Once everyone had their box, they ripped off the lids. Together, the girls shouted, “Legos!”
Each box contained a tiny Christmas Lego figure to build. They raced to the coffee table and started building their gifts. Trace had given her a Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer to go with Kenzie’s Santa, Tildi’s snowman, and Joy’s elf. She loved it.
“While you girls build your treasures, we’ll be getting the s’mores ready for roasting,” Boone said.
So many thoughts flooded her mind, all of the good ones. The joy of feeling not just included but truly accepted. She hadn’t felt that way in a very long time.
By the time they’d assembled their figurines, eaten a few s’mores, and sung every song from Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer’s movie five times each, Trace decided it was too late to drive back to town. He invited Kip to stay the night at the ranch. Her weak protest didn’t convince anyone, especially not herself.
Looking upset when she was anything but was difficult. She wanted to spend every second with him she could before she left. “You think you are a clever Daddy, don’t you?”
With a hand on each side of her hips, he pulled her closer. “No, just sneaky.”
“Hmm. Bossy, sneaky Daddy,” she said. “There is one problem. I didn’t bring any pajamas.”
Were Daddies allowed to roll their eyes? That didn’t seem fair. “Foxy, with three other Littles in the house, I think we can find you a pair of PJs and anything else you need. Here at the ranch, we keep extras of just about everything.”
Trace carried her up the stairs as if she weighed nothing, even though she tried to wiggle down twice. His arms didn’t budge. Not once, even an inch.
Joy met them at the top of the stairs. “I have these,” she said, holding out a neatly folded pajama set.
Kip couldn’t tell much about them, but she loved the bright red color. “Thanks. I’ll take good care of them.”
“Don’t worry about it. And sorry if they swallow you. I’m kind of big.”
Chance growled and swatted her bottom. Joy grabbed her bottom. “Tall! I meant tall. I wasn’t talking bad about myself. I meant tall.”
Chance looked unconvinced. “We’ll talk about it in our room, Gypsy.” He grabbed the back of Joy’s knees and tossed her over his shoulder. Turning to Trace and Kip, Chance winked. “Looks like we’re gonna be tied up for a while. You two have a good night.”
He strode down the hall away from Trace, with Joy laughing the whole way.
“I hope she doesn’t get into too much trouble,” Kip said as they disappeared through a door at the end of the hall.
Trace snorted. “I think she’ll be fine, Foxy. Joy likes that kind of trouble. Now, let's get you settled in my room.” At the opposite end of the long hall, Trace stopped in front of a dark, solid pine door. The bottom was scuffed with what looked like boot heel marks, but the rest of the door gleamed, right down to the brass doorknob. He rested her on his hip and entered a code on a keypad beside his door.
That was… unusual. “You have a keyless lock to your bedroom in your own house?”
“I do. And if you don’t know why, you didn’t grow up in a house full of prank-pulling brothers.”
The door opened into a room that felt like a secret carved out of the mountain itself. Two tall, double-hung windows dominate the wall to her right, huge and framed in black steel. Through them, she could look straight past the landscaped backyard to the Wild River, glinting silver even at midnight, and beyond the river to the mountains with their peaks glowing white.
“Where are your curtains?” The large glass left her feeling vulnerable and exposed.
“No need,” he said. “The dark is honest.”
What the heck did that mean? “I’m sorry?”
He had a way of grinning with the left side of his mouth. She loved that grin.
“You can see better in the dark. Not with your eyes, maybe, but with all your other senses. You can’t hide small things like the tremor in your voice. Or the way you lean toward safety and pull away from pain.
Realizing he hadn’t turned on the lights and that she wasleaning into him now, she straightened up. “You can put me down now.”
He entered the room, and the lights turned on. The view outside the windows disappeared, but she hardly noticed as she looked around the rest of his space. It wasn’t just a room. It was more like a small apartment.
There was a large bathroom to the left and an alcove to the right containing all the essentials of a miniature chef’s kitchen. The light also lit up the far wall, which was made entirely of smooth, mossy river rock. It housed the biggest fireplace she’d ever seen. You could roast an entire side of beef there. Leather furniture curved around the hearth, cozy and inviting. But the bed on the right wall was what really caught her eye.
The king-sized iron frame was stunning, with a lattice of horseshoes welded into a running-W pattern that formed the brand of Wild River Ranch. “Where did you get the bed? It’s incredible.”
