High Country Christmas

by Joanna Sims

  “Well...” Hank pulled one of his hats off the hat rack and plopped it on J.T.’s head. “This’ll have to do until you get one of your own. Here...” He held out one of his thick, wool-lined coats. “Try this on for size.”

  J.T. slipped on the coat. The sleeves were a little long and the waist a little loose, but overall, it fit pretty well.

  “Do you drive?” Hank asked her son.

  For the first time since he had arrived in Montana, her son smiled. It was a brief flicker of a smile, but she saw it. Held on to it.

  “No. I’m twelve.”

  “Luke here started to drive when he was eight.”

  “That’s true...” Luke was kneeling in front of little Danny, buttoning up his coat.

  “We’ll have to get you behind the wheel while you’re here.” Hank shrugged on his coat and grabbed his favorite hat.

  J.T. didn’t say anything, but the word cool was written all over his face. Thank goodness for Hank! He’d managed to break the ice with her son in record time. He hadn’t asked J.T. if he wanted to go get the Christmas tree—he had stated it as a fact. J.T. hadn’t been given the chance to say no to the idea, and that was exactly the right thing for Hank to do. While Hank and the boys went to find their Christmas tree, London went to find Tyler. She needed to make sure he was okay.

  “Hi...” She found him in the main barn, checking on a new calf that had been born sickly.

  “Hi.” It was so cold, but Tyler was sweating from working in the barn.

  “Do I get a hug?” she asked him.

  Tyler wiped the sweat from his brow with a smile. “I’ll give you more than that.”

  When she stepped into his arms, he kissed her... It was a sweet, tender kiss, full of promise. Had she been holding her breath, wondering if he would change now that her son was at the ranch? She hadn’t realized that was what she had been doing until he kissed her.

  “Hmm...nice.” She smiled up at him.

  “Did you like that?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  He kissed her again. This time, the kiss was deeper and longer... It was the kind of kiss that started that tingling sensation between her thighs.

  “I like you,” Tyler murmured after the kiss.

  She snuggled closer to his body for warmth with a smile. About the calf, she asked, “How is she?”

  Tyler shook his head, his eyes concerned. “It never fails that we have calves drop on the coldest nights. I’m not altogether sure that she’s going to survive.”

  “Oh...” London was drawn to the stall gate. “No. She has to make it. You have to save her.”

  Tyler joined her at the gate. “I’m gonna give it my best shot.”

  London nodded. She knew that he would. Tyler was a champion of the newborns on the ranch. It was his passion to see that they survived. With a shiver, she turned away from the calf.

  “I’m freezing out here.”

  Tyler put his arm around her. “Why don’t you go back on inside? I’ll meet you back at the house.”

  London gave him another quick kiss before she turned to walk away. She took a couple of steps but stopped. She turned back to him.

  “Hank seems to have a way with J.T.”

  Tyler was pulling on his work gloves. “I noticed that. That’s good.”

  London nodded as she thought about how to formulate what was on her mind. After a quiet second or two, she asked, “Do you think that you and J.T. will be able to...make a connection?”

  Tyler walked over to her. “Look, don’t stress yourself out worrying about that. It’s not good for you or the baby. You let me handle it.”

  “Okay,” She agreed. “But...”

  He shook his head, put his hands on her shoulders, spun her around and gave her a gentle nudge in the other direction.

  “It’s gonna just take a little time, but your son and I will find our footing with each other.”

  Tyler was done talking about it—she knew that. So she went back to the main house to see if she could help Barb and Sophia with dinner. Dinner was under control, but the toddler twins were not. London wrangled spunky little Abigail, while Sophia corralled Annabelle. They spent the next hour entertaining the twins until it was time for them to go down for a nap. As they were coming down the stairs, the door swung open. Hank stomped his boots on the mat outside the door before he came in. She saw J.T. follow his example, as did little four-year-old Danny. Luke was the last to come in out of the cold.

  “Darlin’!” Hank called out to his wife.

  Barb appeared from the back of the house. “Did you find one?”

  “Did we find one!” Hank’s voice boomed. She hadn’t seen him this animated since before his mild heart attack. “You’re not dealing with amateurs!”

  London and Sophia joined them in the foyer.

  “J.T. and Danny found us a beautiful ten-footer,” Hank bragged proudly.

  Luke gave Sophia a hug and kiss, then started to take off his winter gear.

  “Come here, my big boy.” Sophia unbuttoned Danny’s coat. “Did you find us a Christmas tree?”

  Danny nodded his head happily.

  “I’m going to take him upstairs and get him out of these wet clothes,” Sophia told them.

  J.T. didn’t have much of a smile on his face. London asked him, “Did you have a good time?”

  J.T. glanced at Hank, who was out of earshot. “It was okay.”

  “Just okay?” She bumped her shoulder to his.

  Her son nodded.

  All right. So he was determined to minimize the experience. But she knew better. J.T. had always asked for a real Christmas tree. To be able to actually go out in the forest and cut down his own tree? He might not want to admit it, but that was an experience of a lifetime.

  “Go wash up for dinner,” she told her son. “Down this hallway—second door on the left.”

  Tyler returned to the main house and they all sat down at the dinner table in the kitchen. The long table made to seat a small army of ranch hands was filling up for the holidays. J.T. was a quiet, focused eater. He went back for seconds of chicken and had four glasses of Barbara’s famous homemade root beer. After dinner, they cleaned the kitchen and prepared to bring the large fir tree into the house. They had left the tree on the porch in a large bucket of water to stop it from drying out.

  “Please make sure that there aren’t any critters in that tree before you bring it into the house,” Barb said from the doorway. “I don’t need a mouse or bugs in here.”

  It took Luke, Tyler, Hank and J.T. to bring the fluffy dark green fir tree into the house. Sophia and London prepared the space in the family room where the tree would live for the holiday season. Once the tree was in its place, they put the ornaments on the coffee table and took the strings of lights out of their boxes.

  “I have a stocking,” J.T. told his mom.

  London smiled at him. “I saw that.”

  “This is my favorite part of the whole season!” Barb exclaimed.

  “If you’re happy, then I’m happy.” Hank kissed his wife on the cheek before he sneaked off to bed.

  “Are you ready?” Sophia asked her husband. She held out the lights to him. Luke always manned the lights—he was patient enough to string the lights in a perfectly symmetrical pattern.

  Barb turned on Christmas carols and London started to sing quietly along to some of her favorite holiday tunes. She could never really sing well, but she loved Christmas carols. There was safety in numbers.

  After Luke finished stringing the lights, he sat down while the rest of the family hung the ornaments. They filled the beautiful fir tree with colored crystal balls, red velvet bows and hand-painted wooden ornaments with moving parts that Barb had collected over the years.

  “Hank usually
likes to put the star on the tree, but I think he’d want you to do it this year.” Barb held the delicate glass star in her hands.

  J.T. smiled at Tyler’s mom with his eyes, even though it didn’t reach his lips. He climbed up onto a sturdy step stool and carefully placed the star on the top of the tree. When he climbed off the stool, Sophia turned off the lights and they all admired the twinkling Christmas tree.

  “That’s the most beautiful Christmas tree I’ve ever seen.” London had her hand resting on her stomach. The baby was kicking her. “And it smells so good.”

  “I love the smell of a Christmas tree,” Barb agreed.

  London was grateful that her olfactory system could handle the strong smell of the tree. It wouldn’t do to be sick every time she got near the tree.

  “You owe me a kiss,” Tyler whispered in her ear.

  She looked at him and followed his eyes upward. She was standing beneath the mistletoe.

  Before she kissed him, she did glance at her son, who was looking down at his phone now. She gave Tyler a quick kiss, feeling uncomfortable with the idea of showing affection to Tyler in front of J.T. He’d never seen her with a man—she rarely dated and hadn’t liked any man enough to bring him home to meet her son.

  “Merry Christmas.” Tyler stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders.

  “Merry Christmas,” she said, forcing herself to unstiffen her shoulders when he touched her.

  Looking at that elegant tree, so perfectly dressed for the holidays with bright red bows and twinkling white lights, London did have hope that it would be a merry Christmas...for her and for her son.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Where’s J.T.?” A cold blast of night air followed Tyler inside the warm cabin when he walked through the front door. Tyler had gone over to the main house to talk to his father. He didn’t take long, but when he returned, only London was sitting in the living room in front of the fire.

  “He went to bed.” London was sitting on the floor, leaning back against one of the chairs, her legs curled to the side. “Your father has him getting up so early and working so hard, he can’t hardly keep his eyes open through dinner.”

  She had wanted Tyler and her son to bond—in order for her life to fall neatly into place, she actually needed them to bond. But her son hadn’t bonded with Tyler—he had bonded with Hank and ranch hand Clint McCallister and ranch foreman Brock McCallister. It seemed as if her son had bonded with quite a few people and animals on the ranch...but not the one person she really had wanted him to get to know. Her son’s winter break from school was short—every day counted, especially since blended families could take years to jell. They only had weeks to at least get some bonding accomplished between the three—soon to be four—of them.

  “It’s starting to snow again.” Tyler unzipped his thick fleece coat and Ranger’s black head poked out. Tyler put the cat down on the floor before he got out of his wet coat and boots.

  “Hey, Ranger...” London reached out to rub her hand over the big coal-black cat’s back.

  Ranger greeted her with his signature chatter. Then he lay down in front of the fireplace to give himself a bath.

  Tyler leaned down to give her a kiss with lips still cold from the outside. He asked her, “Another log?”

  “Please.”

  Tyler hunkered down and stacked a couple of logs on the fire. London watched her cowboy. There were so many things she had grown to love about him, beyond the physical. She loved how he never tired of getting a rise out of his mom—and when he succeeded, he would glance at her with a small mischievous smile and a wink. She loved how he genuinely cared about the animals on the ranch and how he respected the land that had been passed down in his family for generations. And she loved how he showed her, every day, in little thoughtful ways, that he loved her and their unborn child. Tyler Brand was a romantic man, in his own way. It wasn’t about flowers and candy for him. It was adding another log on the fire, or pulling out her chair when she sat down, or surprising her with a horse-drawn buggy ride. That kind of romance suited her just fine.

  Tyler joined her on the rug. He put his arm around her shoulder and she turned her body in to his. She leaned her head on his shoulder, pressed her nose into his neck.

  “You have the best-smelling skin of any person I’ve ever known.” She breathed in his scent. “I love the way you smell.”

  Tyler pulled her closer to him. “I’m glad.”

  They sat together in silence, enjoying the quiet of the night and the heat of the fire on the bottoms of their bare feet. Ranger, his fur hot from the fire, walked on top of Tyler’s long, outstretched legs to curl up in his lap.

  This was her idea of a perfect night. The baby inside her belly was taking a break from moving around so much and she was snuggled up with her man, listening to the sounds of his breath and the crackling of the fire and the low rumble of Ranger’s loud purring. Her son was asleep in the room down the hall. Perfect.

  “I told Dad to let J.T. sleep in tomorrow morning,” Tyler said after a bit. “He’s been borrowing boots and hats for too long. Let’s take him in to town tomorrow and get him some of his own gear.”

  London had slipped her hand beneath Tyler’s shirt. She had a favorite little trail of hair on his stomach that she liked to run her fingers over while she was in his arms. She turned her head upward with a smile.

  “I’d like that,” she said, then added a moment later, “You haven’t really had much time with J.T.”

  She was worried. He heard it in her voice. “It’s going to work out between J.T. and me.”

  She pushed herself upright so she could look into his face. “How do you know? The two of you have hardly said more than ten words to each other. Tops.”

  He pulled her back in to his arms, kissed the top of her head. “I just know.”

  “But...how do you know?”

  “I feel it,” he told her. “I can’t explain it.”

  “Try...”

  “Do you know how you felt when you saw Rising Sun run in the field for the first time? You told me that you knew instantly that he was going to be a champion. How did you know?”

  She shrugged one shoulder. “I saw something in him.”

  “Something special,” Tyler added.

  “That’s right.”

  “Something intangible...”

  “Yes.”

  “I saw something in your son when I first met him,” Tyler told her.

  London sat up, spun around to face Tyler, her back to the fire. They hadn’t really talked about her son since he had arrived in Montana—she was thirsty for any sign that Tyler liked J.T.

  “He’s got cowboy in his blood,” Tyler continued. “When I saw that, I knew that he was going to make it on the ranch. Dad must’ve seen it, too, or he wouldn’t have taken him under his wing like he did.”

  London picked at a fray in the hand-woven rug. “J.T. already thinks the sun rises and sets with Hank.”

  Tyler nodded.

  “But...that doesn’t mean he’s going to want to live here,” London said. “What if...”

  He took her fidgeting hand into his. “Hey...what needs to happen is happening already.”

  “But he doesn’t talk to you...he hardly talks to me. Why are you so optimistic?”

  “Because...” Tyler moved Ranger off his lap and guided her back into his arms. “He’s already got Montana air in his lungs.”

  “Hmm.” London let herself relax back into his strong arms. She believed Bent Tree was a magical place. It had certainly worked its magic on her. Did her son feel it, too?

  Tyler tilted her chin up so he could kiss her. His kisses were so tender, so sensual. He liked to take his time, linger on her mouth and massage her aching, swollen breasts with his strong hands. He always wanted to m
ake her feel better...he always wanted to please her.

  “J.T. could wake up,” London whispered against Tyler’s exploring lips.

  “Then let’s go into the bedroom.”

  Tyler had taken to sleeping on the couch ever since J.T. arrived. Even after J.T. had fallen asleep, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to make love with Tyler with her son in the house. She was always worried that he would wake up and discover them.

  “Okay,” she agreed. She had to learn how to be with Tyler, as his woman, as his wife, with her son under the same roof. If they were going to become a family, she had to learn to relax and try to behave how she would normally behave with Tyler.

  Tyler took her hand and led her into the bedroom. He shut the door and locked it. They met each other under the blankets, their naked skin hot from the fire. The sheets were cold and London squirmed until her back was pressed tightly against his naked chest and torso. She had unbraided her freshly washed hair, still damp, before she had gotten into bed. Tyler liked the feel of her long hair on his skin. He loved to wrap himself up in it, run his fingers through it...smell it.

  “I love you,” he murmured against her neck. “You make me so happy.”

  “You make me happy.”

  She turned in his arms so she could kiss him in the dark.

  “Lie back.”

  They had begun to know each other as lovers. She knew what he wanted with this simple command. She sank back into the pillows. Tyler wanted to love her all the time. He found the changes in her body, as her belly grew with his seed, sexy.

  Her eyes closed, she moaned when his mouth closed over her nipple. Her breasts were so sore and swollen now, but his constant attention with his hands and his lips had helped relieve some of the tenderness.

  “Oh...” She threaded her fingers into his hair and pressed down. “God.”

  Tyler suckled her breast until she signaled to him that she needed more. He moved his attention downward to the lower part of her body, dropping butterfly kisses on her rounded belly until he was positioned between her thighs.