Christmas at Colts Creek

by Delores Fossen

  It seemed to take several months, but they finally finished the meal. “I’ll take care of the dishes,” Darcia insisted, already gathering some plates. “There’s apple pie in the family room. I’ll be in there in a few minutes.”

  Rowan and Aspen didn’t need further invitation to head that way, but Janessa and Brody stayed put.

  “Janessa, could you just grab the water glasses for me?” Darcia added. “Brody, maybe you can give Janessa and me a minute?”

  “Why?” Brody asked his mother while Janessa went ahead and gathered up the glasses.

  Darcia sighed. “I won’t keep her long. Please go ahead and have some pie. It’s your favorite.”

  Janessa could see the debate Brody was having with himself, and she gave him a wink and a nod to try to assure him all would be just fine. That was probably true. Probably.

  Brody finally tapped his watch as if counting down that minute his mother had requested, and he went toward the family room. Janessa followed Darcia to the kitchen.

  “Why’d Brody turn down Colts Creek?” Darcia immediately asked.

  Janessa didn’t mind the woman jumping right to the point since those seconds were ticking away. “I think a lot of reasons. Reasons that should come from him.”

  Darcia paused and then gave a stiff nod. “Well, it was a decent thing for you to do, to offer him the ranch. It was something Abe should have done.”

  “I agree,” Janessa said without hesitation. “Abe screwed over a lot of people with that will, but Brody got the worst of it.”

  Darcia eased the plates into the sink, and her next nod wasn’t so stiff. “Brody told me about the PI Abe hired,” she said with her attention fastened to the faucet she turned on. “I swear I didn’t know Jimmy had sent Abe those photos and emails.”

  Janessa heard the tone. Not defensive exactly but close. “I didn’t think you had,” she assured Darcia. “My mother didn’t know he’d done it, either. I haven’t had a chance to have a long conversation with her about it, but I suspect Jimmy arranged for the Photoshopping of the picture she got. The one of Abe with the mystery woman.”

  Darcia groaned. “So much damage.” She finally turned and looked at Janessa. “Abe and Jimmy started this war between them because of me, and it spilled over into so many lives. Sophia’s, Margo’s, yours.”

  Yes, and countless others. Brody was caught up in that, too, because if Abe hadn’t been “at war” with Jimmy, he might not have objected to her being with Brody that summer they were teenagers. Abe might not have torn them apart and sent Janessa running back to Dallas.

  Janessa figured that Brody would be coming into the kitchen any second now, but she went ahead with what she wanted to bring up to Darcia. “The PI said Abe had given him another assignment, but he wouldn’t go into detail about it. I’ve called him, pressed him, but he won’t budge. Do you have any idea what that assignment would have been?”

  Darcia shook her head, but Janessa thought she might be considering all the things that Abe would have wanted the PI to dig into. Especially once Abe had learned that Jimmy was responsible.

  “Did Brody tell you that Abe was having both you and him investigated, too?” Janessa pressed.

  “Yes, he told me.” Darcia huffed. “I hate that Abe believed Brody and I had any part in what Jimmy had done. It’s probably why Abe wrote his will the way he did. He wrote it and then didn’t have time to change it before he died.”

  Maybe. And Janessa wanted to believe that Abe had had those intentions. Still, there was something missing in this odd puzzle. Some reason why Abe had dragged her into the middle of this and not given Colts Creek to its rightful owner—Brody.

  “Thank you,” Darcia muttered.

  Janessa looked at her. “For what?”

  “For not being like Abe. And for not telling me to go to hell in a handbasket when I glared at you for being with Brody.”

  Janessa smiled. “You’re pretty good at glaring,” she said, trying to keep things light. “But I also know you love your son and want to protect him.”

  “I couldn’t protect him from Abe,” Darcia said under her breath just as Brody came into the kitchen.

  Brody volleyed glances at both Darcia and her. No doubt checking to see if they were upset. Janessa kept the smile on her face, and she thought Darcia did a decent enough job looking as if all were well with their world. It wasn’t. There was still plenty to be worked out, but Janessa thought Darcia and she had just reached some kind of truce. Good. Because Janessa didn’t want Brody to have to endure his mother’s wrath just for being with her.

  “Aspen says she has to be home soon,” Brody explained. “Janessa and I can get our pie to go and drop her off.”

  Darcia wiped her hands on a dish towel. “No, I can take her. You and Janessa just stay here and have your dessert.”

  “Actually, I should be going, too,” Janessa said, thinking of her to-do list and Brody. Mainly Brody.

  “Of course.” Darcia nodded. “You have things to do, what with the baby being released tomorrow.”

  Darcia took two small plastic containers from a cabinet and carried them into the family room. Where Rowan and Aspen immediately jumped away from each other as if they’d been scalded. The jumping, however, wasn’t quite fast enough because they all got a glimpse of the kiss they’d tried to hide.

  Darcia didn’t say a word about the lip-lock she’d just witnessed. She simply went to the coffee table, put two slices of the pie in the containers and handed them to Brody and Janessa. She surprised Janessa then by hugging her. So, yes, there was indeed a truce.

  “Thank you for dinner,” Janessa told her when they all headed out. Rowan and Aspen with Darcia to her car. Janessa and Brody to his truck.

  “So?” Brody asked the moment they were inside.

  “So,” she repeated, stretching it out a few syllables. “I think you’re going to need to have the safe-sex talk with your brother.”

  He gave her a flat look. “I’ve already done that. What’d you and my mother chat about?”

  “The expected,” Janessa settled for saying. “She didn’t know anything about what Jimmy was doing, she’s still pissed about Abe’s will and she likes that I offered you Colts Creek. She doesn’t like that you didn’t accept.”

  “I wouldn’t have liked it had I accepted,” he grumbled as he drove away. “If all of this plays out, then I’ll sell my place, buy Elmer’s and either help you find a buyer for Colts Creek or a ranch manager if you decide to keep it.”

  So, he was trying to tie up everything in a neat little package. Trying to fix it. Something that was normally her role.

  Janessa didn’t mind him stepping up like this. She needed his help. But part of her wished that in all his plans, Brody would have included the possibility of them. As in him and her somehow being a couple after they’d had their way with each other for the next two months. Janessa wasn’t 100 percent positive she wanted that, but she hated that it wasn’t even on his radar. In Brody’s mind, she was leaving, period.

  Janessa wasn’t sure if it was hurt, annoyance or lust that caused her to lean across the seat and tongue kiss his ear. Something that she recalled he enjoyed very much.

  And still did, apparently.

  The sound Brody made certainly wasn’t a protest, and Janessa was pretty sure the heat in the truck went up some serious notches. Some of that heat was in the quick glance he gave her before he pulled over.

  “I’m guessing you did that for a reason?” he drawled.

  “Yes,” she confirmed. But she thought it best not to get into that reason now. Brody probably wouldn’t want to hear that she was considering that whole couple thing. Besides, that was on the back burner now because her tongue kiss had clearly moved sex to the front of the stove.

  Good.

  It was about time.

  Thankfully, they we
re already out of town and on a stretch of road where there was little traffic because Brody unsnapped their seat belts and hauled her to him.

  * * *

  BRODY HAD A split second to consider that this probably wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had since they were in his truck and on the side of the road. But only a split second. Once he had his mouth on Janessa’s, the notion of good or bad items became toast. One taste of her and that toast label applied to him, too.

  Janessa managed to laugh despite the sudden burst of wild heat. Even when she’d been with him that first time, she’d had some playful moments. Obviously, that hadn’t changed, and Brody was very appreciative about it. More appreciative, though, of the well-placed kisses she dropped on his neck and, yes, his ear. The woman had a good memory for his hot spots.

  Brody had to shift his position and move to the right edge of his seat so there’d be room to pull Janessa onto his lap. It certainly wasn’t a comfortable position what with the gearshift gouging into his thigh and his arm pressed against the steering wheel. Still, he wasn’t giving up this first round of kisses for the sake of comfort. Nope. He intended to keep stoking this fire, and then he could somehow drive to his house and get her in bed.

  That was a lofty goal, he soon realized.

  Janessa didn’t stop at the kisses on his ear and neck. She slid her hands under his shirt, creating some mind-blowing skin-to-skin contact. Creating more contact when she did her own shifting and managed to straddle him. Now it was her butt against the steering wheel and her left knee jammed down into the gear console. No complaints from her, though, and soon, very soon, Brody couldn’t have voiced a complaint even if he’d been in excruciating pain.

  “Ever noticed sex talk is only sexy if you’re aroused?” she asked, tugging his shirt over his head and lowering, somehow, to put her mouth on his chest.

  Brody was reasonably sure he’d never noticed that.

  “Sex talk like tongue kiss me there,” she went on, demonstrating that on his stomach. “Make me scream your name.” She undid his belt, unzipped him. “Use me. Deeper. Harder. Faster, faster, faster. Make me come. See? That’s not sexy at all unless I’m doing something like this.”

  She shoved down the top of his boxers, somehow managed to put her mouth on him and blew. Then she laughed. The breath from her laughter nearly took off the top of his head. It also had him rethinking that whole notion—which had obviously been stupid—of driving back to his house.

  Cursing her and the cramped space of the truck, Brody took matters into his own hands. And mouth. He kissed her deeper and harder while moving onto the passenger’s side. With her still on his lap, he hit the recline button on the seat to give them more room.

  And he got to work.

  “Tongue kiss,” he growled, and he went after her neck. Just a sample or two because he remembered that wasn’t nearly as much of a hot button for her. That’s when he peeled off her sweater, shoved down the cups of her white lace bra and did some tongue kissing on her nipples.

  That got the response he wanted. She moaned, long and silky. The sound of pure pleasure, and Brody gave her that pleasure while he slid his hand under her skirt and into her panties.

  “It’s not necessary to scream my name,” he said with his mouth against her now-wet nipple. His fingers had found another wet spot to toy with, and he went in slow and deep.

  “Brody,” she screamed.

  Partly deaf now but pleased with himself and her reaction, he kept touching while he sucked her nipple into his mouth.

  More name screaming, followed by her yanking him from his boxers. “You’d better have a condom,” she snapped. “If not, you’re going to make me come before we go get one.”

  No problem. He fished out a condom from his wallet, but he decided to give her both. Brody continued the mouth play on her nipples. Continued the finger strokes inside her. And he felt her tight wet muscles contract.

  “Brody,” she breathed out. Not a scream but the sound of that desperate relief from the desperate heat.

  She was still in the throes of that relief and heat when he got the condom on, and he thrust inside her. Now he was the one breathing out her name, and there was no relief in his own voice. Just the need, and the overwhelming sensations of feeling her squeeze around him.

  “Deeper, harder, faster,” he told her. And he gave her that, too. Of course, he was giving it to himself, as well.

  He held back, giving her time to rebuild. Gripping onto her hips and angling her so that his dick could slide against her number one hot spot. He had no trouble finding it. No trouble taking her right back up to that needy peak where she took hold of fistfuls of his hair and muttered his name as a repeating oath.

  “Make me come,” he told her.

  Janessa did just that. And then she did the same for him.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  JANESSA FIGURED IT was wrong to have such raunchy thoughts about Brody when she was driving the baby from the hospital to the ranch.

  Still, the thoughts were there. So was the buzzing slack feeling in her body that had come from good raunchy sex with Brody the night before. He’d definitely sated her, twice, but he’d also left her wanting a whole lot more of him.

  She glanced in the rearview mirror at Margo and Sophia who were on either side of the baby’s car seat. Janessa couldn’t actually see the baby because the seat was rear-facing, but she had no doubt the little girl was fine.

  Along with having plenty of attention.

  Plenty of concern, too. Margo and her mother had grilled the doctor to make sure a preemie could come home from the hospital so soon, and the doctor had assured them there was no reason for the baby not to be released. The baby wasn’t having any medical problems and was in fact, thriving. Janessa expected that thriving to continue, but if something did go wrong, she wouldn’t hesitate to call the pediatrician.

  Both Margo and Sophia were taking turns talking to the baby, describing every little thing along the route to Colts Creek. Janessa heard words like moo cow, horsey, doggy, but it grabbed her full attention when she heard Margo say, “Brody.”

  Janessa glanced around and spotted him in the front pasture. Oh, my. He was straddled atop an impressive black stallion, one that was sleek and muscled. Just like Brody himself.

  She wasn’t going fast, but she slowed the car to a crawl to take in the view. He was in full cowboy mode today and appeared to be using the stallion to herd some calves toward the back of the pasture. A pair of blue heeler dogs were helping.

  “Well,” Margo muttered, “there are sights and there are sights. He’s a sight all right.”

  Janessa didn’t need to follow the woman’s gaze to know she was talking about Brody. She could hear the “admiration” in Margo’s voice.

  Brody spotted them, tipped his hat in greeting, smiled in a way that only he and a cocky Greek god could have pulled off. Then he went back to doing the work that made Janessa want to tongue kiss him from head to toe. She might experiment with that the next time they were together. Whenever that would be. With the baby out of the hospital, there would be fewer opportunities for truck sex.

  Janessa got the car moving again toward the house, and she passed by a crew that was setting up Christmas decorations. Lots of them. Apparently, it was a tradition at Colts Creek to have lights and garland on the long stretches of fence that flanked the road to the house. Another tradition was to decorate the trees that stood about fifteen yards apart along the fence line. It was something Abe had already contracted and paid to happen for the next ten years.

  She parked directly in front of the porch. It was still morning, and the temps were chilly enough that she didn’t want the baby out in it any longer than necessary. However, before Janessa could even get out, Sophia and Margo were working together to lift the infant seat from the holder, and Sophia carried the baby onto the porch where Velma Sue already
had the door open for them.

  Velma Sue did her own cooing and baby talk as they made their way up the stairs to the guest room that they’d converted to a nursery. It was right across the hall from Janessa’s and next door to the suite that Margo had already said she’d be using so she could cover some of the nightshifts.

  Janessa stopped in the doorway and was pretty sure her mouth dropped open. When she’d done a final check of the room the previous night, before she’d gone to dinner at Darcia’s, there hadn’t been nearly as much stuff as there was now. There’d been a crib, changing table, a mobile and two rocking chairs. All things suitable for a temporary nursery.

  Emphasis on the temporary.

  But the room was now filled with not one but four huge stuffed teddy bears, horses and dolls larger than a preschooler. There were four of those, too. The landscape oil paintings that once graced the walls had all been replaced by colorful artwork of ponies, calves, kittens and puppies.

  Emphasis on colorful.

  There was plenty of pink in the color scheme, including the fuzzy rug by the crib. It matched the equally fuzzy pillows in the rocking chairs.

  Someone had brought up the large dollhouse and pasture from the storage room next to Abe’s office. They weren’t suitable for a newborn, but Janessa had to admit they looked good in the room. Ditto for the floor-to-ceiling fully decorated Christmas tree in the corner—complete with wrapped gifts.

  “Uh, Sophia and I added a few things last night,” Margo murmured as she took the sleeping baby from her infant seat. “We just wanted to spruce things up a bit.”

  Janessa sighed, but she wasn’t sure either her mother or Margo heard her because they already had their attention back on the baby. Velma Sue was easing back the blanket to count fingers and toes.

  “We also thought you should go through the rest of the presents Abe got you,” Sophia added. “There could be other buildings from the ranch. She can’t play with them, of course, but anything ranch-related would go with the theme.”