Page 21 of Colorado Christmas Carol
He glanced at her with a secretive smile. “This place rents horses.”
“Oh, Daddy,” Mellie exclaimed. “Could we go riding? Please?”
He chuckled. “Tomorrow, if you like. I don’t work Sundays.”
“Great! And can Essa come, too?”
“Oh, I have to work Sundays,” she said at once, and then flushed when Duke raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t true. She had Sunday off.
“But you have to come, too. You shouldn’t have to work all the time,” Mellie argued.
“She might not know how to ride, honey,” Duke said.
“I can ride,” Essa blurted out.
The eyebrow was still raised. “Really?”
She glared at him. “Really.”
“Then how about after lunch on Sunday?” He made it a challenge.
She ground her teeth together. She’d planned to worm her way out of it, but Duke’s smile and Mellie’s pleading eyes put an end to that.
“I guess I could,” she said after a minute.
“We can even stop by a convenience store on the way back,” Duke offered as he got behind the wheel.
“Why?” Essa asked innocently.
“To buy you some liniment. For after you go riding,” he added with a big smile.
She counted to ten silently. It wasn’t going to be the best weekend of her life. Although he was in for some surprises. He seemed to think he had the market cornered on sports. She was going to wipe that smug smile off his face.
* * *
She was just on her way up the staircase after cleaning the kitchen when Dean stopped on his way down.
“There you are,” he said, smiling. “I was looking for you.”
“Hi,” she said, and smiled back. “I’ve been making up for lost time.”
“I guess so. Did you have fun on Mellie’s surprise trip?”
“We actually did,” she said, with sparkling eyes. “Mr. Marston took us to an ice-skating rink. He thought I’d fall on my face.”
“Did you?” he asked, and seemed really interested.
“Well, a double salchow and two double axels later he changed his mind.”
He laughed wholeheartedly. “I’d love to have seen that.”
“I just love changing peoples’ opinions,” she said with absolute glee. “It was great fun!”
“I’d have enjoyed taking Mellie to the dig.” He sighed. “Not that you aren’t fun to be with,” he added quickly. “But she’s so innocent, so bubbly, so excited about learning new things! I love seeing the world through the eyes of a child. It’s like going back in time and being one myself. A different one.”
There was a sudden darkness to his tone, a look on his face that was a little scary. And then he smiled, and Essa chided herself for reading things into his expression that weren’t there.
“I don’t guess she’d like to go Sunday?” he asked hesitantly. “I could postpone my next project.”
