"Have you met everyone?" Seth asked from behind her, his breath warm in her ear.
"No. Not really."
He quickly performed introductions to his mother and stepfather Quinn. Viviana and Guillermo Cruz both beamed at her in welcome. Seth introduced the man playing with the puppies Morgan had abandoned for her best friend as the best vet in town, Dave Summers, and his wife, Linda.
"My brother Wade is outside checking the snowmobiles and I told you Jake and Maggie are on their way. I'm not sure where Caroline is."
"Right here."
A voice spoke from behind her and Jenny turned and found Caroline Dalton walking into the kitchen, looking lovely and serene and extremely pregnant.
Jenny had met her at various school functions and knew she was married to Seth's oldest brother, Wade, and was stepmother to Wade's three children from a first marriage Marcy told her had ended with the tragic death of his wife just after the birth of their youngest child.
Caroline had always been friendly and kind, even when her stepson Tanner had been sent to Jenny's office for some mischief or other, and she had to admit she was grateful to see a familiar face.
"Cole, would you like a cookie?" she asked, and Jenny wanted to hug her for including him.
"Sure," he said, reaching for one.
He was just taking a big bite when they heard a commotion in the doorway. Jenny looked over to see a blond girl about Cole's age come into the kitchen holding hands with Tanner and Cody Dalton.
Cole hurried to swallow his cookie, straightening to his full height. He looked both surprised and pleased to see the girl.
"Uh, hey, Miranda," he said, his ears turning pink beneath his snowboarder toque.
She gave him a hesitant smile. "Hi, Cole," she said.
Jenny told herself she was glad her son had someone his own age to hang out with during this outing, though she wasn't sure she was ready to spend the day watching his painfully awkward adolescent interactions with a member of the opposite sex.
"This is Miranda Summers, Dave and Linda's daughter," Caroline said. "She's my lifesaver and watches the kids for me sometimes in the afternoon so I can get some work done."
Marcy—the eternally helpful fount of information that she was—had told her Caroline wrote motivational books and was also a very successful life coach.
Jenny wondered if Caroline Dalton might be able to offer any advice for a woman who seemed destined to be fascinated by the absolutely wrong sort of men.
"We were so thrilled when Seth said he had invited you and your family today," Caroline said with a warm smile that went a long way toward easing Jenny's worries about intruding.
"What a great idea and a wonderful chance for us to get to know you," Caroline went on. "I'm so glad you agreed to come."
"Your brother-in-law can be quite…" Annoying. Bossy. Manipulative. "…persuasive."
Caroline Dalton laughed. "That's an understatement."
"What can I say? It's a gift." Seth grinned, popping one of the cookies in his mouth. "I'm just full of them."
"You're certainly full of something," Caroline countered.
Seth only laughed and patted her abdomen with an easy familiarity that told Jenny they shared a close relationship.
"Don't listen to her, kid." He spoke in the general direction of Caroline's midsection. "A few more months and you can make up your own mind about who's your favorite uncle."
Caroline shook her head but with such affection Jenny wondered for an instant at their relationship.
Just then the outside door opened and Wade Dalton came into the increasingly crowded kitchen, stamping snow off his boots and hanging his Stetson on a hook by the door.
His gaze immediately went to his wife, and she smiled at him with such clear joy that Jenny felt foolish even wondering for an instant about Seth and Caroline.
The other woman was obviously crazy about her husband—and vice versa.
"What are we all waiting for here? The sleds are ready and the sun is shining. I say we get this done."
"Maggie and Jake aren't here yet," Caroline said. "They called a moment ago and said they were on their way."
"We can start suiting up anyway," he said. The veterinarian and his wife rose and started shrugging into heavy parkas.
She managed to wrench Cole's attention from Miranda long enough to drag him back to the ranch great room and their coats. For the next several minutes, they were all busy donning their winter gear—parkas, ski pants, thick gloves.
Jenny had just finished helping Morgan zip her coat when the front door opened, admitting two newcomers.
"You just made it," Seth said with a grin. "We were going to leave without you."
"I'm sure we would have survived the pain," his brother Jake said, his voice dry.
The woman with him—small, dark-haired and graceful as she maneuvered on forearm crutches—gave him a reproving look. "You can always stay here and play cards with the parents and I'll go up with the rest of them. I love cutting our own tree."
"We've got a nice Scotch pine in the backyard. Why couldn't we have saved ourselves the trouble and just cut that one so we could spend the day warm and dry by the fire?"
"Jenny, this complainer is my brother Jake and this beautiful creature is his wife, Maggie," Seth said, kissing the latter on the cheek. "This is Jennifer Boyer, the new principal at Pine Gulch Elementary."
She smiled. "I've met Dr. Dalton. Hello again. And nice to meet you," she added to Maggie, wondering about the crutches everyone else seemed to take in stride.
"Hi," Jake Dalton said. "And hello, Miss Morgan. How's the breathing today?"
"Good. Mom made me do a peak flow test before we left and it was ninety-five."
"Excellent!" He held out a hand for Morgan to high-five, which she did with a giggle.
Jenny had met Dr. Dalton soon after arriving in Pine Gulch when she had taken Morgan in for a refill of her asthma medication. Morgan had been to see him twice since then and each time, he struck Jenny as a very insightful, very compassionate physician, a combination that didn't always go together, in her experience.
"Maggie, sit down for a minute while you have the chance," he said to his wife.
"I'm fine," she said firmly.
"What's with the sticks?" Seth asked, a rude question, Jenny thought, but Maggie Dalton only made a face at him.
Before she could answer, the others came into the great room from the kitchen and Viviana Cruz caught sight of her daughter and hurried toward her.
The resemblance between them was startling, Jenny saw now they were together. The only significant difference was the hint of gray in Viviana's hair and some fine wrinkles in the corners of her eyes.
"Magdalena. What is this?" she asked, worry in her voice. "Why are you using the crutches today?"
"It is nothing, Mama. I promise. Just a little irritation, that's all. My personal physician insisted. I followed his advice since he tends to get pissy when I don't, but really, I'm fine."
"I don't get pissy," Jake growled. "I get even. Next time you put up a fuss, I'll just hide your prosthesis and your crutches and make you hop everywhere."
Jenny stared, stunned that the doctor she had come to respect so much would be so harsh with his wife. She was mortified when Maggie saw her shock and shook her head with a smile.
"He's teasing, Jenny, I promise. He wouldn't dare. I know all his hiding places anyway."
"What's a prosthesis?" Morgan asked, in one of those awkward moments all parents experience when they wish their children weren't so naturally curious.
Maggie Dalton didn't seem to mind. She pulled up her pant leg and Jenny saw her left leg ended just below her knee. "It's just a fancy word for a fake leg."
Morgan looked at the metal and plastic device with fascination. "Wow! Can you do cool stuff with it, like jump over cars and stuff?"
Maggie laughed. "Not yet, but I'm working on it."
Her mother still looked concerned. "If you are hurt
ing, you should stay behind with us."
"No, Mama. I'm fine. I've been looking forward to this all week. I'll be sitting on the snowmobile the whole time, I promise."
Viviana bristled like she wanted to argue but her husband, a quiet, sturdy-looking man, put a hand on her arm and she subsided.
A short time later, everyone was ready and they walked outside in the cold air toward a row of gleaming machines.
Jenny gulped. Was she expected to drive one of these complicated-looking beasts? She knew absolutely nothing about snowmobiles. She wouldn't have the first idea how to even start the thing, forget about taking it up a mountain.
To her relief, Seth turned to Cole as soon as they reached the snowmobiles. "Cole, if I take your sister behind me, do you think you can handle driving one with your mom?"
A silly question to ask a fourteen-year-old obsessed with machines. His eyes lit up brighter than Jenny had seen in a long time.
"Oh, yeah," he said with a grin.
"Is it legal?" she asked warily.
"Absolutely or I wouldn't have suggested it," he assured her. "Let's show you how it works."
For the next few moments, he walked Cole through the steps for operating the snowmobile and even had him drive it twenty yards or so before coming back.
"You're all set," Seth assured him.
"Get on, Mom," Cole said gleefully.
She sent Seth a hesitant look but he gave her a reassuring smile. "He'll be great, I promise. I'll keep an eye on you the whole time."
She climbed on, grabbing tight, and realized everyone else was mounted and ready—even Morgan waited on the back of Seth's snowmobile for her driver.
Seth took a few more moments to give Cole some final instructions and she found herself impressed by both his patience and by his consideration. "We'll be climbing into the mountains but it's all pretty gentle and easy. I'll be right ahead of you and will keep an eye on you, and Dave and Linda will bring up the rear."
He paused and gave Cole a stern look. "No hotdogging, okay? Not with your mom on board."
Cole grimaced but nodded. Seth grinned at them both, then climbed onto his own sled and headed off after the others.
"You ready, Mom?" Cole asked.
She grabbed him tightly around his waist, wondering if Seth had arranged things this way so she could remember the joy and connection of being a team with her son.
"Let's go," she said.
With a little jerk, Cole pulled the snowmobile forward and they were off, following Morgan and Seth up the mountain.
Chapter Six
Seth pulled his snowmobile to a stop and turned around to watch Cole and Jenny's progress up the track through virgin snow Wade had cut with his bigger sled.
"Why are we stopping?" Morgan asked behind him, her voice pitched loud to be heard over the growling engines.
"Just checking on the slowpokes," he told her.
She laughed and lifted her face up to the sunshine. Morgan was a sweet kid, he thought, so appreciative of everything. She treated a simple snowmobile ride into the mountains like it was the grandest adventure of her young life.
He was a little surprised at how much he was enjoying this. When he was trying to figure out sled assignments earlier in the morning, he had instinctively wanted Jenny to ride with him. He was more than ready to ramp things up a level, to make her unable to avoid confronting the physical connection he sensed between them.
What better way than to have her holding tightly to him up and down the mountain? He had spent more than a few pleasant moments fantasizing about having her so close to him for the entire half-hour ride up and back down again.
On further reflection, he'd discarded the idea, appealing as it was. Crowding her physically would only push her away. This arrangement was better.
It was not only more safe to have Morgan with him rather than her inexperienced brother but it also provided the bonus of being able to watch Jenny enjoying a fun, peaceful moment with her son, something he'd figured out early wasn't a frequent occurrence between the two.
He hadn't expected to get such a kick out of Jenny's daughter, but he was discovering he enjoyed having her look at him as though he was some kind of hero.
In talking over the Christmas-tree excursion with Wade, they had decided to sandwich experienced drivers around the teens. Wade and his boy Tanner were riding point with Miranda driving a sled and Natalie riding behind her.
Dave and Linda were just ahead of Seth and Morgan, to keep an eye on the girls. Cole and Jenny were behind him, with Maggie and Jake bringing up the rear on another of the bigger snowmobiles. They also towed the sled that would be used to haul down the Christmas trees.
So far the arrangement seemed to be working. He couldn't remember the last time he'd enjoyed himself so much on the annual Dalton Christmas-Tree Trek. A big part of that came from the vicarious enjoyment he found watching Jenny and her kids.
"Are we almost there?" Morgan asked.
"Not much farther. See that small valley of pines up there about halfway up the mountain? That's where we're headed. It should take us about fifteen more minutes. How are the lungs up this high?"
She took a deep, noisy breath. "Great," she assured him.
He was going to tell her to make sure she let him know if she started having any trouble with her asthma, but just then Cole pulled up alongside him.
"What's the matter?" he called over the noise of the sleds.
"Just checking on you. Everything going okay?"
He nodded. "This is a kick!"
"Jenny? How about you?"
She smiled at him, her cheeks wind-chapped and her color high. She looked so bright and vibrant out in the cold sunshine that he had to fight a fierce desire to tug her off the sled and into his arms.
"It's wonderful! The view from up here is absolutely incredible!"
"It is," he agreed, though he was hard-pressed to drag his gaze away from her excitement.
With effort, he managed to do it and turn back to her son. "Cole, I wanted to show you where to go from here. We're heading for that stand of trees about halfway up there."
"Okay," the boy said. "Though I'm pretty sure I'm capable of following a trail made by four other snowmobiles."
"I'm sure you are, but sometimes it helps to have the bigger picture about where you're ultimately heading, instead of just following the exhaust of the machine in front of you."
"If I was stupid enough to veer off the trail, you'd all be on me like stink on cheese anyway."
He laughed. "Just so you know where you stand, kid."
Cole made a face at him. "Are we going to ride or are we going to sit around shooting the breeze all day?"
Jake and Maggie pulled up before he could answer. He gave his sister-in-law a careful look but she didn't look to be in terrible pain, even though she had her crutches handy.
He knew Jake would never have let her come along if he worried she might overdo it, so Seth decided he would let his brother worry about his own wife.
"You're blocking the trail," Jake called.
"Yeah, yeah. We're going."
He started his sled again, feeling a curious warmth in his chest when Morgan gripped him tightly.
If he wasn't careful, he could seriously fall for Jenny Boyer's kids, he thought. That would be great if their mother came with them in a package deal but he was afraid things wouldn't work out that way.
* * *
This was a stupid idea.
An hour later, Seth wondered how in Hades he was going to make it through an entire day pretending this casual friendship with Jenny when he hungered for far more, especially since she seemed determined to push him away at every turn.
The more time he spent with her, the deeper his fascination for her seemed to run. It baffled and unnerved him. He didn't understand it—he just knew he couldn't seem to keep his eyes off her.
He was blowing all his plans to be cool and detached and to give her the time and space she needed until
she was ready for him to kick things up a notch. Things weren't working out that way, mainly because he couldn't force himself to stay away from her.
Though he knew he should have let one of his brothers help her while he cut the trees for his mother and the Cruzes, he still found himself trailing after Jenny and her kids, his chainsaw at the ready as they scoured the stand of evergreens for the perfect tree.
What he really wanted to do was drag her behind the closest trunk and steal any chance to explore that mouth, just so he could see if it could possibly taste as delicious as it looked.
With her two kids along, the possibility of that was fairly remote, he acknowledged. Still, a man could dream.
"This is way more fun than pulling our artificial tree out of storage like we've always done," a pink-cheeked Morgan exclaimed as they trudged through the snow toward the outer edge of the small forest.
He locked away his inappropriate lust and put on an exaggerated expression of horror. "Artificial. Please say it's not so."
Morgan giggled. "Yep."
"Don't tell me it's pink."
Jenny made a face at him. "Of course not. It was a perfectly lovely seven-and-a-half-foot spruce. Green, prelit and very convenient."
"That smells like the petroleum product that it is, no doubt. How can you stand here inhaling this delicious scent into your lungs and even consider having an artificial tree?"
"We gave it to Goodwill when we moved. And we're here now, aren't we, searching for the perfect tree? That has to count for something!"
"I don't know. Somebody who's always had an artificial monstrosity might not recognize the perfect tree even if it reached out a branch and tapped you on the head with it."
She stopped suddenly, so abruptly he almost plowed into her. Her gaze was glued to a blue spruce about eight feet high. Though a yellow ribbon tied to the trunk indicated he'd marked it for thinning, now he couldn't really see anything spectacular about it.
Jenny apparently did. She gave a happy sigh. "This one. I want this one."
He wasn't ready for the search to be over yet. Then they would have to go back and rejoin the rest of his family and he would lose any chance for privacy with her.
Dalton's Undoing Page 7
