Christmas With the Mustang Man

by Stella Bagwell

  His brown eyes flickered with emotions she couldn’t decipher. Was he glad, frustrated, uncomfortable? She was desperate to know exactly what was in this man’s heart.

  “Oh, Dallas, I’m honored. Never in my life have I dreamed that a woman like you would care for me. But the both of us can see it would never work for us.”

  “Never work? Why? Because you don’t care for me?”

  Groaning, he turned away from her and raked a hand through his tousled hair. As Dallas stared at the rigid line of his back, she blinked at the hot moisture stinging her eyes. Somehow she’d sensed this would be his reaction. Even so, she couldn’t have left this ranch without telling him how she really felt.

  “Of course I care for you!” He whirled back to her. “Do you think that last night…that what just happened with us a few minutes ago was just something physical for me?”

  Hot color burned her cheeks. “I’d hoped not, but I don’t know—”

  His nostrils flared. “That’s just it, Dallas. We don’t know each other. Not enough.”

  She frowned. “Then how are you so certain that things couldn’t work for us? We need time to—”

  “We don’t have time!”

  “I don’t have to leave tomorrow,” she argued.

  “Your family wants you home for Christmas. And you want to be home for Christmas. You need to leave in the morning. I want you to leave in the morning. Got that?”

  His stubbornness infuriated her. “I don’t got anything. But I can see that you’ve lived alone for so long that you’re afraid to change! Afraid that you might see there’s life beyond this ranch!”

  He came to stand within an inch of her and Dallas began to outwardly tremble as she thought of all that he’d given her and all that he never would.

  “This ranch is my grandparents’ legacy,” he said, his low voice laced with conviction. “It’s everything to me.”

  “I’m not asking you to give it up. I would never do that.”

  A sad smile suddenly touched his face and Dallas’s heart wanted to weep at the sight of it.

  “Just like I would never ask you to give up your home and family back in New Mexico to live here. I’ve been through that once with another woman, Dallas. I’m not going to watch this place destroy you, too.”

  “I’m not Joan. And it’s insulting for you to imply that I’m no better or stronger than her!”

  Both his hands suddenly wrapped around her upper arms and then his cheek was pressed tightly against hers.

  “My darling Dallas, please don’t be angry with me. I’m not saying you’re anything like her. You’re strong and loving and all the special things I’d want in a woman. But you’ve not thought this through. You’ve not considered all the things you’d be giving up, sacrificing just to be here with me.”

  She pulled her head back far enough to look into eyes. “When I talked to my mother this morning something in my voice told her that I’d fallen in love with you. And you know what advice she gave me? She quoted my grandmother. ‘A woman’s home is where her man is.’ The question is, Boone, are you my man?”

  Anguished shadows filled his eyes. “If you’re asking me if there will ever be a woman in my heart other than you—then no. But I—” He released a long, tortured breath. “You’re right, Dallas, I am afraid of changing. Afraid I’ll disappoint you, hurt you—see everything that’s special between us break apart.”

  “Oh, Boone, Boone,” she whispered as her hands came up to frame his face. “For a long time now I’ve been afraid to let myself love again. I was afraid of making another bad mistake, of choosing the wrong man, and even if he was the right one, would I be woman enough to hold on to him? But with you…I can’t stop what my heart is feeling or telling me. We can make this work. If you’ll just give us a chance.”

  Groaning with torment, he turned and walked a few feet away from her. “Go home, Dallas. Go home and think about this. And then maybe in a few months if you still want to give it a try—well, you can let me know.”

  She gasped. “A few months! Boone, I—”

  He looked over his shoulder at her and this time his features were set like a piece of cold iron. “That’s the only way I’ll consider anything, Dallas. Because I’m pretty sure once you get back to New Mexico you’re going to change your mind about this place—and me.”

  Dallas opened her mouth to argue, but instantly changed her mind. Arguing wouldn’t help now. It would take more than words to convince Boone that their future was together.

  “If that’s the way you want it,” she said quietly.

  “That’s the only way,” he said, then strode out of the room before any more could be said.

  That night Dallas was in her room packing when a knock sounded on the door.

  “Dallas, I’m home! May I come in?”

  “Of course,” Dallas called to the girl.

  The door opened and Hayley quickly rushed over to her and gave her a long hug. When she finally stepped back, she immediately noticed the open bags on Dallas’s bed.

  “Oh. You’re getting ready to go home.”

  Home was here, Dallas thought. How she’d come to that conclusion she wasn’t quite sure. But something had happened to her after she’d talked with her mother this morning. She’d begun looking at her life from all angles and she’d decided that in many ways she’d been living like Boone, clinging stubbornly to a piece of land as though it was the substance that made up her happiness.

  Stifling a sigh, she did her best to smile brightly at the girl. “Yes. My truck is ready to go now. And my family is expecting me home for Christmas.”

  “Oh,” Hayley said glumly. “Will you get there in time? When we were driving back from Vegas, we heard on the car radio that snow was coming. You might get into a blizzard.”

  Dallas had heard the same thing on the local evening news. Boone had tactfully suggested she should get an early start in order to outrun the oncoming storm. “I’ll leave early enough to miss the storm. And if I drive straight through I’ll be home in time to celebrate with my family.”

  Her head hanging now, Hayley eased down on the side of the bed. “I was hoping that you’d be here with us for Christmas. But I guess you’d rather be with your family.”

  I would very much like for you to be my family, Dallas wanted to say. But she couldn’t put such a notion into Hayley’s head. The situation was already bad enough without dragging this girl’s tender heart into the mix of things.

  Without thinking, Dallas picked up a shirt and stuffed it into one of the leather bags. “What will you and your father do on that day?”

  “Nothing, probably.” She let out a woeful sigh. “He’ll give me a Christmas card with some money in it. And I’ll give him a gift. And then he’ll get steaks out of the freezer and cook ’em. ’Cause that’s the most special thing we eat.”

  Dallas studied the girl’s bowed head. “You don’t ever have turkey and dressing and traditional things like that?”

  “We don’t know how to cook that stuff.”

  “Oh, well, steaks are good,” Dallas said with as much encouragement as she could muster. “But that’s enough of that. Tell me about your trip. Did you have fun?”

  For the next few minutes Hayley was happy to give Dallas a detailed description of everything she and the Harrisons had done and seen while in Las Vegas. But once she’d finished, she rose abruptly from the bed and started to the door.

  “Are you leaving?” Dallas asked with surprise. “It’s not bedtime yet.”

  “Well, I’m kinda tired. And I don’t want to keep you from your packing.”

  Dallas glanced at the few items left lying on the bed. “You’re not keeping me from packing.” She walked toward the girl. “Hayley, is something wrong?”

  With a broken sob, the girl ran straight to Dallas and flung her little arms tightly around her waist. “Oh, Dallas, I don’t want you to go home! I want you to stay here with me and Dad—forever!”

  Above Hay
ley’s head, Dallas had to fight back her own tears. “Oh, honey, don’t cry. We’ll see each other again.”

  “We won’t,” she said between sobs. “You’ll be just like my mom—you’ll forget all about me!”

  Tears slipping from her eyes, Dallas hugged the girl close. “I’ll never forget you, Hayley. I promise.”

  Dallas had the alarm set for five o’clock the next morning, but she hadn’t needed the intrusive buzzer to tell her it was time to get up. She’d hardly slept a wink as she’d spent most of the night staring at the ceiling, wondering where she was going to find the strength to drive away from Boone and Hayley.

  Dressing quickly, she decided to leave her bags in the bedroom until she’d had coffee and loaded the horses. When she entered the kitchen, Boone was already at the table with a small transistor radio sitting in front of him.

  The disc jockey was saying something about snow, but Dallas paid little heed as she went straight to the coffeepot and poured herself a mug. Where she lived snow was a routine thing throughout the long winter. She and her family worked through it and around it, but they never feared it.

  “You can forget about leaving this morning,” Boone said abruptly. “There’s already a good ten inches of snow on the ground and it’s still falling.”

  Stunned, Dallas stared at him. “Snow? Already? But I thought it wasn’t supposed to be here until later tonight.”

  “That’s what the meteorologist had predicted, but the storm front moved faster than expected.”

  Dallas didn’t know whether to laugh or weep. “So the snow is too deep for me to drive? I have four-wheel drive,” she reminded him.

  He looked over his shoulder at her. “The truck would probably make it, but I can’t say about a trailer loaded with six horses. I’d hate for you to put them and yourself at risk.”

  It would be foolish to take such a chance. Even if she didn’t wreck, just getting stuck and stranded in the snow would be dangerous, especially when she’d be traveling for miles through remote areas where there was hardly any other traffic.

  She walked over to the table and sank into the chair across from his. “Well, it looks like I’ll be here for Christmas, after all.”

  With his hands clamped around his coffee cup, he stared at the tabletop. “You’d better call your family and tell them you’ll not be heading for home this morning.”

  “I never expected this to happen.”

  This brought his eyes up and with a wry expression he looked at her. “Your whole trip has been filled with the unexpected.”

  She swallowed hard as tears threatened to overcome her. “I spent most of the night bracing myself to tell you goodbye this morning. Now, once the snow melts, I’ll have to go through it all over again.”

  His gaze fell back to his coffee cup. “Hayley is going to be very happy that you’ll be here for Christmas.”

  “Is that all you have to say?”

  “What do you want me to say? That the snow is a sign? Some kind of omen that says you’re not supposed to leave? No, Dallas. I’m not going to let fate determine your future or mine.”

  Then what was going to determine it? she wanted to ask, but didn’t. Tomorrow was Christmas and that was a day for miracles. Now all she could do was pray for one to come along and open Boone’s heart.

  Hayley was thrilled that Dallas would be staying for the holiday and the two of them decided to use the snowy day to bake cookies and whip up a batch of marshmallow fudge. As for Boone, he dressed in insulated coveralls and weatherproof boots and spent most of the day checking on the cows and calves and making sure none were caught in drifts that in some cases were waist deep.

  By Christmas morning, the snow had stopped and the sun was shining in a bright blue sky. After breakfast the three of them gathered around the tree and Hayley handed out the few gifts that had been placed under the branches the night before.

  Since Dallas had been snowbound and unable to drive into town for gifts, she’d had to make do with what she could find among her things. Fortunately, Fiona had dropped a new bottle of cologne into one of Dallas’s bags before she’d left the Diamond D. Dallas had wrapped the soft scent for Hayley. But Boone was another matter, so she’d searched the tack room in her trailer and had discovered a brand-new saddle blanket woven of expensive mohair in deep colors of blue and green.

  Hayley had loved the cologne and had drenched herself. As for Boone, he’d appeared to be genuinely touched by her gift. He’d kept rubbing his hand back and forth against the mohair and talking about how it would keep all the sweat pulled away from the horses’ back.

  “Open yours, Dallas,” Hayley urged. “There’s one from me and one from Dad.”

  “Okay. Let me tear into yours first,” she told the girl as she unwrapped a palm-size box. “Oh! Earrings! These are beautiful, Hayley!”

  The girl beamed from ear to ear. “They’re real silver. And they dangle. So every time you turn your head, they’ll sparkle.”

  “I’ll love wearing them.” She walked over to where Hayley was perched on the floor beside the tree, then bent down and placed a kiss on her cheek. “Thank you, sweetie. Very much.”

  “Now open Dad’s,” she urged Dallas. “I want to see what he got you.”

  Dallas cast him a furtive glance. “He shouldn’t have gotten me anything.”

  A faint grin moved one side of his lips. “You shouldn’t have gotten me anything, either.”

  Dallas sat back down in her chair and reached for the tiny round trinket box wrapped with printed silk fabric. She could tell that the box had been handled a great many times down through the years so it was obviously something that had meant a great deal to someone.

  Her hands shook as she lifted the lid. And then as she stared down at the piece of jewelry, she momentarily forgot to breathe.

  It was a cameo brooch encircled with what appeared to be real diamonds. The workmanship of the piece was exquisite and there was no doubt it would be worth a great deal of money.

  “Oh, my! This is— It’s absolutely beautiful!”

  “What is it?” Hayley jumped from her seat on the floor and hurried over to look at the gift cradled in Dallas’s hand. “It’s pretty. Where did you get this, Dad?”

  “It belonged to your great-grandmother,” he said. “It was a special gift to her from your great-grandfather.”

  Lifting her head, Dallas stared at him in wonder. “I can’t accept this, Boone. This piece should go to Hayley.”

  His gaze didn’t waver from hers. “I have other things saved for Hayley. The cameo is yours now.”

  Dallas didn’t know what to say, and even if the words had been there, she couldn’t have pushed them past her burning throat.

  “I… Please, excuse me,” she finally choked out, then jumped to her feet and rushed from the room.

  She was sitting on the side of the bed, wiping at the tears on her face, when the bedroom door creaked open. Glancing up, she hoped to see Boone. Instead, a concerned Hayley was easing toward her.

  “Dallas? Why are you upset? Dad gave you the brooch to make you happy.”

  The girl’s simple statement was enough to help Dallas compose herself and she smiled through her tears.

  “Yes. I know that he did. I’m just feeling a little weepy…’cause it’s Christmas. And everything is special on Christmas.” Sniffing back the last of her tears, she reached out and smoothed an errant strand of hair from Hayley’s cheek. “Now, what do you say about you and me going to the kitchen to see what we can find to cook for dinner?”

  “Yeah! Can you make mashed potatoes?”

  Smiling, Dallas rose to her feet and reached for Hayley’s hand. “I think I can manage that.”

  The two of them exited the room and started down the hallway. “What about macaroni and cheese?” the girl asked.

  “If it comes from a box I can.”

  Hayley giggled. “Oh, Dallas, you’re so funny. And I love you.”

  “I love you, too, sweetie. Ve
ry much.”

  The next day those same words were repeated to Hayley, only this time Dallas’s voice was full of tears as the three of them stood out in the bright sunshine and said their final goodbyes. As the snow had melted, her heart had begun to break and when she’d finally driven away from White River Ranch, she’d had to face the fact that Christmas with her Mustang Man was truly over.

  Chapter Twelve

  Nearly a month later on a cold Friday night, Dallas was sitting in her office at Angel Wings Stables when her grandmother Kate came strolling through the door.

  It wasn’t unusual for the tall, curvy woman to show up at Dallas’s riding stables. Kate was as agile as a person in their fifties, and in spite of her eighty-four years she pretty much did what she wanted to do and went where she wanted to go. But the stables were already closed for the night and no one else was around except Dallas and the horses.

  “Grandmother! What are you doing out so late?”

  The Donovan matriarch walked over to Dallas’s desk and took a seat in front of her granddaughter. “I thought I’d drive over here and see what’s been keeping you here night after night. Instead of coming home and having dinner with your family.”

  Kate was a stickler for the family to gather around the dinner table. It was her way of keeping tabs on everyone and making sure all was well with her flock.

  “I’m sorry,” Dallas apologized. “I’ve had several new children enroll in the program and half of them have rather severe physical handicaps. Lass and I have had to come up with all sorts of ingenious straps and buckles to keep them safely in the saddle.”

  Kate batted a hand through the air. “I’ve already heard about all that.” She pointed at Dallas’s desktop and the papers scattered about. “The kids are gone for tonight. What’s keeping you here now?”

  Shoving a hand through her hair, Dallas sighed. It was obvious her grandmother had shown up to pry. And maybe it was time for someone to dig into the mire of Dallas’s miserable thoughts. She needed help from someone.

  “I was going through the mail and found this.” She picked up a small envelope and handed it to Kate. “It’s from Hayley Barnett. She’s—”