“Hey, Carl. Good. You got plans for the holidays?”
Carl nodded. “The Coopers invited me to join them.”
“Do you know Cole?” Jake introduced them. “Carl rents a place on the Cooper ranch.”
“We haven’t met, but I’ve heard of you.” Carl chuckled. “You’re a lucky man, I hope you know that.”
“Lucky? How?” Cole asked.
Carl just shook his head. “You’ll figure it out soon enough. Merry Christmas to both of you, if I don’t see you again.” He turned and hurried off down the sidewalk, disappearing into the door of the real estate office down the block.
“What was that all about?” Cole asked Jake.
“Hell if I know. He’s right, though. You are lucky. You’ve got everything a man could want, don’t you?”
Cole pondered that as he followed Jake into the restaurant. Was he making this all too difficult?
He didn’t have time to sort it out during the next hour. Angelica Russell, a local dance instructor, had already arrived. Ethan and Jamie, who now possessed a key to the place, had let her in. She was just setting up the music when Cole and Jake walked in, a country tune with an up-tempo beat he recognized. Ethan, Jamie, Rob, Cab, Evan and Jake all stood around awkwardly, watching the young, beautiful woman prepare, and Cole was surprised to see Ned and Luke Matheson there as well.
“They offered to help. I told them if they help, they have to dance. I was surprised when they agreed, to be honest,” Jake told him.
“Hate it when I screw up. Might as well get some extra practice,” was all Ned would let on when Cole questioned him a few minutes later.
When Angelica told them she needed a bigger space cleared, they all jumped in to help move tools and boxes out of the way.
“You boys ready for this?” Angelica asked. She took a position in front of them. Dressed in jeans, a red plaid shirt layered over a white tank top, and a pair of battered boots, she was like any other young woman in these parts. Except Angelica was pretty enough to be a model. Cole expected the whole exercise to be awkward as hell with a hot young thing flirting with a bunch of married—or almost-married—men, but Angelica surprised him again when she turned out to be a no-nonsense teacher. She didn’t flirt at all. Instead, she executed a series of steps, clapping out the rhythm as she went, then had them repeat it.
Their first attempt was downright pathetic. Cole just about managed to copy her, as did Jake and Ethan. Jamie and Cab crashed headlong, then spent the next few minutes blaming each other. Cole wasn’t sure what Ned was doing—it wasn’t dancing. Luke began to laugh the minute they started to move and couldn’t seem to stop.
“Okay, okay,” Angelica said. “Let’s try that again.”
So it went—with Angelica walking through each set of steps patiently and the men trying to copy them with varying degrees of success. Cole had to hand it to her—she had the patience of a saint, although she did finally separate Cab and Jamie before either of them landed a punch on the other.
As they went, she added each new series of steps to the old ones until an hour and a half later, they could do a complete song. The routine had lots of repetition, but enough variety that it wasn’t dull. Cole felt like he’d actually accomplished something by the end of the lesson. At the very least, he was glad to find he didn’t have two left feet.
Ethan looked at his watch. “Hell—I’ve got to get home.”
“Chores?” Cole asked him.
“Arianna’s bedtime.” Ethan grinned sheepishly. “I give her a growly bear ride to bed every night. She doesn’t sleep as well if I’m not there to do it.”
“Lynn’s the same,” Jamie said, reaching for his coat. “Except she prefers a monkey ride. Sometimes it’s off the hook. Claire hates it.” He shrugged. “Thinks I’m going to drop her.”
“We’re not quite the hard-drinking crowd you used to know, huh?” Cab said to Cole, clapping him on the shoulder as he headed for the door. “Thanks, Angelica.”
“See you all in a couple of days. Good work, guys!”
Cole and Jake waited for the others to leave and thanked Angelica again. On the ride home, Cole thought about what Cab had said. He was right; everyone had changed. They were the same rowdy cowboys they’d always been, but they’d grown up a bunch, too.
Their priorities had changed.
“Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be,” Jake drawled as he turned the truck homeward.
“No,” Cole agreed. “It wasn’t.”
“You could stay with us,” Hannah said the next morning when she helped load their suitcases into the back of her truck, “but now that the rest of us have had our turn hosting you, Fila and Mia are clamoring for their turns. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” Sunshine said. It would be ungrateful to be anything but thankful that people actively wanted her to stay with them, but she was bone tired and still waiting to hear from Cole if he’d made up his mind. They’d gone to bed without saying much to each other again the night before, although Cole had kissed her soundly and stroked her hair before settling in to sleep. She sensed he was still deep in thought about the matter, and she had to appreciate that he hadn’t simply stuck to his first knee-jerk reaction. Cole was a thoughtful man under all that testosterone.
Meanwhile, she had to make up her mind, too. She’d been waiting to hear what he had to say, but she couldn’t put Carl off anymore and she had decided it wasn’t fair to rest her decision to sell or keep the ranch on Cole. She needed to think this through herself.
Hannah helped Sunshine move her things into the small cabin Fila and Ned inhabited on the Double-Bar-K and then took her to her ranch so she could finish cleaning before the painters came in the afternoon.
“I wish I could stay to help,” Hannah said. “Are you going to be okay out here by yourself?”
“Absolutely. To be honest, I’m craving a little time alone. I’ve got my cell phone—I’ll be fine.”
After Hannah drove away, the quiet settled in and soothed her jangled nerves, wrapping around her like a soft blanket. It began to snow, and—mesmerized—Sunshine moved through the house and out the door to the porch. She let the flakes fall on her face, shivering a little in the cold air. The hiss of the snow was the only sound and for the first time in nearly three years, Sunshine knew she was the only person for miles.
She let out a breath that she might have been holding since she boarded her original flight out from Chance Creek. She felt so much older now. Wiser, too.
At peace.
Sunshine nodded. She was at peace. She held her hands out and spun in a slow circle, letting the snow slip over her like a benediction. Of all the places in the world she’d traveled to, this was where she belonged. Life kept leading her here. She didn’t know why. Maybe she never would.
It didn’t matter.
She stopped her circling and peered out as far as the snow would let her see. Could she make this ranch her world? This town? These people?
She thought of all the women who’d come to help her over the previous week. Maybe she could.
Would she have to tailor her vision of her career? Probably, although her discussion with Emma last night had revealed a woman whose ambition nearly matched her own. Their ideas had bounced off each other until they’d hardly been able to breathe for the words spilling out of their mouths.