A Cold Creek Reunion (6 page)

He lifted one of the ear protectors away from her ear so he could talk to her. “Maya, we’re going to turn on the sander, okay?”

“Loud.”

“It won’t be when you have this on. I promise.”

She narrowed her gaze as if she were trying to figure out whether to believe him, then she nodded and returned to the sawdust. He gazed at the back of her head, tiny compared to the big ear guards, and was completely bowled over by her ready trust.

Now he had to live up to it.

He turned on the sander, hoping the too-big ear protectors would still do their job. Maya looked up, a look of complete astonishment on her cute little face. She pulled one ear cup away, testing to see if the sander was on, but quickly returned it to the original position. After a minute, she pulled it away again and then replaced it, a look of wonder on her face at the magic of safety wear.

He chuckled and turned back to Alex, waiting eagerly by the belt sander.

“Okay, the most important thing here is that we don’t sand your fingers off. I’m not sure your mom would appreciate that.”

“She wouldn’t,” Alex assured him with a solemn expression.

Taft had to fight his grin. “We’ll have to be careful, then. Okay. Now you always start up the belt sander before you touch it to the wood so you don’t leave gouges. Right here is the switch. Now keep your hands on top of mine and we can do it together. That’s it.”

For the next few minutes, they worked the piece of wood until he was happy with the way it looked and felt. He always preferred to finish sanding his jobs the old-fashioned way, by hand, but a belt sander was a handy tool for covering a large surface quickly and efficiently.

When they finished, he carefully turned off the belt sander and set it aside, then returned to the board and the boy. “Okay, now here’s the second most important part, after not cutting your fingers off. We have to blow off the sawdust. Like this.”

He demonstrated with a puff of air, then handed the board to the boy, who puckered up and blew as if he were the big, bad wolf after the three little pigs.

“Perfect,” Taft said with a grin. “Feel how smooth that is now?”

The boy ran his finger along the wood grain. “Wow! I did that?”

“Absolutely. Good job. Now every time you come into this room, you can look out through the window and remember you helped frame it up.”

“Cool! Why do you have to sand the wood?”

“When the wood is smooth, it looks better and you get better results with whatever paint or varnish you want to use on it.”

“How does the sander thingy work?”

“The belt is made of sandpaper. See? Because it’s rough, when you rub it on the wood, it works away the uneven surface.”

“Can you sand other things besides wood?” he asked.

Taft had to laugh at the third degree. “You probably can but it’s made for wood. It would ruin other things. Most tools have a specific purpose and when you use them for something else, you can cause more problems.”

“Me,” an abnormally loud voice interrupted before Alex could ask any more questions. With the ear protectors, Maya obviously couldn’t judge the decibel level of her own voice. “I go now.”

“Okay, okay. You don’t need to yell about it,” Alex said, rolling his eyes in a conspiratorial way toward Taft.

Just like that, both of these kids slid their way under his skin, straight to his heart, partly because they were Laura’s, but mostly because they were just plain adorable.

“Can I?” she asked, still speaking loudly.

He lifted one of the ear protectors so she could hear him. “Sure thing, sweetheart. I’ve got another board that needs sanding. Come on.”

Alex looked disgruntled, but he backed away to give his sister room. Taft was even more careful with Maya, keeping his hands firmly wrapped around hers on the belt sander as they worked the wood.

When they finished, he removed her earwear completely. “Okay, now, like I told your brother, this is the most important part. I need you to blow off the sawdust.”

She puckered comically and puffed for all she was worth and he helped her along. “There. Now feel what we did.”

“Ooh. Soft.” She smiled broadly at him and he returned her smile, just as he heard their names.

“Alex? Maya? Where are you?”

Laura’s voice rang out from down the hall, sounding harried and a little hoarse, as if she had been calling for a while.

The two children exchanged looks, as if they were bracing themselves for trouble.

“That’s our mama,” Alex said unnecessarily.

“Yeah, I heard.”

“Alex? Maya? Come out this instant.”

“They’re in here,” he called out, although some part of him really didn’t want to take on more trouble. He thought of their encounter a few days earlier when she had looked so fresh and pretty while she worked on the inn’s flower gardens—and had cut into his heart more effectively than if she had used her trowel.

She charged into the room, every inch the concerned mother. “What’s going on? Why didn’t you two answer me? I’ve been calling through the whole hotel.”

Taft decided to take one for the team. “I’m afraid that’s my fault. We had the sander going. We couldn’t hear much up here.”

“Look, Mama. Soft.” Maya held up the piece of wood she had helped him sand. “Feel!”

Laura stepped closer, reluctance in her gaze. He was immediately assailed by the scent of her, of flowers and springtime.

She ran a hand along the wood, much as her daughter had. “Wow. That’s great.”

“I did it,” Maya declared.

Laura arched an eyebrow. She managed to look huffy and disapproving at him for just a moment before turning back to her daughter with what she quickly transformed into an interested expression. “Did you, now? With the power sander and everything?”

“I figured I would let them run the circular saw next,” he said. “Really, what’s the worst that can happen?”

She narrowed her gaze at him as if trying to figure out if he was teasing. Whatever happened to her sense of humor? he wondered. Had he robbed her of that or had it been her philandering jackass of a husband?

“I’m kidding,” he said. “I was helping them the whole way. Maya even wore ear protection, didn’t you? Show your mom.”

The girl put on her headgear and started singing some made-up song loudly, pulling the ear guards away at random intervals.

“Oh, that looks like great fun,” Laura said, taking the ear protectors off her daughter and handing them to Taft. Their hands brushed as he took them from her and a little charge of electricity arced between them, sizzling right to his gut.

She pulled her hands away quickly and didn’t meet his gaze. “You shouldn’t be up here bothering Chief Bowman. I told you to stay away when he’s working.”

And why would she think she had to do that? he wondered, annoyed. Did she think he couldn’t be trusted with her kids? He was the Pine Gulch fire chief, for heaven’s sake, and a trained paramedic to boot. Public safety was sort of his thing.

“It was fun,” Alex declared. “I got to use the sander first. Feel my board now, Mama.”

She appeared to have no choice but to comply. “Nice job. But next time you need to listen to me and not bother Chief Bowman while he’s working.”

“I didn’t mind,” Taft said. “They’re fun company.”

“You’re busy. I wouldn’t want them to be a bother.”

“What if they’re not?”

She didn’t look convinced. “Come on, you two. Tell Chief Bowman thank-you for letting you try out the dangerous power tools, after you promise him you’ll never touch any of them on your own.”

“We promise,” Alex said dutifully.

“Promise,” his sister echoed.

“Thanks for showing me how to use a sander,” Alex said. “I need one of those.”

Now
there
was a disaster in the making. But because the kid wasn’t his responsibility, as his mother had made quite clear, he would let Laura deal with it.

“Thanks for helping me,” he said. “I couldn’t have finished without you two lending a hand.”

“Can I help you again sometime?” the boy asked eagerly.

Laura tensed beside him and he knew she wanted him to say no. It annoyed the heck out of him and he wanted to agree, just to be contrary, but he couldn’t bring himself to blatantly go against her wishes.

Instead, he offered the standard adult cop-out even though it grated. “We’ll have to see, kiddo,” he answered.

“Okay, now that you’ve had a chance with the power tools, take your sister and go straight down to the front desk to your grandmother. No detours, Alex. Got
it?”

His stubborn little chin jutted out. “But we were having fun.”

“Chief Bowman is trying to get some work done. He’s not here to babysit.”

“I’m not a baby,” Alex grumbled.

Laura bit back what Taft was almost certain was a smile. “I know you’re not. It’s just a word,
mi hijo.
Either way, you need to take your sister straight down to the lobby to find your grandmother.”

With extreme reluctance in every step, Alex took his little sister’s hand and led her out the door and down the hall, leaving Laura alone with him.

Even though he could tell she wasn’t thrilled to have found her children there with him and some part of him braced himself to deal with her displeasure, another, louder part of him was just so damn happy to see her again.

Ridiculous, he knew, but he couldn’t seem to help it.

How had he forgotten that little spark of happiness that always seemed to jump in his chest when he saw her after an absence of just about any duration?

Even with her hair in a ponytail and an oversize shirt and faded jeans, she was beautiful, and he wanted to stand here amid the sawdust and clutter and just savor the sight of her.

As he might have expected, she didn’t give him much of a chance. “Sorry about the children,” she said stiffly. “I thought they were watching
SpongeBob
in the bedroom of Room Twelve while I cleaned the bathroom grout. I came out of the bathroom and they were gone, which is, unfortunately, not all that uncommon with my particular kids.”

“Next time maybe you should use the security chain to keep them contained,” he suggested, only half-
serious.

Even as he spoke, he was aware of a completely inappropriate urge to wrap her in his arms and absorb all her cares and worries about wandering children and tile grout and anything else weighing on her.

“A great idea, but unfortunately I’ve already tried that. Within about a half hour, Alex figured out how to lift his sister up and have her work the chain free. They figured out the dead bolt in about half that time. I just have to remember I can’t take my eyes off them for a second. I’ll try to do a better job of keeping them out of your way.”

“I told you, I don’t mind them. Why would I? They’re great kids.” He meant the words, even though his previous experience with kids, other than the annual fire-safety lecture he gave at the elementary school, was mostly his niece, Destry, Ridge’s daughter.

“I think they’re pretty great,” she answered.

“That Alex is a curious little guy with a million questions.”

She gave a rueful sigh and tucked a strand of hair behind her delicate ear. She used to love it when he kissed her neck, just there, he remembered, then wished the memory had stayed hidden as heat suddenly surged through him.

“Yes, I’m quite familiar with my son’s interrogation technique,” Laura said, oblivious to his reaction, thank heavens. “He’s had six years to hone them well.”

“I don’t mind the questions. Trace and I were both the same way when we were kids. My mom used to say that between the two of us, we didn’t give her a second to even catch a breath between questions.”

She trailed her fingers along the wood trim and he remembered how she used to trail them across his stomach… .

“I remember some of the stories your mother used to tell me about you and Trace and the trouble you could get into. To be honest with you, I have great sympathy with your mother. I can’t imagine having two of Alex.”

He dragged his mind away from these unfortunate memories that suddenly crowded out rational thought. “He’s a good boy, just has a lot of energy. And that Maya. She’s a heartbreaker.”

She pulled her hand away from the wood, her expression suddenly cold. “Don’t you dare pity her.”

“Why on earth would I do that?” he asked, genuinely shocked.

She frowned. “Because of her Down syndrome. Many people do.”

“Then you shouldn’t waste your time with them. Down syndrome or not, she’s about the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. You should have seen her work the belt sander, all serious and determined, chewing on her lip in concentration—just like you used to do when you were studying.”

“Don’t.”

He blinked, startled at her low, vehement tone. “Don’t what?”

“Try to charm me by acting all sweet and concerned. It might work on your average bimbo down at the Bandito, but I’m not that stupid.”

Where did
that
come from? “Are you kidding? You’re about the smartest person I know. I never thought you were stupid.”