Cowboy Honor--Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  Zaylie stomped her foot. “We had a surprise party.”

  “Well, let’s get out all the fixin’s, and we’ll have our party anyway.” Cade put a bottle in Retta’s hand.

  “I hear you’ve got a new calf since we’ve been gone.” Retta sat down beside Zaylie and pulled her close for a hug.

  Zaylie grinned. “Nomie is the new baby cow’s name, and I told her about you today.”

  “Hey, guys.” Levi took the towel from Claire’s hand and dried her hair for her. “Let’s pull out all that stuff Claire has made while these ladies talk about Nomie.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Justin nodded. “I’ve been waitin’ all day to get into those brownies and that chocolate dessert thing that Claire has been holding back.”

  Justin threw an arm around Cade’s shoulder, and the three of them disappeared toward the kitchen. “Levi’s got something to tell you.”

  “That he and Claire are a couple?” Cade grinned.

  “How’d you know?” Levi opened the fridge and brought out a tray of finger sandwiches.

  “The look on both your faces as you dried her hair,” Cade said. “God, I’m glad to be home. I got worse homesick that last day than Retta did. We had an amazing honeymoon, but I swear being away just made me love this ranch more than ever.”

  “So is that the lingo. We aren’t dating. We are a couple?” Levi asked.

  “I think it is. What did Mavis say?” Cade asked.

  “She’s fine with it,” Levi answered.

  “She’s probably already making baby quilts for y’all as well as for me and Retta.” Cade carried a dessert to the table.

  “It’s something big in my world to think about a relationship that involves more than friendship. You’re talkin’ permanent, and that’s way ahead of me,” Levi said.

  “You’ll get there if she’s the one,” Cade told him, and then pointed at Justin. “And you are next.”

  Justin threw up both palms defensively. “Whoa! How’d I get involved in this conversation? Levi is in the spotlight, not me. I’m not finished sowing oats, and it could be that I never will.”

  “I said that six months ago, remember. Never say never,” Levi reminded him.

  Justin lowered his hands. “I didn’t say never. I said a long, long time if ever.”

  “Pretty close to the same thing. Let’s get all this stuff on the table. Retta’s hungry.” Cade picked up two plates of food. “And, Levi, I’m happy for you. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.” Levi got a flash picture of Claire in a wedding gown, and it didn’t scare him. It might be a year or two down the road, but if things worked out, at least he wasn’t afraid.

  “What’s happened while I was gone?” Retta sipped at the root beer Cade had given her. “It’s plain that you and Levi…”

  “Levi can walk on water,” Zaylie blurted out before she wiggled free of Retta’s embrace and hurried to the fireplace to hug Beau.

  “What does she mean by that?” Retta took a long sip of the root beer. “This is my new craving. It seems to help the morning sickness.”

  “She heard that song by Randy Travis yesterday and decided that if his grandpa could walk on water, then Levi could,” Claire explained. “And Levi and I only decided half an hour ago that we are dating.”

  “Mavis?” Retta asked.

  “Levi says she’s okay with it.”

  “I bet she is. She’s wanted a daughter-in-law for years. She will spoil you, Claire, but not as much as Levi.”

  “I’m not sure I know how to take spoilin’,” Claire whispered.

  “You’ll learn.” Retta patted her arm.

  “Hey, we got the party on the table,” Cade called out.

  “Thanks.” Claire covered Retta’s hand with hers and gave it a squeeze.

  “Anytime. I’ve already walked down the path you’re treading, so anytime you need to talk, I’m here. Now let’s go eat. Those peanuts on the plane didn’t last long.”

  “Forgot to ask in all the excitement. How’s the mornin’ sickness?”

  “Pretty much gone. I talked to Mavis the whole way home from the airport. She told me about the Harris house and how she’s asked you to stay a while longer. Are you going to? I would love it if you could…” Retta’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And you could figure out if you could stand that spoilin’ business from Levi and Mavis. Besides you’re going to be living down here anyway, so why uproot Zaylie until her dad comes home? Then the transition won’t be so traumatic for her.”

  Claire wasn’t aware she was holding her breath until it came out in a whoosh. “It does make things a lot easier, so yes, and thank you, and there’s more to tell you about the surprise story there.”

  “Is he going to let her have kittens?” Retta asked.

  “More than that.” Claire looked around and saw Zaylie in the dining room chattering away with Levi about Nomie. “He’s resigning and coming home for good, and he’s probably getting married soon.”

  “Wow!” Retta’s brown eyes twinkled. “Now that’s a Christmas present she’ll never forget.”

  “What’s a present?” Zaylie whipped around to face them.

  “We can’t tell,” Retta said. “We promised Santa.”

  “When did you see him?” Zaylie skipped across the room.

  “In Florida. I had to know what he was bringing you so I’d know what I could get that would be different,” Retta answered.

  Levi met Claire’s gaze, and their eyes locked. Could she really learn to let someone else help her without feeling like she was losing her independence? She was willing to try, but that didn’t mean it would be easy.

  Chapter Twenty

  Claire loved the smell of the land after a hard rain. Add in a brisk breeze and it made for a pleasant walk from the house to the barn that Tuesday evening. When she was only a few yards from the barn and ready to turn around and go back to the bunkhouse, Beau ran out to meet her. Putting his big paws on her chest, he licked her up across the face and then ran back inside.

  Levi startled her when he stepped out of the shadows. “Where’s Zaylie?”

  “Retta took her to church. Her little girls’ Sunday school class is making cookies to take to the nursing home tomorrow evening. She wants Zaylie to go with her to that too. They’ll sing Christmas carols for the old folks and pass out treat bags with cookies.”

  Levi opened his arms and she walked into them. He pulled her close to his body and rested his chin on the top of her head. “You were made for me, Claire Mason.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because I feel complete when I’m with you,” he said.

  “Me too.” She shivered in spite of the warmth spreading through her body.

  “You’re cold, darlin’. Let’s get you inside to the tack room.” He tucked her hand into his, and she followed him into the barn. Beau yipped from his bed in a pile of hay, and his tail thumped a couple of times, but then he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

  Warmth rushed out of the tack room when he opened the door. Then they were inside with the smell of leather and the remnants of his woodsy shaving lotion from that morning—all blending together. He took her hand in his and laid it on his broad, work-hardened chest, and she could feel his heart racing.

  “This is what just being near you does to me, Claire. I’ve never experienced anything like this, and I’m afraid I’m going to mess it up,” he drawled.

  “Me too,” she admitted honestly as she picked up his hand and laid it over her heart. “This is scary on more than one level for both of us.”

  He removed her hand and kissed the palm. “We’ve got at least two hours all to ourselves. Justin and Cade went to Bowie to buy more Christmas lights.”

  “Then we’d better make the best of it.” She tugged at the top of his coat and unfastened all the snaps in one fell swoop. Then she started at the top button of his chambray work shirt and slowly undid enough that she could slip hands inside and run them over his bar
e skin.

  He groaned. “You are killin’ me, woman.”

  “But what a way to die,” she said as she grinned up at him.

  His lips found hers, and the sparks ignited the dimly lit room. “One more of those and you won’t have to undress me. All my clothes will go up in flames.”

  “Are you sure about this, Claire?” His voice was hoarse and his eyes searched hers.

  “I’m not sure about anything, but I know that I want this with you, Levi. It’s a rare opportunity that we’re on this ranch alone, so let’s make the most of it.”

  He gently removed her jacket and then tugged her sweatshirt up over her head. Static electricity made her hair fly out like she’d stuck her finger in a light socket. He smoothed it down with his fingertips, and she shivered again.

  “Your touch,” she started.

  “I know.” He threw his shirt off to the side and undid her bra. Then it was skin against skin, her breasts against the brown hair on his chest. “My God, that feels good.”

  She could feel the hardness behind his zipper begging to be freed, so she slipped her hand between them and undid his belt buckle, the button on his jeans, and pulled the zipper down.

  “Oh my!” she gasped when she realized he was commando.

  “Never been one much for underwear.” He grinned.

  “I see,” she whispered.

  He kicked off his boots and took off his socks and jeans, then tossed them over toward the end of the sofa. Standing there before her with only the fire from the heater to light the room, he looked like a Greek statue of a perfect man, only this one was flesh and blood. She wanted him to make love to her, ached to feel him inside her.

  “Oh no!” he said when he’d finished undressing her and laid her on the sofa.

  “What? What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I don’t have protection,” he groaned.

  “I’m on the pill,” she whispered.

  “Great.” He smiled as he reached for his jeans and pulled his phone from the hip pocket, touched a few icons, and “Good Morning, Beautiful,” by Steve Holy started to play.

  “Someday I’ll wake up with you by my side, but right now the words say the way I feel about you, Claire, and I want you to hear it as we make love,” he whispered.

  His kisses turned loose desire and emotions that she’d never felt before. When she thought that she’d surely melt from the inside out, she reached down and guided him inside her, and they began a rhythm together as the song played all the way to the end. He brought her right up to the edge of an amazing climax. She wrapped her legs around his middle and raked her nails across his back as she nipped his ear. “I need you. I want you. Please, right now.”

  He picked up the pace and smothered her with steaming-hot kisses, and together they reached a height where the air was so thin they had trouble breathing. Then with a final hard thrust, they fell all the way back to earth with her in his arms.

  “My God. That was a first,” he gasped.

  “Surely not,” she panted.

  “It was, darlin’, my first time to make love rather than have sex.” He rolled to one side, but the sofa was so narrow that they were still plastered against each other.

  “It’s a good thing we don’t have all night. We’d burn down the ranch,” she said.

  “Amen and there’d be nothing left of us but a pile of ashes. This was…” He stopped as if he couldn’t think of the right word.

  “Amazin’?” she asked.

  “Oh, honey, I don’t think there’s enough words in the dictionary to describe what this really was.” He kissed her again and shut his eyes.

  “Don’t you fall asleep, cowboy. We’ve only got a few more minutes before the family comes home.”

  Family.

  Home.

  The two words branded themselves on Claire’s heart as she snuggled up next to him to make the most of every single second they had left.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Claire awoke the next morning with doubts. Had she gone too fast? She’d known Levi less than a month. Even with her first boyfriend in college, she’d known him a whole semester before they’d had sex.

  But what you had last night went beyond plain old sex; Levi made love to you, a soft voice in her head reminded her.

  Even that couldn’t erase the niggling uncertainty of her actions. She’d only been a notch above the bar bunnies that he’d taken home for a weekend. She’d instigated the whole thing just like they’d do. Now what? Would he have as many second thoughts as she had and avoid her like the plague?

  Zaylie rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her knuckles as she crawled up in bed with Claire and flopped back on the spare pillow. “Are you goin’ to come see me sing tonight at the nursing home?”

  “Of course I am,” Claire answered.

  “And Levi?”

  Claire’s cheeks burned at just hearing his name. “You’ll have to ask him.”

  “’Kay.” She yawned and then sat up with eyes wide open. “I have to call Teresa and see if she can come too.”

  Claire patted her on the arm. “Teresa lives too far away to come to the singing, but I’ll video it and you can send it to her. How would that work?”

  Zaylie’s lower lip rolled out. “I miss her.”

  Claire picked her up and held her close. “I know you do. I miss your dad and Angela and Teresa and even Franny. But Christmas isn’t far away, and we’ll see them all then.”

  “Is that when we’re leavin’?” Zaylie asked.

  “Maybe,” Claire answered.

  “But I don’t want to leave my kitties and Retta and Levi,” Zaylie whined. “Daddy can come home and we can live in this house happy ever after.”

  If only things were as simple as they are seen through the eyes of a five-year-old, Claire thought as she set Zaylie on the floor and got out of bed herself. “We’ll see what happens when the time comes,” she said. “But for right now, we’ll think about the ranch party. It’s coming up real soon. What are you going to wear?”

  “My pretty Christmas dress.” Zaylie’s tone changed to excited as she raced off to the living room. “We can send Daddy a picture of me and the kitties on party day.”

  “Yes, we will,” Claire agreed.

  She picked up the shirt that she’d tossed on the dresser the night before and buried her face in it. Inhaling deeply, she could still smell Levi’s aftershave mixed with the scent of the tack room. She was definitely going to miss seeing him every day when she moved away from the ranch.

  Levi had been dreaming about Claire and was reaching out to touch her face when he awoke to find that he was caressing a pillow. He picked it up and threw it against the wall.

  That’s no way to treat the woman you are seeing. Skip’s laughter rang out in his head so clearly that he looked across the room to see if he was sitting in the rocking chair by the window.

  “It wasn’t Claire. If it had been, I wouldn’t be in this mood.” He threw the covers back and jerked a shirt over his head. The one he’d worn the night before still smelled faintly of her perfume, so it didn’t go into the hamper but was left draped over the rocking chair.

  “Mornin’.” He nodded to Mavis, Skip, and Retta when he made it to the kitchen.

  “What’s got you all grumpy? You usually get up in a good mood,” Mavis asked.

  “Nothin’,” he muttered. “And what makes you think I’m grumpy. I said good mornin’ to all y’all.”

  “The look on your face,” Mavis told him.

  Retta laid a hand on his shoulder. “Must be a male thing. Cade and Justin neither one are real perky this morning either. They’re in the livin’ room if you want to join them.”

  “I’m good right here.” He took a sip of his coffee and turned toward Mavis. “Why did you and Skip come so early? Didn’t you have to take Benjy to school?”

  “The FFA is giving the 4-H club a breakfast this mornin’. And we got us a little miracle this holiday season. Benjy made a fri
end. He goes to a special class a couple of hours a day, and there’s a little girl in there who’s also high-functioning autistic, and they’ve been talkin’ on the phone. She remembers numbers like he does details.”

  “That’s fabulous. Do we get to meet her?” Levi perked up.

  “Maybe. I’ve asked her mother to come to our church,” Mavis answered. “She said that she’d be happy to attend. They only moved here a few weeks ago.”

  “Levi! Levi! Where are you?” Zaylie’s voice echoed off the walls.

  “In the kitchen, princess.” He raised his voice.

  She bounced into the room dragging her jacket behind her and stopped abruptly when she saw Skip and Mavis. “Where’s Benjy?”

  Mavis told her about the FFA breakfast and then nudged Levi when Claire entered the room right behind the child. “Well, that sure enough put a smile on your face,” she whispered.

  “Guess it did.” His grin got bigger.

  “Hello, everyone. It looks like it’s goin’ to be a sunny day.” Claire’s eyes locked with Levi’s and held for a few seconds.

  “Yep, and we can use some good days to get decorated up for this party.” Skip tucked his hands into the bib of his overalls. “Me and the boys are goin’ to do that today. Cade just thought he’d get out of helping.”

  “Can I help?” Zaylie asked.

  “You can help me,” Mavis told her. “I’m going to bake cookies all day, and I could use someone to help decorate them.”

  “Santa cookies?” Zaylie whispered.

  “Iced sugar cookies,” Claire interpreted.

  “Yes, Santa cookies. We’ll make reindeer and Santa and maybe if we have time even some gingerbread men,” Mavis told her.

  “Yes, yes, yes!” Zaylie did a couple of twirls.

  “But first breakfast. I could eat a dozen biscuits with sausage gravy this mornin’,” Retta said. “It’s great to be over mornin’ sickness.”

  “I think I’ll refill my cup and go on in the living room with the guys after all,” Levi said. As he passed by Claire he bumped her on the shoulder and whispered, “Good mornin’, beautiful.”