Christmas with the Rancher

by Mary Leo

He stood. “No, it can’t. It’s about the flight.”

  Audrey stood, taking his hand in hers and they walked toward Bella who was now leaning on the empty front desk for support. Touching the desk made her think of checking in and suitcases, which her dad didn’t seem to have ready and waiting.

  “Where are your bags, Dad? Your things?”

  “My things are at Audrey’s place in Jackson. Moved most of my belongings there a few days ago.”

  They stood in front of her now. Audrey holding on to her dad’s arm. A fashionably modest-sized diamond ring prominent on her left ring finger. Bella’s stomach tightened.

  “Bella, I won’t be going with you. Audrey and I are getting married and I’m moving to Jackson to help run her inn. We had planned on selling her inn in favor of this one, but, well...I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’ve thought long and hard about this. I can’t live in Orlando.”

  “Tampa.”

  “Whatever. I can’t live in Florida.”

  Her dad was doing it again. Staying while she left.

  “But we’ve had this all planned. We’re finally going to be able to see each other more often, spend time with each other. You would give that up for...for...her?”

  Bella pointed to Audrey, and at the very moment she brought her finger up in the air, she realized her dad was serious. If he hadn’t left fifteen years ago to be with her mom, he certainly wouldn’t be leaving now. This part of the world had a hold on him that was unshakeable, and no one, not even his own daughter could break that bond.

  He walked closer to Bella, letting Audrey’s hand go. “Bella, I love you very much, but you have your own life to live and unfortunately it’s not here in this valley. I can’t live anywhere else, and I don’t want to do it without Audrey by my side. I’m in love with her, and as amazing as it seems, she’s in love with me.”

  Audrey took a couple steps closer and held her dad’s hand. “You can come and visit us anytime, Bella. We’d love to have you. It’s a lovely inn. I think you’ll enjoy it. Please don’t leave angry. Some things you can’t plan. They just happen and when they do you have to hold on tight. They may never come your way again.”

  Bella had heard enough. Her insides shook from her disappointment, not to mention the hassle of owning an empty condo in Tampa. She didn’t even like Florida! Way too hot and muggy in the summer. Worse than Chicago and she could barely deal with Chicago in the summer.

  “Congratulations. I’m sure you’ll both be very happy. Consider the piano a wedding present. Now if you don’t mind, I have a plane to catch.”

  She turned away before the waterworks could start and stormed out without so much as a hug.

  * * *

  BY THE TIME Bella boarded the plane to take her to Chicago, she felt completely drained. Not only did the empty first class seat next to her remind her of how badly she’d failed with her dad, but she was missing Travis more than she wanted to admit. And what was even crazier—she was missing Briggs and they hadn’t even taxied down the runway yet.

  Bella had booked a flight with one short layover in Denver getting into Chicago a few minutes past midnight, making it officially Christmas Eve. The irony was too much for her to cope with and she found herself tearing up every other minute.

  The female attendant with a kind face, brown, shoulder-length hair and a warm smile offered her a tissue and a magazine.

  “Thanks,” Bella told her eagerly taking both.

  “Going home for Christmas?” the attendant asked.

  “Leaving,” Bella said, her voice catching in her throat as tears streamed down her face. “I don’t even like Christmas.”

  The attendant handed her another tissue. “It’s a tough holiday when you’re alone.”

  “It never bothered me before. Matter of fact, I like being alone on Christmas.”

  She couldn’t help but let out a sob. The attendant left, but then returned with a full box of tissues.

  Bella accepted the box and held it tight against her chest. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Please fasten your seat belt, we’re about to take off.”

  That only brought on more tears.

  Bella didn’t understand where all this emotion was coming from. She never cried. She prided herself on never getting emotional. It was the one thing that she’d learned in business, never to get emotional. Men saw it as a weakness, and women saw it as an opening to grab your position. She knew this for a fact because she’d stolen several promotions from weak women who cried over the silliest of things.

  And right now her crying was plain silly. She fastened her seat belt, sat up straight, took a couple deep breaths, slowly letting them out, and got herself under control...sort of. At least enough so that after takeoff she pushed the seat back as far as it would go, closed her eyes and kept repeating: “I like being alone on Christmas. I like being alone on Christmas. I like being...”

  The brown-haired attendant nudged Bella once they were on the ground. “Ms. Biondi, you have to wake up now.”

  When Bella opened her eyes and looked around, the entire plane was empty except for the flight crew who stood at the front of the plane, chatting. There were four of them, two pilots, an older woman with white hair and a tall male attendant. They each wore a Santa hat and one of the pilots sported a white beard that came down to his upper chest. Bella had never seen facial hair on a pilot before and thought he looked odd, especially with a beard that long.

  “Sorry,” Bella explained. “I can’t believe I slept through the entire flight.”

  “Sometimes that happens,” the brown-haired attendant said. “Especially this time of year when everyone is so exhausted from shopping, partying and late-night hours.”

  The attendant leaned over the chair and looked right at Bella, as if she was waiting for an answer. Bella focused in on her face, and was startled to see how much she looked exactly like her dad’s fiancée, Audrey.

  “You look like someone I know.”

  “I know. I look like Audrey.”

  “What?”

  “You’re exhausted from shopping and having too much fun, right?”

  Bella couldn’t think straight. Her mind seemed muddled as she tried to answer the question. “No. I didn’t shop for anything or party. I don’t celebrate Christmas.”

  The entire crew turned to stare at her, a look of horror on their collective faces.

  “You don’t celebrate Christmas?” they said in unison.

  “No,” Bella repeated, her voice shaky.

  There was a unilateral gasp as their attention focused in on Bella.

  “We have a strict code,” the bearded pilot said. “No one gets on our flight who doesn’t celebrate Christmas. You should have told us this information before we took off. Didn’t you fill out the paperwork?”

  “What paperwork? No one gave me anything to fill out.”

  “She kept changing her itinerary. Maybe that’s why she didn’t get the paperwork filled out in time,” one of the male attendants said. He was busy looking down at a clipboard, shaking his head. Now that Bella took a good look at him, he had a striking resemblance to Mr. Footloose.

  “How did you know...?”

  “This is a total breach of security,” the older woman announced.

  “This flight is strictly for people who celebrate Christmas. No exceptions,” the bearded pilot stated in no uncertain terms.

  “You can’t impose a law like that. It’s un-American!”

  The crew came marching toward her as panic tightened Bella’s chest. She needed to get out of there, fast. She grabbed her purse, pushed Attendant Audrey aside and ran past the first-class curtain, down the empty coach aisle and out the side door, taking the metal stairs two at a time and ran smack into Travis. He was all decked out in his Cowboy Santa outfit,
but this time his beard was longer, much longer, and he glowed from twinkling white lights that encircled his hat, went down his arms and legs and were scattered throughout his beard.

  She was delighted to see him and gave him a tight hug, thinking he could tell her what was going on. “Travis, I’m so glad you’re here. You won’t believe what happened on that plane.”

  “Bella, we’ve been waiting for you,” he said, his voice raspy and deep.

  At once Bella found herself in Belly Up, surrounded by her childhood classmates. Milo Gump tended bar while his wife, Amanda, busied herself carving a life-size snow Santa in the center of the room. Amanda turned and waved just as the little girl Bella had evicted from Dream Weaver Inn appeared from behind the Santa, carrying a huge snowball in each hand. The little girl fired them straight at snow Santa, then ran up to what was left of him and began kicking him in the shins.

  “Wait! Stop!” Bella cried out, but the little girl acted as if she didn’t hear Bella and didn’t stop until the Santa was in complete ruin.

  “She can’t hear you,” Cowboy Santa Travis said. “No one can.”

  “But you can hear me.”

  He smirked. “I’m different. Come with me.” He took her hand and suddenly they were standing in his Christmas loft at his house.

  “I love this room,” Bella told him, feeling safe and warm. Her trunk lay open in the corner, only her things were no longer inside. Instead dollhouse furniture was piled up, dollhouse furniture that looked exactly like the furniture from Dream Weaver Inn.

  She turned away, not wanting to see it.

  “Just watch,” Cowboy Santa Travis ordered, pointing down to the bedroom.

  Jaycee padded into the master bedroom. She looked at least eight months pregnant, her stomach big and round under a bright red dress. She walked over to the closet, slid open the door and searched for something inside.

  Travis, wearing a cream-colored sweater, jeans and black cowboy boots walked up behind her, leaned over and nibbled on her ear. “How do you feel, babe?”

  Bella turned to see Cowboy Santa Travis still standing beside her. “I don’t understand. How can you be up here with me and down there with Jaycee at the same time?”

  “Christmas magic.”

  “I don’t believe in Christmas.”

  He guffawed. “I know.”

  Jaycee turned to face the other Travis. She seemed to be glowing from the soft lights on the Christmas tree up in the loft. “Happy. I have an inkling our baby will be born Christmas Day, making it our best Christmas ever.” Then he kissed her with all the passion he’d kissed Bella with the night before.

  “Nooo!” Bella yelled lunging forward, but Cowboy Santa Travis grabbed her waist and wouldn’t let go. “No! You love me, not her!”

  “Ms. Biondi. Ms. Biondi. It’s time to wake up.”

  Bella jolted up straight and her eyes flew open to see the brown-haired attendant standing over her. Bella instantly drew back, wanting to get away from her. “I love Christmas. Honest I do. I’ll fill out the paperwork. Just don’t make me go back there.”

  The attendant smiled. “We’ve landed in Chicago. You were sleeping and I didn’t have the heart to wake you, but you have to get off the plane now.”

  Bella scrambled out of her seat. The plane was empty, and the crew stood up front, but this time the pilots were clean shaven and neither one of them held a clipboard. Blinking a couple times to get her focus, Bella regained her bearings and realized she had, in fact, been dreaming. “I am so sorry.”

  “Not a problem. I know how stressful this time of year can be. All that shopping and partying is enough to make anyone tired.”

  Bella’s eyes went wide as she grabbed her purse and rushed off the plane from the first class exit. For the first time since she was a kid, she knew exactly what she wanted and what she needed to do to get it.

  * * *

  TRAVIS DIDN’T KNOW much about Chicago, and frankly didn’t care. Big cities weren’t his thing. He was a small-town Western boy through and through, but if Bella had insisted on flying back to Chicago without her Santa gloves, then Travis had no choice but to return them in person.

  At least that was what he told himself as he sat on the small jet at the Jackson airport. His brother Colt had driven him to the airport landing with barely enough time to make it to the main terminal. He was the last one to board before they closed the doors.

  He didn’t catch any sleep on the plane, plagued with concern over how Bella would react to seeing him in her town. And it didn’t help that he’d scored a middle seat between a guy who snored like a bullfrog on a lily pad and a woman who insisted on eating chips and nuts and everything else she could crunch for the entire flight.

  When the plane finally landed he thought his troubles were over until he stood out in the frigid cold, trying to scare down a cab in the middle of the night, with the wind making his life miserable. He wore his favorite black beaver hat to keep his head warm, but it was no match for Chicago’s relentless wind. His bright idea to return Bella’s Christmas gloves in person ranked right up there with getting his fingers caught in a barn door.

  Travelers came and went as friends and families picked up the wandering groups curbside. Travis tried to hail a cab several times, but each time he thought he’d secured one someone else would jump in before he had the chance to open a door.

  Soon it began to snow and not the pretty cornflake snow he loved, but the blizzard type that blew in his face and felt like so many tiny needles. Snow soon collected on the sidewalk, on the street, on his beard, his hat and on his shoulders. If he stood out there much longer he was sure the authorities would come and cart him away for being some kind of threat to national security.

  And right when Travis thought he’d never get a cab, he noticed the woman getting into a black Town Car about thirty feet up the sidewalk. He instantly knew those clothes, and that lovely hair, and that haughty little knit hat. It was Bella.

  He called out her name several times and ran toward her, pulling his bag behind him, but apparently she didn’t hear him due to all the racket coming from the planes flying overhead and the cars and the rush of people all vying for cabs or shuttles. As she drove past him he waved frantically, but when she glanced in his direction, some guy in a bright green jacket chose that exact moment to walk right in front of him.

  In the next second her Town Car blended into the tangle of other vehicles leaving the airport making it impossible for him to spot her car.

  It was times like these when Travis wished he’d taken the few seconds while Bella was in Briggs to get her dang phone number. It would have made his life so much easier. He’d tried calling Nick for the number, but Nick wasn’t the kind of guy who carried his cell phone wherever he went. It was more of an emergency type of gadget for him and most of the time he left it in his truck or on his dresser, which he didn’t have anymore. Travis knew about him moving in with Audrey instead of moving to Tampa to play golf. A good decision, but now that he had a woman on his mind, there was no telling if Nick would ever be interested in his cell phone again. He didn’t know anything about Audrey’s inn or he’d call over there. Heck, he didn’t even know Audrey’s last name.

  Travis felt a slight tug on his coat and looked down to see a boy with big dark eyes staring up at him. He wore a bulky black leather jacket, mini black biker boots, black mittens and a thick black cap.

  “Are you a real cowboy?” the little boy asked in a voice as high pitched as a canary. His mom stood a few feet away, watching his every move while she wrangled several suitcases and bags.

  Travis smiled over at her and nodded. She returned the gesture.

  “I sure am.”

  “Where’s your horse?”

  “In Idaho.”

  “Is that far?”

  “Yes. It’s a wh
ole lotta far.”

  “Is it on another planet?”

  “Not that far.”

  “Do you miss your horse?”

  “Yes.”

  “Maybe you can borrow one from my daddy. He’s got plenty of horses. I’ve never seen them though. They hide in his engine.”

  “That’s a different kind of horse.”

  And at that exact moment, a bright orange Mustang Cobra roared up and parked curbside. A tall lanky guy jumped out dressed entirely in black leather.

  “Daddy!” the boy yelled, running for the driver’s arms. They looked exactly alike not only in dress but in facial features. The vision gave new meaning to the term “little man.”

  In less time than it took for Travis to move out of their path, the dad had his family in the car along with their bags, driving off with more horsepower than an entire team of Clydesdales could ever muster.

  “And that there’s an example of city horsepower,” Travis said aloud just as a blast of wind and snow blew his hat off and rolled it down the sidewalk.

  * * *

  BELLA THOUGHT FOR sure she’d seen Travis waving to her in front of the airport. She wanted the driver to stop, but the traffic made that impossible. Then she thought about circling the airport to make sure it wasn’t him, but dismissed the idea as the airport exit loomed in front of them. She figured the vision had to be remnants of her dream. There was absolutely no way Travis Granger would have flown to Chicago on Christmas Eve. He probably had a mountain of Christmas festivities planned and Travis was most definitely not the sort of guy to leave anyone in the lurch, let alone not enjoy Christmas in his hometown.

  It was merely wishful thinking on her part. After everything she’d done, the things she’d said and how badly she treated him and her dad, she wouldn’t blame either one of them if they never spoke to her or trusted her again.

  Still, she was going to try to make it up to them.

  Never mind feeling sorry for herself, or dwelling on what she would have done differently, she settled back, opened her briefcase, booted up her laptop and went to work as the driver steered onto the Kennedy Expressway.