Once Upon a Cowboy (7 page)

“Oh! Do you have one here?”

He shook his head, smiling. “Careful, cowgirl. I could give you a bad map. So do you want to help? Or not?”

Jess weighed the benefit of spending the next couple of hours with Cole against the cost of having to do so with ten children in tow. In the end, the benefit won out, but she was ashamed to admit it was a close one.

“All right,” she finally said. “I’m game. Is it a competition?”

He raised
his eyebrows. “Got a monster competitive streak under that Zen-yoga exterior?”

“Maybe?”

“Okay, competition it is. You take half the kids and I’ll take the other half. Ma hid the stuff this morning. First team back with everything on the list wins.”

“What will we win?”

The smile on his face got suddenly serious as his eyes landed squarely on hers, just long enough to send heated arcs through
her midsection. But she’d barely registered the feeling before he winked and clapped on his hat.

“Pick your team wisely, cowgirl.”

Thirty seconds later, a couple of squeals announced the first two girls racing toward the stables. Jess cringed. “And here they are.”

Cole let out a practiced sigh. “Ready or not?”

Jess watched the kids careening down the hill. “Just a quick question before we head out there? Exactly how hard
is
it to wear them out?”

“Really hard.” He winked. “Hope you had your Wheaties this morning.”

Jess watched as he strode out into the corral, trying to keep her eyes above his waist, but not quite succeeding. She tried to tell herself it was her years of studying the human body as a yoga instructor that made her fully appreciate the way his body fit his Levi’s, but the heat building in certain parts of her
own
body belied that argument.

“All right, cowpokes!” Cole herded the kids toward
a circle of logs. “Who’s ready for a scavenger hunt?”

A chorus of squeals greeted his question, but two girls Jess would peg at around twelve years old sat with their arms crossed on one of the logs.
Uh-oh.
Apparently scavenger hunts ceased being fun right at about the time you hit double digits.

Cole held up two pieces of paper. “So we have two jobs today. One is to find all of the things Ma
put on these lists, of course. The other”—he motioned for Jess to come closer to him—“is to show Jess here that scavenger hunts can be fun.”

A little pixie with blond braids looked up at Jess, her face quizzical. “Why doesn’t she think they’re fun?”

“Well, I’ll tell you a secret.” He motioned them closer, then fake-whispered, “She’s not very good at them.”

“Hey. I’m plenty good at them when
someone doesn’t alter my map.”

Cole laughed. “See, last time Jess did a Whisper Creek scavenger hunt, someone played a trick on her.”

The tiny blonde looked at Jess, her eyes wide. “What happened?”

Jess smiled. “Lots of things, actually. First, we got lost, and we walked a long,
long
way farther than we were supposed to. And then there was a big storm, so we had to duck down in a stream so
we wouldn’t get hit by lightning—”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cole making strange motions, but something made her keep going anyway.

“But then, the worst part happened.” Jess paused, and was gratified to see every kid looking straight at her, eyes wide. “Then we saw a great big—”

“Dog!” Cole broke in, making a slicing motion across his neck, then stepping between her and the kids.
“Great. Big. Dog. That’s what she saw. Right, Jess?”

“Um, right. Yes. Definitely.” Jess cringed, realizing too late what she’d almost done. “Just a dog. Definitely not a bear. No bears here.”

Cole closed his eyes, shaking his head slowly.

“You know what really
did
happen, though?” She leaned around him. “I ended up
covered
with mud.”

“How?” the little girl asked.

“Because we fell into the
creek. When we finally found our way back to the ranch, Cole here thought my friends and I had been mud-wrestling.”

The kids laughed, but Jess saw Cole swallow hard at her words.

He cleared his throat. “Okay, so back to the papers here.” He held up the lists. “Ma hid a whole bunch of stuff on us this morning, and now we have to find it.”

As Cole went over the rules of the hunt, Jess tried to
focus on his words, but her eyes kept getting stuck on his lips, his biceps, his chest. It was going to be a long afternoon, if it was already this hard to concentrate.

Two minutes later, he was done. “All right. Boys on one side of the circle, and girls on the other.” The kids scrambled and picked new seats, then waited anxiously to get started.

Cole pointed to Jess. “I was just going to keep
this a friendly little scavenger hunt, but Jess here thought it should be a competition. So, here’s how this is going to go. I’m taking the boys, and she gets the girls. First order of business is that we each get to add one last thing to the other team’s list, and they have to find it in order to win.”

He handed Jess one of the lists, and a pencil. “Huddle up and figure out what you’re going
to make us find, gals.”

As he gathered the boys around him, Jess gingerly approached the girls, who were looking a little bit like they’d much rather be on Cole’s team. She sat down in front of them, scanning the list. “Okay, ladies. If we want to win this, we have to think of something good.”

The girls threw out ideas—an owl, a rabbit, a three-toed sloth—but as soon as something was suggested,
someone else would shoot it down. After a few minutes of trying, they were no closer to deciding than they’d been when Cole had handed them the list.

Jess heard the boys laugh, and then Cole stood up.

“Well, girls? Whatcha got for us?”

Jess cringed, then looked back at the girls. “What do you think? Should we go with the firefly?”

Britney, one of the older girls, rolled her eyes. “Fireflies
won’t be out for hours.”

Ella, the littlest girl, suddenly leaped up. “I have an idea!” She hopped over to Cole and reached up her arms. “Cole, I have to tell you a secret.”

He lifted her up, but before she could whisper anything in his ear, she plucked his Stetson off from his head and slid back down, then ran back across the circle to the girls, holding it aloft. “Let’s make Cole find his
hat!”

Jess laughed.
Perfect.

An hour later, Jess gathered the girls around the outdoor fire pit, checking the fabric bag full of items they’d collected so far. The older girls had started the hunt reluctantly, but as they’d uncovered items and began checking things off the list, they’d started to actually enjoy the activity. It didn’t hurt that half the items Ma had hidden contained sugar,
but whatever worked, right?

She peered into the big bag as the boys streamed out of the stable and ducked around behind the adjoining corral. “All we have left to find is the fire-bellied toad. Where should we look?”

“Down by the creek!” they chorused as one, then started jogging down the path that led to where Whisper Creek cut closest to the stables. As Jess slid carefully down the bank to
join the girls at the edge of the creek, she wondered how big a fire-bellied toad was, anyway. And how exactly one went about rousting one out of its favorite hiding place, which was—she had no idea where.

Twenty minutes later, they’d uncovered a biology book’s worth of critters, but no fire-bellied toad, and the girls were starting to get frustrated. Jess was just about to suggest maybe it was
time to give up the hunt when her foot—which had been placed on a nice, stable, rock-ish sort of rock—moved.

She looked down. Water was flowing in the creek, but not fast enough to dislodge a rock the size of the one under her foot.

Then it moved again. The other way.

Jess looked down, feeling her eyes go huge, and then let out a screech she didn’t know she was capable of. One second later,
she was sitting in the creek, soaked to the skin, watching the turtle she’d thought was a rock go ambling upstream.

Ma came sliding down the bank, a mystified expression on her face. “You okay down here? I was out looking for you gals. Thought you’d all fallen in the creek.” She tried to hide her smile behind her hand. “I guess just one of you did, though.”

Ma crept closer, holding her hand
out as Jess struggled to get her footing in the muddy water. “Let’s get you out of here, hon, before you end up with a snapping turtle attached to your butt.”

Jess took a deep breath, trying to step out of the creek without losing her shoes. “I think I just met one.”

Once Jess was on dry land, Ma looked her over from head to toe, still trying not to laugh. “I don’t see any permanent damage.”

“Go ahead. Laugh. It’s all right.” Jess took off her boots and dumped them out. As the water streamed out, she tried not to think of the creatures living in the creek, or how many she might have picked up while sitting in the mud.

Ma looked from her to the girls, suspicion taking over her face. “Why are you down here, anyway? I’m pretty sure I told you gals that everything on the list is up by
the lodge and the stables.”

“We’re looking for the fire-bellied toad. The girls thought the creek would be the best place to look.”

“Fire-bellied what?”

“Toad,” Jess said, narrowing her eyes. “Cole added it to our list.”

“Did he, now? He include a ticket to Paris, too? Because Europe’s the closest place you’re going to find one.”

Jess narrowed her eyes. “That little—”

She turned to the girls,
trying to wring out her shirt. “Where did we hide Cole’s hat?”

“In the stable!” Ella piped up. “I put it in the grain bin.”

“Let’s go see if he found it yet. If he didn’t, we’re making a new plan.” She looked at Ma. “Think you could help us?”

Ma rubbed her hands together and motioned the girls back up the hill. “Oh, you betcha. I
love
doing this kind of helping.”

Thirty minutes later, Jess
and the girls were all sitting around the fire circle, and Hayley had just ambled down from the main lodge.

“He looks like the Pied Piper.” Hayley laughed as she sat down on a log with Jess.

“That he does.” Jess smiled as she watched Cole come up the driveway from the stables, a herd of boys bobbing around his waist.

Hayley looked behind Jess and the girls, who’d formed a human wall on the
logs so that Cole wouldn’t see the laundry baskets of water balloons lying in wait for his return.

She raised one eyebrow at Jess. “Should I have worn a swimsuit?”

“No, but Cole might wish he had in a few minutes.”

“Uh-oh. What’d he do to deserve this?”

“Trust me. In case you start to feel sympathetic, he earned every one of those balloons. And I’m going first.”

“This have anything to do
with turtles?” Hayley stared straight ahead, but Jess could see her cheek twitching as she tried to keep a straight face.

“It
looked
like a rock, okay?”

Jess felt her stomach flutter as Cole approached the fire circle, his eyes growing wary as he spotted the girls lounging on the logs.

He looked down at the items they’d spread on a flat rock. “You gals find everything?”

“Sure did,” Jess said.
“You?”

“Still looking for my hat, but I’m pretty sure you guys cheated.”

“Oh,
we
cheated.” Jess raised her eyebrows.

He raised his to match. “Just curious—where’d you find the fire-bellied toad?”

“It’s right behind us.” Britney poked her thumb over her shoulder. “Want to see it?”

“You bet I do.” Cole took a step forward, then stopped, looking left and right, seeming to sense a charge in the
atmosphere. “Hold it.”

Jess pointed. “Don’t you want to see it, Cole?”

“Sure do. You know what, though?” He reached out for her hand, pulling her directly in front of his body, making her laugh. “You lead.”

She tried not to lean back against him. Tried not to inhale the mixed scent of his soap and aftershave. Tried to walk steadily and talk without gulping.

She nodded. “Right this way, cowboy.”

Jess took two steps toward the girls, putting three fingers up in front of her stomach where Cole couldn’t see them. Then she mouthed
3-2-1
and ducked, and there was a mad scramble as the girls leaped off the logs and grabbed the balloons. In the ensuing confusion, he lost his grip on her hand, and she headed straight for the laundry baskets.

“Jess?” Cole narrowed his eyes at her as she grabbed
a couple of balloons and joined the circle of girls edging closer and closer to him.

Jess bounced the balloons slowly in her hands. “So here’s the thing, Cole. It seems I’m having a little trouble staying dry here at Whisper Creek, and so far, this trouble is all your fault.”

His eyes traveled down her body and his mouth opened as he got to her jeans. “What happened?”

“Rogue turtle accident.
Seems we have a lot more of those around here than we do fire-bellied toads.”

“Oh, boy.” He put a hand through his hair as the boys slyly snuck around and grabbed water balloons as well. “This isn’t going to end well, is it?”

“Not for you, Cole. Not for you.”

She conjured up her best innocent smile as she motioned the girls forward one step. Cole backed up, smiling nervously, but he was surrounded
now. “You should really be careful about messing with girls, Cole.”

He laughed shortly. “Not the first time I’ve heard that.”

“Ready! Set! Go!” Jess yelled, and then the air was filled with multi-colored balloons. She laughed as a water balloon hit him squarely in the chest. Another one hit his shoulder, and a third one splashed his wrist. Then a volley of them pummeled every inch of his body.

Through the smacking and splashing, the only thing Jess could hear were the peals of laughter from the kids, and it wasn’t thirty seconds before Cole was dripping from head to boots.

Good. Served him right.

Jess laughed as she watched the kids lob balloons at him, impressed with their aim and strength. Finally the volley slowed, and with a loud
sploosh,
one last balloon hit him square in the
stomach. The laundry baskets were empty.

He stood in the center of the circle, dripping wet, and the kids giggled nervously as they waited to see what he would do. Jess still had one last balloon hidden behind her back, just waiting for the ideal moment to launch it.

Cole made a slow circle, nodding his head thoughtfully as he landed his eyes on each of the kids. However, when his gaze landed
on Jess, his feet stopped moving and he put a hand to his ear.

“What’s that, Bryan? She still has a balloon in her hand?”

Jess turned her head quickly to see a little redheaded boy jumping on his toes, grinning in glee. It was all the distraction Cole needed. The next moment, she found herself pinned against him, his arm around her waist and her balloon in his other hand.

Uh-oh.

She squirmed
as he held the balloon directly over her head. “So, cowgirl,” he said, “your top half is still looking kind of dry.”