He hadn’t expected today to turn out this way, but decorating had been a blast, thanks to Ava and her lively attitude. Plus, his house looked amazing. The place hadn’t been decorated since his mother moved away, and it was great to see it all decked out again.
“I wish your mom and Chet could have been here with us,” Marjorie said. “You should send her some pictures and let her see how pretty the place looks. She would love it.”
“Good idea. I think I will.”
Marjorie was right. His mother would love to see the house decorated and to know friends orchestrated the whole thing. Mom often teased him about being too introverted and too proud to ask for help. She was fond of saying, “No cowboy is an island, Caleb.”
He searched for Ava and found her loading up her vehicle, and his heart skipped a beat. Spending time with her had him entertaining some pretty intense thoughts.
Marjorie picked up her glass of lemonade and perched on the picnic table next to the barbeque grill. Caleb kept his head down, scraping at the residue left from the hamburger meat and hot dogs.
The car’s rear hatch door slammed closed and Caleb glanced up just in time to get a magnificent view of Ava’s backside. The jeans fit her fanny as if tailor-made. Ava straightened, turned, and caught him staring.
A slow, knowing grin spread across her gorgeous face and she gave a little wave.
Dang it!
He went back to the grill.
Marjorie cleared her throat pointedly.
Caleb met her gaze.
Her eyes lit with a matchmaking light. She drew her jacket more tightly around her as the wind kicked up. “Ava tells me you two are dating again but are taking it slow.”
Double dang it.
“That’s the plan.” It surprised Caleb that Ava had discussed their relationship with her mother, although he wasn’t sure why that startled him. Ava and her mother got along well. No reason for her not to share what was going on in her life.
“Good idea,” she said. “You want to make sure it’ll stick this time before getting deeply involved.”
Personally, he wasn’t used to discussing his private life with people and he was uncomfortable discussing Ava behind her back.
“I’d hate to see you get hurt all over again.”
“It’ll be fine. We’ve discussed a long-distance relationship and we’re hoping to make it work.”
“But how? I mean honestly?”
That brought him up short.
Marjorie’s gaze fixed on her daughter and she got a faraway look in her eyes. “I just don’t know. She’s currently out of a job and she doesn’t seem in any hurry to find another one, but at heart she’s a go-getter and there’s nothing much to go get around here.”
“That she is,” Caleb murmured. He admired Ava’s enterprising nature. Ironic that one of her best qualities was the same thing that had taken her away from him.
“I wonder if she’ll ever satisfy her need to challenge herself and explore,” Marjorie mused.
“You’re saying I should abandon all hope for an eventual future with her?”
Marjorie locked eyes with Caleb. “I’m saying if you’re waiting for her to change, you’ll be waiting a long time.”
Caleb didn’t want to change her. He liked her just as she was, but was that enough?
You could always roam with her. She asked you to come along the first time. But that meant selling the ranch, giving up the one thing that had grounded him in his youth after his dad died. And what would he do with himself if he went with her? Ranching was all he knew.
And remodeling. You could buy houses and flip them.
“Ava is her own person,” Marjorie mused. “She’s always followed her own path in life. Even as a little girl, she was headstrong. I wanted her to wear dresses and frilly things. She insisted on jeans and sneakers.”
“You ready to go, honeybunch?” Ted ambled from the house, settling his baseball cap on his head. “The dogs are gonna wonder where we’ve gotten off to.”
“Yes.” Marjorie got up. “I was just telling Caleb how much we appreciated him letting us help decorate his place. Now he’s not the only house in Kringle without lights.”
“That’s overstating a bit.” Ted chuckled and gave his wife a kiss on the cheek. “There’s one or two other grinches in Kringle.”
“I’m not a grinch,” Caleb protested.
“No.” Marjorie beamed. “Not anymore.”
Thanks to go-getter Ava, he thought and closed the lid of the cleaned grill.
Ted laced his arm through his wife’s and led her to their vehicle.
“Bye-bye, Caleb,” Marjorie said with a jaunty wave, as if she hadn’t just stirred up a whirlwind of doubt inside him.
Thanks bunches, Marjorie. Drop a bomb and then just walk away.
Caleb blew out a deep breath and felt like cursing. He might not be the brightest cowpoke in the posse, but he knew a warning shot when he heard one. Ava’s own mother worried that her daughter would break his heart again.
Ava was beautiful and fun, perky and smart. He knew why he kept falling in love with her.
Who you kidding, Sutton? You never fell out of love with her.
Stunned by the truth, he felt helpless as he wandered over to join Ava beside her parents’ vehicle where they stood chatting. It was getting late and everyone was preparing to leave.
“We were just talking about the parade,” Ava said, including him in the conversation. The Christmas parade was on Friday, and then Home for the Holidays was the day after.
“Are you all set for Home for the Holidays?” he asked.
“For what it’s worth, we covered the entire town with posters.” Ted grinned.
“Fingers crossed.” Marjorie held up her crossed fingers.
“I bet a mob shows up to adopt. It’s gotten a lot of publicity. We even got mentioned on the local TV affiliate.” Ted slipped an arm around his wife’s waist and drew her closer.
Caleb looked at Ava. “Are you set?”
“Yep.”
He wanted to believe she was right, but he still worried about the small shelter’s ability to handle a vast crowd. Ava might like to go with the flow, but he’d have felt better if she had a clear-cut plan.
“You’ll get overrun,” he mumbled.
She grinned. “Worrywart. We’ll be fine. Several people have already stopped by to adopt early. Everything will be fine. Trust the universe for once, Caleb.”
Caleb rolled his eyes.
“What? You’ve never heard the expression, ‘Let go and let God’?”
“I’m thinking about the verse that goes, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’”
Ava drew back her shoulders and thrust out her chin. “I am helping myself.”
“Oh, really? Do you have signage directing people where to go? Are there extra volunteers scheduled? You need to organize your affairs. Things can go wrong.”
“Maybe you need to trust me.” Ava’s smile faded. “I know what I’m doing, Caleb. Everything is going to be okay.”
“She’s got it under control,” Ted soothed. “Ava’s baking this cake; let’s get out of her kitchen.”
Okay, fine. None of the Millers worried about her lack of preparation. Why was he?