“We’ve got this completely covered. It won’t take a moment to clean this up. Meantime, why don’t you take our guests down to the barn to meet Sparkle?”
Who were these women and what had they done with her family members? She frowned, fighting the urge to roll her eyes at all of them for their transparent attempts to push her together with Flynn. For heaven’s sake, what did they think would possibly happen between the two of them with his daughter along?
“I don’t know,” Flynn said, checking his watch. “It’s getting late.”
“It’s not even eight o’clock yet!” Olivia protested. “Since I don’t have to get up for school, I haven’t been going to bed until nine thirty.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“So we can go?”
He hesitated, then shrugged. “If Celeste doesn’t mind taking us. But we can’t stay long. She’s already had a long day.”
“Oh, yay!” Olivia jumped up instantly from the table and headed for her coat.
“Does anyone else want to go down to the barn with us?” Celeste asked.
She didn’t miss the way Barrett practically jumped out of his chair with eagerness but subsided again with a dejected look when his mother shook her head firmly.
Oh, she hoped Flynn hadn’t noticed her crazy, delusional, interfering sisters.
He rose. “We’ll probably need to head out after we stop at the barn. It’s late and I have to get this young lady home to bed, whatever she says.”
“Understandable,” Aunt Mary said with a warm, affectionate smile for both of them.
With a sweet, surprising charm, he leaned in and kissed her aunt’s plump cheek. “Thank you for the delicious meal. We both truly enjoyed it.”
She heard a definite ring of truth to his words, even as he looked a little surprised by them. She had the feeling he hadn’t expected to enjoy the meal—which again made her wonder why he had agreed to come.
“You are most welcome,” Aunt Mary said. “I hope both of you will come again before you return to California. Your grandmother was a dear, dear friend, and I miss her terribly. Having you and your daughter here helps ease that ache a little.”
He looked touched. “I miss her, too. I only wish I could have visited her more the past few years.”
Mary patted his hand. “She told me you called her every Sunday night without fail, and sometimes during the week, too. She was very proud of that fact, especially as so many young people these days get so busy with their lives that they forget that their parents and grandparents might be a touch lonely without them.”
“A phone call was nothing. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of her friends here in Pine Gulch who helped keep her busy and involved.”
Celeste liked to consider herself one of that number. Charlotte had volunteered at the library almost up to the end of her life, never letting her physical ailments or the frailties of age prevent her from smiling and trying to lift someone else.
“She was always so proud of you,” Mary went on. “Especially because of what you came from.”
He gave a snort at that. “What I came from? Beverly Hills? Yeah. I overcame so much in life. I don’t know why nobody has come out with a made-for-television movie about my sad life.”
Mary made a face. “Charlotte was proud of many things about you, but perhaps most of all that despite every advantage you had, you always stayed grounded and didn’t let your head get turned by your mother’s fame or fortune. Now that I’ve met you, I understand what she meant. You’re a good boy, Flynn Delaney.”
She smiled and patted his hand again. Flynn looked a bit taken aback at anyone calling him a boy, but he only had time to give Aunt Mary a bemused sort of look before Olivia cut off anything he might have said in response.
“Are you ready, Daddy? I can’t wait to see Sparkle. I can’t wait.”
“Yes. I’m ready. We can grab our coats on the way out. Thank you all again.”
“You’re so welcome,” Faith and Hope said at the same time, almost as if they had rehearsed it. Chase and Rafe both nodded in the odd way men had of speaking volumes with just a simple head movement.
“Bye, Olivia. We’ll see you at the next practice,” Louisa said cheerfully.
They put on their coats quickly and headed out into the December evening.
The snow had increased in intensity, still light but more steady now. The air was still, though, with no wind to hurl flakes against them.
The night seemed magical somehow, hushed and beautiful with the full moon trying to push through the cloud cover.
Celeste was fiercely aware of him as they made their way to the barn. He was so very...male, from the jut of his jaw to his wide shoulders to the large footsteps his boots made in the snow beside her much smaller ones. He made her feel small and feminine in comparison.
To her relief, she didn’t have to make conversation. Olivia kept up a steady stream of conversation about the ranch. She couldn’t help noticing the girl had talked more that day than she had in all their previous encounters combined. Either she was more comfortable with Celeste now, or she was beginning to return to the girl she had been before the shooting.
If she wasn’t mistaken, the girl had hardly limped that afternoon or evening. That had to be a good sign, she supposed.
“Here we are,” she said when they reached the barn. The smell of hay and animals and old wood greeted them, not at all unappealing in its way.
She flipped on the lights and heard Mistletoe’s distinctive whinny of greeting. She took time as they passed the old horse to give Misty a few strokes and an apple she pulled from her pocket before she led them to Sparkle’s stall next door.
“Olivia, this is Sparkle. Sparkle, meet my good friend Olivia.”
After a moment of coyness, the reindeer headed to the railing of the stall.
“I’ve never seen a real reindeer before. He’s small!”
“Reindeer are generally much smaller than people think they should be.” She petted him, much the way she had Mistletoe. He lipped at her, trying to find a treat.
“Would you like to feed him an apple?”
“Can I?”
She glanced down at the girl and decided not to miss this opportunity. “I don’t know. You’ll have to use your left arm. He prefers it when people feed him from that side.”
That was an out-and-out lie. Sparkle would eat with great delight any apple that came his way, but she decided Olivia didn’t need to know that.
Flynn made a low sound of amusement beside her that seemed to ripple down her spine. She barely managed to hold back her instinctive shiver as she handed the apple to Olivia.
The girl narrowed her gaze at Celeste, obviously trying to figure out if this was some kind of a trick. In the end, the appeal and novelty of feeding a reindeer outweighed her suspicions.
She took the apple with her injured left hand and, with effort, held it out to the reindeer, who nibbled it out of her hand. Olivia giggled. “Can I pet him?”
“Sure. He won’t hurt you.”
She rubbed his head for a moment. “What about his antlers?”
“Go ahead. Just be gentle.”
She reached out and tentatively touched an antler. “It’s hard and soft at the same time. Weird!”
Sparkle visited with her for a moment, and it was plain he was happy to find a new friend. Any malaise