Reid inhaled and nearly choked on the coffee. His eyes narrowed at Lucy when she burst out laughing.
“I warned you.” She smiled, shaking her head.
Reid’s lips twitched as he tried not to laugh. “Yes, you did. I’m going to quit taking a drink of anything with him around.
Lucy chuckled. “Let’s get you some breakfast, Z-man, and then we’re going horseback riding to find Reid a tree.”
Zeke’s eyes widened. “Can I ride with you, Reid?”
Reid glanced up at her for permission, and she nodded.
“Of course you can, Zeke.”
“Z-man,” Zeke stated with a big grin.
“Yes, sir.”
Zeke screwed up his face in concentration then he nodded. “I guess it’s okay to call me Zeke. It is my name.” He looked at Lucy. “Huh, Mama?”
Lucy rolled her lips in to keep the smile at bay. “Yes and a great name it is.”
Zeke giggled. “Thanks, Mama.”
Lucy looked at Reid and saw him staring at Zeke with such sadness that she had to blink quickly to dispel the tears forming. She lightly touched his arm. His eyes shifted to her.
“Are you all right?”
He nodded but didn’t speak. She watched as he blinked his eyes quickly then he looked at her. “He is so much like Zeke,” he said, his voice raw with emotion.
“I know. It amazes me. He never knew his daddy but yet, he’s so much like him at times.”
“When he laughs...” Reid shook his head.
“I know,” she whispered. “Some days it makes me smile, and on others, I feel like crying.”
“Lucy...”
“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry one more time, Reid Callahan. We’ve been over this. I know he would have gone no matter how much I begged him not to.”
“But if I hadn’t suggested it...”
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I caught him looking at the event before you even told him about it.” She was lying, but she had to get Reid to stop blaming himself. She’d come to terms with her blame in all this and he needed to also.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re just telling me that to make me feel better?”
Lucy laughed. “You’ll never know.”
Reid chuckled and shook his head. “True.”
“Mama?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Let’s go get Reid a tree.”
“Don’t you want some cereal first?”
Zeke giggled and ran around the table to push his chair out. He looked up at Reid. “Can you put me in my chair, Reid? Mama don’t like me climbing.” He put his arms out toward Reid.
Reid looked startled but he picked Zeke up, put him in his booster seat, and snapped the seatbelt around him. Zeke grinned up at him. Lucy could see Reid was having trouble holding it together.
“Eat your breakfast, Zeke and then we’ll go with Reid,” she told her son.
Reid glanced away, and returned to his seat. Lucy refilled his coffee and set it in front of him. He glanced up at her with a smile.
“Thank you. It is cold out there, so you two will need to bundle up.”
“Can I wear my cowboy hat like Reid?” Zeke picked up his spoon to begin eating.
“Your cowboy hat is too big to keep your head warm. You can wear your beanie,” Lucy said.
“I don’t like my beanie,” Zeke announced with a frown.
“You’ll wear it or I’ll leave you here with RJ,” Lucy told him.
“RJ?” Reid asked her with curiosity.
“My ranch hand. He loves watching Zeke for me when I have something to do.”
“I see. Well, Z-man, you’d better make up your mind. I’ll need help choosing a tree. I can’t depend on your mom.” Reid leaned toward Zeke and lowered his voice to a whisper. “She’s a girl.”
Zeke giggled. “Okay, I’ll wear my beanie.”
Lucy narrowed her eyes at Reid. “I’m a girl?”
She watched as he ran his eyes over her from the top of her head, on down to her feet. She could feel a blush staining her cheeks. He winked at her. “You sure are, darlin’.”
He chuckled when she snorted and returned to her seat with a fresh cup of coffee.
REID WASN’T SURE WHAT had possessed him to call her darlin’ and wink at her. Other than the fact, he couldn’t help himself. He wanted her so much. He felt his dick trying to push against his zipper. Down boy! He quickly stood, making Zeke and Lucy stare up at him.
“I’ll go saddle the horses. I’ll be right back.” He slammed his hat onto his head, pulled his coat off the back of the chair, and headed out the door pulling his gloves on as he went. Once he hit the porch and the cold air blew around him, his dick finally listened. Shit!
This was such a bad idea. He pulled his coat on. Zeke was one adorable little boy and he reminded Reid so much of his daddy. The only thing was he had Lucy’s blue eyes, not his father’s hazel ones. As for Lucy...well, he’d always loved her.
He was leaving after the holidays so no good could come from this but damn, he didn’t want to stay away from them. He walked down the steps and headed for the barn. Once inside, he let his eyes adjust before walking down the center aisle. He stopped when he saw a young man walking toward him.
“Can I help you?” The man stopped and rested his fists at his hips.
“Are you RJ?” Reid asked with a tentative smile.
“Yes sir and you are?”
“Reid Callahan.” Reid stuck his hand out.
“You’re Reid Callahan? The bull rider?”
Reid nodded with more than a bit of self-conscious embarrassment. “Yes.”
“Damn,” RJ said and grabbed Reid’s hand to shake it. “I saw you ride about two years ago.”
“I won that year.”
“I know. Man, I’d love your autograph.”
“I don’t have any photos with me but I’ll get you one, and bring it back. Will that work?”
“Oh, yes sir.” RJ kept staring at him, and then he frowned. “But, why are you here?”
“I’m friends with Lucy. Her husband and I were best friends.”
RJ nodded. “Real shame about him, I remember now. You were there when it happened. Man, I remember you trying to get to him.”
Reid nodded wanting to change the subject. “I need to saddle two horses. Lucy is taking me up to the north pasture to cut a tree.”
“All right then, I’ll help you. Come with me. Lucy has some great horses. Is Zeke going?”
“Yes, he’s going to ride with me.”
Reid followed him through the barn to the horses. He admired the horseflesh Lucy owned. She loved her Paints. He listened to RJ ramble on as he got saddles and blankets for the horses. It made him wonder about RJ. He didn’t seem very old. Was Lucy involved with the good-looking ranch hand? Reid ran his eyes over him. He was tall, close to six-foot, blond hair and blue eyes. He just seemed so young. More like a kid than a man.
“How long have you worked here, RJ?”
“Three years now. Lucy hired me right out of high school. I needed a job, so she was nice enough to give me one.”
High school? So the kid was a kid. He couldn’t be more than twenty-one. Maybe Lucy liked younger men. She was only twenty-five after all, just four years older than RJ. Damn! Reid muttered under his breath. He had no right to be jealous of this...kid. Lucy was just now starting to accept Reid as a friend. He shook his head at that idea. A friend was the last thing he wanted to be to her. And since kissing her...well, what he wanted made him an idiot. He watched RJ lead two horses toward him. One was a black and white tall horse, the other a shorter, brown, and white beauty.
“I saddled Acer for you, since you’re so tall. This one is Lucy’s horse. Her name is Dixie.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Reid said as he took the reins from him and led the horses from the barn. He saw Lucy and Zeke standing on the porch. Well, Lucy was standing; Zeke was jumping up and down. Reid laughed at the littl
e boy.
“Does he ever stay still?”
“Yes...when he’s sleeping.” Lucy smiled at him and his heart jumped in his chest.
“You have some beautiful horses, Lucy.”
“I see that RJ saddled Acer for you. He’s a big horse. Just what you need.”
What he needed was to have her under him or above him. Fuck! Here we go again. He smiled and hoped like hell, she didn’t notice that he had a hard-on. He turned to face the horse.
“Do you need a leg up,” he asked over the neck of the horse.
“Excuse me? I’ve been riding for years.”
Reid smiled. “Just checking.”
“You get up first, and I’ll hand Zeke up to you.”
“Z-man, Mama,” Zeke corrected her.
“Sorry, baby. Come here and let me lift you up to Reid.”
Reid vaulted onto the saddle and leaned down to take Zeke from her. He set the boy in front of him on the saddle. “Ready, Z-man?’
“Yep.” Zeke leaned his head back and stared up at him. “I think I like Z-man best.”
Reid laughed, and then sobered when he saw Lucy pull herself up into the saddle. Her jeans stretched tight across her ass. He muttered under his breath as he felt his dick twitch again. He nudged the horse into a walk. He glanced over his shoulder to see Lucy coming up behind him.
“The trees are beautiful up there. I’m sure you’ll be able to find one. Did you bring an axe?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Zeke sat in front of him trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue. He turned his head and looked at Reid.
“Can we build a snowman?”
“I don’t see why not, but let me find a tree first.”
“Okie dokie. Mama? Reid said we could build a snowman after he finds a tree.”
“That will be fun, baby.” Lucy leaned down and unhooked the chain on the fence that led to the pasture. She sat on her horse and waited for Reid to ride through before she followed.
LUCY WATCHED REID RIDE through, and then couldn’t keep her eyes from staying on his broad back. The man knew how to sit a horse. He was all cowboy and sexy as hell. Stay away from him and do not let him kiss you again! She mentally groaned. She couldn’t get that kiss out of her head. No man made her tingle all over like Reid had and that seemed so wrong. She had loved Zeke, but he’d never made her feel like that. Ever. Why did that feel so wrong?
She blew out a breath and watched it form into a puff of cold air in front of her. It was damn cold out. She pulled the collar up on her coat and her beanie down over her ears. A cowboy hat didn’t keep your ears warm. She stared up ahead at Reid’s back. His hat sat down low and his collar was up, but she’d noticed when he rode through the gate, that his coat was open and he had it wrapped around Zeke. She smiled as she listened to Zeke chattering away and every once in a while she’d hear Reid’s deep voice answering him but most of the time, he’d just nod. She knew how talkative Zeke could be. He’d talk about anything. A hawk screeched overhead and she saw Zeke point up to it and Reid raised his head up to look. Most hawks migrated south for the winter but some stuck around, and she loved seeing them. She watched it disappear into the trees and nudged Dixie into a trot to catch up to Reid and Zeke. She rode beside them for a few minutes in silence. Cold air formed in front of the horses’ nostrils. It was a bitterly cold day.
“We can go through the trees there.” She pointed to the area. “There are some great trees in that group.”
Reid nodded. “All right. Is it me or is the snow getting heavier?”
“I think it is, so we need to get a move on.”
“I want to build a snowman, Mama,” Zeke said disappointment in his voice.
“We can’t, baby. We need to get back before this gets worse. Tomorrow, we’ll build one in the yard, okay?”
“But...” Zeke started to whine.
“It’ll be fun to build one in the front yard, Z-man. You can look at it every day,” Reid said.
“Will you come over tomorrow and help me make one?”
Reid glanced at Lucy and back to Zeke. “I don’t know if I can make it.”
“Why not?” She wondered if he had someone else that he’d rather spend the day with, and found she didn’t like the idea.
“I don’t want to wear out my welcome, Lucy.”
“I don’t see that happening, Reid Callahan.” She tried to hide her smile and so nudged her horse into a run so he wouldn’t see her pink cheeks too. Of course, she could have blamed it on the cold. She stopped Dixie right before the line of trees and dismounted. Reid stopped and handed Zeke to her then dismounted. She watched as he pulled the axe from the saddlebag and walked to her. She looked down at his feet and shook her head.
“You cowboys and your boots...you should have worn something different for being out in the snow, Reid. You should have known that the snow would be deeper up here.”
“Okay, Mom. I get it.”
Lucy gasped and leaned down to pick up some snow, forming it into a ball before throwing it in his direction. She missed him but he saw her, and laughed.
“I hope you weren’t aiming for me.” He stood there ginning at her and she couldn’t stop staring at him. The man was drop dead gorgeous, and sexy as sin. She might be standing in snow, in thirty-degree weather, but she was suddenly burning up. She turned her back to him.
“Lucy?” His voice caressed over her body from behind her. She shook her head. He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. “What is it?”
“Nothing. Really. I’m fine.” She gazed up at him. She saw his eyes glance down to her lips and she couldn’t stop herself from licking them. He groaned and started to lower his head.
“Mama? I’m getting cold. Hurry.”
Reid grinned at her. “For a second, I forgot we weren’t alone.”
Lucy laughed. “Me too. Come on! Let’s find a tree for your parents.”
She trudged through the deepening snow with Zeke and Reid following.
“I like this one,” Reid said from behind her. She stopped and turned around. He was pointing at a gorgeous Douglas fir that had to stand close to twelve feet tall.
“It’s beautiful.” Lucy walked back to stand beside him.
“I like it, let’s go,” Zeke said, making them laugh.
“I thought you wanted to build a snowman,” Reid asked him tipping his hat back a bit.
“Tomorrow. When you come over. Hurry. Mama, I have to pee.”
“I thought you went before we came out here?”
“Yep, but I gotta go again.” He started hopping up and down.
“Take him somewhere and I’ll start cutting the tree,” Reid told her with a grin.
“Come on, Zeke. Let’s go over here.” Lucy led her son away to a more private place behind a tree. A few minutes later, they rejoined Reid. The tree was just beginning to fall. Reid lay on the cold, wet ground and chopped at the tree.
Lucy watched as he slid out from under it, covered in snow. He put his hand against the tree and pushed until it fell over. He grinned at her.
“I’ll get the rope and then we can go.”
A little while later, they started back to the house with Reid’s horse pulling the tree behind them. Lucy was freezing. Her teeth were starting to chatter and she envied her son staying warm against Reid’s chest. The snow was accumulating and getting deeper by the minute, even as they got closer to the house. It was going to be a bad snow. She heard Reid burst out laughing at something Zeke said and it brought a smile to her lips. Finally, she saw the barns through the snow.
She rode Dixie into the barn, but Reid rode Acer over to his truck so he wouldn’t have to drag the tree from the barn. Lucy had RJ put her horse up since she was so cold. Zeke was still with Reid. She walked from the barn and hurried toward them. Reid turned to lead Acer to the barn with Zeke still in the saddle. Lucy stopped beside them.
“You come with me, Zeke. It’s getting way too cold.” She reached
up and pulled him down from atop the horse. “Let RJ put Acer up, Reid. Come inside and get warm. I’ll make more coffee.”
“Are you sure? I can rub Acer down.”
“I know but you have to be cold.” She looked down at his cowboy boots. “Especially your feet. Come on inside.” Carrying Zeke, she hurried up the steps to the porch.
Once inside, she removed Zeke’s coat, hat, and mittens. He sat on the floor and pulled his boots off. She removed her own boots off and hung their coats up.
“Can I have hot chocolate, Mama?”
“Of course you can. Let me make some coffee first.” Lucy moved to make a pot of coffee and then she would start on Zeke’s hot chocolate.
“Okie dokie. Can Reid stay overnight?”
“Uh, no. He has a home to go to.”
“But it’s bad out.”
The boy was too wise beyond his years. “I know, baby. But Reid is a big boy and he knows how to drive in snow.”
“Okay.”
The door opened and Reid stepped into the kitchen. Lucy felt as if she couldn’t breathe. What is wrong with you? She refused to look at him as he took his hat, coat, and gloves off but ended up doing just that...out of the corner of her eye, of course. He pulled a chair out, sat down, and removed his boots. She saw him glance toward the living room, and then back at her.
“Do you want me to make a fire?”
“Sure. It will help us warm up. There’s wood in the cubbyhole beside the fireplace.”
Reid stared at her for a few seconds, and then left the kitchen. Her breath whooshed out. Damn man. He was too hot for her peace of mind. Zeke followed him leaving her alone which was fine because she needed some solitude right now. Would he kiss her again tonight? She moaned thinking about it. The real question was would she let him. You know damn well you will!
Lucy removed the hot chocolate from the microwave then poured cups of coffee for her and Reid. After placing the cups on a tray, she took a deep breath and walked into the living room.
Chapter Four
REID PLACED LOGS ON top of the kindling and lit a match to it. The flames soon crackled and snapped around the logs. Orange and blue flames reached up toward the flue. The scent of burning wood filled the room. He reached for the poker and moved the logs around. He turned when he heard Lucy enter the room. She carried a tray. He set the poker down then walked to her, took the tray from her, and set it on the coffee table.
A Cowboy for Christmas Page 4