The Texan's One-Night Standoff

by Charlene Sands

  Her body had been in a constant state of high alert since Brooks entered the house. She’d tried hard to tamp down her feelings, to treat him as a guest and not the man who’d turned her inside out. A part of her wanted him to go, so that they could end whatever they had before he tore her life up in shreds. And another part of her wanted him to stay. To keep her company throughout the cold winter night.

  She lifted away from Brooks and unfolded her pretzel position to stretch out her legs.

  He planted his feet on the floor, bracing his elbows on his knees, and turned to her. “Thanks for the movie. I really liked it. But I think a lot of that had to do with the company.”

  She smiled. “Thank you.”

  “Welcome. Popcorn was good, too. I can’t remember enjoying an evening like this back home.”

  “You don’t go to movies in Chicago?”

  He shook his head. “No, not really. I’m usually too busy. It’s not high on my list of priorities.”

  “I guess Cool Springs is a totally different experience from what you’re used to.”

  “It is, but not in a bad way. Back home, my phone is ringing constantly. My life is full of dinner meetings and weekends of work. I don’t get to play very often.”

  “Is that what you’re doing here? Playing?”

  “If you knew how hard I tried to find Beau, you wouldn’t even have to ask. I went to great lengths and sometimes, now that I think back, didn’t employ the most honorable means to locate my father. My coming to Look Away is very serious. But I am finding some peace here, and it’s quite surprising.”

  “I meant with me, Brooks.”

  He reached out to grab her hand, then turned it over in his palm as he contemplated her question. “Not with you, either, Ruby. I don’t make a habit of playing games, period.”

  “You probably don’t have to.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning, you’re handsome and wealthy and I bet—”

  “You’d bet wrong. I’d be the first one to tell you I’ve been obsessed lately with finding the truth of my parentage. I haven’t had a moment for anything else. I haven’t dated in months, and I—”

  She pressed her fingers against his lips. “Okay, I believe you.”

  He kissed her fingertips. “Good.” He rose then and lifted her to her feet on his way up. “I really should go.”

  She waited a beat, debating over whether to have him in her bed tonight, to wake with him in the morning. Picturing it was like a dream, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t invite him to stay. The long list of reasons why not infiltrated her mind, making it all very clear.

  “I’ll walk you out.” She tugged on his hand and headed to the door, ignoring the regret in his eyes and willing away her own doubts about letting him go. “Thanks for the candy and flowers, Brooks.”

  He bent his head and kissed her lightly on the lips. The kiss was over before she knew what was happening. “You’re welcome. I had a nice time tonight,” he said and walked out the door.

  He had had no ulterior motive for showing up here tonight.

  Her heart warmed at the thought.

  Galahad had been true to his word.

  * * *

  The next morning, Ruby entered the shed attached to the main house. It was nearly as big as the Preston five-car garage. Back in the day, the Preston boys would play in here, pretending to camp out in the dark walled recesses and holding secret meetings. Ruby was never a part of that all-boy thing, but she had her own secrets in this place. The shed was where twelve-year-old Rusty Jenkins had given her her first kiss. It had been an amateur attempt, she realized years later, as the boy’s lips were as soft as a baby’s and he’d kinda slobbered. But it had thrilled her since Rusty was a boy she’d really liked. And every time she walked in here, those old, very sweet memories flooded her mind.

  She lifted the first box she found marked Christmas in red lettering and loaded it into her arms. Ever since Tanya had passed on, Beau enlisted Ruby’s help in decorating the entire house, claiming the place needed a woman’s touch. And she was happy to do it. It was serious business getting the house ready for the holidays.

  When the shed door opened, letting in cool Texas air, she called, “Beau, I’m back here.”

  “We’re coming,” Beau said in a nasal voice.

  She turned to find not one but two Prestons approaching. She should’ve known Brooks would be with him. There was no help for it; Beau was anxious to spend as much time as he could with his son.

  Immediately Beau took the box out of her arms. “Morning, Ruby.”

  “Good morning,” she said to both of them. But her gaze lingered on Brooks, dressed in faded blue jeans and a white T-shirt that hugged his biceps. She looked away instantly—she couldn’t let Beau catch her drooling over his son. Brooks had hunk written all over him, and how well she knew. Every time he entered a room, her blood pulsed wildly. It usually took a few moments to calm down. “Brooks is going to help us decorate the tree, if that’s okay with you.” Beau barely got the words out before he began coughing, and his face turned candy apple red.

  “Are you sick, Beau?” she asked.

  “Trying to catch a cold is all, Rube.”

  But he coughed again and again. Brooks grabbed the box out of his arms.

  “Not trying,” she said. “You sound terrible. You’re congested, Beau.”

  “I think so, too, but he insisted on helping decorate the tree today,” Brooks said.

  Beau pursed his lips. It was the closest the man came to pouting. “Is it so wrong to want to put up a tree with my son for the first time?”

  Ruby glanced at Brooks and then gave Beau a sweet smile. “Not at all, but if you’re not feeling well, you should rest. The Look Away Christmas party is happening this weekend, and Graham and his fiancée will be here by then. You want to be healthy for that, Beau. A little rest will do you a world of good. I can manage the tree.”

  “I’ll help, Ruby,” Brooks added, nodding. “Why not take a rest and come down later for dinner?”

  Beau turned his head away and coughed a blue streak. “Okay,” he managed on a nod. He couldn’t argue after that coughing spell. “I guess you two are right. I can’t be sick when Graham and Eve get here. Not with her being pregnant and all. That’s my first grandbaby.” Pride filled his voice.

  “Yeah, and I’m gonna be an uncle.” Brooks’s eyes gleamed, showing Ruby just how much Beau and Brooks looked alike.

  “That you are.” Then Beau drew out a sigh as if he wanted to do anything but rest on his laurels this morning. “I’ll go now. See you both later on.”

  He walked away, and the sound of his coughing followed him out the door.

  Now Ruby was alone in the shed with deadly handsome Brooks. He stared at her, a smile on his face.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You’re a bossy mother hen.”

  She shook her head. “I already lost one father. Don’t want to lose another.”

  Brooks flinched, and she wished she could take her words back. Brooks hadn’t meant anything by his comment. He was teasing; it was what he did, and she shouldn’t have lashed out. But the man made her a little jumpy and whole lot of crazy.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that my father worked himself into the ground, and I was too young to know enough to stop him. Losing him as a teen was hard. I had no other family, and when Beau took me in and treated me as his own, well...it meant a lot to me. So I’m protective.”

  Brooks moved a stray hair from her cheek and tucked it back behind her ear. “I get that. I was only teasing.”

  “I know.” She lifted her chin and cracked a small smile.

  “Ruby,” he said quietly. His eyes softened to a blue glow, his hand moving to the back of her neck to hold her head in place.

  There was silent communication between them. She sensed that he understood, and in the silence of the shed, her heart pounded as she stared at him, wishing that he was someone else. Not Beau’s so
n. Not a man who would eventually leave Cool Springs. And her.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said as if reading her mind. As if he realized the pain she’d experienced losing her mother, her father and a lover who had abandoned her. Her heart was guarded. She’d built up an impenetrable wall of defense against further hurt and pain.

  “I can’t let you, Brooks.”

  “I won’t. I promise,” he said, his gaze dipping to her mouth. She parted her lips and he took her then, in a kiss that was simple and brief and sweet. Moments ticked by as she stared at him, sad regret pulling at her heart. And their fate was sealed. They had come to terms with their attraction and would put a halt to anything leading them astray.

  It was quiet in the shed, and cool and dark. Ruby trembled, and that brought her out of her haze. “We should get these boxes into the house. We’ve got a full day of decorating ahead. Have you seen the tree yet?”

  “No, not yet. We should get to it, then.”

  Brooks got right on it, pulling down two big boxes and loading up his arms while she grabbed one, too. “You know, I haven’t decorated for Christmas since I was a kid,” he said as they made their way toward the house. “My mom would get this small three-foot tree and put it up on Grandma Gerty’s round coffee table. That made it look just as big and tall as the ones we’d see around town. Then Graham and I would put the ornaments on the taller branches, and my little brother, Carson, would decorate the bottom half.”

  “Did you use tinsel?” she asked, her mood lighter now as she pictured Brooks as a boy.

  “My mom always made a popcorn garland. And my grandmother would give us candy canes to stick on the tree.”

  “My dad and I always used silver tinsel,” Ruby said. “It wasn’t Christmas until we had the tree covered in it.”

  “Sounds nice,” Brooks said. “I’m sorry Beau isn’t going to be decorating with us today. Seems silly now that I’m a grown man, doesn’t it?”

  “Not at all. You missed out on a lot with Beau. But you know what? I bet before we finish the tree, Beau will come down.”

  As they entered the massive living room, Brooks took one look at the tree and the ladder beside it and halted his steps, inclining his head. “Wow. Now, that’s a tree. Must be a fifteen-footer.”

  “At least. Every year Beau has the biggest and best Douglas fir delivered to the house. Tanya loved filling up the entire corner of the room with the tree.”

  They set their boxes down. Brooks scanned the room again and sighed. “It’s weird, you know. Having a family here I didn’t know about. I’m not complaining. I had a good life. My mother made sure of it. But to think while I was decorating our Christmas tree at home, my father and his family were setting their own Christmas traditions.”

  “Just think, Brooks. Now you’ll have both—a Chicago and a Cool Springs Christmas.”

  He chuckled. “You’re right, Ruby. I guess that’s not half-bad.”

  “No, it’s not. Now, here,” she said, digging into a box and coming up with a string of large, colorful lights. “Before we can hang any ornaments, we need to make this tree shine. Start at the top and work your way down, Mr. Six-Foot-Two. You’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

  Hours later, Brooks put his arm around Ruby’s shoulders as they stepped back from the tree to admire their handiwork. The tree was stunning, the lights in holiday hues casting a soft glimmer over the large formal living room. “It’s beautiful,” Ruby said quietly.

  “It is. We went through six boxes on the tree alone.”

  “It looks almost perfect,” Ruby said, noticing a flaw.

  “Almost?”

  “Yeah, I see a spot we missed.”

  “Where?”

  She pointed to a bare space toward the top of the tree that had been neglected. “Right there. I’ll get it,” she said, breaking away from Brooks to grab a beautiful horse ornament, a palomino with a golden mane. “We’ll just get this guy up on that branch.”

  She hugged the side rails of the ladder and began climbing. Making it to the highest rung, she thought was safe and reached out to a branch just as the ladder wobbled beneath her. “Oh!”

  “I’ve got you,” Brooks said, steadying the ladder first and then fitting her butt cheeks into his hands from his stance on the floor.

  “Brooks.” She swatted at his hands. “Stop that.”

  “What?” He put innocence in his voice. “I’m only keeping you from falling.”

  “Shh,” she said, her entire body reacting to the grip he had on her. They’d worked together all day long in close quarters, and it was hard enough to keep from touching him, from brushing her body against his, from breathing in his intoxicating scent while trying to focus on the task. “Lupe might hear you. Or Beau might come down.”

  “Lupe went shopping for groceries, remember? And I heard Beau snoring just a second ago. Doesn’t seem like he’s going to come down anytime soon.”

  “Smart aleck. You’re got it all figured out, don’t you?”

  “Hell, I wish I did, Ruby.”

  She ignored the earnest regret she heard in his voice. “I’m coming down. That means you can take your hands off my ass now.”

  He grinned and then released her. “I’ll be right here, waiting.”

  “Why does that worry me?” she said as she lowered herself slowly down.

  He stood at the base of the ladder, and when she turned around, he was there, crowding her with his body, his scent, his blue beautiful eyes. “I think I have a shelf life around you, Ruby,” he said in explanation. “A few hours without touching you is all I can manage.”

  The compliment seared through her system and warmed all the cold spots. “I know what you mean,” she said softly. She felt the same way, and it was useless to deny the attraction.

  He gave her a bone-melting smile. “Now, that’s honest.”

  “I’m always honest. Or at least, I try to be.”

  He held her trapped against the ladder, his arms roped around the sides, blocking her in. When he lowered his head, her eyes closed naturally, and she welcomed his kiss.

  “Mmm,” she hummed against lips that fit perfectly with hers. Lips that gave so much and demanded even more. The connection she had with Brooks was sharp and swift and powerful. They were like twin magnets that clicked together the minute they got close.

  He took her head in his hands and dipped her back, deepening the kiss, probing her with his tongue. He swept inside so quickly she gasped, the pleasure startling her and making her pulse race out of control.

  He whispered, “Come to my cabin tonight, Ruby.”

  “I, uh...” A dozen reasons she shouldn’t swarmed into her mind. The same reasons she’d tried to heed before, the same reasons that had kept her up nights.

  He kissed her again, meshing their bodies hip to hip, groin to groin. There was no mistaking his erection and the blatant desire pulsing between them. She had to come to terms with wanting Brooks. Not for the future, not because of the past, but for now. In the present. Could she live with that?

  “Yes,” she said, agreeing to another night with him. “I’ll come to you,” she promised. And once she said it, her shoulders relaxed and her entire body gave way to relief. She’d put up a good fight, but it was time to realize she couldn’t fight what was happening between them. She could only go along for the ride and see where it would take her.

  * * *

  “Ruby, you sure you don’t want to watch the end of the game with me and Brooks?” Beau asked from his seat at the head of the dinner table. “We can catch the last half. Looks like the Texans might make the playoffs if they win tonight.”

  His boys had invited them all to catch the game at the C’mon Inn as they usually did once a week, drinking beer and talking smack, but mother hen that she was, Ruby delicately squashed that idea. Beau needed his rest and some alone time with Brooks, since he’d missed out on being with him today.

  “No thanks, Beau. I’ll just help Lupe straighten
up in the kitchen and then head home. You boys enjoy the game. And remember, don’t stay up too late. You may be feeling better, but you still need to turn in early.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I promise,” Beau said, giving her a wink.

  He seemed much better than he had this morning. He’d coughed only once during dinner, and his voice had lost that nasal tone. She congratulated herself on getting him to rest today. It had done him a world of good.

  “Thanks again to both of you for fixing up the house. Looks real pretty.”

  “You’re welcome.” Brooks looked as innocent as a schoolboy as he nodded at his father, but his innocence ended there. He’d been eyeballing Ruby all during dinner, making it hard for her to swallow her food. She was eager to be with him again, to have him nestle her close and make her body come apart.

  “It was a lot of fun, Dad. Ruby taught me the finer points of decorating a tree.”

  Ruby wanted to roll her eyes. Everything Brooks said lately seemed to have a double meaning. Or was she just imagining it?

  “She’s had enough experience,” Beau went on. “She took over from Tanya, you know. And I know my wife would approve of the way you both made the house look so festive. The party’s on Saturday night, and son, I can’t wait to introduce you to my friends.”

  “I’ll look forward to that.”

  Beau smiled and then was hit by a sudden fit of coughing. Concerned, Ruby put a hand on his shoulder until he simmered down. “S-sorry,” he said.

  “Don’t apologize, Dad. Maybe I should go so you can turn in early.”

  “Nah, don’t go yet. It’s just a tickle. I’m fine.”

  Beau seemed to recover quickly. He didn’t want to miss out on watching football with his son. It was sweet of him, and Brooks seemed to understand.

  “All right, then,” Brooks said.

  “I’m making you a cup of tea, Beau,” Ruby said. “No arguments. Go have a seat in the great room and finish the game. I’ll bring it in to you. Brooks, would you like some tea?”