Chapter 3

“What are you doing?” Ryan demanded once Camille had escaped from the workshop.

Steve’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion at his brother’s confrontational tone. “What?”

“Quit trying to poach.” Ryan stalked closer, looking honestly annoyed, which made Steve even more baffled.

“Poach? What are you talking about?”

“Camille. I call dibs, so back off.”

Oh. He’d hoped that he’d misread Ryan’s intentions, but it looked like they were back to that same old one-upmanship. At least there were no more football games or athletic scholarships left to get Nate’s competitive spirit flaring. “I hate to break it to you, Ry, but you can’t call dibs on a person. Besides, Camille’s not interested. She pretty much ran out of here.” He left out the part about her slamming the door in Ryan’s face, not wanting to kick his brother while he was down. It was refreshing, though, to see there was at least one woman immune to Ryan’s charm, especially since that woman was Camille Brandt, who seemed to have grown from a sweet, shy, awkward teen into a sweet, shy, gorgeous adult.

She wasn’t just beautiful, though. She had a way of listening carefully before saying exactly what someone needed to hear. They’d talked three times since he’d returned to Borne, and each time, he’d left feeling more optimistic and hopeful than he’d felt in a while. Shaking off his thoughts, he realized that his brother was glaring at him.

“That’s just how she is,” Ryan said. “She’s shy and easily overwhelmed by male attention.”

Steve had to bite his cheek to keep from snorting. Sure, Camille was timid, but that just made her flat refusal to have lunch with Ryan more obvious. There was absolutely no sign that she was interested in him. “Okay, Ry.” Feeling a little bad for his clueless, rejected brother, he reached out to give Ryan’s arm a gentle pat. “I’m going to relieve Will so he can take a break.”

“You don’t believe me, but you’ll see,” Ryan called after him as Steve headed for the door. “You’re not going to win this one. She’ll be mine by Christmas.”

There was no point arguing once again that women weren’t prizes to be won. Steve just raised his hand in a wave. As he followed the path to the store, he shook his head. He was going to enjoy watching Camille give Ryan his first-ever smackdown. As much as he loved his brother, Ryan had it coming.

“Dad!”

Steve stopped and turned to see Maya running up to him. “Hey, Maya.”

She caught his hand in both of hers, making him smile as she always did. “How do you feel about riding?”

“Now?” When she nodded, bouncing on her toes until it became a whole-body movement, he motioned toward the shop. “Will needs a break. How about you work in the store with me for a half hour, and then we’ll go for a ride.”

“Okay.” Still holding on to his hand, she fell in next to him as they walked toward the gift shop.

“Have you seen Micah since breakfast?” he asked when the snow horse caught his eye.

“Nope. It’s Saturday, though. There’re too many customers around, so he’s probably hiding out with Uncle Joe.”

Steve made a sound of agreement, even as an old worry flared to life. Lately, he’d been a little preoccupied with Zoe’s experiments, but he was also concerned about Micah. Thirteen was very young to turn into a hermit, but Micah seemed to be pretty far down that road already. Steve wondered if the two moves in two years had traumatized the kids. There hadn’t been much of a choice in the matter, though. Both places they’d lived before—Simpson and then Monroe—had become too dangerous to raise his family there. He’d felt trapped between keeping his kids safe and keeping them happy, and he’d chosen the first. It wasn’t that he regretted his choice now, but he wished his kids still felt like they could talk to him as they used to.

“Are you happy here?” he asked Maya abruptly.

Tilting her head in thought, she didn’t look put off by the out-of-the-blue question. “Yes. I miss my friends from Simpson sometimes, and the firefighters who used to babysit us, but this is the best place we’ve lived. I like having all my uncles around.”

“Me, too.” Until he moved back to the ranch, he hadn’t realized how alone he’d felt, especially in Monroe. As newcomers, they hadn’t had the same type of support system as they’d had in Simpson, where they’d lived for more than a decade. Although his brothers drove him crazy sometimes, they were family, and they loved the kids. It was good being home. “I’m glad you like it here. I know moving so much has been hard.”

“A little, but it wasn’t like we had a choice, not if we wanted to be safe.” For a moment, she sounded like she was a forty-year-old speaking out of her ten-year-old mouth, and Steve gave her a sideways glance. She quickly reverted to her usual self. “I mean, Monroe pretty much blew up. A lot worse than Zoe’s explosions, even.”

As he held the gift shop door open for her, Steve felt the urge to laugh and cringe at the same time. She wasn’t wrong.

The store was crowded with shoppers, and Steve nodded politely to them as he followed Maya to the register.

“Hey, Dad, Maya, check out Camille’s metal art in the window,” Will called as he rang up a wreath a man was buying. “Three sold already, but I took pictures of all of them first.”

“Who’s Camille?” Maya asked as she obediently headed toward the display.

“An artist who knew Dad and the uncles when they were kids,” Will answered. “She said she has stories, but Uncle Ryan dragged her out of here before she could tell me any.”

Stories? Steve thought as he followed Maya to the deep shelf in front of the bay window. Will’s interest in Camille’s work made Steve even more curious. Although Will enjoyed working in the store, it was mainly because he liked talking to people and getting paid for it. Normally, he was fairly uninterested in the store’s contents, so for him to comment on Camille’s sculptures was unusual. Will’s theory was that one ornament or wreath or figurine was no different from the next. Steve wanted to see the artwork for another reason, too. After his most recent encounters with Camille, he found he was more than a little interested in the way her mind worked.

As soon as he saw the sculptures, Steve smiled. They were completely different from what he’d imagined, but absolutely perfect. Camille’s personality radiated from both of the two remaining pieces: a mare and foal, and an angel. He recognized some of the parts from their original forms—delicate-looking gears and a piece of quarter-inch copper pipe and a small gasket—but she’d combined them in a way that was beautiful and expressive.

“Whoa,” Maya breathed, reaching out to touch the edge of the angel’s wing. “I like these. She took everything that’s supposed to be plain and ugly and made it pretty.”

Steve crouched down to get a closer look at the mare and foal, amazed at the delicacy of a piece made out of metal scrap. “They’re pretty incredible, aren’t they? I wonder if Micah’s seen these yet.”

“He’s going to love the horses,” Maya said, echoing Steve’s thoughts. He picked up the sculpture without even bothering to look at the price tag, knowing that the cost wouldn’t make a difference. He wanted the piece and knew that he’d kick himself if he didn’t grab it before someone else did. The idea of having something so beautiful—especially since it had come from Camille’s imagination and artistic hands—made him feel warm inside.

“Should we get this one?” Steve asked Maya, even though he’d already decided the horses were his. She enthusiastically nodded. Giving the angel a final awed touch, Maya bounced toward the register where Will was waiting.

“We’re getting the horses!” she called out to him, and Will grinned.

“Good.” Taking the piece from Steve, he slipped it into a cloth bag and placed it in a box well lined with shredded paper. “That was my favorite, and Micah’s going to go nuts over it.”

“That’s what I said, too!” Maya bent closer to the patterned bag that encased the sculpture. “Are those robots printed on there?”

Steve leaned in, and sure enough, the fabric was covered in cartoon robots. A wide grin stretched his cheeks. That detail seemed so perfectly Camille.

“Yep.” Will was the one who answered.

“Nice.” Maya gave the bag an impressed look before Will closed the box. “I call dibs on the robot bag after we take the horses out of the box.”

Steve didn’t want to fight his daughter for the bag, but he was getting more and more intrigued by the artist herself. He wished Ryan wasn’t playing his usual game. He didn’t want to fight over Camille as though she were a bone and they were two hungry dogs. She deserved more than that—much more.

“Take a break,” Steve said when Will finished tying up the box with twine twisted together with green ribbon.

“Great. I’m staaarving.” He drew out the last word dramatically, and Maya giggled. Even Steve smiled a little, feeling slightly more effervescent than usual. He tried to pretend that he didn’t know why that was and handed the newly packed box to Will.

“Mind taking this to the house?” he asked. “Micah can open it tonight, since he hasn’t seen it yet. I bet Zoe will be impressed, too.”

“Either impressed, or she’ll think it’s a major waste of perfectly good engine parts,” Will said, holding the box under his left arm as he scribbled the hours he’d worked that morning onto his tally sheet with his right hand. It was their low-tech version of clocking out.

“You done for the day, then?” Steve asked. “Who’s working this afternoon?” He hoped he didn’t get roped into it. Not only did he and Maya have a ride planned, but he was only good in the store for about half an hour before all his customer-service skills dramatically declined. Besides, his ribbon curls were sadly subpar.

“Zoe. She wants to earn some money for Christmas presents.”

“Not alone she’s not.”

“Uncle Nate said he’ll do paperwork in the office, in case she needs backup.” Will nodded toward the closet-sized room at the back of the store that barely fit a desk and chair.

“On a Saturday afternoon? It’s our busiest time. She’ll be swamped. What about Ryan?”

“He’ll be on tree and Buttercup duty.” There was an amused note in Will’s voice. Everyone knew that Ryan’s least favorite job was following customers around as they picked the perfect tree. Steve sighed, not even asking about Joe or Micah. There was no way either of those two would come into the store while it was open. “Maya, I’m sorry, but we’re going to need to put off our ride until tomorrow morning after church.”

Although she looked disappointed, she didn’t argue. “That’s okay.”

Putting an arm around her shoulders, he squeezed her against his side. “Thank you, Maya.”

She leaned in to him for a moment before skipping away to reorganize the messy pine-bough display. Turning back to Will, Steve asked, “What are you planning for this afternoon?”

“Homework.” He laughed at Steve’s startled expression. “That was the deal, remember? If I want to go with Connor’s family to the Avalanche game in Denver tomorrow, I need to have everything ready for Monday before I leave.”

“Right.” Steve gave himself a mental shake. Now that the kids were getting older, their schedules were getting busier. Between keeping up with their activities, working at the ranch, and starting with the Borne fire department, he struggled to stay on top of everything. “Good. Go ahead then.”

As he watched Will head for the door, calling out a goodbye to his sister, who waved pine boughs at him in response, Steve wondered how he’d managed to raise such gregarious, cheerful children. He’d always been serious and introverted—like Micah was—and he kept waiting for Will to suffer from teenage angst, but at almost fifteen, Will continued to be blissfully sunny. Steve hadn’t expected his kids to turn out so brilliant and talented and…well, complicated, either. Rearing them had become something of a minefield as he tried to encourage them while dodging hurt feelings and sudden mood changes and—with Zoe—literal explosions.

“Do you have any more of these?” an elderly woman asked, holding up Camille’s metal angel. “I want to get these for my daughters, but I only see the one.”

“That’s the last one, but the artist will be making more.” The reminder that Camille would be coming out to the ranch with another delivery brightened his mood. His impatience to see her again surprised him. It had been a long time since he’d been this interested in a woman, and the realization both excited and concerned him. He wouldn’t be the only one affected if things didn’t work out. The kids had already experienced too much loss in their lives, and he didn’t want to set them up for more.

“When will they be coming in?” the woman asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Soon, hopefully.” Despite the Ryan issue, Steve really did hope Camille would return soon. The last thing he needed was another complication in his life, but his heart wasn’t listening to reason. He was already much too eager to see her again.