Cowboy Come Home (12 page)

Griffin had been a real trouper, pitching in everywhere, from cooking to cleaning up. Elizabeth had come down with it that first night after Doc’s visit, even losing her dinner. They had both been so exhausted that night, they’d fallen into bed, separate beds, as soon as the children were asleep.

Which was a good thing, because they’d been up and down all night with fussy babies.

“We’ll have this right out to you, ma’am,” the clerk said. “You need anything from the grocery store? We could stop on our way.”

“Thank you, but no.” That was the joy of a small community, Camille realized. She would miss it when she had to return to Denver.

“Did you get the order placed?” Griffin asked as he came into the kitchen, Richard in tow.

“Yes, and I even ordered some new storybooks,” she added for Richard’s benefit.

“But Russell is sick,” Richard said.

“I know, sweetie, but tonight he’ll want to hear a new story with you,” she promised.

“We’re going to go see the horses again,” Griffin explained, rolling his eyes.

“Russell loves horses, too,” the little boy said.

Griff bent over and swept the three-year-old into his arms. “I know, and when Russell is well, we’ll take him to see the horses again. But he needs to sleep now, after his bath.”

“Me have a bath, too,” Richard told Camille, looking very proud of himself.

“That’s good.” She leaned forward. “Ooh, you smell good, Richard.”

“What about me?” Griffin teased. “I’ve had a number of baths this morning.” His baths had been secondary, given him by the occupant of the tub, but at least he was smiling.

She leaned forward to smell him as she had Richard. Instead, Griffin met her halfway, and their lips touched.

“Ooh! Mommy Daddy kiss!” Richard squealed.

His words had them separating at once.

“Um, no, just a friendly kiss,” Griffin hurriedly said, as if he feared even Richard would mention marriage.

“Go to the barn,” Camille ordered, irritated with the man’s phobia.

As soon as the two males left, the phone rang. Drat! It was time for the check-in from Hawaii. Griffin had handled the other calls.

“Hello?”

Jake’s warm voice greeted her. “How’s everything going?”

“Fine. Don’t you guys have anything else to do but call home?”

Jake laughed. “It’s the women. You know how they hover over those children.”

“Yeah, right! It’s you, Jake Randall. You can’t fool me,” Camille assured him with a laugh.

“We’ve been a little worried since we only talked with Griffin the last two days. We thought maybe he’d run the rest of you off.”

Camille attempted a relaxed chuckle. “What man in his right mind would want to be left with six children all to himself?”

“Good point. How are Red and Mildred holding up?”

“Just fine. They’re upstairs resting right now. Do you want me to bother them?” She held her breath with her fingers crossed until Jake answered.

“Nope. If they’re getting some rest, we’d better not. Are any of the kids around?”

“Griffin just took them on a field trip to see the horses. Except for Toby and Torie, of course.”

“Brave man.”

“He’s been very good with the children, Jake,” she hastened to assure him.

“I was afraid he’d be bothered by them. He’s not used to children being underfoot all the time.”

“He’s great with them. I think his voice soothes them because it sounds so much like your voice and your brothers’.”

“Good. Well, we’d better go. I’m going to teach B.J. how to surf this morning,” Jake said with a laugh, then stopped. “Okay, okay. BJ. wants to talk to you.”

Camille tensed. What did BJ. want?

“Camille, I just wanted to be sure Toby wasn’t causing any trouble. He’s going to school?”

Good. A question she could answer truthfully. “Oh, he’s been wonderful, B.J. He goes to school every day and then comes home to play with the babies. He’s such a good boy.”

“I know. I miss him, and all of them. Paradise is nice, but it’s kind of lonely.”

“Maybe next time the kids will be old enough to go with you,” she suggested. In the distance she heard Torie crying. “Um, if there’s nothing else, Torie just woke up.”

“Okay. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

She felt sure they would. Rushing up the stairs, she almost ran into one of the cleaning ladies.

“The baby’s awake.”

“Yes, I heard her, thanks.” She rushed into the baby’s room to find her standing at the side of her crib. But her color looked normal, and Camille was relieved to discover no fever. And there seemed to be no new spots.

One recovery in progress.

“Good morning, Torie. Are you ready for a bottle?”

She changed her diaper and nightgown, then started down the stairs. Only to be halted by the two other girls’ tears.

Reaching for the phone, she called the barn and summoned Griffin. The rest of the day was a madhouse for the two of them. By nightfall Camille thought it couldn’t get worse. But it did. Richard had joined sick bay.

GRIFFIN STOOD in the twins’ room, looking down at the pair napping in their beds. He was certainly growing fond of Richard and Russell. They were great boys.

All the Randall children were wonderful. He’d never realized how rejuvenating a child’s perspective could be. However, with all of them sick, life wasn’t going to be quite so amazing the next few days.

At least Toby was still going strong.

Griffin hadn’t caught the chicken pox, either. And he had no intention of doing so. He couldn’t leave Camille on her own. She was an amazing woman. She never complained or expected to be waited on. He couldn’t imagine any woman he’d ever known volunteering to take care of six kids.

He turned and headed back downstairs. He’d start lunch while she settled the others.

Putting some leftovers on top of the stove to heat, he was surprised to be interrupted by a knock on the back door. Turning, he discovered Butch, one of the cowboys on the ranch, waiting.

“Butch, is something wrong?” he asked as he held the door open for him.

“Nope. But I heard about the chicken pox. I thought I should check on y’all. Everything all right?”

“We’re fine.”

“Camille doing all right?” Butch asked.

Oh, yeah. This was the guy who intended to ask her out. Griffin tried to pretend the tightening of his nerves was for some other reason, but he knew it was really jealousy. “Yeah, she’s fine. She’s busy with the kids, though.”

“I bet. I thought I’d offer my help this afternoon. We’re kind of caught up with the chores.”

“No I—”

“Butch!” Camille entered the kitchen. “Nice to see you. Is everything all right?” she asked as she came into the kitchen.

“Well, now, I reckon it’s a lot better since you came into the room,” the cowboy assured her, a broad smile on his handsome face. “I was just offering to help out this afternoon.”

Griffin met her questioning stare with no expression. If she wanted this cowboy lothario running around the house all day, he wasn’t going to say anything. Ha!

“That’s really sweet of you, and if we had any well ones, I’d send them out with you because they’d have such a good time.”

“What about Toby? I’ve got a couple of chores this afternoon he might enjoy. I’m going to ride out to check on a mama cow and her new baby. Should I wait till he gets home from school and take him with me?”

“Oh, Butch, that’s so thoughtful of you. I know he’s missed going out with Jake. Do you mind?”

Griff ground his teeth. He could’ve taken Toby out, if he hadn’t been busy with the babies.

“I don’t mind at all. And if you think of anything else I can do for you, you just let me know, Camille.”

To Griff’s horror, she stepped forward and kissed the cowboy on his cheek as she said thank-you.

Butch looked pleased as he left the house. And Griffin couldn’t blame him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded as soon as he was sure Butch was out of hearing range.

“What?” she asked as she turned to the stove to see what he’d started cooking.

“Kissing that cowboy! Are you interested in him?” He tried not to sound outraged, but from Camille’s expression, he didn’t do a very good job.

“Interested in him? I was just saying thank-you.”

“Lady, don’t you know anything about men? He was offering ’cause he’s interested in you. And you just told him you were interested back.”

“I did not. I told him I appreciated his offer.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, I’ve done a lot more than offer, and you haven’t kissed me!” Damn, now he’d done it. He’d showed her how much he wanted her.

“If you’ll remember, when we talked about taking care of the kids together, you thought we shouldn’t touch.”

“Well, I’m changing the rules. If he gets a kiss, so do I!” He pulled her into his arms, and his lips covered hers. And it wasn’t some namby-pamby kiss on the cheek!

No, siree, it was a full-fledged, spine-tingling kiss.

And then he passed out.

Chapter Ten

C
amille grabbed his shirt as Griffin slid down her body. “Griff? Griff!”

No response. He was too heavy for her to hold, so she tried simply to ease him to the floor. Then she hurried to the sink for a cloth. Once it was wet with cold water, she came back to his side to wipe his face.

“Griffin Randall, don’t you dare—Come on, Griff, open your eyes!” She almost sobbed with relief when his lashes flickered. As soon as she saw his chocolate brown eyes, she began tugging on his arms.

“Come on, sit up. Are you okay? I don’t know—” She stopped as she felt his cheeks and forehead. Even with the wet compress, he was hot. “How long have you been running a fever?”

He blinked several times, like he hadn’t awakened yet, then shook his head. “I’m not—I’m just a little warm.”

“Do you have a headache?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Come on, you’ve got to get in bed.”

“It’s the middle of the day. I’m making stew. I can’t go to bed.”

“You not only can—you have to,” she insisted, still tugging on his arms. “Doc said.”

“I don’t have chicken pox,” he said stubbornly.

“Fine. As soon as Doc agrees with you, you can get out of bed.” She tugged again, but he didn’t budge. “Please, Griff, for me?”

“You’re being ridiculous,” he asserted, but he struggled to his feet with her help, then swayed.

“Griff!” she yelled, shoring him up as best she could. “Come on, you have to go to bed. Upstairs!” she added when he lurched toward the room behind the kitchen.

Without even answering, he turned in the direction of the stairs. His compliance scared Camille even more. She switched off the burner on the stove as they went past. There wasn’t time to worry about lunch right now.

Once she had him in bed, a task that left her breathing like a marathon runner, she picked up the phone.

“Tell Doc that Griffin Randall passed out,” she told the nurse. Her terse words got results. Doc came to the phone immediately.

“How is he?”

“He has fever and a headache.”

“Why did he pass out?”

“I don’t know, Doc. I’m not the doctor.” She didn’t mean to be impertinent, but she was upset.

“I can’t make it for a couple of hours. Is he breathing okay?”

“Yes. Shall I give him some medicine?”

“Yeah. And see if you can get him to drink liquids. I’ll be there when I can.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

Back down the stairs for medicine and juice.

On the way back up, she scooped up Torie and several of her toys and transferred her to her own crib upstairs.

She needed to keep everyone close together because she was going to do a lot of running back and forth.

Then she returned to Griffin’s room. He was huddled into a ball, shivering.

“Griff, I have some medicine. It will make you feel better.”

No response.

She sat down beside him, putting her arm under his head. “Come on, Griff, open up.”

Her touch got his attention. He opened his eyes and stared at her.

“Open up.”

As if he understood the words, if not the reason, he did so, and she popped the pills into his mouth. “Now drink.”

She put all the authority she could muster into her voice and held the glass to his lips. He sipped some of the juice. After giving him a small break, she ordered him to drink again and got him to take a little more of the fluid.

Then she placed his head back on the pillow. And surveyed the situation. He needed to be under the covers and comfortable.

That meant his jeans and boots had to come off.

Moving to the end of the bed, she took hold of one boot and tugged until it fell onto the floor. The second boot followed.

Next came the hard part.

After eyeing him carefully, she forced him on his back and crawled onto the bed. Her movements eerily followed her recent dreams as she unfastened the buttons on his jeans.

“Keep your head, Camille,” she warned herself.

Getting off the bed, she returned to the end of it and began tugging on the pant legs. That strategy failed. She had to get the jeans past his hips before she could pull them off.

Back on the bed, she straddled him and grabbed the waist of the jeans and tried to slip them below his hips. Her hands grazed warm skin, and she groaned. Suddenly, Griffin thrust his lower body up, toward her.

She gasped, then leaned forward. “Come on, Griff,” she said softly, “try again.”

Only this time she’d be ready.

Again he thrust up, and she tugged his jeans down, revealing white cotton underwear. Somehow, she hadn’t expected a Randall to wear anything else. They didn’t need silk bikini underwear to entice a woman.

As he stirred under her again, she reminded herself she was supposed to be standing at the end of the bed, pulling the jeans off of him. Reluctantly, she left the warmth of their connnection and discarded his jeans. Then she covered him with a blanket. The soft sigh that escaped his lips was her reward.

“All right, sweetie,” she said in her best coaxing tones, “I want you to drink a little more. Okay?” She helped him raise his head and poured more juice down his throat.