Christmas with the Cowboy

by Tina Radcliffe

  “Thanks. I bought it after the girls were born.”

  He nodded. “It’s you.”

  “Is that a good thing?”

  “Yeah, it’s comfortable, practical and feels like home.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I better get going.”

  “Sure. You’ve got to be tired after saving Christmas at Big Heart Ranch.” Emma couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped.

  Zach turned back, eyes narrowed. “I knew you wouldn’t let that slip past.”

  “Well it’s not exactly, WWSD.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “What would Scrooge do?” She smiled. “I think you might be coming over to the green-and-red side.”

  “You’re really on a roll, aren’t you?” he returned.

  “Oh, come on. You have to admit, things are sort of fun around here. You’re going to miss all this when you leave.”

  He scoffed. “We’ll see how I feel come January.”

  “What will you do in January?” she asked softly as stark reality reared its ugly head. “You said you have a job. What kind of job?”

  “Security contracting. Overseas.” Zach stared past her toward the twins’ room.

  Overseas? They’d never see him. “Is that what you want?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “Emma, I don’t know what I want anymore.”

  A chilly breeze whooshed past Emma when he pushed open the screen door and walked out into the night.

  She closed the door behind him and leaned against the wood thinking about his response.

  “Neither do I,” she murmured. “Neither do I.”

  Chapter Five

  Emma paced back and forth across the parking lot in front of the black pickup truck.

  The girls were bundled into their stroller, sitting beneath a redbud tree whose branches were dressed in the remaining golden leaves of autumn. The toddlers’ happy gibberish filled the air as they played with the identical plastic animals that Emma had pulled from the toy box to ensure a quiet trip. Next to the stroller, the car seats were stacked, and next to that, a large diaper bag was propped.

  She’d barely had time to process Zach’s sudden appearance in their life. Now she was going to spend the day with him?

  What seemed like a good idea last night seemed a ridiculously impulsive invitation in the light of day. If she’d stopped to think this through, she would have realized that close proximity with Zach was not conducive to her peace of mind. She could have gotten the greenery herself. In and out and no one gets hurt.

  Emma stared at the cab of the truck, which was shrinking with each glance. She was stuck with Plan B and it terrified her.

  “How’d you know which truck was mine?”

  Her head popped up at the question. Zach strode across the parking lot, the limp less pronounced this afternoon. His hands were in the pockets of his jeans. He wore a dark blue sweatshirt with the word Navy emblazoned across his chest.

  She glanced away, trying to remember that she was a mother with two children. A highly respected churchgoing member of the community. A business owner.

  As such, she should not be noticing the breadth of a man’s shoulders in a form-fitting sweatshirt, nor the dark stubble on his face that gave him an irresistible rogue look. Emma shivered.

  “Hello? Anyone home?” Zach asked with a knuckle rap on the hood of his truck.

  “Huh? Oh, sorry.” She raised her head, grateful he couldn’t read her mind. “I looked around for the baddest and most outrageously macho pickup,” she said with an eye on the oversize truck. “This was the one.”

  “California plates gave me away.”

  Emma shrugged. “That, too.”

  “Have you been waiting long?” he asked.

  “Just got here.” She narrowed her gaze. “You seem unusually chipper.”

  “I get to spend time with my nieces.”

  “They’ve been here for the last twenty-eight months, you know.”

  Zach met her gaze. “I know, Em. But I couldn’t get away.”

  “Couldn’t or wouldn’t? I mean, really? Three years and you couldn’t get away?”

  Zach bowed his head and stared at the ground for a moment. “I thought we had a holiday truce.”

  Emma closed her mouth, tamping down the unexpected rush of bitterness. Where had that come from anyhow? “Yes, right. Sorry.”

  An awkward silence stretched between them for a moment.

  “So, um, how’s Lucy? Have you heard from her?” Zach asked.

  “I called this morning. She’s feeling guilty about leaving us with her team and having a hard time keeping her fingers out of the roundup.”

  “Isn’t there something she can do from home?”

  “Yes. I turned over some of my phone calls to her.”

  “Good idea.” Zach glanced at the twins and they responded by leaning forward to peek beyond the protective canopy of the double stroller at him. Wide-eyed, both toddlers craned their little necks to stare up at Zach with interest.

  “They like being in that contraption?” he asked.

  “Actually, they prefer to walk, but when we’re in crowds or need to cover long distances, this contraption is safer for all of us.”

  He raised a brow.

  “Don’t judge,” Emma said. “Chasing after two children sounds easier than it is.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.” Zach crouched down to eye level with the stroller, keeping his left knee stretched nearly straight. “Introductions?”

  “Girls, this is Uncle Zach,” she said. “He’s going with us.”

  They continued to stare and Emma in return stared at them, dumbfounded. Good grief. It wasn’t as if they’d never seen a man before. He was exactly like Travis, except the large economy size.

  “Are they okay?” Zach asked.

  “Yes.” Emma snapped her fingers several times, and the twins finally looked at her. “Girls, can you say Uncle Zach?”

  “Unca Zach.”

  “Which one was that?” Zach murmured.

  “Rachel. She’s wearing red and Elizabeth is in purple.”

  “Color-coded kids. I like that.”

  “Good, because I did it as a courtesy. Consider that your handicap until you can tell them apart.”

  “You said they’re identical, except for a birthmark.”

  “This is true. However, they have quite different dispositions.”

  He narrowed his eyes and assessed them. “The other one doesn’t talk?”

  “Elizabeth. Not the other one.” Emma shook her head. “Unless she has a horse in the race, Elizabeth lets Rachel do the work for her.”

  “Smart kid.”

  “Smart and clever.”

  He stepped to the sidewalk and heaved a car seat over his shoulder. “So we put these in the truck, right?”

  “Yes.” She pulled open the passenger door of the double cab and placed one in the back seat. Zach moved to the other side to do the same. Their hands collided as they searched for the seat belts.

  Zach froze and jumped back as if he’d been zapped with a cattle prod. “Sorry, static electricity,” he murmured.

  Is that what that was?

  Head down, he clicked the seat belt into place.

  “Are you okay with putting Rachel in her seat on your side?” Emma asked.

  “I think the question should be ‘Is Rachel okay with me putting her in the car seat?’”

  Emma nodded her head toward the twins. “Go for it. They’re still awestruck.”

  “Okay, sure. I can do this.” He unbuckled the stroller restraint and Rachel immediately held out her pudgy little arms.

  “You have a fan,” Emma observed.

  When Zach wrapped his hands around Rachel and lifted her up, the two-year
-old snuggled against his chest as though she belonged there. Zach froze, his eyes meeting Emma’s.

  “Is she okay?” he asked.

  “Oh, yes,” Emma said, as her heart melted around the edges. “I think it’s safe to say that she likes you.”

  “Really?”

  Emma cocked her head. “How could you possibly not realize that you leave a trail of swooning females wherever you go?”

  Zach’s eyes popped wide at her words. “Me? Not hardly.” He carried Rachel around the truck to the car seat. She didn’t resist when he put her in the car seat and buckled her in.

  “She smells good,” he said. “Baby perfume?”

  “You can smell that?” Emma picked up Elizabeth and cuddled her daughter close. The lingering scent of sweetness and purity and babyhood had all but disappeared. Her babies were growing up so fast.

  “That was much easier than I expected,” Zach said.

  “They’re setting you up,” Emma said as she fastened the connection on Elizabeth’s car seat. “Even now, they’re secretly plotting a diabolical plan to get you to let your guard down before the big strike.”

  When he glanced at Rachel and Elizabeth, they graced him a tender smile of adoration.

  “Naw,” he murmured. “These two are little princesses.”

  Emma snorted. “Right now you’re a novelty and the little princesses are enamored. Wait until they realize you won’t bend to their will upon demand. They can go from smiling to screaming in zero point sixty seconds. And always in the most embarrassing situations.”

  “You’re making that up.”

  “You’ll see,” she returned with a singsong voice.

  “What about the stroller?” Zach asked.

  Depressing buttons, Emma quickly broke down the stroller. “Ready to go.”

  “That was impressive.” Zach picked it up and put it in the bed of the truck as she slid into the passenger seat and shoved the diaper bag in front of her feet.

  “What’s in the suitcase?” he asked when he got into the truck.

  Emma laughed. “That’s a diaper bag.”

  He fastened his seat belt and put the key in the ignition. “That’s a lot of diapers.”

  “This is my survival kit.” She patted the canvas duffel. “I have everything necessary for any worse-case scenario created by toddlers in the wild.”

  “So you’re sort of a SEAL yourself,” Zach said.

  She considered his words. “That’s one way to look at it, except that my training program is much tougher than yours.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  She smiled serenely. “Oh, plebe, you have so much to learn.”

  From the back seat, a voice spoke. “Momma duive, pease.”

  “Which one was that?”

  “Elizabeth, the quiet, bossy one.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She wants me to drive.”

  “Really?” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “That’s what she said?”

  “I’m fluent in toddler speak.”

  “Okay, so why does she want you to drive?”

  “Because we’re still sitting here.”

  His eyes rounded and he turned around in his seat to look at Elizabeth. “Whoa. Back seat driver?”

  “Exactly. But she did say ‘please.’”

  Zach shook his head and reached across Emma toward the glove box. When his hand grazed her denim-clad knee, their gazes collided.

  “Um, sorry,” Zach murmured.

  Emma inched closer to the door. “Is there something I can get for you in there?”

  “My sunglasses.”

  Careful to avoid contact, Emma dangled the dark aviators from her fingers.

  “So you’re the copilot,” he said as he slipped the glasses on. “Which way?”

  “Just head out of the ranch and turn right.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Relax,” Emma said as she leaned back against the soft leather seat. “I’ve got this.”

  “Yeah. That’s the part that concerns me,” he murmured.

  Once they were outside the long ranch drive, on a two-lane road and several miles from Big Heart, Zach glanced in the rearview mirror then turned to her. “What happened? They’re both asleep.”

  She nodded. “It’s some sort of quantum physics law. Put a child in a car and drive and they fall asleep. Sometimes I just drive around the ranch to settle them down.”

  “News to me,” he said.

  Emma smiled. “Me, too.”

  As they came to a four-way stop, Zach looked up and down the road. “Which way?”

  “Keep going straight.”

  “You’re sure? Because downtown Timber is to the right.”

  “I’m sure.”

  Minutes later, a large billboard advertising Baxter Farm came into view. Emma leaned forward and pointed out the window. “Hey, look. There’s a sign. Two miles farther on your right.”

  “I thought you said you go every year. Why do you sound so surprised that the sign is there?”

  She cleared her throat. “I may still have a few internal compass issues.”

  A low, deep laugh erupted from Zach. From his profile, she could see his eyes crinkle with the action. Emma’s heart filled with an unknown longing at the sound. She hadn’t heard Zach belly laugh in much too long.

  Minutes later, as he parked the truck and she explained that besides the greenery she would need twenty poinsettias, Zach was no longer laughing.

  “That many?”

  “Yes. They’ll fit in the bed of your truck nicely.”

  A grimace was his only response.

  “Is there a problem?” she asked.

  “What if those pots overturn?”

  “They won’t.”

  This time he frowned.

  “If they do, I’ll help you clean it up.”

  Zach’s gaze followed the dozens of young children running over the grounds. “Why are there so many kids here?”

  “It’s Friday and there’s a school bus parked across the street. It must be a field trip.”

  “Once again, my timing is off,” he muttered. “Tell you what. I’ll get the poinsettias and you and the girls go start the whole petting thing.”

  “Okay, but be sure to get the ones that look lush with dark green leaves down to the soil line.” With a hand on the stroller, Emma took a step and then hesitated. “Are you sure—”

  “I’m trained to be combat ready. I can handle this.” He nodded toward the animals. “Go pet a lamb or we’ll never get out of here in time for my riding lesson with Mick.”

  Emma turned the stroller toward the fenced petting zoo area behind the fruit and vegetable market, dodging children as she traversed the dirt trail.

  “Unca Zach?” Rachel asked. She turned in the stroller, her hands reaching for him as he headed in the other direction.

  “Uncle Zach will be right back.”

  “Unca Zach!” Rachel began to scream.

  “Rachel, he’ll be right back.” Emma knelt down next to her. “Look, the lambs are over there. Baa-baa, lambs. You love lambs.”

  “Unca Zach!”

  Elizabeth’s lower lip quivered and a fat tear rolled down her plump and rosy cheek. Before Emma could do anything, she began to wail, simply because Rachel was crying. In mere seconds, both children were inconsolable. Around Emma, people had stopped to stare.

  Emma turned the stroller around and raced toward Zach.

  “Zach! Zach, wait up.”

  He turned, stunned surprise registering on his face. “What’s going on? Why are they crying?”

  “Rachel is upset that you’re leaving.”

  “I’m not leaving.”

  Rachel’s cries only got louder, her face red with the
effort, as her hands stretched toward Zach.

  Crouching down, Zach unbuckled Rachel and pulled her into his arms. He stroked her back until she stopped crying.

  Emma picked up Elizabeth. After a moment, the only thing left was soft hiccups.

  “Sippy,” Rachel said with a sniff. Emma handed Zach a red sippy cup and offered Elizabeth a purple one. Rachel wrapped her little fingers around the cup and drank in noisy gulps.

  “Enough?” Zach asked when the toddler took a breath.

  Rachel nodded.

  “Should we all go for poinsettias?” Zach asked.

  “Sure. Since my children can’t live without you,” she murmured.

  “Who knew I was a toddler magnet?” Zach said with an embarrassed smile.

  “Potty, Mommy,” Rachel said.

  “This is your department,” Zach said. He slipped Rachel back into the stroller.

  Emma did a full circle, glancing around until she spotted a restroom. She nodded to the right. “Let’s go, girls.”

  “Don’t need potty,” Elizabeth said, her lower lip jutting out.

  Emma rubbed the bridge of her nose and looked up at Zach. “Do you mind watching her while I take Rachel?”

  “No problem.”

  Emma put Elizabeth on the bench behind them, stood Rachel on her feet and took her hand.

  “Go ahead,” he said as he eased down next to Elizabeth, his left leg stretched out. “We’ll be fine.”

  Elizabeth looked at him from the corner of her eye and scooted to the end of the bench.

  “I guess we know how she feels,” he murmured.

  “Watch her closely. She’s wily, that one. I’ll be right back.” Emma shoved the giant diaper bag on her shoulder and took off.

  Eager to return to Uncle Zach, Rachel was quick in the restroom. When Emma came back outside she heard Zach call out, “Wait.” But he wasn’t talking to her.

  Elizabeth had jumped down from the bench and had quickly distanced herself from the former navy SEAL. The toddler became a blur of purple as her little legs moved furiously.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Zach called out. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  A mother with a stroller cut in front of him, and he nearly lost Elizabeth. Though he was limping, he picked up speed and caught the child around the waist.