[2015] Cowboy for Christmas

by Christian Michael

  Worry knotted her stomach. She wasn’t sure what Hank Mills looked like, he’d only said tall with brown hair, but she was sure he would have recognized her—if only for the fact that she was the only woman who had exited the stagecoach.

  Taking a few steps forward, a hand landed heavily on her shoulder causing her to jump. “Sorry, Miss,” the coach driver said with a smile beneath his large moustache, “Just wasn’t sure where you wanted yer trunk?”

  Blinking rapidly, she looked from the trunk to the man then back to the trunk. “Is there a hotel nearby?”

  He nodded once. “Yup.”

  “Please take it there then.”

  “Sure thing.”

  He turned and left and she searched the crowd again before resigning herself to the fact that Hank wasn’t there. Or if he was, he wasn’t coming to claim her. A thought slammed into her chest. Was that it? Had he taken one look at her and wasn’t interested?

  But, looking into the gawking stares of the men surrounding her she didn’t think that was the reason. She was by no means the most beautiful woman, but she had a feeling men in the West took what they could get. Not that that thought was comforting.

  Stepping up to the ticket window she leaned closer, “Excuse me.”

  “Yeah,” a booming voice said from behind the bars.

  “Can you direct me to the local hotel.”

  “Down the street. Take a right. It’s on the right.” The man went back to his newspaper without another glance her way.

  Trying to shake off the rudeness of the man, she held her head high and pounded down the boardwalk. Just as the disinterested window clerk had said, the hotel appeared on the right and she entered, relishing the calm tranquility of the interior. It wasn’t as nice as places she had seen in Massachusetts but she hadn’t been accustomed to finery anyway.

  “Hello,” she said at the desk. “I’d like to reserve a room.”

  The clerk helped her, taking almost the last of her reserved money, then directed her to the post office where she hoped someone would know about Hank Mills—her fiancé.

  “Yeah, I knew Hank,” the post office worker said.

  Dora froze. Knew? “I’m sorry, what do you mean…knew?”

  “He passed away a few weeks back. Some kinda accident as I heard it.”

  Her heart pounded in her chest and the constriction of her throat kept her from answering.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I—” her voice cracked, “I was to marry him.”

  The clerk’s mouth dropped open to form an “O” shape. “Really?”

  “Yes,” she said, feeling the shock morph to terror like a live thing in her chest. This couldn’t be happening.

  “I’m sorry ma’am. Real sorry, but he’s gone. I wasn’t sure who to forward his mail to. Heard about a brother he had and I just tracked him down the other day. Did you want to contact him maybe?”

  Dora tried to think through what the man was saying. Contact Hank’s brother? Why…but then she considered the fact that, if she didn’t contact him, who would? She had at least gotten to know Hank a little through their letter writing and, though she never thought she would truly love him, she had felt certain they would be happy. Eventually.

  “Yes,” she said, surprising herself. “I’ll write him a letter.”

  Nodding, as if to convince herself, she turned around and made her way back to the quite safety of the hotel. She couldn’t afford to stay for much longer as a guest nor could she afford to buy a train ticket back. Maybe, just maybe, she could gain work at the hotel until she figured out what to do with her life.

  All of her plans had fallen through and she was alone. Utterly alone.

  ***

  Raymond Ellis adjusted his seat in the saddle. He was used to riding long periods of time and today was no different. He had a lot of territory to cover if he was going to make it half way to his next job by dusk.

  The town sat ahead, the dusty streets busy with foot traffic and horses. He rode down the main street on his way to see the smithy. His horse needed a new shoe and he needed supplies. It would hopefully be a quick stop, but a necessary one.

  After leaving the horse to be tended to, he walked toward the general store, the list of provisions he needed fresh in his mind. There wouldn’t be another town for a few days so he needed to stock up. He jumped up onto the boardwalk and toward the door of the general store just as a woman barreled out—and straight into him.

  “Ouch!” she said, stepping back and nearly falling over.

  “Steady there,” Raymond said, reaching out rough and calloused hands to steady her.

  She stepped back, a wild, frightened look in her eye. “Don’t touch me.”

  He yanked his hands away, holding them up to show he meant no harm. “I’m sorry, miss,” he offered a small smile, “Just making sure you didn’t fall over.”

  Her black hair was pulled back into a sloppy bun but it was her vibrant green eyes that held him captive. They were stunning and beautiful, reminding him of dew on a prairie field in the light of dawn.

  He looked over the rest of her face, his eyes flicking to her lips briefly but always back to her eyes.

  She took another step back. “Th-thank you,” she said, then spun on her heel and was gone.

  He stood watching her for a moment, breathless. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And he needed to see her again.

  Rushing to the corner, he peered around but was greeted with an empty street. She was gone, like the last rays of sunlight in the evening, and he was devastated to realize he may never see her again.

  He shook his head, feeling foolish. He was a cowpoke. A man without a home who rode the range—had been riding the range since he was a boy—not some lovesick boy who wanted to meet a girl and settle down.

  Yet the thought of settling down wasn’t as unattractive to him as it once had been. He’d spent years traveling, never settling into a place, but that didn’t mean the rest of his life had to be like this. Or maybe it did. What kind of husband could he be?

  Expelling a breath, he spun around and went back to the general store. He was thinking like a crazy man right now. One pretty girl and you’d think he’d been out in the sun too long.

  “Howdy,” the storekeeper said, smiling behind his counter. “Can I get you anything?”

  Raymond sidled up to the counter, weighing his options. He was acting a fool, he knew that, but what could it hurt just to see her one more time? A pretty face to remember as he rode off into the sunset that evening.

  “Got a question for you,” he said.

  “I’ll see what I can do to answer you.”

  “I just nearly knocked over a pretty little lady on her way out of here. I feel terrible and wanted to apologize. Might you know where she went? Rushed off in quite the hurry.”

  The shopkeeper narrowed his gaze. “What do you want with Dora?”

  “No, no,” he said, holding up his hands, “Nothing untoward. I just wanted to apologize—properly.”

  The man kept his narrowed gaze on Raymond for a long time before standing up, putting his hands on his hips. “Her names Dora and she’s a kind woman. Works in the hotel restaurant right now, but she’s only been in town a week or so. I don’t want to hear that you were over there pestering her.”

  “’Course not,” Raymond said, honesty in his gaze. He considered the man’s words, wondering what could have brought a woman out to these parts, but he didn’t want to press his luck with the storekeeper.

  Instead, he purchased his supplies to pick up later than made his way toward the hotel. Maybe he’d get a meal before he left.

  Chapter 2

  “Don’t forget my coffee, darlin’,” the man said. Dora tried to ignore the gleam in his eye and shuffled away from his table as quickly as possible.

  She had only worked in the hotel restaurant a little over a week but already she was exhausted by the work and tired of fending off marriage proposals at nearly
every turn. These men couldn’t get it through their thick heads that she wasn’t interested. At least not in them.

  Pouring a cup of black coffee, she picked up two plates of pie and made her way back to the table. She left the coffee and moved on to drop off the pie before the charmer could ask her for more than coffee.

  Another man grabbed for her writs as she walked by but she yanked it away, glaring at him before saying she’d be back with his meal soon. Only when she was in the relatively safety of the kitchen did she stop for a moment. She just needed a moment.

  The other woman who worked there, Lulu, was older than Dora and had been around men like this for a long time. She wouldn’t tolerate their snide remarks or grabbing hands, but instead told them off like little boys stealing candy out of a jar. If only Dora could be like that.

  But she’d grown up in a house of girls and had worked in the factories full of other women for so long she hardly knew how to handle herself in this situation. She needed thicker skin. A fiercer attitude. Gumption.

  Pulling in a deep breath she picked up the next plates and charged through the door nearly running into a man.

  “Goodness,” she said, catching the plates in time to keep them from spilling.

  The man spun around, arums out and a startled look on his face. “I’m so sorry.”

  Looking up into his eyes she frowned. Where had she seen—oh! She remembered that he had run into her as she’d come out of the general store.

  “You make a habit of running into people?” she asked, surprising herself.

  “Only if they are as pretty as you,” he said with a grin.

  Not another one, she thought. “Excuse me,” she said, frowning and slipping past him.

  “Wait,” he called out after her but she was already moving forward.

  When she turned around she groaned, seeing he sat at one of the tables she was supposed to wait on. Could she ask Lulu to take that table? One glance at the older woman told her that she had enough on her hands without taking some of Dora’s work.

  Instead, she forced herself to remember what she’d decided in the kitchen. She needed to be tough.

  “What can I get you?” she said, stepping up to the man’s table. She took a quick inventory of the clumsy man. His shaggy, light brown hair looked like it had spent a lot of time under a cowboy hat, likely the one with the sweat stained rim sitting opposite him. His hands were rough, she remembered that much from his steadying touch, and clasped lightly on the table before him. His eyes—

  They were light blue and flecked with gold…and staring right at her. It wasn’t an uncomfortable stare—one that asked too much of her—but rather one filled with genuine kindness.

  “I’d love some supper if you wouldn’t mind. And maybe a cup of coffee?”

  Instead of standing there with his piercing gaze locked on her, she turned to go but felt his hand on her arm. Looking down he removed it immediately, grimacing.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to—” he broke his gaze for a moment, “I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I didn’t mean to run into you and…well, I'm not sorry for calling you pretty—even though it’s true—I didn’t mean for it to sound rude.”

  She opened her mouth then closed it, unsure of what to say. It was the kindest she’d been treated in…more than a week. Suddenly, tears filled her eyes and she blinked several times before turning and running out the backdoor of the hotel.

  ***

  Raymond had never had an apology go worse in his memory. As he watched the pretty woman run from the room he felt like he’d been punched in the gut. What had he said that set her off?

  Feeling a compulsion he couldn't shake, he picked up his hat, shoved it on his head, and went to find her.

  The brightness of the sun blinded him for a moment but his eyes soon adjusted enough to see her bent over crying on a bench sitting in the shade of a large tree. Taking in a slow breath to calm his beating heart, Raymond walked toward her.

  “Miss?” he said.

  She jerked her head up, startled.

  He took a step back, raising his hands up. “I don’t mean you any harm, I just wanted to see if you were all right.”’

  Wiping stray tears from under her eyes she sniffed and said, “I’m—I’ll be fine.”

  He frowned in concern. “You don’t look fine.”

  She gave a mirthless laugh, shaking her head.

  “No, I mean,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “I just mean that you look like something’s wrong and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t from something I’d said. I really was just trying to apologize. “

  “No, it’s all right,” she said, dropping her gaze. “I’m not having a very good week.”

  “Mind if I sit?” he asked, indicating the other side of the bench.

  She scooted over, though there was plenty of room for him, and he sat. Directing his gaze at her, he studied the soft planes of her face. She looked to be a few years younger than he was but there was a weight—a heaviness—to the set of her shoulders. Working in the hotel of this rough and tumble town, she had likely needed to fight off the attentions of men more often than not.

  “First off,” he said, feeling the need to clarify this, “I mean you no harm. Anytime you’d liked me to leave, I will.”

  He noticed some of the tension leave her. “Thank you.”

  “But, secondly, it looks like you could use a friend. Someone to talk to maybe?”

  Her surprised expression turned on him and she blushed when their eyes met.

  “Want to tell me why it was such a bad week?” Raymond wasn’t sure why he was pressing her for information. It wasn’t like him. He was a lone cowboy—the man without a home—but for some reason sitting here beside this woman made him want to slow down.

  “I…” she started then stopped, her eyes drilling into her hands clenched on her lap. “I came out West to be married.” The words married slammed into him but she continued, “But I found out that the man I came to marry is dead.”

  “I'm sorry to hear that.”

  “I didn’t know him well, only through letters.”

  Realization dawned. “You were a mail order bride?”

  She nodded. “I don’t have enough money to buy a train ticket back East—not that I really want to go back—so I started working at the hotel. It’s just…not an easy job.”

  He nodded slowly. His earlier thoughts proving true. “I can imagine.”

  “Then you were just so nice to me and…” she sniffed again and he resisted the urge to rest a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

  “Well, ma’am, my name’s Raymond Ellis and I’m pleased to meet you and to be your friend.”

  She laughed, wiping the tears away. “I’m Dora Sullivan and it’s nice to meet you too—friend.”

  They awkwardly shook hands, hers resting in his for a moment longer than necessary. Then she stood. “I’m sorry. I really should get back.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  At her worried look he grinned, “I still need my meal.”

  Chapter 3

  Dora felt Raymond walking behind her, his height towering over her creating a secure feeling. She had just unburdened her heart to him and, though she had felt foolish at first, she relished the lightness of how she felt now.

  Once inside, she ran to the kitchen and began to catch up on the orders she’d neglected.

  “Where you been at?” Lulu said. Then, noticing the tears in Dora’s eyes, she softened her tone. “I covered for you. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Thank you Lulu,” she said, picking up four plates and balancing them on her arms.

  Thankful for the woman’s help, she caught up and was able to bring Raymond his meal. He didn’t ask her to stay or to talk more, but he offered a kind smile. He was so different from the other men she served. He didn’t require anything from her other than friendship, or so he said. And she trusted that what he said was the truth. When she looked into his blue eyes she felt as if he
r trust was deserved.

  Bustling about the room, she filled cups of coffee and water, picked up used plates, and took orders, but her gaze kept traveling back to where Raymond sat. He’d pulled out what looked like a little book and was reading.

  She shook her head. A cowboy who read? What kind of man was Raymond Ellis?

  But, as she was getting ready to stop by his table to talk to him one last time her heart dropped seeing his chair empty. He was gone. Just like that, the only man she had felt moderately comfortable with was gone.

  Of course he was though, this was a restaurant and men came and went as they pleased. But she’d be lying if the fact that he hadn’t said good-bye didn’t affect her. Because it did.

  Rather than focus on that, she poured herself into her other duties. She even stepped in to wash dishes when the supper crowd dwindled down and there was less waitressing to be done. Cook looked happy for the help, as did the young boy they employed.

  Taking in a deep breath, she allowed her mind to focus on the task at hand and not the future. She knew in her heart she couldn’t stay here in the hotel working forever. Though Cook and Lulu were nice, the constant barrage of men was too much to handle day-in and day-out. She had to come up with a plan, as well as finances for that plan.

  A dish slid between her fingers and she barely managed to catch it in the soapy waters, bringing her thoughts back to the present. God had kept her safe this far. He had provided this position for her and he had given her a friend to talk to—even if that friend was now long gone.

  She had much to be thankful about. With her focus on her herself she could easily be discouraged but thinking of all that she did have always helped to put things in perspective. God had a plan—she knew it.

  Lord, show me what to do next.

  It was the only prayer she could think to lift up, but she knew it would be enough.

  ***

  Raymond hated himself for leaving without saying anything to Dora. He’d felt a moment of sheer terror at how forward he’d been and nearly ran out of the place. Sure, he’d just told her they were friends—which was true—but his wildly beating heart indicated to him that he wanted more than that.