Page 9

Becca only laughed and waved as she walked away. Which was fair enough. Sandra Denton was a scary lady, and Gabe would never admitfearper se, but he doubted they’d be late.

He turned to Monica where she stood at Pal’s side, gently rubbing the beast. The kid was nowhere to be seen. “Thought I was supposed to meet you at your cabin.”

“Yes, well, I got to thinking it made more sense to leave from here, and with all the right tools.” She stroked the horse fondly. “Becca made us a big thermos of hot chocolate. Colin’s inside getting that and I’m sure sneaking a few other treats.”

“Like the Twinkies you don’t like.”

Her mouth curved, and she looked at him from behind the horse’s head. “Just because I don’t buy them doesn’t mean I don’t like them.”

“You’re not half as sneaky as you think you are. I watched you throw it away.”

She sighed. “Sometimes, as a mom, you make sacrifices. And sometimes, as a mom, you lie so your kid doesn’t know the real reason you won’t buy Twinkies is you think they’re disgusting and don’t want to have to watch him eat them, not that you’re worried about what chemicals might be inside.”

“Being a mom sounds hard.” And if he was honest with himself, it was kind of fascinating to watch her do it. Maybe because, though she’d dealt with somewhat similar circumstances, there weren’t a lot of similarities between Monica and his own mother.

“You havenoidea.” She nodded toward Pal. “Becca mentioned you’re not a fan of the horses.”

“Not that I’m not a fan,” Gabe replied, hiding his irritation at Becca’s big mouth with the best smile he could muster. “Just never been around them much. Weird little bastards.”

“My late husband’s family had a horse farm,” she said, her gaze on the horse as she continued to stroke it. “We met in high school on the base, and he used to get to go visit his aunt and uncle on the farm on the weekends. Then I started going with him. There was nothing quite like it.”

Gabe didn’t have a clue what to say to any of that. Monica never seemed uncomfortable bringing the dead guy up, even around Colin. It was so different than Gabe’s upbringing, where he’d had to beg his mother to even find out what his late father’s name had been.

“No farm animals in your childhood?” she asked casually.

“Grew up in the city, then the burbs. Being deployed taught me something about wide-open spaces and how to enjoy them, but not a damn thing about animals.”

“It was one of the pluses of moving here for me, that Colin would get to be around horses and other animals. I didn’t exactly have roof-climbing goats or roosters who won’t die in mind, but he certainly gets a kick out of Becca’s menagerie.”

“Yeah, it’s a menagerie all right.” Gabe studied the sleigh. “Gonna be a tight fit.” There was one broad bench down the center where they’d all have to huddle together to fit.

“Colin’s small,” Monica returned, clearly as married to this dumb sleigh idea as Becca had been.

As if on cue, Colin appeared at the barn entrance, two big thermoses in his hands. “Woah! Are we really going to ride that, like, around?” Colin asked, some mixture of skepticism and delight in his tone.

“Till we get frostbite, I guess,” Gabe muttered, eyeing the horse when it made one of those patently weird horse-breathing noises.

“Don’t be a coward, Gabe,” Monica said too cheerfully as she gave the horse one last loving pat. She grinned up at him. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“Trust me, sweetheart, I’ve been brave in the face of a hell of a lot worse than a farm animal.”

Something in her face went soft, and he felt himself soften with it. Till she spoke.

“I’d like to hear about that sometime.”

He flashed one of those grins that was far morebite methanaren’t you funny. “I don’t think I can afford your hourly rate, Doc.”

She closed her eyes and winced a little. “Sorry. Bad habit.”

Gabe didn’t say anything to that. He moved into the sleigh, scooting next to Colin, who was all but bouncing from excitement. Gabe made a joke about having a great view of the horse’s butt, which made Colin giggle hysterically. At least that lifted his mood.

“What happens if it poops?” Colin asked, still laughing brightly.

“I think it means you get a shit sandwich for lunch.”

Colin absolutely howled at that, and Gabe ignored the stern look Monica gave them both as she slid into the other side of the sleigh. She took the reins in her gloved hands and gave them a little flick.

The sleigh lurched forward and Gabe grimaced. He felt like a damn fool riding around in asleigh, but Colin was looking this way and that as Pal led them down the hill and out toward the north pasture, the sleigh easily cutting through the hard-packed snow.