A Cowboy For Christmas (A Copper Mountain Christmas) (2 page)

Carson did a traditional cut-tree service for the town as well and he was happy to be the caretaker of his mother
’s trees.

After they ate their dinner and his
brothers left, Carson sat there nursing his Sprite and pretending he was waiting until it was time to pick up Evan. A smart man would be on his feet and down at Grey’s Saloon instead of sitting in a corner booth watching the one who got away.

Of all the ways Annie had thought she
’d return to Marietta, this wasn’t it. The diner was busy, her feet ached, and she was trying hard to keep her smile from slipping, but it was challenging. She wasn’t eighteen and this job was exhausting. Plus everyone kept asking why she was back.

She wanted to do something stupid like climb on top of the counter and shout that she
’d screwed up and everyone had been right. Except she knew it was fatigue and nerves bothering her. And that damned Carson Scott.

Rockin
’ Around the Christmas Tree played merrily in the background but she felt it should be something more manic like the Divertissement from The Nutcracker Suite.

What she didn
’t get was why he still looked so good. He could have lost a little of his thick hair or maybe developed a beer belly, but no. If anything he was hotter than he’d been in high school. He kept his long legs stretched out the side of the booth and she could see that his boots were worn and his jeans faded. And his eyes were weary as they watched her.

It wasn
’t as if she’d quietly sneaked back into town and was safely hiding out at La Terre De Reves, her family’s old ranch. No – she was waitressing at the busiest restaurant in town just before the holidays. Over the next week, the town of Marietta would be getting ready for the Christmas Stroll. Once Flo had mentioned that Annie could draw, Paige had asked her to help decorate the windows.

Annie had put away her
sketch pads during her divorce, but when she’d stopped outside Amarillo for gas, she’d been unable to resist buying a plain drawing pad. And tonight she knew what she wanted to draw. She wanted to capture the lines of Carson’s face. The subtle changes that age had brought to his rough-hewn features.

“
Order up,” Flo called, and Annie ran back to the chicken nugget basket and steak sandwich platter for the dad and eight-year-old sitting in the corner booth.

“
Thanks, Flo.”

“
You’re welcome, hon. You doing okay?”

“
Ask me that later. I don’t have time to even think right now,” Annie said with a smile. Finally she thought of the silver lining to all of this. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t dwell on the past and what she’d lost while she was working this hard.

She served her table and then checked on the drinks for her diners and noticed her hands started to shake when she glanced over at Carson
’s table. His brothers had left and he was just sitting there by himself nursing his Sprite.

Her boss Paige was in her office in the back with her kiddos.
Normally she wasn’t in at night—according to Flo, but on Wednesdays one of the kids had some kind of class in town.

She
’d met the kids and smiled at them but kept her distance. Annie had never been good with children. To be honest, she didn’t see that changing any time soon. She’d been married for ten years to a con man and remained childless through choice. Once Davis had been arrested for fraud and convicted of running a Ponzi scheme on elderly investors, she’d divorced him and tried to get on with her life.

But her high-society friends had avoided her and she couldn
’t blame them, not really. She’d have done the same thing if she’d been in their shoes. She’d had nowhere else to go and only one place to call her own. La Terre De Reves ranch in Marietta, Montana. The one place she swore she’d never return to.

He glanced over at her again.
She straightened up and filled a glass with Sprite and headed over to his table.

“
Need a refill?”

“
Not as much as I’d like some answers,” he said.

“
To what questions?” she asked.

“
Why is the girl who swore she’d never return giving me a Sprite in the Main Street Diner?” he asked.

She shook her head.
She should have anticipated having conversations like this, but she’d been so focused on just getting away from Manhattan and starting over that she hadn’t though this through.

“
Maybe it’s a Christmas miracle. You know, one of those sappy stories where someone comes home and all their dreams come true.”

“
I don’t think coming home has to be sappy,” he said. “But then I guess we see the world differently.”

“
We sure do,” she agreed. She turned to go back to the kitchen area, but he stopped her with his hand on her wrist.

“
Sit down with me,” he said.

She couldn
’t think beyond the fact that he was touching her. His hand was big, calloused, and warm against her wrist. It had been so long since anyone had touched her... that had to be why a tingle shot up her arm from where he held her.

“
I... I don’t want to do this, Carson. This is my first night working here and I can’t afford to make a bad impression.”

“
You’re not busy, and if someone new comes in you can jump up and get their order,” he said. “Besides – I think maybe you owe me a few answers.”

“
Do I?” she asked tipping her head to one side so that her brown hair slid forward over the right side of her face. She absently reached up and tucked it behind her ear.

“
Yes, you do,” he said, keeping his gaze steady. He didn’t often ask for things but it was a well-known fact that when he did ask, he got what he wanted.

Really? Was she still giving in to Carson Scott?
As she lowered herself onto the bench across from him, she acknowledged that it made her feel good to have someone actually want to talk to her. Her sister Marilyn wouldn’t return her calls, and aside from Flo and Paige she hadn’t spoken to anyone other than her dog in over a week.

“
Okay I will,” she said.

“
Why are you back in Marietta?” he asked bluntly.

“
It’s my home.” No matter how much she’d once wished otherwise. Carson watched her with his steady blue eyes, his gaze serious and intent. It sort of made her want to be better than she was. She almost wished she could say she came back because she was ready to be here. But she knew that would be a lie.

“
Are you back to stay?” he asked.

“
Who wants to know?” she asked, trying for a convincing smile. Of course he’d ask the one thing she had no idea how to answer. She didn’t want to admit it to him or anyone else, but she was a mess.

“
Don’t play with me, Annie. This might be a game to you but I’m no one’s pawn,” he said.

“
I’m sorry. It’s easier to pretend that we don’t have a past.”

“
But we do,” he pointed out. “And I could do with a little honesty.”

“
I know. I just didn’t expect to see you again today.”

Or that I would feel this way when I did.

CHAPTER TWO

Coffee with Carson was the last thing she expected. But then it was becoming very clear that she hadn’t planned this out very well. The homey comfort of the diner made her feel nostalgic and long for something she wasn’t sure she really wanted.

I
’m Dreaming of a White Christmas played on the juke box and she smiled ironically at Carson. “Don’t dream about it, come to Montana.”

He gave her one of his half-smiles.
“No place prettier for Christmas than Marietta.”

She couldn
’t make herself agree. There was still too much unresolved about this place for her to just say, yes it was pretty. Marietta always made her feel a million and one different things. Just like Carson did.

It was tense, but she had a feeling that all the tension was on her side.
Carson looked like the laconic cowboy he was. Not a man for small talk or wasted gestures, so if she had to guess, there was a reason why he’d asked her to join him.

Christmas music played on the jukebox and through the decorated glass window she watched the snow falling on Main Street.
But in her mind the blues riff from Look at Little Sister rolled around. She felt embarrassed, she admitted to herself.

She didn
’t look her best and she wanted to if she was going to be sitting across from Carson. “What’d you want to talk about?”

“
You,” he said, the glass tumbler looked too small in his big work-roughened hands. He took a sip and put it back on the table in front of him. “Why’d you come back?”

She reached up to mess with her hair, a bad habit, and felt the shorter length and winced.
She’d always had long hair. But not anymore. She didn’t care how trendy ombre was, she couldn’t stand seeing her dark roots coming in and her highlighted hair still there. It had been one more reminder of how things used to be. “It’s the holiday season, Car. Everyone wants to be at home, right?”

“
Yeah, I might believe that if I hadn’t spent long summer days with you in the mountains talking about what we wanted. And not one time did you call Marietta home.”

“
Oh, I like Marietta. It was La Terra de Reves ranch that I couldn’t call home,” she said, but that was cutting a little too close to things she didn’t want to discuss with this cowboy.

“
But that’s old news. Catch me up on Carson Scott. The years have been good to you. You’re still looking good. Must be the air out there in Paradise Valley.”

“
I heard they have a lot of pollution in New York City, but it didn’t hurt you. You’re looking good too,” he said.

She tipped her head to the side and batted her eyelashes at him.
“Why thank you very much.”

He smiled like she wanted him to, but she noticed it didn
’t reach his blue eyes. He had big-sky-Montana blue eyes. Even when she’d been away from him there had been days when she’d looked up at the sky and had been reminded of those eyes.

“
What have you been up to in the last fifteen years?” she asked a bit awkwardly. She had that odd feeling that she still knew everything about him but it had been a long time and they were strangers now. “I haven’t been in town to know all the gossip.”

“
Let’s see...I got married about ten years ago,” he said.

She glanced at his left hand but there was no ring there.
Not even the sun line of a ring recently worn. But then some ranchers didn’t wear rings. Married. It shouldn’t affect her as strongly as it did. He belonged to another woman.

“
Still married?” she asked, admitting to herself she was jealous of his wife even though she had no right to be. It wasn’t as if she was still in love with Carson Scott, it was just… he’d sort of been hers and he wasn’t any more.

“
She’s dead, Annie. Died almost four years ago,” he said. His voice flat and low and she felt like an ass.

She
’d been jealous. To be fair, she couldn’t have known the circumstances, but still. “I’m so sorry. What happened?”

“
Car accident out on Highway 86. She was coming back from Billings,” he said. His voice was low and rough like sandpaper on her soul, and she ached for his loss. And if she was completely honest, she was envious that he’d found another person he had cared for that deeply.

She reached over and put her hand on his and squeezed it.
He turned his hand in her grip and squeezed back and she felt the sudden surge of tears as she realized this was the first comforting human touch she’d felt in the last year. She swallowed hard.

“
So you’re widowed now.”

“
And I’m a single dad. I have a six-year-old son. Evan. He’s got Rainey’s eyes, my hair with that stubborn cowlick, and the Scott attitude that he can do anything.”

“
Rainey—she was your wife?” Annie asked. She heard the love for her in his voice and the love he had for his son. And she wished just one time that her father had spoken of her or her sisters with that much love.

“
Yes. She moved here from Temecula—that’s California. She’d seen pictures of dude ranches and wanted the romanticized cowboy experience.”

Annie would be willing to bet she got it too.
One thing the Scott men knew how to do was cowboy. And they were all the things a cowboy should be—hard-working, honorable, sexy. Where had that come from?

She was here to start over, not relive the past.
Lust had been her downfall more than once. Only with Davis it had been lust for wealth and material things. With Carson lust was different--something very earthy and raw. And she thought she was probably old enough to know better. “And she found you.”

“
She did. What about you? Didn’t you marry someone back east?” he asked.

She took a deep breath.
That was a loaded question now wasn’t it? “I was married but I’m divorced now.”

“
What happened?”

“
It didn’t work out,” she said. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about that. She’d forgotten something about Marietta that she shouldn’t have. Everyone knew everyone’s business in town, but the outer world was kept out unless it involved rodeos or ranching. People didn’t watch CNN twenty-four-seven like they did in Manhattan.

For the first time she took a deep breath and exhaled all the negativity she
’d been carrying with her since she’d come back to town. There was a pretty good chance that most people here didn’t know what a scumbag Davis was or how he’d cheated everyone, including her.

“
Tell me about your son,” she said. “Evan, you said his name was. How’d you pick that name? I figured you’d pick a traditional Scott name.”

“
Evan was Rainey’s dad’s name. And God knows old Jeb didn’t need another grandson named after him. You know Alec has J.T.”

“
I didn’t know that. So Alec is married now?” she asked. Letting the conversation drift to his family. She sensed he was doing it because he didn’t want to talk about anything too personal... and that suited her just fine.

“
Yes – to Sienna. You’d like her. She’s feisty and doesn’t like ranch living either.”

That sounded like a can of worms she didn
’t need to open. “Ranches can be lonely places if you don’t have the right person by your side.”

“
I guess if you can’t recognize the right person, that might be true,” he said.

We
’re both entitled to keep our opinions – after all, we aren’t friends any more. We’re just strangers
.

“
What are you thinking?” he asked. “The Annie I used to know never looked that serious unless she was talking about the future.”

“
Just realizing we’re strangers and I have no one to blame but myself.”

He told her about his brothers and his dad, stuff that didn
’t mean anything because he hated to admit it, but there was a part of him that already was intrigued by Annie again.

He wondered if that made him the stupidest man in Montana because he knew that, despite the fact that Annie was back in Marietta, she wasn
’t back to stay. She’d never be happy here until she was happy with herself. And that was one thing he guessed hadn’t changed.

She looked restless and if he was being honest, more than a little lost, which meant she wasn
’t long for Marietta. Only a fool would fall for the same woman twice. And he wasn’t lost—the jury was still out on the fool part.

He knew who he was and where he belonged and he didn
’t think she was looking for a man like him. He rubbed the back of his neck. She hadn’t even asked to sit down, he’d invited her and now he was judging her.

“
Why are you back here?” he asked. “Not some sentiment like it’s Christmas and I had to come home.”

“
What if that’s the truth?” she asked.

“
I never knew you to be a liar, Annie. And we both know that you haven’t been home for the last fifteen Christmases. Not even the year your daddy died. So I’m curious about why you’re here now.”

She took a deep breath, turned to check the tables in the diner, and then nibbled at her lower lip as she stared at him with those gray eyes of hers.
“I wish I were lying, but to be honest, I had nowhere else to go. And coming home seemed like a good place to start.”

“
What do you mean? I thought you were a big-deal decorator in New York City,” he said.

“
Who told you that?” she asked.

He
’d seen her sister at the Copper Mountain Rodeo this summer. He’d never been the kind of guy to want to ride bulls or be a roper, but he enjoyed watching his friends participate. Plus Evan loved it. His son had an eye for the ladies and there was a pretty little six-year-old barrel racer by the name of Maisy that he had his eye on, which was how he’d met up with Marilyn.

“
Marilyn. I saw her at the rodeo this summer. She’s got a girl who’s a barrel racer.”

Annie
’s expression grew distant and she looked down at the table, drawing a shape in the ring of water left by the condensation on his glass. “That would be Josie, she’s like a mini-Marilyn except she’s not mad at me all the time,” Annie said.

“
Do you see them often?” he asked. Her family had a bit of tragedy—something that Carson realized everyone’s did as he got older. But it had torn the fabric of who Annie had been apart. He’d been close enough to see it first-hand.

“
Not really. Marilyn and I don’t get along. She thought when I bought the old ranch from her I’d move back, but…”

“
You didn’t,” he said. “Why buy it at all? Pops is interested in the land – at least for grazing rights if you want to make some money from it. Or are you planning to stay?”

“
I don’t know. I’ll think about the grazing rights.”

“
You do that,” he said. “I get the feeling you’re not telling me everything.”

“
Let’s just say I didn’t fall in love with someone as lovely as your Rainey and I don’t have any kids. Just another hard city woman.”

“
There’s nothing hard about it,” he said. “You seem—”

“
Beaten down? Damn, I knew that drugstore makeup wasn’t going to cover up the lines.”

“
Tired,” he said. “When did you get back to town?”

“
Today. I’ve been driving for three days.”

“
By yourself?” he asked, thinking that was a very long trip to do alone. Even though he knew it was the twenty-first century and women could take care of themselves, he didn’t like the thought of her on her own.

“
No. I had my bulldog with me.”

“
A bulldog? We have a bloodhound, Puddles, that Evan keeps in the house,”