The Cowboy's Christmas Courtship

by Brenda Minton

  Gage touched her arm, then leaned in close. “Let yourself have fun.”

  His breath fanned her cheek and he smelled so good, like leather and the outdoors. Have fun, he said? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d really gone out and had fun. She didn’t have the time or money for fun. She didn’t have the energy.

  “Gage, I don’t...”

  He grinned. “What...? Have fun?”

  “I’d love to have fun. I don’t have the time.” She saw his smile fade. “Look, I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I just want you to understand.”

  “I do understand. I know that you work hard. I also know that you need a break.”

  She glanced around, making sure they didn’t have an audience. Everyone else seemed focused on the bulls and the riders. “You have no idea what my life is like. You can take off at the drop of a hat. You can buy a horse, sell a bull, or travel to Colorado for a rodeo. I have to make sure the electric bill gets paid, that there is food for a kid that eats more in a day than I do in a week and outgrows his shoes every month. I have to make a payment or...”

  She stopped because she’d said too much. Gage didn’t need to know her reality. It wasn’t his fault that their lives were worlds apart.

  “Make a payment or what?” Gage’s hazel eyes locked with hers, looking ten years older. Of course he would zero in on that part of the conversation.

  “Nothing. Listen, I have to go. Can you bring Brandon home later? He has school tomorrow, so he can’t stay out late.”

  Gage nodded slowly, but his smile didn’t return. “I’ll bring him home.”

  “Thanks.”

  She started to walk away but he caught up with her. He walked with her out the side door, into the cold night. She looked up at a sky with millions of stars sparkling like diamonds in the velvety darkness.

  “Layla, is there something I can do to help?”

  She smiled up at him. “You’ve helped, Gage. You fixed my fences. You’ve spent time with Brandon. Really, you don’t have to keep this up.”

  “I know.”

  “Okay, then it’s over now. I’m sure there are other people on your list.”

  She had to say the words because it was the only way she could protect her heart from him, from the soft look in his eyes and the gentleness that changed everything.

  “There are definitely other people on my list. But I’m committed here. Not just to you, but to Brandon.”

  “But what happens to Brandon when you leave?”

  “I’ll make sure there are people who will spend time with him. If you’ll let them. You have to admit, you haven’t actually invited people into your life.”

  “I know.” She sighed at the words that mirrored Vera’s and looked away, watching as lights came on in the Cooper home. A dog barked in the distance. “I should have asked for help.”

  “Now you have help.”

  “Right.”

  “I’ll be over in the morning with the trailer.” His smile came back full force as he spoke. She should tell him no. It was easy to let him be in Brandon’s life. But in hers?

  She stood there looking at him, waiting for the words to form. What was it about him that tied her tongue in knots?

  * * *

  Brandon watched the play of emotions that flickered across Layla’s always-expressive face. He should have let it go and not pushed her. She’d given him an out. But the truth was he didn’t want an out. Nope, he wanted to be in her life.

  He couldn’t kiss her again, though. A kiss implied something. It connected two people. And connections were not his thing.

  But standing there in the moonlight with her, he thought maybe there was a connection. He wanted to pull her close, bury his nose in her hair, then kiss her until they both forgot how cold they were.

  “I have too much to do, Gage.”

  He smiled at her objection. It sounded familiar. She was still the good girl. He was still the bad boy asking her to skip school. Back then she had informed him, in all seriousness, that she didn’t have a 4.0 grade point average by accident. She wasn’t going to blow it on a day of random fun.

  He laughed, remembering, and she shot him that same serious look that she’d given him years ago. Back when he’d considered that she might be prettier than her friend Cheryl, if only she’d smile more.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked, looking a little peevish, like a librarian dealing with rowdy students.

  “Nothing, just that you’ve told me that before. And I still don’t buy it. You need to have some fun, Layla. You need to laugh and relax.”

  Tears filled her dark eyes. “I don’t have time to relax.”

  “Tomorrow you’re going to make time. I’ll be over early to help with chores and then we’ll bring that mare over here for a real workout.”

  “I have laundry and housework.”

  “Those things can wait. A sixty-degree day in December shouldn’t be wasted.” He winked, hoping to seal the deal. “We’ll hang out, have lunch, be friends and maybe share secrets.”

  A smile reappeared on Layla’s face, and he felt pretty happy that he’d been the one to put it there. Yeah, he could make people smile, but this was different. He hadn’t known many people who needed to smile the way she did.

  Man, he didn’t know many people whose smile he needed as badly as he needed hers.

  “Be friends?” She continued to smile. “You can tell me who you want to marry.”

  “I’m afraid to report that’s a pretty short list, so we’ll have to move on to my favorite color.”

  “What is your favorite color?” she surprised him by asking.

  “Brown.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Light brown with streaks of blond.”

  She was still smiling. And he wanted to keep that smile on her face. In that moment he wanted her smile more than he wanted a ninety-point ride on a bull that had never been covered for eight seconds.

  “That smile looks good on you.” It was the corniest line he’d ever uttered, and of course she didn’t fall for it.

  “I’m leaving now.” She pulled her keys out of her pocket.

  “Oh, come on, I didn’t mean it.”

  She opened the truck door, then shot him a look. “So you don’t like my smile?”

  “Of course I do, but I didn’t mean to sound like an actor in a romantic comedy.”

  She stood on the running board of her truck. Somehow her hand held his. He didn’t know how that had happened. To his surprise, she pulled him close, leaning to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”

  She closed the door and started the truck with no problems. The engine didn’t sound good, but at least it was working. A new engine, a new transmission, the list for that old truck went on and on.

  She waved and drove off. As she went past the house, the dog ran out of its doghouse and followed along behind her. Gage headed back to the barn.

  The guys were putting the bulls back in the pen. Brandon was sitting on the risers, an ice pack on his cheek. Gage walked around the chutes to where Layla’s little brother sat, blinking against the sting. He pulled the ice pack off the kid’s cheek and flinched.

  “Oh, she is going to be mad at you.” Gage grinned at Brandon. The kid shot him a dirty look.

  “She’s going to be more mad at you.”

  “I was outside. This can’t be my problem.”

  Brandon stood up. The kid was almost as tall as Gage, and standing like he meant to throttle him. “Gage, I think you’re great, but don’t mess with my sister.”

  “I’m not going to mess with your sister, Brandon. I’m trying to help her out a little.” Gage meant to walk away but he stopped. “You have to admit, things haven’t been easy for her.”

  “I guess not.” Brandon walked a
longside him as they headed out of the barn. “She worries a lot.”

  “I know she does.” Gage pushed the door open and motioned Brandon out ahead of him. “You could make it easier for her, you know.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “You guess?”

  At the truck, Brandon shrugged. “I don’t know why you care all of a sudden.”

  He hadn’t thought about it but she made it easy to care about her. Maybe because she was so determined to do everything on her own. Maybe because something happened in his gut when he made her smile.

  “Well?” Brandon climbed in the truck and shot Gage a look.

  “Well, what?” Avoidance was his greatest gift. He knew how to avoid conversations and avoid relationships in equal measure.

  “Do you like my sister?”

  “I’m not sixteen, Brandon.”

  “What’s that got to do with anything?” The kid didn’t look like he meant to give this up anytime soon.

  “Brandon, I’m a grown man and I’m not worried about finding a girl to wear my class ring.”

  “They don’t do that anymore.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, really. And my sister sure isn’t going to wear any ring of yours.”

  Gage nearly choked. He hadn’t been planning on giving her a ring. Any kind of ring. And he sure hoped Granny Myrna didn’t have any more heirloom rings stashed away somewhere. Statements like Brandon’s made him want to pack his bags and head out sooner than later.

  It would have been easy to do, but he’d made promises and he wasn’t going anywhere until he knew he’d settled things with Layla.

  Chapter Nine

  The sky was dusky gray, and frost covered the ground when Layla walked out to the barn Wednesday morning. She exhaled and her breath turned to steam in the cold air. It was cold for early December, but the weather was supposed to break soon. The forecast said it would be close to sixty, then for the rest of the week it would be back to normal temperatures. That meant cold again.

  She didn’t mind a brisk morning and frosty grass crunching under her feet. When she walked through the doors of the barn, her mare greeted her with a soft whinny.

  “Hey, Pretty Girl, I’m glad to see you, too.” Layla brushed aside the thought of selling the mare. She didn’t want to think about it. Not yet. She loved the bay with her refined head and the beautiful gait that caused cars to slow down and watch when she pranced through the field.

  Layla tossed a flake of hay into the metal rack and headed to the feed room for grain. The dog barked. She walked out, almost expecting Gage. Instead she found her brother, tall and awkward with his dark hair unbrushed and his eyes still half-sleepy.

  “You’d best get ready for school.”

  He pinched the cloth of the dark blue hoodie he wore and shrugged. “I’m ready.

  “Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say.

  “I thought I’d help you feed.”

  “Okay. Well, can you grab a bag of grain and feed the cows.”

  “Sure.” He trudged into the feed room and walked back out with a bag of grain. “What about hay?”

  “I put a bale out two days ago. They should be fine for now.”

  The big round bales would last her small herd quite a while. And since the price of hay had gone up during the drought, that was a good thing.

  Brandon hefted the bag of grain to his shoulder and walked out of the barn. She watched him open the gate and head for the feed trough. Her little brother, willing to help. Without being asked. She didn’t know how to process the turn of events, but she wasn’t going to question it.

  A few minutes later Brandon returned. He brushed a hand through his hair. “Got it. I put the bag in the burn barrel.”

  “Okay.”

  “Is that all you can say?” Back to moody teen voice.

  “No, it isn’t. Thank you for helping.”

  He shrugged again. “Yeah, well, I gotta go. The bus will be here.”

  “Right, the bus.”

  He started down the drive, but he stopped. She waited, and he turned back around. “Hey, I’m sorry that I’ve been such a pain.”

  “It’s okay.”

  He shrugged and took off, walking fast because the bus was coming over the hill and would stop at the end of their drive in about two minutes. As great as his help had been, she didn’t trust him completely. She stood in the opening of the barn, watching until he got on the bus.

  “Pretty Girl, I don’t know what to make of that, but I think we have Gage Cooper to thank.” It pained her to admit it, even to a horse.

  The horse reached, nibbling at the sleeve of her coat. Layla pulled a carrot out of her pocket.

  “You always expect a treat, don’t you?”

  The mare ate the carrot in three bites, nodding her head up and down as she chewed. A truck lumbered up the driveway, the diesel engine distinct. She peeked out the open double door of the barn, knowing it would be Gage.

  “Great, he didn’t give me time to find an excuse to turn him down.”

  The mare stared, finishing the last bite of carrot and then dropping her head to nibble at the pieces that had fallen on the ground. The truck door slammed shut, and the horse’s head came back up as her ears twitched and she whinnied.

  “Don’t greet him like you’re glad to see him. It’ll go to his head.”

  “Is that what you think of me?” Gage walked through the door of the barn, a cowboy in a heavy canvas jacket and his hat pulled low. He had shaved, and she could see where he’d nicked his chin. The clean scent of his aftershave still clung to his skin.

  “I guess you’re not terrible,” she conceded, and of course he smiled.

  He walked up to the stall door, admiring her horse. “Layla, you can’t sell this horse.”

  “I don’t know if I have a choice.”

  “If you need money, I can loan...”

  She held up her hand to stop him. “No, you can’t. I’m not going to borrow money from you. I’m going to make it through this. I’ve made it all these years, and I’m not giving up now.”

  “But this horse is special.”

  “She’s just a horse.” Layla said the words, wishing she meant them. If it had been any other horse, maybe. But this horse, she was special. It showed in her deep brown eyes, in the way she interacted with people. She wasn’t just any old horse. Layla’s eyes stung, and she blinked away the moisture before turning to Gage with what she hoped looked like an easy smile.

  “Right, just a horse.” Gage shook his head. “And elephants fly.”

  “There was that Dumbo character.”

  “Yeah, sure.” He tossed her a lead rope that she’d left hanging on a hook. “Let’s go.”

  “Go?”

  “To the ranch.”

  “I have to clean house and do laundry. This is my only day off.”

  “You have to have some fun.”

  “I can’t, Gage. In your world, the clothes will get washed and the house gets cleaned while you’re in the barn with the bulls or the horses. In my world, I do those things.”

  “I can do those things.”

  “I’m sure you probably can.”

  “Okay, let’s go.” He reached for her hand. “I’m going to show you what a Cooper man can do.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He leaned in close, grinning. Layla took a step back.

  “It means, Miss Layla Silver, that I’ll show you how well I can sweep and mop. My mom is an equal opportunity chore master. It isn’t only housework for girls and farmwork for the boys. And I don’t always live at home.”

  “Oh.”

  “What did you think I meant?”

  “Nothing. Gage, I can clean my ow
n house.”

  “And I’m going to help you.” He took a step closer, narrowing the distance between them. Distance she needed in order to think clearly.

  “Really?” The word came out as a whisper.

  “Really. Because Cooper men are pretty amazing.” He slipped a finger under her chin, and she looked up as he leaned to kiss her.

  This was becoming a really bad habit, she thought as he stole her breath with that kiss. His lips were warm and gentle. He brushed them across hers, sweet, achingly sweet. Layla closed her eyes and wished she was anyone else, so that she could allow herself to fall in love with Gage Cooper.

  But she wasn’t anyone else. She was Layla Silver, and she knew that he played games. She knew that he loved the freedom of his life.

  She pulled back, shaking her head as she put space between them. “Stop doing that.”

  He whistled, surprising her, because he looked as stunned as she felt. “Layla, I keep trying to stop. It isn’t easy to do.”

  “It should be.”

  “If you say so.” He continued to look at her, serious, unsmiling. “I promise you, I didn’t plan on this.”

  “On what?”

  He shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s get that house cleaned up.”

  Before she could answer, he took off. She followed him across the yard to the back door of the house. He reached it first, holding it open for her. Always the gentleman, she thought.

  She couldn’t quite be sarcastic because she knew he did try very hard to be considerate. His parents had raised him right. Thinking back to high school, she realized that he had offered her friendship. He hadn’t pretended to want more. She had wanted it. She had wanted him to love her.

  It was an uncomfortable thought that she quickly shed as she walked into her tiny kitchen and faced the sink full of dishes and floors that needed to be mopped.

  Why had she allowed him into her life this way? Back then, she’d been young, naive. Now she had no excuses. So what was her reason?

  * * *

  Almost two hours later, Gage dumped a bucket of dirty mop water off Layla’s back porch. The border collie, Daisy, ran across the yard, barking as if he had just realized Layla had company. Gage turned back into the house, walking into the kitchen where Layla was putting kitchen towels in a drawer.