.
“You’ll have to make sure you do everything your uncle told you. You don’t want to get an infection.”
“I know.” His sigh sounded heartfelt and put-upon. “And I can’t ever roast marshmallows by myself again or Daddy will drag me behind Jupiter until my skin falls off.”
“Jupiter?”
“My dad’s horse. He’s really big and mean, too.”
Caroline winced at the image and Wade frowned at his son. “I was just kidding about the horse, kid. You know that, right? I just wanted to make sure you know your punishment for playing on the stove again will be swift and severe.”
“I know. I told you I wouldn’t do it again ever, ever, ever.”
“Good decision,” Caroline said. “Because you’d look pretty gross without all your skin.”
Tanner giggled, then turned back to his television show.
Caroline shifted her attention back to the boy’s father and found him watching her closely, a strange look on his features—an expression that for some reason made her wish her hair wasn’t so sleep-messed.
Silence stretched between them, awkward and uncomfortable, until she finally broke it.
“I made some soup for you and the boys. It’s on the stove.”
He scowled. “You what?”
“I figured you would be ready for lunch when you returned from the clinic so I found some potatoes in the pantry and threw together a nice cheesy potato soup.”
She wasn’t quite sure why, but her announcement turned that odd expression in his eyes into one she recognized all too well. She watched stormclouds gather in those blue depths and saw his mouth tighten with irritation.
“Funny, but I don’t remember saying anything about making yourself right at home.” Though his voice was low to prevent Tanner from paying them any attention, it was still hot.
“You didn’t. I was only trying to help.”
“My mother has apparently been stupid enough to marry your father, but that sure as hell doesn’t give you free rein of the Cold Creek, lady.”
She inhaled deeply, working hard to keep her emotions under control. No good would come of losing her temper with him, she reminded herself. As far as he was concerned, she had invaded his territory, and his reaction was natural and not unexpected.
At the same time, she couldn’t let him minimize her, not when she had only been trying to help.
“My name is Caroline,” she said calmly.
“I don’t care if you’re the frigging queen of England. This is my ranch and right now you’re trespassing.”
She raised an eyebrow, trying to hang onto her temper. “Are you going to have me thrown in jail because I had the temerity to make you and your boys some soup?”
“The idea holds considerable appeal right about now, believe me!”
Though she knew he was only posturing, dread curled through her just at the possibility of going to jail again. She had a flashing image of concrete walls, hopelessness and a humiliating lack of privacy.
She couldn’t bear contemplating that brief time in her life—and couldn’t even begin to imagine having to go back.
She took another deep breath, focusing on pushing all the tension out of her body.
“I was only trying to help. I thought perhaps Tanner might need something comforting and warm after his ordeal.”
“I don’t need your help, Ms. Montgomery. I don’t need anything from you. It was the help you gave my mother that led to this whole mess in the first place.”
Oh, this man knew how to hit her where she lived. First he threatened her with her worst nightmare, then he dredged up all the guilt she’d been trying so hard to sublimate.
Before she could summon an answer, two noises started up simultaneously—his cell phone rang and strident cries started to float down the stairs as Cody awoke.
Wade let out a heavy sigh and rubbed two fingers on his temple. Deep frustration showed on his features and she reminded herself she didn’t want to be fighting with him. While she had worked to clean up the sticky, smoky mess in the kitchen, her mind had been busy trying to do the same to the mess her father had created in Wade Dalton’s life.
She wanted to think she had arrived at a viable solution.
“I disagree,” she said. “I think you do need help. And if you can swallow your anger at me—justified or not—and listen to me, I have a proposal for you.”
His glare indicated that the only kind of proposal he wanted to hear from her concerned her plans to leave his ranch, but she refused to let him intimidate her.
He answered his phone just as he headed out of the room to get Cody, now crying in earnest.
When he returned five minutes later, she had Tanner settled at the kitchen table, eating soup with his unbandaged hand and talking her ear off about his trip to the doctor and the stickers he got from his Uncle Jake and how he heard Amber, one of his Uncle Jake’s nurses, talking about how his Uncle Seth was the sexiest man in the county.
This Seth person sounded like an interesting character, she thought, then she forgot all about him when Wade walked into the kitchen with Cody on his hip. The rancher looked big and powerful and intimidating, and she thought his brother would have to be something indeed if he could possibly be more gorgeous than Wade Dalton.
Not that she noticed, she reminded herself. As far as she was concerned, he was grouchy and unreasonable and determined that everything in life had to go his way or else.
Still, there was something about seeing the sleepy-eyed toddler in his arms, one little hand flung around his father’s neck and the other thumb planted firmly in his mouth, that tugged at her heart.
The boy studied her warily until she smiled, then his reserve melted and he gave her a chubby smile in return, which only seemed to deepen his father’s scowl.
“Would you and Cody like some soup?” she asked.
Wade would have told her no but his stomach growled at just that moment and he had to admit the soup smelled delicious—rich and creamy, with a hint of some kind of spice he didn’t quite recognize.
“I didn’t put rat poison in it, I promise.”
He didn’t like this suspicion he had that she found him amusing somehow. He plain didn’t like her. Caroline Montgomery was everything that turned him off in a woman. She was opinionated and bossy, and he didn’t trust her motives one iota.
Trouble was, he couldn’t figure out what she could be after. What kind of woman travels eight hundred miles to find her father, then, when she doesn’t find him, sticks around to make soup in a stranger’s house?
She took the decision out of his hands by setting a steaming bowl on the table and setting another smaller bowl on the counter to cool for Cody.
He could eat, he thought grudgingly. Breakfast had been a long time ago and he’d been too shocked over that letter from his mother to pay much attention to what he’d been eating.
He set Cody in his high chair and pulled him up to the table next to Tanner, then noticed something else about the kitchen. It gleamed in the afternoon sunlight shining in through the big windows.
The place had been a mess when he’d left to take Cody to the clinic, with scorch marks on the walls and a sticky marshmallow goo on the stove. All that was gone.
“You cleaned up.” The statement came out more like an accusation than he’d intended but she only smiled in response. He noticed as she smiled that one of her eyeteeth overlapped the tooth next to it just a bit. It was a silly thing but he felt a little of his irritation with her ease at the discovery of that small imperfection.
“I figured you had enough on your hands right now. It was the least I could do anyway. If you hadn’t been distracted yelling at me…” her voice trailed off and she flashed that crooked little smile again. “Excuse me, if you hadn’t been talking to me in a loud and forceful voice, you probably would have been able to keep a closer eye on Tanner and he might not have had the opportunity to injure himself.”
“He would have found a way,” Wade muttered. “That kid could find trouble in his sleep. He’s a genius at it.”
“He does have a lot of energy but he seems very sweet. They both do.”
“Sure, while they’re busy eating,” Wade muttered, then felt like a heel complaining about his own kids.
“Which you should be doing,” she pointed out.
Right. He didn’t like bossy women, he reminded himself. Even if they had cute smiles and smelled like vanilla ice cream.
Still, he obediently tasted the potato soup his boys were enjoying with such relish, then had to swallow his moan of sheer pleasure. It was absolutely divine, thick and creamy, and flavored with an elusive spice he thought might be tarragon.
Tanner and Cody were carrying on one of their conversations, with Tanner yakking away about whatever he could think of and Cody responding with giggles and the occasional mimicry of whatever his brother said, and Wade listened to them while he savored the soup.
After he had eaten half the bowl in about a minute and a half, Caroline spoke up. “I know Marjorie helped you take care of your children. Do you have someone else to turn to now that she’s gone?”
He swallowed a spoonful of soup that suddenly didn’t taste as delectable. “Not yet. I’ll figure something out.”
Before she could answer, Tanner burped loudly and he and Cody erupted into hysterical laughter.
“Hey, that wasn’t very polite,” Wade chided, even as he saw that Caroline was hiding a smile behind her hand. “Apologize to Ms. Montgomery.”
“Nat says that’s how people in some places say thank you when their food is real good.”
“Well, we’re not in one of those places. On the Cold Creek, it’s considered bad manners.”
Cody suddenly burped, too, something Tanner apparently thought was the funniest thing in the world.
“See? Now look what you’re teaching your little brother. Apologize to Ms. Montgomery.”
“Sorry,” Tanner said obediently, even though he didn’t look the slightest bit sincere.
“Sowwy,” Cody repeated.
“Can we go play now? We’re all done.”
Wade washed their faces and hands—well, Cody’s hands and Tanner’s unbandaged one-— then pulled Cody down from his high chair and set him on the floor.
“Remember to be careful,” he told Tanner, who nodded absently and headed out of the kitchen after his brother.
“It doesn’t look like his injury is slowing him down much,” Caroline observed.
He sighed. “Not much slows that kid down.”
“So what will you do with them while you work?” she asked again.
“I’ll figure something out,” he repeated.
She folded her hands together on the table and he noticed her nails weren’t very long but they were manicured and she wore a pale pink nail polish. He wasn’t sure why he picked up on that detail—and the fact that he did annoyed him, for some reason.
“I’d like to volunteer,” she said after a moment.
He stared at her. “Volunteer for what?”
“To help you with your children.” She smiled that crooked smile again. “I’m self-employed and my schedule is very flexible. I happen to have some free time right now and I’d like to help.”
What the hell was her game? he wondered. “Let me get this straight. You’re offering to babysit my kids while your father and my mother are off honeymooning in Reno.”
“Yes.”
“Why would you possibly think I’d take you up on it?”
She slanted him a look. “Why not?”
“Because you’re a stranger. Because I don’t know you and I don’t trust you.”
“I can understand your hesitation. I wouldn’t want a stranger caring for my children, if I had any. But I can give you references. I was a nanny in Boston for two years while I finished college. I’ve had plenty of experience with children of all ages and with cooking and cleaning a house.”
Did she actually think he would consider it? “Absolutely not.”
“Just like that? You won’t even think about it?”
“What’s to think about? If you were the parent here, would you leave your kids in the care of a total stranger?”
“Probably not,” she admitted. “But if I were in great need, I might consider it after I checked out the stranger’s references.”
His cell phone rang again before he could answer. One of these days he was going to throw the blasted thing out the window.
He saw Seth’s number on the caller ID and sighed. “Yeah?” he answered.
“Where the hell are you? You said you’d be down.” Seth sounded as frustrated as Wade felt.
“I’m working on it.”
“Those clouds aren’t moving on. In another hour we’re going to be drenched and lose the whole crop. I was thinking I ought to call Guillermo Cruz and see if we can borrow the Luna’s baler.”
The Rancho de la Luna was the owned by their closest neighbor, Viviana Cruz. Though a much smaller operation than the Cold Creek, Guillermo Cruz kept his sister-in-law’s equipment in tip-top shape.
It was a good solution, one he would have thought of if he wasn’t so distracted with the kids. “Yeah, do that,” he told Seth. “I’ll be down as soon as I can. Maybe I can throw together something to fix the other one temporarily. If we can get two machines running out there, we might have a chance.”
He hung up to find Caroline Montgomery watching him carefully.
“As I see it, you don’t have too many other choices, Mr. Dalton,” she said quietly. “Tanner is going to need pampering with that burn of his, at least for a few days, and it needs to be kept free of infection. You can’t just lug him and Cody around the ranch with you where the two of them could get into all kinds of things without proper supervision. And by the sounds of it, your plate is pretty full right now.”
“Overflowing,” he agreed tersely. “Your father picked a hell of a time to take a bride.”
She winced and for a moment there he thought she almost looked guilty before her features became serene once more. “I’m sorry. I understand you don’t want me here but for the children’s sake, at least let me help for a day or two until you come up with another arrangement. I’ve come all this way for nothing, I might as well make myself useful.”
He rubbed the ache in his temple again, the weight of his responsibilities cumbersome and heavy.
What would be the harm in letting her help for a day or two? Her presence would take considerable pressure off him and it would be better for the boys to have more diligent supervision than he could provide.
She was a virtual stranger but, like it or not, she was connected to him now by virtue of their parents’ hasty marriage.
Anyway, the work he had to do the next few days was close enough to the ranch house that he could keep an eye on her.
That might not be such a bad thing, he thought. If she and her father were cooking some kind of scam together, he might have some advantage in the long run by keeping his eyes open and knowing just who he was dealing with.
Hank Dalton had had an axiom for cases just like this. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
What better way to keep her close than by having her right here in his own home?
A stiff gust suddenly rattled the kitchen windows and he watched the clouds dance across the sky as he tried to calculate how much more they would have to pay for feed during the winter if they didn’t get the hay in before that storm hit.
“You’re right. I don’t have too many options right now. I, uh, appreciate the offer.”
The words rasped out of his throat as if they were covered in burrs, and she gave him an amused look, as if she sensed how hard they were for him to say.
He really didn’t like being such a ready source of amusement for her, he decided.
“Where are your reference phone numbers?” he growled.
She looked at him for a moment, then scribbled some names and phone numbers on a memo sheet off a pad by the phone. Wondering if he was crazy, he grabbed them and stalked to his ranch office off the kitchen.
Ten minutes later he returned. He’d only been able to reach someone at one of the numbers, a woman by the name of Nancy Saunders. He knew it could be a setup, that she could be part of the con, but at this point he didn’t have any choice but to trust her words. She had raved about Caroline’s care for her two children a dozen years earlier, about how they’d stayed in touch over the years and she considered Caroline one of the most responsible people she’d ever met.
He didn’t want to hear any of this, he thought. He wasn’t buying half of it but decided he would be close enough to the house that he could keep an eye on her.
He returned to the kitchen and found her cleaning up the few lunch dishes.
“Did I pass?”
“For now,” he muttered. He grabbed his hat off the hook by the back door and shrugged back into his denim work coat.
“Natalie comes home on the bus about three-thirty and she can help you with the boys and with dinner. The freezer’s full of food. I don’t know what time I’ll be in—probably after dark. You and the kids should go ahead and eat, but my mother usually leaves a couple of plates in the fridge for me and for Seth.”
“Your brother.”
“Right. He’s second in command on the ranch and lives in the guesthouse out back, though he usually takes his meals here at the house with the family.”
“What kind of food do you like?”
“Anything edible.” He headed for the door, anxious to be gone. He stopped only long enough to scribble his cell number on the pad by the phone. “You can reach me at that number if you need anything.”
He hurried for his truck, trying his best to ignore the little voice in his head warning him he would regret letting Caroline Montgomery into their lives.
Through the kitchen window, Caroline watched Wade hurry to his truck as if he were being chased by an angry herd of bison.
She still couldn’t quite believe he had actually agreed to her offer. She hadn’t really expected him to take her up on it, not with the animosity that had crackled and hissed between them since she’d arrived at the Cold Creek.
He must, indeed, be desperate. That’s the only reason he would have agreed to leave his children in her care.
The man wasn’t at all what she had expected, and she wasn’t sure what to think of him. So far, he had been surly and bad tempered, but she couldn’t really blame him under the circumstances.
He intrigued her, she had to admit. She couldn’t help wondering what he was like when he wasn’t coping with an injured child, a runaway mother and various ranch crises.
She was intrigued by him and attracted to him, though she couldn’t quite understand why. Something about his intense blue eyes and that palpable aura of power and strength thrummed some heretofore hidden chord inside her.
Big, angry men weren’t at all her cup of tea. Not that she really knew what that cup of tea might be—and heaven knew, she’d been thirsty for a long time. But her few previous relationships had been with thoughtful, introspective men. An assistant professor in the history department at the university in Santa Cruz had been the last man she’d dated and she couldn’t imagine any two men more different.
Still, there was something about Wade Montgomery….
What had she gotten herself into? she wondered as she set the few dishes from lunch in a sink full of soapy water and went in search of the boys. Or more precisely, what had Quinn dragged her into?
Here she was falling back into old patterns, just hours after she’d sworn that self-destructive behavior was behind her.
She had vowed she was done trying to clean up after Quinn. The only thing she’d ever gotten for her troubles was more heartache. The worst had been those four months she’d spent in jail in Washington state after Quinn had embroiled her in one of his schemes.
Even though she’d had nothing to do with any of it, had known nothing about it until she’d been arrested, she had been the one to pay the price until she had been cleared of the charges.
Even then she couldn’t bring herself to sever all ties with her father. Ironic, that, since she frequently counseled her clients to let go of harmful, destructive relationships.
Quinn wasn’t really destructive, at least not on purpose. He loved her and had done his best to raise her alone after her mother had died when she was eight. But she was weak when it came to him and she felt like she had spent her entire life trailing behind him with a broom and dustpan.
This time was different, she told herself. This time, three innocent children had been affected by Quinn’s heedless behavior. His impulsive elopement with Marjorie had totally upset the balance and rhythm of life here at 11 Cold Creek.
She knew from her coaching sessions with Marjorie that the older woman had been the primary caregiver to her three grandchildren since Wade’s wife had died two years earlier.
Marjorie hadn’t minded that part of her life and had loved the children, but she’d been lonely here at the ranch and hungered to find meaning beyond her duties caring for her son’s children.