Page 25 of Colorado Christmas Carol
“Now, now, could we really live without our video games?” Mellie interrupted. “Daddy?” she added with a pointed glare.
“It’s just a couple of video games, and I have to relax somehow.” He glanced at her. “We both remember when I tried dating.”
Mellie rolled her eyes. “We should forget that.”
“Hell, yes, we should,” he agreed at once.
Essa was all ears, her eyebrows almost meeting her hairline. Waiting.
Mellie glanced at her and laughed. “He brought home this lady who worked for the agency.”
“Yes, and she took one look at my daughter, muttered something about excess baggage, and ran for her life,” he said, his tone dripping sarcasm. “My baby! Excess baggage!”
Essa chuckled. “I think she’s amazing excess baggage,” she said, with a big grin at Mellie. “She’s precocious, but she’s smart, and she has manners. You’ve done a good job,” she told Duke.
“The lady said she wasn’t raising somebody else’s brat.” Mellie sighed.
“You’re both well rid of her, then, aren’t you?” Essa replied. “She showed her true colors before any real damage was done. I mean, imagine if your dad had just dated her at work and didn’t bring her home until . . .” She swallowed hard at Duke’s glare. “Sorry. Not my business. Shutting up now.” She sat back in her seat.
They both burst out laughing.
“Yes, just imagine,” Duke said, shaking his head. “To be fair, most people don’t want anything to do with single parents.” He glanced at his daughter with obvious pride. “And my baby will never be excess baggage to me.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Mellie said, smiling at him.
“Somebody who doesn’t want a child in their lives isn’t somebody I’d want to be around,” Essa added. “Benton is full of families. They come in here on Sunday after church.” Her eyes were dreamy. “The kids spill stuff and have fights, and get called down, and drop stuff—and our manager just laughs and calls one of the maids to help clean it up. He helps, too. This place is tailor-made for kids. Nobody fusses.” She grinned. “Try that in some fancy restaurant in Denver.”
“I don’t have the insurance.” Duke chuckled.
“And I don’t have the inclination. I’ll take Benton anytime.”
“So would I.” Mellie sighed. “Isn’t it just beautiful here?” she asked, looking around at the lodgepole pines and aspens, at the long wide pastures and the sharp-peaked, snow-capped mountains in the distance. “It’s heaven.”
“I’ve always thought so,” Essa agreed.
Duke pulled off onto a dirt road with shale stones. The car slid like mad until he got the handle on driving on it. “Damn,” he muttered. “We could go skating!”
“Shale is awful, isn’t it? I used to live on a road like this when I was a little girl. I learned a lot of new words when Daddy drove on it in the rain,” Essa told them.
He grinned. “I don’t doubt it. And we’re here.” He pulled into a long dirt driveway with, thank goodness, no shale, and stopped in front of a huge log cabin. Out back were lodgepole pines, outbuildings and fences.
Over the driveway, coming in, was “Circle Bar E Rally Ranch.”
An elderly man came out to meet them, shaking hands with Duke. “I’m glad you could make it. I don’t do a lot of business here. Place is going to rack and ruin,” he added on a sigh.
“It’s hard to make ranching pay,” Duke agreed.
“Come along. I’ll take you back to the stable. Only have about six saddle horses now. With the fuel situation what it is, I’ve had to sell off a lot of livestock. It’s like they’re trying to kill agriculture these days.”
“It’s hard everywhere,” Duke said. “All over the world.”
“Too many groups trying to save the planet and killing people to do it,” the old man muttered. “But, hey, don’t pay any attention to me. I’m headed for the big sleep in the not-too-distant future. This will all be the problem of the next generation, and good luck to them. They’ll need it.”
Duke just nodded.
* * *
The horses were beautifully groomed, healthy, and tame. The saddles were hand-tooled leather with all the bells and whistles.
