Page 66 of A Heart Falls Cowboy Christmas

Yeah. That was about it. “I got it going eventually,” Luke protested.

“Of course you did.” Tucker’s smile softened. “You don’t know this, but remember your dad sent us out for more kindling? I went back faster than you and spotted him quietly rebuilding the whole thing while you were gone.”

Luke went still. “He never said a word.”

Tucker shrugged. “Nothing to say. We were learning, and that was enough.”

For a moment they smiled at the memory.

“I want these guys to have that,” Tucker said more quietly, laying David back down on the couch and arranging a pillow to hold him in place. “Not the smoky campfire but those weekends. Learning stuff from people who care enough to let you figure things out without making you feel stupid.”

Luke nodded, placing Kayla down as well. He stroked a finger down her cheek as he considered. “Fishing with Dad was like that too. Half the time we barely caught anything.”

“But he’d still tell everyone we’d had a great day.”

“Because we had.”

Tucker looked down at David sleeping peacefully. “I never realized when we were kids that those little things were the memories that would stick.”

Luke followed his gaze to Kyle and Demi, who were now carefully parking every toy truck in a perfectly straight row. That was Demi’s influence, all the way.

“They’re going to think this is normal,” he said. “Fishing. Horses. Camping. Having cousins over every day.”

“They’ll have no idea how lucky they are.”

“Good,” Luke said with a smile. “That’s exactly how it should be.”

Silence settled for a moment. For Luke, thoughts of his father and the legacy he’d left behind in both his and Tucker’s lives rushed in. Luke still missed the man, but after all these years, and all the other mentors he’d had, it was mostly gratitude he felt when the past knocked.

“Hey.” Tucker frowned. “Shouldn’t there be more noise?”

Luke stopped mid-sip. The house had gone completely still. “Shit.”

The kitchen was empty. All the trucks were lined up neatly, the last one a monster of a thing tipped on its side. A white Demi-sized shoe lay abandoned on top of it, next to the now open safety gate.

A clue to their missing children’s location lay in a baby wipe abandoned in the hallway.

Then another. Followed by a diaper.

“Shit.” Luke repeated.

The trail led straight to the nursery, where the diaper bag lay exploded across the floor. Wet wipes decorated the floor like stepping stones, and the larger package of diapers—helpfully open across the top for easy access—had been enthusiastically emptied from one end of the room to the other.

A muffled bark came from Luke and Kelli’s bedroom.

Luke swore. “What the heck? Who let a dog in the house?”

They hurried into the room in time to see Kyle disappear into a bottom dresser drawer. Demi squeezed into the one beside him, every bit of Luke’s clothing scattered on the floor.

“Woof!” she announced.

“Woof!” Kyle answered.

Tucker burst out laughing.

At that exact moment an indignant wail rose from the living room. David at full screech.

Impossibly, half a heartbeat later, Kayla joined in the protest.