“I…”
Leah jumped in. “Yes! Della, thank you. That would be perfect. Zack, I told you. We are not leaving you alone. Look at you. You’re almost as exhausted as Ross. I keep telling you that you’re doing too much. Now is a chance for you to rest as well.”
“But…”
Though she was younger, his sister was having none of his hesitation. Della watched Leah straighten her shoulders and get to business. “We can’t have you growing sick. You’re going to bed now. I will return home to check on my family. Then I’ll return with Robert in a few hours; he’ll bring Della back to our house, and we’ll switch in the morning. Della can keep an eye on Ross during the day, and I can handle him in the evening. I think that’s best kept proper. Yes?”
Zack glanced between them uneasily. “If you think that’s best, I suppose.”
Della felt her mouth turn dry. Only now did she think of the consequences of her assistance. She would be left alone with Zack in his house. Her mother would wail. All she could wonder, however, was if he would try to talk with her at all.
But she didn’t have anything to ask or any excuses to give them, so she said nothing. After they had discussed a few more details, Leah walked out the front door which left Della alone with Zack. They glanced at each other in the hallway before hurriedly dropping their gazes.
“I should…” Zack started hesitantly as though he didn’t know where to go with it.
She nodded, not knowing what else to do. “Yes. Yes, right. I’ll be with Ross if you need anything.”
He went down to one door, and she returned to Ross’s room.
The evening passed slowly and quietly. When Leah returned to take her place, Della didn’t even see Zack. When she gathered the courage to ask Robert about him on the quiet ride back to the Ganey’s ranch, she learned that Zack had lost his first wife to influenza. Robert tried to speak positively about his brother-in-law, but Della found herself wondering about the man. She thought she would know the man in the letters she wrote, but she wasn’t so certain anymore. Zack hardly looked at her, let alone talked to her. The man was troubled, and she worried she wasn’t helping him.
***
When Della returned in the morning to take care of Ross, she was determined to focus on the boy. Ross was the one she could help. And he was the one who didn’t stare at the little nightmare trapped on her cheek. Though she ran into Zack a few times, especially as she helped prepare food in the kitchen, they had little to say. The man was restless and tired himself. She could often hear him pacing nearby.
Della again focused on Ross. Within a few days, he was recovering well enough to take a walk around the house.
She cheered loudly, clapping her hands. “Wonderful! You see, Ross? You can do anything you put your mind to. Now I think we shall have supper at the supper table. How does that sound?”
“But it’s fun eating in bed,” he said. But he had a big grin on his face as he said it.
Chuckling, she shook her head. “Nonsense. You said just yesterday how nice it would be to return out there. Now, take a seat. I’ll switch out your sheets and blankets. We’ll settle you back in bed, and I’ll fetch you when the soup is ready.”
“I like your soup,” Ross grinned. “It’s really good.” Then he glanced around the room as he fiddled with the blanket she had wrapped tightly around him. “Then… can we do something after supper?”
Della dropped her folded arms as she studied him curiously. “I suppose. It depends on what you want. What is it, Ross?”
He shyly glanced around before pointing across the room. There was a tree nearly her height in the corner. She wasn’t certain if it had been there all along for the past couple of days or if she merely hadn’t noticed it. The holidays had been far from her mind lately.
Della turned back to Ross who asked her, “Can we decorate it? Together?”
Though her eyes widened, she tried not to react. It was a simple invitation, but the way Ross phrased it made her wonder. Perhaps he was scared she wouldn’t want to. After all, usually it was the children who decorated the trees.
Della smiled. She had always loved decorating for Christmas. For the past couple of years, she had tended to that duty with the maids. “I would love to, Ross. That’s an excellent idea. How about this? You get some good rest, and I’ll find some things we can decorate the tree with.”
The boy nodded furiously. It was so fast she almost worried his head would fall off.
She chuckled and ushered the boy off to bed. Once he was under clean covers, she told him stories of New York until he fell asleep. Only then did she leave his side to tend to the kitchen while checking on him every couple of minutes.
Chapter 10
Zack tried to run his ranch, but Martin sent him back home every day.
“I have everything handled,” the older man would remind him pointedly. “It’s a slow season, and you should spend more time with your boy. You need the rest. You deserve it. Now get out of here before I drag you back.”
He returned to the house every time.
Except during the day, Della was
