A Cold Creek Noel (The Cowboys of Cold Creek) (8 page)

“You don’t mind, do you?”

She would have laughed if she suddenly wasn’t feeling
queasy.

“No. Why should I mind?” she muttered, while in her head she
went through about a dozen reasons. Starting and ending with that kiss.

“That’s what I figured. You and Becca and Laura are always
making way too much food. Inviting the vet and his family for dinner seemed like
a nice way to welcome them to the ranch. And I figured his kids might get a
charge out of going with us on the sleigh ride later.”

Of all her three brothers, Ridge was the most taciturn. His
failed marriage and the burden of responsibility that came with running the
family ranch while the twins pursued other interests made him seem hard
sometimes, but he also showed these flashes of kindness that tugged at her
heart.

“I’m sure they will. It’s bound to be something new and
exciting for a couple of kids from California. They probably don’t have much
snow where they’re from.”

“Awesome!” Destry exclaimed. “I hope they’re good singers.”

Right. Singing and Ben Caldwell. Two things she should avoid at
all costs thrown right in her face. This should prove to be a very interesting
evening.

Chapter Seven

“D
o you think Alex and Maya will be
there?”

“It’s a good bet, kid,” Ben told his son as the three of them
walked down the plowed lane through the gentle snowfall toward the ranch house.
The snow muted all sounds, even the low gurgle of the creek, on the other side
of the trees that formed an oxbow around the ranch.

The cold air smelled of hay and pine and woodsmoke. He breathed
deeply, thinking it had been far too long since he had taken time to just savor
his surroundings. The River Bow was unexpectedly serene, with the mix of aspens
and pine and the mountains soaring to the east.

“I hope Gabi is there,” Ava said, looking more enthusiastic
about the outing than she had about anything in a long time. “She’s
superfunny.”

“I’m sure she will be. Ridge said their whole family was coming
for dinner and she’s part of the family.”

He and his kids, however, were
not.
They were only temporary guests and he probably had no business dragging his
children to their family dinner, especially after the events of the night
before.

He should have said no. Ridge Bowman took him by surprise with
the invitation while they were out clearing snow and he had been so caught off
guard, he hadn’t known quite how to reply.

The kids would enjoy it. He had known that from the get-go. He
was fairly sure he wouldn’t. He didn’t mind socializing. Brooke had loved to
throw parties and some part of him had missed that since her death. But this
party was obviously a family thing and he hated to impose.

If that wasn’t enough, he also wasn’t ready to face a certain
woman yet—Caidy Bowman, of the soft curves and the silky hair and the warm mouth
that tasted like cocoa and heaven.

That kiss, coming on the heels of his vivid, sexy dream about
her, left him aching and restless. He hadn’t slept at all after he left her
house. He had tossed and turned and punched his pillow until he had finally
gotten up at 6:00 a.m., before the children, and started shoveling snow to burn
away some of this edgy hunger. Mother Nature had dumped quite a bit of snow
throughout the day, so he had plenty of chances to work it off.

That kiss. He had wanted to drown in it, just yank her against
him and tease and taste and explore until they were both shaking with need.
Somehow he knew she would respond just as he had dreamed, with soft, eager
enthusiasm.

How did a guy engage in casual chitchat with a woman after he
had kissed her like that without wanting to do it all over again?

Despite the December chill, he unzipped his coat. He probably
couldn’t do much about his overheated imagination, but the rest of him didn’t
need to simmer.

A couple of dogs came up to greet them as they approached the
house and Jack eased behind him. Though his son saw plenty of strange dogs at
the clinic, he was often apprehensive around animals he didn’t know. A large,
untrained mastiff had cornered him once at the clinic a few years earlier,
intent only on friendliness, but Jack had been justifiably frightened by the
encounter and wary ever since.

“They won’t hurt you, Jack. See, both of their tails are
wagging. They just want to say hi.”

“I don’t want to,” Jack said, hiding even further behind
him.

“You don’t have to, then. Ava, can you carry the bag with Mrs.
Michaels’s salad and toffee while I give your brother a lift?”

She grabbed the bag away from him and hurried ahead while he
scooped up his son and set him on his shoulders for the last hundred yards of
the walk, much to Jack’s delight. It wouldn’t be long before the boy grew too
large for this but for now they both enjoyed it, even with his son’s snowy boots
hitting his chest.

In the gathering dusk, the log ranch house was lit up with
icicle lights that dripped from the eaves and around the porch. People on the
coast would pay serious money for the chance to spend Christmas here at a
picturesque cattle ranch in the oxbow of a world-class fly-fishing creek.

Several unfamiliar vehicles were parked in the circular
driveway in front of the ranch house and that awkwardness returned. If not for
his children’s anticipation, he probably would have turned on his heels and
headed back to the cottage.

Ava reached the porch before they did and skipped up the stairs
to ring the doorbell. As Ben and Jack reached the steps a woman he didn’t know
with dark hair and a winsome smile answered. “You must be the new veterinarian.
Ridge mentioned you and your family were joining us. Hi. I’m Becca Bowman,
married to Trace. Come in out of the snow.”

He walked inside and went to work divesting the children of
their abundance of outerwear: coats, gloves, hats, scarves and boots. Becca
gathered them all up and set them inside a large closet under the curving log
staircase.

“Are you Gabi’s mom?” Ava asked, sitting on the bottom step to
slip out of her boots.

“I’m her big sister actually. It’s a long story. But I guess in
every way that matters, I’m her mother.”

An intriguing story. He wondered at the details but decided
they weren’t important. Becca had obviously stepped up to raise her sister and
he couldn’t help but find that admirable.

“Where is Gabi?” Ava asked eagerly.

“She and Destry are around somewhere. They’ll be so excited to
see you. They’ve been waiting impatiently for you to get here for the past
hour.”

Ava beamed with an enthusiasm that had been missing for far too
long. Maybe staying here at the ranch near a friend for a few weeks would be
good for her. Maybe it would finally help her resign herself to their move to
Idaho, to the distance now between her and her grandparents.

“Last I saw them, they were playing a video game in the den.
Straight down that hall and to the left.”

Ava took off, with Jack close on her heels. He thought about
calling them back but decided to let them figure things out. Kids usually did a
much better job of that than adults.

“I think dinner is nearly ready,” Becca said to him. “Come on
into the great room and I’m sure one of the boys can hook you up with something
to drink.”

She led him into a huge room dominated by a massive angled wall
of windows and the big Christmas tree he had seen glimmering from outside as
they approached. Where was Caidy? he wondered, then was embarrassed at himself
for looking for her straight away.

Her brother Ridge headed over immediately with a cold beer.
“Hey, Doc Caldwell. Glad you could make it.”

At least one of them was. “Thanks.”

“Have you met my brothers?” Ridge asked.

“I know Chief Bowman. Fire Chief Bowman,” he corrected. He
could only imagine how confusing that must be for the town, to have a fire chief
and police chief who were not only brothers but identical twins.

“You’ve deserted us at the inn, I understand,” Taft Bowman
said.

He winced. The only thing that bothered him worse than being
obligated to Caidy was knowing he had checked out prematurely from the Cold
Creek Inn. “Sorry. We were bursting at the seams there.”

“Oh, no worries about that. Laura’s already booked your rooms
through the holiday. She had to turn away several guests in the past few weeks
and ended up contacting some of them who wanted to be on standby. They were
thrilled at the last-minute cancellation.”

He had expected the immensely popular inn would do just fine
without his business. “That’s a relief.”

“She’s been saying for a week how she thought your kids needed
to be in a real house for the holidays. She was thrilled when Caidy talked to
her about having you stay here. As soon as she hung up the phone, she said she
couldn’t believe she’d never thought of the foreman’s cottage out here.”

“I’m already missing those delicious breakfasts at the inn,” he
said. That was true enough, though Mrs. Michaels was also an excellent cook and
had taken great delight just that morning in preparing pancakes from scratch and
her famous fluffy scrambled eggs.

In his three weeks of staying at the Cold Creek Inn, Laura
Bowman had struck him as an extraordinarily kind woman. The whole family,
really, had welcomed him and his children to town with warm generosity.

“The guy over there on his cell phone is my husband, Trace,”
Becca said. “He’s the police chief and is lucky enough to be off duty tonight,
though his deputies often forget that.”

The man in question waved and smiled a greeting but continued
on the phone. Ben suddenly remembered the toffee and pulled out the tin. “Where
would you like me to put this?”

“You didn’t have to fix anything,” Becca scolded.

“I didn’t have anything to do with it,” he admitted. “My
housekeeper did all the heavy lifting. She sends her apologies, by the way. She
would have come but she needed to take a call from her daughter. She’s expecting
her first grandchild and the separation has been difficult.”

He felt more than a little guilty about that. Anne had come
with them to Idaho willingly enough but he knew she missed her daughter,
especially during this exciting, nerve-racking time of impending birth. They
communicated via videoconferencing often, but it wasn’t the same as face-to-face
interaction.

“Let’s just set it on the table here. Wow. I’ve got to taste
some first. I love toffee.”

“Ooh, send some this way,” Taft said, so Becca passed the tin
of candy around to all the brothers.

“She also made a salad. Greek pasta.”

“That sounds delicious too. I’ll take it in to see where Caidy
wants it.”

“I can do that.” His words—and anticipation to see her
again—came out of nowhere. “I should probably check in on my patient while I’m
here anyway.”

“Okay. Sure. Just through the hall and around the corner.”

He remembered. He had a feeling every detail of the Bowman
kitchen would be etched in his memory for a very long time.

When he entered, his gaze immediately went to Caidy, and the
restlessness that had dogged him all day seemed to ease. She stood at the stove
with her hair tucked into a loose ponytail, wearing an apron over jeans and a
crisp white shirt.

She looked pretty and fresh, and something soft and warm seemed
to unfurl inside him.

She must have sensed his presence, though it was obvious she
was spinning a dozen different plates. She glanced around and he saw her cheeks
turn pink, though he wasn’t certain if it was from the heat of the stove or the
memory of the kiss they had shared in this very room.

“Oh. Hi. You’re here.”

“Yes. I’ve brought a salad. Greek pasta. My housekeeper made
it, actually. And toffee. I brought toffee too.”

Good grief. Could he sound any more like an idiot?

“That’s great. Thank you. The salad can go on the buffet in the
dining room. I don’t imagine the toffee will last long with my brothers
around.”

“They were already working on it,” he said.

“Oh, man. I love toffee. They know it, too, but do you think
they’re going to save me any? Highly doubtful. It’s going to be gone before I
get a taste.”

“I’ll have Mrs. Michaels make more for you,” he offered, his
voice gruff.

She smiled. “That’s sweet of you. Or I could just arm wrestle
my brothers for the last piece.”

“Right.” He cleared his throat. “Uh, I’ll just take this into
the dining room.”

This was stupid. Why couldn’t he talk to her? Yes, she was a
beautiful, desirable woman who had moaned in his arms just a few hours earlier,
but that didn’t mean he couldn’t carry on a semi-intelligent conversation with
her.

Determined to do just that, after he had taken the salad into
the dining room he returned to the kitchen instead of seeking the safety of the
great room with the rest of the Bowmans.

Caidy looked surprised to see him again so soon.

“I wanted to check on Luke,” he explained.

“He seems to be feeling better. I moved him into my room so he
has a chance to rest during all the commotion of dinner.”

“You mind if I take a look at him?”

She glanced up, surprise in her eyes. “Really? You don’t have
to do that. Ridge didn’t invite you to dinner to get free vet care out of the
deal.”

Why
had
Ridge invited him? He had
been wondering that all afternoon. “I’m here. I might as well see how he’s
progressing.”

“Can I take over stirring the gravy so you can show Ben to your
room?”

For the first time, he noticed Laura Bowman, who had been
standing on the other side of the kitchen slicing olives.

“Thank you. It should be done in just a few minutes.”

Caidy washed her hands, then tucked a loose strand of hair
behind her ear, nibbling her lip between her teeth just enough to remind him of
how that lip had tasted between his own teeth and sent blood pooling in his
groin.

She led the way down the hall to a door just off the kitchen
and he heard a little bark from inside the room just before she pushed open the
door.

He had a vague impression of, not so much fussiness, as
feminine softness. A lavender-and-brown quilt and a flurry of pillows covered a
queen-size bed, and lace curtains spilled from the windows. His gaze was drawn
to a lovely oil painting of horses grazing in a flower-strewn field that looked
as if it could be somewhere on the River Bow. It hung on the wall at the foot of
the bed, the first thing she must see upon awakening and drifting off to
sleep.

He shouldn’t be so interested in where she slept—or what she
might dream about—he ordered himself, and he quickly shifted attention to the
dog. The border collie was lying beside the bed near the window, in the same
enclosure he had rested in while in the kitchen.

When he saw Caidy, Luke wagged his tail and tried to get up but
she bent over and rested a comforting hand on his head. He immediately subsided
as if she had tranquilized him.