Snowfall in Cold Creek, page 6
He didn’t even want to think what insight someone could get into his brain that the first woman to really intrigue him in a long time was the one woman who apparently wanted nothing to do with him.
Was she right, that it was all about the challenge to him?
Maybe.
But what was life without a little challenge?
* * *
Jennifer Boyer was a tough nut to crack, Seth thought two weeks later outside the Cold Creek horse barn.
He’d seen her a handful of times since that first evening when he dropped Cole off. Though he’d been tempted to pour on the charm, he decided on a more low-key approach. She told him she wasn’t interested in a flirtation and he had a strong feeling she would automatically reject any blatant overtures so instead he had tried to be warm and friendly, carefully suppressing any sign of his increasing attraction.
Whatever he was doing wasn’t working. She wasn’t interested. Worse, she seemed more distant each time they met than she had the time before. She responded politely enough, all the while looking at him out of those green eyes that he discovered could turn to ice chips in an instant.
He should have given it up for a lost cause a week ago, but the more she pushed him away, the harder he tried to find a foothold. He was determined to change her mind about him, but after two weeks he was beginning to fear it was a lost cause.
The only chink in her hard shell appeared to be Lucy, he had discovered. The stiff, distant principal seemed to melt around his puppy. Her whole demeanor relaxed and her face lit up in a smile that took his breath away.
Though it was no doubt ruthless of him, he had to admit, he flaunted his single advantage without scruple.
He wasn’t a stupid man—he always made sure Lucy was awake and nearby, looking her adorable self, whenever he knew Jenny was due to arrive at the ranch with Cole.
If nothing else, Lucy served the purpose of keeping his quarry around a little longer, when he was sure she would otherwise have rushed off in a second. She always seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere, unless the puppy happened to be around.
He watched her and Morgan now tossing a ball for Lucy. The late-autumn sunlight glinted off that magnificent hair and she looked fresh and soft and beautiful.
He wanted her with a heat that continued to baffle him.
Morgan was the one throwing the ball, so by rights Lucy should have been returning it to her. But she couldn’t seem to get the message and kept dropping it at Jennifer’s feet, to the amusement of all of them.
“You silly girl. What are we going to do with you?” Jenny said after several repeats of the neat little trick he would have taught the puppy, if only he’d thought of it. She picked Lucy up and brushed noses with her and it was all he could do hide the naked longing he knew must be obvious on his face.
He turned his attention to Morgan instead. “You’re really great with her. You ought to think about being a vet.”
Morgan beamed at him with none of her mother’s reserve. “That’s just what I told my teacher I want to be! I wrote a paper about it in school. Me and Natalie both want to be veterinarians.”
This was new. Last he heard, his niece wanted to be a rodeo queen, but then he figured Nat would probably change her mind a hundred more times before she even reached middle school.
He tugged at one of her ponytails. “Tell you what. The next time the vet is scheduled to come out to look at my horses for some reason on a weekend or holiday, I’ll give you a call and you and Natalie can tag along and watch him. If it’s all right with your mom, of course.”
Morgan’s face lit up, making him feel about a dozen feet tall. Now if only he could get her mother to look at him the same way...
“Oh, please, Mom!” she begged. “It would be so awesome to watch a vet work with real horses. We wouldn’t get in the way, I swear.”
Jenny didn’t look thrilled to be put on the spot. “We’ll have to see,” she murmured in that cool, noncommittal tone every parent seemed to have perfected.
In his limited experience, a “We’ll see” was just the same as a “No” but Morgan didn’t seem to see it the same way. She looked ecstatic at the possibility. He wanted to tell her most of the time the vets just came out to give shots, not do anything exciting or dramatic, but he didn’t want to spoil it for her.
The girl threw the ball for the puppy one more time just as Cole came out of the garage.
“Finished putting the tools away?” Seth asked.
The boy nodded. “You know, I bet she’s looking better now than she ever has, even when she was new.”
Seth laughed. “You might be right. I can’t imagine the folks in Detroit took as much care building her as we’ve spent restoring her.”
Cole grinned and held up his bandaged index finger, the result of a minor accident with a rough piece of metal. “And we’ve got the war wounds to prove it.”
If Seth hadn’t been watching Jenny, he might have missed the raw emotion on her face when she looked at her son.
“How’s the work on the car coming?” she asked. Seth opened his mouth to answer but saw her gaze was still trained on her son so he waited for the boy to answer.
“Okay,” Cole said. Though he spoke only a single word, his tone wasn’t at all his usual surly one.
“Better than okay,” Seth corrected. “We’ve got the minor dings smoothed out and we’re waiting for a new headlamp we had to order from a specialty shop back East. Cole here is kicking butt on smoothing out the scrape on the side.”
The boy looked pleased. “It’s nothing. I’m only doing what you tell me to do.”
“That’s just what you’re supposed to be doing,” he growled. “Now if only I can keep you from throwing in those crappy CDs you call music, we’ll get along fine.”
“Just because you drive an old car doesn’t mean you have to listen to the same music my grandpa does.”
“It’s blues and classic rock. And good for your grandpa, if he listens to CCR and Bob Seger. Maybe between the two of us, we can teach you to appreciate fine music.”
Cole made a gagging sound that sent his sister into the giggles. Seth had to admit, for all his belligerence at first, the kid had warmed to him far easier than his mother had.
Cole Boyer loved cars. No question about it. Every time he walked into the garage to work on the GTO, he became a different kid. It was a physical and emotional change that Seth found fascinating to watch. He lifted his shoulders and stopped the perpetual slouch, he made eye contact more, he climbed out of his attitude and talked and chattered as much as Seth’s nephew Tanner.
He glowed while he was working on the GTO and it was one more vivid reminder to Seth of himself. It didn’t matter how small he’d been until he was fifteen, that he was wheezy and raspy and weak. Behind the wheel of a hot car, everything was relative.
Cole even seemed to respond to the horses. Every time he came to the ranch, Seth saddled a horse for him to ride a little. At first he hadn’t been very enthusiastic about it, but as he gained more confidence in the saddle, that seemed to be changing.
Today Cole had even spurred his horse to a slight lope around the arena and had looked as thrilled by it as a bronc rider the first time he hit eight seconds on the timer.
He had to admit, he liked the kid. He was smart and worked hard. Though he still adopted his tough-guy attitude from time to time, when he relaxed his guard enough to let it slip, he was funny and bright and full of interesting observations about the world around him.
His favorite days of the week were those when Cole came out and helped him around the place—and only part of that had to do with knowing he would probably see Jenny, since she usually drove out to the Cold Creek to pick him up.
“When we have her back to her full glory, we’ll all have to take a celebratory drive somewhere,” Seth said. “Maybe we can run over to Idaho Falls for dinner or something.”
“Can we take Lucy?” Morgan asked.
“If she learns to behave herself and doesn’t pee on my floor mats.”
Morgan giggled. “She is so cute. I wish we could take her home.”
“You should see her with her brother,” Seth said. “The two of them are quite a pair.”
“Is he bossy, too?” Morgan asked him, with a pointed look at her own brother.
“I think she’s the bossy one, but it’s hard to tell. They wrestle and play and get into all kinds of mischief when they’re together.”
“I bet they’re funny,” Morgan said.
“Come on, kids,” Jenny finally broke in. “I have another school board meeting tonight and I don’t want to dump all the chores and homework on Grandpa to supervise.”
“Can I throw one more time?” Morgan asked. “I know she’ll bring it back to me this time.”
An idea sparked in his head as he watched the girl with the puppy—who finally seemed to get it right and dropped the ball at her feet instead of Jenny’s.
He discarded it at first as completely out of the question, but it seemed to rattle around in his head as Cole and Morgan were climbing into her little SUV. He didn’t want her to feel backed into a corner so he waited until they were settled inside the car, out of earshot, before he spoke.
“Do you have plans tomorrow?”
She looked at him warily. “Why?”
“I know it’s still a week before Thanksgiving but my family is getting together tomorrow to go up on some land we’ve got up in the mountains to cut Christmas trees. We try to do it a little early before the real heavy snows hit. Why don’t you all come along? My mother and brothers will be here. I’m sure Mom will bring Linus so Morgan can have the chance to play with both of the puppies.”
She blinked, clearly not expecting that kind of invitation from him.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he pressed, warming to the idea more and more. “We usually take sleds up and make a big party out of it. The kids would have a great time.”
She pursed her lips. “I don’t think so. It sounds like a family outing. I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“You wouldn’t be, I swear. Wade has already invited our vet and his family along and there’s always room for a few more. I was up there on our land a month or so ago during round-up and tagged more than a dozen little spruces that would be perfect for Christmas trees. You only have to pick out your favorite and there are plenty to go around. You won’t find fresher trees anywhere.”
She looked tempted as she gazed up at the mountains. Her eyes softened and her expression turned wistful. What would he have to do to have her turn that kind of expression in his direction?
Right then he would have crawled up that mountain on his knees and ripped a tree out with his bare hands if it would make her look at him with those soft green eyes.
“Just think what a great holiday memory that would be for your kids,” he pushed, wondering when he’d become so ruthless.
* * *
Jenny let out a breath at his words. Blast him. Seth Dalton could sell sunshine in the desert. She had been right about him that day at her father’s house. The man knew just the right buttons to push, somehow instinctively finding exactly a woman’s weakness and using it against her. How could he possibly know that she dreamed of creating the perfect holiday for her children?
She had such hopes for this year, wishing she could make up for the awful holidays past. The last few had been anything but pleasant as both children had been angry and upset after their father had broken yet more promises to visit.
Even before he’d left for Europe and completely abdicated his responsibility to his family, she’d been on her own most holidays. Richard often chose to work extra shifts during the holidays and Cole and Morgan saw him only sporadically.
Like Chevy Chase in Cole’s favorite Christmas movie, she had dreamed about making this year perfect. They were in a new home, with a clean, blank slate for creating family traditions. And wouldn’t riding into the mountains for their own tree be a perfect start?
Oh, she was tempted by his offer. Her mind was already conjuring up some Currier & Ives images of sleigh rides and hot cocoa and jingle bells on stamping, snorting horses.
But this particular offer came with some serious strings—attached, unfortunately, to a man she was finding extremely difficult to withstand.
She could feel her resistance to him slipping away every time she was with him and she knew she couldn’t just surrender it without a fight. She couldn’t afford to fall for a handsome charmer, not now when things were finally starting to go right.
“I don’t think so.” She put on her most brisk tone, the one she used with recalcitrant students throwing food in the lunch room. “Thank you for the offer, but we couldn’t possibly intrude on a family event.”
For a long moment he studied her, his head canted to one side, then he finally sighed. “I know you dislike me, Ms. Boyer—”
“I don’t!” she protested instinctively.
“Come on. The kids can’t hear us so you don’t have to pretend for politeness’ sake,” he said. “I’m not sure how it happened or why but I always seem to rub you the wrong way. Whatever I did, can’t we somehow figure out a way to move past it for one day, just so you can allow Cole and Morgan to participate in something we both know they’ll enjoy?”
Oh! How could he make her so angry and so guilty at the same time? He was right, blast him. She wanted so much to say yes. Morgan, at least, would have a wonderful time. Cole would probably say it was all lame, but she had a feeling he would secretly enjoy it, too, especially with Seth around.
The only reason she resisted the invitation was because she wasn’t so sure she could resist him.
How could she deprive her children of this opportunity to create a lasting memory because of her own weakness?
For two weeks she had been doing her best to keep him out of her head, to pretend cool indifference to him. She tried to convince herself the little hitch in her chest every time she drove onto the Cold Creek was simply a little heartburn from eating school lunch with her students.
She knew it wasn’t. Even though he was as polite and friendly and noncharming as she could have asked for, her attraction to him only seemed to blossom.
Somehow—without apparently making any effort at all—Seth seemed to be whittling away at her defenses. The prospect of having to pretend disinterest for an entire day was daunting.
She could do it, she thought. For her children’s sake, she could be tough, couldn’t she?
“What time?” she finally said.
He grinned with triumph, looking so gorgeous in the thin, fading sunlight that she had to remind herself she was supposed to be resisting him.
“We’re probably heading up right after morning chores, maybe around eleven or so. Does that work?”
“It should. Yes.”
“Bring your father along if you’d like. He can ride a sled up or my mother and stepfather usually stay behind to hang out.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“Make sure you dress warmly. It’s supposed to snow tonight so we’ll have plenty of fresh powder.”
She nodded as she slid into her car, wondering as she started the engine if the temperatures would possibly cool enough overnight to keep her unruly hormones in the deep freeze she’d stored them in for the last three years.
Chapter 5
She was a bright, successful woman who was certainly mature enough to know her own mind, Jenny thought the next morning as she drove along freshly plowed roads toward the Cold Creek.
So how had she let Seth Dalton con her into this? Through the long, snowy night, she’d had plenty of time to think through the ramifications of what she’d committed herself and her children to by agreeing to come on this outing today.
An entire day in his company. What had she been thinking?
Easy. Thinking apparently wasn’t an activity she excelled at when Seth Dalton was around. The man only had to look at her and her brain cells decided to head to the Bahamas.
However this excursion had come about, she didn’t doubt Cole and Morgan—and Jason, when it came to that—would enjoy the day. She had to keep that uppermost in her mind.
It was a beautiful morning, at least. Seth had been right about the snow. Maybe some ranching instinct helped him predict the weather—or maybe he just watched the forecast more assiduously than she did.
He had said they would have fresh snow today. As predicted, three to four inches had dropped on the area during the night, something she learned from her father wasn’t at all unusual for mid-to late-November in eastern Idaho.
Everything was gorgeous: fresh and white and lovely. This was the perfect kind of early storm, just enough to cover the ground but not enough to make driving a nightmare.
Not much of one, anyway. Her SUV hit a wet spot suddenly and her wheels lost traction a little but she turned into the skid and quickly regained control.
“That’s my girl.” Jason smiled. “Watch your mother, Cole. Before much longer, you’re going to be driving in these kind of conditions. You should be sure you pay attention now and follow her example.”
“Does that mean I have to scream like a girl every time I hit a slick patch?” Cole asked with a smirk.
“Hey! I didn’t scream,” she exclaimed hotly. “That was simply a loud gasp.”
Her father and son shared a conspiratorial look. She didn’t mind being the source of their amusement, as long as Cole wasn’t brooding in the backseat.
The rest of the drive passed smoothly and she wanted to think it was a good omen when the sun peeked through the clouds just as they reached the Cold Creek, gleaming off the snow that covered everything from fence lines to barns.
