“I’m really anxious to get that property.”
“I know—” Sunshine looked around, suddenly aware something was wrong.
Where was Jack?
“Jack?” Sunshine scanned the room. “Jack!”
“Sunshine?”
She cut the call, shoved the phone in her pocket again and searched the room. Had he climbed the stairs? She realized she hadn’t locked the baby gate after coming through it. With her heart in her mouth she raced up the steps two at a time. “Jack!” A quick look in each bedroom and bathroom told her he wasn’t on the second floor. She raced back down again, did a circuit of the main floor, but didn’t find him there either.
Panic clawed at her throat as she raced from room to room for a second time. Only then did she spot the glass sliding door off the den. It was ajar, and the curtains framing it fluttered as a light breeze slipped through it. “Jack!” Her scream came out like a squeak. The baby didn’t have shoes on or a coat. And the ranch was covered in drifts of snow. She raced through the room and out the door, the slick surface of the deck immediately soaking through her socks. “Jack, where are you?”
A thin wail greeted her and Sunshine raced down the steps to where Jack was standing in the snow, lifting first one soaked cold foot and then the other. She scooped him up, her heart beating double time. She didn’t realize she was crying until Jack reached out to touch her cheeks. “Wet!”
“Yes, you’re right. And so are your feet. And mine!” She hustled back up the steps, into the den, and came face to face with Morgan, Rob and Cole.
Chapter 4
“Sunshine—what are you doing?” Cole was too shocked to censor his tone when Sunshine came through the sliding glass door in her stocking feet, a similarly shoeless Jack in her arms. When he, Rob and Morgan had arrived home, the house had been empty. Worry had lifted his heart into his throat.
“He… escaped,” Sunshine said, clearly distraught.
Morgan rushed to take Jack from her arms.
“Weren’t you watching him?” Cole said. He couldn’t believe Sunshine had been so negligent. He’d just spent the last hour—two and a half hours, Cole realized with a jolt as he spotted a clock on the wall—learning everything Morgan and Rob could tell him about growing grapes and making wine. He’d had such a good time he’d forgotten about his problems with Sunshine until they’d approached the house again. Then they’d found the place empty—with Sunshine’s coat and shoes clearly visible in the foyer. Cole had panicked.
“Of course I was—I just stepped into the other room for a minute!”
“You can’t do that!” Cole couldn’t seem to stop himself. He’d concocted an idea about going into business with Rob and Morgan, and he wanted them to like him—and to see him as a responsible individual. Sunshine was blowing it.
“I should have warned you he can open the sliding doors,” Morgan said. “I told you we need to brace them shut,” she said to Rob.
“I’ll get on it today,” Rob said. He turned to Sunshine. “Morgan told me Jack opened one last week. I guess I didn’t quite believe it.”
“I swear I was right with him almost the whole time. I stepped into the kitchen—”
“It’s okay,” Morgan assured her. “No harm done. Toddlers are a handful. Cole’s right; you simply can’t ever look away. Although, of course you have to now and then. You develop a kind of mommy sense when it’s your child.”
“I’m so sorry.” Tears shone in Sunshine’s eyes. Cole’s heart contracted. Of course Sunshine had been doing a good job. He knew how responsible she was.
“It’s our fault for leaving you alone so long,” Rob said. He took Jack from Morgan’s arms. “And I hope you learned your lesson, little man. When you run away you get cold, wet feet.”
“Wet!” Jack crowed again, kicking up his heels.
Rob chuckled. “I’ll go get him changed.”
“I’ll come with you,” Cole said. He was too confused by his reaction to speak with Sunshine, and he wanted to apologize to Rob again for what had happened when they were alone. But when they reached the baby’s room, Rob waved his words away.
“Believe me, this kid has gotten away from all of us a time or two. He’s as slippery as a fish. Aren’t you?”
Jack laughed and allowed Rob to change his pants and socks.
Cole decided to make the most of the opportunity. “I was thinking. Maybe there’s a way I could work together with you and Morgan. I… think I’ll get some land soon,” he said. “We could plant some more vines on my land and you could teach me what I need to know to tend them.”
Rob shook his head. “I appreciate the idea, but the vineyard is something that’s going to take years to grow into a business that can support us, let alone someone else. I’m sorry, but we’re stretched to the hilt and I promised Morgan we would keep things simple until we start to make a profit. I still help out Jamie and Ethan with their businesses, and Morgan helps Autumn. That’s what keeps us solvent.”
Cole nodded, trying to hide his disappointment. “I have to figure out something to do. If it’s not cattle and it’s not horses and it’s not grapes, how can I earn a living? I don’t want to go back to running the rifle range.”
Rob thought about that. “Tell you what; you should talk to Evan Mortimer. The man’s a genius and he’s rich. He and Bella—you remember Bella Chatham right?—bought Carl Whitfield’s old mansion when he decided to pack it in and return to California. Carl tried to get it back when he returned to town.” Rob chuckled at the memory. “But Evan and Bella were too attached. Poor guy; he’s been looking for a suitable place ever since. Anyway, they built a new veterinary hospital and shelter there, and Evan’s working with Jake on sustainable ranching practices. He’s got a herd of bison now that Jake helps him with and he’s thinking of branching out to more specialty products. Between the two of them, they ought to have some ideas.” He finished slipping socks over Jack’s feet and stood the little boy up. “So, you and Sunshine are home for good, huh?”
“Definitely.” He filled Rob in on the restaurant. “I’ve got my work cut out for me sprucing it up before Christmas. I’d better head to town in a few hours and make sure the contractor got that problem cleaned up.”
“I’ll come and give you a hand.”
“How on earth do you do it?” Sunshine asked when Morgan handed her a cup of tea. Her hands were still shaking and she thought she’d have nightmares tonight about losing Jack.
“Do what?”
“Work and be a mom? I can’t believe you’ve started a winery and you don’t have Jack in daycare.”
“Rob and I work things out between us. I have a backpack Jack loves to ride around in, so I try to get as much done as possible with him in there. Then it’s just a big balancing act. Sometimes I work early in the morning, sometimes late at night, sometimes while holding Jack and sometimes alone while Rob has him.” She brought a second cup over to the table and sat down across from Sunshine.