Mistletoe Cowboy (5 page)

“I read that book,” Creed said.

Sage turned her head so quickly that her neck cracked. “Why would a cowboy like you read that book?”

“Because my brother's wife mentioned it and because I wanted to understand why women are the way they are.”

“Did you learn anything?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not much. Just that y'all are temperamental. That y'all approach things you can't change with anger or tears. And that to really understand a woman is impossible.”

He changed the subject abruptly. “Wonder what the puppies will look like? Maybe they'll have some old redbone in them.”

“Not a chance. Noel wouldn't fall in love with a huntin' hound. She's going to have Irish setter puppies or maybe even beagles, but not an old coonhound, are you, baby girl?” Sage kissed the dog between the eyes and went back to her painting.

It was nearly time for chores and the storm had gotten even worse. Sage finished what she was working on and cleaned her brushes. She went to the kitchen and put a pan of milk on a burner to heat for hot chocolate, took down the cocoa and sugar and marshmallows, and then reached for two mugs.

She lit two oil lamps, carried one to the end table beside the sofa, and put the other one in the middle of the kitchen table. That brought precious little light into the room, but it beat trying to do anything in the darkness. After supper she'd scrounge around in the pantry for candles or more lamps so they could have one in each bedroom and the bathroom.

And matches! She'd need to put them beside the lamps so they could reach them without fumbling around and knocking off the lamp. Grand would be really mad if they wasted expensive lamp oil.

Creed looked up from his book when she set the mug of hot chocolate on the table beside him and said, “Thank you. That looks good.”

“I thought we'd need a warm pick-me-up before we went out to feed. I'll gather the eggs and feed the hogs if you'll milk the cow. I hate milking and I'm so slow the milk will freeze in the bucket before I ever get the job done,” she said.

“It's not in the contract that you have to help with chores,” he said.

“You helped cook. I'll help with the outside work.”

“I don't turn down willing help.”

Willing or otherwise, she would help him because it was fair. It wasn't fair at all that she had an almost instant attraction to the very man she had been determined not to like at all.

Sage was not innocent. She was twenty-six and she'd had a couple of relationships. There was Victor, a fellow art student in college that lasted at least six months before he accused her of being afraid of commitment. Then there was Justin who'd worked for Lawton four years ago who accused her of the same thing. True, it had been a long time since she'd been to bed with a man, but she wasn't a casual sex woman. If there wasn't something there beyond a one-night romp in the hay, she wasn't interested. But the honest truth was that she could never remember any man in her past that had created the stir in her heart like Creed had that day.

She finished her chocolate and Noel followed her to her room.

“You ready to go back out, are you? Well, you wear your fur coat. I have to get my insulated coveralls on before I can go,” she said.

Sage removed her sweat suit, pulled on long thermal underwear, and then put her sweats back on, along with two pair of wool socks and a mustard-colored coverall much like Creed's. She zipped it up the front, jammed her feet down into work boots, and picked up her face mask and gloves.

When she reached the kitchen, Creed was putting on his boots.

“Ready to brave it?” he asked.

“I'm ready,” she answered.

Noel barked and danced around the back door.

“Oh, no, young lady. You can't go out in that kind of weather,” Creed said.

“You'd best let her go if she wants to. She's been inside all day. I bet her bladder is about to explode. Don't you know that pregnant women have to go a lot?” Sage said and then stopped before she opened the door. “You don't think she'll run away, do you?”

“She knows where the food is.”

The minute she could get out, Noel disappeared in the snow, chasing around like a puppy.

Sage bent into the wind and went straight for the barn. She filled two buckets with feed for the hogs and carried them to their trough. It was easy to fill without going into the lot. Just open up a trap door on the back of their shed and pour the feed in. That done, she braved the biting snow back to the barn.

“Hey, give me a hand here. I'm thinking if we leave the back door of the barn open, we can shove one of these big round bales into it and it will stay dry longer. The lean-to will keep the snow from drifting up against it. If the barn was bigger, I'd just open it up and bring the cattle all inside.”

“Poor old cows, but they are better off in the lot than they'd be out in the canyon,” Sage said.

“At least this way their hay will be dry. Open the doors when I get close.”

It was an ingenious idea. The hay was wedged into the space so the cows couldn't get into the barn. The lean-to kept the snow from blowing into it so the cattle at least had dry hay, even if it was cold. If they had Dutch doors they could shove a big round bale of hay in the bottom and shut the top doors. She'd have to remember to talk to Grand about that when she got home.

Creed hopped off the tractor and said, “Now to the milking.”

“And to the eggs. Meet you in the house… did you hear that?”

“What?”

She cocked her head to one side. “It sounded like a baby crying.”

The cattle were eating and the ones who couldn't get to the hay were fussing about having to wait. The milk cow was putting up a bawling fit about her full udder, and Noel had joined them in the barn. She cocked her head to one side and sniffed the air.

“Shhh, there it is again,” Sage said.

Creed turned his ear toward the empty stall behind Sage.

“I don't hear a thing. You sure it's not the wind?”

She listened intently. “No, it's coming from the stall next to the cow.”

Creed took a step in that direction. “I'd say it is kittens, but it's the wrong season. Cats don't usually have babies in the winter because they don't survive.”

“We don't have cats.”

Creed opened the door and pointed. “You do now. Those are newborn kittens right there. Recognize the big old yellow mother?”

Sage dropped down on her knees and moved the mother cat to one side. “There are three of them and I've never seen any of these animals before.”

Noel plowed right into the stall and touched noses with the momma cat. She purred when Noel nosed each of the newborn kittens.

Creed smiled. “Would you look at that? She's not afraid of the dog and Noel isn't killing kittens. Those two are friends. There ain't no doubt about it. A normal momma cat would have scratched a dog's eyes out if she'd gotten close to her babies, but they know each other. They were probably hauled off at the same time. Looks like it's a two-for-one day for you, Sage. You get a cat and a dog and you're going to get Christmas presents early in the way of kittens and puppies. I can put some warm milk in a pan for her when I do the milking.”

“They'll freeze out here, Creed. We'll have to take them inside or they'll be dead by morning,” Sage said.

“They are out of season for sure. Cats usually don't have litters until the spring and then maybe another in the fall, but not in December. Looks of them, they were just born today, and you are right, they won't live in this kind of cold.”

“The only thing to do is take them in the house. We can make a litter pan out of an old dishpan if you'll bring in a bucket of dirt from the barn floor. I wonder how long she's been in the barn.”

Creed grinned. “Evidently she's been here long enough to have babies. Do you want to carry her and the kittens in the house or get the eggs?”

“I'll get the eggs. I'd be afraid I'd drop one of those little things in the snow and it would freeze to death before I could find it.”

“Then I'll take her and the kittens inside and come back to finish my end of the chores,” he said.

She'd gathered four eggs and was already in the house when she realized that she'd obeyed his orders without even thinking.

“Well, shit!” she said as she washed the eggs and put them into containers to go into the refrigerator.

What a day!

First no Grand.

Then a cowboy and a dog and mistletoe everywhere.

That was more than enough for one day, but then the angel appeared along with the cardinal. And now cats!

And this was just day one. There were twenty more to go.

Creed came in right behind her, a momma cat's head poking out of his coveralls at chest level. “She's a good cat. She didn't even scratch me when I zipped up to just under her chin. She knows I'm bringing her into a warm place.”

“Noel told her when she bumped noses with her that we were good folks,” Sage said.

“Got a basket and a towel or another old blanket?” Creed asked before he removed the cat from inside his coveralls.

Sage grabbed an extra plastic laundry basket from the pantry and hurried back to the hallway to find a blanket in the linen closet. When she returned he unzipped to his waist and handed her the yellow momma cat. She was nothing but an armful of bones and long fur.

“Good grief, Creed, she's skinny. Her hair made her look like she was chubby, but I can feel her ribs.”

“She and Noel have been on the run for a while. I told you I bet they were dropped at least a week ago and they've been living on whatever they could scrounge up.”

“Where are the kittens?” Sage asked.

Creed pulled two black ones from one pocket and a yellow one from the other. He laid them gently in the basket and Sage put the momma in with them.

“Think she's hungry?” Sage asked.

“Probably half starved, but we've got lots of milk. Give me a few minutes and she can even have it warm right from the cow. Whip up a couple of those fresh eggs to go in it for extra protein and she'll love it.”

Noel checked out the cat and kittens, then went straight for her own blanket.

“Whoever dumped them should be shot,” Sage grouched.

“It happens, but they've got a good home now, don't they? I'm going back out and milk before I get too warm in all these layers. See you in a few minutes,” Creed said.

The door opened, a blast of cold air swept across the floor, and then it closed again.

“Yes, you do have a good home now. Don't you worry, momma cat. We won't let your babies die.” Sage removed her coveralls and hung them up, cleaned the water from the floor again, and went straight to the living room. She shoved two more logs into the fireplace and sat down on the floor between the animals.

“I didn't even want pets. So what makes the difference?” she said aloud.

I
wanted
you
to
have
a
pet
because
you
needed
something
to
love
that
wouldn't leave you. Looks like you got them because they needed you.
It was Grand's voice again but Sage just nodded in agreement.
Could
be
that
the
cowboy
needs
you
too.

Sage set her mouth firmly and said, “Now that is enough.”

Noel looked up and whimpered.

“I wasn't talking to you. You can stay as long as you like. There's lots of room on the ranch for your puppies. And your friend and her babies can live in the barn when the cold weather passes and it's warm enough to put them out there.”

“What did you name her?” Creed asked when he returned half an hour later, a bucket of milk in one hand and a bucket of dirt in the other.

Sage looked from man to cat and back again.

“Well?” Creed poured the cold dirt into the old rusted dishpan.

“What makes you think I named her?”

“You did. I can see it in your face. Why didn't you have pets before now? You love animals.”

“No I don't,” she argued. “Pets just die and leave you all lonely again anyway. And who knows if these are really strays. Their owners might come looking for them soon as the weather clears up.”

“I doubt it. Most folks wouldn't go out looking for a pregnant cat or an ugly dog, and you didn't answer me.”

“Like I just said, pets either run off or die and I'd be left with the pain of it.”

“Better to have loved and hurt than never to have loved at all,” he quipped.

“Oh, so now you are a prophet?” she shot back at him.

“No, ma'am. Not me. I'm not that smart on a good day, and this one has been real strange in my world.”

“You damn sure got that right.” Sage whipped up several eggs and added warm milk to them. Noel saw her pick up the pie pan and came running so fast that she lost traction and slid the last five feet on her belly.

Creed looked at Sage and they both burst out in laughter.

“And that's why we have pets!” he finally said. “They make us laugh and give us something to pet and to tell all our secrets to without worrying that they'll ever tell a living soul.”

Sage was still giggling so hard that the milk sloshed when she picked up the pan. “You're going to have to set it down, Creed. I'll spill it.”

He reached around her to pick up the pan and suddenly they were face to face, noses barely inches away from each other. She could have gotten lost in his green eyes, which were staring so intently into hers. His lips parted slightly and her tongue instinctively wet her dry lips in anticipation of the kiss. She was a boiling pot of desire just wanting to feel his mouth on hers.