Christmas in a Small Town

by Kristina Knight

  “Six escaped. I came here looking for him.”

  “Because you regularly train him using my cattle?”

  “No, because he went chasing after a bunny the other day, and I didn’t want him getting lost in the woods. It can be dangerous for a dog out here, especially one used to kennels and dog runs.”

  Levi continued to scowl at her. “The woods end over there,” he said, pointing behind her.

  “Are you always this grumpy?”

  “I’m not grumpy.” But the frown deepened, putting lines between his chocolate-brown eyes. He wore an old Slippery Rock High School ball cap, a Carhartt jacket and worn jeans with work boots. He looked delicious from the top of his head to the soles of his boots, despite the frown. Or maybe because of it.

  “Well, I wouldn’t go straight to calling you Oscar, but there are no words other than grumpy and grouchy to describe your countenance since I came to town.”

  “I’m not a dwarf, and I’m not a Muppet. I’m a dairy farmer who doesn’t have time to chase after your dogs.”

  “Dog, singular. And who’s asking you to chase after the pup? I said I was getting him, and I am.”

  “Doesn’t look that way to me.”

  “That’s because you’re distracting me with your Oscar the Grumpiness,” she said, and before she could talk herself out of it, she blew into the whistle. Hard.

  “Son of a—” Levi clapped his hands over his ears. Six stopped in his tracks. Camden released two more sharp, staccato blows of the whistle, and the dog trotted over to her.

  “As I was saying,” Camden said, looking into the dog’s big blue eyes as she spoke. “We don’t chase bunnies and we don’t herd cattle that don’t belong to us. Stay,” she said sternly when Six came up off his haunches. Camden’s cell rang in her pocket, and when she reached for it, the dog started to move again. Camden pointed her finger at the dog and beetled her brow. “No,” she said.

  The number on the screen read “unknown” but had a Kansas City area code, and Camden swiped her finger across the screen to ignore the call. Grant. She’d obviously not properly blocked his number the other day. Damn it.

  “If you’ll excuse us, Six needs an actual training run, and your cattle could—”

  The ringing of her phone stopped her again. Same number, same “unknown” above it on the screen.

  “You should probably answer that. Seems like an intent caller,” Levi said when her finger hovered over the screen again.

  “Maybe I don’t want to talk to him.”

  “The boyfriend?”

  “Ex,” she said, emphasizing the single syllable. “Ex-boyfriend.”

  “I thought you were going to marry him.”

  “I don’t think that’s any of your business.” Camden once more swiped the call off her screen, sending it straight to voice mail.

  “You made it my business when you kissed me last night at the Slope.”

  “That was a warning kiss. It didn’t mean anything,” she said, pocketing the phone. “Besides, you kissed me first.”

  “That was an annoyance kiss. It didn’t mean anything, either.” He folded his arms over his chest.

  “Is that why you keep going out of your way to see me?” she asked, using her sweetest pageant coach voice.

  “I was checking my cattle.”

  “You already checked the cattle this morning. With my grandfather. Also, doesn’t Bennett usually check the cattle in this area? He’s the only one I’ve seen delivering the salt licks, anyway.” Not that she had been actively watching for Levi when she worked with Six at the training area or during their post-training walks.

  “Yes, my father usually checks the cattle first thing in the morning, but I take the later checks.”

  “Just how much babysitting do retired cattle need? And since when is—” Camden checked her watch “—nine fifteen in the morning ‘later’?”

  “Since now.”

  Camden signaled Six to stand. “Mature, Walters, real mature,” she said and began walking toward the fence.

  “Kind of like your rain boots.”

  Camden looked down. She’d slid her feet into the unicorn-and-rainbow boots this morning and smiled when she saw them. The navy was ordinary, but the bright flashes of neon orange and red, the lime greens, and the crisp whites of the design elements made her happy.

  “Functional doesn’t have to mean ugly,” she said. Her phone rang again, and she swiped to ignore it once more.

  Grant needed to take a hint. He had to go back to Kansas City. Start a new life with Heather, or, if their sleeping together was just a distraction like he’d said, he needed to find someone who didn’t make him feel as if he needed a distraction. Camden didn’t want to be either the distraction or the part of life Grant needed distraction from. She wanted... Her gaze landed on Levi.

  She wanted to feel the way she felt when Levi kissed her outside the barn, the way she’d felt kissing him in the middle of the Slope last night. Like the two of them were the only people who mattered. She couldn’t be with Levi, not really. Not while he barely tolerated her presence. Grant, though, needed to move on, and since he’d already caught one kiss, it made sense for him to see another. And another. For as long as it took him to realize Camden wasn’t going back to him.

  A plan began forming in her mind. One that would make Grant move on, and one that might make Levi think of her with a little less annoyance. If it didn’t accomplish that last part, at least she could enjoy the distraction of Levi for a little while in the meantime.

  “How would you like to help me with a little project?” she asked.

  * * *

  LEVI HELD UP his hands in what he hoped looked to Camden like disgust. “No,” he said emphatically.

  The truth was, he wasn’t disgusted by Camden’s proposal at all. He was intrigued by it, and that was the most ridiculous thing he’d felt since she blew into town a couple of weeks before. Levi Walter didn’t go for schemes—at least he hadn’t since that last prank with Mara and the guys in high school. He was an adult, with plans. Scheming with a unicorn boot–wearing former beauty queen was not part of his plan. Adding those new organic food options, expanding the dairy, those were his plans, and if he found a woman along the way who wanted to share in those plans, great. If not, there were always women around who didn’t mind spending a little time with him before moving on.

  “It’s just for a couple of days. Grant only needs to see us together, maybe at dinner or something, and he’ll realize that I’ve moved on. It will give him the closure he needs to do the same and get out of Slippery Rock. Win-win,” she said, putting her small hands on his forearm and squeezing. “Come on, Levi, what can it hurt?”

  He didn’t have an answer for that. Grant didn’t seem the kind of man to be truly hurt by a woman dumping him. Inconvenienced and annoyed? Sure. But hurt? The man was too polished and pressed for that kind of emotion. Levi frowned. “Why don’t you just tell him you’ve moved on?”

  “I have told him. Twice. Once on the phone after that video of us falling into the lake hit the news, and again last night at the Slope. Just before that kiss.” She held up her phone, which was quiet for the first time in a couple of minutes. “Obviously, he hasn’t gotten the hint that we’re over. He’s a visual learner.”

  “If the kiss last night didn’t convince him, what makes you think a coffee date will?”

  “Because everyone loves a great story, and Christmas romances make great stories,” Camden said, shrugging her shoulders as she spoke. In addition to the ridiculous unicorn rain boots, she wore skinny jeans with a rip midthigh and a layered combination of T-shirt, flannel and a jean jacket. She had to be sweltering. Levi wore a tee and a light Carhartt jacket, and the late-autumn sun was burning him to the ground. Funny, the meteorologist hadn’t said anything abo
ut an unseasonable heat wave on the news last night. “Grant needs to see it in context. A little talking, maybe some hand-holding. We could go to that concert tonight at the grandstand. He sees us, he sees the town lit up with decorations and he finally makes the breakup permanent in his mind. We don’t have to kiss,” she said, as if kissing Levi were suddenly anathema to her.

  After the one she’d laid on him last night, he knew she enjoyed kissing him. Her apparent denial of that was intriguing.

  The cattle her little dog had herded into the corner dispersed. The dog was about to wag his tail right off his little brown and white and black body, or maybe go after the cows again. Levi knew the pup couldn’t hurt the cattle; he was a mere annoyance. Better, though, to get the dog back where he belonged.

  Like he needed to get Camden back where she belonged.

  Of course, dressed like she was in boots and jeans, she didn’t look as if she belonged in Kansas City. She looked like a local, like any one of the two hundred or so girls with whom he’d gone to high school. “You want a ride back to the farm? I’m sure your little Toto here will race the four-wheeler back.”

  “He’s a collie, not a terrier, and I’ll walk.”

  Levi fell in step beside her. He didn’t need to escort her back, but he didn’t want to leave her just yet, either.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Walking you home.”

  “I thought we weren’t pretend dating,” she said.

  “We aren’t.”

  “Then we’re dating? Because my understanding of small-town social convention is that the guy walks home the girl he is romantically interested in. And you just swore up and down you weren’t interested in helping me fool my ex into thinking we’re dating. Is that because you really don’t want to date me or because you secretly do and walking me home is the only way to secretly date me?”

  Levi blinked, trying to follow her circular thinking. He failed. “Walking you home isn’t a testament of my undying love or attraction. It’s an act of kindness.”

  “In case I trip and fall into a bush of poison ivy?”

  “In case you get lost. These trails haven’t been kept up in recent years.”

  “A situation I’m planning to remedy once the dog school is back up and running properly.”

  “So, you’re really planning to go through with that? It’s not just an idea to help you pass the time until Khaki Pants whisks you off to another lavish wedding you say you don’t want?” Levi wanted pull the words back into his mouth, but they were already out there. Camden stopped walking and gaped at him for a moment.

  “You think all of this is an act?”

  “You’re the one who showed up in town wearing your wedding dress.”

  “Because I ran away from my wedding.”

  “And in the four hours it took you to get from Kansas City to Slippery Rock, you didn’t have a single chance to change your clothes.” Camden clenched her jaw and didn’t reply. “Because it seems to me if you really didn’t want to get married, you’d have stripped off that dress as soon as possible instead of wearing it into a bar and asking for directions. Or showing up on your estranged grandparents’ front steps still wearing it.”

  Camden stomped through the underbrush, hurrying her pace as they neared the barn. “I’m not acting. I’m not marrying Grant Wadsworth, and I’m tired of living my life as a clone of my mother. I walked away from all of that because finding Grant playing Pin the Penis on the Bridesmaid with my former best friend was the final straw. I’d done everything right. I picked the right caterer, the right dress, the right reception band. I started the business he and my mother suggested after I aged out of the pageant circuit, and in college I majored in the same thing my mother did. I’m tired of living my life like some kind of clone.” She stopped walking again, turned and poked his chest.

  Levi was still hung up on the Pin the Penis comment. Grant had cheated on Camden? That didn’t make sense. Camden might be a little flighty—it wasn’t exactly normal, from Levi’s point of view, for a woman to walk out on her wedding at the literal last minute—and she might have ignored her grandparents for far too long, but she was a gorgeous woman. One he’d never cheat on.

  Not that he was dating her. Or would date her. Or should date her. Or... He needed to get back to this conversation and stop thinking about what-ifs that he shouldn’t be thinking.

  Damn George Bailey and Captain von Trapp for making him equate Christmas with romance and true love. Camden Harris was not his true love, and dating her would be a mistake. A fun mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. Levi Walters didn’t make mistakes. He measured and he calculated and he planned. It was who he was, and it had worked thus far in his life.

  “This isn’t an act,” she continued, not giving Levi time to speak. They’d arrived at the barn, and Camden pulled the heavy door open. “I’m not here waiting to get swept off my feet and taken back to Kansas City by some khaki-wearing Prince Charming. I’m here to take my life back and—” She didn’t finish her thought. Camden’s wide brown eyes widened, and she clapped her hand over her mouth.

  Levi started to turn, but she grabbed his shoulders so that he couldn’t see whatever was going on behind him.

  “I’m going to apologize in advance for what’s about to happen. You’ll just have to trust that it’s absolutely necessary,” she said, and then she jumped into Levi’s arms.

  Camden wrapped her legs around Levi’s waist and put her arms around his shoulders. Without him thinking about it, his arms went around her waist, not that she needed the extra support. Her body felt good against his. Too good. All the blood in his body seemed to instantly reroute below his waistband. Levi clenched his jaw, willing his body to stop reacting to Camden’s. Unlike in football, his body ignored what he told it to do. He was hard and getting harder by the minute.

  “Just go with it,” she said, and there was desperation in her voice and in those big brown eyes. Desperation that Levi should ignore but couldn’t. Maybe he could get whatever this was back on solid ground, though.

  He put his hands on Camden’s waist so he could lift her off him and pasted a grin on his face. “I’ve never minded women throwing themselves at me, although most don’t literally—”

  Her mouth closed over his, cutting off his words. Which was good because the kiss also short-circuited his mind. Levi couldn’t remember the point he’d been about to make. He forgot that he was annoyed with her cute unicorn boots and her weird fake-dating-to-fool-the-fiancé plan. All he could think about was the feel of Camden’s smooth lips, the rise and fall of her chest against his, and the softness of her body against the hardness of his. He wanted to cup her face between his palms, but without a wall to brace her, he was afraid she would fall. That would put too much space between them, and he didn’t want space. He wanted more of her.

  Her mouth opened under his, letting him in to taste her. Sweet like orange juice.

  Her small hands clasped behind his head, knocking the old ball cap to the ground, and Camden moaned low in her throat. The sound sent a rush of adrenaline through his body and, God, his jeans were now so tight around his erection it was nearly painful. Levi didn’t mind; the almost pain turned to pleasure. It would be so easy to take things farther. Take Camden into the barn, put her up against that wall or lay her down so he could kiss every last inch of her.

  Gravel crunched behind them.

  “There she—” Calvin began saying, and then paused. “Is,” he finished after a long moment.

  Just like that, reality came crashing down. This wasn’t what he’d had in mind when he drove back over here this morning. Checking on the cattle had been the plan. Then back to his office, and then seeing how Mama Hazel’s ice cream concoctions were going. Kissing Camden was not in the plan, not right now.

  “Granddad. Grandmom.” Camden blinked, her g
aze hazy, as if she’d forgotten for a moment where they were. Well, at least he wasn’t alone in that. She slid down his body, and Levi clenched every muscle he could, ordering his body not to react any more to hers. It didn’t work. The curves of her body seemed to fit against his as if made for it. The scent of her shampoo still surrounded him. When she reached for his hand, he didn’t pull away.

  Then she looked past Levi, past her grandparents to the man walking slightly behind them. Wearing another pair of khaki pants, this time with what appeared to be a pressed polo shirt and an open leather jacket. Levi couldn’t suppress the eye roll. The guy dressed like he was starring in some 1990s teen movie or something, not like he was visiting a working farm.

  Camden sighed and pasted what he knew was a fake smile on her face, and when she spoke, it was forced surprise in her voice. “And Grant, what are you doing here?”

  “I, ah, thought we should talk,” the other man said. His short blonde hair was combed back from his face, and a concerned look clouded his expression. “Alone,” he added when it became clear Camden wasn’t in a hurry to leave the barnyard. Or Levi.

  Levi bit back a grin. Why it was important that Camden stood beside him he wasn’t certain, but it made him happy to see her not trotting off after the ex who’d been cheating on her. Levi might not be the right man for Camden, but neither was this schmuck.

  “I don’t think we have anything more to talk about. I’m not going back to Kansas City with you. I wouldn’t, even if Levi and I weren’t together.” She squeezed his hand, and when Levi glanced at her, there was a sense of urgency in her gaze, and those big eyes seemed to beg him not to say anything. “But we are together, and that isn’t going to change. Levi’s even going with us to a dog show in Tulsa this week.”

  Levi blinked. Tulsa? She’d mentioned a date or two, and he hadn’t even agreed to that. Now they were suddenly going to Tulsa? Calvin and Bonita shared a shocked glance. Apparently he wasn’t the only confused person in this barnyard.