Because everything she’d said, about needing space to figure out who she was and what she wanted, was true. She didn’t dare let herself get sucked into another relationship. Certainly not anytime soon. And especially not with someone who sent those Spidey senses off the charts, man. But the way he looked at her...
“What time’s school start?” Emily said, carrying her empty mug to the sink, as if she could walk away from all the stuff going on inside her head. Stuff that could oh-so-easily lead to wrapping the man up in her arms and...
Yeah. And.
Such an innocent little word, so rife with the potential for disaster.
Emily rinsed out the mug, thinking it wouldn’t hurt to give the kitchen another once-over. Not to mention get on her cousin’s case about finally letting a cleaning service come in every once in a while. Especially now that the gallery was about to open for real.
“Nine,” Dee said behind her. “And take my car, since the booster seat’s already in it. I can go into town later.”
Emily turned, glaring at her cousin as she swiped a towel inside the mug. “After you’ve had a nap.”
Dee’s mouth twisted. “Yes, Mother.”
“You ready, munchkin?” she said to Austin, who gave a vigorous nod and more or less fell out of his chair, rolling his eyes when Dee reminded him to go pee before he got in the car. A moment later, he roared to the back door, emitting something like a battle cry. Although you could barely hear it over the baby’s screams.
The volume stayed full blast as they wended through sun-drenched ranchland and peaceful forest on their way to town, Austin singing gustily behind her. The weird thing was, even though she’d been an only child in a house that redefined hushed, the noise and general craziness of her cousin’s house didn’t bother her. Because at least that was real.
Children of all ages swarmed the entrance to the small brick school building, predominantely black-haired heads gleaming in the sun, the local population being more Native or Hispanic than gringo. Austin’s teacher, too, wore a long, dark braid that trailed between her widely set shoulder blades, her wrists and fingers adorned with turquoise-and-silver jewelry Emily was guessing had been in her family for a while.
“This is Emily!” Austin announced, his little chest puffed out, which in turn sparked something lovely and warm inside Emily’s.
“Deanna’s cousin,” she said, shaking the teacher’s hand. The young woman’s smile was almost blindingly bright against skin not dissimilar in tone to the reddish-brown tones so prevalent in the landscape...as befitted the Natives’ spiritual ties to Mother Earth.
“Susana Ortiz,” she said, smiling, then cupped Austin’s curls. “Go on inside, cutie. Have a seat in the reading circle.”
Glancing inside the classroom, chock full of little kids, Emily frowned. “I thought Dee said there were only ten kids in his class.”
Susana sighed. “Normally, yes. But our pregnant kindergarten teacher is now on bed rest until she delivers. So we’re down one until we get a sub. Which isn’t that easy out here in the sticks, as I’m sure you can imagine. I hope we find someone soon, though. Twenty-five little kids is a lot to handle, even with a teacher’s aide. At least, to handle well. Give them the individual attention they deserve. And need, especially when they’re on such different tracks. At least it’s only for a few weeks, until school lets out. I only hope they find someone for next year while she’s on maternity leave... What?”
Emily had had no idea what seeing all those little kids together would do to her head, not to mention her heart. But surely she couldn’t...
Could she?
And what’s stopping you, missy?
She met the teacher’s curious gaze again. “I’m accredited in Maryland and Virginia, to teach kindergarten and early childhood. I’d be happy to help out, if you need it—”
“Are you kidding?” Susana’s dark eyes glittered. “If you’re already certified... We’d have to rush through a background check, but...oh, my goodness. Are you sure? I mean, that would be such a blessing, I can’t tell you!”
“Then whatever you need, I’m good.” Emily looked back into the classroom, where Susana’s assistant was doing a passable job of corralling enough energy to light up a small city.
A small girl-person attached herself to her teacher, tugging her back into the classroom. “Stop by the office,” Susana said before the horde swallowed her up, “talk to the principal. We’ll take it from there...”
Forty-five minutes later, Emily rushed back inside her cousin’s house, apologizing profusely before she’d even found Dee calmly nursing little Katie in a pool of sunshine in the great room.
“It’s okay,” the brunette whispered, smiling down at her daughter, then back at Emily. “She calmed down right after you left, and it’s been totally copacetic since. We both even passed out for a while. So what’s going on?”
Emily had texted her, of course, to tell her she’d be a little late, so she wouldn’t worry. But she hadn’t said why, hadn’t wanted to until she knew it was a done deal. Now she sat on the chair across from Dee, her heart pounding a mile a minute as Smoky jumped up on her lap, mwwrowing for attention.
“I think I just talked my way into a job,” she said, laughing, and her cousin’s eyes went wide as dinner plates.
Chapter Eight
The midday sun beating down on his shoulders and uncovered head, Colin snapped photo after photo of his soon-to-be sister-in-law seated in her special saddle as she calmly instructed the young boy on the palomino a few feet away on the other side of the corral fence. Even though he couldn’t use the pics without the boy’s parents’ permission, it felt good, getting back into the swing of things. Shoot, before this morning he hadn’t even taken any landscape shots, and that was a crying shame.
But something—maybe seeing the artwork up in Deanna’s gallery the day before, maybe simply being here—had prodded his muse awake at the crack of dawn to catch the sunrise drenching the mountains in shades of violet and rose, gilding the pastures and barns, even the horses his brother had already let out to graze. He wouldn’t publish those, either—hell, everybody and his cousin took sunrise pictures, for God’s sake—but he hadn’t realized until today exactly how much he’d missed this crucial part of who he was.
Off in another paddock, Josh worked a young horse, training him to cut cattle from a small, young herd here on a short-term arrangement for that very purpose. The place was definitely quieter now than when he’d been a kid, on those early mornings when cutting calves from their mamas for branding and deworming had resulted in a whole lot of mournful lowing, human as well as bovine. Add to that a bunch of cowboys yelling and dogs barking, the whoops of victory when a particularly ornery calf finally cooperated...the enormous breakfasts his mother and Gus, the Vista’s old housekeeper, had provided when the morning’s work was done...
Colin lowered the camera, his forehead puckered. No, maybe he’d wanted more than that life. But thinking back on it now, even the parts he’d been so sure he hated hadn’t been all bad, had they? In fact, watching Josh working that horse, the animal’s beauty and grace and intelligence as it darted and danced in the dust at his rider’s cues, cutting calf after calf from the fidgety clot on one side of the corral, brought to mind a whole lot of pleasant memories.
As did watching Mallory calmly encouraging the boy on the sweet, patient horse—
Footsteps in the dirt behind him made him turn, his heart knocking as he watched Emily striding toward him, looking far more like a country gal in her jeans and sleeveless shirt than she had any right to. Especially with her hair pulled off her face into a single braid trailing down her back. She was even wearing cowboy boots. Deanna’s, he was guessing, by how beat-up they were.
Wordlessly, she came up beside him, her hands shoved in the back pockets of a pair of jeans that migh
t as well have been painted on her. He’d seen her pull up to the main house in Dee’s truck a little bit ago, had wondered where she’d gone. Now he noticed she was practically crackling with energy, wearing a grin that was doing very bad things to his head. Among other things.
“Whatcha doing?”
He held up the camera. “Getting back in the groove. You?”
“Actually...” The grin flashed again. “I might have a job.”
A weird little ping went off in his midsection. “A job? Here?”
“Yes, here. Although it’s not definite yet.” She tilted her head, probably in response to his horrified expression. “Is this a problem?”
Colin turned away. “No, of course not.” He took another shot. “Doing what?”
“Herding small children, aka teaching. They’re short a teacher at Austin’s school, so I might fill in for the rest of the year. If I pass the background check, that is.”
“Any reason why you wouldn’t?”
Her laugh brought his gaze back to hers. “I might’ve thought nefarious things about my ex, but since I didn’t carry any of them out...” She shrugged. “I think I’m good.” Damn. She was positively glowing, no other word for it. “But seriously, it’s as if an angel dropped the perfect thing right into my lap, you know? And right here in itty-bitty Whispering Pines. Crazy.”
“Although it’s temporary, you said?”
“Well, there’s a possibility of it becoming full-time next year, but... I don’t know. I can’t really think that far into the future at this point. For now, though, it’s perfect. Because kids,” she said, releasing a blissful sigh. “Since getting to teach is the next best thing to being a mama myself one day. Although...” She made a face. “Heaven knows when that might happen. I suppose I could adopt as a single mom, though. Right? Which might be a more viable alternative than waiting for the—” she made air quotes “—right guy to come along. For me, anyway. Since my judgment clearly sucks.”
Colin fiddled with the aperture on the lens to get another shot of the kid. In other words, her life was every bit as unsettled as his. If not more. At least he had something to go back to, something he was good at, that defined him. Clearly Emily didn’t have a clue. Nor should she right now, not after what she’d just been through.
“And maybe you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.”
She shrugged again, unconcerned. “At least it’s an excuse to pig out on junk food, so there’s that. Although since I’m like a brownie away from not being able to button my jeans anymore, that particular indulgence is about to come to a screeching halt.”
He had to smile. “You think your folks will be okay with this new development?”
“Since it’s my life, what can they say? God, it’s a gorgeous day,” she said, twisting around to rest her elbows on the fence’s top rail, lifting her makeup-free face to the sun. The way the light angled across her nose, her lips...he itched to take her photo so badly he practically hummed with it, but he had no idea how to do that without coming across as weird. Or lame. Or both.
“Hope you’re wearing sunscreen,” he said, looking away.
That got another throaty laugh before she heaved herself up onto the top rail, hooking the heels of her boots on top of the one below. “Not my first time out here, remember? I know all about the high altitude.” Her hands clamped on to the rail on either side of her hips, she twisted to watch Mallory with the boy. “You know about the kid?”
“Not really, no.”
“He’s the son of some friends of Mallory’s from back in LA. They’re staying up at the resort, ran into her and Zach in town. Josh said the kid’s got some sort of developmental issues, although he’s not sure what they are. But Mallory apparently told them about her facility—with the idea that when she was fully up and running, they might consider sending the boy there. Only they immediately asked if she’d work with him a little while they were here. And being Mallory, she said yes. That’s her son’s horse,” she said, nodding toward the beautiful animal, his coat glistening in the sun. Then she humphed a short laugh. “Waffles.”
“Pardon?”
“The horse’s name. Waffles.”
Colin smiled. “There were some crazy names when I was a kid, too. For years, I rode one named Ebenezer.”
“As in Scrooge?”
“Yep. Have no idea who named him that. Or why. I took to calling him Jack, though. He didn’t seem to care.”
Emily crossed her arms. Wobbled. Colin instinctively clamped a hand on her thigh to steady her, heat shooting through him when she covered his hand with hers, her other one grabbing the edge of the fence rail again.
“Got it, thanks, I’m good,” she said, and he removed his hand. Could still feel her, though. As in, his palm downright tingled. Among other things. “Was he your buddy?”
“He was. And not only mine. Every so often Deanna’s folks would invite groups of kids from as far away as Albuquerque to come to the ranch, to ride and learn how to work cattle, stuff like that.” He felt another smile push at his mouth. “Jack was such a ham bone, I swear. He totally ate up the attention. And some of that attention was pretty intense, believe me. There were other kids, though...” A huge breath left his lungs as the memories came roaring back. “A lot of the kids came from not-so-great situations. Some were foster kids, removed from their homes because they’d been neglected. Or worse. Those kids...”
He met Emily’s gaze again, his heart fisting at the look in her eyes. “The resentment, the fear and anger, just poured off ’em. Some wouldn’t even talk. But Jack was so patient with them, like he knew they needed him to be more than a horse. And the kids...they knew Jack wouldn’t judge them, or ask questions they couldn’t answer, or even expect them to say anything. And by the end of those days, you’d be surprised how many of ’em...” He shook his head, then looked back out toward Mallory and the boy. “I’d like to think by the time they left, they felt a little better about life than they had when they got here.”
“I’m sure,” Emily said softly, and for a good two or three seconds his face warmed under her intense scrutiny. Then she glanced away. “Sounds like Jack was a good listener.”
“He was. Especially for me, back when I needed to figure out a few things, too.”
“Hmm.” Emily was quiet for another several seconds before she said, “The other day when Mallory was here for lunch, she said something about how she could have never imagined five years ago—when the doctors told her she’d probably never walk again—how any good could have possibly come out of that. And yet her accident set off a series of events which led her back here, where she met Zach, who got her riding again when she’d convinced herself that would never happen. And now she’s starting up this facility that maybe will help other people see beyond what the world sees as limitations.”
Colin felt the muscles alongside his spine tense. “And your point is?”
“How differently people see things, I suppose. Places.” Her forehead pinched. “How Mallory saw promise and potential and new beginnings in this little corner of the world after seemingly losing everything—her career, her first marriage. And I guess it’s sort of the same for me, although heaven knows what I’ve been through doesn’t even begin to compare with her experience. Even so, I look at all of this—” she waved one arm out to the sky “—and I feel freer than I can ever remember. Like the possibilities are as endless as the sky. And yet you...”
She lowered her arm to clutch the top of the rail again. “You don’t see it that way at all, do you?”
And damned if her question didn’t arrow straight to the very knot he was trying to unravel. “Life here felt very...small.” He hmmphed a short, dry laugh. “Which I suppose proves your point. That where you see all this endless possibility, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”
“Almost exactly what Dee
said, when she came to live with us after Aunt Kathryn died. Huh.”
“What?”
“I wonder...if it’s not so much the where, or even the what, but more of a need to break away from what we know, what we’re used to. That some people simply need different in order to... I don’t know. Feel complete, maybe? As though they’ve explored all the possibilities. Others—like Zach and Josh, your dad—don’t. It’s all about finding our own place in the world, isn’t it? Our purpose.”
“Have you always been this philosophical?”
Her laugh warmed him. “Not hardly. Kinda hard to see the bigger picture when you’re busy trying to keep the smaller one neatly framed. But it’s true, isn’t it? How we go along, assuming we’re on the right path, doing what we’re supposed to be doing, and then something happens that forces us to rethink everything we thought was real...” Another laugh burped from her chest. “I’m sorry, the thinner air is clearly wreaking havoc with my head. Feel free to ignore my ramblings. So...” She lowered herself to the ground again, dusting off her butt. “I guess next up is your brother’s wedding?”
What she’d said about the air and her head? True. “Guess so.”
For one crazy moment, he considered asking her to go with him. Because clearly she wasn’t the only one dealing with the effects of the high altitude.
Except it was more than that, wasn’t it? Because Emily Weber made him feel good. Made him feel, period. Not to mention, she listened. Got him, even, he thought. Hell, it was almost like being around old Jack again. Well, except for the fact he’d never been attracted to his horse.
And if he had a lick of sense he’d squelch his attraction to the woman standing beside him now. Just...swallow it down, bat it away, pretend he wasn’t feeling what he was feeling.
Falling for the Rebound Bride Page 12
