"Valerie McKenzie." Hap grinned. "She was here over Thanksgiving. Spent most of the fall up at old Jed's cabin, cleaning it up. Had a bunch of workmen up there every day. Had all sorts of new stuff delivered. New refrigerator, some new furniture. First time in years there's been a McKenzie back up here. You probably heard that she made it real big as a model in New York. Yep"--he nodded--"she's grown into one beautiful young woman, wouldn't you say, son?"
Sky shrugged noncommitally.
"Oh, right, I'll just bet you didn't notice her." Quinn laughed. "Just like you didn't notice how well she filled out those little bathing suits when she was sixteen and she and Liza used to go swimming down at Golden Lake."
Quinn ducked the rolled-up piece of paper that Sky threw in the direction of her head.
"Well, she's a lovely girl, and we're looking forward to seeing her over the Christmas holidays," Catherine told them. "She and Liza are planning on getting together. They were the best of friends for so long, you'll remember."
"Val is going to be staying at the cabin over Christmas?" Quinn asked.
"She said she would be. Said she enjoyed being home so much that she was sorry she'd stayed away so long," Hap told her.
"Did she now?" Quinn grinned meaningfully at Sky, who was just about to tell her that Valerie wasn't the only McKenzie who'd be around over the next few weeks.
Quinn was still smirking at her brother as she dropped Val's card into the basket.
On second thought, Sky thought, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, maybe we'll just let Little Miss Smart Mouth make that discovery on her own.
He just hoped that he wasn't around when she did.
"Daddy, we want cartoons." Evan McKenzie leaned over his father's shoulder and directly into his face to make his announcement.
"Yeah." Eric nodded. "We're bored."
"How can you be bored?" Cale glanced across the room to the clock on the mantle. It was barely ten o'clock in the morning. This had, he grimaced, all the makings of a very long day.
"We want television," the twins chorused.
"Guys, guys, for the last time, there is no television here. You're in the wilds of Montana, just like the hearty pioneers. Look"--Cale stood up and pulled back the homespun curtain on the living room window and pointed outside--"you stand right here and watch, and I'll bet that before too long a deer or an elk will go right by."
"We saw elk yesterday," Evan reminded him.
"I'd rather see the Grinch," Eric grumbled.
"Or Sesame Street. I miss Bert and Ernie, don't you?" Evan tumbled on top of his brother and brought him down with a thud.
"Elmo. And Oscar." Eric sat on his brother's chest. "And Beavis..."
"And Butthead."
"How do you guys know about Beavis and Butthead?" Cale asked over his shoulder.
"Cathy let us watch it with her when you were in habili... that place. After you got hurt," Evan told his father.
"You mean rehabilitation." Cale frowned and made a mental note to speak with Mrs. Mason, the nanny, about what her eleven-year-old daughter was watching on television these days.
"Yeah. That." Eric nodded as he struggled to slip out of his shirt and escape from his brother, rolling over the back of the sofa their Aunt Valerie had had delivered a month before.
Evan dove for his twin, who, being a master of evasive action, turned in time to send Evan crashing into the table and pitching the lamp onto the floor.
Cale considered his roughhousing offspring, and figured it would take them another twenty minutes more to pretty much destroy all the work it had taken his sister several months to accomplish. There would be hell to pay when Val arrived. Oh, he could explain a broken lamp--make that two broken lamps, he thought as he flinched at the sound coming from their bedroom--but as proud as she had been of the fact that she had transformed the old cabin into a cozy retreat, she was not likely to have more than two lamps' worth of forgiveness to spare.
A crash from the small dining area raised the ante to two lamps and one vase.
"Boys, get your gear, we're taking a walk." He caught the little hellions as they tried to flee back down the hallway that led to two small bedrooms.
"We took a walk yesterday," Evan protested loudly.
"Well, we're taking another one today." Cale dumped the squirming bodies onto the sofa. "Get your boots and your jackets and your gloves. Let's move it."
"We don't want to go for a walk. We want to watch cartoons." Eric folded his arms across his chest and did his best to scowl.
"Yeah." Evan mimicked his twin brother's stance and his facial expression.
"Tough. We're walking. Get ready." Cale, not to be out-scowled, pointed firmly to the pile of boots inside the back door.
Still grumbling, the boys reluctantly did as they were told. "Maybe we'll see a bald eagle," Cale said to encourage them.
"I'd rather see a bear," Eric sulked.
"Yeah. Or a wolf." His brother moped along behind him.
"Trust me, fellas," their father told them as he held the back door open, "you don't want to see a bear or a wolf from the wrong side of the window."
"We're not scared," Eric said bravely.
"Well, you should be." Cale dosed the door behind them. "Here, Evan, you can carry the binoculars and Eric can help me shake the snow off the rope."
"Why do you need to tie rope to the house?" Erie asked as he followed his father's lead and pulled the length of rope loose from the snow that had drifted to cover it