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Leah tossed the rag she’d used to wash the floor into a pail by the door. “I think we’re ready to move in now. I’ll unload the boxes from the truck if you don’t mind staying with the kids.”
“Actually, I think I should take them back to my place. Davey’s rubbing his eyes and there’s no place to put him down for his nap.”
She gave her mom a hug. “That would be perfect, thanks. We’ll have to transfer their booster seats into your car.”
“I can do that. You just keep on with what you’re doing.”
Prue made a game of it, telling Jill and Davey it was time to board the train back to grandma’s house. “Choo! Choo!” Davey called, as she buckled him into the backseat. Leah waved until they’d driven out of sight, a smile on her face. It was at moments like this that she knew she’d done the right thing in moving back to Roundup. Her mother was an awesome grandma.
And now she was free to get her work done.
Leah opened the tailgate to her truck, then reached for the closest box. Within an hour she had unloaded everything—even the kids’ beds and bureaus, which weren’t very heavy. Only the furniture in her mother’s basement remained. But that would have to wait until tomorrow. The fellow she’d hired to help her didn’t work on Sundays.
She was closing the tailgate when a black Dodge Ram pulled up across the street. She brushed her hands against her jeans and shook her head as Colt stepped out of the driver’s seat.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Just wondering if I could give you a hand?”
Gone was the sexy, flirty voice he’d used on her at the bar. Today he looked serious. Maybe even a little sheepish. He was in jeans and a clean work shirt. No red chambray today, thank goodness. He held his hat in his hands, his stance that of a little boy feeling guilty about something.
As he damn well should.
She wanted to tell him to go to hell. But after last night, he owed her. Besides, she had some business to discuss with Colt. Something she should have brought up yesterday if she hadn’t been having too much fun.
“That depends on how much time you’ve got.”
“As much as you need.”
Oh, she highly doubted that was true.
“There’s a bed, a sofa and a table-and-chair set back in Mom’s basement and I can’t move them myself….”
“I’d be glad to help. Let’s take my truck. It’s bigger.”
For the first time she noticed his vehicle. It was a newer model, with all the extras. “Sweet. Can I drive?”
She could have sworn his face grew paler. But he handed her the keys with only the slightest of hesitations, then opened the driver’s side door for her. When she was settled, he loped around the truck and slid into the seat next to her.
She was aware of his eyes on her as she made the necessary adjustments to the seat and the mirrors. Only when she was done did he ask, “So…how’s the head this morning?”
When she grimaced, he chuckled. “Thought so.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You had a few too many. That’s all.”
She groaned. “Was it that obvious?”
He reached for her hair and gave a little tug. Just a playful gesture…so why did her heart do a little flip?
“Let’s just say you were a little unsteady on your feet. Also, let’s face it—if you hadn’t had a few beers, no way would you have let me kiss you.”
She turned her eyes briefly from the road to check his expression. Really? Was that the way he wanted to play this? Well, fine with her. “So true,” she said coolly. “But even single mothers need to have a little fun now and then.”
“I suppose that’s true,” he said, his voice suddenly tight.
“I wouldn’t want our foolishness last night to affect our friendship, Colt.”
“Foolishness?”
“Good,” she said, ignoring the question in his voice. “Glad we see it the same way.” She turned the corner to her mother’s block, then pulled up into the driveway. “Here we are. Hope you’re ready to work.”
* * *
LEAH HAD BRUSHED OFF their evening together as “foolishness.” Colt knew he should feel glad. He was off the hook and back in the sea—free and unencumbered, as always.
Maybe the gladness would come later, when the good news had a chance to sink in.
For now, he was satisfied to put his muscles to good use. The move didn’t take long. At one point Prue Stockton stepped out on the porch to watch for a few moments. Then she gave him a polite nod and went back inside with the kids.
As for Jill and Davey, he didn’t see any sign of them at all. Which he was grateful for. He had no experience with kids and had no idea what to do or say around them.
Within two hours all the work was done. Leah’s new house was okay, Colt thought. Kind of small, especially the kids’ bedroom. They’d barely managed to fit in the two beds, and had been forced to stuff the bureau into the small closet.
That stench coming from the basement wasn’t good, either. But Leah told him she was planning to talk to her landlord about tearing out the old carpet and painting the walls. Maybe he’d offer to help.
That was the sort of thing a friend would do, after all.
Friend. His mind grated over the word every time he thought of it in conjunction with Leah. Because she was just as attractive to him now as she’d been last night at the Open Range.
Get over it, he told himself. She’d offered him an olive branch this morning and he should be damn grateful she’d given him that much.
They were in the living room now. Leah had her hands on the slim curves of her hips. “Hmm. I’m thinking the sofa would look better on that wall.” She pointed to the one opposite the window. “What do you think?”
He had a mother and a sister, so knew better than to offer an opinion. “Whatever you say.” Obediently, he picked up one end of the sofa and maneuvered it into place.
Leah smiled. “That is better, thanks.” She glanced around the room, then sighed. “I think we’re finally done.”
He had to get her out of there before she thought up another redecorating idea. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. Want to grab a late lunch at the Number 1? Sierra serves a mean roast beef special on Sundays.”
Leah considered the offer. “Let me phone my mother first and see how the kids are doing.”
He waited while she pulled her cell phone from her pocket. Like him, she had an iPhone, only instead of a horse she used a picture of her two kids for her wallpaper. After a brief conversation she gave him the nod. “Mom said we should go ahead. They had their lunch an hour ago. But where is the Number 1—is it new? I don’t remember a café by that name. A coal mine, yes, but not a café.”
Colt waited while she locked up her new home, then led her to the passenger side of his truck. His day was looking up now that he’d convinced her to have lunch with him and he was happy to bring her up to speed on some of the happenings she’d missed when she lived in Calgary.
“Sierra Byrne owns and runs the Number 1. She named the café in honor of her grandfather, a miner who drowned when the Number 1 was flooded back in… I don’t know when exactly. A long time ago. It’s been open about four years.”
“Did Sierra grow up here?”
Relieved that Leah didn’t ask to drive again, Colt walked around to the driver’s side and pressed the buttons to return his seat and mirrors to their original positions. His new truck had impressed her. It was kind of ridiculous how happy that made him.
“Nah, Sierra’s parents lived in Chicago. But her mother and Aunt Jordan grew up in Roundup and Sierra’s family spent summers at their cabin along the Musselshell River.”
Leah glanced out the window as they drove along Highway 87 toward First Street. “Must have been some change moving from Chicago to here.”
Her comment made Colt wonder how Leah herself was making the adjustment. “You miss Calgary?”
She was quiet for a bit, then shifted her gaze from the town to him. “If the past six years taught me anything, it’s that I’m a small-town girl at heart.”
There was a world of unhappiness in that comment, Colt thought. He parked across the street from the redbrick building that housed the Number 1.
“Hey, isn’t this the old newspaper building?” Leah whistled. “Sierra sure fixed it up nicely.”
“Wait until you taste the food.” Colt was about to open his door when Leah stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Hang on a sec. You’re still not off the hook where last night is concerned.”
“I’m not?”
“Like I told you before, I’m planning to start a new business here in Roundup. I’ve got a business diploma with an agricultural accounting concentration and—” she took a deep breath “—I was hoping Thunder Ranch might be my first client.”
It took him a few seconds to process what she was saying. “Seriously? You want to be an accountant?”
“It’s a good job for a working mother. Tell me—who does your family’s books now?”
“My mother.”
“Do you think she’d consider hiring outside help?”
He thought about the health scare she’d had recently, and all the extra work that had fallen on her and Ace’s shoulders since they added the bucking horse breeding program. Most everyone in his family would rather be working on the land and with the animals than doing paperwork in the office. “I’ll talk to her about it—okay?”
“That would be great.”
He adjusted his hat, then gave her a cautious glance. “So we’re square now?”
“What do you think?”
Colt laughed. She kept him hopping, that was for sure. And if he had to be on the hook with someone, Leah Stockton would be his first pick.
* * *
THE INSIDE OF the café had been decorated in keeping with the mining theme, with historical photographs on the walls and a shelf full of mining artifacts. Leah especially liked the dramatic color scheme—sparkly red tables and black leather seats. Colt led her to a corner booth, and she was charmed to see a miniature coal bucket in the middle of the table holding the condiments.
Colt waved at someone out of her line of sight. She turned to see a curvy woman, about her age, in a red apron delivering two plates of the lunch special to the table behind them. When she was done, she gave Colt a warm smile.
“Hey, Sierra. How’re you doing?”
“Business is good, so I’m happy. I’ll take your order in a sec, Colt. Just let me get you some water, first.”
She turned on her heel, heading for the kitchen, and Leah cleared her throat.
“Um…either I’m invisible, or that woman only has eyes for you. She didn’t even glance at me.”
Colt flashed a smile—the kind he’d used a lot the previous evening. “Darlin’, don’t tell me you’re jealous.”
“Right. After last night? I don’t think so.”
Sierra returned then, and Leah flashed a smug look at Colt when she had only one glass of water. See—I was right. She didn’t even notice me!
“Oh, dear.” Sierra looked flustered. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had a guest.”
Colt made the introductions, then asked for the lunch special.
“I’ll have the same, please.” Leah had to admit that Sierra was making up for her earlier rudeness by being especially attentive now. She quickly brought an extra glass of water to the table, and apologized again for her oversight.
When they were alone once more, Colt’s expression turned serious. “About last night—I want to apologize.”
“Really, for which part? For hitting on me like I was one of your buckle bunnies? Or running for the hills once you found out I had children?”
He grimaced. “When you put it that way…”
“Maybe you were judging me because you figured out Jackson and I got married because I was pregnant?”
Colt looked truly miserable now. “God, no, I wasn’t judging you. I’m the last—” He turned his head away and drummed his fingers on the table as he searched for the right words to say. “My Uncle Josh likes to say that if you want to be successful in life, figure out what you’re not good at, and don’t do it.”
Leah had to smile. That sounded like something her father might have said.
“And what I’m not good at is kids. And responsibility. I’m not like Ace, or my father, or my uncle—I don’t know why. I just was born with…something missing.”
Did he really believe this crap? No one knew better than Leah that people weren’t born with the ability to be responsible parents. She certainly hadn’t been mentally prepared to be a mother when Jill was born. She’d loved barrel racing and she’d enjoyed the travel and meeting new people. Settling down hadn’t been in her plans, at all.
But now that she had Jill and Davey, she was grateful for how her life had worked out. She had a feeling that Colt wouldn’t understand, even if she tried to explain. Best to keep things simple between them.
“I get it. You don’t want to be involved with a woman who has children. And you’re probably right. We were always best at being just friends.”
“Right.” Colt didn’t sound convinced, however. The look he gave her was rather pensive, in fact.
Sierra arrived with their food then, and she set the fragrant plates in front of them. “Hope you enjoy. Let me know if you need anything else.”
For a few minutes Leah and Colt ate in silence, though Leah couldn’t remember when she’d last had such a small appetite. Then Colt put down his fork.
“Everything you just said makes perfect sense. But you have to admit…we did have something there for a bit, didn’t we?”
Leah didn’t dare reply, or look up from her food, because she’d been thinking the exact same thing.
Chapter Four
