Christmas at Home (Spikes & Spurs #5) - Carolyn Brown Page 0,69

and worked on her painting again. In the thirty minutes before it was time to switch clothing to the dryer, she could get part of the mistletoe painted.

When she painted, the world disappeared. But that morning was different. She painted the waxy green leaves and white berries, but Creed would not leave her mind.

Grand had been right about him. He was the perfect cowboy to take over the ranch and Sage was coming to grips with the idea. Still, she felt guilty. She should be fighting harder to get her grandmother to stay and not leave for that godforsaken place in the mountains of Pennsylvania.

* * *

Creed measured the boards for the floor of the doghouse and added four inches all the way around. When they went into town he’d buy a roll of insulation. That would keep the cold from sneaking in between the boards.

“I could just buy a couple of decent doghouses, but what’s the fun in that?”

Besides, you had to get out of the house. One more lonesome tear from Sage’s eye and you’d be calling Ada Presley and telling her to come home on the next flight. You’d declare that you couldn’t live in this desolate hole in the ground, but it wouldn’t be that at all, would it?

“Shut up,” he demanded out loud.

He finished nailing the floorboards to the base and fixed the studs to the sides. Noel meandered in, her ears drawn back against the cold wind. She curled up in a pile of loose hay with her head on her paws and watched him.

“It’s for you and the puppies. I’ll build one for Angel too, so get that sad look off your face. She won’t be taking up permanent abode in the house either.”

Noel’s tail wagged, scattering loose hay all around her.

“How’d you talk Sage into letting you out?”

Noel raised her head and barked her answer.

“Lied about having to go, did you?”

He discussed everything with Noel as he worked. He told her how big her house was, how much insulation he planned to put inside, how he’d put the bulb in the attic with a piece of glass between it and the ceiling so the puppies wouldn’t slap at it and get their paws burned. He told her about his new feelings for Sage and how he couldn’t stand to see her cry or know that he was the cause of her unhappiness.

“I’d planned on fighting with her to the bitter end, but I’m a sucker for tears.” He sighed.

Noel growled.

“You don’t think so? Well, that’s comforting that you don’t think I’m a sucker. So what do you think, girl? Will you like your new log cabin or did you want it to look like a white mansion?”

Noel shut her eyes and went to sleep.

“Log cabin it is. I’m glad we agree. I’ll get the outside covered and then put the insulation in the walls and cover the inside with quarter-inch plywood. It’ll be a nice home for you and your bluetick hounds.”

Noel got up and meandered out of the barn as slowly as she’d come in. She looked over her shoulder and gave one more bark but didn’t slow down.

When she was gone, Creed realized that he couldn’t feel his nose and his fingers had begun to tingle in the bitter cold. He unplugged the circular saw, put it back in the tack room, and left the beginnings of a doghouse sitting right in the middle of the floor.

* * *

The dryer beeped and Sage laid aside her brushes again. She’d barely made it to the kitchen when she heard scratching on the back door. Noel ambled inside when she opened it and went straight for her bed without stopping to have her ears rubbed.

“Got cold out there, did it?” Sage asked. “Your babies didn’t even miss you. They slept the whole time you were out.”

She followed Noel. “See, I told you. I’m a good babysitter. If they would have whined, I would have rocked them back to sleep.”

The back door opened with force and Creed came in stomping his feet and clapping his hands. “Damn, it’s cold out there.”

“Weatherman says it’s going down to single digits by night and for us to brace up for another norther. Did you bring all this with you from Ringgold, Texas? We haven’t had a storm like this since I was born and when you arrive, boom! Look what you caused.”

“No, ma’am. Where I come from, we get excited about two inches of snow. It