Christmas at Blue Moon Ranch (19 page)

“Daniel’s going
to make a wonderful father,” Rosa said, as Willa cranked the truck engine.

Willa didn’t
respond. But Robbie slammed the back passenger door with a force that rocked
the entire vehicle. She stared at him through the rearview mirror.

What had gotten
into her son?

T
OBY FELL ASLEEP IN
THE
back seat almost
before they left the fairgrounds and woke up just as they turned into the Blue
Moon gates. “We’re already home? That didn’t take very long.”

“You were
asleep, silly,” his sister said. “Like always.”

“I was resting
my eyes.” Toby yawned, then sat up straighter. “Man, I’m hungry. I’m gonna eat
three burgers for supper. Hey, Daniel, you’re staying to eat with us, right?
Mom said we could have a movie afterward. We’ve got the complete set of the
Star
Wars
videos. Do you like
Star Wars?
We could start with the first
one and watch them straight through to the end. Or we could watch the
Ring
trilogy—we’ve got that, too. It wouldn’t be quite so long, unless we watched
the extended version. That’s about eight hours.”

They reached the
house before Toby ran out of suggestions for the night’s entertainment. Willa
had stopped in the drive ahead of them to let Rosa and Lili out before going on
to the barn to park the trailer and put Lustre in her corral.

Susannah looked
over at Daniel as she opened her door. “Thanks, Major Trent. I’m glad you came
with us today.”

“Me, too. I
enjoyed watching you ride.”

She slipped out
of the truck and opened the back door for Toby, who hopped down and raced to
catch up with his great-aunts as they entered the house. Daniel gazed after
them all for a moment, then turned to put the truck in gear. He jumped in
surprise when he saw Willa standing right beside the driver’s window.

“Thanks for
bringing them home,” she said, when he lowered the glass. “I’d forgotten how
quiet a drive can be without Toby.”

He shared her
grin. “He fell asleep, so we had a fairly quiet trip, ourselves.” Taking a
risk, he brushed his fingertips across her cheek. “I appreciate your letting me
come along today. I had a terrific time.”

As his hand left
her face, she caught and held it with hers. “Especially the dust-up with a
couple of teenaged thugs in the bathroom?”

Her gesture left
him nearly speechless. “Um…yeah.”

“Can you stay
for dinner?”

Daniel gazed at
her, his mind blank.

“By the time we
get the horse settled and the trailer unhitched, Lili and Rosa will have the
food ready.” When he still didn’t say anything, she stepped back, taking her
hand from his. Her smile faded. “But if you’ve got other plans—”

“No. No.” He
barely kept himself from leaning out the window to jerk her close again. “That’ll
be great. Dinner sounds great. I’m happy to stay. Really.” Taking a deep
breath, he recovered his control. “Can I do something to help? At the barn? In
the kitchen?”

“Lili and Rosa only
allow the kids to help in the kitchen. So I guess you’ll have to come to the
barn with me.”

With Rob and
Susannah doing most of the work, the chores at the barn took only a few
minutes. As Willa had promised, the hamburgers were ready for the grill when
they returned to the house. They cooked and ate in the central courtyard around
which the house was built, where tall live oak trees shaded a tiled fountain as
big as some swimming pools. A riot of flowers brought color and perfume to the
garden.

“I can’t believe
it’s November.” Daniel gestured at the beauty around them. “How much longer
will the weather hold?”

“Days, a couple
of weeks at the outside.” Willa took a sip of lemonade. “Most years, the rains
start toward the end of the month.”

“Does it ever get
downright cold?”

“By most
standards, no. But sometimes, in January and February, the temperatures drop. We
get ice storms, occasionally. One year, we even had real snow.”

“I’d better
stock up on warm clothes, just in case,” Daniel said. Willa held his gaze for a
long moment, but she didn’t say a word to suggest he wouldn’t be around to
suffer through a January ice storm.

Much to Toby’s
disappointment, Daniel decided to leave without watching a movie. “Trouble is
home by himself,” Daniel explained. “Nate left several hours ago, so I’d better
get up there and keep him company.”

“You could bring
him here, and he could watch the movie, too!”

Daniel glanced
at Willa’s frown. “I don’t think so. Maybe sometime you can watch a movie at my
place with Trouble.”

“Okay.” Toby
spent a moment in the role of the pouting child, but the opening music from the
film distracted him. “See you later,” he called as he ran down the hall.

Willa walked
Daniel to the front door. “When she got home, Susannah seemed less distressed than
I expected her to be. Did you have something to do with that?”

“We talked a
little, about winning and losing. She did most of the work. Very smart, your
daughter.”

“I’ve always
thought so.” They stepped out onto the veranda, where the night had turned cool.
Willa rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Brr. The daytime temperatures
don’t change all that much, but it gets practically cold at night.”

“You should have
a jacket.” Daniel closed the distance between them, putting his arms around her
and shielding her from the wind. “Or something.”

Willa let
herself be folded close. She looked up into his face. “Or something.”

He took that for
the invitation it was, and bent to put his mouth on hers. The kiss was warm and
sweet, tasting of the coffee ice cream they’d enjoyed for dessert. Willa melted
into him, savoring the comfort as his body enclosed her. They could have been
together for years, so familiar and welcome was his scent, the feel of him
surrounding her. Passion was there, too, a banked fire at the bottom of this
warm glow. Given a breath of air, the flame would ignite, consuming them both.

She drew back,
instead. “Good night, Daniel.”

“Good night.” He
kissed her forehead, squeezed her shoulders gently, his palms warm. In another
minute, he was gone.

Willa stood for
a while after his taillights disappeared, smiling to herself, treasuring the
physical pleasures of being a woman. Just as she turned to go inside, a
footstep sounded on the gravel of the driveway.

Peering into the
darkness, she recognized the silhouette of her older son. “Robbie? What in the
world are you doing out here? I thought you were watching the movie.”

“How can you let
him touch you like that?”

She fell back a
step, she was so startled. “I beg your pardon?”

“You let him
hold you. You let him kiss you.” He stood with his feet set wide, his fists
clenched at his sides and his shoulders rigid. “Why are you doing it? What
about Dad?”

Willa swallowed
the urge to shout back. “Your dad is gone, Robbie. He’s dead. You know that.”

“But this is
his
ranch. You’re
his
wife. We don’t need that guy here. We don’t need
anybody else.”

Willa stepped
forward and put a hand on his shoulder. “Nobody can replace your dad, son. I
know that. I wouldn’t even try.”

He stepped
backward, out of her reach. “Maybe you aren’t. But Trent is. He’s trying to
take over. Don’t you see it?”

“No, I don’t.
Look, you know I didn’t want to sell the land. But we need the money, Robbie. Daniel
Trent is honest, at least. He’s willing to help out if he can, and he’s willing
to learn what he doesn’t know. We were lucky to get him as a neighbor, instead
of someone who would let his cattle knock down fences, who would dam up the
creeks we depend on and try to take over more than he deserves.”

“You said he
wouldn’t stay. You said he’d be gone by Christmas.”

“I know I did. I
didn’t see how he could succeed.”

“He
is
succeeding, though, because we’re helping him. I’m up there every day doing
work that makes it easier for him to stick around. Did you think about that,
when you decided to punish me? You’re making
me
help him keep part of
our land.”

She hadn’t
thought of it that way. “I’m sorry the situation is painful for you. But you
made a bad decision when you stole that gun. You made another one when you took
it to school. And you lied to me about it, Roberto. You wanted me to believe
that Daniel encouraged you, showed you the weapon and told you stories about
the war. Did you think there would be no consequences to lying and stealing? Was
I supposed to look the other way?”

“You were
supposed to get mad and get rid of him!”

Willa felt as if
she’d had the breath knocked out of her. “You made up this scheme just to get
Daniel to leave? Why would you do something so…so underhanded and cruel?”

“To protect us.
Protect you.” He held out his arms, as if to embrace the land around them. “To
protect this place.”

“From Daniel?
What are you afraid of?”

“He wants the
Blue Moon, Mom. And he’s using you, and the rest of the family, to get it.”

She lowered her
voice, trying to soften the edge of hysteria she could hear in Robbie’s. “Son,
you and Susannah and Toby are Mercados, born and raised. This ranch will always
belong to you.”

“Maybe you
really think that.” His tone only sharpened. “But he’s going to get it all when
he fools you into marrying him. He’ll take over the Blue Moon, and you won’t be
able to stop him.”

She wished she
could tell him she’d never thought about marrying Daniel, but that would be a
lie. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, she’d let herself think about how
lovely it would be to have him there to hold her. She’d fantasized about how
strong he was, how steady and calm, and how good it would be to have his
support as she managed the Blue Moon. “You’re wrong, Robbie. I would never
deprive you of your rights to this land.”

“I’ve seen the
way you look at him. He’ll be so convincing, you’ll do whatever he wants,
little by little…until one day, everything Dad worked for, everything he loved,
will belong to Daniel Trent.” He stopped, and she could hear his breathing,
harsh in the darkness. “You’ll probably even let him adopt us. We won’t even
be
Mercados anymore!”

“Roberto, no—”
She reached for him, horrified.

Before she could
touch him, Robbie spun on his heel and took off at a run in the direction of
the barn. Willa didn’t want him out alone in the dark, especially not with
rustlers prowling the desert. But if she went after him, he wouldn’t relent.
And she couldn’t wrestle her son to the ground—he outweighed her by twenty
pounds or more.

She sat down in
one of the rockers on the veranda to wait. The night grew cold, and she went
inside for a blanket to wrap around her shoulders, then returned to her post. At
midnight, Robbie hadn’t returned. Shivering, dozing off and on, Willa startled
into complete wakefulness at 2:00 a.m. and stumbled into the house. Toby and
Susannah had, indeed, fallen asleep in front of the television. They looked
comfortable enough, stretched out on the two big couches, so she made sure they
were warm enough, turned off the TV and the lights and left them alone.

She walked down
the hall to the bedrooms, afraid of what she’d find when she reached Robbie’s
room. If he wasn’t back, she’d have to go look for him…

But the door was
locked, with a band of light showing underneath. The bass line of his music
vibrated through the panel. He’d returned and barricaded himself in his private
realm. Not a terrific outcome to their argument, but at least she knew he was
safe.

Willa couldn’t
stop shaking, though, even wearing her warmest pajamas, with two pairs of socks
on her feet and two extra blankets on top of the covers on her bed. She lay
there, shivering, for more than an hour, before finally surrendering to the
need building inside her. Without turning on the light, she fumbled for the
phone by her bed.

Daniel picked up
on the second ring. “H’lo?” His drowsy voice brought tears to her eyes. She
couldn’t speak.

“Willa?” His
guess provoked a sob, which she barely choked back. “Willa, are you okay?”

“Yes,” she
gasped. “Everything’s okay. I just—”

“What time is
it?” The bed clothes rustled as he rolled over. “What’s keeping you awake at
three in the morning?”

“It’s nothing.
An argument with Robbie.”

“He was pretty
tense all day.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe talking
it out will make things better.”

“I’m not so
sure.”

He accepted her
concern without argument. “You’ll work it out. Grieving doesn’t happen all at
once. You go through stages. But most people come to acceptance eventually. I
think Rob will.”

“I hope so.” She
could feel her fingers and toes again. Daniel’s warm voice was melting the ice
in her veins.