Harvest Moon (Virgin River #15)(48)

Courtney kept her eyes averted, but Lief couldn’t help smiling as he approached the ladies on the porch.

“Courtney!” Kelly said before she could stop herself. “This is a whole new you!”

Courtney merely shrugged.

“Kid, you look amazing!” Jillian said. She ran a hand over her own dark, layered locks. “Who did that? Tell me it was someone within driving distance. I have to have the name!” She looked at Kelly, smoothing her own hair along her cheek. “I could do that, couldn’t I?”

“Annie did it,” Courtney said. “My trainer. I mean, riding instructor. She’s a beautician and has a shop in Fortuna. So you like it?”

“Like it?” Kelly said. “If I didn’t have to spend an hour taming all these wild curls, I’d pay a lot of money to get that cut.”

“Well, I don’t,” Jill said. “Can you believe we weren’t adopted? One curly blue-eyed blonde and one dark horse with straight hair! I could do that cut—but I’d have to grow a lot of stuff out first!”

Remarkably, Courtney laughed. “You don’t have nearly as much to grow out as I did. I mean, come on—pink, purple, burgundy and ink-black.”

Kelly sat forward. “What made you do it?” she asked, sincerely curious.

“I scared the horses,” she said, with a smile.

And Kelly noticed—shining, straight teeth. Underneath that scowl was a beauty. “Naw,” Kelly said with a laugh. “I heard they were color-blind.” She nodded at Courtney’s feet. “I like your boots.”

“Yeah, great boots,” Jill agreed. “If I didn’t have to wear rubber in the garden, I’d copy those, too.”

There was the tooting of a horn as Colin came speeding up to the back porch in the garden mobile, basically a golf cart with a flatbed back that Jill and her assistant used to get themselves and supplies between gardens. He stopped right in front of Lief and Courtney.

“Hey,” everyone said as he got out.

“Courtney, wanna drive?”

She was stunned silent for a minute. “Seriously?” she said.

“I have to go with,” Colin said. “I mean, it’s Jilly’s buggy. But you can drive as long as you’re not too crazy.”

“You bet,” she said, jumping into the garden mobile.

Colin took a moment to show her reverse, forward, power and brakes. Then they backed away, turned around, and Courtney jerked toward the road that went between the trees to the back meadow. Then she found her comfort zone and, with a squeal, went as fast as the cart would take her.

“Can I help myself to a beer?” Lief asked.

“Of course, but what happened to her?” Kelly asked. “I almost asked where Courtney was!”

“I suspect the good-looking guy at the stable, but it could be the Hawkins family or maybe even the counselor. Who knows? Do I care? It’s the first time I haven’t lived with an alien in over a year. I’ll be right back.”

While Lief was getting his beer, Jill and Kelly watched the garden mobile disappear through the trees. Then they only heard it; they couldn’t see it. After just a moment, they heard Courtney’s high-pitched squeal and Colin’s deep laugh. Then they heard that again and again and again as the sounds got farther and farther away. Lief was back on the porch with his beer, listening along with them. “What’s his secret?” he asked Jill.

“He doesn’t really care for kids that much,” she said. “Therefore he doesn’t treat them like kids, but rather like short adults. Seems to work like a charm.”

Lief took a long pull on his beer. “Wow. I’ll try to remember that.”

Within a few minutes the garden mobile reappeared, running full speed toward the house on the road between the trees. Colin was leaning back, one big foot propped up on the dash, holding his hat on his head with a hand. Courtney, however, was leaning into the steering column, grabbing it with gusto, sailing past the house down the drive to the front.

Lief, Kelly and Jill burst out laughing when the vehicle had passed.

“Think she’ll be willing to give it up so Colin can have dinner?” Lief asked.

“Oh, sure,” Jillian said. “It won’t be long now.”

“How do you know? She looked pretty happy in control of that thing,” Lief pointed out.

Jill tilted her head. “It’s going to run out of gas. Pretty soon.”

Ten

After Courtney’s wild ride in a garden mobile, Kelly hosted her at three successful dinners, all within the space of two weeks. If she wasn’t mistaken, Courtney was actually pleased to be there. True, she was considerably friendlier and more outgoing to Jillian and Colin, but Kelly understood that. After all, they weren’t threatening her position with her father. And she was civilized, if cool, toward Kelly. She even seemed to like the meals Kelly prepared, though she had a tiny appetite.

Courtney loved the garden mobile, and she loved Colin’s painting just as much. For a guy who didn’t take to kids, he certainly had a way with Courtney.

Tonight would mark their fourth dinner together—the five of them. Then it was suddenly reduced to a three some as Colin and Jillian announced last-minute plans to meet Colin’s brother and sister-in-law, Luke and Shelby, at a restaurant in Arcata for a nice dinner out. Apparently Colin’s mother, Maureen, had arrived early for the Thanksgiving holiday and was babysitting Luke’s son, little Brett.