Animal Prints: Sweet Small Town Contemporary Romance (Michigan Moonlight Book 1) (28 page)

“Sounds like girl stuff.” Nick’s face twisted up in a child version of a sneer.

“You have to climb the trees to pick peaches. If you want to leave that for the girls…”

“No, I’ll do it,” Nick said quickly. “What else?”

Colette pretended to think about it. “How about some riding lessons for you bigger kids this afternoon?”

A chorus of voices reverberated in the kitchen. “Then what?”

“We’ll have to make the peaches into peach pie for dinner. Do you know how to skin a peach?” Colette asked the table of kids. “This afternoon Grandma Jade will come over to help us with the peaches and the pies. If you’re all done eating, we should start picking before it gets any hotter.”

Outside, she gave each kid a basket. After leading them to the orchard, she showed them how a peach was ripe when it pulled easily from the twig. The kids ran wild through the trees looking for the best one to climb. In minutes, all the kids but Connor were up in a tree. Connor sat on Ian’s shoulders to pick from the higher branches. The man had a natural way with kids, no matter the age.

Colette found Ian’s camera where he’d left it in the grass. It took her a minute to figure out how to turn it on and most of the dials and settings meant nothing to her, but she began clicking away. She took several pictures of Ian and Connor before Ian realized what she was doing.

“Hey, no fair. Nobody gets to take my photo.”

“Too bad,” she called, ignoring his dislike of being the subject. “You left the camera within my reach.” She wandered to where the other kids shimmied down trunks or rested in the crooks of the gnarled trees, snapping pictures as she went. This shutter business was sort of addictive. She could see why Ian liked it so much. Plus, behind the camera, there was anonymity. She was trying to review her photos when he approached her.

Need some help?” He offered, anxious to have his camera back.

Colette snapped one more as he came at her before relinquishing the camera. “I want to see them, but I don’t know how.”

Ian was already flipping through the pictures she’d taken. “Not bad for a newbie.” He held the camera so she could see the LCD screen while he reviewed her pictures.
 

“I like that one.” Colette touched his hand to make him stop at the picture of Ian and Connor. The child looked down meeting Ian’s upturned gaze. “I want a copy of it. My two favorite men in the same picture.”

“Connor’s your favorite, isn’t he?”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Probably not to everyone,” he continued to review her photos, “but you’ve taken far more shots of him than the others.”

“I love them all, but there’s something about Connor. When he was born, Nate was away at a conference so I was in the delivery room with Lex. Because there was no father, the doctor handed Connor to me right after he was born. I held him when he was a minute old. It was amazing, and I’ve always felt closer to him than the others.” She tilted her face away from his and looked at his sharp gray eyes. “I want children, Ian, a whole pack of them. If that doesn’t work for you, you have to tell me now.” Her voice shook as she finished speaking. If he said he didn’t want kids, she wasn’t sure what she would do. Give him up? She didn’t think she could.
 

He sucked a breath in and let it out before he said anything, giving Colette just enough time to feel the fear rise within her. “Animals aren’t enough?”

“Nope. I like lots of creatures to love,” she answered.

“Okay,” he nodded. “As long as we have them one at a time, instead of taking on five like this,” he said.

Colette breathed out a mental sigh of relief. “Seems like they come in pairs in your family.”

“We’ll deal with that if we have to.” He rubbed her shoulders with his free hand and nodded his head at Ella and Nick who fought over the right to climb a particular tree. “There are advantages to being a twin. As a kid, you’re never lonely.”

Chapter Seventeen

For the past two nights, Ian had shared a room with his nephew, and despite her exhaustion from chasing kids all day, Colette tossed and turned without him. On Sunday night, after the kids left with their parents, Colette slept like a log in Ian’s arms and woke up refreshed, which was a good way to begin the countdown to the fundraiser. Today, she sprang out of bed just past dawn and headed for the shower.
 

“Where are you going?” Ian groaned, looking at her with one eye from his spot on the bed.

“Gotta get an early start,” she explained, sorry she’d woken him.
 

He raised his head, shooting her a questioning look. “I thought you were only working half time this week.”

“I am, but my list for today is huge.” She imagined it unrolling like Santa’s scroll of who had been a good girl or boy, and she ticked off ideas in the air.

“Get back in this bed,” he commanded, a seductive edge to his voice.

“Ian, please,” she giggled.

“Do I have to come get you?” He lifted his head from the pillow.

“Ian,” she pleaded with him.

“Give me a half hour and I’ll make sure you’re relaxed and smiling all day. Guaranteed.”

“All that in a half hour during the week of the fundraiser.” She sauntered back toward the bed. “Okay, mister, you try.” She dove into bed on top of him.
 

By lunch, she decided he was a man of his word. Despite an incredibly hectic morning at the clinic, she maintained her smile when Mrs. Woolf’s terrier bit a hole in the leg of her pants and Mr. Chentel’s Shih Tzu peed on her shoes.
 

She kept smiling through Wednesday when her parents sat down in the break room of the clinic with her for a late lunch and flipped open the
Tribune
. Together, they scanned the pages until they found the feature on the clinic. Nearly an entire page was dedicated to the animal rescue center and the upcoming event.
 

Lexy burst through the back door with a bag of food and jug of lemonade swinging in her arms. “Did you see it?” She slammed her items down on the table near them.

“Just looking now,” Colette murmured, intent on reading the article. She’d talked to the reporter briefly on Monday, but Ian must have supplied more information plus the pictures. Photos of Colette and the animals, some with the five kids in the barns and pastures, crowded the newspaper page.

“That picture of you is fantastic. When did Ian take it?” Jade pointed to the picture of Colette with Orsino, the miniature horse.

“The first time he came to the farm. Dad’s in the background leaning against the fence.” Colette pushed the paper at her mother so she could see more clearly.

“So he is.” Jade gripped her husband’s hand. “How do you like being in the paper?” She teased.

“Hope no one looks that close,” Jack grumbled, reaching in Lexy’s bag for a sandwich.

“Someone’s looking.” Jade neatly unwrapped a sandwich. “I’ve had several calls already this morning from people who wanted to buy tickets or just wished to donate.”

“You have?” Colette and Lexy said in unison.

“Uh-huh.” Jade sipped her lemonade. “We were already forty percent ahead of last year, now we’re sixty. Hope you have enough food planned, Lexy.”
 

“Oh, geez. I better get back to the café and get to work. Colette, call the rental place and get more serving tables.” Lexy went out the door in a flurry.

“I wasn’t nervous yet. Now I am.” Colette looked at the food her mother put in front of her, but couldn’t convince herself to eat. “What if it doesn’t go well?”

“It’ll be perfect. It was last year, and
this
year, you have extra help.”

“Huh?”

“A certain photographer who keeps hanging around you.” Her mother pointed to Ian’s name under one of the photographs in the paper.

“Right.” Colette blew out a breath.

“Something wrong?” Her father’s tone was gruff as usual.

“No, everything’s right, almost too right. That’s what scares me.” Her parents exchanged a glance she couldn’t interpret.

“Stop worrying. I have a feeling everything’s going to be fine,” Jade said. “You better head out to the farm. I’ll call you later with the sales and donations from today.”
 

By Friday night the tents were up, the silent auction prizes gathered, and enough wine and food filled her house to supply a small army. Ian sat on the front porch steps, a beer in his hand. Against the fading light, his features were sharply chiseled. When she sat next to him, she saw he was in deep concentration. His head swiveled from the large tent in the side yard to the porch’s roof.
 

“We need more lights,” he declared.

“It was bright enough last year.”

“I’m not worried about that. We need more lights for atmosphere. White lights here by the house. You know, the little Christmas tree lights with a twinkle. Out in the orchard, we can outline the trees closest to the tent with green and white lights. I’ve got some other ideas, too.” He chugged the rest of his beer. “Where are your Christmas decorations?”

“In the basement.”

“I’ll go get those. Call Nate and your dad. Ask them to bring me all their lights tonight and any others they can get their hands on. I have to put them up when I can see what they look like.”

“Ian, you don’t have to…”

“I know.” He caught her hand and kissed her fingers. “But I want to.” Headlights bounced down the driveway. “Hey, Adrien’s here. Good, with his height, we’ll get lights up without ladders.”

“I’ll go make the calls and be back to help.”

“Nope.” He pulled her to her feet, giving her a swat on the butt to head her up the stairs. “You’re going to rest, take a hot bath, and go to bed early so you’re ready for tomorrow.”

“What about you?” She paused on the top step.

He waved her into the house. “All I have to do tomorrow is put on a suit and smile. Maybe take a few pictures. Easy stuff.”
 

When Colette looked out her bedroom window at midnight, the silhouettes of four men strung lights in the orchard. Ian stood on a stepladder working lights through the upper branches of a cherry tree. Along with him, she recognized the tall, lean figure of her brother, her father’s burly physique and Nate’s muscular form. At three, Ian woke her when he fell into bed, exhausted

“All done,” he murmured before dropping off to sleep.
 

She rose to look out, but the whole farm was dark except for the half-light of the moon. Returning to bed, she snuggled next to the sleeping Ian. His breathing was already deep and regular. “I love you,” she whispered, even though he didn’t hear.