A Cowboy Under My Christmas Tree (23 page)

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Authors: Janet Dailey

BOOK: A Cowboy Under My Christmas Tree
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“What are you doing?” she asked when Nicole didn’t say anything.
“Sitting in the middle of the street feeling sorry for myself.”
A taxi blared its horn and swerved around a car that had stopped short. Startled, Nicole dropped the phone.
“Nicole?” Sharon’s voice was high and anxious. “What the hell is going on? Nicole?”
She picked up the phone and dusted it off. “I’m fine. Sorry. I am in the middle of the street, but I’m in a pocket park. I’m sitting on a bench with Sam—I mean with the tree that Sam—I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Tell me exactly where you are,” Sharon said firmly. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just gotta get my boots and find a twenty for a cab.”
Nicole did. Then she swallowed the lump in her throat and waited.
Chapter 13
Z
ach flew into Denver the next day. Annie picked him up, and not long after he and Sam were finishing a huge lunch prepared by their mother.
“You two look more alike every year,” she sighed.
Annie assessed her older brothers. “Zach’s hair is lighter. And he’s a little taller,” she pointed out. “Other than that, you’re right, Mom.” She got up to clear the table.
“Pie, boys?” Lou asked. “How about coffee?”
“Later for the pie. But we’ll take a thermos of coffee out with us,” Sam said. “Thanks for lunch.”
“The casserole was really good,” Zach echoed.
They got to work directly, going out to the barn in companionable silence. The first task was to smash the ice below the dripping corner of the barn.
Zach and Sam found sledgehammers in the barn’s tool cabinet and went to it with a vengeance. Then they sprinkled rock salt to break up the ice some more and threw down a thick layer of dry hay for traction.
“Oughta do for now,” Sam said. “If it ices over, we can do this again.”
“I hope the ladder doesn’t slip.” Zach put a tall sectional ladder into position.
“That’s why you’re going to hold it for me.”
Zach gestured toward it with a thick-gloved hand. “After you.”
Sam went up, not listening to the rattling of the ladder. At the top, he leaned forward to inspect the shingles, digging a chisel under the loose ones and chopping at the hidden ice.
The repair took a while. By the time Sam climbed down, the winter sun was slanting across the drifts, not touching the blue hollows.
“You all right?” Zach asked when he was on the ground.
“Sure. That was fun,” Sam said sarcastically.
“We don’t have to finish it today. Let’s go back to the house and warm up.”
“Good idea.”
They trudged over the cleared road, kicking lumps of frozen snow to the side when they encountered one.
“So how have you been?” Zach wanted to know. “Did you have a good time in New York?”
“Yeah, it’s a great city. I met some really nice people.”
Zach grinned. “So I heard. Mom thinks you’re sweet on someone.”
“That would be Nicole Young. Nothing serious. We hung out, ran around the city, saw the sights. I came back soon as I could when I heard.” He sighed. “I barely got a chance to say good-bye to her.”
Zach shot him a look. “Annie showed me the photos. Bet you didn’t want to.”
Sam didn’t reply right away. “I’m not moving to New York, Zach.”
“Oh. Well, you were always the responsible one. But I am here. You could go back. Wasn’t that the plan?”
Sam looked out over the frozen fields, his smoky blue gaze distant and serious. “Plans change. I don’t know if you noticed, but Mom and Dad are getting older. This place needs work if they’re going to stay on.”
“Can’t do it all in winter,” Zach said peaceably. “I don’t have to go back to Oregon. How about you? Does Greg need you on his crew?”
“We wrapped up all the jobs under contract. He has plenty of guys to do pickup work and maintenance.”
Zach flipped up his hood. “Whatever you say.”
They continued down the road. The ranch house was in sight.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing Nicole again, though,” Sam said. “I can call. We could get together on Skype.”
“Not the same but better than nothing.” His brother shot him a sidelong glance around the hood. “Go for it.”
Sam felt the phone in his pocket vibrate. He pulled off one glove to take it out.
“Never fails. That must be Nicole.” Zach laughed.
Sam frowned at the screen. “No. It’s Annie. I can see her in the window.”
Both brothers looked toward the house and waved to their younger sister, who had her cell phone to her ear.
Sam picked up the call. “Hey.”
“Mom wanted me to tell you we’re having pot roast for dinner. Plus more mashed potatoes than even you two can eat.”
“Thanks.” Sam hung up, but he held onto the phone.
In another minute, Annie came out, dressed in a close-fitting ski jacket with a trimmed hood that framed her striking high cheekbones and dark hair.
“You two done?” she called to them. “You’ve been out here forever.”
“No, we’re not. Anytime you feel the impulse to help us, don’t fight it,” Zach called back.
Annie walked to them. The wind kicked up. She was slender enough to be blown most of the way there.
Sam searched in his pocket for the glove he’d taken off, putting it on but jamming both hands into his jacket before he flipped up his hood too.
Annie reached them. She pointed to Sam’s feet. “I think you dropped something.”
He looked around, saw nothing but packed snow, and took a step back.
There was a crunch.
Annie reached around him and bent down. “Is this your phone, Sam?”
He cursed a blue streak.
“Calm down,” Annie said mockingly. “I understand the company manufactured about ten million of these.” She handed him the cracked remains.
“Funny. But I’m not due for a trade-in yet.”
“You won’t have to pay,” his sister assured him.
“Yes, I will. Unless you know something I don’t know.”
Annie turned her back to him and took the lead. Sam exchanged a glance with Zach, who only shrugged.
They went into the house, shedding their jackets and gloves and stamping the snow from their boots.
“You two sound like buffaloes,” their mother teased, coming out of the kitchen. “Ready for that pie now?”
“Sure. And some more coffee to go with it, please. That pot roast sure smells good.”
Sam bent down to kiss his mother’s cheek.
“Goodness, your nose is cold.”
His father was in the kitchen when they entered, a half-eaten piece of berry pie on a plate in front of him. He was gazing into the laptop.
“I showed Dad how to start the slideshow,” Annie said, coming into the kitchen. “He’s been through it three times now.”
“Four,” Tyrell Bennett corrected her. “Going for five. Lou, you’re right. This is a great way to look at pictures.”
Sam and Zach pulled chairs away from the table and sat down, leaning back.
“Is that Nicole?” His father turned the laptop around. By coincidence, to Sam’s favorite picture of her.
“Yes.”
“Good-lookin’ gal.”
“She is.”
“You should give her a call,” his mother murmured casually.
Sam caught Annie’s eye. She seemed to be thinking of something. “Um, Sam just stepped on his phone.”
Lou and Annie exchanged a glance. Then his mother nodded.
Annie got up and went to the sideboard. There was a wrapped present on it. Something small. She handed it to Sam. “A little early, but Merry Christmas.”
Sam looked at her and his mother. “What’s going on?”
“It’s a present,” Annie pointed out, a tinge of exasperation in her voice. “You rip open the paper and there it is.”
“Go ahead,” his mother encouraged.
Sam unwrapped it and saw the phone of his dreams.
“Has everything,” Annie pointed out. “Video enabled too. You can Skype on it.”
Sam grinned. “It’s fantastic.” He got up to give her a hug and sat down again. “You must be psychic. How did you know this was compatible with my plan?”
“There was an opened phone bill of yours in one of the side tables, so I called the company and checked. And I didn’t look to see who you call either. I’m not that much of a snoop.”
“Right now, I don’t care. Thanks, Annie. This is great.”
He turned it on. “Lots of apps. Games too.”
“You can add more whenever you want.”
His father was looking into the laptop again. “You know, son, I did some thinking when you and Zach were out at the barn.”
Sam looked his way. “The roof can be fixed. We’re almost done.”
“I appreciate what you’re doing. But now that your brother’s here, you don’t have to stay. Looks to me like you were having a mighty good time in New York.”
“You and Mom need help.”
“I suppose we do. I was just saying.” He turned his gaze to his wife. “Lou, when is that pot roast going to be ready?”
“Not for another hour and a half.”
“Guess I’ll take a nap then.” He rose stiffly and found his cane, then stumped off to the living room.
For the next few days, Sam fixed things. Armed with a bucket of tools, he drove all over the ranch, usually accompanied by his brother.
Annie had gone back to Vail, but before she’d left, she managed to extract his contacts from the memory of his damaged phone before it died forever and get them into the new model. They’d given the old one a decent burial in Tyrell Bennett’s box of busted gadgets, down under a tangle of sprouting wires and rusted hardware.
He’d used the new phone only once: to call Annie and make sure it worked. When he was working around the ranch, he kept it in the house.
Today he was alone in the barn. Anything he saw that needed hitting with a hammer had been hit. He turned his attention to an old, disused feed crib. No telling if his father wanted it, but the sagging side and bent legs clinched the decision. Sam took a swing at it. The crib collapsed into a heap of jagged shards and cracked planks.
He looked up to see his father standing in the open doorway of the barn.
“How’d you get here?” Sam asked.
“Zach. You were so busy making noise I guess you didn’t notice. The truck’s over on the other side with him in it. Just thought I’d walk around. You boys did a good job breaking up the ice.” Tyrell peered at the destroyed feed crib. “What did that ever do to you?”
Sam moved a broken plank with his foot. “It was about to fall down.”
“We can use it for kindling,” his father said. “Anyway, I came here to tell you some good news. Your mother and I just got back from the orthopedist. He did some X-rays and a special kind of bone scan. Cost a mint,” he complained.
“What did he say?” That was all Sam cared about. He could help cover co-pays.
“That I’m healing better’n he expected. These days they can snoop on your cells. It looks like the bone won’t need no pin.”
Sam felt relief wash through him. “Dad, that’s great.”
Tyrell nodded. “Thought you’d want to know right away. Now—I have something to say to you.”
An awkward moment passed.
“Your momma and I have discussed this and we both agree, so you don’t get to argue. We want you to go back to New York.” He held up a hand to forestall Sam’s protest. “You were having a fine time, you got yourself a little place there, and a beautiful lady. We know you planned to spend New Year’s Eve in the big city and you’re going to.”
“Dad—”
“Lou and I don’t want you moping around. Truth be told, we don’t need you right now. Not with Zach here and Annie not far away. You did your part.”
Sam took a deep breath, marshaling a reply.
“Son, I don’t happen to be interested in your opinion on the matter.” Tyrell’s voice was stern, but his eyes twinkled. “Get yourself on the next plane to New York before I kick you there myself. With this.”
He tapped the cast with the tip of his cane.
 
 
Sam was at the top of the standby list for a one-stop flight into New York by the end of the day. Zach had dropped him off at the airport.
He still had a couple of hours to wait. He took out the new phone. The icon for video calling caught his eye. He wanted to try it, but he wasn’t sure anyone he knew had the same kind of app.
Didn’t matter. That could wait. Sam scrolled through his contacts, stopping on Theo’s name. The old guy wasn’t too good with cell phones, but Greg kept giving him new ones.
He tapped the screen, letting the number ring, idly looking around the airport. He had the flight gate to himself.
He looked down again when the ringing stopped. Everything had changed. He heard voices he knew.
A kindly brown eye with wrinkles around it filled the screen. Sam thought of a walrus and realized it was Theo. The old man’s nose appeared next, larger than life, then the brown eye again.
Then he heard Douglas pipe up. “Theo! Don’t hold the phone so close to your face.”
Sam laughed. “Takes a little practice.” He wasn’t used to video calling either. “Greg, is that Theo’s Christmas present?”
“Yeah,” he heard Greg say. “What the hell. I don’t care if he loses it.”

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