“True enough.” Though the cowboy way was to bang away at something until he could do it with his eyes closed. “I like it myself.”
“So, do you do cross-country skiing? Can you show us how? I’d like to learn.”
Ichabod’s touches were like a meditation, like a hymn. “Of course, I’d love to teach you all. It’s an important skill. You need to be able to get places in an emergency.”
Ichabod nodded, his expression reading as tickled. “What do the horses do when it’s snowing super deep? Do you leave them inside all day? That seems mean.”
He could see where Michael got it, that instinctive care for the animals, the gentle manner. It might not be easy, but Ichabod cared, and Ellis loved it.
It turned him on, in fact.
“Depends on how cold it is. I let them out to exercise, but I keep an eye on their hooves and on their breathing. Horsescan get respiratory stuff incredibly fast. But they still need to get out and move. And Rio, for instance, is lazy as hell on snow days. He’d rather be loose in the barn or the lean-to.”
“Well, I hope that our horses are the same way.” Ichabod patted his chest. “Because I really want to stay right here until it’s time to go get the kids. Maybe have another round, maybe take a nap.”
Ellis chuckled. “I like the way you think. Maybe a nap, and then a second round, and then a shower before we go pick up the kids, because I have feeling we already stink pretty bad.”
“Oh, I don’t know. At least it’s cold, and we’re not hot and gross.”
“Such logic.” He lifted his head to look into Ichabod’s eyes. “We’re good, right? This is all good.”
Ichabod nodded, gaze serious. “We’re more than good. This is exactly what I wanted, and I hope it was for you too.”
“Baby, it doesn’t get any better than this, trust me. I’ve never felt this good, at least not about something that came with any kind of romantic entanglement.”
“Ooh, we’re entangled.”
“Hell yes we are. You made me a cup.”
Ichabod snorted. “If I’d only known it was that easy, I would have done it a long time ago.”
Ellis pitched one of Ichabod’s nipples.
“Ow! No abusing me.”
“Then don’t trash-talk me. I love my cup.” He winked, and then pulled the covers up even farther so that the cold air couldn’t intrude on them. He was going to be lazy as all get out and wallow in how good this was for a while.
He was sure once the kids got home they were gonna have a hell of a time, so they needed to conserve their energy.
Chapter Twelve
Ichabod figured he was going to lose his ever-loving mind. It had been snowing for three days; his children had been out of school for two. Ellis was up to his eyeballs in feeding cattle and horses and trying to keep the water tanks and troughs from icing up, and the kids were full of piss and vinegar.
“Dad! I’m bored,” Michael would cry while he was playing his video games. It wasn’t so much that he was bored as it was that he was mad at Ellis for not letting him go out and help with the horses. But the snow was up to Michael’s waist in most places, so it stood to reason that Ellis was afraid he’d get lost or hurt or worse.
“Dad, everyone else is in town! Why do we have to be out here in the middle of freaking nowhere?” Zane had reverted to a pouty teenager because he’d been cut off from his friends, although they were talking online. Ichabod was glad Zane wasn’t driving solo yet because he was worried his son would do something totally stupid and try to drive into town, even though the roads were horrific.
“Because this is where your grandfather left us?” He triedfind a grin. “I’m sorry, man, this is a freak friggin’ storm, you know that.”
It wasn’t even Halloween for Christ’s sake. This was wild.
“You know noteverybody’sin town.”
“Don’t use logic. It’s condescending. You know everybody else is out there having fun, going to the coffee shop, and not being in school. I’m stuck here.” At least that was less growly, he guessed.
“Okay, but at least you’re not in school, right?” He winked, and Zane rolled his eyes.
“Can we at make fancy hot chocolate to make up for it?”
