Before We Kiss (Fool's Gold #14)(30)

“I’m thinking the drive out to Castle Ranch will be a good time for a little history on the area,” she was saying. “We can tell them about the first known residents. The Máa-zib tribe, then a few lines about the Spanish settlers. I’m not sure we need to go into the history of the ranch itself.” She paused and looked at him. “Do you think that would be interesting?”

He’d already turned on Mother Bear Road and was quickly approaching the ranch. “Is there time for much more information?”

She glanced around. “Not really. It’s a quick trip. Have you been here before?”

“No.”

He slowed at the sign and turned onto a paved driveway. He could see a large house that seemed to be in the middle of major renovation, along with a big barn. There was another house in the distance and some kind of fenced-in structure that was smaller than the barn, but obviously not a residence.

He parked by a pickup and a Mercedes, then turned off the engine. Dellina was already climbing out of the car.

The woman had energy, he thought, following her. As always, she’d dressed appropriately. A T-shirt and jeans over boots. And real boots—not the kind Taryn wore with ridiculous heels and exotic skins. Dellina was more casual. More approachable. Sexier.

He shook off the last thought and moved next to her.

“Horses,” she said, pointing. “They only have a few that they board. Mostly the horses are at Shane and Annabelle’s place. That’s a few miles away. On the other side is where Charlie and Clay live. Clay owns the Haycation Village.”

“Haycation?”

“People come for a week to experience ranch and farm life. A simpler time, only with Wi-Fi. Rafe, Clay and Shane are brothers. Rafe is a developer. Heidi raises goats. She makes cheese and soap.” Dellina pointed to the largest fenced-in area. “The brothers’ mother is the animal rescue person. That’s her elephant, Priscilla, along with her pony, Reno.”

He nearly confirmed that the “her” who had the pony was the human in the sentence, but stopped himself. It sounded familiar and, of course, this was Fool’s Gold and it was far more likely that Priscilla had the pony.

A pretty blonde with pigtails approached. She greeted Dellina with a hug, then introduced herself as Heidi Stryker.

“Come on,” Heidi said. “I’ve got several ideas for our Sunday morning with your kids. You can pick and choose the ones you think will be best.”

They walked to the main house. Once inside he saw the kitchen had already been remodeled. It was big and open, with lots of counter space and an eat-in area. Heidi got them iced tea, then joined them at the table. She passed out several sheets of paper.

“We have options,” she said. “Given the range of ages, I thought that was important. Shane can be available for a basic roping lesson.” She smiled. “It’s pretty fun. We set up a sawhorse with a little toy cow head on one end and a fake tail on the other. We’ll also have several gentle horses available for riding. Shane teaches kids how to ride all the time. He’s really patient.”

Sam studied the list. “Cheese and soapmaking?”

Heidi nodded. “I can do a demo only or we can get the kids involved. The problem is that soap has to cure or dry for several days. So while they could work on it, they can’t take that batch home with them.”

Dellina was busy making notes. She glanced up long enough to ask, “Cheese making is going to be the same, right? They can’t take home what they start.”

“Right.”

“We’ll talk about it and get back to you,” Dellina said.

They went over the lunch menu next. Sam thought the choices were fine. Dellina asked a lot of questions and had some suggestions, which was why he’d hired her.

He liked her quiet efficiency and how she thought through the details. Now that he’d been spending time with her, he couldn’t figure out why he’d gotten so spooked that night. No normal woman kept that many wedding dresses in her house without a good reason. Even the crazy ones would only have a couple.

He should have stayed to ask, he thought. He should have taken a breath and figured out what was happening. Because then he wouldn’t have disappeared into the night and he and Dellina would have...

Would have what? he asked himself. Kept seeing each other? To what end? Hadn’t he been down that road enough?

* * *

“THIS IS GOING to be the best part of the party,” Dellina said as she and Sam headed back to town. “The kids are going to love the ranch. It will be a great time for them and their parents are going to appreciate that they not only had fun but are nice and tired.”

“Is that the voice of experience?” he asked, his voice teasing. “Your sisters were teenagers when you had to take care of them. Hardly an age where you want them tired.”

She laughed. “Okay, that’s true, although I’ll admit it was nice when they came home exhausted and simply went to bed. There was less worry.” She shook her head. “That’s not fair. Both Ana Raquel and Fayrene worked really hard to be responsible and not give me reason to worry. We’d all suffered a horrible loss and we pulled together.”

He lightly touched the back of her hand with his fingers. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

“You didn’t.”