Once Upon a Cowboy Christmas--A River Ranch Novel

by Soraya Lane

  Lexi nodded. This wasn’t exactly a conversation she wanted to be having, not with his sister. Mia, maybe, because they were closer, and Cody’s younger sister was so much more like her, but not with Angelina. Even as a teenager, she’d been mildly terrified of the beautiful, confident oldest Ford sibling; the belle of every school dance and top of her class, not to mention the captain of the softball team. She seemed to be good at anything and everything without looking as if she even tried.

  “You know how Cody seems to have zero tact sometimes?” Mia asked, leaning over and sliding her sister’s drink down the counter and away from Lexi. “Well, my darling sister is exactly the same. If not worse.”

  “You say that like it’s not a compliment,” Angelina said dryly, moving down the counter after her champagne.

  “It’s not,” Mia snapped. “Come on, Lexi, tell us about your mom. It must be really hard on you right now. What about Harry’s dad, is he at least around for Christmas?”

  Lexi braved a smile, feeling more relaxed now it was just Mia talking to her. Lauren was great too, but thankfully she’d engaged Angelina and they were laughing about something as Mia waited for Lexi to answer.

  “It’s pretty rough. I don’t know what I’m going to do about my mom to be honest.” She sipped her drink and found Mia studying her, the sweetest look on her face. “And as for my deadbeat ex, no, he won’t show his face. The only Christmas he did that was to sneak in and write his name on all the gifts under the tree, so Harry thought they were all from him.”

  Mia made a sour-looking face. “How did that go down?”

  Lexi grinned. “Great, actually, because he was too stupid to realize that Harry couldn’t read yet! There was no way I’d have let him get away with it otherwise, not after I’d worked my ass off to buy all those presents on my own.”

  “You’re doing a great job, mama,” Mia said.

  Lexi held up her glass. “Takes one to know one.”

  “I’m serious though,” Mia said after they’d both clinked glasses and sipped. “He’s a great kid. You are doing a really good job with him.”

  “Aw, thanks,” she said, feeling a warm fuzz pass through her body as the champagne started to relax her.

  There was a knock at the door and Lexi turned. “You expecting someone else?”

  Mia touched her shoulder as she passed. “I ordered dinner. I thought we could all do without cooking tonight, so there’s pizza for the kids and Thai for us.”

  “I bet you got something for the boys,” Angelina called out as Mia walked down the hall. “No way you’d let them fend for themselves!”

  “Of course I did! We’re angry with Cody, not the entire male population.”

  Lexi burst out laughing, loving Cody’s fiery little sister even more. And when she met Lauren’s eye, she started laughing too, with Angelina watching them both as if they were crazy. Lexi hardly even knew why she was laughing, but maybe if she wasn’t she’d have burst into tears. Because as much as she hated the deal he was doing, and what he’d done to her in the past, they were a special family, and once upon a time she’d have given anything to be a part of it.

  * * *

  The next day, Lexi drove over to Lauren’s place, her hands sweaty despite the cold. She was freaking out with nerves, but she was trying her best to pretend they weren’t real. Her worst fear was that the family was going to terminate her employment now that she’d gone public with her feud against Cody’s company, but she wasn’t going to let fear rule her decisions.

  Lauren must have seen her coming because she’d opened the door before Lexi even turned off the engine. She leaned over and kissed the top of Harry’s head, smiling down at him.

  “I’m sorry I have to leave you again, but I promise it’ll be the last time this vacation, okay?”

  He shrugged. “I love coming here. Can you go out all morning?”

  Lexi laughed. There she was suffering serious mom guilt, and he was worried she might come back too soon.

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll make sure I’m gone at least half the day.”

  She got out and followed Harry as he ran up to the door, going straight past Lauren and running inside.

  “Sorry, but I think he’s as excited about seeing your dog as he is you,” Lexi apologized.

  “No worries. Hey, do you mind if he comes with me to see the horses later? The weather seems to have cleared a little and Tanner wanted me to meet him. Apparently he’s got a really sweet old pony in the yards too, a horse they rode as kids, so I thought Harry might like to see her.”

  “He might never want to come back to me!” Lexi teased. “But yes, of course, just have fun. I really appreciate you helping me out. Again.”

  Lauren reached for her hand and squeezed it. “You sure you want to do this? I mean, is it worth picking a fight like this with Cody?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, it is. Because this is the one stunt that might actually help.”

  Lauren let go of her. “I haven’t breathed a word to anyone else. Good luck.”

  Lexi had had just a little too much to drink last night and spilled everything to Lauren, and she liked that she was able to trust her with her secret. She wouldn’t have blamed her for telling Tanner—he was her husband after all—but it was nice knowing she could tell her something and it wouldn’t go any further. Mia had gone back to her own ranch now that Sam was home, so at least she didn’t have to explain everything to her.

  “Give ’em death,” Lauren called out after her as she stepped carefully over the slowly defrosting snow. “Those Ford boys need to be told they’re not God’s gift sometimes. Trust me, I know!”

  Lexi was laughing to herself as she got in her car, glancing in the back at the placard she’d made that morning. Cody was going to hate his name being dragged through the mud, and if the local television station came along he’d hate that even more. Her phone beeped and she glanced down at the screen, half expecting it to be her mother. But it was another woman, Rosie Brown, a new friend of hers who had her mother in the retirement home, too.

  The Facebook post has been deleted!

  Lexi glared at the screen as heat prickled her skin and her pulse started to thump. Her thumb was quivering as she replied.

  Can we try to repost? She realized as she replied that there was no point; they were supposed to be marching in less than an hour. How long had the post been down? Anger thudded through her as she imagined how conceited Cody would be at wielding his power like that to get it removed. He probably had Zuckerberg on speed dial.

  Do you have confirmation on numbers? I think there might only be a handful of us. Five at most.

  Lexi smiled to herself as she quietly hatched a plan.

  Then let’s get the old people to march with us! Anyone who can walk can join, maybe some of the staff will come too?

  She started her engine and drove slowly down the drive, smiling to herself at her plan. If this didn’t stop Cody from going ahead with the development, then she didn’t know what would.

  * * *

  “What’s Lauren doing with Lexi’s kid?”

  Cody waved back at the young boy as he approached, a huge grin on his face as he bounded along beside Cody’s sister-in-law.

  “No idea. Lauren probably offered to help while Lexi was working or something.”

  “Huh,” Cody grunted. As much as he’d grumbled about Lexi the night before, furiously refreshing Facebook every fifteen minutes or so to see if the post and his photo had been deleted, he still wanted to see her. Part of him actually admired her for going on social media to out him, even though he’d never admit it.

  “You never did tell me why you broke up with her in the first place,” Tanner said. “What actually happened between you guys?”

  “I told you,” Cody said as he brushed the horse down. “I went to college and she stayed here. I wasn’t going to screw with her head and pretend what we had was going to last, not when I knew I was never coming back.”

  “Maybe you
should have told her that instead of leaving her here waiting for you to come back,” Tanner quipped back.

  “I wrote to her, actually.” Cody cleared his throat, surprised with what he’d just admitted. “I was too gutless to say it to her face, so I got in my car hours earlier than I was supposed to leave just so I didn’t have to see her before I left. And then I sent her a letter.”

  “A letter?” Tanner asked. “An honest to god letter on paper?”

  “Yeah, a letter. It was something we did in school—she was always writing me little letters, so I finally wrote her one back.”

  Tanner whacked him around the back of the head as he jogged past. “Idiot. You should have just told her to her face.” He watched as Tanner opened up his arms and enveloped Lauren around the waist, kissing her and then swinging her around in a circle. He’d like to tease his brother for being so sappy with Lauren, but he didn’t dare. He knew what happiness looked like, and he doubted Tanner would even care what he thought, anyway.

  “Hey, Harry,” he said to the boy as he came closer. “You like horses?”

  He went to jump toward the horse Cody had been grooming, but Tanner stuck his hand out and grabbed his shoulder.

  “Whoa,” he said, keeping hold of him. “You go fast at him like that, he’ll be scared of you. Horses are flighty animals, which means they get scared really easily and the first thing they want to do is run away from whatever’s scared them.”

  Harry looked up at him and nodded. “Can I touch him? He’s huge.”

  “Yeah, you can touch him, but just hold your hand out when you’re approaching, let him sniff you.”

  Harry did as he was told, and within seconds he was stroking the horse’s nose and then his cheek. Cody was surprised Harry wasn’t a little more nervous around one large animal since he’d clearly never been around one.

  “You want to see something more your size?” Cody asked. “This guy here is my dad’s horse, and I was just giving him a quick groom before he gets his rugs put on and turned out in the field for the rest of the day. We always cover them with warm rugs in this kind of weather, just like you and I need to put our jackets on.”

  Harry nodded and fell in to step beside him. “Why is a horse my size?”

  “Well, we have an old pony still, it was Mia’s pony actually, and we loaned her out to some friends so their kids could learn to ride. But they’ve all grown too big for her now, so she’s come back here just in time for Mia’s daughter to ride.”

  “Can I ride her?”

  Cody looked down at the eager face turned up to his, eyes wide and trusting, the kid so excited about seeing a damn pony. “Yeah, sure thing kid. You think your mom would mind?”

  Harry squished his face up as he thought about it. “My mom was pretty mad at you. I kept hearing her say bad words a lot when she was saying your name.”

  “Yeah? Like what?” he cringed, imagining Lexi stomping around the kitchen cursing him.

  “Whad’ya do to make her so mad? Mom never gets mad like that.”

  “Hey, you want to ride that pony or what?” Cody asked, quickly changing the subject and hoping Harry was too young to notice. The boy’s face lit up and Cody chased after him, about to call out a reminder not to run toward horses but not wanting to curb the kid’s excitement. Cleo was almost bombproof she was so quiet, and he knew that within seconds of meeting, she’d be nuzzling Harry and he’d be head over heels in love with her.

  He hated the feud between him and Lexi, and he sure as hell hadn’t meant to hurt her. But right now, he couldn’t see a way out of it, or at least not one that made them both happy.

  “What do you say we go for a little ride?” Cody asked.

  Harry spun around, launching at him and tackling him around the legs with a big hug. He ruffled his hair, not sure what else to do, and he caught Tanner’s eye when he looked up. Actually, Tanner and Lauren, who were standing together, both looking surprised to see him with Harry.

  “What?” he asked, eyebrows tugging down as he scowled at them.

  “Nothing,” Tanner replied. “Nothing at all.”

  “Just because I don’t want my own kids doesn’t mean I don’t like them,” he muttered. “Come on, Harry. Let’s find a little saddle for her and get you up there.”

  “Or you could ride my old mechanical bull and let Cody do some work!” Tanner called out, laughing when the kid suddenly let go of Cody and ran in his direction instead.

  Cody shrugged and headed for the barn. There was something about the boy that he liked, and if he was going to freeze his ass off out with the horses, he was happy to be teaching Harry how to ride. Once upon a time, he’d loved being on the ranch. None of his siblings remembered it; hell, Tanner and Mia were too young and Angelina had never come outside to see him. They all laughed about him not having horses in his blood like Tanner, that ranch life wasn’t for him, but they were all wrong. He used to be first out to catch and feed the horses in the morning, he’d been the first to learn how to ride on Cleo, and for a while he’d imagined growing up and spending his days on horseback and running their ranches.

  But in the end, it had hurt too bad to stay.

  * * *

  “I have one question for you,” Rosie asked, as she blew on her fingers to warm them up. “Are you sure we want to make an enemy of Cody Ford? I’ve been reading up about him, and he seems like the kind of man we’d be stupid to cross.”

  The last thing Lexi wanted was to open up to Rosie about her history with Cody. “What more can he do? If we do nothing, he’ll kick our moms out and tear the place down.”

  Rosie nodded, shifting from foot to foot now. Lexi did the same, feeling colder just from watching the other woman move around so much. The cold was biting, even through her woolly hat, gloves, scarf, and big jacket. Her face felt chapped from the chilly wind as it echoed through her entire body.

  “You’re right. I’m just new to all this. Have you ever joined a protest before?”

  Lexi laughed. “No! But there’s a first time for everything.” Not to mention my own personal vendetta. “Look, there’re more people coming. See? We’re going to be just fine.”

  She was good at saying the right thing, but she was so nervous she could hardly breathe. Cody was going to be furious with her, but he’d left her with no other option, and it wouldn’t have mattered if it was him or another developer, she’d have fought with everything she had to try to change what was happening.

  “Hi!” she called out, trying to sound confident. “Thank you so much for coming! I know it’s cold, but let’s make as much noise as we can.”

  A few more cars pulled up and Lexi breathed a sigh of relief as some of the nurses, still in uniform, started coming out from the building, wearing smiles as big as Texas as they walked over to join them. This wasn’t about her and Cody, this was about her standing up for the rights of her mom and all the other elderly people in there. This was their home, and it wasn’t right that a developer could just buy the place and decide to rip it down.

  “Let’s go!” she called out, picking up her placard and clearing her throat.

  The others gathered, at least fifteen of them now, grinned at her, and held up their signs too, and together they stood outside Bright Lights chanting as cars drove by, many tooting their horns in support as they passed. She slowly started to thaw out, her anxiety easing with every few minutes that passed, realizing that she was actually doing something good for their community. This was so much more than her feuding with Cody, and she only hoped that both he and his family understood why she was doing what she was doing. He’d left her with no other choice.

  “Bright Lights, here to stay! Bright Lights, you can’t take it away!”

  But her quiet confidence hit the sidewalk with a thud when a local news station pulled up beside them, with a cameraman and news anchor she recognized from television suddenly bustling toward her.

  Oh hell. She took a deep breath, forcing a big, bright smile as the brunette c
lattering toward her in heels waved out to them.

  “Well, look at this!” the reporter exclaimed. “You all must feel very passionate about what you’re fighting for to be standing out here in the freezing cold all day!”

  The camera was suddenly pointed at her, and Lexi bravely held her sign even higher, feeling the power of the other men and women behind her as they chanted at her flank.

  “Can you tell us why you’re here today?” the reporter asked. “What’s brought you all out to protest?”

  Lexi opened her mouth to speak just as a Range Rover screeched to a stop in the lot, right beside the news van. Her nerves stammered, her voice faltered in her throat, but she held her head high and refused to be silenced.

  Cody leapt from his vehicle, dressed just like she’d seen him that first day when he’d arrived. Part of her hoped he was dressed in suit pants and a big black overcoat because he was on his way back to New York, but she doubted she’d be so lucky.

  “Ma’am?” the reporter asked.

  She slowly lowered her placard and squared her shoulders as she faced the camera. A weird sense of calm slowly washed over her. “We’re here because Bright Lights retirement, right behind me here, has been sold to a greedy, obnoxious developer who intends to tear it down in less than a month.”

  The reporter nodded, her eyes widening as if she hadn’t realized what a juicy story she was on to.

  “And how does this personally affect you?”

  “My mother lives here. This is the only place she can be that’s close enough for me to visit her, with the facilities she needs for her Alzheimer’s, and it’s the same for the people here with me today.” A cheer went up from behind her, and Lexi realized a small crowd had gathered on the sidewalk now, listening to what she was saying. Only Cody stood alone, a tall, dark pillar among the regular folk, his face impassive as he stared at her. But he wasn’t going to intimidate her, not today.