Harvest Moon (Virgin River #15)(42)

He chuckled some more.

“What are you grinning about? That was borderline rude!”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Nothing can put me in a bad mood today. Courtney is spending the night at Amber’s so she can bond with her puppy. She’ll probably sleep on the mudroom floor next to the litter box, but I don’t care. I’m going to take them out to the farm, drop them off and come back here. And stay very, very late. Like a grown-up.”

“Oh,” she said with a smile and tilt of her head. “I see.”

Kelly had thought they’d surely run out of pumpkins, but there were even a few left behind. Many of the families who came had their own pumpkin patches, but didn’t want to miss a party. Everyone took away their stuff, from barbecues to ponies, as the sun was setting. Kelly cleaned up her kitchen with Lief’s help, Jillian changed out of her kinky witch’s garb, Denny changed clothes and headed out for a date, and Colin made sure all the trash was in the back of Preacher’s truck to be taken to the Dumpster in town. Keeping garbage away from the bears was a matter of importance.

When the fall weather had started to cool and the leaves had begun to change, Colin had bought a small portable fire pit with a dome-shaped screen top. It wasn’t exactly big enough to keep people warm, but the ambiance was nice. He set it up for Lief and Kelly, but, pleading exhaustion, he and Jillian headed for the second floor. “If you want to stay outside, light the Duraflame I put in there. I’m shot. I’m going in,” Colin said.

“Going to bed?” Kelly asked.

“I’m probably going to the sunroom to put on the TV where I’ll fall asleep in fifteen minutes…”

“And then I can wake him and steer him to bed,” Jill said.

“I like the idea of a fire,” Kelly said. “Lief?”

“Let’s do it,” he said, setting the Duraflame alite.

They brought a couple of chairs off the porch into the yard, placed them very close to each other and snuggled up in front of the fire.

And talked.

The conversation began with Kelly saying, “I’m kind of alarmed by how awful I was with your daughter. Not to her, with her. I have no idea how to communicate with a fourteen-year-old.”

“Don’t overthink it—she was rude. She’s often rude, and while there might be a million logical reasons, she pisses me off all the time. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But how do you deal with it?”

“Many ways. Sometimes I get angry. Sometimes I’m very logical and enforce the consequences. Today, while we were in the car, I merely mentioned to her that I noticed and it didn’t make me feel very good. And God bless Amber, who piped up and said, ‘Really, Court, you could be nicer.’ I also have her talking to that counselor, taking riding lessons, spending time at the Hawkins farm where, apparently, she’s charming, and—believe it or not—we’re actually making progress.”

“Oh?”

“Seriously. She’s brought her grades up a little. A puppy and riding lessons depend on it. Plus, in helping Amber with her math, they’ve been working on homework together. It might be hard for you to imagine, but Courtney is very intelligent. Up until her mother died, she was always in accelerated programs. And every day wasn’t Halloween.”

“I think I get everything but the riding lessons,” Kelly said.

“Well, I had a horse….”

“Yes, I know. It led to your father, Sam, going down in a hail of bullets…”

He chuckled. “Yes, I lost my horse to an injury, everything else in the Deerslayer story was pure fiction. But riding can be so good for a kid. I tried to convince Court to just check it out, just see if it could appeal to her, with the secret hope that it might give her something that would take her from grief and anger to confidence and responsibility. But, as it turned out, my idea didn’t sway her at all. However, the instructor’s stepson, about eighteen years old with broad shoulders and a braid down his back to his waist, appeared at the stable and Courtney decided she’d give riding a shot.”

Kelly laughed. “So under it all, a normal girl.”

Lief put his arm around her shoulders. “That’s what I’m hoping.”

“I bet you were hoping I’d know exactly what to say to a surly fourteen-year-old with hair in several colors…” Kelly said.

“Well, I don’t, that’s for sure,” he admitted.

“I hope you’re not too disappointed…”

He grabbed her chin in his thumb and finger, turned her face up and looked into her eyes. “Nothing about you disappoints me, Kelly. I wasn’t attracted to your mothering skills.”

“Lucky for you. I don’t have any.”

“That’s not what I’m after. I’m not looking for someone to take care of Courtney for me—I’m going to do the best I can with that. In fact, I wasn’t after anything. You took me by surprise. I saw you and something started to happen to me…”

“Yeah, and I started to pass out on the bar and needed help getting home…”

He smiled at her. “I’ve been off the market a long time, so it was unexpected, but the minute I saw you I needed to kiss you. When Colin lifted you out of the truck to carry you upstairs, I wanted that to be me. You turn me on like mad. And I know I have a lot more on my plate than you ever bargained for, but try to remember it’s my plate, not yours. Now, I don’t get many nights off and I don’t want to spend this one grousing about my teenager.” He took a breath. “Come home with me.”