Her Cowboy Billionaire Birthday Wish

by Liz Isaacson

  “Back up, Andrew,” Finn said, and the cowboy on the lowest stair did what he said. Eli, who stood a few steps up did too, and Zach moved sideways, as he stood on the walkway of the second floor, holding nearly the top of the tree.

  Graham, Beau, Todd, and Liam worked at the base of the tree, adjusting something Colton couldn’t see. A metallic sound filled the air as it scraped against the floor, and Graham groaned as he strained against it.

  “Hold it there,” he said, his voice full of urgency.

  “Should Zach lift it?” Beau asked.

  “Yes,” Graham said. “I can’t get it.”

  “Up,” Beau called, and Colton wondered how on Earth one man was going to lift that tree. It had to weight hundreds and hundreds of pounds, and there was just no way.

  “Let me put the handles in better,” Zach called, and he made some adjustment that Colton couldn’t see.

  Todd and Liam bent and if Colton thought he could get his broad shoulders under that tree to help lift it, he’d do it. Graham was already down there, and only Beau stayed standing while the other men positioned themselves.

  “Ready,” Zach called, and Beau counted down from three.

  They all lifted, and to Colton’s surprise, the tree moved. Graham flew into action, and another scuffling sound came before he said, “Okay, that’s it.”

  The tree dropped, and Zach let out a huge sigh and shook his hands out.

  “Tighten on that side, Liam,” Graham said, and Beau turned to look at Finn.

  “Is it straight?” he asked.

  “Looks good,” Finn said. “Hold it tight, boys.”

  A minute or two later, they all fell back from the tree, moving farther away until they could look all the way to the top of it.

  “It’s great,” one of the country music sisters said.

  “Best yet,” Laney said.

  “Definitely the biggest,” Annie said, and Colton’s attention flew to her. He hadn’t noticed her come in, and he wondered what that meant. He knew he had more fear in his heart than excitement, and that it pulsed out of control because he felt like he’d done something wrong downstairs.

  She was nothing like Priscilla, and Colton wondered if he was reacting to her with his wounded heart and not who he really was. And was that even fair to Annie?

  “Is the tree done?” Celia asked, pressing into the room too. “Oh, you boys. It’s amazing.” She touched her palm to her heart, and in that moment, Colton felt like he’d come home.

  Celia was so much like his mother, though she was probably a decade younger than the mom he’d left in Ivory Peaks. But Celia’s emotions filled the massive space, and Colton also had a moment of pure peace.

  He hadn’t been to church in a while, but he liked how this family prayed over the meals, how they cared about each other, how competitive they were with each other. He liked that they seemed to have the Lord at the center of their lives, and he knew he was missing that in his.

  “Okay,” Bree said over the speaker system in the lodge. “Celia wants to serve lunch, and our first slot for decorating isn’t until two, so let’s move this party into the kitchen.”

  Colton wanted to eat, but he kind of wanted to stay in the living room with the feelings that existed there. In the end, he followed the others into the kitchen, sticking to the side out of the way.

  “Where’s Bailey?” Laney asked, reaching for her son’s hand. “Have you seen her?”

  “Just leave her,” Graham said. “She’s off with Stockton somewhere, and they’ve done nothing but argue today.” He looked at Laney. “Let’s enjoy lunch without them.”

  “Maybe we should separate them for a bit,” she said. “We could go back to the house tonight to get a little distance.”

  Graham nodded as Celia called out, “Today we have taco-dillas. Some are beef, some are black bean—those are the vegetarian ones—and some have pork. There’s chips and salsa, plenty of guacamole, and tortilla soup. The little kids can have plain cheese quesadillas, and those are on the sheet pan on the stove.” She looked around at everyone and added, “I feel like I’m forgetting something.”

  “Let’s eat,” someone said, and Celia smiled.

  “Yes, let’s eat.” She looked around. “Graham?”

  “Finn’s in charge of the prayers today,” Graham said.

  “Ronnie’s gonna say it,” Finn said, and Colton saw most eyes move to the little boy who stood near him.

  The boy closed his eyes and opened his mouth, and the sweetest prayer came out of the child’s mouth. Colton’s emotions swelled and swelled, and he had the desire to flee before anyone saw that he was choked up.

  “Amen,” the boy said, and everyone chorused it through the house. Activity happened as the crowd surged forward. Colton went the opposite direction. He hadn’t been outside yet today, but several others had, and he didn’t want to go downstairs and get his coat.

  He’d taken a couple of steps toward the back door, but someone came out of the other doorway leading out of the kitchen, and he plowed right into them.

  “Oh, gosh,” he said. “Sorry.” He grabbed onto her, trying to find her name. She lived with Bree, but the name eluded him at the moment.

  “Sorry,” she said too. “I just….”

  He released her, and she turned and went down the hall he’d been planning to go down. He followed her, because the air inside the lodge held too many scents and too many people.

  When the door had closed behind both of them, he said, “I just needed some air. Can I be out here with you?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Colton, right?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I don’t remember your name, sorry.”

  “Elise,” she said. She gathered her white-blonde hair into a ponytail and bound it with a rubber band. “I just get overwhelmed with so many people,” she said.

  “Don’t you work here?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” She pushed out her breath, which wafted in the air in front of her in a white cloud for a moment. “It’s different during the holidays, though. When guests stay here, they don’t stay inside all day, and I spend a ton of my time working outdoors. I can’t really do that in the winter.”

  “I just feel completely out of my element,” Colton said.

  “Oh, trust me,” Elise said with a light laugh. “I totally know what you’re feeling right now.” She migrated to his side and they both gazed out at the winter landscape in front of them. The snow glinted in the sunlight, and it lay everywhere. On every branch, every roof, every square inch of Wyoming.

  The air definitely held bite, but it couldn’t sink its teeth into Colton’s skin. “I love being outside too,” he said. “There’s just something about being able to breathe out here, you know?” He looked at her and found her nodding slowly.

  “Where are you from?” she asked.

  “Colorado,” he said. “Big mountains there like here.”

  “I love the mountains.”

  “Are you from here?”

  “No, I grew up in Prince Edward Island,” she said, crossing her arms and pressing them tightly against her body. A half-laugh and half-scoff came out of her mouth. “I followed my boyfriend to Idaho, and then this side of the Tetons, only to have him fall in love with someone else.”

  “Oh, no,” Colton said. “Well, trust me, I know what that feels like.” He grinned at her, glad when her laugh became full, her nervous energy flying away into the sky.

  “Men suck,” she said, still giggling.

  “Yeah, well, women suck too,” he said, and he sensed in Elise a kindred soul. A little sister he’d never had.

  “Not all of us,” she said.

  “And not all men.” He nudged her with her elbow. “So did you just come out here because there are too many people inside? Or someone particular?”

  “Well, all the men in there are married,” she said. “So it’s not one of them specifically.” She sighed and drew in a big breath. “But my ex-boyfriend rode bulls like Todd,
and every time I look at him, I see Brandt.”

  “That stinks.” Colton would’ve slept in his truck in the snow if anyone in the lodge had reminded him of Priscilla. Hands down. And he’d have left this morning for sure. “So can I ask you a question?” he asked.

  “You can,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to answer it, but you can ask.”

  “So talk to me about Annie….”

  Elise turned her bright green eyes to him. “That’s not a question.”

  “I think I messed up with her, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

  “Ah, I see.” Elise focused on the tree line again. “Well, Annie is a straight shooter. She says things how they are, and she likes it when people do the same. So you just go to her, and you say, ‘whatever I did, I’m sorry, and I think you’re so pretty, and will you please tell me what it is so I can fix it?’ And then she’ll tell you, and then you’ll fix it.”

  Colton burst out laughing, though he believed everything Elise had just said. “Wow,” he said, chuckling. “You make it sound so easy.”

  “It is.” She turned and patted his arm. “With women, Colton, it’s just that easy.” She smiled at him and added, “I’m headed back in. You take your time, and you’ll see I’m right.” She left him standing on the back patio, which had been cleared of snow, his mind arcing in a dozen different directions.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Elise Murphy took one last breath of the fresh, Wyoming air before she went back into the lodge. What she hadn’t told Colton was that not only did Todd remind her of her ex-boyfriend, but that he knew Brandt too.

  Colton was easy to talk to though, and he gave off the air of an older brother, the way Malcolm, her real older brother did. He’d been thrown into the Whittaker family celebration, and Elise knew that wasn’t very easy.

  She’d almost quit—more than once—because she came from a family of three, and being around so many people really did induce levels of anxiety inside her that she couldn’t deal with. There were more Whittaker brothers—just brothers—than she’d ever had to deal with, and they then had spouses and children and parents too.

  She opened the door to a wall of warm air and loud talking. She wanted to walk right back out and go back to her quiet, solitary cabin out in the middle of a snowy field. Elise forced herself to stay, because she wanted to eat and help Patsy and Celia. She wanted to decorate the tree during her slot, and then she’d escape back to her cabin to call her mom to find out how the trip to Las Vegas had gone.

  Her mom had recently started dating someone new, and Elise hadn’t met him yet. His brother lived in Vegas, and they were going there for Christmas. She expected a picture at any moment from her mom, because they were so close.

  Growing up, it had just been her mom, Malcolm, and Elise, and the three of them had relied on each other for so much and for so long. But Malcolm had gotten married last year, and somehow, that had given their mother permission to start dating too.

  She pushed away her insecurities and rounded the corner to the kitchen. It wasn’t as busy as she’d expected, and she took a beef taco-dilla, chips, and guacamole and even found a spot at the table. Thankfully, Todd wasn’t there and the triplets were. Elise loved the little two-year-olds, because they had a ton of personality. Loud voices, sure, but a ton of spunk she just loved.

  “Did you get chips?” she asked Clover, who looked up at her with the widest eyes the color of dark chocolate. She had the cutest chubby cheeks that Elise just wanted to pinch or poke. She grinned at the little girl, who held up a chip.

  “Yep, you eat it,” she said, pointing to her own plate. “I have my own chips.”

  Clover put the chip in her mouth, smiling soon after. Elise giggled at her and looked at the other people at the table. She knew she connected better to kids, even two-year-olds, but she didn’t know what to do about it.

  She told herself she was only thirty years old, and she had plenty of time to meet the right man. She wanted to meet him. She didn’t get a lot of chances to meet men at the lodge, and she worked a lot.

  She hoped he was out there, looking for her too. She knew that was probably too romantic, but she didn’t want to let go of that idea. She liked the idea of two people exactly meant for each other, looking for that other person, and just knowing the moment they met them that they were The One.

  She actually sighed at the table, and then she pulled herself together for long enough to eat lunch.

  She’d just set her plate in the sink when someone yelled something from somewhere outside the kitchen. She spun around as she tried to make sense of what had been said.

  Had it been help?

  Elise’s heart bounced in the back of her throat, because someone had definitely called for help.

  Becca appeared in the kitchen, holding her oldest daughter in her arms, her eyes wild while Chrissy’s silence meant a tremendous scream was about to come out.

  There was blood everywhere. Absolutely everywhere, and Elise just froze.

  And Chrissy screamed, the sound chilling Elise all the way to the bone.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Annie had heard someone yell, and she’d left the office, where she’d been meeting with Patsy, instantly. The other woman’s footsteps sounded right behind her as they both hurried down the hall.

  A scream filled the air, and Annie’s heart froze.

  Around the corner, Becca held her daughter in her arms, plenty of blood marking the way they’d come. Annie blinked at the scene before her, quickly commanding herself to slow down. Think.

  She’d taken plenty of first aid classes as a young mother, and then again after Ryan had died. She never wanted to be in a situation where she didn’t know what to do, and that had spurred her attendance in the courses.

  “Becca,” she said, stepping around the woman. “Let me have her.” She took Chrissy from her mother, both of them crying quite hysterically. “Tell me what happened.” Annie turned toward the sink, only to find Elise gripping it tightly.

  “Patsy,” she said over the crying. “Elise needs to sit down. She looks like she’s going to faint.” Annie couldn’t do anything but step next to Elise, hoping she could at least cushion the fall if she did go down.

  Thankfully, Patsy arrived, and she escorted Elise away from the sink. “I’ll get towels and rags,” she said briskly, walking out of the kitchen.

  Annie flipped on the water in the sink and moved the handle to make the water warm. She twisted to look over her shoulder, adding, “And grab the first aid kit would you?”

  Colton appeared in the doorway, his eyes wide and anxious. Annie held his gaze for a moment, and then she turned back to the crying, wiggling, bleeding five-year-old. “Shh, baby,” she said. “Tell Auntie Annie what happened.”

  But Chrissy couldn’t, and in the next moment, Annie heard cowboy boots slapping the tile. Colton appeared at her side, his arm around Becca. “I think she said she fell.”

  “Against the stone table upstairs,” Becca said. “I have her teeth.” She opened her hand, and in her palm sat two bloody teeth.

  Annie looked away. She could handle the sight of blood better than lost teeth, and she’d always made Ryan play the Tooth Fairy for Emily and Eden when they were younger.

  “Okay,” she said, balancing Chrissy on the edge of the sink with one arm and her body while she wetted the other one. “Let’s see what we have, should we?” She looked at Colton. “Will you take Becca out into the living room? And then find Liam Murphy. Rose’s husband. He’s a doctor.”

  “Oh, dear,” Elise moaned, and Annie swung her attention away from Becca and Colton. Elise swayed in her seat and put her head down on the table.

  “Elise,” Colton said, taking Becca with him as he moved away from the sink and into the other half of the kitchen where Elise sat. “Come with me.” He practically picked her up with one arm, and he took both of them out of the kitchen.

  Chrissy still fussed a lot, and Annie started singing softly
to her. “I’m going to touch your head, okay, baby?” She wiped her wet fingers along the child’s hairline, smoothing the hair back and out of the way.

  Nothing wrong with her head that Annie could see.

  “Rags and towels,” Patsy said, dropping a mound of them next to Annie. She picked one up and got it wet, squeezing out as much water as she could against the side of the sink.

  “Now your face.” Annie wiped the girl’s face carefully, moving down both sides. She started to quiet, and Annie began singing again. She quickly mopped up as much blood from Chrissy’s chin and neck as she could, gradually getting closer to her mouth.

  “Annie,” Andrew said, rushing to her side.

  “She’s all right,” Annie said. “Don’t act upset.” She kept her gaze on Chrissy’s eyes as they started to crinkle again. “Shh, baby. It’s okay.”

  “Liam’s on the way. He was down at Graham’s.”

  “She’s gonna be just fine.” Annie resumed her singing as she took a clean, freshly wetted cloth from Patsy and put the soiled one in the sink. She put the whole thing right over Chrissy’s mouth, not putting any pressure on it at all. Her lips came away clean, and Annie could see the damage in her mouth.

  “Yes, you lost two teeth, sweetheart.” She smiled at the girl. “You’re going to get a visit from the Tooth Fairy soon.”

  Chrissy tried to say something, but Annie couldn’t tell what. At least she wasn’t sobbing or screaming anymore. She reached for her father, and Andrew took her one tiny hand in both of his. “It’s okay, baby. Annie is taking good care of you.”

  Colton returned to the kitchen. “I don’t know where Liam is.”

  “I called him,” Andrew said, glancing at Colton. “Thanks, though.”

  “Anything else I can do to help?” He looked at Annie, the weight of his gaze on the side of her face so heavy. She’d escaped from him earlier, and she knew it. He likely did too. They hadn’t had a chance to talk yet, as he hadn’t come to lunch with everyone else, and then Annie had moved on to talk business with Patsy.