Silas pointed at the calf that was now on its feet and was having his first meal. “Me baby.”
“Yes, you’re the baby,” Nash agreed.
“No.”
“You mean that’s your baby?” Nash asked.
Silas grinned and nodded. “Me baby.”
“No!” Emma stomped her foot. “Them sheeps outside love him. That’s my baby.”
“You can both share and love him,” Nash said.
“Tay!” Silas grabbed Emma’s hand. “Me share.”
“All right.” Emma sighed.
“Guess we’d better go fix a fence,” Kasey said. “So back in the truck, kids.”
“You any good at stretchin’ fence? We need to mend the corral before any more get out?” Nash asked.
“Are you kiddin’? I had to do everything on the ranch to show my brothers I was as good as they were.” She started toward the front of the barn.
“No! Me baby.” Silas slipped under the bottom rung of the stall and wrapped both arms around the lamb. The ewe’s tongue slurped across his face and he giggled.
A shiver of disgust shot down Kasey’s spine. Nash chuckled, opened the gate, and picked up Silas. “We need to go fix a fence so that no more babies will get out. Rustin will be home soon. You can bring him out here to see the new member of the flock.”
“Rusty see me baby.” Silas wiped at the slobbers on his face.
“You really are good with kids,” Kasey said on the way back to the truck.
“Got lots and lots of little cousins.”
“It shows,” Kasey said.
He’d make a fine father—no, that wasn’t right. He would make an amazing daddy. There wasn’t anything wrong with a father, but a daddy was so much more.
Chapter Thirteen
Rustin didn’t run from the bus to the house that afternoon like he normally did. He dropped down on his knees to pet all three dogs and then kicked a few rocks on the way to the porch. Kasey watched from the living room window as he finally squared his shoulders and marched toward the house, determination written in his expression.
“Me, baby sheeps.” Silas met him inside the foyer and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the kitchen.
“No, you’re a little boy,” Rustin told him. “Talk big like Emma.”
Silas dropped his hand and glared at him. “Baby sheeps!”
“There’s a new baby lamb in the barn. We found it and then we fixed the fence,” Emma translated.
“No fair. I had to go to school.” Rustin pouted. “Mama, why didn’t y’all save that job until Saturday when I got home?”
Kasey crooked her finger at him. “I think we need to talk, don’t you? And it’s not about fairness.”
He shut his eyes and inhaled all the way to his boots. “Can I take my coat off first?”
“Might be a good idea,” Kasey told him.
She and Nash were sitting on either end of the sofa a few minutes later when he came into the room and stood in front of them. She waited a full minute before she finally asked if he had anything he’d like to say.
“I’m not sorry that I hit Trey. I am sorry that Kyce and Zayne got in trouble. I didn’t need them to help me, Mama. I coulda whooped him all by myself.”
“Anything else?”
“I’ll take my punishin’ for what I did, but I ain’t goin’ to say sorry to Trey, not even if I have to stay in my room for a hundred years.”
“Are you going to remember that there is a chain of authority and go to your teacher or Miss Dillard the next time Trey is mean to you?” Nash asked.
Rustin took another deep breath and shook his head. “I ain’t a tattletale. And Trey won’t be mean to me no more.”
“How do you know that?”
“His mama brought him a nasty sandwich that didn’t even have meat in it. Miss Dillard brought us a tray from the cafeteria. We had chicken nuggets and French fries and chocolate cake. We threw his dinner in the trash and us other boys shared with him. And did you know she makes him eat pills even when he’s not sick. We threw them away, too.”
Nash chuckled and Kasey poked him in the ribs. “So y’all are going to be friends with him, then?”
“We got to or that boy is goin’ to starve. I bet Hero wouldn’t even eat that sandwich with all that green stuff in it,” Rustin answered.
“What about that fit he threw when we were leavin’?”
“Well.” Rustin sighed. “We had us a talk with him and he won’t act like that no more.”
“Oh?” Kasey bit back a smile.
“Yep, Zayne told him that if he acted like that, all the boys in the school would call him a big sissy, so he shut up. And I told him he wasn’t goin’ to talk about my mama like that or he’d take a whoopin’ every day.”
Nash patted the sofa between him and Kasey. “Come on over here and sit down. Did Trey get mad when you told him that?”
Rustin shrugged. “Nope, he said sorry.”
Kasey slipped her arm around Rustin and hugged him. “Well, it looks to me like you boys took care of things like grown-up men, but tattletale or not, you have to let Miss Dillard know if there’s another problem so that other kids won’t get bullied.”
“Does that mean I can’t ’fend myself?” Rustin asked.
“It means that you should never start a fight but that you never run from one,” Nash said.
“Mama?” Rustin looked up at her.
“That’s right. If you start one, you’re the bully. If you run from one, then the bullies will never leave you alone. But it’s best to go tell Miss Dillard when someone is mean to you,” she answered.
“I’ll try.” Rustin sighed again. “Can we go see the new baby sheep, now?” Rustin asked.
“Yes, but Silas says it’s his lamb, so don’t argue with him,” Kasey said.
“How come he gets…” Rustin stopped midsentence. “Yes, ma’am.”
Kasey gave him another quick hug. Growing up wasn’t a bit easier than moving forward. Both of them had lessons to learn and there was no guarantee that they’d be easy.
Chapter Fourteen
Nash arose early on Thursday morning. It had been one of those restless nights when he dreamed of Kasey and Rustin. They were in trouble and he tried to run toward them, but in the dream he couldn’t move fast. He finally gave up trying to go back to sleep at four thirty since he’d already proven that the dream would start again from the beginning and he’d awake in a cold sweat with fear making his heart thump.
He was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in his hands, waiting for daylight so he could go do chores and check on the new lamb in the barn, when Kasey arrived. One look at her blitzed eyes, and he knew that she wasn’t well.
“Headache. Really bad one. Call Lila for me,” she said.
“Why?”
“She needs to come get the kids.” Kasey made her way to the cabinet and downed a couple of pills with a glass of water.
“I can take care of the children and get Rustin on the school bus. Go back to bed and call me if I can do anything to help,” he said.
“Thank you,” she mumbled.
“Go rest in my bed. You might fall going back up the stairs,” he said.
“Okay.” She put a hand over her eyes.
He quickly got up and threw an arm around her shoulders. “Lights hurt, don’t they? I’ll get you into bed and you can use my extra pillow to put over your eyes.”
“Thanks again,” she mumbled.
He picked her up and carried her to his bed, laid her down gently, and pulled the covers up over her. She grabbed the extra pillow and covered her eyes as he pulled the window blinds shut. “Don’t worry about a thing. Sleep it off.”
“All I can do,” she whispered.
He’d just sat down at the table when his phone pinged and a quick check let him know it was his grandmother—you up yet?
Instead of sending a text back, he called her back.
“Good mornin’,” she said c
heerfully. “I couldn’t sleep last night so I’m on my second cup of hot chocolate, and I’ve finished off a plate of beignets. What are you doin’ up so early?”
“Nightmares, but I’m glad I’m up because Kasey has a migraine and I need to help with the kids.”
“Poor chère. I had those things when I was younger and they are horrible. You take good care of her.”
“I will. Everything going okay with you?”
“You know, it’s the strangest thing, but Uncle Henry called me right out of the blue. Don’t hear from him for twelve years and then he calls. Crazy, ain’t it? I told him that you were on the ranch in Happy and he said that he liked that idea.”
“Wow, that is crazy. Where is he? What’s he doing?”
“He’s off somewhere down in Florida and he owns an ice cream truck. Ain’t that a hoot?”
“Did he say why he left?” Nash asked.
“Just said that he couldn’t stand to live there no longer and there wasn’t a reason to make him stay after our parents were both gone.”
“Guess if he’s happy that’s all that matters,” Nash said.
“He asked all about the Dawsons and the Dalleys and I told him what I knew about the folks in Happy. Asked him when he was comin’ for a visit and he said he might surprise us someday. I’ll believe it when I see it.” Adelaide laughed. “Did you know that he and Hope had a bit of a thing back in the day?”
“For real? Kasey never mentioned it.”
“Maybe she didn’t know. It was a long time ago. He asked her to marry him and go with him when he went into the military, but she wouldn’t leave that ranch of hers. I doubt Hope has talked about it very much to her Valerie. Now tell me about Kasey. Do you like her?”
“I like her entirely too much. You’re the only one who knows the whole story. Please give me some advice.” He fidgeted with the mug of coffee, turning it around on the table several times.
“Follow your heart. That’s the best advice I can give anyone.”
“I’d like to do that, but…” He hesitated.
“But you’re afraid when you tell her about Adam that she’ll break your heart, right?”
“Something like that. I can’t live with myself if I don’t tell her and yet, I know it’s going to change things.”
He could shut his eyes and see his grandmother sitting in her favorite rocking chair. The house would smell like chocolate and beignets. Suddenly, he craved a plate of those little sweet Cajun doughnuts.
“Life is one big change after another, but I’m glad you moved to Happy. There’s a difference in you.”
He checked the time—still a while before he should wake Rustin. “And that is?
“You’re comin’ out of that dark cave you’ve lived in for two years. I can hear it in your voice. The ranch and Kasey are both good for you.”
“I feel so guilty, Addy. When Adam talked about his family, I wanted what he had.”
“Don’t punish yourself. You’ve been ready to settle down and have a family for a long time. It wasn’t his family you wanted but your own. Fate has brought you two together so y’all can help each other to move on. Maybe with each other, maybe with someone else, but Adam needs to be put to rest and only you two can do that,” she said. “Now tell me about Rustin’s fight at school.”
“Gossip travels faster than sound.” He chuckled.
“Oh, yes, it does, and I want to hear the whole story.”
He should have felt better when he hung up after laughing with his grandmother over Rustin’s incident, but the weight on Nash’s heart was heavier than ever.
* * *
Kasey awoke at noon to the sound of kids’ giggles and Nash’s deep voice telling them to keep it down a little, that their mama wasn’t feeling too good. She eased one eye open to find that the headache was functional. That meant there was still pain, but her vision wasn’t blurred and she could bear the light. She rolled over and got a whiff of the remnants of Nash’s shaving lotion on his pillow. She pulled it to her body and hugged it tightly.
“God, I miss sleeping with a man and wakin’ up to his scent on the pillows,” she mumbled.
Things got quiet out there beyond the dark bedroom, and she slung her legs over the side of the bed. Padding out of the room in her flannel pajama pants and an oversize faded shirt, she found Nash washing dishes and no kids in sight.
“Shhh…” He put a finger over his lips. “They just now dropped off for naps. If they hear your voice, they’ll wake up.”
She frowned and pointed toward the dining room. “What is that?”
“Camping out,” he explained.
A white sheet had been draped over the dining room table, creating a tent. Underneath were pillows, books, and two sleeping children.
“They are camping and I’m watching out for bears and skunks,” he explained. “Hungry?”
“Starving. I’m always nauseated at the onset of one of the headaches and afterward so hungry I could eat one of those bears if you catch it.” She caught a whiff of Italian food. “You cooked?”
“Of course,” he said. “Sit down right here and let me work on your neck. Lots of headaches are stress related and come out of the neck.”
She eased down into a chair and Nash went to work on her temples first, placing his hands on her cheeks so that his thumbs worked on the spots between her eyebrows and hairline. Making lazy circles and increasing the pressure every few seconds, he kept up the massage for a good five minutes before moving around to the back of the chair. He took her neck in his hands, heating her hormones to the boiling point. Rolling it around in his hands, she could feel the tension leaving her body by degrees. Then he began to massage her shoulders, digging his fingers into the knots and dissolving them. The pain in her head dissolved to half strength and her stomach grumbled.
“Now for food. Spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad. Tea or beer?”
“Tea, please,” she said.
“Sit right there and I will bring it to the table.”
The last time a man had waited on her was on her honeymoon when Adam brought in the tray from room service. At the time, she’d thought it was the most romantic thing ever.
It wasn’t right to compare two very different men, especially when one of them was dead, but when she took a bite of Nash’s spaghetti, she decided that a massage and his food were better than the room service on her honeymoon.
“God, this is amazing. Did you make the sauce from scratch?”
He nodded. “Just like my cousin Amanda taught me. She married an Italian, and she’s an amazing cook. After eating her marinara, that stuff you buy in a jar at the grocery store is pretty bland.”
“What else can you cook?”
“I do a mean shrimp boil and make a gourmet bologna sandwich. That’s the extent of my cooking, though,” he said.
“You cook and watch kids, run a ranch—what can you not do?” Kasey asked.
“I’m not real good at talkin’ to most people. I keep things inside and I don’t share things,” he said.
“That’s not what I see.” She almost groaned when she bit into a slab of garlic bread.
“Oh yeah? And what do you see?”
“I see a man who’s got some demons, but he’s very able to communicate,” she told him between bites.
And I see a cowboy who is sexy, charming, and kind, she thought. One who makes me feel like a queen every time he looks at me.
He sat down at the table with her. “I didn’t used to be this way, Kasey. In the military I was a go-getter, made rank so fast it amazed my superiors. Then everything happened and it fell apart. I didn’t want to be around people and I’m still not completely over it. I’m comfortable with you, but with others I answer questions and nod and smile. Your brother Jace wanted to talk last Sunday, but I clammed up, and I really have problems around Adam’s parents.”
“Why with me?”
He shrugged. “It’s complicated. Someday I’ll try to put it into words, but
right now you need to eat and get rid of that headache. If you’re okay, I’m going to the barn. Rustin will be home pretty soon.”
“I’m much better now. Thank you so much for today.”
He grabbed a coat and disappeared out the back door.
So someday he would tell her why she didn’t make him uncomfortable. What would the story be when it became uncomplicated?
* * *
On Friday Kasey awoke with a clear head and had breakfast ready when Nash and Rustin arrived in the kitchen at the same time, both rubbing their eyes, and with that dark hair, even looking a little alike.
“I don’t want to go to school today,” Rustin said. “I need to stay home and help Nash take care of this place. It’s goin’ to really snow.”
“Tomorrow you can stay home, I promise,” Kasey said.
“For real?” Rustin’s blue eyes sparkled.
Kasey made a sign over her chest. “Cross my heart.”
Nash shot a sly wink her way. Tomorrow was Saturday and there would be no school.
“Okay, then, I need a stack of pancakes and some bacon, chère,” Rustin said. “And maybe a tall glass of milk to get me through the day.”
Nash chuckled and she narrowed her eyes at him.
He threw up his hands dramatically. “What’d I do?”
“He’s startin’ to sound like you with that southern accent.” She pulled down a bowl to stir up some pancakes. “Blueberry, chocolate chip, or plain?”
“Blueberry,” Rustin answered.
“Sounds right fine to me, chère,” Nash teased.
Kasey hoped Nash would hang around and talk when Rustin left to get on the school bus, but he said he had to go take care of something he was doing out in the barn.
“See you at noon then,” she said.
She’d learned a long time ago from Adam that a man had to choose his time to talk. Forcing the issue only caused them to clam up even more. She stood in the kitchen window and watched Nash all the way to the barn. She could barely see him through the big open doors but she could tell that he’d hoisted up a bag of feed on each shoulder.
Long, Tall Cowboy Christmas Page 18
