Chapter 20

“This is not,” Camille told Maya, who was cuddled up next to her in the hospital bed, “a Christmas-card moment.”

“No.” Maya’s voice was still hoarse. Both of them had been brought to the hospital for smoke inhalation and, in Camille’s case, a concussion. The drug that Nate had dosed the hot chocolate with had passed through Maya’s system with no aftereffects except a lingering headache. “I’d rather be opening presents right now.”

“I’d rather be on the sleigh ride.” Preferably snuggled under a warm blanket with Steve.

“Me, too. I’d rather be riding my pony.”

“I’d rather be riding your pony, too, and I heard he can be extremely naughty.”

Maya gave a rough-sounding chuckle. “Not last night, though. He was a hero, just as brave as a cavalry horse.”

“Yeah, he was. You were, too.”

“Not really.” Dropping her gaze, Maya pinched a fold of the blanket between her fingers. “I was pretty scared.”

“You can be scared and brave. In fact, I don’t think you can be brave without being scared. It’s part of the definition.”

“I cried a lot, and Will had to tell me what to do before I remembered to call Dad.”

Camille shrugged and then regretted it when a sharp throb of pain shot through her skull. “You did it, though, and that’s what matters. Just think, right after regaining consciousness, you rode a horse bareback out of a burning building and went for help. That’s like a braver, more bada—…ah, tougher version of Paul Revere.”

“Nice save,” Steve said dryly as he came into the room. He’d been there most of the day, but he’d left an hour earlier to, as he vaguely put it, “take care of some things.”

“It was a nice save, Maya,” Camille said, pretending she didn’t know he was talking about her almost-swear. “You and your dad saved my life and most of the ranch. If you hadn’t called for help, more than just the barn and that acre of trees would’ve burned. The whole place could’ve been lost. Thank you.” Her voice became serious as she hugged Maya against her, looking at Steve over the girl’s head.

Their gazes met, and she could see all the pain and exhaustion and relief in his eyes. It exactly echoed her feelings, and she felt a little lighter to be able to share them with him.

“Dad?” Maya’s voice was small as he pulled a chair closer to the bed and settled on it. “What’s going to happen to Uncle Nate?”

Steve’s eyes closed for a moment, the lines of his face heavy with anger and grief. Reaching out, Camille took his hand, and he clutched hers so tightly that the pressure was just short of painful. “Uncle Ryan and Uncle Joe took him to a place where people will help him figure out why he did such a terrible thing.”

“So, he’s in rehab?” Maya asked, and Camille bit her lip to stop a completely inappropriate laugh from escaping. Sometimes Maya seemed very young, and other times she seemed to be old and wise.

“Not really. It’s more like a hospital.”

“Can’t he just leave if he wants?”

“No.” Steve’s jaw tightened as he squeezed Camille’s hand tightly, revealing how conflicted he’d been about the decision. “He knows that if he doesn’t spend at least ninety days at this place and work hard with the therapists there, we’ll be talking to the sheriff, and he’ll be arrested.”

“Why wasn’t he arrested now?”

Steve scrubbed a hand over his face. “Joe and Ryan cut off the other lock and got rid of the evidence before the fire marshal got there. As far as she knows, Nate got drunk and accidentally lit the barn on fire. He went for help, but tripped and hit his head and passed out. He didn’t know Maya was inside.”

His eyes took on a gloss that made Camille’s insides twist with sympathy.

“Is this okay with the two of you? I would’ve thrown him in the sheriff’s car myself if Joe and Ryan hadn’t convinced me to give therapy a try. You were the ones hurt by his actions, though. If you want him to go to jail, I’ll change my report.” Steve looked back and forth between Maya and Camille, looking so torn apart inside that she hurt for him.

“I don’t want Uncle Nate to go to jail,” Maya said, shooting Camille an anxious glance, as if she was worried about Camille’s reaction. “He didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt, not really. He was really, really dumb, but I’m glad he’s going to therapy instead.”

“I agree,” Camille said and felt Maya relax against her. “I’m still really angry at him, but I think therapy is a better solution than jail.” She didn’t mention it to Maya, but she knew that Steve was already aware how very, very angry she was at Nate.

“Okay.” Giving a tight nod, he sat back in his chair, although he didn’t relinquish her hand. “This isn’t a very Christmassy place, is it?”

“No,” Maya said mournfully. “Camille and I were just talking about what we’d rather be doing than sitting here on Christmas, like opening presents or going on a sleigh ride or riding Q.” Her eyes widened. “Where are Q and the rest of the horses staying?”

“We moved them to the pasture next to Joe’s cabin. There’s a run-in shed there, so they’ll have somewhere to go out of the weather. You two did a great job getting all of them out. They’re still a little spooked, but none of them have even a scratch.”

“Good.” Camille leaned back as the knot at the back of her head pounded with the beat of her heart. “Except for the barn and the acre of trees closest to the barn, it turned out to be a happy ending, after all.”

“Thanks to the two of you.” Leaning forward, he gently kissed Maya and Camille on the forehead. His phone chimed, and he pulled it out with his free hand. Whatever he saw made a smile tug on one corner of his mouth. “Well, we can’t bring the sleigh in here, but…”

Zoe, Micah, and Will piled into the room in front of a wheeled cart filled with gifts. Camille smiled, happier to see the other kids than she was about the gifts.

“You brought the presents!” Maya cried happily, climbing off Camille’s bed.

“Is that remote-controlled?” Camille asked, eyeing the wagon-like cart when she noticed none of the kids seemed to be pulling it.

Zoe’s face lit up. “It follows my legs and stops when I stop.” She did a short tour around the room to demonstrate, and the cart did indeed trail after her like a puppy. “I designed it based on a robotic mail cart I saw on the internet.”

“Ingenious,” Camille said, sitting cross-legged on the bed as she ignored the pain in her head. Having Steve and the kids there helped distract her. She’d discovered that it felt worse when she just lay quietly with nothing to focus on except her headache.

Steve gave his daughter an approving nod. “Very.”

Dancing with excitement, Maya started passing out the presents, and everyone settled on Camille’s bed or in the chairs. Zoe sat cross-legged in the now-empty cart.

“Do we take turns or just all rip into our gifts?” Camille asked, turning over something from Will. When it’d been just her and her grandma, that hadn’t really been an issue.

“Let’s just rip,” Maya said with a wicked grin, and the other kids chorused their agreement. Pressing back a smile, Steve gave a nod, and wrapping paper started flying.

Despite her headache, Camille couldn’t stop laughing as everyone raced to open their gifts, stopping only to exclaim over them and yell thanks and toss a bow at someone else’s head. When the last gift was revealed, Camille looked around at her haul, fully impressed by the Springfields’ gift-giving skills. Somehow, they’d managed to find and replace some of her favorite tools that had been lost in the fire. Maya had even made a stuffed catnip mouse for Lucy. Zoe’s gift was a new torch that she’d promised would “blow Camille’s socks off.”

Camille reached for her new welding helmet and the gloves Micah had given her, intending to take the torch into the bathroom and quickly see what special features Zoe had added, but Steve plucked the super-torch out of her hands before she could get more than a couple of steps. “Don’t set the hospital on fire. It’s an hour to the next closest one.”

Wrapping an arm around her waist, he tugged her down to sit on his lap. She stiffened, checking the kids for their reaction, but they were too busy investigating their presents to notice. Micah glanced up, but he just grinned, looking sweet and shy, and held up the box of oil pastels she’d gotten for him. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Thank you for the gloves. Those are the best kind, since they’re protective, but you can actually pick things up while wearing them, rather than feeling like you have bear paws.”

“Did I get you the right kind of clamps?” Will asked. He didn’t look at all bothered by Camille’s position on his dad’s lap, either, so she finally relaxed against him. It was warm and safe and so much nicer than the hospital bed.

She nodded. “They’re perfect. How’d you know I hated the one in the workshop?”

“You only complained about it a hundred times,” Will said, rolling his eyes in an exaggerated way that made her join in the others’ laughter. “I love my present. Thank you.” He held up the gift card for a set of new tires for his yet-to-be-purchased car.

“Me, too! Thank you!” Maya started pulling her new winter riding breeches on over her leggings.

“You’re all welcome.” Camille looked at Zoe a little anxiously, since she was staring down at her gift—a pair of tickets to a Denver robotics expo in January—without saying anything. “Is that an okay gift, Zoe?”

When she looked up, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears, and Camille felt her heart sink.

“You don’t have to go,” she said quickly, scrambling to fix whatever she’d just messed up. “We can scalp the tickets and use that money to buy you more parts or tools or whatever you’d like.”

Climbing off the cart, Zoe threw herself at Camille, grabbing her in a hug, fully sobbing. Steve grunted at the impact, and Camille patted the girl’s back, looking frantically at the others, wishing desperately that someone would tell her how to fix this. They just stared back at her, as startled as she was.

“I’m so glad you’re not dead!” Zoe wailed between sobs, and Camille blew out a breath of relief as she hugged Zoe back.

“I’m glad I’m not dead, too.” When Steve turned a chuckle into a cough, Camille widened her eyes at him, but he just smiled at her and held both of them closer until Zoe finished crying and pulled away, snuffling. Grabbing a tissue from the box on the bedside table, Camille handed it to her.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, wiping her face and blowing her nose. “Sorry. I love my present. Will you…go with me?”

Camille blinked, not expecting the invitation, and Zoe started to duck her head. “Of course!” When she’d ordered the tickets, she’d gone over the robotics expo website multiple times, more than a little jealous of Zoe. “I’d love to. We are going to come back with so many great ideas.”

“Uh-oh,” Will said under his breath, and everyone laughed, relieved. Zoe returned to her perch on the cart, and the rest of the kids turned back to their presents, chattering happily.

Steve tipped his head down to speak softly into Camille’s ear. “Their gifts are good, but my present is the best.” He’d put the horse-drawn fire wagon sculpture on the table next to them and ran a thumb lightly across one of the wheels. “I love this.”

A little envious of that wheel, she shifted in his lap. “Really?”

“Really.” He paused, his hand stilling. “Not as much as I love you, though.”

Her heart stuttered. “I… You… I’m sorry. What?”

His hand came up to rub his neck—a neck that was rapidly turning red.

“Hey, Dad?”

Camille turned to look at Will, grateful for the interruption so she could have a moment to try to sort out her spinning emotions.

“We’re going to go find something to eat, if that’s okay?” At Steve’s nod, Will ushered out the other three kids.

Maya’s voice carried back into the room. “Why are we getting food? I’m not hungry.”

“They’re having a talk.” Will’s voice was lower but still clear enough to understand, to Camille’s chagrin. “Remember what happened at breakfast the last time they talked? Do you really want to watch that train wreck again?”

“Oh. No. That was uncomfortable. Let’s be gone a while.”

Their voices finally faded, and Camille still didn’t have any idea of the right way to respond.

“You don’t have to say it back.” Even though they were alone in the room, Steve kept his voice low and his mouth close to her ear. “You don’t have to say anything right now. I just wanted you to know.”

Suddenly, she knew exactly what she felt and what she wanted—needed—to do. Turning her head, she pressed her mouth against his. After a startled second, Steve kissed her back, and she could feel how much he really did love her. It was obvious in the way he held her, as if she was something precious, something that deserved to be protected and cherished…and loved.

She deepened the kiss, and he groaned against her mouth, his hand coming up to cup the back of her head. When he pressed on the swollen knot, she yelped, pulling back.

“I’m sorry,” he said, remorse quickly replacing the heat in his eyes. “Did I hurt your head?”

“It’s fine.” She wanted to say the words now that she’d actually figured out how she felt. “I’m fine. I’m good. I love you, too.”

By the way his eyes widened in surprise, he hadn’t expected her to say it back. She took advantage of his startled moment of silence to keep talking.

“And I love your kids. They’re really interesting people. If everyone was as awesome as your kids, I wouldn’t mind talking to people. I might even go to the grocery store during the busiest time of the day.”

His mouth started to curve up at the corners, and his smile stretched until it was a full-faced beam. She just looked at him, basking in the beauty of him and the knowledge that she was the one who’d made him so happy.

When he moved to kiss her again, though, she held him off. “Can I ask you one thing before you make me forget everything except for how great it feels when you kiss me?”

“Of course.” His grin widened even more at her question, and she almost chickened out, not wanting to bring back his grim look. She needed to know, though.

“Did Nate burn down my house?”

As she’d feared, his smile fell away, and she dreaded what his answer would be. “No. Jackie has officially declared it an accidental fire caused by compromised wiring.”

Her body sagged in relief. “Thank you. It wouldn’t have changed how I feel about you, but it would’ve made it hard to forgive him, and he’s your brother, so… It’s just good to know.”

“I understand.” His mouth quirked wryly. “Jackie told me she actually suspected I’d set it.”

“What?” The idea was so preposterous that Camille could only stare at him, her mouth open.

“Mrs. Lin showed her that picture of the person on your porch in bunker gear, and she knew I was interested in you, so she thought I might have done it so I could be a hero.”

Camille scoffed at that. “As if you need any help with that. You’re constantly being heroic.”

His smile was slowly returning. “Not constantly.”

“Well, no, but usually. You’re really intimidatingly close to perfect.” He snorted, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to convince him of it. That didn’t change the truth, though. She brought the subject back to Nate, unable to let it go without asking one more question. “Was he the one in that picture?”

“I think so. He admitted having borrowed my bunker gear—or breaking in to take it from the station when he couldn’t get his hands on mine—and he liked to go to your house and…” He paused, the anger building in his eyes again. “He would watch you through the windows. We’d always been too competitive, growing up. Ryan, Nate, and I…” He shook his head. “With Ryan, it was always about girls. With Nate, it was sports, grades, attention…everything. I thought we’d outgrown all that, but I guess in his head, he was still competing for who got to be the center of attention. He wanted to be the hero. After I helped you at the scrapyard and we started to reconnect, Nate got a little…obsessed with the idea of being the one to save you. Even if he had to put you in danger first to do it.”

“Oh.” She absorbed that, feeling her stomach cringe away from the idea. “I guess I can kind of understand that.”

“You can?”

“Not really. I mean that I can eventually forgive him for it.” Giving in to temptation, she stroked the line of Steve’s jaw, trying to smooth away the tightness there. “It’s not your fault, you know. He may have felt competitive, but all you’ve ever done is try your best to help people. You’re the real hero.”

He cupped her face gently, careful to avoid the back of her head. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And thank you for the welding helmet. I’ve coveted that kind for years.” She loved how he supported what she did without trying to dismiss or diminish it. Even her grandma hadn’t understood how much a part of her that her artwork was.

“You’re welcome, but that’s not your whole present.”

“It’s not?” Anticipation sparked in her. “What’s the rest?”

“I’m going to remodel the workshop, and half of it will be done however you like.”

She stared at him, feeling a warm happiness spreading through her until it filled her completely. “I can’t believe I get to stay at the Christmas-card ranch.”

“I can’t believe I have you.” His face softened. “And that you love me.”

“I do.” Leaning closer, she closed the distance between them. Just before their lips were about to touch, she gave a soft laugh. “Steve-freaking-Springfield. I still can’t believe I get to kiss you whenever I want.”

“Believe it.”

His lips met hers, and she finally did believe it. Her daydreams of this wonderful man and his amazing kids and the beautiful Christmas-card ranch…

They were real.

For more Katie Ruggle check out the
Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters series

In Her Sights

On sale March 2019