A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe

by Jessica Clare

  “He’s going to need to stay with you twenty-four seven until we get back,” she told him with a grimace. “The anxiety and attachment issues he has are really bad. That means he goes with you today around the ranch, and he stays with you in your room at night. Once his environment’s been stabilized, we can try to move things around a little, but he needs a constant person at his side before we can get that far.”

  And that constant person was supposed to be him? Hell. “I was going to take Sage out on a date tonight,” he said as a last-ditch excuse.

  Annie just smiled. “Sage loves dogs.”

  And she held out the leash again.

  What the hell else could he do but give in?

  * * *

  • • •

  Eli and Dustin were out on two of the horses, running down one of the cattle that had gone missing. That meant Jason was—as usual—waiting at the barn and cleaning up after the sick cows that had been pulled from the herd temporarily. He gave them fresh water and added straw to their stalls, and made notes on the wellness chart for each animal to see if symptoms were better or worse. If they were better, and the animal responded to antibiotics, it could rejoin the herd soon. If not, they’d probably have to call the vet. So he judged the amount of snot running from cow noses and made notes and tried not to look at the dog at his side. It was a calm dog, at least. Other than the tail that wagged a mile a minute, he was quiet. He didn’t bark, didn’t chase the horses or the sick cattle. He just stayed at Jason’s side as if he was happiest right there.

  In a way, it reminded him of Truck’s constant presence and made his heart ache. He finished mucking one stall, washed his hands, and then sat down on a bale of hay to try and compose his thoughts.

  Achilles immediately put his head on Jason’s knee and gazed up at him with sad eyes.

  “Stop it,” he told the dog. “We’re not going to be friends, you and me. This is just temporary.”

  The tail wagged harder, but his chin didn’t move from Jason’s knee. He looked as if he was dying for a head scratch, and with a sigh, Jason complied. He scratched behind the ears and along the muzzle, and Achilles closed his eyes and groaned as if in pleasure. “Don’t get too comfortable,” he muttered.

  He smiled when he lifted his hand and the dog immediately put a paw on Jason’s arm, demanding more pets. With one hand rubbing the dog’s thick fur, he scratched at his new “friend” and texted Sage with his other hand.

  JASON: Guess what?

  SAGE: You changed your mind about us?

  JASON: God no. Don’t even think that.

  SAGE: Then what?

  JASON: I got stuck with a dog.

  SAGE: You what?

  He took a picture of Achilles—who was rather photogenic for a mutt, really—and sent it to Sage.

  JASON: He has attachment issues. Annie needs me to watch over him night and day until she gets back from LA. She already cleared it with Eli, and I don’t get much of a say in the matter.

  SAGE: Oh. I mean, he’s cute? Is he a good dog?

  JASON: He’s pretty chill from what I can tell. Happy, too.

  JASON: Hope you don’t mind a third wheel at our sexy dinner tonight.

  SAGE: You know I don’t mind. :)

  He looked down at the dog as he scratched his ears. “You’re going to be a real pain in my ass for the next while,” he told Achilles. “But you get to come with us tonight as long as you follow my rules. Understand?”

  Achilles’s tail wagged.

  “Just remember she’s my girl. No sad eyes at her. She’s got too soft a heart as it is.” He paused for a moment and leaned in. “The sad eyes are my move.”

  Achilles just squirmed with delight, and Jason found himself chuckling.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  For some reason, the day raced past despite the complication of having a new friend at his side. He learned that while Achilles didn’t give a damn about horses or cattle, the chickens made him lose his mind. The dog went on high alert the moment he heard birds, and he raced over to the cage to stare at them with death in his eyes, as if he were somehow protecting Jason from the feathered menaces. Jason wasn’t much of a chicken man himself (unless it was on his plate), but it was rather funny to see how Achilles acted. That was a habit he’d have to break him of, though, and with a few stern “no” commands and a tug on the harness, the dog obeyed. He even stayed at Jason’s side without complaint as Jason saddled up onto Buster and rode out to meet Dustin and Eli at one of the south pastures, where the fencing had been torn down by leaning cattle.

  By the time the cows were settled for the night and the horses curried and hooves cleaned, it was completely dark out. He grimaced at the sight and hoped Sage wasn’t too impatient waiting on him. He washed up inside the house, told the others he was going to dinner with Sage, and headed out with Achilles at his side. He’d had a moment where he’d considered leaving the dog with Annie tonight, but the babies were crying and Dustin was packing their car and everyone seemed frazzled. Achilles needed stability, she’d told him, and tonight at the Price Ranch, the living room was crowded and noisy. So he took the dog with him without complaint.

  Achilles seemed to love a car ride, too. He hopped up on the towel Jason spread on the seat as if he’d done that a hundred times before, didn’t squirm when his harness was buckled to the seat belt, and pushed his nose against the glass as Jason drove into town.

  If he had to have a dog with him, he supposed Achilles was a pretty good dog.

  He hoped having the dog with him wouldn’t ruin their evening together. He’d wanted to take Sage to a nice dinner, something memorable for their first official date, but now he didn’t know if that was possible with a dog in tow. He’d talk to her and see what she wanted to do. He didn’t much care what they did as long as he got to spend time with her.

  Jason pulled up to the post office, then took Achilles for a walk so he could do his business. They circled around the buildings like he always did, but his thoughts were less wild tonight. His focus was on Sage and the dog-slash-problem at his side. By the time they went back to the front of the office, Sage was there, smiling at him from the doorway. “How’s your new friend?”

  “Bit of a pain in the ass, but we’re getting to know each other.” He looked down at the dog and then at her. “His name’s Achilles, and it seems that Annie rescued him just in time to leave town.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it on the way to dinner.” He studied her, noticing that her usual “ugly” sweater was gone. She wore jeans and a plain cream turtleneck sweater with an oversize collar that draped over her shoulder and made her look touchable. Her hair was pulled into a sleek ponytail and emphasized the soft, pale skin of her neck, and for a moment, he desperately wanted to go back inside the office and kiss the hell out of that neck, forget dinner.

  But that was him thinking with his dick, and he knew it.

  “You look beautiful, by the way,” he told her. “I should have said that right away.”

  She gave him a shy smile. “The fact that you said it at all makes me happy.” She didn’t look happy, though. Those dimples weren’t showing. In fact, she was almost as pale as her sweater and looked as if she were about to vomit.

  “I mean it. You’re gorgeous.” He reached for her, and when she put her hand in his, he squeezed it. “Don’t look so nervous, all right? It’s just me.”

  Sage didn’t smile back at him. “Yes, but everything is different now. I don’t want to mess anything up. More than that, I don’t want to disappoint you.”

  What could possibly disappoint him? It was on the tip of his tongue to say she was being silly, but he knew she was deadly serious. She truly was worried she’d somehow “mess up” their relationship. “You want to get it out of the way first, then?”

  Her brows furrowed. “Ge
t what out of the way?”

  “The good night kiss. That’s the part you think you’ll mess up, right? Because you and I talk all the time, so you can’t be nervous about that.” When her cheeks colored prettily, he knew he was right. “So let’s get it out of the way. We’ll kiss first, and then you can relax for the rest of the evening.” He tugged her closer to him, leading her hand to his neck.

  The look she gave him was skeptical. “I’m trying to decide if this is just a ploy to get me to kiss you.”

  “Possibly.” Jason grinned. “Does it matter if it works, though?”

  “I guess not.” She put her hands to his neck and took a deep breath. “Let me know if I’m not very good, and I’ll try to do better.”

  Is that what this was? She was shy about kissing him because she was afraid she wouldn’t be very good at it? “I kissed you before and thought you kissed just fine, Sage. Even if it was a terrible kiss, I wouldn’t care. In fact, it might almost be better.”

  “Better? Why?”

  “Because then we could practice a lot.” And he leaned in and gently brushed his lips over hers. She gave a nervous chuckle that died when his tongue flicked at the entrance to her mouth, and then her arms tightened around his shoulders. Her lips parted sweetly, inviting him in, and then they were kissing just as deeply as they did last night, and he had no idea why she worried. Every time he touched her, it made him hungry for more. It didn’t matter that her responses weren’t polished or expert. She kissed with enthusiasm, and she made little noises of pleasure constantly, as if she couldn’t quite believe how much she liked the kiss. He swept his tongue over hers, his hands sliding to her waist. He wanted to grab her ass and haul her against him, to pull her so close that she would feel just how much he liked kissing her, but he knew he needed to take things slow. So he kissed and licked and nibbled at her sweet mouth until she broke the connection, panting.

  Her eyes were heavy with arousal as she looked up at him. “How did I do?”

  “Amazing,” he murmured. “But we can do it again if you’re not sure.”

  She immediately pulled him down to her again. Minutes passed before either one of them broke the embrace this time, and when she pulled back, her face was flushed, but her dimpled smile had returned. The sight of those dimples made his already aching cock even harder. “That was a good kiss, I think,” she declared.

  “It was.” They were all good in his eyes.

  She smiled at him, and then her gaze moved down to Achilles. The dog’s tail immediately began to thump, slapping against Jason’s leg. “Well, hello there,” Sage cooed at him. “What a handsome fella.”

  “You sure you don’t mind if we have a third wheel for our date?” he told her, rubbing his thumb against her waist. Her sweater was bunched up under his grasp, and he wanted to haul it up and reveal the soft skin underneath. Damn, but he was getting impatient with taking things slow, and here they were only on the first date. It was going to kill him to move any slower.

  “Oh, I don’t mind at all.” She dropped to her knees and petted Achilles, who took the loving with happy thumps of his tail and endless licking of Sage’s face. She laughed, and the sound filled him with joy. “You know, we don’t have to go anywhere special,” she told Jason, glancing up at him even as she rubbed Achilles’s ears. “I don’t know which restaurants in Casper take pets, but the bar here in town has pretty good nachos, and I know Wade doesn’t mind the occasional dog.”

  “I wanted to take you someplace special so that you’d realize how much I appreciate you. So that our first date would be important.”

  Her smile grew wider. “Jason Clements, you don’t think this would be important to me unless you took me somewhere fancy? What’s important is just being with you. I don’t care where we go. We can stay here for all I care.”

  Jason smiled back at her, but he did want to take her somewhere. If nothing else, she could prove to others that yes, they were indeed dating. “If you want to go into town, we can go into town. But I’m buying.”

  She laughed. “Fine, then. Next one’s on me.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  * * *

  • • •

  Rather than drive the hour out to Casper and restaurant hunt, they opted to go into town after all. In a way, that made Sage more nervous than a normal date would have. If they’d gone to Casper, she’d have been surrounded by strangers who didn’t realize how momentous a date was for Sage Cooper. Here in Painted Barrel, everyone would know. Everyone would stare. Everyone would smirk behind their hands and gossip about it the next day if she was the least bit awkward or strange.

  And she was bound to be awkward and strange. She was twenty-nine years old, and all of her dates could be counted on a single finger.

  They drove into town in Jason’s truck, Achilles sitting between them, and she tried to ignore the dog as best she could, even though she knew the truth of why he was there. She knew exactly why Annie had “suddenly” rescued a well-trained dog and bailed out on him. The truth of the matter was that Annie had been searching shelter databases in the surrounding states, looking for a dog that might work as an emotional service dog for Jason with minimal training. She knew Annie had come up with an excuse to force the dog into Jason’s proximity for a while, and she hated that she was in on a lie.

  But . . . she couldn’t help but notice that he was calm tonight. That he hadn’t texted her with worry, and when he’d arrived on her doorstep, he seemed . . . happy. Content.

  And if the dog had a hand in that, she’d just have to live with the lie.

  “You sure you don’t mind this?” Jason asked her as he pulled up in front of the pub. The parking lot was full, since it was past dinnertime and people were heading out for drinks to the only place for miles around that served them.

  “I don’t mind at all,” she answered honestly. “I’m just happy to be with you.”

  The smile he sent her way was dazzling, and for a moment, Sage felt like the luckiest woman alive. How did a man so effortlessly sexy find her interesting? Of all the Beccas in the world, he wanted Sage? It made no sense to her. She hadn’t dressed sexy or tried to get his attention like she had off and on for so many years with Greg (who’d promptly ignored everything she did). She’d just been herself . . . and Jason couldn’t stop kissing her.

  She touched her lips even as he hopped out of the truck and opened her door for her.

  “Stop that,” he murmured as he helped her down.

  “Stop what?”

  “Looking like you’re thinking about kissing, because if you touch your mouth one more time and get that soft look in your eyes, I’m going to grab you and kiss you until you’re breathless, right in front of this bar.”

  Sage blinked up at him, already breathless. “Is that supposed to be a threat? Because it doesn’t sound scary. It sounds fun.”

  He groaned and leaned in, and she thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, he pressed his forehead to hers. “No, we’re doing this right, damn it. I’m not dragging you to the back of this truck and having my way with you.”

  “You’re not?”

  “Damn it, Sage, quit looking so disappointed.” He cupped her cheek and gave her a quick kiss, and she had to settle for that.

  He got Achilles out of the truck, took his leash, and then offered Sage his other arm, as if he were a courtly gentleman and her a lady . . . and as if they hadn’t been here just days ago for Greg and Becca’s rehearsal dinner. She took it anyhow, though, because if she was being honest with herself, she liked that he was fussing over her. He was doing his best to make her feel special, and it was working.

  Inside the bar, most of the patrons were seated near the bar itself, which had a mounted TV showing a sports game that drew all eyes. When Jason looked to her, she pointed at a table in the back, and they sat down. She couldn’t help but notice that Jason sat righ
t next to her instead of across from her, and even though Achilles wedged himself between them on the floor, it still felt cozy. And when he reached for her hand as they pored over the brief menu? Sage felt like she was floating in a cloud of happiness.

  They ordered simple food—nachos for her, a burger for him—and Wade brought out a round, meaty bone to keep Achilles occupied. It was nice to just sit and talk about their day. Jason asked about her day and stole a chip off her plate. She snuck a few of his fries as he told her about his day at the ranch and how he was getting better at spotting when the horses were in a bitey mood. They stayed long enough to have a coffee and split a piece of cake, and she could have stayed out with him forever, just basking in his easy smile and presence.

  Of course, her phone had to ring to spoil that. She glanced at the screen and grimaced when she saw who it was. “Greg.”

  “What does he want?”

  “Attention?” she joked lightly.

  Jason didn’t laugh. “He’s probably annoyed you’re not at his beck and call.”

  “Oh stop. He’s getting married.” When Jason only shot her a look, she realized he didn’t think it was funny. “He’s just nervous before his wedding, Jason. It’s nothing. I’m not interested in him.”

  “It’s not you I’m worried about. You’re smart, Sage, but you’re also entirely too giving, and he knows that. I’m waiting for him to come up with some ridiculous story about how he needs a wedding cake at the last minute and you’ll somehow need to do it for him. Or he needs the reception catered. Or any number of things where he can take advantage of you because he thinks you’re his even though he’s got a fiancée.”