A Little Country Christmas

by Carolyn Brown

  She relaxed into her chair and exhaled.

  “Is that why you’re installing a security system on the ranch? Because of how safe our town is?”

  He laughed. “Maybe I’m a little jaded from my time away, but I’m learning. It’s also good to know that when something happens—when you or the sheriff or Deputy Crawford is needed—you have what’s necessary to do your job and to stay safe while you do it. That starts with the roof over your head, the floor beneath your feet, and everything in between.”

  Sheriff Thompson stood, grabbed his hat off the corner of his desk, and dropped it on his head. “I already gave Mayor Cooper my take on the situation, but I’d really love your input, too, Deputy Garcia. So if it’s okay with both of you, I’ll leave you to it. I have a few personal things to take care of before nightfall.”

  Peyton stood and shook the sheriff’s hand. “Jeremiah,” he said.

  “Peyton,” the sheriff replied, then he turned to Dani, who was too stunned to speak.

  Jeremiah?

  Peyton?

  Had Dani missed a budding bromance when she wasn’t looking?

  No one called Sheriff Thompson anything but Sheriff Thompson, in public or otherwise. It was like Sheriff was his first name. Of course she knew it was Jeremiah, but hearing it was like—it was like seeing a dog walk down the street on its hind legs.

  She stood, too, not that she had a habit of formal partings with her boss but because it just felt weird to be the only one still sitting. This whole exchange, from the second she walked through the door, had felt weird.

  “Enjoy your time off, Deputy,” the sheriff said with a smile, and then he was out the door.

  She spun back to face the mayor…Peyton…Coop. How the hell was she supposed to think of him after last night? After two nights of kissing this man who was a stranger but not.

  “Deputy Garcia,” he said with a soft smile, then shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

  “Yeah?” she responded.

  He shrugged. “You look like you want to say something. Probably lots of things. So I’m just waiting for it.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms. “I feel like I’m being set up somehow. So I’m just pausing to assess the situation. If Sheriff Thompson…I’m sorry. Apparently you call your buddy Jeremiah now? If Jeremiah…” She shook her head. “Nope. Can’t do it. No one’s called him that out loud for years. I can’t start doing it now. If Sheriff Thompson already told you what needs fixing around here, which is everything, then what do you need me for?”

  He wrapped a gentle hand around each of her wrists. “May I?” he asked, urging her to uncross her arms and let them fall to her sides, and she nodded, granting his request to speak, trying to ignore how her heartbeat sped up the second his skin touched hers.

  “For this,” he said, cradling her cheeks in his palms and dipping his head to brush his lips across hers.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and let her whole body—tense with anticipation until this very minute—melt like warm chocolate against his.

  She felt his lips part in a smile against hers, and she couldn’t help but smile too.

  “All I’ve been able to think about since you left last night was this,” he said between kisses.

  She nodded, hoping he understood the same was true for her, because talking meant giving up his lips, and she wasn’t ready to do that just yet.

  He must have, because he didn’t say anything else, not for a few wonderful minutes, at least. Finally, though, when it seemed they both needed air, he lifted his head, and she was happy to see his lips looked as kiss-swollen as hers felt.

  “What are you doing for the rest of the day?” he asked. “Other than making me a spreadsheet, though I was hoping that could wait at least until you were back on desk duty.”

  Her mouth fell open, but no words came out of it. At least not as quickly as she would have liked.

  She was going to go for a run and then maybe contact the artist who was auctioning off the ornament, see if she might be able to get an in-person look at the piece. He was only about an hour outside of town…

  “So you’re that busy,” Peyton teased. “Because I was hoping to steal you for a few hours.”

  Her eyes widened, and her ability to form words returned with a vengeance.

  “So you assume I have nothing to do, huh?” she teased back, but there might have been a tiny bite to her tone. “Because I have things to do, Mr. Mayor. I have an afternoon run planned. And Meadow Valley has been cleared out of any and all holiday decorations for purchase, but there’s this life-sized ornament and this artist and—”

  “Dani?” he said, her name soft and gentle on his lips. Ugh. She really liked those lips.

  “Yeah?”

  “You don’t need to give up your day for me. But seeing as the whole town pretty much shuts down from now until the day after Christmas—whether I like it or not—I had some free time and thought I might take you out. Like, on a date.”

  “A date?” she asked.

  “A date,” he said again, nodding.

  “So…a date,” Dani repeated.

  Peyton laughed. “You’ve been on one before, right? It’s when two people who like each other—and seem to really like kissing each other—do a thing like go out to dinner. Maybe take in a movie after. Stuff like that.”

  Dani blinked. “But it’s not dinnertime. And the closest movie theater is forty-five minutes away.”

  He raised a brow. “That’s why I have something else planned,” he said. “It involves a horse named Ace who right now is assessing whether or not I did an adequate job cleaning up and restoring the stable on my property or if he should hightail it back to the Meadow Valley Ranch. Borrowed him from Sam, Ben, and Colt.”

  Dani threw back her head and laughed. “A horse? You think I’m getting on a horse? You, my friend, need to research your dates better. I’m not getting on a horse. The only saddle I sit in has two wheels beneath it.”

  “Jeremiah said he’s thinking about employing a horse or two at the Sheriff’s Department. Says you all don’t need to travel that far on a daily basis and that it’s better for the environment.”

  Her eyes widened. “Like hell he is! I can assure you there is nothing in my employment contract stipulating how I get from point A to point B, and I plan on keeping it that way, thank you very much.”

  Peyton didn’t flinch. He simply held out a hand.

  “Come on,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”

  She didn’t take the bait.

  Kiss the mayor in her boss’s office? Sure. Hop on the back of a horse with him? Not happening.

  “I’m good,” she said.

  “If you’re scared,” he said hesitantly, “I can promise you’ll be safe. I’ll be on the horse with you the whole time. Ace is the best there is. Between him and me, you’re in good hands. Or hooves. Both, I guess,” he added with a chuckle.

  “I’m not scared,” she said defensively. She was terrified. You didn’t control an animal. Animals controlled you. “So, you know, thanks for the offer. But if you want to plant another one on me before I get on with the rest of my day, that would be acceptable.” She tugged the sides of his unzipped vest, urging him closer.

  He smiled and tilted his head toward hers but stopped short.

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  “There is nothing I want more than to kiss you again, Deputy. But I’m going to hold my pretty little pucker ransom long enough for me to show you that a ride in my saddle is just as satisfying as a ride in yours.” He grinned. “That came out a little—um—” He let out a nervous laugh. “You know what I mean.”

  “But I—”

  “You can go for your run,” he said. “I’m happy to wait. And your ornament thing, too, whatever that is. I’m patient. I’d just really like to show you something before sundown, and Ace is the best form of transportation to get there. And I probably should have mentioned earlier that
our destination is holiday-related.”

  She sighed. “Are you going to kiss me if I say yes?”

  He grinned. “I am.”

  “And if your four-legged friend decides he doesn’t like me as much as you do and tosses me to the curb, do I get to say ‘I told you so’ and send you all my medical bills?”

  He laughed. “Isn’t a motorcycle just as dangerous?”

  She shook her head. “An injury on horseback is something like three and a half times more likely than an injury on a bike. Eli Murphy’s wife…” She trailed off.

  “I know,” he said. “I feel terrible about him losing Tess. But Dani, I promise that I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Ace and I will keep you safe.” He kissed her. “I’ll keep you safe.”

  He took a step back and waited for her to respond.

  “That’s usually my job, you know. Keeping people safe,” she said, a smile on her lips to mask the fear she very poorly disguised.

  “Can I ask?” he said. “Have you fallen before?”

  She blew out a breath and nodded. “My dad loved to ride. He still does as far as I know.” She shrugged. “It was our thing for a while. I was fifteen the last time we went. Tried bareback for the first—and last—time. Lost my grip and broke my fall with my right hand. Heard my wrist snap and everything.”

  Peyton winced. “I’m sorry that happened. Does it make me sound like a creep if I admit to remembering your arm being in a cast? It was green, right? Figured that was why I didn’t see you at the winter formal—you being injured and all.”

  Her eyes widened. He didn’t see her at the dance because he’d assumed her invitation was from someone else. Still, she couldn’t hide her surprise. His so-called crush on her in high school could have been nothing more than him feeding her a line. But her cast? Her absence from the dance? While these were the hallmarks of the worst time in her life, they should have been minor details to someone like him. Yet he recalled both as if it were yesterday. Her chest tightened at the thought. “You really do remember me from high school?”

  He laughed. “I thought we already established my unrequited crush.” His smile faded. “What happened with your dad?”

  She let out a bitter laugh. “That day he was great. Got me right to the hospital. Took me to the bookstore for Mrs. Davis’s homemade ice cream after and promised me that every good rider takes a tumble or two but that he’d always be on the horse next to me keeping me safe. A week later he and my mom told us they were separating, and he moved out. A year after that, he moved to Miami and remarried.”

  She’d always told herself the reason she’d never gotten back on a horse was because she couldn’t count on the animal not to hurt her again. Her wrist healed though. It was her family’s splitting up she couldn’t fix.

  He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “We don’t have to do this. The last thing I want to do is drag up painful memories for you. I’m an expert at avoiding my own, so I get it. But if you can trust me to keep you safe, on and off the horse, maybe we can make a new memory. For both of us.” He held out his hand once more. “What do you think?”

  Dani released a shuddering breath. Maybe it was time to let go of some of the pain she’d been holding on to for fifteen years—about her parents, about a stupid crush on an oblivious boy who maybe wasn’t so oblivious anymore.

  She laced her fingers through his, and he squeezed her tight. For the first time in years, she let herself trust someone other than her mom and Deputy Crawford, not only with her physical well-being but with a tiny piece of her heart.

  Baby steps, right?

  “Okay, Coop,” she finally said. “I trust you.”

  Chapter Eight

  Dani had decided to forgo the run, unable to tamp down the anticipation of an afternoon with Mayor Cooper. Peyton. Coop.

  Who wanted to keep her safe.

  “Nobody can harm you if I’m around, mija. I will always keep you safe,” Dani’s father would say. Even when she technically did get harmed falling off the horse, she still felt protected having her dad there. Dani knew she wasn’t unique in being the child of a fractured family. But how could he tell her that he’d always be there—and then leave? Her sister, Julia, had forgiven him, had even called it an opportunity to be near him again when a recruiter snagged her right off her culinary school campus to train as a sous-chef at an up-and-coming restaurant in Miami.

  “It’s a chance to reconnect, Dani,” she insisted. “It’s time to get to know him as an adult, you know?”

  Dani didn’t know, at least not anything other than that some of the people she loved most in the world thought Meadow Valley wasn’t enough for them when it was for her. That home wasn’t enough. That she wasn’t enough.

  Now she was the one so much of her town counted on. She kept them safe. And suddenly Peyton Cooper wanted to lift some of that burden and do the same for her.

  She’d run home to change. All he’d seen her wear since they’d started spending time together this week was either her uniform or running gear. She’d had to dig into the recesses of her small closet to find her jeans. As far as warm tops went, she had the choice of either her red-and-green argyle Christmas sweater—which was usually earmarked for Christmas Eve and the lights parade—or a black-and-white flannel she could layer beneath a heather-gray fleece pullover. She went for the flannel and fleece.

  She topped off the look with a black knit cap and fleece-lined gloves and then laughed when she caught a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door.

  If not for her steel-toed work boots—the only shoes she owned other than her running shoes and one pair of dress shoes—she looked like she’d stepped right out of an Eddie Bauer catalog.

  “Eddie Bauer is suitable date attire, right? Because this is as fancy as I get,” she said out loud.

  This is me, Coop. Hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.

  Soon she was on her bike and heading down the road to the old Cooper home. He was sitting on the porch, his feet resting on the bottom step, when she came to a stop in front of the house. He was on his feet and jogging toward her before she was out of her seat.

  “Have I told you how incredibly sexy you look on that bike?” he said as she took off her helmet and locked it to the back of the cycle.

  “Yeah, well, wait until you see how awkward I am on the back of a horse,” she said. “You’ll forget all about your little motorcycle fantasy. Not that I’m suggesting you fantasize about me or have fantasized about me or—” She stopped and straightened the cap on her head. “Congratulations, Mr. Mayor. I’ve nudged the needle over to awkward already.”

  He laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners, and then dipped his head toward hers.

  “Deputy Garcia,” he said softly, his breath warm against her ear. “You couldn’t look awkward if you tried. Sexy as hell on the back of a motorcycle? Sure. But awkward? Not even close.” He patted the seat of her bike.

  Dani swallowed. If he didn’t stop saying things like that, they were never going to make it to the stable.

  Wait. Wasn’t that what she wanted? She thought for a second about Coop’s warm house, how much warmer it might be under the quilt he’d given her last night, and how much warmer, even, that quilt might be over, say, two people lying next to one another in a bed.

  “Let’s go,” he said, then straightened to his full height. “Ace is waiting for us.”

  Okay, then. Maybe they weren’t quite on the same page.

  They strode around the house to the stable, and Dani finally understood why after six months, the house part of the Cooper property was still under construction.

  The stable looked brand-new, the siding painted a pristine white and the roof boasting a weather vane that made it abundantly clear it would be a windy ride. On the concrete at the entryway sat fresh hay, bundled and stacked in a short, neat pile.

  “You did this?” she asked, knowing the place hadn’t been touched in years
before Peyton’s arrival back in Meadow Valley.

  He nodded. “The sooner I can get horses back on the property, the better. I’ve got running water and heat in the house. The rest will come in time.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and tilted her gaze up to his.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said. And even though she knew nothing of horses or stables, she was sure he’d done an amazing job restoring it inside and out. “I bet your mom and dad would be so proud of you.”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw, but then he smiled.

  “Thanks,” he said, his voice tighter than she’d expected. “How about we go meet Ace?”

  He grabbed a gray wool cap from the back pocket of his jeans and pulled it over his head. Then he strode to the stable door and held it open for her.

  “We’re really doing this, huh?” she asked with a nervous laugh, and this time his smile looked genuine. His shoulders seemed to relax.

  “We are, Deputy. You remember my promise, don’t you?”

  He was going to keep her safe.

  She nodded. “Okay, Mr. Mayor,” she teased, hoping to cover the slight tremor in her voice. “Let’s ride.”

  * * *

  Dani looked down at the black-and-white spotted animal beneath her and then over her shoulder at Peyton.

  “I’m still here, Deputy,” he said with a chuckle. “You okay? I can sit in front if you’re more comfortable with that. I just wanted you to have an unobstructed view when we get to where we’re going. I’m usually a sucker for an overcast day. Lets me get in my broodiest, grinchiest mood,” he teased. She could hear the smile in his voice. “But I have to admit that today I’m thankful for the sunny skies.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “You’ll find out. But before we get going, I need you to answer my very important question. Are you, Deputy Daniela Garcia, okay with your front-row view?”