Countdown to First Night: Winter's HeartSnowbound at New YearA Kiss at Midnight

by Jillian Hart

  “You have a lot of nerve, Jake Wild.”

  “I do have a lot of nerve, Cassie. And before you lose your temper in front of everyone, Anna was sick and I had to stay with her until she fell asleep.”

  “Oh.” Cassie touched a finger to her lip. “That’s a problem.”

  “Yes, it is. So now, if you wouldn’t mind telling me where Jolie is...”

  “I wouldn’t mind.” Cassie eyed him again. “What are your intentions concerning my very best friend, whose heart you have been stomping on for a very long time?”

  “Excuse me?” He really disliked games. He didn’t have time for them. This reminded him why he rarely dated. He’d been duped more than once because he tended to trust people.

  “Jake, you aren’t clueless.”

  “No, Cassie, I’m not. But I’m also not going to have this conversation with you. Where is she?”

  “Are you going to sweep her off her feet?”

  “I might, Cass. If I can get you to tell me where to find her feet.”

  “She’s in her room.”

  “Her room?”

  “I rented her a room. She’s upstairs.”

  Jake kissed Cassie’s cheek as she told him the room number. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t hurt her.”

  He was already walking away, but he turned. “I don’t plan on it.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  JAKE KNOCKED ON THE DOOR to Jolie’s room. Maybe he should have called. Maybe she’d decided to go home. What would he say to her? Worse, what would she say to him? She thought he’d stood her up. Was she relieved or hurt?

  He knocked again, this time louder. He heard the bolt slide, and the door opened a few inches. Her hair had come loose and dark tendrils curled around her face. Mascara was smudged beneath her eyes.

  “I woke you up.”

  “Yes, you woke me up.” She stood there, not moving to let him in.

  “Jolie, Anna was sick.” He rested his hand against the door frame. He’d put on his suit, even though he knew he’d be getting to the party late. He’d brought her a rose. He held it out.

  “Is she okay?” She took the rose. It matched her dress. She looked amazing in that dress. It flowed and yet hugged her figure in all the right places. The shimmery cloth caught the light and sparkled like millions of stars on a clear night.

  He cleared his throat. “Yes, she’s going to be okay. The nanny took over when she went to sleep. Tansy meant to get a message to you but she got tied up. I should have come down.”

  “No, of course you had to stay with Anna.” Her voice was husky with sleep. She still didn’t move to invite him in.

  “It’s almost midnight. I wanted to spend New Year’s Eve with you.”

  Her chin lifted. Her watery eyes met his. Had she been crying? Of course she had.

  “Jake, what are we doing? Where are we going with this?”

  “I don’t know, but I want to find out.”

  “When you didn’t show up tonight I had a lot of time to think.”

  “Okay...” He glanced at his watch.

  “I’m good enough for you. My dad made mistakes. He suffered. But he was a decent man who couldn’t cope with his loss.”

  “And he raised a strong, beautiful daughter—” he looked at his watch again “—who seems to think we need to talk when it’s getting close to midnight. You don’t have to convince me, Jolie. I’m not sure if I’m good enough for you.”

  “Jake—”

  “Stop looking for a reason to send me away. We should at least enjoy the last dance and the fireworks.” He took her by the hand and pushed the door closed behind them. “Will you be too cold on the balcony?”

  She shook her head as he reached to open the doors. He shrugged out of his jacket and draped it around her shoulders.

  “Will you dance with me, Jolie Godwin?”

  She stepped into his arms as music drifted up from the ballroom. He wrapped his arms around her and after a minute she relaxed and leaned into his embrace. This had to be the most perfect moment ever with Jolie in his arms, her cheek resting against his chest.

  * * *

  JOLIE SHIVERED, OR MAYBE trembled, as Jake held her. His right hand held her right hand. His left hand settled on her hip. She could smell the outdoorsy scent that seemed to be all his. Cologne and country air.

  The song coming up from the ballroom played faintly, so faintly she could hear the tune but not the words. Jake pulled her closer, cradling her against him. She leaned her head against his chest and felt his lips touch the top of her head.

  She could feel the rapid beat of Jake’s heart. It matched her own.

  “Jolie, this is perfect. I think we’re perfect when we’re together.”

  She looked up, because she needed to know that these were more than just words. She had to see it in his eyes, in his expression. And she did. She saw everything, maybe even her future, in the look on his face.

  “It is perfect. But what happens tomorrow?”

  “I think tomorrow we have another perfect day, together.”

  “And then?” She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what I want to hear.”

  He cradled her close again. “Jolie, whatever is between us is good. I don’t want another year without you in my life. I want to do more than kiss you at midnight. I want to spend time with you. I want to get to know you.”

  “I...I want that, too.”

  Downstairs they could hear the countdown to midnight. Jake held her loosely in his arms. They counted along. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

  “Happy New Year, Jolie Godwin.”

  “Happy New Year, Jake Wild.”

  He bent over her and as she closed her eyes his lips touched hers, warm on her cold skin. His mouth covered hers, and she heard him moan deep in his chest as her arms circled his neck. Below, people shouted and blew horns. Jake continued to kiss her, his mouth inching from her lips to her neck, tasting her, teasing her.

  “Jake,” she whispered, and he must have heard it as an invitation to kiss her again.

  As his lips touched hers, fireworks exploded into the night.

  Jake pulled her close and her head rested on his shoulder as they watched the display of lights streak across the sky.

  Jolie knew that next year they would be here together again. But she also knew that next year would be special in a different way.

  One New Year’s Eve Later

  JOLIE COULDN’T BELIEVE this was her life. A New Year’s Eve wedding at Wildwood Lodge, complete with several hundred guests and a few members of the media.

  The ceremony would take place at seven, not on the ice rink, but next to it. Anna stood beside her, dressed in a white wool cape over a red velvet dress. She signed and Jolie answered, telling her they would walk outside in just a minute.

  Cassie stood on her other side in a long, dark burgundy dress. She wiped at her eyes and shook her head.

  “You are the most beautiful bride ever.”

  “No, you were the most beautiful bride.”

  “That was so six months ago. We’re talking now, this moment, this wedding. Jolie, you’re gorgeous.”

  “Thank you. And obviously, I couldn’t have done it without your help.”

  Cassie kissed her cheek. “Of course you couldn’t have. You have that red dress to thank.”

  The one she’d worn for New Year’s Eve the previous year. Jolie laughed with her friend. “So you think it’s all because of a dress you made me wear.”

  “You did look beautiful in it.”

  “Thank you, Cass. Thank you for being my friend, thank you for helping me put this wedding together. Thank you for helping me believe in myself.”

  “Thank
me after you’re married. They’re playing your song.”

  Jolie took a deep breath as the wedding march started to play. She signed for Anna, the flower girl, and the child happily started down the candle-lined path that led to the rink. Jolie waited for Cassie to follow. She watched as her soon-to-be stepdaughter tossed rose petals. She watched as Cassie fairly waltzed down the snow-scraped walk. Christmas lights twinkled from every nearby bush and leafless tree.

  She looked ahead, to the fires that would warm them, to Jake standing near a lamppost at the edge of the rink. Finally she took her first steps down the makeshift aisle toward her soon-to-be husband.

  It seemed to take forever to make that walk. When she reached him, they stood side by side facing the minister, who had red cheeks from the cold. People had warned her not to hold the ceremony outside, not on New Year’s Eve. But she had been determined. Which explained the many fire pits.

  Jake took her hand at the appropriate time and the minister read through the vows, a shortened version, in deference to the weather. As he finished reading, snow began to fall, beautiful, big white flakes. Jolie looked up at Jake as the minister pronounced them husband and wife.

  She stood on tiptoe as he said those magic words, “You may kiss the bride.”

  Jake’s arms went around her and, the crowd cheering, he kissed her. He kissed her as the horse-drawn carriage came up the driveway. He kissed her as fireworks, a few hours before midnight, lit the night sky.

  “Happy New Year, Jolie Wild.”

  “Happy New Year, Jake Wild.”

  He kissed her again and then picked her up and carried her to the carriage that would take them to the restaurant for the reception.

  Later they would make an appearance at the Wildwood New Year’s Eve celebration.

  And in the morning they would leave for a surprise location, somewhere warm, Jake had promised.

  She snuggled in next to him in the carriage and she thought that there couldn’t be any better place than by his side.

  * * * * *

  DEA agent Mia Cooper returns home to heal her body, but her heart might need a little help, as well.

  Read on for a preview of THE COWBOY LAWMAN by Brenda Minton, coming from Love Inspired Books in April 2013.

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  CHAPTER ONE

  HOW COULD IT BE A BEAUTIFUL September day when nothing felt beautiful or bright? Mia Cooper stood on her porch surveying the quiet landscape of Dawson, Oklahoma. Leaves were turning, the grass had long since dried from lack of rain, and the neighborhood kids had gone back to school weeks ago. She felt alone in the world.

  That shouldn’t bother her. She knew how to handle loneliness. Even as a Cooper, surrounded by family, she had sometimes felt alone. She also knew how to adjust. She’d been told recently that her ability to readjust or reinvent herself were probably her strongest skills.

  And her biggest weakness.

  She just had to decide who she would be, now that she was back in Dawson at her mom’s insistence. Okay, she admitted she had been easy to convince. She’d been ready to come home. Her apartment in Tulsa had been too quiet, too private.

  She adjusted the sling that kept her right arm close to her chest, swallowed another gulp of water and jogged down the steps. She could run. She could take to the streets of Dawson, smile and wave to neighbors who might be out. She could pretend that everything would be okay.

  Butch Walker was dead.

  That would never change. Butch’s wife, Tina, would raise two children alone. Mia would forever remember his face as he went down. She would always live with shooting too late and not being able to save him.

  Her arm might ache. The possibility of not being able to go back to work hurt. But Butch gone, that hurt worse. She could take the pain of running.

  She hit the pavement, taking it slow, breathing deep and easy as she lengthened her strides. She swallowed past the tightness in her throat and ignored the pain in her arm and shoulder.

  Don’t ignore the pain, her doctor had warned her after surgery a month ago. How could she ignore it? It was a constant reminder.

  A car came up behind her, and she stepped to the side of the road. Her heart jumped as she glanced back to make sure it was someone she knew. In Dawson it was rare to see a stranger. Even people you didn’t know well weren’t considered strangers, they were just people you should get to know better.

  Her brother, Jackson, pulled alongside her, the truck window slid down. She kept running. The truck idled along next to her.

  “Jogging? Really?” He glanced at the empty country road ahead of them and then looked her way again.

  “Yeah, I needed to get out. Alone.” She smiled, but it took effort.

  “Right, of course. You’ve never liked too many people in your business. But you have family. Mom has been trying to call you.”

  She slowed to a fast walk. “I’ll call her.”

  “Today. You can’t outrun this.”

  His big-brother voice shook her. She remembered a time when she’d been the older sister taking care of her biological siblings, making sure they ate, got dressed each day, survived. Her name then had been Mia Jimenez. And then her mother had died, and she’d become the little sister with people taking care of her. Mia Cooper. Reinvented at age seven.

  She and her siblings had been separated.

  “Mia, stop running.”

  “I’ll call her.” She stopped and closed her eyes, his words sinking in. She’d always been running. Always running from life, from the past, from pain.

  The truck stopped next to her. “Mia, you’re strong. You’re going to survive this,”

  “I know.” She blinked quickly, surprised by the sting of tears. She should have stayed in Tulsa. But as much as her family suffocated her at times, she needed them. Her mom had brought her home on Monday.

  “Want a ride home?”

  She shook her head and somehow looked at him, smiling as if everything was good. “No, I can make it.”

  “Okay, but be safe.”

  “I’m safe.”

  He smiled, nodded and shifted to drive away. Mia stood on the side of the road in a world with nothing but fields, trees and the occasional cluster of grazing cattle. A light wind blew, the way wind blew in Oklahoma, and the air smelled of drying grass and blacktop.

  Jackson’s truck turned a short distance ahead, but his words had opened the wound. Tears blurred her vision and her throat burned. She kept jogging. She kept pushing.

  She brushed at the tears that continued to flow. It ached. It ached every minute of every day. Even in her dreams it hurt. She stopped running and looked up at the clear blue sky, at birds flying overhead.

  “It hurts!” she yelled as loudly as she could. And then, more quietly, “Make it stop. Make it all go away.”

  There was no answer. Of course there wasn’t. God had stopped listening. For some reason, He had ignored her when she pleaded for help, holding her hand on Butch’s chest, trying to stop the flow of blood, crying as she told him to hold on.

  She closed her eyes and slowly sank to her knees in the grass on the sh
oulder of the road, not caring who came by, what people said about her. It didn’t matter. Why should it matter when she hadn’t been able to save her partner—her friend’s—life?

  A car pulled up behind her. She didn’t turn. She didn’t want to know who had found her like this.

  A door shut. Footsteps crunched on the gravel shoulder. She wiped a hand across her face and looked up at the person now standing in front of her, blocking the sun, leaving his face in shadows. He smiled a little, but his familiar dark gray eyes mirrored her sorrow. He held out a hand.

  “It gets easier.” His voice was gruff but soft.

  “Does it?” She didn’t think it would. Today it felt as if it would always hurt like this.

  She took his hand.

  “Yeah, it does. Is this the first cry?”

  She nodded and the tears started again. He clasped her left hand. She stood and he pulled her close in an awkward embrace. He patted her back and then stepped away, cleared his throat and looked past her.

  “Let me give you a ride home.”

  She noticed then that he was in his uniform. He’d been a county deputy for ten years. He’d been the second officer on the scene the night his wife had died in a car accident.

  “Thanks.” She walked back to his car. He opened the passenger-side door for her. Before getting in she stared up at him, at the face she knew so well. She knew his gray eyes, the way his mouth was strong but turned often in an easy smile. She also knew his pain. “It feels like it might hurt forever.”

  “I know.”

  She got in and he closed the door.

  * * *

  THEY MADE THE TRIP BACK to Mia’s in silence. Slade McKennon glanced Mia’s way from time to time, but he didn’t push her to talk. Their situations were different, but he knew how hard it was to talk when the grief hit, when your throat felt so tight it hurt to take a breath. He knew how hard it was to make sense of it all.