With only inches between them, Taryn froze. The happiness in Kenny’s eyes brought tears to hers. She’d been happy like that before too. But not now.
“Hey,” he said, swiping his thumb under her eyes. “Don’t cry, now. I’m no good with beautiful women who cry.”
She employed every ounce of self-control she had and willed the tears back into her chest, where they thankfully stayed. “I’m so glad you found me,” she said again. “I don’t think I would’ve ever found this cabin, and I certainly wouldn’t have survived out here all night.” A gust of wind shook the cabin, emphasizing her statement. She shivered with the thought of what would’ve happened to her had he not seen her.
“It’s a miracle,” he whispered. “Do you believe in miracles, Taryn?” The earnest way he watched her spoke to her soul, and now the flames in the room weren’t only coming from the stove.
“Yes,” Taryn said. “I believe in miracles.”
Kenny’s lips spread into a smile, and Taryn wondered what they’d feel like against hers. Startled at the thought of kissing a near-stranger, she cleared her throat and turned away. “Okay, let’s get this place set up for tonight.” Already the light was almost gone, and Kenny rummaged through the closet until he found a flashlight with the weakest beam Taryn had ever seen.
Still, it was enough to get the blankets on the cot, and the cot in front of the fire. Kenny gave her two bottles of water and told her to drink them before she fell asleep. He spread his sleeping bag just behind her cot, and if she let her arm slip over the side, she could hold his hand. Thoughts of doing so entertained her while she ate the protein bar he’d given her and drank her water. She watched the flames in the stove play together while she considered what to do with the feelings of attraction sparking between her and this marine cowboy.
No matter what she came up with, she knew she’d end up getting burned.
Kenny couldn’t stand the silence in the cabin. Well, it wasn’t completely quiet. The rain created a symphony with the fire spitting in the stove.
“How long you been in Three Rivers?” he asked, his curiosity on the matter unending.
“About a week.” The sadness in her voice, the fear he’d seen in her eyes, the way she cried so easily, told Kenny to tread lightly and be careful with her. At the same time, he wanted to see if he could make it to a fourth date with Taryn, a feat he hadn’t accomplished in a while with any woman.
“What brought you here?”
“I needed a job.” She sighed, the sound adding music to the cacophony of nature sounds. “Well, and the town’s Halloween festivities lured me in.”
“Oh, you like Halloween?”
“Not particularly.” She turned toward him, and the fire backlit her face. “But the joy permeating this town…. The way everyone seemed to know everyone else, and the whole community came together.” She barely lifted her top shoulder. “I liked how it felt here. So I decided to stay.”
Kenny basked in the warmth of her story. “Three Rivers is a magical place,” he agreed. “Where’d you come from?”
“Here and there.”
He couldn’t see her face, but the closed-off tone of her voice probably would’ve manifested in an icy glare in those luxurious brown eyes. He much preferred them to swim with heat, soften like melted chocolate, the way they had just before a tear had escaped.
“I’m from California originally,” he said, deciding to fill the silence with his own story. Seemed like Taryn didn’t want to talk much, though he did wonder what kind of woman could roam the panhandle of Texas until she found a town she felt like staying in. “Served in the marines for almost ten years. I got out of active service about three years ago, and my dad knew the foreman down here. Ranching seemed as good as anything else I might do with my life.” He spoke to the ceiling as an overwhelming feeling of peace flowed through him. He hadn’t known what to do when he’d graduated high school, thus the enlisting in the marines.
And almost nine years later when he got released, he still hadn’t known. But he knew now—God had led him to Three Rivers. He loved the small town. Loved that some of the roads in the older part of town were only wide enough for one car. Loved the quaint atmosphere of country living. Loved that he could feel things here that he couldn’t in the city, because it was quieter and slower and simpler.
“You sound like you love it here,” she said.
“I do.” He chanced a glance at her, but she’d rolled onto her back too. “You will too, Taryn,” he promised. “Like I said, there’s something healing and magical about Three Rivers.”
Several heartbeats passed, broken when she said, “That’s exactly what I need.”
Kenny could feel it. Her tension rode in her shoulders, in the tense lines around her kissable mouth, in the way she so easily wandered away from a ranch and couldn’t get back.
He woke sometime later, unable to distinguish between having his eyes open or closed. “Taryn?” he whispered.
“The fire went out,” she hissed back. “It’s freezing in here.”
The chill of Kenny’s nose suddenly felt like it had been frozen in liquid nitrogen. “I’ll get it going again.” He got up and felt his way past the cot only to find her kneeling in front of the dark stove too.
“I can’t see anything.” Something thunked to the ground. “And the flashlight went out five minutes ago.” Panic edged her words, and Kenny fumbled his hands through the air until they met her body.
He recognized the shape of her shoulders, her arms, and threaded his fingers through hers. “Hey, it’s okay.”
She sniffed, and Kenny wanted nothing more than to protect her from everything ugly in her world, both past, present, and future. “I’ll take care of it,” he said, supremely glad “you” hadn’t slipped into the sentence instead of “it.”
He felt around on the ground where they’d left the newspaper and matches. His fingers found the right shapes and he struck a match and lit a piece of paper. The flame burned hot and bright—and fast—illuminating the items he needed. He memorized their locations and tossed the burning paper into the stove.
With the precision of a marine, he put in two pieces of wood, stuffed in balls of newspaper, and struck another match. Within a few minutes, a fire blazed in the stove. “There.” He sat back on his haunches, pleased with his work.
Taryn sat cross-legged on the floor next to him. “Nice work, Marine.”
“Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?” He hoped it wasn’t disdain.
“Not at all.”
“You wanted a fire. I gave you a fire.”
“I want a lot of things.” She hugged her knees to her chest.
Feeling brave, the way he had while in active service, he reached for her hand and cradled it in his. “What do you want, Taryn?”
She lifted that shoulder again in a shrug Kenny found sexier every time she did it.
“How about goin’ out with me?” he asked, encouraged at the fact that she hadn’t pulled her hand away. In fact, she’d matched her fingers to his. “Is that something you might want?”
She turned toward him, and it seemed to take a long time for her eyes to meet his. He didn’t look away, though the intense feelings cascading through him evoked more fear than he’d ever felt before—even in Qatar.
“Yeah, sure,” she said. “Why not?”
It wasn’t exactly the answer Kenny had hoped for, but it would do. He grinned as he focused back on the fire, as Taryn did too, as she leaned her head against his bicep and breathed with him.
“Kenny, come back.” The tinny, male voice roused Taryn from sleep.
“Kenny, here.” His voice came from further away than the sleeping bag he’d used the night before.
“The rain’s lightened enough to get back. You should leave right now. Over.”
“I’ll saddle the horses and be there in an hour. Over.”
“We’ve got the floodlights on. Over.”
“Acknowledged. Over.” His footsteps came c
loser. “Taryn?”
She could get used to waking up and having the first thing she saw be his gorgeous face, those cut arms. “I’m awake.”
“We need to go. I have everything packed and ready except your blankets.”
She scrambled to a seated position and smiled. “I’ll take care of these while you get the horses ready.” The thought of riding one almost sent her pulse into a frenzy, but she forced the anxiety back. She couldn’t let every little thing push her over the edge of panic. Not anymore.
“They go in that closet. You can leave the cot there.” He moved toward the door. “I put water on the fire a half hour ago. We’re good to go.” He unchained the door and peered into the atmosphere. “It’s still raining, but it’s more like a drizzle.”
“I’ll meet you outside.”
“Sounds good.” He ducked through the doorway and disappeared. Taryn did as she said she would and met him out front, where sure enough, he boosted her into the saddle of a horse. The ride back was miserable, with wind and rain driving into her face from time to time. Conversation couldn’t happen, but that suited Taryn just fine. She felt like she’d already revealed too much to Kenny, too soon. But he hadn’t seemed turned off. Just the opposite, in fact.
She allowed her thoughts to wander, and strangely they didn’t automatically go to the negative events of her recent past. Instead, she contemplated the feelings she’d had while trying to sleep last night. Feelings of contentment of living here—permanently. Feelings of attraction for the handsome marine who’d asked her out. Feelings of uncertainty that she could have this town and this man in her life when so much of it existed up in the air.
Pushing the worries away, she made it back to the ranch, back to her apartment, and into her warm shower.
Her phone rang as she finished toweling her hair, and her blood turned to ice. She eyed the phone like it would be her old boss—or worse, Chris—calling. She didn’t recognize the number, and she chose not to answer.
The call went to voicemail—which Taryn had also trained herself to delete without listening to—and the phone immediately began ringing again.
A peaceful feeling reminded her that she’d given her number to Kenny before leaving the ranch. She swiped on the call, the hope it would be him soaring toward the ceiling. When had she last let a man turn her into putty so fast?
“Hello?” she said much more hesitantly than she would’ve liked. She straightened her shoulders and looked into her own eyes. Be strong, she told herself as Kenny said, “Hey, there. Just checkin’ to see if you made it home okay. The rain really started up again as soon as you left the ranch.”
She leaned against the counter in the bathroom, the smile spreading across her face spontaneous and uncontrollable. “Had to use the wipers on double-time, but I made it.”
“That’s great.” He wore a smile in his words. “So we never planned a time to get together.”
“Oh, I’ll be out at the ranch tomorrow,” she said.
“You will?”
“Yeah, I work there, remember?”
“You can’t come tomorrow.”
“Why not?”
“The weather, remember?” He chuckled. “Surely you’re not going to drive in that.”
“It’s a little rain,” she said. “I have a job to do.” And she’d already lost today’s hours. She couldn’t afford to miss another day. “We can maybe eat lunch together. Do cowhands eat lunch?”
“Usually in a big group, at one of the homesteads. My guess is Miss Kelly will have lunch for us tomorrow.”
Taryn’s stomach swooped at the mention of a big group. Last year at this time, she would’ve been on Chris’s arm. And he was fun, and flirty, and the life of any gathering. She’d always been more reserved naturally, bringing out the act of perfection whenever the cameras switched on. But she loved being on the arm of the most popular man at the party.
“Oh, well, another day then.”
“What? No,” he said. “I’d gladly skip if you wanted to sneak off to the barn or something. We can eat in the hayloft, stay out of the rain.”
“Ooh, a hayloft. Sounds risky.”
Kenny laughed, the booming sound warming her across the distance between them. “The ladder is a bit rickety. I’ll fix it in the morning.”
She giggled. “You don’t need to fix the ladder for me.”
“I’d fix anything for you,” he said, his voice serious and quiet. So quiet, Taryn wondered if she’d heard him right.
Her reporter mind thought quickly and she said, “Well, I might just take you up on that, Sergeant Stockton.”
A pause on the other end of the line made her think perhaps he didn’t appreciate her brand of flirting. Then he said, “How’d you know I was a sergeant?”
“You left the closet door open,” she blurted, totally not employing her quick thinking reporter brain. Even something like Lucky guess would’ve been better than saying she’d snooped through the man’s closet mere minutes after walking in on him as he got dressed.
“I just saw the uniform. My brother—” She clamped her lips shut two words too late.
“It’s okay,” he said quickly to fill the gap. “Tell me later. And I did leave my closet open. Thanks for closing that. And, you know, for making my bathroom sink white again.” He chuckled nervously and cleared his throat. “I actually have another favor that might send you running for the hills.”
“Oh, I don’t run,” Taryn said, beyond relieved for his kindness in covering up her flub. The man was obviously made of patience—and a little dirt. She smiled at the memory of scrubbing his bathroom. “Unless there are large dogs chasing me. Will there be large dogs involved in this favor?”
His laughter came quickly, and she loved the joy emanating from him. She marveled at how easily he radiated such happiness, even over a phone line. “No dogs,” he promised. “Well, maybe a couple of dogs. But they’re old, and barely move, and I think even you could outrun them.”
“So what’s the favor?”
“Since my family is so far away, I usually stay here for the holidays. I go to my friend’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, and his mom just asked him how many would be coming.” He paused, and Taryn’s reporter radar went off.
“And?”
“And Charlie has a girlfriend this year, and I don’t want to be the third wheel. That, or get seated at the kid’s table because I’m a singleton. Believe me, it’s happened. And I have a hard time fitting my legs under those tiny tables.”
Taryn couldn’t help the laugh that burst from her mouth. “I’ll bet.” She tried to imagine the towering, wide marine squishing himself in with ten-year-olds.
“Wondered if you had anywhere to go for Thanksgiving.”
“As a matter of fact, I…don’t.” Of course, Taryn didn’t even know if she’d still be in town in three weeks, when Thanksgiving rolled around. With a fierceness of thought she hadn’t possessed since going for the nightly anchor position in Corpus Christi, she determined that she would be in Three Rivers for Thanksgiving.
“Great,” Kenny said. “So we can go together. His family’s in Amarillo.”
Taryn swallowed. “Amarillo. Fantastic.” But it so wasn’t fantastic. She’d avoided cities with more than fifty thousand people, where the newscaster world narrowed and everyone knew everyone else. She tugged at the ends of her dyed-black hair. It was one meal. Behind closed doors. She looked completely different now than she did six months ago.
“You been to Amarillo?” he asked.
“No.”
“Perfect,” he said, but she wasn’t sure why he thought so. “Okay, I have to go. See you tomorrow. Unless it’s raining too hard. Then you should stay home.”
He hung on the line, and she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Kenny. Good-night.” She pressed her eyes closed and hugged her phone to her heartbeat. If she let this gentle giant of a man into her life, what pain would she have to endure when they broke up? How far would she have to run?
Maybe you won’t break up, she thought as she snuggled into the couch with a blanket and the television set on low volume. Her first impulse was to scoff at the thought. She’d broken up with every man who’d even gotten close to talking about a long-term commitment. Some very publicly.
Her second thought was, Have faith. She seized onto that one, because it felt more hopeful, more helpful, than her usual self-depreciation.
With only twenty minutes of his lunch break left, Kenny paced in the barn. He hadn’t seen Taryn around the ranch that day, his calls went unanswered, and he wasn’t entirely sure what her car looked like.
“You’re trying too hard,” he muttered to himself. “You’ll scare her off before you’ve even had a chance to get to know her.” He gripped his phone, but he refused to call her again. Twice was enough. She knew where the barn was. She knew what time his lunch break started and ended.
He checked his phone again, just to be sure he hadn’t missed her. That would be easier to swallow than her outright rejection. Hadn’t missed her. His chest tightened and his stride lengthened.
The door opened, and he spun toward it, his heart galloping against this ribcage.
A woman moved toward him, and it only took Kenny a few steps for him to recognize Taryn. “You came,” he said as she stalled several feet from him.
“I wasn’t going to.” She scuffed her feet against the floor; the sound reverberated against Kenny’s pulse.
“Why did you then?” His words came out with too much bite, but he couldn’t help it.
She moved a couple of steps closer. Close enough to see the worried look in her eyes and the tension in her neck. “You’re so cute,” she said. “I was nervous. Took a while to get over my anxiety and get myself over here.”
He simply stared at her. She was nervous about spending time with him?
She glanced up to the loft. “So, have you eaten?” Her eyes came back to his, hooking and drawing him closer, deeper, farther than he knew a gaze could transport someone.
He lifted his brown paper sack, the top of which had paid the price of his frustration. “Not yet.” His throat felt dry and rough as sandpaper as he gestured her to go first up the ladder. It didn’t emit a single creak, and a crack of satisfaction at his handiwork stole through him.
Christmas in Three Rivers: Three Rivers Ranch Romance Novella Collection Page 21