by Ciana Stone
“We were. Every day,” Stella said and looked at Riggs. “Jaxon most of all. And he’s taken such good care of Bernice.
Between the nurse and Riggs, Cody settled back onto the bed. She held out her arms to Bernice. “Come on up with me, scooter poot.”
Riggs put Bernice on the bed.
“So,” Cody looked at her. “You been taking care of Riggs, sugarboog?”
“Jax home with me,” Bernice said and grinned. “Me love Jax. Me missed you, my Cody.”
“And I missed you, but I’m back now and soon I’ll be home with you.” She looked around at her family. “Thank you all for loving me and helping take care of our little girl.”
“We all love her too, honey,” her dad said. “Bernice is our family, too.”
Cody nodded and smiled. She’d never thought to wonder if she was a lucky woman, but right now the evidence of that was all too obvious. She was one of the luckiest.
*****
Cody reined in her horse and leaned down to rub his neck as her gaze moved to the horizon. The sun had just crested the junction of earth and sky and hung in a dazzling display of light in the heavens. Shafts of lights shot out from the star, illuminating sky and land, making the tall grass and shrubs glow golden.
Perhaps it wasn’t any more beautiful than any other sunrise, but to Cody it seemed to be. Maybe that was because today was special. Today her family would celebrate Hannah’s engagement to Bryson Weathers.
Cody smiled and stroked her horse’s neck. Hannah no longer had to worry about being Cotton’s Creek resident spinster. She and Bryson planned on being married in June.
KC had been elected Winter Carnivale Queen and was walking on air at the honor. The big school dance was two weeks away and KC was so excited she could barely sit still. Hannah and Cody had volunteered to be chaperones, along with Riggs and Bryson and Cody was a little excited herself.
Cody spotted another rider and watched as he approached. She recognized him from his picture in the paper and on newscasts. LJ Legacy. He was a handsome man, well into his forties, with features that might be described as hard, but she would describe as sexy. His eyes were the color of a winter sky, gray with just a suggestion of blue. She imagined he could either woo or frighten with those eyes.
“I wondered how long it would take you to show up now that Legacy owns damn near half of Hays County.” She’d been surprised when Kyle told her that Liz had sold all of her stock in the oil company to Legacy. Legacy had come in and purchased not only mineral rights, but thousands of acres of land.
Legacy laughed. “Not quite that much. You’re Cody Sweet, right? My aunt talks about you a lot.”
“Mrs. Sara’s a good woman. I love her like my second mama.”
“I know you do and you know she loves you. So, I heard Eli Youngblood is working for you now.”
“Yep.”
“How’s that working out?”
“Real well. Eli’s smart, hardworking and honest. I couldn’t ask for better.”
“So you have no trouble with the Youngblood or Legacy clans?”
Cody eyed him for a moment. “I never have. Why should I start now?”
“No reason I can think of.”
They both looked at the plume of dust headed their way. “Looks like someone on a bike,” he commented.
“That’d be Riggs.”
“Riggs?”
“Yep.”
“I take it that’s someone you know?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Well, I’ll let you get back to your ride. Good to meet you, Cody.”
“Same here. Be seeing you and tell Mrs. Sara I said I’ll be over to see her next week.”
“Will do.”
Cody watched him ride off and waited for Riggs to reach her.
He stopped the bike, got off and walked over to her. “What’re you doing out here so early?”
She smiled. “It’s a little like going to church, I guess.”
“Church?”
“Yep.” She leaned down to caress his face and kiss him then straightened and looked around. “Counting blessings.”
“Well, we do have a lot of those and I’m hoping for one more.”
“What’s that?”
Riggs lifted her off the saddle and lowered her to the ground. “Marry me.”
“Don’t,” she warned. “I told you not to—”
“You said not until I’m sure and I am. I love you and I love our child you’re carrying and the little girl who has become like our own.”
“How’d you know I’m pregnant?”
“Found out when you were in the hospital.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“Like I’m twenty and anything is possible. Come on, sugar, marry me. I bought the Wilson place just outside of town and want us to make a home there, for us and our family.”
“But we already have the ranch.”
“That’s your family’s ranch and we can hire people to run it if that’s what you want. I’d really like for us to have our own place—something we can one day leave to our kids and grandkids. It’s closer to town, so you can still keep an eye on the bar and I can accept the job I was offered.”
“What job?”
“Site manager for Cotton Creek Oil in Hays County.”
“You’d take a desk job?”
“I’d do anything if it would make you say yes. So, what do you say? Will you marry me, Cody Sweet?”
She smiled at him and thought she’d just been granted everything she’d ever wanted. “I will.”
Riggs smiled and kissed her and she eagerly met the kiss. She had no doubt that they’d hit potholes in the road and have difficulties to overcome, but that was just life and one thing she’d learned was that with a little faith and a lot of love, anything was possible.
Just look at her. She’d found Mr. Mine.
Coming Home
A Cotton Creek Christmas
By Ciana Stone
Copyright © 2016 Ciana Stone
Cover art by Syneca.
Chapter One
Olivia was just sliding her iPad into her messenger bag when the hotel room phone rang. She picked up on the second ring to hear that her car was waiting.
She grabbed her messenger bag and camera case and headed down to the lobby of the hotel. The magazine had sprung this assignment on her at the last minute and it was one of those rush jobs. They had secured an exclusive interview with a film director, whose breakout film was racking up nominations faster than a twelve-year-old boy playing a video game. She was to meet him and the magazine’s senior writer at his house and shoot photos for the interview.
Olivia was a little surprised that the director called Cotton Creek, Texas home. She’d grown up in Cotton Creek and while it was a nice place to live, just a couple of hours south of San Antonio, it wasn’t Hollywood. She wished she’d thought to ask who the director was, but when the call had come in last night, she was already in bed. Besides, she wouldn’t have recognized the name if she’d been told. She didn’t keep up with who was hot and who was not in the entertainment industry.
These days when she was not working, she spent her free time running or anything active. Nights were miserable for her and she found herself more times than not in her little home gym, working out until she was too exhausted to stay awake. The only thing she watched on television were nature shows and she didn’t watch much.
Olivia often wondered if this was going to be the permanent shape of her life. Her doctors and psychiatrist assured her that in time she’d get back to normal if she just kept trying. Her best friend, Lydia said she wasn’t trying hard enough.
She wasn’t sure how much more trying she had left in her. Maybe she had screwed up her chance at a happy, normal life a long time ago.
She tried to steer her mind from the direction it wanted to go at that thought. She had a job to do, and she had to be ready, even if she did feel she could sleep for a week if she let herself close he
r eyes.
She forgot about the job during the ride. It’d been a long time since she’d been back to Texas. Both of her parents were dead and since she had no siblings, there wasn’t much of a reason to visit. She did find it interesting how much the area had changed. When she’d left Cotton Creek, it was a sleepy town that was not yet starting to wake. Now it appeared to have expanded its boundaries considerably, with new housing developments, strip malls and apartment complexes crowding in on the border of the town.
Still, the town proper still had that quaint, hometown look despite what looked like a lot of new, upscale shops on main street and ten times the amount of traffic. She couldn’t help but wonder if the days of the small town, and the community feel it provided were numbered.
The fact that the place had changed a bit was an odd comfort. Had it been exactly the same place she’d left, the memories associated with it might have been too much for her. This way the changes, however small, allowed her to disassociate herself from memories that brought a heavy rush of emotions.
It wasn’t until the driver put on his turn signal that she recognized where they were. The drive they turned into had once belonged to a family that had made their fortune in the oil business. They’d built an enormous house on several hundred acres and at one time had operated a thriving business boarding and training horses.
There were a few horses in the pastures bordering the long drive, and she could see activity in one of the paddocks. Maybe the new owner had kept the business running.
The driver stopped and got out to open her door for her. Olivia gathered up her bags, thanked and tipped the driver and headed for the front door. She rang the bell and waited. Her phone chimed to indicate she had an incoming text. She pulled it from her messenger bag to check the message.
Just then, the door opened. Olivia looked up and for a few moments was struck dumb. This couldn’t be. Please let this be a hallucination.
She blinked once, then again. The vision persisted and her heart sank.
“Max?”
“Hey, Livi.” The handsome man at the door looked down at her and smiled. “It’s been a long time.”
Olivia tried to shake off the shock that had her locked in place, gawking at him, but her mind had turned away from the present to twelve years in the past.
Chapter Two
January 2004
Olivia finished straightening up the studio. Her last session of the day, a family with three small children, had taken longer than she’d anticipated thanks to the fact that the children had not been at all interested in sitting still to get their pictures taken. Sometimes Olivia wondered if this was all her life would ever be. Shooting families and weddings to pay the bills and feeling lucky when she got a freelance gig for a local newspaper.
She wanted to make a name for herself. She wanted to shoot the kind of photos that had made people like Eddie Adams or Timothy Allen famous. She thought she had a good eye, and she was proud of her portfolio, but there were not a lot of opportunities right now in the Cotton Creek area.
She’d only come back to the place she grew up because the small newspaper she worked for in Georgia had gotten gobbled up by a larger concern.
Her parents were both gone now, her father due to a heart attack and six months ago, her Mom in a car accident. They had left her everything. It wasn’t enough to consider herself wealthy, but had enabled her to open her studio.
She had some applications in at newspapers all over the country, and a couple looked promising. Maybe something would come through for her this year and she could broaden her experience as a photographer. But right now, her little studio had a lot of work lined up and she needed an assistant. It was only the first week of January and she was already booked through July with graduations, weddings, class reunions, and portraits for graduating high school and college students.
The sound of the small bell she’d hung from the front door of her studio sounded, alerting her she had a visitor. She hoped it was the young man who had called yesterday about her help wanted ad. He was in high school and was looking for an after-school and on the weekend job. And he’d said he was available full time once school was out.
That suited her. Part time help would work for now. Come the end of May she could use someone full time. More importantly, she’d be able to afford it.
She hurried to the lobby. A tall young man stood waiting. Her first reaction was that he was very good-looking, but his stance and expression gave the impression that he was lacking self-confidence.
His thick dark brown hair was a little messy from the wind and his soulful brown eyes set beneath thick, elegant brows. With a straight nose and lips that surely had to inspire more than one teenage girl to want to steal a kiss, he was a great looking teenager on his way to being a truly stunning man.
“Max?” She asked, walking over to him.
“Yes, ma’am.” His voice was deep, low and carried a clear note of nervousness.
“Hi, I’m Olivia Warren.” She offered her hand.
He took it and she felt the dampness on his skin. “Come on back to the studio,” she said as she released his hand.
She led him back to the studio, watching his eyes as he looked around. She recognized that look. Eagerness. He wanted to get his hands on the lights and equipment. She knew the feeling. She’d felt the same way the first time she walked into a photography studio.
“So, you said you’d taken some classes at school?” She asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Great. You have a portfolio?”
He looked positively terrified at the question. “Uh… no. I mean, I have pictures I’ve taken, but it’s not professional or anything.”
“I didn’t expect that, Max. Relax. I’m just interested in what kind of photography excites you.”
“I want to take pictures that show what’s in people’s eyes.”
“What’s in their eyes?”
He flushed and looked down for a moment. “What they’re feeling. It shows in the eyes.”
Olivia was surprised. That seemed terribly mature for a seventeen-year-old boy. Another surprise was delivered when he looked up and their eyes met. There was an intensity in his gaze, accompanied by innocence, and an obvious fear of being ridiculed, that could not be faked.
“You’re right,” she agreed.
The relieved smile that came on his face had her smiling in return. “So, when are you available to start?”
“Now?”
Olivia chuckled. “Well, I’m actually finished for the day. I was— “The sound of the police scanner she kept in her office had her stopping in mid-sentence. She raced to the door to listen.
“I have to go.” She snatched up her camera bag and headed for the door. “Come after school tomorrow.”
“Where’re you going?”
“There’s been a shooting in Rock Ridge. I want to try to get there before anyone else does to get some shots.”
“Can I go?”
Olivia stopped in her tracks and looked back at him. “Do you have a camera with you?”
“No.”
She ran back to her office and grabbed her spare camera. “Here,” she handed him the bag as she strode past him.
“Cool.” He grinned and followed her out.
The Present
“Livi?”
Olivia blinked and looked up at Max. The boy she’d known was gone. The Max standing before her was a grown man. A very handsome man.
“Sorry,” she said and attempted a smile. “I had no idea.”
“It’s been a long time.” He said and stepped aside. “Come on in. Your reporter, Benjamin is already here.”
Olivia followed him inside. She felt a little in shock, something she had experience with. Her body was moving and functioning, but her mind wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
Did he know she was going to be the photographer assigned to shoot the interview or was he as surprised as she? He didn’t seem surprised. What was g
oing on?
And why was her heart beating too fast? She’d moved on from Max and what happened between them years ago—a lifetime ago. Hadn’t she? Yes. She had. Definitely.
At least that’s what she was busy telling herself until he stopped just outside the door to what appeared to be a den or family room. He looked down at her and her heart did a funny little flip.
“I’m glad to see you, Livi.” His voice was pitched low, an intimate whisper that brought back too many memories for comfort.
“Same here.” It was all she could manage. She wasn’t equipped for this, for the rush of emotions seeing him inspired; for the flood of memories that had her drowning.
What was wrong with her? She was good at containing her emotions and had learned not to let them hamper her, but seeing Max made her feel overwhelmed.
Max gestured toward the door. “Ready?”
“As I’ll get,” she agreed and preceded him into the room.
The reporter, Benjamin, was seated in a leather chair adjacent to the sofa. “I was beginning to think you’d gotten lost,” he remarked as she and Max entered the room.
“Sorry. Just got the assignment at one this morning.”
“Yeah. Josh was supposed to do it.”
“So what happened?”
“Beats me. Had a text this morning that you were flying in. So, how long will it take you to set up?”
“Not long.” She set down her bags.
“I’ll help,” Max offered and opened one of the bags.
That was the last thing she wanted, but she wasn’t about to protest in front of Ben. She focused on the motions. That was simple enough. She’d done it so many times she could operate on remote control.
What surprised her was how easily Max and she worked together. It was as if a decade of time and a million life experiences had not passed. They fell into sync effortlessly. Too effortlessly.
Watching him sent her careening back into the past, into memories she’d worked hard to forget.