Christmas at Blue Moon Ranch (27 page)

“I’m cashing in, so to speak.” The foreman didn’t move, forcing
Daniel to explain. “I’m going to give the land back to Willa. This ranching
life…I don’t think it’s what I want, after all.”

“Yeah, right. Tell me another one, why don’t you?”

“I’m not kidding. I’ve been thinking about it for the past month
or so. I’ve got some other job options lined up already. I want to stay for the
full term of my agreement with…with Willa. But I’ll be gone before Christmas.”

Nate told Lili, and Lili told Rosa. “He’s leaving the New Moon.”

“No, he’s not.” They were wrapping presents for Willa and the
children in their bedroom Thursday night. “Willa will convince him to stay.”

“What makes you think so? She hasn’t said a word about him since
that night at the hospital. Once she knew he would recover, she came home and
hasn’t seen him since.”

“Do you doubt that she loves him?”

“No.”

“Well, then, she’ll change her mind. She’ll persuade him to marry
her and live here on the ranch.”

Lili shook her head. “You’re awfully optimistic.”

“I’m right. You’ll see. Just as I was right about you and Nate.”
Watching her sister, she saw the blush begin and bloom brightly in Lili’s
cheeks. “Wasn’t I?”

“Y-yes.”

“Has he asked you to marry him?”

“Not in so many words.”

Rosa clucked her tongue. “What did he say?”

Lili gave a mischievous smile. “He said, ‘Lili, dear, I would die
a happy man if I could enjoy your cooking every day for the rest of my life.’”

Rosa laughed. “You’re right—not in so many words. I suspect
you’ll get the precise words by Christmas.”

“Oh, I hope so,” Lili said. “I do hope so.”

G
ETTING TO
L
AREDO WASN’T EASY
for a kid of thirteen,
especially when you couldn’t ask your mom to drive you, and when you had school
from eight until three every day of the week and chores all afternoon.

In his desperation, Robbie finally took the principal into his
confidence on Friday. After listening to his explanation, Mrs. Abrams agreed he
had a responsibility to complete, and she consented to help him out. She
checked him out of school at lunchtime on Friday, drove him all the way to the
hospital in Laredo and said she would wait thirty minutes while he talked with
Daniel Trent.

To his surprise, Daniel was seated in a chair in his room,
instead of lying in the bed. Under his robe, he had on one of those stupid
gowns they made you wear. His legs were bare above gray slippers. And he had
tubes running into his arm from bags hanging on a metal stand.

His grin was the same, though. “Well, hello. You’re a long way
from home.”

“I got a ride from school. I only have thirty minutes.”

“That’s time for a good visit. Have a seat.” He motioned to the
chair beside him. “I’m glad you’re here. I haven’t had a chance to say thanks
for coming to find me.”

Robbie felt himself blush. “I made you go out there. I had to
bring you back.”

“The rustlers were the reason I was out there.”

Here was the hardest part. “But you didn’t get help because you
thought it was a false alarm. That’s because I tricked you. I cut the wire,
four times. And ran away.”

“I see.” Daniel was looking at him, not in anger or even
disappointment. He just seemed…interested. “Did you plan for me to get caught
by the rustlers?”

“I—I don’t think so. I mean, I never sat down and thought it
out.” He felt stupid for ever coming up with such a dumb trick to begin with.
“I just wanted to make you mad.”

“What did you think would happen if I got mad?”

“I thought you’d
leave,” Robbie said in a low voice. “I wanted you to leave.”

Daniel nodded.
“Well, you’ve got your wish. I’ll be leaving Sunday, probably. Monday, at the
latest.”

“But you can’t.”
Robbie leaned forward in his chair. “Most of the bad stuff that happened was
because of me. I was a baby, a brat. I thought you’d ruin everything.”

“You’ve had a
hard time, Rob. Losing your dad like that was tough. I don’t blame you for
wanting to keep your life the way it was with him.”

“But things
change, whether you want them to or not.”

Daniel chuckled.
“You’re pretty smart. Some people never learn that particular truth.”

“And I know now
that you’d be good to us. To Mom. And you wouldn’t try to push my dad out of
the way or make us forget. I don’t hate you.” He looked down at his hands for a
second. “I don’t hate my dad, either.”

“I know that.
And I appreciate your trust. But—”

“So you really
do have to stay.” He reached out to clasp Daniel’s hand with his own. “Mom was
happy when she could be with you. Toby and Susannah…Lili and Rosa…they like
you. We could be a—a family.”

As he watched,
Daniel swallowed hard. “That’s a tempting invitation, Rob. I care about all of
you. I really do.” He sighed. “But I don’t think I’ve got what it takes to keep
trying, day after day, month after month. Ranch work requires more strength,
more energy, than I have to give. I hate failing, but I can’t stay and do more
damage than I already have.”

Robbie couldn’t
give up. “Look, if it’s Mom, you just have to give her some time. She’ll come
around.”

“That’s between
your mom and me.” Daniel got slowly to his feet, drawing his hand away from
Robbie’s. “Thanks for your confidence, Rob, and your friendship. It means a lot
that you changed your mind.” He glanced at the clock. “Your thirty minutes is
about gone. You’d better say goodbye.”

Hesitating,
staring at his hands, Robbie tried to think of something to say, something to
persuade Daniel to give them another chance.

Someone knocked
at the door. “Is Robbie Mercado there?” Mrs. Abrams asked.

“I’m here.”
Feeling tired and sad, he got to his feet.

“We need to
leave, Robbie.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He
glanced at Daniel one last time. “She loves you, you know. I knew it from the
first time she said your name. I guess that’s why I was so afraid. ’Bye.”

He held up his
chin as he left. But he was grateful for the comfort of Mrs. Abrams’s hand on
his shoulder as they walked down the hall.

W
ILLA HADN’T
ATTENDED
church often
since Jamie had left for Iraq and especially not since he’d been killed. The
children went with Rosa and Lili, but she usually worked Sunday morning, in the
barn, on the bills…there was no shortage of tasks needing her attention.

Like so many
others, however, she wouldn’t miss church at Christmas. There would be a mass
on Christmas Eve, of course, but she got dressed on Sunday morning, as well,
and left with the aunts and the children.

The church in
Zapata was beautifully decorated for the holy day, with its own elaborate
nacimiento
behind the altar. Candles flickered in the draft created by the presence of so
many people, while the rich tang of incense hung in the air. Sitting in the pew
that Rosa and Lili considered their own, participating in the familiar patterns
of the service, Willa absorbed the sights and sounds around her, searching for
comfort. Searching for answers.

Daniel had
decided to leave. All she had to do was stay home this afternoon, and the
Mercado land would remain intact. No New Moon Ranch, no stranger’s cattle
grazing the family’s range. Nate had told her Daniel would leave her the cattle
to keep or sell as she wished, and Calypso, as well. He would, however, be
taking Trouble with him.

She hadn’t
visited him in the hospital, because she didn’t know what to say. He’d been
coming to get backup when he was shot—that meant he was trying to meet the
demands she’d made. If he’d gone after the rustlers alone, he might not have
been injured. Or he might have been dead. There was, Hobbs said, no way to
tell.

Which pretty
much summed up life in general, didn’t it? You couldn’t tell about the outcome
of a decision until after you’d made it. She’d married Jamie because she
believed they would have a good life, growing old together on the Blue Moon. Look
how that had turned out.

Then she’d
determined to go on alone, to tend the ranch and her children and never, ever
care enough to hurt that much again. And she’d succeeded, more or less, until
Daniel Trent had walked…limped…into her life and swept her off her feet. No
matter how often and how strongly she’d tried to deny him, and herself, she’d
been in love with him from the beginning. Her fury over his plan concerning the
rustlers had been in direct proportion to her need and desire and worry for
him.

“Mom!” Beside
her, Toby gave a jerk of his head. They were supposed to be kneeling at this
point in the service.

Willa eased
forward onto the kneeling bench he’d set down, braced her arms on the pew in
front of her and bowed her head. She hadn’t prayed since Jamie’s death. She
wasn’t sure she was praying now. But she tried to open her mind, allowing
whatever guidance, blessing or wisdom was available to flow into her.

Could she take
the risk of loving Daniel? Could she risk letting him go?

At the end of
the Mass, the youngest children performed
la pastorella
—a re-enactment
of the birth of Jesus, the visit of the shepherds to the stable and the journey
of the three kings.

Toby leaned over
to whisper, “Was I that cute when I played José?”

Willa winked at
him. “Much cuter.”

He sat back with
a satisfied nod. “I thought so.”

After the
service, as they all settled into the car and buckled their seatbelts, Toby
piped up again. “Can we eat lunch in town today? Please?”

“I have stew
simmering,” Rosa told him. “Lili had planned to make cornbread.”

“But—”

Willa turned to
Rosa, in the front passenger seat. “Would you mind if we saved the stew for
dinner? I would like to do some shopping before we go back home.”

Her aunt gazed
at her for a moment. “If that’s what you need to do, Willa. Of course the stew
will wait for dinner.” She smiled. “And there’s plenty of it.”

E
VEN WITH
N
ATE’S HELP
, the process of packing up Daniel’s
few belongings seemed to go slowly. He could blame it on the dog—every time he
put clothes in a suitcase, Trouble dragged them out again and ran through the
house, trailing clean shirts, socks and underwear after him. The washing
machine chose that morning to spew sand into the tub with the water, so he
couldn’t wash the towels and sheets Lili and Rosa had provided until after Nate
figured out and fixed the problem.

Then, for the
first time ever, Trouble decided to investigate the container of food left to
thaw on the kitchen counter for lunch. In the process, dog, cabinets, walls and
floor took on a thick, tasty coat of tomato sauce.

As Daniel wiped
off the last of the red splotches on the counter, he heard the slam of several
car doors, and then the high, excited voices of children.

The Mercado kids
and aunts, he guessed. Coming to say goodbye. He stood for a second with his
eyes squeezed shut, his hands gripping the sill of the sink.

I can do
this. I have to.

By the time he
reached the front door, he had his grin in place. “Hey, guys,” he started. Then
stopped, speechless.

Willa stood
alone on his front stoop, holding a big cardboard box. Behind her, Toby and
Susannah knelt on the ground, taking strings of lights out of packages. Robbie
stood in the truck bed, uncoiling an outdoor extension cord. Beside him in the
bed lay an evergreen tree, its branches tightly bound in bright orange netting.

Daniel looked
back at Willa.
“What’s going on?”

“We thought you would want an Anglo Christmas—the tree, the
wreath and lights, all that stuff. But…” She pushed past him into the house.
“But we thought we could educate you on our traditions, too. So I brought a
small
nacimiento
—nativity scene. The tree can go in front of the window.
And we’ll put the nativity—” She walked to the empty bookshelf near his chair
“—here.”

“Willa.” He had to try twice to get his voice to work. “I’m
leaving. You know that. I don’t need…want…Christmas here.”

Crouched over the box, she didn’t seem to have heard him.
“Jamie’s parents bought this set on a trip to Mexico, and we used to put it in
the boys’ room when they were younger.” She held up a figure. “The animals are
especially fun. See the expression on the donkey’s face?”

“See the expression on my face?” He reached down, grasped her arm
and lifted her to her feet. “What are you trying to say?”

She turned slightly away to place the donkey on the bookshelf,
then took a deep breath and faced him again. “Don’t go, Daniel. Please stay
here with us. With me.”

He shook his head. “You win, Willa. I’m not good enough. Not cut
out for ranching. Juan Angelo came to the hospital on Friday and I signed the
papers. You get your land back.”

Her hands went to her hips. “So you’re just going to quit? If you
can walk away, then maybe you really don’t have what it takes.”

“You got it.”

She eyed him for a minute. “Or maybe you lied to me when you told
me you loved me.”