A Cowboy's Christmas Promise (9 page)

A couple of hours later, Hayley had just finished clearing the big farmhouse table from lunch when two little girls blasted in from outside. They were all blond braids, blue eyes, and smiles, and if Hayley wasn't mistaken, they were twins. Her throat felt tight as she realized they were just about the same age as Izzy'd been the last morning she'd seen her.

The girls stopped short when they saw her, tripping into each other and giggling. The one on the left elbowed her sister. “You ask her.”

The one on the right elbowed back. “No. You ask her.”

Hayley took a deep breath, then smiled and crouched down to their level.

Who were these little imps?

“Do you two have an important question?”

Both of them nodded, and Hayley was struck by how clearly they mirrored each other. She was also struck by the fact that each of them had no less than five stuffed animals crammed into their arms.

“Okay, I'm all ears. What's your question?”

The twin on the left plucked a fluffy white stuffed kitten out of her arms and said, “Are you a vet?”

“I am, actually. Do you have a sick kitty?”

“Yes.” Her eyes were very solemn. “She has a tummy ache.”

“Uh-oh. Would you like me to check her out?”

She nodded quickly and handed the cat to Hayley. “Her name's Snowball.”

Hayley gently pretended to examine the stuffed animal. “That is a perfect name for a white kitty. What's
your
name?”

“Gracie.”

“Well, hi, Gracie. I'm Hayley.”

“We know.” Gracie smiled and pulled her sister forward. “This is Bryn. Her stuffies are sick, too.”

Hayley looked at the armload of fluff Bryn carried. “All of them?”

Another solemn nod.

“Oh, boy. Sounds like a case of the stuffie plague. This might call for an animal hospital.”

The girls looked at each other, eyes happy and wide.

Hayley felt a stab in her chest, remembering how she and Celia and Izzy had spent hours bandaging up their stuffed animals long ago. “Do you two have a little free time? Should we set one up?”

Both girls nodded gleefully, then followed Hayley to the kitchen, where they gathered dish towels and tissues and tape. “Hi, Ma!” they chorused as they scooted through her legs.

From the sink, Ma raised her eyebrows at Hayley. “You okay with them?”

“Sure, as long as it's okay that they're in here. Are they supposed to be anywhere else?”

Ma was silent for a second, then smiled. “Looks like they're in just the right place.” She nodded her head toward the fridge. “Girls, there's some ginger ale on the bottom shelf if you think it will help. Just taste it first to make sure it's okay to give the animals.”

Gracie giggled. “Stuffies can't drink ginger ale!”

“Well, then, I guess you'd better drink it yourself. Maybe with a pink cupcake?”

Bryn peered up over the countertop at Hayley's sparkling cupcakes, then pulled down the biggest ones she could find on the tray. “Gracie! Look! Fairy cupcakes!”

As they bit into the birthday cupcakes, getting pink frosting on their noses, Hayley laughed. Thankful for another diversion to help the day pass, she motioned them back toward the great room. “Come on, you two. Let's fix up these animals.”

Daniel crossed the wide front porch of the main lodge, stopping to peer in the screened window when he heard happy voices inside. Two of them belonged to Gracie and Bryn, but the third was decidedly a woman. One with red hair and gorgeous blue-green eyes, if he wasn't mistaken.

Not that he'd been hoping to run into her this morning or anything. And not that he'd managed to find an excuse to stop by Whisper Creek when he didn't really need to. You just never knew with colic, and as a responsible veterinarian, he'd needed to check once more on Apollo to make sure he was truly fine today.

Sure, Cole and Decker were capable of doing the same thing, but they were busy with the wedding and all. Yes, that's why he was here, right?

It had nothing to do with Hayley.

And there she was, sitting on the floor of the great room, a collection of stuffed animals spread out around her on dish-towels. It looked like an epidemic of broken limbs had overtaken the girls' toys, given the reams of tissue and tape wound around most of their legs—and a couple of heads.

He smiled as he remembered picking up the backpack from the door handle this morning, finding it chock-full of stuffed animals instead of snacks. “We just feel like bringing them today,” Gracie had claimed.

“Mm-hm,” Bryn had agreed. “Maybe in case we see Hayley.”

He'd startled at the mention of her name. “Hayley?”

How did they know about her?

Gracie had scowled. “She's Kyla's best friend, silly. She's in the wedding, too. Kyla told us
all
about her. She said she's a kitty vet.”

“And dogs,” Bryn had added. “But just small ones. So we brought some.”

“Because they're sick.” Gracie had nodded.

“All right,” he'd sighed, not at all sure whether Hayley was ready to be bombarded by two animal-crazy seven-year-olds. He didn't even know whether she
liked
kids, though Kyla must have told her about his girls. “You can bring them, but if Hayley's busy, we're going to leave her alone, okay?”

They'd nodded in happy agreement, but when he'd stopped the truck in the Whisper Creek yard, they'd both jumped out and fled up to the main lodge to find her before he could stop them.

And now they were giggling up a storm, having apparently talked Hayley into a role-playing game where she was a pink puppy. A minute later, a stuffed animal race had them all scrambling, with the girls hopping on one leg while Hayley frog-jumped. But then the three of them leaped forward at the same time, and chaos ensued. First Bryn tripped, then Gracie toppled forward, and as Daniel cringed, his two girls got completely tangled with Hayley and all three of them went crashing to the floor.

Before he could wrangle the door open to be sure they were all right, a fit of giggles erupted from the pig pile. Only this time it wasn't Gracie or Bryn doing the giggling. If he wasn't mistaken, it was Hayley.

“So that happened,” her muffled voice came from somewhere under the girls. “And now we're gonna need some more of those casts.”

As he reached for the door handle to go in and help untangle them, he felt a warm hand on his arm. “I wouldn't just yet,” Ma smiled. “She's doing just fine with them.”

“You sure? Sounds like she might need medical care.”

Ma hooked his arm and led him back down the porch stairs toward his truck. “I think Hayley's getting a big ol' dose of just the right medicine with those two. She's fine. You go do what you need to do, and if I think she needs a break, I'll have the girls help me in the kitchen.”

“But—” Daniel looked back toward the lodge.

“Don't you have a tux to go pick up in town?”

“I do, but I was planning to take them with me. You have enough going on around here today.”

“We don't have anything going on here that won't be better with your two angels around, so off you go. Come back after you get done in town, and I'll give 'em back to you then.” She raised her eyebrows. “Admit it. This is better than the alternative. If they're here, they're not with your mother-in-law, right?”

“Good point.”

“Not for me to judge, but I guess if I was as fired up as she says she is about these grandbabies, I might find more time to be with them while I was visiting, instead of shopping.” She waved him into his truck. “Now, you go. Don't worry about a thing here.”

On his way into town, Daniel kept shaking his head and smiling, remembering the scene in the lodge. Since Katie's death, the girls had had a tough time attaching to adults other than him, and yet they'd apparently glommed right onto Hayley like they'd known her forever. Watching her with the girls, he had to admit she had a way with kids.

He wondered whether she wanted her own someday.

Then wondered why he was wondering.

Later that afternoon, Hayley and the girls were in the meadow working on the wedding decorations when Gracie tugged on Hayley's shirt. “Hayley, can we see your funny dress?”

“My funny dress?” Hayley finished tying a big bow on the last white rental chair in the row. Ma had sent the three of them out with acres of ribbon, a big pair of scissors, and instructions not to return until all of the chairs on the ends of the rows were bedecked.

“For the wedding. Daddy said you had to wear a funny-looking dress.”

Oh, re-eally
. News traveled fast around here if even the Whisper Creek guests and their kids knew about her upcoming wardrobe issues.

“Well, Kyla's having a special kind of wedding because we're here in the mountains and everything. So she picked a special…mountain kind of dress for her bridesmaids.”

“Can you show us?”

“I would, but it's all packed in a bag in my cabin so it doesn't get dirty. I'm not allowed to unzip the bag until tomorrow morning.”

“Who not allowed you?” Bryn's eyes were wide, like she couldn't believe an adult had been given such a directive.

“Kyla did, but it's really okay. I have kind of a bad habit of losing things, so she was trying to help.”

“Do you have to wear a special hat?”

“Thank goodness, no. But maybe I should do my hair in braids on top of my head! What do you think?” Hayley twisted her hair and pulled it up on top of her head, posing like a model.

“Exquisite,” came a deep voice directly behind her. She spun quickly, almost losing her balance as she let her curls flop back around her shoulders.

“Daniel! Hi!” She felt her cheeks blaze.
Oh, jeez.
“I didn't see you.”

“Figured that. Thought they'd fired you from crafts?” He grinned, then leaned over to look at Bryn and Gracie. “Hi, girls. You keeping Hayley busy?”

Hayley turned back toward the girls and pointed. “This is Gracie, and this is Bryn. We're the official chair bow-tiers for the wedding. And yes, I was finally fired from crafts, the fact that I'm carrying scissors notwithstanding.”

“Silly Hayley.” Gracie grinned. “You don't have to introduce us! This is Daddy!”

Hayley watched as they leaped for him, all of the colors of the meadow spinning into a strange kaleidoscope as their voices went hollow.

Then her voice came out all scratchy and soft.

“Daddy?”

“How could you not tell me he has…children?” Hayley ground out the word as she paced the living area of her cabin an hour later.

Kyla sat on the edge of the couch, her eyes wide and troubled. “I thought you knew!”

“How would I know? Who would have told me?”

“I figured
he
had! You guys spent the entire night together, and you played with the girls most of the day! I'm sorry, Hayls. I really thought you already knew.”

“And you didn't wonder why I wasn't running as fast as a rabbit the other way?”

Kyla shrugged. “I guess…I thought maybe you were intrigued enough that the kid part of the equation was maybe not a deal-breaker this time.”

“Umm, wrong. Kids are
always
a deal-breaker. Always have been, always will be.” Hayley paced. “It's bad enough to fall for a
guy
who will eventually say good-bye. No way am I going to risk falling for his children, too.”

“Not all men are like your stepdad, Hayls. They don't all leave.” Kyla was quiet for a few seconds. Then she got up and stepped in front of Hayley, stopping her progress across the living room. “And you're not your mother, Hayley. Letting a man into your life,
really
letting him in, doesn't mean you'll turn out like her.”

“I know that.” Hayley sat down hard in the recliner.

She did, right?

“I know. But Kyla, my mother didn't start out that way. She was a perfectly functional, normal human being. She just believed a little too hard in love, and look where that got her.”

“Doesn't mean it'd be the same for you.”

“But it very well could be, and that scares the bejeezus out of me.”

“So have you decided not to believe in it at all? Ever?”

“It's a strategy.”

Kyla's eyes watered. “What about me and Decker? You're standing up as my bridesmaid in less than twenty-four hours. Do you believe in
us
?”

“Absolutely.”
Merda.
“Of course I do, Kyla. You two are an anomaly. Anybody who knows either of you knows this was meant to be.” Hayley forced a smile. No way was she going to reveal just how terrified she was for her best friend. Kyla had the biggest heart of anyone she knew. What if Decker trampled it?

Hayley sighed. “It's different.
You're
different. I'm just not—not wired that way.”

“I don't believe that's true.” Kyla's voice was quiet. “I think you're stronger than you give yourself credit for. You wouldn't turn into what your mom turned into.”

Hayley pictured herself falling apart in Ma's kitchen only hours ago. “Not so strong, unfortunately.”

“Falling in love doesn't mean you have to—I don't know—sign a part of yourself over, you know. You'd still be Hayley Scampini, freakishly strong poodle-pet vet.”

“Because truly, there's nothing more awesome than that, right?” Hayley rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Kyla looked at her in that assessing way that made Hayley feel like her brain was under a dissection microscope. “Falling in love doesn't mean you lose yourself, Hayls. Sometimes it means you find yourself.”

“I love that you feel that way. I
especially
love that you feel that way on the day before your wedding, but what about a year down the road? Two years? Five? Ten? That's when I worry.”

“That's because you choose to worry. I made a choice to
stop
worrying before it ate me alive. You might remember the basket case I was when you and Jess dragged me out here last year, right?”

Hayley smiled. “Might have helped if your two best friends didn't pick a dude ranch vacation for a girl desperately afraid of horses.”

“True enough.”

“Aha!
That's
why you're putting us in dirndls! It's revenge, isn't it?”

Kyla tipped her head. “I hadn't actually considered the revenge angle, but there's still time.” She crossed over to Kyla and sat on the arm of the chair, squeezing her shoulder. “All I did for two years was worry. I worried about money, about guilt, about how I was going to even get through the next day. And all it got me was more worry. Being afraid is awful, Hayls. Fear sucks the life out of you.”

“Is this where you tell me if I continue on my current path, someday I'm going to be sitting alone at the nursing home, a dried-up prune with no visitors?”

“Would that help?”

Both of them jumped as Decker rapped on the cabin door. “Kyla? You in there, honey? Are you plotting a getaway?”

Kyla looked at her watch. “Oh, no. Oh, it's so late. I'm sorry, Hayls. Can we talk later? We have to go into town to get our rings.”

“Go, go. Of course. Don't worry about me. I'm fine! Go have fun. Get those rings!”

Kyla leaned down and gave Hayley a quick hug. “I'm really sorry. I thought you knew about Gracie and Bryn. Please believe me. I would never have held back on that for this long.”

“Well, the fact that it's Celia's birthday probably doesn't help. I'm not that enamored with men-who-might-d
isappear-with-c
hildren on days like today.”

“Daniel's not Roger, Hayls. He's not going anywhere.”

“And he's the sweetest guy you know besides Decker. I know, I know.” Hayley winked and got up from the chair, steering Kyla toward the door as she took a deep breath to gather herself.

“Go, silly. Your groom awaits. I'll see you at the rehearsal.”

“Are you okay? Really okay?”

“I'm fine. I allow myself two days a year to get stupidly emotional. Your wedding just happened to fall right next to one of them. I'll be fine, I promise. Won't drip tears on my dirndl tomorrow or anything.” Hayley glanced at the clock on the wall. “Jess should finally be here in an hour or so, so we'll be in the meadow with bells on. Or dresses. Probably dresses.”

“Don't forget that silly ribbon bouquet thing from my shower.”

Hayley made a locking sound and twisted an imaginary key on her forehead. “Wouldn't dream of it. If the bride has no ribbon bouquet, the wedding simply can't go on!”

“Hayley?”

“I know. Be quiet.”

Kyla gave her another quick hug. “I've gotta go. I'll see you at the rehearsal.” Then she did a tiny squeal. “Rehearsal! Me! Decker! Can you believe this?”

Hayley walked her to the porch, where Decker sat waiting on the swing.

“You two done squeaking and squawking in there?”

“We were doing neither.” Kyla adopted a prim pose, only to have him grab her playfully around the waist and pull her down into the swing with him, making her squeak once again. “Decker!”

“Sorry. I haven't even seen you all day. Couldn't resist.” He kissed her on the nose, then set her back upright. “You ready to go into town?”

“Ready!”

“Hayley, can we trust you to hold down the fort here?” Decker paused, grimacing carefully. “Did I just say that?”

“With witnesses, even.”

As Hayley watched them walk hand-in-hand up the pathway toward the main lodge, Hayley thought back to her afternoon with Gracie and Bryn, and the way-too-late realization that the man making her suddenly sleepless at night was—
gulp
—their father.

Kyla was right. Daniel wasn't Roger. He was probably a perfectly nice guy, a great father, and an amazing vet. He probably gave to charity, played games with his kids, and knew how to kiss a woman silly. He was probably ninety-nine percent unlikely to promise someone a future and then yank it—and his children—out from under her.

But that one percent was a bigger risk than Hayley was willing to take.

“Come here, Gracie. Let me fix that hair of yours.” Daniel looked out the bathroom door an hour later to see Evelyn motioning to Gracie, who was spinning around in her new dress.

“But Daddy just did it.” She spun again. “Did you see my new dress, Nana?”

“I did, princess. Does it have a sweater to go with it?”

Daniel paused his braiding of Bryn's hair, wishing he could signal Evelyn to end that line of questioning before she got started. He and the girls had spent the better part of two hours in the children's clothing store downtown last weekend, trying to find dresses for tonight.

Of course, it was August, so the fall and winter clothing was on display, and both girls had fallen in love with dresses that would have turned them into roast turkeys within an hour tonight. In the end, he'd had to promise both chicken fingers
and
ice cream in order to get them to agree on the two light, lacy dresses they were currently wearing. Without matching sweaters.

Gracie pouted. “Daddy wouldn't let us pick out the dresses with sweaters. He said they'd be too hot.”

“Well.” Evelyn raised her eyebrows, the weight of that one four-letter word landing squarely on his shoulders—as usual. “It might be hot now, but it's going to be cooler later. You're going to need a sweater.”

He leaned out the bathroom door. “I'll grab them something warmer for later, Evelyn.”

“Do they have something that suits the occasion?”

Probably not.
“Absolutely.”

Bryn looked up, making him drop a section of her hair. “Will Hayley be at the rehearsal?”

He swallowed hard at the mention of her name, remembering how stricken her face had looked when she'd heard the girls utter the word
daddy
earlier. She'd covered it well, but he hadn't been able to miss the expression that had flooded her eyes. He also hadn't been able to interpret it, except to know that obviously Hayley had been playing with the girls all afternoon, not knowing they were his.

“Daddy? Will she be there?”

“Yes. Sure.” He folded another lock of hair over and under, trying to remember what that damn website had said to do next. “Of course. She'll be there.”

“With her funny dress?”

He smiled and squeezed her cheek softly. “I think she's saving the funny dress for tomorrow.”

“Rats. I want to see it.”

“Rats? Where did you learn that expression?”

“From Hayley. She says it.”

He twisted one more section of her hair, then bobby-pinned it to her head. Huh. YouTube had become his single-dad go-to resource for all things
girl,
and once again, it hadn't let him down. Her hair actually looked good, if he said so himself.

Take that, Evelyn.

He kissed Bryn's cheek. “You're gorgeous. Now go get your shoes on and we'll get going.”

After the girls had tromped up the stairs to get their new white shoes, Evelyn uncrossed her legs and sat forward. “I know this probably isn't the time, but I'm just wondering. Is there a chance we're going to be able to find some time to speak freely this weekend?”

“About?”

“About Southwick, for one thing. And some other ideas we have.”

Daniel's gut simmered as he leaned down to grab a handful of toys, stalling for time. He tossed them into the huge toy box he'd built under the window, running words through his head. One of these days he was going to get the girls to start being more responsible for picking up after themselves. He kept meaning to start a chore chart, but hadn't found the time yet to make it happen.

He kept meaning to do a lot of things—but time seemed to evaporate these days.

He took a deep breath. “Evelyn, I do appreciate what you're trying to do. Don't think I don't. But I'm not sending my girls back to Denver. Not to live in a dormitory, and not to live with you.”

“You're welcome to come back as well, you know. I'm honestly having a hard time believing you'd throw away the chance at a Southwick education for them, just to stay up here in—Montana.” She spoke the state name like it had thorns.

She looked around in disdain. “We both know Katie wanted them to be raised in Denver, not in this—this wilderness.”