Chadwick Ranch, Book 1: Winter Holiday Romance

by Bonnie Marlewski-Probert

  “No, boxed wine works for me.”

  “Can I bring anything?”

  “Just you. That’s all I want with me when I ring in the New Year,” she said with a smile while working on dinner.

  “I’m in. What time do you want me to come over?”

  “Beau goes to bed by eight-thirty so if you swing by at nine, he’ll be fast asleep by then. After dinner, I’m going to head over to the apartment to put his bed together and then he’ll be all set.”

  “Oh, hell no,” Adam insisted.

  “What?” Mary asked.

  “If dinner isn’t going to be ready until six, I’ll head over there right now and put his bed together. I’ll have plenty of time to get it done while you’re making dinner,” he insisted.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. Where is Beau?”

  “He’s in the great room sleeping on the couch.”

  “Okay, I can head over to your place while he’s sleeping over here and I can work on building his bed without waking him up. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

  “Thank you for that. I can’t wait until tonight,” Mary said, leaning over to give Adam a kiss before he left to gather up the tools he would need to do the job.

  After dinner that evening, Mary headed back to her new apartment to dress Beau’s bed only to discover that Adam had built both beds. She dressed both and started to unpack boxes while she got Beau ready for bed.

  “Wow Mom, I’m going to be a cowboy.”

  “Yes you are, but all cowboys need their rest and you had a big day today so it’s time to get to bed.”

  “Okay, good night Mom. I love you,” Beau said.

  “I love you, too. I’ll come and tuck you in for the night in a few minutes.”

  “Mom, you don’t need to tuck me in. I’m a cowboy now.”

  “Oh, okay, but if you change your mind, let me know.”

  “Good night,” Beau said, heading into his new bedroom and closing his door behind him.

  Mary was excited just thinking that Adam was going to be coming over in 30 minutes. She showered and dressed before preparing a snack and putting the boxed wine, two glasses and their snacks into the living room so they could relax on the couch and watch the countdown.

  When Adam arrived, he gently tapped on the outside door, which surprised Mary, as she assumed he would come in through the main house entrance.

  “Why didn’t you use the other door? It’s freezing out here,” she asked, ushering him quickly into the warm apartment.

  “I won’t use that door because I don’t want to invade your privacy,” Adam said plainly.

  “Thanks, that’s very thoughtful, but when it’s time to go home, you’ll use it because I don’t want you going out in the cold.”

  “Fair enough,” Adam said, entering her apartment, looking around to see she had made some headway on unpacking already. “It’s already starting to look like a home in here,” Adam said.

  Mary moved close to him as he took off his winter coat and kissed him softly on the mouth. “Hmmm, what was that for?” he asked.

  “For putting together both beds. I didn’t expect you to do either one, let alone both.”

  “I was happy to help,” he said, wrapping her up in his arms and kissing her softly, but with each kiss, the heat was rising between them. Adam smiled when he felt Mary’s hands latch onto his biceps to keep herself upright. “We’d better move to the couch. You seem a little unsteady on your feet. Must be the long day.” He had a hard time hiding the smile on his face.

  “I think that’s a good idea,” she whispered. Adam placed his hand around her waist and kissed her neck as they moved into the living room. Mary sat down on the couch appearing to be a bit disoriented.

  “Are you feeling okay?” Adam asked, sitting down next to her, already knowing what the problem was.

  She looked up at him as he put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her body into his. “I’ve never felt like this before,” she confessed.

  “I’m glad,” Adam whispered, nuzzling her neck. She moaned her approval. In the background, they could hear the TV announcers providing a recap of all the big events of the soon-to-be ended year. “Mary, if you don’t want me to keep doing this, just let me know.”

  “Hmmm, I’ll be sure to let you know if I ever want you to stop,” she whispered, both her hands resting on his chest as he pressed her back into the couch, sealing his lips over hers in a passionate exchange. Slowly, her hands slipped up around his neck, pulling through his hair as things continued to heat up.

  “If you feel uncomfortable at all, you just need to say stop and I will. Do you understand that?” Adam asked, kissing his way down her throat, reminding himself that she hadn’t been with any man other than her husband and that had been several years ago.

  “Okay,” she whimpered, her voice filled with need. “But please don’t stop yet,” she whispered. For the first time in her life, Mary was feeling like she was experiencing an out-of-body moment. Unaware of time or space, all she knew was the delicious feeling of being in Adam’s arms, of his lips on hers, his taste, his strength. All she knew was that she wanted more of this.

  Adam placed his hand on the top button of her blouse, carefully helping to unbutton it. She moaned into his mouth with approval just as she heard, “Cowboy Adam! YIPEEE! Cowboy Adam came over!” Beau shouted with delight. Mary and Adam both sat up straight as quickly as possible, trying not to look like two sex-crazed adults on New Year’s Eve.

  “Hey cowboy Beau! Aren’t you supposed to be in bed already?” Adam asked as Mary tried her best to regroup.

  “Yes, but I needed a glass of water.”

  “Can I get that for you?” Adam offered.

  “What are you guys doing?”

  “Watching the New Year’s Eve countdown on television,” Adam answered, Mary was still trying to get her brain back in working order. For the previous 10 minutes, she wasn’t a mother or a widow, she was a woman who had let herself follow her sexual bliss for the first time in her life.

  Beau moved into the living room, sliding his way between them on the couch. “Oh look, Mom made popcorn,” Beau exclaimed, grabbing the bowl off the coffee table and placing it on his lap, offering some to Adam, who took a handful.

  Adam put his arm on the back of the couch so he could reach Mary on the other side of Beau. He stroked her long red hair. Their eyes met and he could see the need in hers.

  “Beau, you can only stay up for a few minutes because you need your sleep,” she finally managed to say. “When the big hand is standing straight up, I’ll tuck you in and you’ll be off to bed,” Mary said plainly in a non-negotiable tone.

  “How long will that be?”

  “Ten minutes,” Adam replied with kindness in his voice, “Cowboys need their rest,” he said.

  Mary reached up with her hand and held Adam’s, which was stretched across the back of the couch.

  “Wow! Look at all those people. Is that New York?”

  “It is. That’s Time Square in New York City,” Adam replied.

  “Hey, do you want to play Chutes and Ladders, cowboy Adam?” Beau asked with enthusiasm.

  “Not tonight, you need to get some rest. Maybe we can do a game night next week,” Adam said, squeezing Mary’s hand.

  When the clock hit the top of the hour, Mary announced, “It’s time for bed, Beau.”

  “Oh, can’t I stay up with you guys?”

  “No,” she said in no uncertain terms. Beau knew that tone and he knew it meant there was no room for negotiating.

  “Oh, okay. I need a glass of water first,” he insisted. Mary understood these were the standard games of a seven-year-old who was trying his best to stay up later.

  “Go into bed and I’ll bring you a glass of water when I come to tuck you in. Now scoot, cowboy,” she said firmly.

  “Good night, cowboy Adam.”

  “Good night, cowboy Beau, sweet dreams. How about tomorrow we spend some
time teaching you how to take care of Sassy?”

  “Yeah, okay!” Beau said, bounding off the couch happily, racing down the hallway to his bedroom.

  Mary smiled at Adam before easing herself off the couch to get a glass of water and heading down the hallway to tuck Beau in. She was gone for about ten minutes. When she returned to the couch, Adam stood. “Do you think he’s down for the night now?” he asked.

  “Yes, I finally got him to go to sleep. He’ll be out like a light now,” she said, kicking off her shoes, sitting down on the couch, curling her legs up. Adam sat down next to her.

  He put his arm around her shoulders, leaning in before whispering, “Do you want to play a game of Chutes and Ladders?” She managed to stifle a loud giggle at his comment by placing her hand over her mouth.

  Looking up at him, she whispered, “No, thank you, maybe some other time. I have something else in mind.”

  “What’s that?” Adam studied her eyes as she stared at his lips, her gaze bouncing back and forth between his lips and his eyes.

  “When we were kissing before Beau woke up, I had never felt anything like that before.”

  “Is that a good thing?” Adam asked, gently kissing her throat before nibbling on her earlobe.

  “Hmmm, yes. I felt safe and warm and aroused in ways I’ve never felt before.”

  “Now that Beau is back to bed, would you allow me to try and help you feel that way again?” Adam gently pulled her close to him, his lips inches away from hers, their eyes locked on each other’s.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, please.” Adam closed the distance between them, his lips brushing softly against hers, each kiss becoming more powerful, each embrace becoming more decided. With each kiss, he enjoyed hearing her whimpers and moans of pleasure. Mary’s hands remained in her lap. She was enjoying the feeling of being swept away by Adam’s kisses too much to participate.

  Happy to see how quickly she was losing herself in his kisses, Adam whispered in her ear, “I would like to touch you Mary. I want to touch your breast.”

  Much to his surprise, as he continued to kiss her, Mary took his hand and placed it on her breast and then moaned her approval, arching her back, pressing her large breast into his hand as he squeezed and gently touched it through her sweater.

  “Yes, yes … hmmm,” she moaned with pleasure.

  “I love the way you feel,” he whispered in her ear, his hand sliding down to her waist before slipping back up under her sweater, happy to find her bra had a front closure which he easily released. By now, Mary wanted more. No longer were her hands idle in her lap. She was now caressing his neck with one hand, her other hand slipping between his thighs. Adam groaned with need, wanting so much more. Mary could feel he was rock hard for her already through his jeans. The feeling of his hand caressing her bare breast was overwhelming her senses.

  Adam started to push up her sweater, fully intending to taste her, when his cell phone rang. “Oh hell,” he said with frustration. Mary sat up, pulling her sweater back down, acting like a teenager who’d just been caught making out in the back seat of her father’s car.

  Adam looked at the caller ID and realized it was Wynona calling. “Hey Wy, what’s up?” he asked breathlessly.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt your New Year’s Eve celebration, but I’ve got a problem.”

  “What’s the matter?” Mary looked on with concern as she could only hear Adam’s side of the conversation.

  “Billy is in here and he’s about to get his ass handed to him by several guys that he’s been egging on all night. Can you come down and get him out of here before we have to call an ambulance for him?”

  “Have you called anyone else yet?”

  “No, you were my first call.”

  “I’m on my way. I’ll be there in ten minutes and Wynona, thanks for letting me know,” Adam said, ending the call and looking into Mary’s eyes. “I’m sorry but Billy is acting like a jackass at the Silver Dollar and Wynona called to ask if I could come and collect him before he ends up in the hospital. I’ve got to go.”

  “I understand. I don’t like it one bit and if you bring Billy over here tonight, I’ll put him in the hospital for ruining our evening, but I understand,” Mary said with a smile.

  “I don’t know how long this will take, so I’d better not plan on coming back tonight. I’ll see you at breakfast in the morning.”

  “Happy New Year Adam,” she whispered, kissing him one final time before he had to go.

  Ten minutes later, Adam rolled into the Silver Dollar only to find Billy was already drunk and as Wynona has said, he was egging on other drunks on who were much larger than he was.

  Assessing the situation very quickly, Adam decided to diffuse things immediately before it got any more out of hand. He moved through the crowded bar, spun Billy around threw the much smaller Billy over his shoulder, holding his legs firmly in place so Billy couldn’t get free. He waved at Wynona as he headed out of the bar with Billy screaming obscenities the whole way. “Happy New Year Wy, thanks for calling me,” Adam said. The crowded bar erupted in applause, happy to see Billy leaving.

  “Happy New Year Adam, thanks for coming to get him,” Wynona said as Adam and Billy exited the building.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Billy shouted as they moved across the parking lot.

  “Shut up you idiot, you screwed up my night. I don’t want to hear a word out of you or I’ll put you in the hospital myself.”

  “Adam?”

  “Yes you idiot, it’s Adam,” he replied angrily. Adam carried Billy out to his truck and dumped him into the back seat. “Not a word or I’ll break your jaw myself,” Adam insisted plainly, leaving no room for confusion.

  It wasn’t long before Billy passed out in the back seat of Adam’s truck. They drove home in silence as thoughts of his evening with Mary replayed in his mind. Adam glanced at the clock in his truck only to find it was 11:00 p.m. Still an hour to go before ringing in the New Year, but too late for him to spend it with Mary who, he was certain, would already be asleep or at least on her way to bed. He wished he were in bed next to her tonight, but that wasn’t going to happen as long as he was on clean-up duty for Billy.

  When they got back on the ranch, Adam decided it was time to let Billy know his behavior was not okay. Instead of carrying him into the warm house and putting him to bed, Adam drove down to the horse barn and dumped Billy off in one of the deeply bedded, clean, empty horse stalls so he could sleep it off. Because Adam was a caring person, he put a bale of hay inside the stall first and draped Billy’s body, belly-side down, over it just in case he threw up in the night, Adam didn’t want Billy to aspirate his own vomit. Adam figured if he threw up, it would be easier to muck it out of a horse stall that was deeply bedding in shavings rather than try to clean it out of bed linens and since Mary was their housekeeper, there was no way Adam was going to risk having her stuck cleaning up that mess after Billy ruined their evening.

  When Adam returned to the house, he headed up to his bedroom, pulled out his laptop and made the following journal entry:

  Mary and I spent New Year’s Eve together in her new apartment here on the ranch. It was the best night ever until Wynona called from the Silver Dollar and asked me to collect Billy before he got hurt by other drunk patrons.

  It’s time to do something about Billy’s drinking. I respect a man’s right to conduct his life anyway he chooses, but when it gets in the way of me making love to a woman I now know I love, that’s where I draw the line. If there’s one thing I’ve learned through my father’s death and through the early death of Mary’s husband, it’s that no one is guaranteed tomorrow. I intend to seize the day and spend as much time with Mary as I can.

  Chapter 19, Beau Needs a Daddy

  Tuesday, January First

  The next morning at breakfast, Billy showed up covered in wood shavings and looking like hell.

  “How did you sleep last night little brother?” Adam asked, sitting
down at the table a few minutes before 6 a.m.

  “How the hell did I get in a horse stall last night?” Billy asked. Carter and Buck looked on with surprise. This was all news to them.

  “You spent the night in the horse barn? What the hell were you drinking?” Carter asked.

  “Wy called me from the Silver Dollar last night asking me to come and collect you before you ended up in the hospital. Seems you were egging on a group of much larger, much more drunk men. I left an evening with Mary to save your drunken backside and I’m the one who dumped you in the horse stall. There was no chance I was going to let you screw up my evening with Mary and then make her clean up your vomit if I brought you into the house last night. You’re lucky I didn’t dump your sorry ass on the highway and leave you for road kill.”

  “What the hell? I was just out having some fun,” Billy insisted defensively.

  “When your fun gets in the way of my fun, you’ve crossed the line and when that happens, you’re going to sleep in the barn and I don’t care how cold it is out there. Last night was the action of a loving brother. From now on, if it happens again, I’m going to dump you in the cattle barn and see how you like waking up in a bed of wet, cold cow shit.”

  Buck and Carter were surprised by Adam. Not only was he the gentlest, albeit the largest of the Chadwick brothers, who had just threatened his little brother, but he had also just openly admitted that he and Mary were seeing each other and didn’t blink when he did it.

  “Is that anyway to treat your brother?” Billy protested.

  “I would ask you the same question! Your irresponsible drinking screwed up my night out. Is that anyway to treat your brother?” Adam insisted. Mary was in the kitchen and could hear loud, angry voices coming from the dining room. While she didn’t know what was being said, she was pretty sure it had something to do with Billy’s behavior from the night before. She decided to stay in the kitchen for a few extra minutes until the loud voices subsided as she had no interest in getting involved in another skirmish between the Chadwick brothers.