Stella Bagwell - The Cowboy's Christmas Lullaby

“Mister, do you know how to ride a horse?”

Denver glanced over his shoulder to see the question had been spoken by the boy called Peter. Tall and thin, with a headful of corn-yellow hair, he had a wide mouth and an eagerness in his voice that said he was basically a curious child.

“A little,” Denver said, then realizing the woman was giving him an odd look, he gave her a reassuring wink.

Harry was quick to correct his brother. “Dummy! He’s a cowboy and that’s what cowboys do. They ride horses!”

“How do you know he’s a cowboy?” Peter demanded.

Harry let out a loud sigh of exasperation. “Can’t you see his hat?”

“Yeah, but he might be wearing that for Halloween,” Peter reasoned.

The exchange between the two boys had Denver smiling to himself. Clearly this was a pair of town kids. Unlike the children who’d been raised here on the Silver Horn and were accustomed to being around ranch hands and livestock.

“Harry, quit calling your brother a dummy,” his mother chided. “Peter is asking questions because he wants to learn.”

Marcella’s statement must have given the older boy the idea to ask his own questions, because the next thing Denver knew Harry had scooted to the edge of his seat.

“I’ll bet you have a horse of your own, don’t you?” he asked.

“I have five horses,” Denver replied.

Clearly impressed, Harry exclaimed, “Five! What do you do with that many?”

Stifling a chuckle, Denver said, “I use the horses to work with. We cowboys have to ride the range, you know. And riding just one horse every day would make him too tired.”

“See, numskull,” Peter tossed at his brother. “You don’t know everything!”

Just as the boys began to argue between themselves again, Denver braked the truck to a stop beneath a low-roofed carport connected to the east side of a wide, rambling house that appeared to be gray in color.

“Here we are,” he said to the woman. “Let me turn on the lights and we’ll go in.”

He climbed from the truck, and after flipping a light on beneath the patio, he opened a side entry door and switched on a light in the mudroom.

Back at the truck, he opened the passenger door and offered his hand up to Marcella. When her fingers clasped around his, he couldn’t help thinking how soft and fragile her hand felt against his. And when she stood down on the ground next to him, he noticed she smelled like a mix of wildflowers and campfire smoke, a scent that was oddly appealing.

“Thank you,” she murmured. “This is very kind of you, Mr. Yates.”

Resisting the urge to clear his throat, he forced himself to release his hold on her hand. “Just call me Denver, ma’am. I’m not used to answering to Mister.”

Smiling, she said, “Okay, Denver it is.”

He stepped away from her and opened the back door of the truck. “Okay, boys, we’re here,” he announced. “Unbuckle and climb out.”

Once the two children had departed the truck and sidled up to their mother, he locked the vehicle, then ushered the trio toward the nearest entry to the house.

“I apologize for taking you through the mudroom,” he told Marcella, “but the light on the front porch isn’t working right now. I wouldn’t want any of you tripping over something in the dark.”

“Don’t apologize,” she told him. “We’re just happy to be out of the cold. Right, boys?”

“That’s right. Thank you, Mr. Yates,” Harry spoke up.

“Yeah, thanks, Mr. Cowboy,” Peter added.

Inside the kitchen, he flipped on the overhead light to see his unexpected guests gazing curiously around the cluttered room.

Just when Denver was thinking how polite the boys were, Peter spoke up, “Gee, this is messy. Don’t you like to wash dishes?”

“Peter!” Marcella gasped, then turned a red face to Denver. “I apologize for my son. He—uh—we don’t get out that much. I mean, visit folks in their homes.”

Denver chuckled. “Don’t apologize. The boy is simply stating the obvious. The kitchen is worse than messy. It’s a busy time right now on the ranch. I don’t have a chance to do much housework.”

“Don’t you have a wife?”

This question came from the elder boy, and as Denver looked at him, he didn’t miss how much the child resembled his mother, right down to his carrot-topped hair.

Marcella groaned. “I hope you can bear this until the mechanic gets here with the battery,” she said to Denver.

“Forget it. I’m used to kids,” he told her, then to Harry, he said, “No. I don’t have a wife. Or a maid.”

“What about kids?” Peter asked.

Even though Denver had been asked that very question many times before, for some reason, having it come from Marcella’s towheaded son cut straight through him. “No. None of those, either.”

“Sit down at the table, boys,” Marcella told the two youngsters. “And be quiet. Mr. Yates doesn’t want to be peppered with questions.”

“They don’t have to sit at the kitchen table,” he told her. “They’re welcome to sit in the living room. I’ll turn on the television and they can watch it while you wait for the car to be repaired.”

Mother and kids followed him out of the kitchen and into a long living room furnished with a burgundy leather couch and love seat, and an oversize recliner. In one corner, a television sat atop a wooden console, while a stack of DVDs shared a lower shelf with a remote control.

Marcella took a seat at the end of the couch and instructed the boys to join her. While they settled themselves, Denver turned on the television, then passed the remote to her.

“You’d better choose the channel,” he told her. “You’ll know what’s suitable for them to watch.”

Accepting the remote, she gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks. And please don’t let us interrupt whatever you need to do. We can entertain ourselves.”

“You’re not interrupting.” Not much, he thought wryly. Having a single mother with a pair of kids in his house was disturbing more than his privacy; it was rattling his normally calm nerves. “So if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go wash up and see about getting us something to drink. Do you like coffee? What about the boys? Is it okay for them to have soda?”

Harry looked to his mother. “Yeah! Please, Mom.”

“Oh boy! Soda! Can we, Mom?” Peter pleaded.

Marcella thoughtfully studied the both of them, then with a resigned shake of her head said, “They’ve already had so much sugar tonight I guess a bit more won’t hurt. I’ll help you.”

Before Denver could tell her to stay put, she rose to her feet and, after punching a number on the remote, ordered the boys not to move from the couch.

As she followed Denver back to the kitchen, he said, “There really isn’t any need for you to help. I’d be making coffee even if you weren’t here.”

“I’d like to join you anyway. With me out of the room, the boys will hopefully settle down and get engrossed in the program. They’re not usually so wound up, but the party was exciting for them,” she explained.

Inside the kitchen, Denver went straight to the double sink and began to scrub his hands. His jeans and denim shirt were coated with dust and splotches of dried blood, and manure stained the legs of his jeans. Normally he went straight to the shower when he arrived home from work, but he could hardly take that luxury with Marcella and her children here.

“So do you come out to the ranch very often?” he asked as she came to stand a few steps on down the cabinet counter.

“Not as much as I’d like to. I love visiting Lilly and Ava, but with my shifts at the hospital I don’t have many chances to make the drive out here.”

“So you work at the hospital?”