A Husband for Christmas: Snow KissesLionhearted

by Diana Palmer

  3

  The annual Jacobsville Cattleman’s Ball was one of the newer social events of the year. It took place the Saturday before Thanksgiving like clockwork. Every cattleman for miles around made it a point to attend, even if he avoided all other social events for the year. The Ballenger brothers, Calhoun and Justin, had just added another facility to their growing feedlot enterprise, and they looked prosperous with their wives in gala attire beside them. The Tremayne brothers, Connal, Evan, Harden and Donald, and their wives, were also in attendance, as were the Hart boys; well, Corrigan, Callaghan, Rey and Leo at least, and their wives. Simon and Tira didn’t attend many local events except the brothers’ annual Christmas party on the ranch.

  Also at the ball were Micah Steele, Eb Scott, J. D. Langley, Emmett Deverell, Luke Craig, Guy Fenton, Ted Regan, Jobe Dodd, Tom Walker and their wives. The guest list read like a who’s who of Jacobsville, and there were so many people that the organizers had rented the community center for it. There was a live country-western band, a buffet table that could have fed a platoon of starving men, and enough liquor to drown a herd of horses.

  Leo had a highball. Since he hadn’t done much drinking in recent years, his four brothers were giving him strange looks. He didn’t notice. He was feeling so miserable that even a hangover would have been an improvement.

  Beside him, Marilee was staring around the room with wide, wary eyes.

  “Looking for somebody?” Leo asked absently.

  “Yes,” she replied. “Janie said she wasn’t coming, but that isn’t what your sister-in-law Tess just told me.”

  “What did she say?”

  Marilee looked worried. “Harley Fowler told her he was bringing Janie.”

  “Harley?” Leo scowled. Harley Fowler was a courageous young man who’d actually backed up the town’s infamous mercenaries—Eb Scott, Cy Parks and Micah Steele—when they helped law enforcement face down a gang of drug dealers the year before. Harley’s name hadn’t been coupled with any of the local belles, and he was only a working-class cowboy. Janie’s father might be financially pressed at the moment, but his was a founding family of Jacobsville, and the family had plenty of prestige. Fred and his sister-in-law Lydia would be picky about who Janie married. Not, he thought firmly, that Janie was going to be marrying Harley....

  “Harley’s nice,” Marilee murmured. “He’s Cy Parks’s head foreman now, and everybody says he’s got what it takes to run a business of his own.” What Marilee didn’t add was that Harley had asked her out several times before his raid on the drug lord with the local mercenaries, and she’d turned him down flat. She’d thought he bragged and strutted a little too much, that he was too immature for her. She’d even told him so. It had made her a bitter enemy of his.

  Now she was rather sorry that she hadn’t given him a chance. He really was different these days, much more mature and very attractive. Not that Leo wasn’t a dish. But she felt so guilty about Janie that she couldn’t even enjoy his company, much less the party. If Janie showed up and saw her with Leo, she was going to know everything. It wasn’t conducive to a happy evening at all.

  “What’s wrong?” Leo asked when he saw her expression.

  “Janie’s never going to get over it if she shows up and sees me with you,” she replied honestly. “I didn’t think how it would look...”

  “I don’t belong to anybody,” Leo said angrily. “It’s just as well to let Janie know that. So what if she does show up? Who cares?”

  “I do.” Marilee sighed.

  Just as she spoke, Janie came in the door with a tall, good-looking, dark-haired man in a dark suit with a ruffled white shirt and black bow tie. Janie had just taken off her black velvet coat and hung it on the rack near the door. Under it, she was wearing a sexy white silk gown that fell softly down her slender figure to her shapely ankles. The spaghetti straps left her soft shoulders almost completely bare, and dipped low enough to draw any man’s eyes. She was wearing her thick, light brown hair down. It reached almost to her waist in back in a beautiful, glossy display. She wore just enough makeup to enhance her face, and she was clinging to Harley’s arm with obvious pleasure as they greeted the Ballengers and their wives.

  Leo had forgotten how pretty Janie could look when she worked at it. Lately, he’d only seen her covered in mud and flour. Tonight, her figure drew eyes in that dress. He remembered the feel of her in his arms, the eager innocence of her mouth under his, and he suddenly felt uneasy at the way she was clinging to Harley’s arm.

  If he was uncomfortable, Marilee was even more so. She stood beside Leo and looked as if she hated herself. He took another long sip of his drink before he guided her toward Harley and Janie.

  “No sense hiding, is there?” he asked belligerently.

  Marilee sighed miserably. “No sense at all, I guess.”

  They moved forward together. Janie noticed them and her eyes widened and darkened with pain for an instant. Leo’s harsh monologue at the hardware store had been enough to wound her, but now she was seeing that she’d been shafted by her best friend, as well. Marilee said Janie didn’t know her date, but all along, apparently, she’d planned to come with Leo. No wonder she’d been so curious about whether or not Janie was going to show up.

  Everything suddenly made perfect sense. Marilee had filled Leo up with lies about Janie gossiping about him, so that she could get him herself. Janie felt like an utter fool. Her chin lifted, but she didn’t smile. Her green eyes were like emerald shards as they met Marilee’s.

  “H-hi, Janie,” Marilee stammered, forcing a smile. “You said you weren’t coming tonight.”

  “I wasn’t,” Janie replied curtly. “But Harley was at a loose end and didn’t have a date, so he asked me.” She looked up at the tall, lean man beside her, who was some years younger than Leo, and she smiled at him with genuine affection even through her misery. “I haven’t danced in years.”

  “You’ll dance tonight, darlin’,” Harley drawled, smiling warmly as he gripped her long fingers in his. He looked elegant in his dinner jacket, and there was a faint arrogance in his manner now that hadn’t been apparent before. He glanced at Marilee and there was barely veiled contempt in the look.

  Marilee swallowed hard and avoided his piercing gaze.

  “I didn’t know you could dance, Harley,” Marilee murmured, embarrassed.

  He actually ignored her, his narrow gaze going to Leo. “Nice turnout, isn’t it?” he asked the older man.

  “Nice,” Leo said, but he didn’t smile. “I haven’t seen your boss tonight.”

  “The baby had a cold,” Harley said. “He and Lisa don’t leave him when he’s sick.” He looked down at Janie deliberately. “Considering how happy the two of them are, I guess marriage isn’t such a bad vocation, after all,” he mused.

  “For some, maybe,” Leo said coldly. He was openly glaring at Harley.

  “Let’s get on the dance floor,” Harley told Janie with a grin. “I’m anxious to try out that waltz pattern I’ve been learning.”

  “You’ll excuse us, I’m sure,” Janie told the woman who was supposed to be her best friend. Her eyes were icy as she realized how she’d been betrayed by Marilee’s supposed “help” with Leo.

  Marilee grimaced. “Oh, Janie,” she groaned. “Let me explain....”

  But Janie wasn’t staying to listen to any halfhearted explanations. “Nice to see you, Marilee. You, too, Mr. Hart,” she added with coldly formal emphasis, not quite meeting Leo’s eyes. But she noted the quick firming of his chiseled lips with some satisfaction at the way she’d addressed him.

  “Why do you call him Mr. Hart?” Harley asked as they moved away.

  “He’s much older than we are, Harley,” she replied, just loudly enough for Leo to hear her and stiffen with irritation. “Almost another generation.”

  “I
guess he is.”

  Leo took a big swallow of his drink and glared after them.

  “She’ll never speak to me again,” Marilee said in a subdued tone.

  He glared at her. “I’m not her personal property,” he said flatly. “I never was. It isn’t your fault that she’s been gossiping and spreading lies all over town.”

  Marilee winced.

  He turned his attention back to Janie, who was headed onto the dance floor with damned Harley. “I don’t want her. What the hell do I care if she likes Harley?”

  The music changed to a quick, throbbing Latin beat. Matt Caldwell and his wife, Leslie, were out on the dance floor already, making everybody else look like rank beginners. Everybody clapped to the rhythm until the very end, when the couple left the dance floor. Leo thought nobody could top that display until Harley walked to the bandleader, and the band suddenly broke into a Strauss waltz. That was when Harley and Janie took the floor. Then, even Matt and Leslie stood watching with admiration.

  Leo stared at the couple as if he didn’t recognize them. Involuntarily, he moved closer to the dance floor to watch. He’d never seen two people move like that to music besides Matt and Leslie.

  The rhythm was sweet, and the music had a sweeping beauty that Janie mirrored with such grace that it was like watching ballet. Harley turned and Janie followed every nuance of movement, her steps matching his exactly. Her eyes were laughing, like her pretty mouth, as they whirled around the dance floor in perfect unison.

  Harley was laughing, too, enjoying her skill as much as she enjoyed his. They looked breathless, happy—young.

  Leo finished his drink, wishing he’d added more whiskey and less soda. His dark eyes narrowed as they followed the couple around the dance floor as they kept time to the music.

  “Aren’t they wonderful?” Marilee asked wistfully. “I don’t guess you dance?”

  He did. But he wasn’t getting on that floor and making a fool of himself with Marilee, who had two left feet and the sense of rhythm of a possum.

  “I don’t dance much,” Leo replied tersely.

  She sighed. “It’s just as well, I suppose. That would be a hard act to follow.”

  “Yes.”

  The music wound to a peak and suddenly ended, with Janie draped down Harley’s side like a bolt of satin. His mouth was almost touching hers, and Leo had to fight not to go onto the floor and throw a punch at the younger man.

  He blinked, surprised by his unexpected reaction. Janie was nothing to him. Why should he care what she did? Hadn’t she bragged to everyone that he was taking her to this very dance? Hadn’t she made it sound as if they were involved?

  Janie and Harley left the dance floor to furious, genuine applause. Even Matt Caldwell and Leslie congratulated them on the exquisite piece of dancing. Apparently, Harley had been taking lessons, but Janie seemed to be a natural.

  But the evening was still young, as the Latin music started up again and another unexpected couple took the floor. It was Cash Grier, the new assistant police chief, with young Christabel Gaines in his arms. Only a few people knew that Christabel had been married to Texas Ranger Judd Dunn since she was sixteen—a marriage on paper, only, to keep herself and her invalid mother from losing their family ranch. But she was twenty-one now, and the marriage must have been annulled, because there she was with Cash Grier, like a blond flame in his arms as he spun her around to the throbbing rhythm and she matched her steps to his expert ones.

  Unexpectedly, as the crowd clapped and kept time for them, handsome dark-eyed Judd Dunn himself turned up in evening dress with a spectacular redhead on his arm. Men’s heads turned. The woman was a supermodel, internationally famous, who was involved at a film shoot out at Judd and Christabel’s ranch. Gossip flew. Judd watched Christabel with Grier and glowered. The redhead said something to him, but he didn’t appear to be listening. He watched the two dancers with a rigid posture and an expression more appropriate for a duel than a dance. Christabel ignored him.

  “Who is that man with Christabel Gaines?” Marilee asked Leo.

  “Cash Grier. He used to be a Texas Ranger some years ago. They say he was in government service, as well.”

  Leo recalled that Grier had been working in San Antonio with the district attorney’s office before he took the position of assistant police chief in Jacobsville. There was a lot of talk about Grier’s mysterious past. The man was an enigma, and people walked wide around him in Jacobsville.

  “He’s dishy, isn’t he? He dances a paso doble even better than Matt, imagine that!” Marilee said aloud. “Of course, Harley does a magnificent waltz. Who would ever have thought he’d turn out to be such a sexy, mature man...”

  Leo turned on his heel and left Marilee standing by herself, stunned. He walked back to the drinks table with eyes that didn’t really see. The dance floor had filled up again, this time with a slow dance. Harley was holding Janie far too close, and she was letting him. Leo remembered what he’d said about her in the hardware store, and her wounded expression, and he filled another glass with whiskey. This time he didn’t add soda. He shouldn’t have felt bad, of course. Janie shouldn’t have been so possessive. She shouldn’t have gossiped about him...

  “Hi, Leo,” his sister-in-law Tess said with a smile as she joined him, reaching for a clear soft drink.

  “No booze, huh?” he asked with a grin, noting her choice.

  “I don’t want to set a bad example for my son,” she teased, because she and Cag had a little boy now. “Actually, I can’t hold liquor. But don’t tell anybody,” she added. “I’m the wife of a tough ex-Special Forces guy. I’m supposed to be a real hell-raiser.”

  He smiled genuinely. “You are,” he teased. “A lesser woman could never have managed my big brother and an albino python all at once.”

  “Herman the python’s living with his own mate these days,” she reminded him with a grin, “and just between us, I don’t really miss him!” She glanced toward her husband and sighed. “I’m one lucky woman.”

  “He’s one lucky man.” He took a sip of his drink and she frowned.

  “Didn’t you bring Marilee?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Her wrist was still bothering her too much to drive, so I let her come with me. I’ve been chauffeuring her around ever since she sprained it.”

  Boy, men are dense, Tess was thinking. As if a woman couldn’t drive with only one hand. She glanced past him at Marilee, who was standing by herself watching as a new rhythm began and Janie moved onto the floor with Harley Fowler. “I thought she was Janie’s best friend,” she mentioned absently. “You can never tell about people.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She shrugged. “I overheard her telling someone that Janie had been spreading gossip about you and her all over town.” She shook her head. “That’s not true. Janie’s so shy, it’s hard for her to even talk to most men. I’ve never heard her gossip about anyone, even people she dislikes. I can’t imagine why Marilee would tell lies about her.”

  “Janie told everybody I was bringing her to the ball,” he insisted with a scowl.

  “Marilee told people that Janie said that,” Tess corrected. “You really don’t know, do you? Marilee’s crazy about you. She had to cut Janie out of the picture before she could get close to you. I guess she found the perfect way to do it.”

  Leo started to speak, but he hesitated. That couldn’t be true.

  Tess read his disbelief and just smiled. “You don’t believe me, do you? It doesn’t matter. You’ll find out the truth sooner or later, whether you want to or not. I’ve got to find Cag. See you later!”

  Leo watched her walk away with conflicting emotions. He didn’t want to believe—he wouldn’t believe—that he’d been played for a sucker. He’d seen Janie trying to become a cattleman with his own eyes, trying to compete with him
. He knew that she wanted him because she’d tried continually to tempt him when he went to visit her father. She flirted shamelessly with him. She’d melted in his arms, melted under the heat of his kisses. She hadn’t made a single protest at the intimate way he’d held her. She felt possessive of him, and he couldn’t really blame her, because it was his own lapse of self-control that had given her the idea that he wanted her. Maybe he did, physically, but Janie was a novice and he didn’t seduce innocents. Her father was a business associate. It certainly wouldn’t be good business to cut his own throat with Fred by making a casual lover of Janie.

  He finished the whiskey and put the glass down. He felt light-headed. That was what came of drinking when he hadn’t done it in a long time. This was stupid. He had to stop behaving like an idiot just because Fred Brewster’s little girl had cut him dead in the receiving line and treated him like an old man. He forced himself to walk normally, but he almost tripped over Cag on the way.

  His brother caught him by the shoulders. “Whoa, there,” he said with a grin. “You’re wobbling.”

  Leo pulled himself up. “That whiskey must be 200 proof,” he said defensively.

  “No. You’re just not used to it. Leave your car here when it’s time to go,” he added firmly. “Tess and I will drop Marilee off and take you home. You’re in no fit state to drive.”

  Leo sighed heavily. “I guess not. Stupid thing to do.”

  “What, drinking or helping Marilee stab Janie in the back?”

  Leo’s eyes narrowed on his older brother’s lean, hard face. “Does Tess tell you everything?”

  He shrugged. “We’re married.”

  “If I ever get married,” Leo told him, “my wife isn’t going to tell anybody anything. She’s going to keep her mouth shut.”

  “Not much danger of your getting married, with that attitude,” Cag mused.

  Leo squared his shoulders. “Marilee looks really great tonight,” he pointed out.