Free A Cowboy For Christmas by Kristen James

with an ahh ! She leaned into him, going soft,
her hands relaxing on his shoulders, but it ended quickly. With a
shove, she separated them.
    Eyes dancing with fury and
heat, she declared, “I don’t have to kiss you, and I don’t have to
explain!”
    Taking her gently by the
chin, he held her so she looked straight into his eyes. “Of course
you don’t have to kiss me. But since you did back there, you should
tell me why you don’t want to do it again.”
    “ No!” She shook, trying not
to cry. “I can’t.”
    “ Why, Missy? What happened
that made you this way? Because your boss lied about you, or
because he did something else?”
    She stared at him with icy
eyes.
    “ He hurt you?” Sure, he was
blunt. He’d always been that way. But he regretted this instance of
it because the emotion slid off her face. He’d lost her.
    Instead of responding, she
passed him and walked down the hall. Man, he needed to learn how to
talk to people. He went to the bathroom door where she’d locked
herself in.
    “ I’m sorry,
Missy.”
    She answered with
silence.
    “ I’m too curious for my own
good.” He resigned himself to talking to the door. “I’ve grown to
care about you. It happened when we met, but I didn’t want to like
you. I can’t fight it now. So I’m sorry about whatever
happened.”
    Wow, his longest speech
ever. He heard quiet crying and nothing else.
    “ I hold on too tight, I
know.” Confession time now, he guessed. “I don’t want to push you
away. I don’t want to lose you, too.” She didn’t answer and he was
out of words.
    Now what? He could hear her
crying and couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
    Sure, he could sit and
wait. Or he could remember his place, or more specifically that
this was her place now, her home.
    “ Okay, I’m leaving, but I
won’t give up on you.” His legs felt stiff on his way out, like he
had to push through river water to get outside.
    He gulped down a cool
breath of sweet Oregon air. This complicated the hell out of
things, but there was no turning back.
     
    * * * *
    “ Has there been a flash
flood warning?” Dale asked as he met Brent at the stable entrance
in the early morning.
    “ Not officially, but I feel
something coming. Let’s get the rest of the horses in.” He’d
brought in two already, but he needed help to calm down the horses
remaining in the pasture.
    They were excited about
something, and it just might be the heavy rain they’d had for days
now.
    The horses couldn’t seem to
make up their minds once they were inside for the day. They settled
down, then panicked again.
    “ It’s just rain,” he
muttered to himself before the truth hit him. His mood, not the
weather, was spooking them.
    He trudged back to the
pasture. How was he supposed to act normal? He wanted to help Missy
through this, whatever it was. Plus, they couldn’t work together
with things the way they were.
    With the horses in their
stalls, he felt better.
    “ Brent?” That one quiet
word behind him made him jump. He turned around to find Missy
bundled in a thick brown jacket, her arms crossed and pulled
close.
    He stood, staring, a full
minute at her lips, red from the cold, and her weepy eyes. They
were wide, driving him crazy, and reminding him he should
answer.
    “ Missy.” He stepped closer,
gauging her reaction, but she didn’t move.
    “ I’m sorry I shut you out
like that.” She dropped her gaze.
    “ No, I am. I said the wrong
thing.” This felt like a second chance to talk things out, but he
knew to step lightly. He wondered if he could at least offer a hand
of support on her shoulder.
    She was trying not to cry
and needed something. So he took the last step, but stopped in
front of her, not touching, just waiting. “Well, if we’re both
sorry, let’s just move on. If you want to, that is.”
    When she nodded, he moved
his arm across her back and drew her closer. That sweet lavender
smell reached him right before she relaxed into him. Her head
leaned