“Thank you.” Lawton turned to Sage. “You’re looking awful pretty tonight, as usual.”
Sage smiled. “And you guys clean up right good too.”
“Well, we did take our monthly bath for this shindig, didn’t we, Creed?” Lawton clapped a hand on Creed’s shoulder. “Come with me and I’ll make you acquainted with the rest of the canyon ranchers and with a lot of the cowboys who help run the Canyon Rose.”
Sage waited until they were well out of earshot before she asked, “What happened to the blue dress? And I didn’t even get to see your entrance. I feel cheated.”
April’s mouth firmed into a hard line. “I don’t know how Daddy found out about the dress but he did. You didn’t tell on me, did you?”
“Hell no!” Sage said.
“Well, I opened my bedroom door and there he was, all John Wayne–like, sitting in a chair right in front of the door. Liked to have scared the shit right out of me. Just sittin’ there, his arms folded over his chest and his hat cocked back.”
“What did he say?”
“Not a word. He just pointed, Sage. I slammed the door and stomped around for five whole minutes. When I opened it again, he was still sitting there, just waiting.”
A group of women waved from across the room and started toward them.
Sage said, “Hurry up and tell me what happened.”
“I went back in the room and put on this dress. I wore it to a party at college before I left so no one has seen it here. I came out and he escorted me down the stairs. No big entrance for me this year. Oh, hello, Willa Sue! Darlin’, you look fabulous in green. It matches your eyes so well.”
Willa Sue was a small Hispanic woman with jet-black hair, lightly toasted skin, and full lips, but her eyes were light green instead of dark brown. Her dress was the same shade, reminding Sage of mistletoe leaves, which in turn made her think of Creed. She scanned the room and there he was, laughing and talking with a group of ranch owners. He took a sip of bourbon and his eye caught hers. Their gaze met somewhere in the middle of the room and he gave her a sly sexy wink.
“Tell us the truth, Sage?” Willa Sue asked.
“What? I’m sorry, I was looking around the room to see if Hilda decided to join us tonight,” Sage answered.
“I was saying that cowboy that’s buying the Rockin’ C better get on his runnin’ shoes because soon as this snow melts all us single girls are going to start cookin’.”
Sage kept the moan at bay but it wasn’t easy. She understood exactly what Willa Sue said. When the weather cleared up, there would be a stampede of women bringing cakes, pies, and casseroles to the new bachelor at the Rockin’ C.
“And I was askin’ if you thought it was a good idea or if that handsome hunk had already got branded since y’all are holed up together over there.”
Maria, another young woman, spoke up. “And I told her that he’s not your type. You’ll go for a serious professor arty-farty type, won’t you?”
Maria had strawberry blond hair, wore a short emerald-green dress, and four-inch spike heels. Still, she barely came up to Sage’s shoulder.
“The truth?” Willa Sue asked.
“To cook or not to cook? Is that the question that you need me to answer?” Sage asked.
Willa Sue and Maria both nodded.
“He knows how to cook, how to iron his own jeans, and how to use a mop. He can cut down a Christmas tree, run a ranch like he’s been there forever, and he’s easy to live with.”
Maria groaned. “That’s not fair.”
“Something that looks like that cooks? I don’t believe you,” Willa Sue said. “You just don’t want us over at your place chasin’ him. I heard that Grand put a deal in the will that said you get to live there forever.”
“She did,” Sage said.
“Y’all might as well look on past him at the two new cowboys Daddy hired this week. They’re standing over there in the corner. They’re brothers and they’re both blond-haired like you said you were going to hitch up with before Sage and Creed got here,” April said.
All the eyes in the group went to the corner where April was looking. Sure enough, two tall cowboys were talking in a group of five other men. It was evident that they shared the same genes but one was slightly shorter than the other. The tall one had brown eyes and the short one had green eyes.
The one with brown eyes smiled at Sage and started across the floor.
Willa Sue tossed her long black hair over her shoulder. “Looks like we done attracted one.”
The cowboy stopped right in front of Sage and extended a hand. “Hello, ma’am, I’m Rocky, newly hired on the Canyon Rose. The band is just gearing up for the first dance. You’d make this old cowboy real happy if you’d dance with me.”
Sage shook it firmly and businesslike then let it drop. “I’d love to but I’ve already promised the first dance to someone else.”
His head barely bobbed and he turned his attention to April. “I see. Well, how about you, darlin’?”
“Daddy always gets the first one. Tradition, but I’ll save you one for later.”
His brother had joined the group by then and he was cozying right up to Willa Sue. When the band broke into the first Christmas song of the season the dance floor cleared out and Lawton left his group to claim his daughter’s hand for the first dance.
Lawton knew his business. If there was a stranger in the mix, he’d learn real quick that she was the owner’s daughter and to tread lightly. Sage wondered if the protective father instinct came the day a man held his child or if it grew along with them. She remembered Creed talking about what his daughter would or would not do after he’d seen April in her revealing dress.
Evidently some
