A Cowboy For Christmas (A Copper Mountain Christmas) (8 page)

She pulled the bread out from under the broiler and wrapped it in a towel in a basket and placed it on the table.
It would be so easy to just say yes and let herself fall for Carson. Really fall for him because when she’d been younger she’d been too focused on leaving to ever realize what a great guy he was.

But was she trading her dreams for someone else
’s again? That was what she’d done with Davis. Was she so easily led that she never knew what she wanted?

“
You okay?” Carson asked from the door.

She turned, taking his long, lean frame.
Those long legs encased in faded denim that hugged his body in all the right places. The worn cowboy boots that were functional, not fashionable, and the long sleeved Zac Brown Band t-shirt that clung to the muscles of his arms and chest. She wondered why she was thinking so hard on this – on him.

She wanted Carson and if he made her happy, who cared whose dream it was?

“Yes,” she said, deciding to stop trying to make everything fit into her ideal of perfect when it was clear that hadn’t worked for her in the past.

“
I think I am.”

Carson knew he was a taking a risk, but since Rainey
’s death he’d hadn’t been much for playing it safe. Life was short – no one understood that better than he did. And Annie had always been the one woman who’d been able to make him feel wild. When they were younger she’d almost convinced him he was meant to leave Marietta... but in the end he knew he’d been right to stay.

But now that she was back in town… well, only a fool would let the same woman slip away twice.

Dinner was good and the conversation stilted at times but he didn’t mind it. It felt right, even the odd bits. They were slowly coming to know each other again. He took another sip of the Chianti she was serving and then leaned back, pushing his chair up on two legs.

“
What’d you do then?” she asked.

“
Lassoed my son to keep him from running off. You should have seen the looks I got from those soccer moms at the playground.”

She laughed.
“It worked, didn’t it?”

“
Yes, but then Connie Miller… she was Connie Perkins when were in school, said that three-year-olds weren’t calves and needed to be taught to listen.”

“
How’d you manage that?”

“
I have no idea, but Evan liked playing rodeo which was what we’d always called the game, so we still did it when we were at home. But at the park I’d just yell rodeo and he’d stop running away from me.”

Talking about Evan now made their learning curve seem funny but in reality it had been hard and scary.
And that night after Connie had talked to him, he’d lain awake in bed praying to a God he wasn’t sure existed to help him make sure he didn’t screw his son up.

“
I’m scared to be a parent. Hell, I was scared talking to Evan earlier today that I’d say the wrong thing,” Annie admitted. “I can’t even remember the last time I talked to a kid before I moved back here.”

“
Not a lot of kids in New York City?” he asked.

“
Not in my circles. And if anyone did have children they had nannies, so I rarely saw them except in vacation photos,” she said.

“
Your life sounds weird,” he said.

“
It was. We didn’t even decorate our own homes for the holidays. We had services who come in and do it all for you.”

He tipped his head to the side there was a bit of self-deprecation in the way she was talking.
“Did you like that? I thought you were a decorator by trade.”

“
I am,” she said. “I was a pain in the ass as they walked through my home trying to do their jobs. I made sure they put up only things that suited my taste. But that’s not the same. Some people would say that was bad karma.”

“
Evan and I do the tree together every year,” he said. “You think you’re going to be able to remember how to do yours?”

She tipped her head to the side, studying him with that wintry gray gaze of hers.
What was she trying to find inside him when she looked at him like that? He hoped she found it.

“
Want to help me?”

“
I did already – I strung your lights,” he said, with a half-grin. He’d taken a look at her other decorations. There weren’t any signs of her life in New York. He’d have thought she’d have boxes piled up in the house but she didn’t seem to have brought anything at all from her old life with her, but then he remembered she’d had to get rid of everything to pay back her ex-husband’s debts. “I have no problems helping with the rest.”

“
Good, I could use some muscle. Now that I fed you it’s the least you could do,” she said, with a sweet smile and some batting eyelashes.

He liked
her, he was trying to be cool and go slow but the good food and having his old friend back in town made that hard. He’d eaten two big helpings as well as most of the garlic bread. Annie didn’t eat like a bird but she was nowhere near his size and ate a significantly smaller amount. He enjoyed the novelty of just eating his food instead of having to stop and cut up Evan’s and telling him to use his fork.

She was looking at him and he noticed she
’d finished eating. “I guess I should clean up.”

“
Why?” she asked. “You’re my guest.”

“
You cooked, I clean, right?” That was the deal he’d always had with Rainey and when he’d been growing up as well.” His mom had put all of their names on the calendar when they’d been young and each night one of them had to clean up the kitchen while she supervised. She’d sit at the table drinking a cup of tea and Carson had enjoyed those nights a lot. It was only time he’d had his mom to himself.

“
Is that how it works?” she asked.

“
Yes, that is how it works. No one should do it all. I’m a grown man and don’t need you to be my servant.”

She leaned over and kissed him quick on the lips.
“Thank you, Carson. It’s been so long since I’ve been around a real man… just pile the dishes in the sink and then meet me in the living room.”

She scooted out of the kitchen and he watched her go, enjoying the sight of those tight jeans and the curve of her ass in them.
He made short work of the dishes and looked around the kitchen after wiping down the counter and notice the photo on the refrigerator behind a Johnson’s Auto Insurance magnet that had been handed out in the nineties.

The photo was of her dog sitting on a park bench with sunshine all around.
He thought of how few people she had in her life. It didn’t fit with her personality. She’d always been social – what had happened in New York to change that? Then he saw the small red and green braided dough wreath ornament next to it. Her family had been so close before Gilly’s cancer. He knew that had changed all of them, but especially Annie. She’d started running then.

Was she ever going to stop running?

He wanted answers, but as he entered the living room and found her looking at the tree, lost in thought, he knew now wasn’t the time for the third degree. She needed a friend... and as much as he wanted to be her lover, he’d learned that being friends first was the best way to have a lasting relationship.

And he wanted that.
The more he got to know Annie, the more he wanted to keep her in his life for Christmas and the future.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The snow fell outside, getting heavier and heavier as she stood staring at the lights, feeling the mistakes of the past scattered around her like shards from the glass ornament she
’d broken. She knew she should pick it up, but instead she just stood there transfixed – caught between the past and the present.

“
I think the storm that was threatening is finally here,” she said.

“
Let me check the news.”

“
You’ll have to do it on the radio, I don’t have television service yet.”

He pulled out his smartphone and did some quick tapping.
“I might get snowed in tonight.”

“
Do you want to go now? Will Evan be okay?”

“
He’s spending the night with my dad, he’ll be fine.”

But the snow outside her door was coating everything in white.
Making the overgrown lawn look pretty, pristine. Just like her life could be now. She cleaned up the ornament and tossed it in a box she’d set aside for trash and went back to standing in front of the tree. Otis Redding was singing a Christmas song, and she let everything slip away. She wasn’t sure how people lived for the moment.

She had a damned hard time letting go of everything.

“Tis the season to be joyful,” Carson said, quietly as he came up next to her.

“
Is it joyful for you?” she asked.

“
Most of the time. I miss my mom and Rainey and my grandparents but there are so many new faces too – like Evan and my nephew JT and seeing them discover our family traditions for the first time or look forward to them… well, yeah, it does bring me joy.”

“
I bet it’s like that for Marilyn,” Annie said. “I don’t have any traditions.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“Then let’s start some.”

She wanted to but then she started worrying if he
’d be with her next Christmas. “What if—

“
No. No questions, we are going to start a tradition and that’s it.”

“
Okay, so what is the tradition going to be?”

“
Well it starts with me delivering your tree and you fixing me lasagna for dinner… see how I’ve guaranteed you’ll make dinner for me again?”

“
In a year? Don’t you want dinner before then?” she asked, worried. She realized that she was afraid because she wanted this to be real. She wanted everything she felt for Carson to be perfect and if it wasn’t she had no idea what she’d do. She was out of places to run to. Maybe that would be enough. Maybe it’d be enough to stay this time.

“
We’ll have dinner again before next Christmas, but this is about our tradition.”

“
Okay,” she said. Stop worrying, she warned herself. “What’s next?”

“
Well, we decorate your tree,” he said.

“
You’re just saying the things we’re doing,” she said. “Does that count?”

“
That’s how traditions get started,” he said. He took a box of hand-wrapped ornaments that had been her mom’s and handed them to her.

She took them and unwrapped them slowly.
“This one was my paternal grandmother’s.”

“
Tell the stories behind it. How did you end up with it?” he asked.

“
She gave it to us the year that Gilly got diagnosed with cancer—the first time. This little angel was meant to watch over us and make sure that Gilly got healthy again. Grandma P came for Christmas that year and she helped us make a chain for the tree that was made of wishes. We each wrote them on a scraps of paper and then she made them into rings and we draped our wishes around the tree and the house,” Annie said. She’d forgotten how special that Christmas had been. So full of both fear and hope much the same as she felt this year.

“
What a wonderful memory,” Carson said.

“
It is. I’d forgotten. I remember how bitter I was toward the ranch. I called it hell on earth. That wasn’t fair,” she said.

He came over to her, standing way too close and looking way too good for her peace of mind.
“You were young. At least now you can appreciate it.”

“
I definitely can,” she said.

They finished up the tree with her telling him a few more stories and Carson sharing how the Scott men always strung a lot of feet of popcorn and decorated the banisters in the big old ranch house that had been in their family for generations.

“How long does that take?” she asked.

“
An entire day. We eat almost as much as we string. Mom always used to make us say something we were grateful for.”

“
How’s that work?” she asked. “You did seem to be fighting a lot with your brothers when you were younger.”

“
Well, when mom was in the room we’d say things
like I’m grateful Alec passed his old saddle on to me
. But when she left I might say
, I’m grateful Lane is such a wuss so I can beat him up
.”

She laughed and he shook his head.

“Now I’m grateful Lane is home.”

“
I bet. I heard he was wounded in Iraq,” she said. Flo had mentioned it at the diner after the Scotts had left last Wednesday night.

“
Yes, he lost the lower half of his left leg. He wears a prosthetic now so you wouldn’t know, but for a while it was touch and go. We’re all just glad he’s home.”

She hung the last ornament on the tree and stepped back as she did so.
Carson stepped back too.

“
What do you think?”

“
Beautiful.”

“
You’re not looking at the tree.”

“
No, I’m not. I’m looking at you, Annie Prudhomme and thinking.”

“
What are you thinking?”

“
That I’m glad you’re home,” he said.

She was glad too, especially when he snagged the thick wool blanket off the back of the couch and spread it out in front of the fire.
He sat down, maneuvering until his back rested against the couch and he was facing the tree. Then he patted the blanket next to him. “Come sit with me. Let’s stare at the lights and pretend that Christmas miracles do happen and that this is the beginning of some very sweet traditions for both of us.”

She hesitated as fear nipped at her again but then she looked into those big-sky-blue eyes of his and realized that there was nowhere she
’d rather be than in his arms. She sank down next to him and he put his arm around her shoulder and drew her close, resting his head on top of hers. Slowly the fear she felt in herself melted away, leaving nothing but the fact that she was being held by her very own Christmas cowboy.

Carson tipped Annie
’s head back and she closed her eyes. He suspected she was trying to hide whatever she felt from him and he was okay with that. Holding her had convinced him that whatever happened later tonight, he wanted Annie and he wasn’t walking away from her.

He touched her gently.
One finger tracing the planes of her face, they’d dated and he’d been hot and horny back then but she’d been determined to not sleep with him. It was heady to have her in his arms now. The high cheekbones, that narrow nose of hers, and then that stubborn chin. Her neck was long and slender and he leaned down brushing his lips over hers, seducing her with slow, soft kisses. Because after waiting so long to have this one woman in his arms, the last thing he wanted to do was rush.

Yet his body seemed to have other ideas.
His fingers tingled where he touched her and a fire seemed to start deep inside him, spreading quickly through his entire body. He reached the small buttons at the top of her Henley shirt and slowly undid them, one by one. Three little buttons that ended in the heart of her cleavage.

Her eyes opened and she looked over at him.
That sexy-sweet look in her eyes, and he wondered if he’d ever be able to really know what she was thinking. He knew she had no idea what she did to him. She shifted to her knees and pulled her shirt up and over her head, then moved to straddle his lap. He groaned as a bolt of pure lust shot through him making his blood flow heavier in his veins.

God, he wanted this woman.
He’d been hungry for her for too long. His hands went from her waist up her midriff, touching her ribs. She giggled as he ran his fingers over her skin.

“
Ticklish?”

“
You know I am,” she said. She reached for his ribs and danced her fingers over them. But he didn’t feel like laughing.

“
I like your hands on me.”

“
I do too,” she said.

He found the scar he remembered her getting when they were kids playing in the swimming hole on his family
’s ranch. It was about three inches long and still rough.

“
I remember this,” he said, pulling her closer so he could lean down and kiss it. He lapped his tongue over it and realized that all the wounds she was carrying with her right now would one day be scarred over as well.

She put her hands on his shoulders and then in his hair.
“You have a great hair, Car. It’s so thick and soft, I love touching it.”

“
I love touching your skin,” he said, skimming his fingers up her back to the clasp of her bra. It was a very pretty lace and silk model that covered her breasts. He didn’t pull the fabric from her but instead used his mouth to trace the outline of the fabric around her and then leaned his head back to look up at her.

She straddled him and stared down at him with a hot glance that made him glad he was a man and that she was his woman.
She shifted so that her center rubbed against his thickening manhood. He put his hands on her hips and rocked her back and forth at a slow pace to just tease them both because it felt so damned good.

She tossed her bra off on the floor behind them.
He palmed her breasts as she leaned forward and whispered in his ear, hot sexy words that made him almost explode. He’d waited for her for years and now all that time apart seemed almost worth it. “You’re mine, now.”

He grabbed her waist in both of his hands and rolled her over so she was underneath him.
His control was falling away with each brush of their bodies together, but he wasn’t willing to give in to her. Grinding his hips against hers he took her hands in one hand, stretching them up over her head. “Who’s in control now?”

She rocked her hips, twisting them a little and then leaned up to bite the lower lobe of his ear before sucking it into her mouth.
He was so hard he thought he’d explode in his pants. “I think I am.”

“
Are you sure?” he asked, dropping teasing kisses all over body and watching her react. Her skin was glowing and soft and her hips undulated as he continued touching her. He craned his neck and captured her nipple in his mouth, she tasted warm and sweet. She arched underneath him, driving him out of his mind with her movements.

He fondled her other breast slowly exploring every inch of her torso and enjoying the fact that he had the right to do so.
He wanted to go slowly but the demands of his body were eroding his own self-control. He lowered his head and licked at her belly button and then moved lower to open her jeans. He reached inside, skimming his hand lower to trace the line of fabric low on her abdomen between her skin and her panties.

He swept one finger beneath the band and felt her smooth skin.
He shifted back on his knees and pulling her jeans down her legs and then shifting around to get them completely off her legs. He stayed where he was next to her on the blanket. She was naked except for a pair of thick red socks.

Centerfolds had nothing on Annie.
She was the embodiment of every wet dream he’d had in high school and he couldn’t wait to plunge inside her. And at the same time he also sort of wanted the after too. He wanted to hold her all night and thanked God for the storm that would keep him here.