Page 16 of The Cowboy's Christmas
“I don’t want her out there alone,” Deke said quietly, craning his neck to make certain that his niece was still in the kitchen where the little girls had been finishing breakfast when he and Quinn had arrived. “Things can happen working alone and I’m not in the best shape to go looking for her.”
“I’m here to help,” he said. If he wasn’t working on the Dunn Ranch, he’d probably go stir-crazy marking time until his truck was fixed. As much as he liked the Graff, he couldn’t see spending his days sitting in a room waiting for a new radiator to arrive. “If I can, I’d like to fill my days.”
“She thinks you’re here to feed the cattle and leave.”
“I don’t have a lot to do in Marietta.” Not only that, he was getting kind of tired of the double takes. Austin had been part of a famous bull riding circuit and Ty the subject of a documentary. Even people who weren’t close to them knew what they looked like, and they obviously wondered whyhelooked like them.
“Then maybe you could help me put the ram on the tractor. We lucked out during the last storm.” One corner of his mouth tightened ruefully, as if recalling the reason Quinn was there. “In a weather sense. We didn’t get snowed in, and we often do.”
“I can install it.” He glanced toward the kitchen again. “I think it would make Savannah feel better if you stayed put for a day or two.”
“You know what you’re doing?”
“Yeah.”
The simple response didn’t take the concern out of Deke’s gaze, but the sound of the girls running down the hall to the living room, their slippered feet making soft thuds on the tamarack floor, drew his attention.
“Can we see him now?” Jessa, the red-haired girl he’d been introduced to a few minutes ago as he and Deke had passed through the kitchen, skidded into the room.
“Uncle Deke needs to rest,” Savannah said from somewhere down the hall, sounding as if she knew how hopeless it was to try and stop the little girls from visiting their great-uncle.
“Let them come,” Deke called to her as each girl claimed an arm of his recliner, beaming up at him, obviously glad that he was home.
“Are you sure?” Savannah spoke with mock foreboding as she strolled to the doorway. Her dark hair was gathered in a loose ponytail that fell over her shoulder onto her red plaid flannel shirt, and the worn denim of her jeans hugged her long legs just enough to draw his eye. He realized that his gaze had strayed and quickly brought it back to her face, catching the subtle shift in her expression. But he couldn’t read the shift, other than being certain she was still in the process of assessing him.
Why wouldn’t she be? She didn’t know him, and he had no idea what Jim had said about him. But whatever it was, it had been enough for her to call him the previous evening and ask if he would mind driving the flatbed to the ranch. Then early this morning, Deke had called him from the hospital to ask if he could pick him up and take him home. From the way the nurses were acting, it was clear that he was removing himself from care before being officially released, but Quinn didn’t know that for a fact. He also didn’t ask.
“If I’m going to be their babysitter,” Deke said, giving each girl a stern look, “we need to lay down some ground rules.”
“You’re not babysitting us,” the red-haired girl said, bouncing her knees against the side of the chair as she hung off the arm, oblivious to Deke’s sudden intake of breath at the rocking motion. She put her feet back on the floor and pointed a finger at Deke. “We’re babysitting you.”
“Ha. I haven’t seen any pigs flying, Miss Jessa.”
“Pigs don’t fly,” Sophie informed him. “They walk.”
“And they oink,” Jessa said before she demonstrated the sound that pigs make, and Deke made a show of holding his ribs.
“Don’t make me laugh.”
“Uncle Deke is supposed to rest,” Savannah said. “And he can’t be shaken, so please stay off his chair.” She crouched down and held out both arms and the girls each stepped into the crook of one and she hugged them against her. “Right now,” she explained, “Mr. Harding and I are going to feed some hungry cows, so I need you two to get something to do while you stay here with Uncle Deke. He needs rest and somequietcompany.”
“You want us to tell you if he’s not resting?” Sophie asked. Quinn bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling at Deke’s expression.
“I trust Uncle Deke tonotdo more than he should.” Savannah drilled her uncle with a look.
“Of course I won’t,” he said, his tone a mixture of grit and mock innocence.
“We should get our coloring books,” Jessa said.
“And the farm set,” Sophie added.
After the girls left, Savannah dipped her chin and met Deke’s gaze in a serious way. “Sorry I have to put you in protective custody, but honestly, a couple days of total rest after checking yourself out of the hospital isn’t going to do you any harm.”
Deke’s gaze shifted sideways in a patently guilty expression, and Savannah let out a breath. “Thanks for staying the night anyway. It made me feel better.”
“Did they call?”
“Dr. Gallagher wanted to make sure you had a way home.”
