Light the Stars

Anyway, the work he had to do the next few days was close enough to the ranch house that he could keep an eye on her.

That might not be such a bad thing, he thought. If she and her father were cooking some kind of scam together, he might have some advantage in the long run by keeping his eyes open and knowing just who he was dealing with.

Hank Dalton had had an axiom for cases just like this. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

What better way to keep her close than by having her right here in his own home?

A stiff gust suddenly rattled the kitchen windows and he watched the clouds dance across the sky as he tried to calculate how much more they would have to pay for feed during the winter if they didn’t get the hay in before that storm hit.

“You’re right. I don’t have too many options right now. I, uh, appreciate the offer.”

The words rasped out of his throat as if they were covered in burrs, and she gave him an amused look, as if she sensed how hard they were for him to say.

He really didn’t like being such a ready source of amusement for her, he decided.

“Where are your reference phone numbers?” he growled.

She looked at him for a moment, then scribbled some names and phone numbers on a memo sheet off a pad by the phone. Wondering if he was crazy, he grabbed them and stalked to his ranch office off the kitchen.

Ten minutes later he returned. He’d only been able to reach someone at one of the numbers, a woman by the name of Nancy Saunders. He knew it could be a setup, that she could be part of the con, but at this point he didn’t have any choice but to trust her words. She had raved about Caroline’s care for her two children a dozen years earlier, about how they’d stayed in touch over the years and she considered Caroline one of the most responsible people she’d ever met.

He didn’t want to hear any of this, he thought. He wasn’t buying half of it but decided he would be close enough to the house that he could keep an eye on her.

He returned to the kitchen and found her cleaning up the few lunch dishes.

“Did I pass?”

“For now,” he muttered. He grabbed his hat off the hook by the back door and shrugged back into his denim work coat.

“Natalie comes home on the bus about three-thirty and she can help you with the boys and with dinner. The freezer’s full of food. I don’t know what time I’ll be in—probably after dark. You and the kids should go ahead and eat, but my mother usually leaves a couple of plates in the fridge for me and for Seth.”

“Your brother.”

“Right. He’s second in command on the ranch and lives in the guesthouse out back, though he usually takes his meals here at the house with the family.”

“What kind of food do you like?”

“Anything edible.” He headed for the door, anxious to be gone. He stopped only long enough to scribble his cell number on the pad by the phone. “You can reach me at that number if you need anything.”

He hurried for his truck, trying his best to ignore the little voice in his head warning him he would regret letting Caroline Montgomery into their lives.

Through the kitchen window, Caroline watched Wade hurry to his truck as if he were being chased by an angry herd of bison.

She still couldn’t quite believe he had actually agreed to her offer. She hadn’t really expected him to take her up on it, not with the animosity that had crackled and hissed between them since she’d arrived at the Cold Creek.

He must, indeed, be desperate. That’s the only reason he would have agreed to leave his children in her care.

The man wasn’t at all what she had expected, and she wasn’t sure what to think of him. So far, he had been surly and bad tempered, but she couldn’t really blame him under the circumstances.

He intrigued her, she had to admit. She couldn’t help wondering what he was like when he wasn’t coping with an injured child, a runaway mother and various ranch crises.

She was intrigued by him and attracted to him, though she couldn’t quite understand why. Something about his intense blue eyes and that palpable aura of power and strength thrummed some heretofore hidden chord inside her.

Big, angry men weren’t at all her cup of tea. Not that she really knew what that cup of tea might be—and heaven knew, she’d been thirsty for a long time. But her few previous relationships had been with thoughtful, introspective men. An assistant professor in the history department at the university in Santa Cruz had been the last man she’d dated and she couldn’t imagine any two men more different.

Still, there was something about Wade Montgomery….

What had she gotten herself into? she wondered as she set the few dishes from lunch in a sink full of soapy water and went in search of the boys. Or more precisely, what had Quinn dragged her into?

Here she was falling back into old patterns, just hours after she’d sworn that self-destructive behavior was behind her.

She had vowed she was done trying to clean up after Quinn. The only thing she’d ever gotten for her troubles was more heartache. The worst had been those four months she’d spent in jail in Washington state after Quinn had embroiled her in one of his schemes.

Even though she’d had nothing to do with any of it, had known nothing about it until she’d been arrested, she had been the one to pay the price until she had been cleared of the charges.

Even then she couldn’t bring herself to sever all ties with her father. Ironic, that, since she frequently counseled her clients to let go of harmful, destructive relationships.

Quinn wasn’t really destructive, at least not on purpose. He loved her and had done his best to raise her alone after her mother had died when she was eight. But she was weak when it came to him and she felt like she had spent her entire life trailing behind him with a broom and dustpan.

This time was different, she told herself. This time, three innocent children had been affected by Quinn’s heedless behavior. His impulsive elopement with Marjorie had totally upset the balance and rhythm of life here at 11 Cold Creek.

She knew from her coaching sessions with Marjorie that the older woman had been the primary caregiver to her three grandchildren since Wade’s wife had died two years earlier.

Marjorie hadn’t minded that part of her life and had loved the children, but she’d been lonely here at the ranch and hungered to find meaning beyond her duties caring for her son’s children.

Though intellectually Caroline knew she wasn’t responsible for Marjorie’s loneliness, for Quinn’s apparent flirtation that had deepened and become serious, she still felt guilty.

If not for her connection to Marjorie, the two would never have met, and Marjorie would have been home right now caring for her grandchildren.

Caroline had no choice but to help Wade in his mother’s absence. It was the decent, responsible thing to do.

Chapter Four

By the time three-thirty rolled around, Caroline had no idea how Marjorie possibly kept up with these two little bundles of energy.

She was thirty years younger than her client and already felt as limp as a bowl of day-old linguine from chasing them around. Between keeping track of Cody, who never seemed to stop moving, and trying to entertain a cranky, hurting Tanner, she was quickly running out of steam and out of creative diversions to keep them occupied.

They had read dozens of stories, had built a block tower and had raced miniature cars all over the house. They’d had a contest to see who could hop on one foot the longest, they’d made a hut out of blankets stretched across the dining table and, for the last half-hour, they had been engaged in a rousing game of freeze tag.

Who needed Pilates? she thought after she’d finally caught both boys.

She had to think Tanner could use a little quiet time and, heaven knew, she could.

“Guys, why don’t we make a snack for your sister when she comes home from school?”

“Can I lick the spoon?” Tanner asked.

“That depends on what we fix. How about broccoli cookies?”