Spring in Snow Valley Read online

  That was a loaded question.

  Ivy had never felt like this around a guy before, and the feeling both thrilled and terrified her. Was it fair to want to see him when nothing could come of it other than friendship? What if he felt the same thing? She didn’t want to be the kind of girl who messed with a guy’s heart and head. Her brother Ethan had met a girl while he was at school, and he thought she liked him as much as he liked her. Then he found out she was just waiting for her boyfriend to come home from his tour of duty and had used Ethan as a distraction.

  “Aunt Tillie won’t mind, trust me.”

  He looked as if he might ask her if she minded, but instead said, “Okay, but I hope you won’t regret inviting me over when you taste my cookies and admit they’re better than yours.”

  “That’s so cute how you have to compensate by using trash talk,” she said, walking around the bar to open the cupboard with the mixing bowls in it.

  He started to laugh, and she couldn’t help comparing him to Corbin who never laughed at her jokes. “You’re going to make winning that much sweeter.”

  “Let me guess,” she said turning around and placing the mixing bowls on the counter. “You’re one of those guys who’s all talk and no action.”

  One of Kellen’s brows lifted as a slow smile curved his lips. “I think you need to define what you mean by ‘all talk’ and ‘no action.’”

  Ivy felt her face go hot once again. She wasn’t implying that. “You know what I mean.”

  Kellen laughed again, and began emptying his grocery bag, which held a package of semi-sweet chocolate chips, two cubes of butter, and several baggies filled with brown sugar, white sugar and flour.

  “Did you already measure everything?”

  “You didn’t think I’d risk letting you see my recipe, did you?” he said, pulling out two eggs and a box of baking soda.

  “Like I need a recipe.” She’d made the cookies so many times she really did have it memorized. She handed him a mixing bowl and a spatula. “Shall we begin?”

  While Kellen mixed his ingredients together, Ivy tested the softness of the butter she’d set out on the counter. It was still too hard so she unwrapped both cubes and placed them in her mixing bowl. Then she put the bowl in the microwave for ten seconds. She knew the butter was perfect by how it had sunken in a tiny bit in the middle but hadn’t melted.

  “So, Ivy Baker, tell me about your family,” Kellen said as he dumped in his ingredients in no particular order.

  Ivy wanted to point out that the butter, sugar, and eggs should be blended before adding in the flour, but refrained. After all, this was a baking contest.

  “Well, let’s see. I have four older brothers. Morgan is twenty-nine, Weston and Christian are twins, although not identical, and just turned twenty-seven, and Ethan is twenty-three.”

  Kellen had stopped mixing and was staring at her. “Really? You have four older brothers?”

  The mild alarm she detected in his voice made Ivy smile. “Did I mention how over-protective they are of me?”

  “How did you ever date, let alone get engaged?”

  She narrowed her gaze. “I’m not engaged yet.” Lowering her head, she concentrated on cracking one of her eggs. “And I didn’t really ever date.”

  “You mean you didn’t date anyone besides Corbin Spencer?”

  She shrugged, still unable to look him in the eyes. “I wouldn’t say Corbin and I ever went on dates. He took me out to eat a few times, and we saw a couple of movies at a theatre in Missoula.”

  Ivy cracked the second egg, and blended it into the butter and sugar mixture. She glanced up to find Kellen still studying her. “What?”

  “So how did you fall in love with him?”

  She hadn’t, but she wasn’t going to admit that. “It just kind of happened.”

  “But—”

  “Do you need the hand mixer?” Ivy said, cutting off his next question. She didn’t want to spend the evening discussing her loveless relationship with the man she planned on marrying.

  He slowly nodded his head, and Ivy told him where he could find it. They worked in silence for a few minutes until Kellen asked her another hard question.

  “What about your dad? Is he happy about your almost engagement?”

  Swallowing back a bitter reply, she reached for the vanilla bottle and twisted off the cap. “My father passed away four months ago, but he was thrilled with the arrangement.”

  “I’m sorry, Ivy. I didn’t know about your father.”

  “It’s okay.” She wanted to add that her dad didn’t like her so it shouldn’t feel like much of a loss, but she was afraid to speak again until she had her emotions under control.

  She wasn’t sure how she’d missed it, but in her silence Kellen had moved next to her. “Hey,” he said gently raising her chin with his finger. “I’m sorry for prying.”

  The concern and tenderness in his eyes made her chest ache, as if her heart was truly beating for the first time. He was so near, and smelled so good. She thought about the stupid kissing list, and wondered why kissing in the kitchen hadn’t been on that list.

  This wasn’t a date, and they weren’t a couple. Shoot, they weren’t really friends yet, but she longed for him to kiss her.

  Desire darkened his eyes, and he inched closer. Ivy’s grip tightened on the spatula, keeping her from impulsively grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling his mouth to hers.

  “Ivy?” her aunt called out. “Are you in the kitchen?”

  Kellen and Ivy both stepped back just as her aunt came into the room.

  “Kellen!” Aunt Tillie said. “What a nice surprise.”

  “Hi, Mrs. Cooper.”

  Was it warm in here? Ivy felt like the entire kitchen was as hot as the pre-heated oven. “Aunt Tillie, are you okay?”

  “I’ll be fine, but you look a little flushed.” Her aunt glanced between Kellen and Ivy, a little smirk on her face. “What are you kids cookin’ up in here?”

  “Nothing,” Ivy said, feeling guilty for her wayward thoughts.

  Aunt Tillie arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow and pointed to the mixing bowl.

  “Oh. That.” Ivy let out a nervous giggle. “We’re making chocolate chip cookies.”

  “That’s a lot of cookies. Is there a party I don’t know about?”

  “Actually, that reminds me,” Ivy said. “Caytie and Jace McAllister are having a party on Saturday to announce if they’re having a girl or a boy, and Kellen invited us to it.”

  “How sweet.” Aunt Tillie sniffed. “But I think you should go without me. I don’t want to expose a pregnant woman to my head cold.”

  Tillie scooted out one of the barstools and sat down. “So you two are making cookies for the party?”

  Kellen and Ivy exchanged a look before explaining all about the cookie challenge. Aunt Tillie was happy to be a judge, but didn’t feel like she’d do an adequate job judging considering her cold. She suggested taking them to Caytie since they were for her party anyway. That wasn’t exactly true, but Ivy was curious about this woman Kellen obviously adored. She looked to Kellen for an answer but couldn’t tell if he was okay with the suggestion or not. He looked slightly alarmed by the idea.

  “Well, you kids have fun,” Aunt Tillie said after Ivy got her a glass of water to take her medication with.

  Ivy offered to help her aunt back to bed, and by the time she returned to the kitchen, Kellen’s cookie dough was done and he had started filling one of the cookie sheets with rounded mounds of dough.

  “Who taught you how to bake?” Ivy asked as she measured out three cups of flour and began stirring it together by hand. Her grandmother never used an electric beater, claiming over mixing the batter formed too much gluten making the cookies dense.

  “My grandma.” Kellen plopped the last mound of dough on the pan. “Those first few years after my parents died I stayed close to my grandma and helped her in the kitchen.” He opened the oven and slipped the cookie sheet inside
and set the timer.

  Glad they were discussing Kellen’s family and not hers, Ivy asked all about his childhood and what he liked to do. She was surprised when Kellen said he’d joined the Army right out of high school.

  “So are you still active duty?” Ivy asked as she folded the chocolate chips into the batter.

  “No.” The tight answer pulled Ivy’s attention away from her task, and she watched as Kellen’s face turned to stone. “I got an honorable discharge after encountering an IED.”

  Ivy felt like she’d just stumbled onto an explosive device of her own. She wasn’t sure how to proceed, but the urge to cross the floor and comfort the man standing before her overwhelmed her. How could she care so much about someone she’d barely met?

  “I know there’s a story, Kellen, but we don’t have to talk about it… not unless you ever want to.”

  He studied her for several heartbeats, and the lines on his face softened. “Thank you.” He ran a hand through his hair, and gently cleared his throat. “It’s hard to talk about, you know?”

  “I understand.”

  Ivy did understand, yet at the same time she wished she had the right to be someone Kellen could talk to. Then it would mean she also had the right to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight.

  The prolonged silence ended when Kellen’s phone chimed an incoming text. He looked at his screen and laughed, breaking the tension. “You need to see this,” he said, walking over to stand next to Ivy.

  She tried not to get too distracted by the warmth of his body as she leaned in close to read the screen. A giggle bubbled out as Ivy looked at a meme of the actor Liam Neeson talking on a cell phone and the caption “I know where you live and I want my chocolate chip cookies.”

  “I’m assuming this is from Caytie?” Ivy said, tipping her head back to see Kellen’s face.

  “Good guess.”

  “She sounds funny. I can't wait to meet her on Saturday.” Ivy wouldn’t mind meeting her sooner, like tonight, but Kellen didn’t act like that was a good idea. For some dumb reason she felt jealous of the other woman. It was stupid. Ivy didn’t have any claim on Kellen. More importantly, she couldn’t ever have any claim on him.

  Kellen considered her for a moment, and suddenly she realized how close they actually were. If she rose up on her toes their mouths would touch. The intense desire to do just that scared her and she had the good sense to break the connection by stepping away from him.

  She could read the dilemma in Kellen’s eyes. She just didn’t know the cause of it.

  The timer on the oven beeped, giving her the perfect excuse not to ask him what his struggle was about. Grabbing the oven mitt, she pulled the pan from the oven. Ivy was surprised how good his cookies looked.

  “Mmm, they smell good.”

  He eyed her cookie dough. “Yeah, but you did everything by hand so I may as well concede now.”

  “I guess we’ll see,” she said, slipping her pan of cookies into the oven. But to be honest, she wondered if mixing it by hand really did make a difference. The real test was the recipe itself. Her grandma’s called for less white sugar than most recipes and, of course, the milk chocolate chips.

  “So,” Ivy asked as they both went about the task of filling two more cookie sheets. “What do you do for fun around Snow Valley?”

  “That all depends on who you ask, and what time of year it is.” He plopped down a mound of cookie dough. “What I like to do mainly has to do with being outdoors. I love riding my horse, fishing out by the springs, snowmobiling during the winter, and riding the ATV just about any time I get the chance.” He paused and waited until she met his gaze. “I don’t admit this to too many people, but I also like stargazing and watching the sun rise in the morning.”

  Ivy wouldn’t have pegged him for such a romantic. Immediately her mind jumped to the kissing list she’d made, and wishing Kellen could be the one to fulfill that list. Kissing under the stars was on there. That had come from several of her romance books. The kiss she dreamed about with the sunrise came from one of her favorite movies, Pride and Prejudice. Although Kiera Knightly and Matthew Macfayden hadn’t actually kissed during the misty morning scene, they should have.

  “Ivy?” Kellen asked. “You okay?”

  “What?” she said, hoping she hadn’t just zoned out again.

  He smiled. “I asked what you like to do for fun.”

  Kissing Corbin had never been pleasant, let alone fun, but she was certain kissing Kellen Thomas would be a lot of fun and very pleasant.

  “Um…” She had to drop her eyes in case they revealed her secret longing for him. “I like to be outdoors too, but I usually have a good book with me.”

  “What do you like to read?”

  She could feel the color rising in her cheeks. None of her romance books were the racy type, but there was always plenty of kissing involved. Obviously.

  Her mind scrambled for a safe answer. “Usually, chick lit, but I also like suspense.” She left out the “romantic” part of the last genre.

  She could feel his eyes on her, but she couldn’t look up just yet. Her face still felt hot. “I miss my horse,” she said, hoping to get off the subject of her reading habits. “I usually ride everyday.”

  “Uh, we could go riding some time if you want to?” Kellen asked in a slightly stilted voice.

  Ivy cringed, feeling even more stupid. He probably thought she was hinting for an invite. “I wasn’t trying to put you on the spot.” She hesitated, but lifted her eyes to gauge the expression on his face.

  He didn’t look the least bit put out, in fact he looked hopeful. “I actually have been working up the courage to ask you so please don’t say no.”

  She should say no. Remind both of them she was practically engaged.

  “I’d love to go riding with you.”

  He grinned. “How about tomorrow evening?”

  By the time he left thirty minutes later, she sent him home with a container full of each of their cookies for Caytie to taste-test, and plans to go horseback riding tomorrow evening.

  Chapter 8

  Leaning against the paddock door, Kellen made sure he was alone before he pulled out Ivy’s list from his pocket. He felt guilty about not giving it back to her when they’d made cookies last night, but rationalized that it might not even belong to her.

  He unfolded the paper to read it, although it wasn’t necessary. He practically had the thing memorized. It wasn’t Kellen’s intention to mimic everything on the list. And he wasn’t some creeper who planned to seduce Ivy. He would never kiss a girl unless she wanted him to.

  Some scenarios weren’t going to happen over the next few weeks, if ever. Like kissing under a waterfall in the jungles of Costa Rica. But horseback riding on a beach was first on her list. There wasn’t an ocean anywhere nearby, but they could ride along the banks of the river. When Ivy had mentioned she missed her horse, it had been the perfect segue for Kellen to ask her to ride with him.

  Thunder rumbled overhead, and Kellen looked at the darkening sky. He hadn’t checked the weather report, but there was a seventy percent chance of rain. While Ivy had listed being kissed in the rain, it was under the protection of a gazebo, not on the back of a horse.

  He glanced at the next couple of situations that were doable, like sitting by a campfire. Caytie and Jace had a fire pit on their property so that was easy. Stargazing was something Kellen liked to do anyway. Viewing them from the back of his truck bed had worked well in the past.

  She must like stars because she also had dancing under the stars. Too bad she hadn’t been here a few weeks ago for the barn dance at the Wilson’s. But a nice playlist with some slow songs on his phone would work for an impromptu starlit dance.

  Below that she’d listed sitting on a porch swing and kissing in the moonlight. Caytie and Jace had a porch swing, but knowing those two and their penchant for trouble he’d end up missing any signals Ivy might give him and never make his move.

  Kel
len heard a noise and didn’t have time to hide the paper when Jace entered the barn.

  “What’re you reading?” Jace asked as he led a new horse he was training into one of the empty stalls.

  “Just a to-do list.” Kellen folded it up and stuck it back in his pocket.

  “Anything I can help with?”

  “Not right now, but thanks for the offer.”

  Jace pushed back his hat and studied him. “You doing okay? You seem a little distracted.”

  Distracted and then some. Kellen still had to make a decision about school. He also needed to talk to Jace and George about the possibility of starting some kind of horse therapy program on the ranch. Then there was Ivy Baker. The girl had him completely twisted up inside so he couldn’t think straight.

  “I’ve got a few things on my mind.” Kellen wanted to confide in Jace. He’d almost talked to him last night when he’d brought the cookies over. Caytie was sick again, and had gone to bed by the time Kellen got there. It would’ve been the perfect opportunity to get some big brother advice.

  “I know you’ve got a lot on your plate with school, and now with George out of commission this week.” Jace grinned. “Caytie thinks you’re having girl trouble. She’d hoped to meet your mystery girl on Saturday, but since our baby didn’t cooperate to let us see if we’re having a girl or a boy, the reveal party is postponed until Cole gets back into town next week.”

  The muscles in Kellen’s shoulders tightened. So far he hadn’t told anyone about spending time with Ivy, but if the weather cooperated then he’d be bringing her out this evening to go horseback riding. Jace would definitely see them together since Ivy was riding one of their horses. Why was he keeping this all inside? Wasn’t that what family was all about?

  “Don’t laugh,” Kellen said dryly, “but your wife is right.”

  Jace laughed anyway. Then Kellen spent the next half hour telling him about everything from the first time he saw Ivy and then finding the kissing wish list.

  “So are you planning on keeping this girl once you make all her kissing dreams come true?”