As expected, she went tense and probably would have moved off him, but that was one of the advantages of him still being deep inside her. His dick became sort of an anchor.
“Was that something you just blurted out to shut them up, or did you mean it?” he pressed.
Oh, the lip nibbling began, and despite the haze of pleasure still glistening on her face, Eden looked ready to teleport to Wyoming or anywhere else that would allow her to avoid this conversation.
So Nico tried a different angle. “I’m in love with you, Eden.”
That stopped the lip nibbling, probably because her mouth dropped open. “W-hat?” she managed.
“I’m. In. Love. With. You,” he repeated, breaking it down for her. “And that’s not Sweet-Cheeks Cowboy talking. That’s me, Nico, your best friend and lover.”
The stunned silence lasted a few more seconds, quickly followed by a dreamy sigh, smile and some watery eyes—all happening at the same time. He thought those were good signs.
“You love me,” she said on a rise of breath. “I thought you were going to break up with me.”
Now he frowned. Good grief. “I’m not stupid. I know you’re the real deal. Plus, you know all my secrets and I know yours. Mix that up with love, sex and blog reenactments, and I think we’ve got a sweet deal going here.”
Well, she sure wasn’t frowning now. “I agree.” Eden leaned in, her mouth hovering over his. “On a scale of one to infinity, just how sure are you about this?” she asked.
Oh, this was easy. So easy. “More than infinity,” he assured her, and he dragged her back down for a long, slow kiss.
* * *
SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
When Coldwater sheriff Kace Laramie discovers that his long-lost father has returned to town, he has no intention of reuniting with the man who drove away and never looked back. That is, until his ex-wife, Jana Parker, shows up in his office, looking for help with the very situation he’s hoping to avoid. With their attraction still as hot as the Texas sun, can Kace avoid the inevitable, especially with Christmas just around the corner?
Read on for a sneak peek at A Coldwater Christmas, part of the Coldwater, Texas series from USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen.
A Coldwater Christmas
by Delores Fossen
CHAPTER ONE
WATCHING FROM THE window of the police station, Sheriff Kace Laramie wasn’t sure if he should deal first with the senior citizen flasher, the traffic violation or the whizzing longhorn.
As a cop in a small ranching town like Coldwater, Texas, Kace didn’t usually have to pick between wrongdoings and disturbances, but apparently today they were experiencing a sort of crime wave.
When he saw the flasher, Gopher Tate, reach to unbutton his ratty raincoat, Kace moved him up to the number one spot of which situation should get his attention. There wasn’t anyone around Gopher, and the man never flashed a full monty, especially in winter, but Kace didn’t want anyone shocked or complaining if they got a glimpse of Gopher’s tighty-whities covering his junk.
“Liberty,” Kace called out to Deputy Liberty Cassaine as he pulled on his jacket and hat and then headed out the door of the police station. “Go after that idiot who just blew through the red light. Red Porsche, Oklahoma plates.”
No need for Kace to specify which light since there was only one, and it was on Main Street, right in front of the police station. It was also next to the clearly marked sign with the posted speed limit of thirty miles per hour. By Kace’s estimate, the guy wasn’t exactly speeding, but the light had been red.
Liberty leaped up from her desk in the squad room, crammed the rest of a goo-loaded sticky bun into her mouth and hurried out to the cruiser in the parking lot next to the building. Kace went across the street to deal with Gopher.
As Kace walked, he gave the pissing longhorn a glance. Like the rest of Coldwater, it was a familiar sight. It belonged to the librarian, Esther Benton, who affectionately called the bull Petunia.
Petunia had a fondness for breaking fence, wandering onto Main Street and disrupting traffic. Today, though, the bull wasn’t in the street but rather had taken to the sidewalk, working its way through the dancing Santas, glittering candy canes and other assorted decorations that the town and business owners had set out for Christmas. Those particular items had been in place for only a couple of hours and had replaced the gobbling turkeys and cardboard cornucopias from Thanksgiving. In a month—specifically December 26—the Christmas decor would be boxed up and the New Year’s stuff would be set out.
Coldwater had no shortage of overly done spangles, adornments of questionable taste and downright tacky holiday plastic.
Kace gave Petunia another glance to make sure the longhorn hadn’t moved. It hadn’t. It was now underneath the awning of the taxidermist’s shop, Much Ado about Stuffing, and it had pissed a puddle deep enough to drown an alley cat.
Apparently, hydration wasn’t an issue for Petunia.
Once Kace had finished with Gopher, he’d need to get the longhorn moving, call Esther and tell the woman she’d need to pay for another cleanup. Ironically, Gopher often did janitorial services for the town so Kace would be tapping the man for the job if he didn’t have to arrest him first.
Gopher still had hold of the sides of his raincoat, but his grip dropped away when he spotted Kace. “You gonna arrest me?” Gopher asked, making it sound as much a challenge as a question.
“Depends. You got a good explanation as to why you’re on Main Street, wearing a raincoat when there’s not a chance of rain in the forecast?”
Gopher’s forehead bunched up as if giving that some thought, and he glanced up at the cloudless blue sky. “I like to be ready in case there’s a change in the weather.”
Well, it was an explanation all right, but it wasn’t an especially good one. “You’ve got two choices, Gopher. Come with me to the jail or button up that raincoat and clean up after Petunia.”
Gopher contemplated that, too. “But I got a different color bow on today, and nobody’s had a chance to see it.”
Since that bow, whatever color it was, would be tied around Gopher’s junk, Kace didn’t intend to give the man an audience. “Choose wisely,” Kace advised him. “Clean up or lock up.”
“Clean up,” Gopher finally grumbled, and he continued to grumble while he got busy buttoning the raincoat.
With that task ticked off his to-do list, Kace turned toward Petunia. He took off his cowboy hat to smack the bull on the butt, but he stopped midwhack when Gopher spoke again.
“Say, ain’t that your wife over yonder?” Gopher asked.
That got Kace’s complete attention, and he followed Gopher’s gaze across the street. Specifically, to the parking lot of the police station, where he spotted the tall blonde getting out of a silver SUV. Not easily getting out, either. She was taking a wriggling, fussing baby from the infant seat in the back, and the kid wasn’t cooperating.
But, yeah, it was January Parker all right. Jana.
“My ex-wife,” Kace corrected.
And because Jana had been his ex for well over a decade, that correction just slid right off his tongue. Of course, Kace had seen her more than a time or two since then whenever she’d visited her mother, Eileen, who still lived in Coldwater. Jana, however, lived about an hour away on a ranch near Blanco.
“Didn’t know she had a kid,” Gopher remarked.
Kace knew that. Gossip about Jana just seemed to stick in his mind even when he would have preferred that it didn’t. Last he’d heard, Jana had had a daughter, and judging from the blond curl haloing the baby’s face, this was her child. Kace guessed she was about a year and a half old. Also last he’d heard, Jana was divorced or in the process of divorcing husband number two.
“Jana always did fill out a pair of jeans,” Gopher commented. “A little more of her to fill them out these days, b
ut the years have settled just fine on her.”
Kace scowled at the man, but there was no way he could deny such an observation even if it had come from Gopher. Jana did indeed have an ass that got noticed, and apparently childbirth hadn’t affected that part of her anatomy. Kace could see that firsthand because of the way Jana was leaning into the back seat. The maneuver caused her jeans-clad butt to be aimed in their direction, and the short waist jacket she was wearing did nothing to conceal it.
Jana finally managed to hoist the toddler out of the infant seat and onto her hip. The kid didn’t care much for that, either, because she kicked her legs, threw back her head and let out a wail loud enough to start a stampede. Jana ignored that and started walking. She didn’t glance across the street at Gopher and Kace but rather kept her attention pinned to the police station.
“It appears Jana’s about to pay you a visit,” Gopher added.
Gopher was a wellspring of information today. Jana was indeed headed for the police station. Maybe not specifically to see him, though. She could be going inside to file some kind of complaint or report a crime. That didn’t help the knot that was already forming in Kace’s stomach.
Kace silently cursed. He’d been divorced from Jana long enough not to feel the punch of attraction whenever he looked at her. Thankfully, the lust was tempered with the memories of their god-awful marriage. Of course, plenty would say it was a marriage that should have never happened in the first place. Jana’s mom definitely felt that way, and Eileen had made it her mission in life to see that their wedded “bliss” ended as fast as she could manage it.
Fourteen months and three days.
That’s how long it’d taken Jana to cave in to Eileen’s demands that she divorce her “cowboy husband” and find someone more suitable for their tax bracket and social standing. Eileen might have been a local, but she had always set herself apart from the rest of Coldwater, what with her sprawling house, fancy cars and snobbish ways.
Unlike Eileen, though, Jana wasn’t into fancy. Those great-fitting jeans weren’t a fashion statement. Neither were the cowboy boots. From everything he’d heard, Jana raised horses and did a lot of the hands-on work herself. Apparently, Eileen hadn’t been able to pressure her into giving that up and becoming a socialite.
“I’d best go see what she wants,” Kace muttered when Jana finally made it inside the police station, but he shot Gopher one last warning glare. “Keep the raincoat closed and get started on cleaning up after the longhorn.” Whether Gopher would actually do that was anyone’s guess, so Kace would have to keep an eye on him.
Kace’s phone rang just as he started across the street, and he answered it when he saw Liberty’s name on the screen.
“Uh, Kace,” Liberty said right away. “This guy I pulled over for blowing through the red light says he knows you.”
Absently, Kace considered the license plates that’d been on the Porsche. He knew plenty of people from Oklahoma, but he hadn’t recognized the car. Nor had he got a look at the driver.
“That’s not going to get him out of a ticket,” Kace insisted.
“He’s not trying to get out of that,” Liberty explained, and then she paused. Paused long enough that Kace had time to get to the police station. “Uh, he says he’s your father.”
Kace stopped, and his hand froze in midreach for the door. He already had the knot in his stomach from seeing Jana, but now the knot tightened and pulled at his whole body.
“Kace?” Liberty said. “You still there?”
“Yeah,” Kace managed, though he wasn’t sure where he got the air to speak. His lungs and throat had clamped shut. Too bad there wasn’t a lock on the hellish memories from his past.
A past that his so-called father had created.
“According to his driver’s license,” Liberty went on, “his name is Peter Laramie.”
Liberty didn’t ask if that was really his father’s name. Kace’s late mother had called him Petey. Well, she had done that when she hadn’t been calling him a son of a bitch and other assorted obscenities.
“He’s fifty-four and from Lawton, Oklahoma,” Liberty added.
Despite the tornado going on in his head, Kace did the math. His father had been just nineteen when Kace was born. Young. But not so young that he hadn’t got married and fathered three more sons. Of course, it hadn’t taken more than a signature on a license and some sperm to accomplish those things.
“Kace, you okay?” Liberty asked.
“Fine.” And he gathered as much breath as he could manage. “Write him the ticket,” Kace instructed, and he hit the end-call button.
If his father was in town to see him and his three younger brothers, then he’d find them soon enough. Anyone in Coldwater knew where to locate Judd, Callen, Nico and him.
Kace put his phone in the pocket of his jeans, dragged in another breath and went inside to face Jana. He didn’t have to look for her. Kace just followed the fussy sounds of the baby. Sounds that led him straight to his office.
Apparently, Jana had indeed come to see him. This was going to be his day not only for a small-town crime wave but also for surprises that weren’t of the good variety. So far, Jana was running second in the surprise department, though. Nothing was going to beat Peter Laramie cruising into town.
Ginger Monroe, the receptionist/dispatcher, was at her desk, and she had one of her unnaturally red eyebrows raised to a questioning arch while she volleyed glances between Jana and him. Kace was always a little perplexed when Ginger made that expression, or any other one for that matter, because she wore her makeup so thick that it coated her face like a mask. Still, she managed to convey not only some amazement but also intense curiosity.
Kace had some intense curiosity of his own.
“You got a visitor,” Ginger said in the same tone she would have informed him of a persistent fungus in the bathroom.
Ginger’s reaction was what he’d expected. After the divorce, the town had taken sides, and most folks had sided with Kace. Of course, Ginger did work for him so that might have played into her decision-making process. As for the rest of the town, Kace figured that folks thought he’d been screwed over by Eileen and also by her daughter who hadn’t had the gumption to stand up to her mother.
“Jana didn’t say what she wanted,” Ginger added, using more of that fungal tone.
Well, Kace would soon find out. Pushing aside the rest of his childhood memories and memories of the divorce, he went in to find out why Jana was here. The odds were that their conversation wouldn’t be private. Heck, it might not even be heard because of the baby’s loud cries, but even if Jana and he managed a whispered chat, the content would soon get around. Kace suspected that Ginger and maybe some of his deputies had taken up lipreading.
Kace took off his cowboy hat and coat and put them on the wall pegs when he went into his office. “Jana,” he greeted.
Thankfully, he managed to keep his voice in check. Hard to do, though, now that he was face-to-face with her.
As usual, the front side of her looked as good as the back even though her ponytail was a little mussed, and her expression was frazzled and weary. Kace figured the squirming kid was responsible for most of that, but this visit was likely part of it, as well. Unless it was for a social visit, and this clearly wouldn’t be, most people got stressed being in a police station.
The little girl yanked off her pink jingle-bell cap as if it were the thing that’d pissed her off. She let out another loud wail and reached for him. Kace didn’t reach back, but that didn’t stop the kid from practically lunging out of Jana’s grip. The motion unbalanced Jana, and if Kace hadn’t caught on to the baby, both of them would have likely landed against him. The baby took advantage of the near mishap and vised her little arms around Kace’s neck. She also hushed.
Suddenly, it was quiet enough that even a whisper could have been heard, b
ut it didn’t last. The moment Kace tried to hand the little girl back to Jana, the kid started to squeal again. This time, Kace got smacked in the face with that pink hat, and he took some blows from her little kicking feet. For someone whose tiny boots were four inches long, tops, she packed the wallop of an angry mule.
“No! No! No!” she shrieked, and the moment Jana quit trying to tug her from Kace, the kid hushed again. Complete silence that had both Jana and him checking her. Kace could feel her still breathing, but that was the only sound she was making.
Jana gave a weary sigh and pushed some stray strands of her hair from her face. “Marley’s teething, and she missed her nap.”
Well, that explained the crappy mood, but it didn’t address why she’d quieted down in Kace’s arms. Or why the kid settled her head against his shoulder as if she belonged there. Of course, none of that hit the number one spot of Kace’s questions about this situation.
Why the heck was Jana here?
“Could you please just hold her while we talk?” Jana asked.
She wasn’t looking at him. That’s because she was fishing around in the huge diaper bag that she’d set on his desk, and she pulled out a bottle of water. Jana guzzled some as if she’d been crawling through the Mojave Desert for days, and then she sank down into one of the chairs.
Kace didn’t especially want to hold the kid. He didn’t have much experience doing that sort of thing and wasn’t sure he was doing it right. Plus, Ginger would no doubt spread some kind of gossip about this that would get back to Belinda Darlington, the woman he sometimes dated. Belinda seemed to live on the eternal hope that Kace would change his mind about marriage and fatherhood and would make those changes with her.
He wouldn’t.
Ever.
But if Belinda got wind of his holding Jana’s daughter, then that might fuel some jealousy and hope that Kace didn’t want Belinda to have. Still, if he handed Marley back to Jana, then the crying might start up again. Jana clearly looked as if she needed a break from that, and having a quiet Marley would help speed things along.
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