A Cowboy for Christmas (Mills & Boon Love Inspired Historical) (Wyoming Legacy - Book 5)

by Lacy Williams

  “Let me help ya,” Beau said, but she looked over her shoulder and shook her head, declining with what she hoped was a polite smile.

  “I’ve got it. But thank you.”

  “Well, thanks for the coffee, Miss Belinda,” the young man mumbled. “I’d best get back out to the barn—”

  “In the future, you might want to check that the boys aren’t around,” Daisy suggested, unable to contain a smile. “Else your private conversations might not be so private.”

  Beau flushed an even darker pink and stuffed his hat onto his head before making a run toward to the door.

  Daisy shook her head. That young man was so shy.

  The twins clattered in with full pails and set them on top of the stove to warm.

  “We’ll need more than that,” Daisy said. “One more load.”

  They groaned but traipsed back outside without voicing complaints.

  “You’ve got them toeing the line today.”

  Daisy could only hope their compliance would last. She started down the hall and up the stairs to begin stripping the beds.

  Belinda followed her, lagging a little behind.

  Daisy took her sister’s presence as assent to ask the question her curiosity couldn’t contain. “Do you fancy him?”

  “Beau?”

  Daisy looked over her shoulder at the top of the stairs and saw the blush high on Belinda’s cheeks. But her sister’s eyes skipped away.

  “He’s sweet.”

  “Awful shy,” Daisy commented.

  “I was thinking of asking him to take me to the after-Christmas social.”

  “You were thinking of asking him?”

  Belinda’s shocking statement had Daisy skating over the mention of the event Audra had previously been pushing Daisy to attend. She ducked into her sister’s room, hiding a wince at the messy space. Shoes were strewn across the floor, books piled haphazardly in one corner, ribbons in a tangled mess on top of the writing desk. Two dresses lay across the foot of the bed rather than hanging neatly on their hooks.

  Daisy bent over one side of the bed and began stripping the sheets, while Belinda did the same on the opposite side. The task was difficult with only the use of one arm, but not impossible.

  “I want to go to the social.” Belinda continued their conversation. “And Gerald Mains told me he was taking Adelaide.”

  It sounded like a recipe for disaster. “You aren’t using Beau to make Jerry jealous, are you?”

  Belinda didn’t answer. She picked up the armful of sheets and quilt and brushed past Daisy.

  “Belinda—”

  “That would be a shallow thing to do,” she tossed over her shoulder.

  It wasn’t a complete answer. Before the accident, Daisy had witnessed her sister’s flirtatious manner at social events and in town, but her sister had never behaved in a malicious manner. But Daisy sensed that Beau wasn’t the kind of man to take flirtation lightly.

  She put off the sense of unease. The event wasn’t for several days. She would make time to talk to her sister before then.

  She crossed the hall and began stripping the sheets from the twins’ beds. She had her arm full of sheets, pressing them against her midsection, when she nearly ran into Audra in the hall.

  “Washing sheets, dear?” The question could be answered easily as Audra looked at her bundle.

  But Daisy smiled. She was happy, hopeful, today. “I’m going to give it a shot.”

  She didn’t even know if she’d be able to wield the heavy paddle to stir the soiled laundry, but she was going to try.

  “Is this about that cowboy...?”

  Audra’s question sent both a thrill of anticipation and momentary concern through Daisy. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve seen the way you light up when he comes in the room. You’ve spent some time together these last few days, caring for all of us...” Audra let the sentence hang. Maybe she was hoping for Daisy to offer up a tidbit of information on how she felt about Ricky.

  But Audra wasn’t her mother. They were still feeling out their relationship. And Audra had pushed her before, that first night home after the wedding trip.

  “He was a big help, wasn’t he?” She met her stepmother’s eyes with a steady glance.

  Her feelings for Ricky—that kiss!—were so new. Daisy didn’t want to share them with anyone.

  *

  Five days later, Ricky rode into the farmyard as the sun was setting. He was cold, dirty, tired to the bone.

  He’d been out all day, first looking for a few stray sheep that had wandered away from the flock. He’d found two, but the third had been taken by a predator. He guessed a coyote, judging by the tracks. He hated losing animals, even if they weren’t his own.

  He just wanted his bedroll.

  All right, he really wanted a glimpse of Daisy, maybe a smile...maybe a stolen kiss.

  After his talk with Jonas, he didn’t feel healed exactly. But hopeful. That if his pa could forgive the past, maybe Daisy could, too.

  Jonas had gone home after that first day, and Ricky had barely seen Daisy since. Maybe Ned had gotten an inkling of his feelings for Daisy, he didn’t know, but it seemed as if the foreman had kept him busy working far away from the farm buildings.

  And he found he missed her. Prickly as she could be sometimes...warm as she could be at others.

  He genuinely liked her.

  He still thought Beau might be the better man for her, but at this point he didn’t think he could stomach throwing them together anymore.

  He dismounted outside the closed barn doors—it was dreadfully cold today—and pushed open the portal, the sharp smell of animals assaulting him after he’d been out in the fresh air all day. His horse nickered, as if it was happy to be out of the elements, too.

  Ricky was surprised to find the object of his thoughts in the back of the barn.

  She looked over her shoulder at the disruption, losing her one-handed hold on her horse’s head.

  “Afternoon,” he said, with a tip of his hat, hoping his face wasn’t showing just how happy he was to see her.

  Was she...? She was attempting to get her horse bridled, using the contraption Ricky had rigged but hadn’t had time to keep working with, not with everything that had happened since the family’s illness.

  A spark of pride for her roared through him, lighting him up, almost as much as when he and Jonas had ridden back into the farmyard to see what must’ve been all the sheets in the house hanging on the clotheslines like flags declaring her independence.

  “Hi,” she said, almost shyly.

  “Don’t mind us,” he told her. “This guy needs a good brushing after being out all day...”

  Their eyes connected. She smiled at him before she nodded and turned back to what she was doing.

  And suddenly all was right in his world.

  He shucked his gloves, thankful for the warmer barn air against his cold-chapped skin. He still fumbled with the buckles but eventually got the saddle off and hauled it to the tack room, along with the saddle blanket. The familiar tasks suddenly made him self-conscious, knowing she was there, nearby.

  When he returned with a towel and curry comb, she was murmuring to her horse, standing beside its head with her arm wrapped under and her fingers rubbing along the bridge of Prince’s nose.

  Ricky began rubbing down his animal. He couldn’t help watching over its back as she got the horse to step forward, but it balked as she tried to guide its head down into the bridle.

  She spoke to it quietly. Clicked her tongue. Didn’t give up. Glanced once over her shoulder at him.

  Ricky had to turn his back to her as he rubbed down his animal’s opposite side, but still heard her encouraging the horse firmly. Bridling a horse was fairly simple with two hands, but Daisy was asking the animal to do more by slipping its nose down into the bridle, because she only had one arm to work with. Most horses took to the bridle without a problem. It was a matter of training. But maybe Ricky’
s idea had been wrong because this animal was older, set in its ways.

  But it didn’t sound as if Daisy was giving up.

  He finished with his mount and tucked it into its stall, making sure it had plenty of oats. That brought him closer to Daisy, who had backed up Prince farther into the main aisle.

  “Want an assistant?” he asked as he closed the bar over his horse’s stall.

  She looked back at him and shadows played in her eyes. “Do you think it would help?”

  “Couldn’t hurt. I haven’t had much time to work with him since I installed the straps to hold the bridle.”

  She nodded, her previous smile turning a little brittle.

  Ricky moved beside the horse’s head on the opposite side, and Daisy clucked to get it to move forward.

  The horse did what it should. They approached the bridle suspended in the air, all three of them together. But Ricky could sense the tension in Daisy. He could see the stiff set of her spine beneath the horse’s neck. If he could sense it, so could the horse.

  “How long you been out here?” he asked, hoping that maybe conversation would take her mind off whatever was bugging her.

  “Not long. I needed a break from the kitchen—Belinda and I have been baking bread all day.”

  She said the words lightly, but the tension in her remained. They were so close now, there was nothing to be done for it.

  “All right, old fella,” Ricky said quietly, hoping that if he projected confidence, the horse would pick up on it.

  Daisy continued to guide the horse forward with her arm wrapped beneath its jaw and hand splayed across its nose. Ricky used his right hand to help spread the bridle, though it really didn’t need it. His hooks from the leather straps hanging from the crossbar were near perfect.

  “That’s right,” Ricky encouraged them both.

  But at the last moment, the horse balked, rearing its head back and shaking off Daisy’s hold. It neighed, shaking its head in agitation and backing up farther.

  Without the animal between them, Ricky saw Daisy’s expression fall.

  “It’s all right,” he said softly. He went for the horse, got its halter back on and put it back in its stall.

  When he got back to Daisy, she was staring at the bridle suspended in midair, her arm wrapped around her middle.

  “I think it might be a little too high up—maybe that’s why he was balking,” Ricky offered. “I’ll adjust it for you.”

  She nodded, eyes still far away.

  *

  Daisy’s confidence had crashed around her in pieces as Prince had rejected the bridle.

  She felt Ricky sidle up beside her, but she couldn’t meet his eyes, not yet. Hot prickles of embarrassment crawled up her spine.

  She’d been doing so well. Tackling some of the housework. Even her handwriting was improving slowly. She’d thought to come out here to the barn and bridle Prince and be waiting as Ricky returned from his long day of outdoor work. She’d wanted to show him the accomplishment like a child showing a school assignment to their parents.

  And she’d hoped that he would ask her to the social tomorrow night. Belinda had convinced Beau to accompany her. Over the past few days, Daisy had come to peace—mostly—with the idea of attending. She had held out hope that the two cowboys had discussed it and that Ricky would be prompted to ask her.

  They’d barely had a chance to talk since everyone had recovered from the stomach sickness, so she’d manufactured the time tonight.

  Except it hadn’t worked out as she’d thought it would.

  “Want to see Matilda and the pups?” he asked softly from slightly behind her. Still steady. Still himself.

  Matilda. There was something that Daisy hadn’t messed up. She’d told Ricky about baking bread with Belinda, but she hadn’t mentioned the eggshells she’d had to pick from the batter as she’d crushed several eggs trying to crack them open with only one hand. Or the loaf she’d dropped while taking it out of the oven that had fallen apart on the floor and been hopelessly ruined.

  Everything was more difficult than before. Even learning, relearning how to do things all over again.

  “All right,” she said, trying to smile.

  He led her to the stall where Matilda had birthed the puppies. It had obviously been cleaned, probably daily. In one corner, there was fresh hay that had been scattered throughout the large area. Someone had put a wooden plank across the doorway, blocking the puppies from getting out but allowing Matilda to come and go as she pleased.

  The huge black dog looked up from where she lay next to a pile of nursing, squeaking pups, her tail beating rhythmically against the floor, lips stretched wide in a doggy smile.

  “She’s a good mama,” Ricky said. “Doesn’t get too fed up with them when they’re making so many demands of her.”

  “She usually does fine.” This hadn’t been the dog’s first litter. “Likely there’ll be several of my papa’s friends interested in having one of the pups.”

  She didn’t know what to say, how to go about bringing up the social in natural conversation. Had Belinda really just asked Beau to go with her?

  The cowboy beside her shifted, and she glanced over as he propped one shoulder against the stall, tucking his thumbs through his front belt loops. “You want to tell me what’s bugging you?”

  A hot flush stole up her face. She looked down on the dog to avoid his gaze. “Nothing.”

  He scooted his boot forward on the floor and knocked his toe against the toe of her boot. She glanced up at him, still hot. And bothered.

  “I’ve got enough sisters and sisters-in-law to know when nothing means something. What’s going on?”

  She hiked her chin, intending to tell him nothing again, but instead found herself saying, “I—I want to go to the social tomorrow night.”

  If she’d hoped he would understand that she wanted him to ask her to go, he didn’t. A look of confusion passed over his face, followed by shadows passing through his eyes.

  But he smiled widely. “Good for you. I’ll bet your friends will be happy to see you.”

  He didn’t get it.

  “I’d like it if you would go with me,” she blurted.

  And then squeezed her eyes closed, humiliation washing over her in a hot wave.

  Did he think her incredibly forward, after asking that question? He’d kissed her before, but maybe he was really only interested in being her friend... What did he think of her now?

  She couldn’t even look at him.

  There was a momentary silence, when all she could hear was the rushing in her ears, punctuated by the grunts and rustling of the puppies.

  Then, he said, “I’ll have to check with Ned, make sure he’s all right with me taking the evening off.”

  She allowed her eyes to open slightly and watched him. He stood in the same casual pose, but she thought his shoulders had tightened up.

  “You’ll go? With me?” she asked over the lump in her throat.

  He stepped forward, surprising her into opening her eyes fully. He cupped her cheek, his warm palm sliding against her jaw.

  This close, he smelled of the outdoors, cold, horse and the cowboy that he was.

  “I’d be glad to have the prettiest girl in town on my arm.”

  She started to lower her eyes, shake her head, because she wasn’t that girl, not anymore, but with his hand firm against her jaw, he didn’t let her move.

  “Real glad,” he said, and there was no doubting the sincerity in his eyes.

  He brushed a kiss across her cheek and then ushered her back to the house before saying good-night.

  As she readied for bed, part of her was elated, but the other, larger, part was terrified. What had she gotten herself into?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ricky helped Daisy down from the wagon’s bench seat and moved to tie off the horses in front of the little Pattonville café, among the other wagons and some saddled horses that had been tied, as well. The other businesses we
re dark, obviously closed for the end of the day, but the café was bustling with activity, the front windows lit up and shadows of people moving about inside. Muted voices carried through the night.

  Daisy had been quiet on the ride to town. So had Beau, which had left Belinda and Ricky to carry the conversation between the four of them.

  And he hadn’t particularly wanted to carry it. He was too worried about what was going to happen tonight.

  There was a reason he’d stayed pretty sequestered out on the Richardses’ ranch. His reputation from before he’d accepted Christ into his life. If someone talked about him, if Daisy found out what had happened that night...chances were, whatever she found admirable about him would go up in smoke.

  But he was done trying to hide his past. Coming clean to Jonas had been freeing, somehow. As soon as he could find a way, Ricky was going to confess to Daisy.

  If they could make it through this night.

  He finished tying the horses and turned, only to see Daisy standing frozen beside the wagon. She huddled in a patch of shadows between two squares of light, as if she was afraid to even move out into the open.

  He made his way to her side.

  “I can’t do this,” she whispered, and he saw that she was trembling. “What was I thinking, even contemplating it?”

  But Beau and Belinda had already disappeared into the café. Even though Ricky might want to, they couldn’t turn tail and leave the other two stranded.

  He rested his palm against the small of her back. “What are you afraid of?”

  She swallowed, the sound audible in the stillness around them. “That—” she began whispering, then broke off.

  Ricky glanced around. The most important thing to him was keeping Daisy’s reputation intact. But there was no one around.

  And he couldn’t resist taking her in his arms, not when she was this upset.

  He tucked her close to his chest, rested his chin on the crown of her head, his arms around her back.

  She wasn’t crying, but she continued to shake, violent trembles racking her entire body. Her breath puffed hot against his sternum as she panted through the fear.

  “That they’ll see your arm is gone,” he whispered into her hair.

  She nodded jerkily, her chin brushing his collarbone with each movement of her head.