Page 78 of Rocky Mountain Cowboy Christmas
Zoe’s face lit up. “It follows my legs and stops when I stop.” She did a short tour around the room to demonstrate, and the cart did indeed trail after her like a puppy. “I designed it based on a robotic mail cart I saw on the internet.”
“Ingenious,” Camille said, sitting cross-legged on the bed as she ignored the pain in her head. Having Steve and the kids there helped distract her. She’d discovered that it felt worse when she just lay quietly with nothing to focus on except her headache.
Steve gave his daughter an approving nod. “Very.”
Dancing with excitement, Maya started passing out the presents, and everyone settled on Camille’s bed or in the chairs. Zoe sat cross-legged in the now-empty cart.
“Do we take turns or just all rip into our gifts?” Camille asked, turning over something from Will. When it’d been just her and her grandma, that hadn’t really been an issue.
“Let’s just rip,” Maya said with a wicked grin, and the other kids chorused their agreement. Pressing back a smile, Steve gave a nod, and wrapping paper started flying.
Despite her headache, Camille couldn’t stop laughing as everyone raced to open their gifts, stopping only to exclaim over them and yell thanks and toss a bow at someone else’s head. When the last gift was revealed, Camille looked around at her haul, fully impressed by the Springfields’ gift-giving skills. Somehow, they’d managed to find and replace some of her favorite tools that had been lost in the fire. Maya had even made a stuffed catnip mouse for Lucy. Zoe’s gift was a new torch that she’d promised would “blow Camille’s socks off.”
Camille reached for her new welding helmet and the gloves Micah had given her, intending to take the torch into the bathroom and quickly see what special features Zoe had added, but Steve plucked the super-torch out of her hands before she could get more than a couple of steps. “Don’t set the hospital on fire. It’s an hour to the next closest one.”
Wrapping an arm around her waist, he tugged her down to sit on his lap. She stiffened, checking the kids for their reaction, but they were too busy investigating their presents to notice. Micah glanced up, but he just grinned, looking sweet and shy, and held up the box of oil pastels she’d gotten for him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Thankyoufor the gloves. Those are the best kind, since they’re protective, but you can actually pick things up while wearing them, rather than feeling like you have bear paws.”
“Did I get you the right kind of clamps?” Will asked. He didn’t look at all bothered by Camille’s position on his dad’s lap, either, so she finally relaxed against him. It was warm and safe and so much nicer than the hospital bed.
She nodded. “They’re perfect. How’d you know I hated the one in the workshop?”
“You only complained about it a hundred times,” Will said, rolling his eyes in an exaggerated way that made her join in the others’ laughter. “I love my present. Thank you.” He held up the gift card for a set of new tires for his yet-to-be-purchased car.
“Me, too! Thank you!” Maya started pulling her new winter riding breeches on over her leggings.
“You’re all welcome.” Camille looked at Zoe a little anxiously, since she was staring down at her gift—a pair of tickets to a Denver robotics expo in January—without saying anything. “Is that an okay gift, Zoe?”
When she looked up, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears, and Camille felt her heart sink.
“You don’t have to go,” she said quickly, scrambling to fix whatever she’d just messed up. “We can scalp the tickets and use that money to buy you more parts or tools or whatever you’d like.”
Climbing off the cart, Zoe threw herself at Camille, grabbing her in a hug, fully sobbing. Steve grunted at the impact, and Camille patted the girl’s back, looking frantically at the others, wishing desperately that someone would tell her how to fix this. They just stared back at her, as startled as she was.
“I’m so glad you’re not dead!” Zoe wailed between sobs, and Camille blew out a breath of relief as she hugged Zoe back.
“I’m glad I’m not dead, too.” When Steve turned a chuckle into a cough, Camille widened her eyes at him, but he just smiled at her and held both of them closer until Zoe finished crying and pulled away, snuffling. Grabbing a tissue from the box on the bedside table, Camille handed it to her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, wiping her face and blowing her nose. “Sorry. I love my present. Will you…go with me?”
Camille blinked, not expecting the invitation, and Zoe started to duck her head. “Of course!” When she’d ordered the tickets, she’d gone over the robotics expo website multiple times, more than a little jealous of Zoe. “I’d love to. We are going to come back with so many great ideas.”
“Uh-oh,” Will said under his breath, and everyone laughed, relieved. Zoe returned to her perch on the cart, and the rest of the kids turned back to their presents, chattering happily.
Steve tipped his head down to speak softly into Camille’s ear. “Their gifts are good, but my present is the best.” He’d put the horse-drawn fire wagon sculpture on the table next to them and ran a thumb lightly across one of the wheels. “I love this.”
A little envious of that wheel, she shifted in his lap. “Really?”
“Really.” He paused, his hand stilling. “Not as much as I love you, though.”
Her heart stuttered. “I… You… I’m sorry. What?”
His hand came up to rub his neck—a neck that was rapidly turning red.
“Hey, Dad?”
Camille turned to look at Will, grateful for the interruption so she could have a moment to try to sort out her spinning emotions.
