Kitabı oxu: «Cowboy Christmas Blues»

CHAPTER ONE

GOLD VALLEY AT Christmastime hadn’t changed at all since Cooper Mason had left town eight years ago. Every streetlight was wrapped in white Christmas lights, and wreaths and more white lights covered the redbrick buildings, window displays reflecting the season in each little shop.

He hated it. All of it.

And sure, he had come to terms with Christmas since Lindsay’s death, because you couldn’t exist in the world and not figure out a way to survive the season. But he had deliberately avoided this little corner of Oregon since then.

Because the last thing he needed was to be inundated with memories of his older sister and the joy she had taken in celebrating. The joy she had taken in everything, in spite of her illness.

Gold Valley was the same now as it had been eight years ago, and the same eight years ago as it had been when they were children. So it was easy now to envision her, rosy-cheeked and standing in front of the antique-toy store, her face pressed against the glass as she exclaimed over dolls and blocks, books and art supplies. Before sickness had stolen so much of who she was.

She’d been sixteen when she’d gotten sick, already dating Grant Dodge, who married her as soon as it was legal. Knowing she wouldn’t live long. Their love story had made national headlines. A love story that was doomed already, which the public found so much more romantic than a love that might last a lifetime.

God knew why.

Cooper knew there wasn’t a hell of a lot that was romantic about death.

He shouldn’t have let his parents talk him into coming home for the holidays.

He always felt a little bit guilty about the way his visits home went. He avoided his old friends. Avoided people he’d been close to before. His football buddies from high school, Nate and Jason, who had wives and kids now. He hadn’t seen Ben Preston in years. The older man had been his dad’s mechanic and friend, and had been like an uncle to Cooper. Ben’s chubby little girl, Annabelle, had always trailed around after him on the farm when they’d come to visit.

He didn’t even know if Annabelle lived here anymore.

There was a time when she’d almost been like another sister to him. Now, he just tried not to think much about the past.

Cooper had lost touch with this place, and he’d done it mostly on purpose. Normally, he could outpace the guilt just fine. But sometimes...

He shook his head and went into the saloon, which was where he had spent most of his time this week. At least inside the Gold Valley Saloon there was some respite from the seasonal cheer. Some respite from the family home that was a shrine to Lindsay and all that she had been.

Here, it was just the bar. Just alcohol and people coming together for their own reasons. To escape real life, to visit with friends. To hook up.

Cooper snorted. He wasn’t about to hook up anytime soon. He hadn’t come back to this small town to cause trouble. He was way better off waiting until he left. But he couldn’t deny that a little sex to take the edge off would be welcome.

But the gossip line in town was like a vine and rumors grew on it like grapes, and there was no way he wanted to get enmeshed in that. He had extricated himself. He had gotten out. He spent his days moving cattle around the country from ranch to ranch, never staying in one place very long. And that suited him just fine. He lived on the road, occasionally stopping to visit his parents. But never for that long. And never at this time of year.

He should have stuck to his guns on that one. But he couldn’t resist his mom when she got emotional, and she’d been filled with conviction that he needed to come home for Christmas this year. Because it had been too long since he had. Because it had been Christmastime eight years ago when Lindsay had taken a sharp turn for the worse and passed away just before New Year’s. And the memories were all oppressive now, even more than they usually were.

Cooper didn’t want to think about it. Cooper wanted a drink.

He went up to the counter and took a seat, waiting for the bartender, Laz Jenkins, to come over and take his order.

And that was when she caught his eye. Standing over at the jukebox, looking down, caramel-colored hair falling over a face he couldn’t see. A curvy figure, and a pretty delicious ass highlighted by the tight-fitting skirt she had on.

Not here to hook up, remember?

Yeah. He was not here to hook up. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t check out a good-looking woman.

“Can I get you something?”

Laz hadn’t been the owner of the bar back when Cooper had lived in town, but the two of them had gotten acquainted over the past week. “The usual,” Cooper said.

“Whiskey and lots of it coming up,” Laz said.

That was another reason that Cooper felt comfortable at the bar. Laz didn’t know his life story. That was another thing about coming back to town. He didn’t know how his parents coped with it. Didn’t know how Lindsay’s widowed husband managed. To stay here in town where everybody was so keenly aware of the loss all the time. Every moment of every day. It was all they thought about when they looked at his family, he knew. When he or his parents walked out of a room, it was the thing they whispered to their friends.

That’s Connie Mason. Her daughter died. Isn’t that sad? So young.

Too damned young.

Right on cue Laz produced the promised whiskey, and Cooper took it down in one slug. Then turned his attention back to the pretty girl over at the jukebox. Yeah, he really would like a distraction. Particularly an hourglass-shaped one.

The woman turned then, and treated him to a view of what was a damned spectacular rack and a pretty face, as well.

She looked vaguely familiar, but then, living in a town this size most people looked familiar. Could be a clerk from a store he’d gone to earlier in the week, someone he’d passed on the street.

She looked up, her brown eyes clashing with his, and she bit her lip. It was a cute gesture. Seductive, and not accidental, he had a feeling.

Well, maybe Pretty Jukebox Girl was looking for a night of distraction herself.

It might be worth exploring. For a night. Nothing else. He left a twenty on the bar top and began to walk her way.

* * *

HE WAS COMING toward her. Cooper was coming toward her. She had come here tonight for him, so she supposed she should be excited. That she should be triumphant, because she had been working up the nerve to approach him for the past week, and she had spared absolutely no effort getting herself ready for a seduction tonight. Which was hilarious, since Annabelle Preston had never seduced anyone in her life.

Being in a relationship was one thing. She’d been in one for a long time. Too long. It wasn’t like she didn’t have experience. But setting out to a bar with the express purpose of seducing a man? That was...yeah, that was outside her scope.

Cooper had always been the most beautiful man. She had thought so for as long as she could remember. Back when her father had serviced the heavy machinery on the Mason family farm, she had often tagged along and taken the opportunity to stare at the brooding boy who captured her attention with such intensity.

Cooper had always been sweet to her. But like an older brother or something. Their dads were good friends in addition to having a professional relationship, and so they’d seen each other quite a bit when he lived at home and she was a child.

He hadn’t ever noticed her noticed her, of course. She was seven years younger, and had definitely been a kid in his eyes.

She’d been so hungry to matter. Her father had always been so good to her, but he was all she had, and attention from someone like Cooper had been thrilling.

He had looked sad sometimes, and she’d known it was because his sister was sick. And even if she didn’t understand everything when she’d been nine or ten years old, she’d delighted in making him smile. Or even laugh. Running around the ranch, while the poor guy was tasked with chasing after her.

She’d climbed apple trees in their front yard, filling her arms with as many as she could. And he would always shine them with his shirt and hand her the best, brightest ones.

One time he’d taken her to the barn so she could look at a box of kittens one of the barn cats had just given birth to. Seeing those strong hands, so gentle and tender, on such tiny creatures had made her feel... She hadn’t really understood it.

She’d been thirteen then and he’d been twenty. He’d made her ache. Made her feel so much longing she hadn’t fully comprehended.

At fifteen, she’d had a fight with her father and run away to the Masons’ farm. She’d climbed into the loft and fallen asleep and hadn’t realized she’d worried everyone sick. Then she’d awoken to a husky, masculine voice and had opened her eyes to see Cooper looking down at her. He was angry, because of how she’d frightened her dad, but...but seeing him look down at her like that...

She’d wanted him to be the one to wake her up forever after that.

The last time she had seen him she had been seventeen and all rounded puppy fat, to his chiseled twenty-four.

Even if she hadn’t been a child to him then, she wouldn’t have expected him to notice her that day. Because the last time she’d seen him had been at Lindsay’s funeral. It had been a blur of tears and grief for her, so she knew it had been much more so for him. He’d been so still and stoic, all grim-faced and hard. She remembered hugging him, offering what little comfort she could.

He’d wrapped his arms around her and held on tight, the slight hitch in his breathing the only real show of emotion she saw from him that day.

She thought of that day far too often. Of how much she wished she could take his pain away. Of how much she wished she could be in his arms again, even though that was messed up because he’d been grieving and it shouldn’t have affected her to be held by him while he was grieving.