Her Cowboy Billionaire Bodyguard

by Liz Isaacson

  She could bridle her now by herself, and she just took her out to the pasture that ran along the back of the property.

  Dandelion seemed to like it back there, especially if Lily brought her hay and oats.

  Lily liked the way the horse followed her, her head down, as if she trusted Lily not to lead her into anything dangerous.

  She liked that the horse stayed nearby her, even in the pasture, as if Lily somehow comforted the horse, when it was really the other way around. She liked talking to Dandelion about her sisters, and the songs Rose was working on, or the conversations Vi had with their manager. She even liked hearing about their parents and what they were up to in the Middle East.

  She loved this slower pace of life, but a twinge of sadness for her old life still radiated through her.

  She led Dandelion through the gate and into the pasture before dropping her reins. “Go on and eat.”

  The horse did, picking through the dried and dead grasses for the hay she hadn’t gotten yesterday.

  The sky looked threatening today, and Lily knew she’d have to cut her time in the pasture shorter than normal. She tossed the oats she’d loaded into her pockets on the ground and sighed as she stepped over to the fence and put her foot on the bottom rung.

  “I miss singing,” she said to the wind, the sky, and Dandelion.

  Her songwriting ability hadn’t left her, but she’d stopped writing down the lyrics that came to her. She honestly wasn’t sure she’d be able to pick up where she’d left off. Maybe such a thing wasn’t possible, no matter how much her sisters or her manager reassured her that it was.

  Because she was a different person than the one that had written the songs on the previous albums. And what if people didn’t like the person she’d become?

  The metamorphosis would show in her songs. It always did for the truly great songwriters.

  She opened her mouth and sang something she’d written a decade earlier, before she’d even met Kent. It was one of the Everett Sisters’ biggest hits, and Lily still loved it now as much as she had while writing and recording the song.

  He blows into town like a blizzard

  Whistling and wearing that smile

  Does he see me standing in the aisle

  Will he still be here come spring?

  She stopped after the first verse and collected the reins again. She’d barely reached the stable when it started snowing, and by the time she finished brushing down Dandelion and putting the equipment back on the hooks just the way Beau had showed her, she had to walk back to the lodge in a snowstorm.

  It was only a few minutes, though it was uphill, and she pulled her coat tighter around her. Beau would be happy for the snow, proclaiming winter to be one of his favorite seasons. How that could be true, Lily didn’t know. He simply hadn’t been to California or Miami or Cancun. If he had, he wouldn’t want to live in brown, dead, and now snowy Wyoming.

  It did possess a beauty of its own though, and Lily paused to appreciate it. There was something magical, something moving, about the way bare branches held the snow and transformed into works of art.

  Snowflakes landed on her lashes, and Lily giggled as she tipped her head back and tried to catch them in her mouth.

  She spun for a moment and then stopped as she stumbled down the hill a little bit, the winter wonderland around her almost too good to be true. She felt peaceful here, and the thought of putting on concerts in twenty-eight cities over the course of three hundred days made her stomach turn.

  Maybe she didn’t want the singing life anymore. At least not the one she’d had before.

  “Thank you for letting me be here,” she said aloud, not all that great at praying. But Beau and Celia and Bree all prayed before every meal, and she’d felt things settle in her life in a way they never had before.

  Their faith was something quite new to her, but she was learning to lean on it. Borrow it a little when she needed to. And develop her own.

  Her phone rang, bringing her back to the present, and she startled. No one called her. Her pulse picked up as she fished the phone out of her pocket with her mittened fingers.

  It was Beau, and her adrenaline and panic subsided as she answered.

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “On my way back to the lodge from the stables,” she said. “I had Dandelion in the pasture, but I got her back before it started to snow.”

  “Yeah, I saw her in the barn.”

  Lily turned around as if she’d see Beau coming up behind her. She couldn’t see more than two feet in any direction.

  “I don’t think you’re on the sidewalk,” he said next. “I just walked down there and back, and I didn’t see you.”

  Panic built in Lily’s stomach, surging upward and choking her. “I’m….”

  “Which way were you going?”

  “Up to the house,” she managed to push past her vocal chords. She caught a glimpse of yellow light to her left, and she started walking in that direction.

  “Stay where you are,” he said next. “The last thing I need is you wandering in any direction so I can’t find you.”

  “Beau,” she said, her voice tinny and desperate even to her own ears.

  “You can’t have gone that far,” he said. “I’m getting the spotlight. Just wait for me.”

  “Don’t hang up,” she said as she stopped walking.

  “Tell me what you see,” he said, his voice her only lifeline at the moment. If she were being honest, he had been her anchor, support, and lifeline for a long time now.

  “I can’t see anything,” she said.

  “Did you go past the pool?”

  “I don’t think so. I didn’t see it.”

  “Did you see a swing set?”

  “No.” She’d been out to the playground with Bree as they got everything ready for winter one day a couple of weeks ago. It was way past the house, beyond the pool, and almost on the edge of the property.

  “Were you going uphill or downhill?”

  Lily tried to remember. “The house is uphill.”

  “But did you go uphill or downhill?”

  She thought of the spinning and catching the flakes on her tongue. She’d definitely almost fallen down the hill.

  “Downhill,” she said, embarrassment filling her. She’d been walking in the wrong direction. How had that happened? Had she really gotten so turned around from a few snowflakes?

  They fell fast and furious now, fat flakes that completely obliterated the landscape.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m going to text Graham, and one of us will find you, okay?”

  Tears gathered in Lily’s eyes. She couldn’t even see somewhere to sit down and wait. Find shelter. Could they really find her standing out in the middle of nothing?

  “Lily,” Beau barked. “Okay? Don’t move.”

  “Okay,” she said, hating this weak feeling inside her and hoping that Beau found her before his brother did.

  “Okay,” he said, the tension in his voice still present. “I’m going to turn on all the lights on the outside of the house. Tell me if you can see them.”

  She turned in a slow circle, her desperation growing when she realized how dark it was and that no, she couldn’t see any lights.

  “I’m sorry, Beau,” she said, catching the sob before it left her throat. “I can’t see them.”

  “Can you turn the flashlight on your phone and hold it up?”

  “Yes, just a sec.” She put the call on speaker so she could still hear him and swiped and tapped until her flashlight came on.

  She tried to stay in a tight radius as she turned in a slow circle, shining the light out in front of her as she did. Lily had never seen darkness approach so quickly, but it seemed to go from light to dark in a matter of moments. The wind blew the snow sideways, sometimes whipping it right into her face and making her hair heavy with water.

  “Please find me,” she whispered. Each moment felt like it took a week to pass, and surely Beau could
move faster than he was. She banished the thoughts and took a deep breath. She was the one who’d gotten herself lost when the walk from the stable to the lodge was a straight shot.

  “Hey, maybe you can sing,” he said through the phone, startling her. She’d forgotten he was there, and she hoped he hadn’t heard her desperate plea for him to find her.

  “Sing?” she repeated.

  “It should carry pretty far in this weather,” he said. “Snow muffles everything else, and your voice could really cut through.” He puffed and huffed, clearly marching through the storm like a champ.

  Like her boyfriend.

  Like her bodyguard.

  He was going to rescue her, and she hadn’t even known she’d need help with this part of her life.

  She took in another breath, the cold sinking into her skin and making her shiver. When she started singing, her voice felt a bit rusty, but she soon found her groove. She sang a ballad she’d written the year after the divorce was final, and it was sad and full of emotion. Though she hadn’t been particularly devastated about the ending of her marriage, there were still feelings of sadness and loss, as if the last five years had meant nothing.

  “I can hear you,” Beau said. His breathing quickened, like maybe he was running. “I see your light. I’m almost there, sweetheart. Almost there.”

  She heard Beau’s footsteps only a moment before the dark figure of his body broke through the snow. She cut off her voice at the same time he swept her into his arms, and more relief than Lily had ever known washed over her.

  He held her tight, and she gripped his shoulders, the warmth of his body and the safety of his arms feeling very much like she’d made it home.

  Thirteen

  Beau’s heart thumped and pumped in his chest like he’d just run a marathon. Of course, hiking through a storm, searching for something he couldn’t see, really got the adrenaline flowing.

  Thank you, he thought as he smoothed back her wet hair. Thank you for leading me to her. He pressed his lips to her forehead and said, “Let’s get back.” He secured his hand in hers and ended the open call he had with her so he could call Graham.

  “Hey,” he said when his brother answered. “I found her. We’re about halfway between the cabin and the stable. We’re headed back to the lodge.”

  “Good news,” Graham said, and he sounded truly relieved. “I’ll head in then.”

  “Thank you, Graham.” Beau didn’t think the words could possibly convey how grateful Beau was that he could call his brother, and Graham would rush outside almost immediately.

  Beau kept his eye on the compass on his phone, and he got them back to the lodge as quickly as possible. Lily was shivering and soaking wet by the time they burst through the backdoor into the mud room.

  “Found her,” he called, and Celia and Bree appeared in the doorway, anxiety evident in their expressions.

  “I’ve got hot coffee,” Celia said, ducking back around the corner and into the kitchen.

  “I’ll go start her shower.” Bree dashed off the other way.

  Beau started peeling the soaked, semi-frozen layers of clothing off of Lily. She’d been out there longer than she realized, but Beau understood what this kind of snow could do to a person if they didn’t get warmed up quickly.

  “Come on,” he said when he got down to her base layer. He tugged her toward the hallway, as she hadn’t moved or spoken yet. Shock.

  “Coffee,” Celia said, thrusting a cup at Lily. She took it with trembling hands, and Beau helped her steady it as she drank.

  “You’re going to get in the warm shower,” he said. “Stay in until you feel normal. Bree will have it on pretty cold at first so you can warm up gradually.”

  Lily looked at him then, a bit more life in her face already. “I’m fine.”

  “You are not fine. You’re cold and in shock. I’m going to have Bree stay in your room until you get out, just to make sure you’re okay.” He arrived at her door and knocked to let Bree know.

  She pulled open the door a moment later, flashed a look at Beau, and took Lily by the hand. “Come on, hon. Let’s get you good as new.”

  Beau stood on the threshold of the room, watching helplessly. But Lily was in good hands, and she was safe now. It would have to be enough, because they couldn’t get down the canyon to the hospital tonight anyway.

  He pushed out his breath and went back to the kitchen, where Celia had a hot cup of coffee for him too.

  “I can pull some frozen meatloaf out,” she said, worry still riding in her eyes. A rush of affection for the woman hit Beau, and he gave her a grateful smile.

  “That would be great, thanks.”

  She put her arm around him, and Beau leaned into her like he could steal some of her motherly comfort. “You’ll still have your movie night, okay? Just no pizza, and no Andrew and Becca.”

  Beau started nodding his head. “Yeah. Maybe.”

  “No maybe about it. I’ve gotten to know Lily pretty well.” Celia moved away and opened the freezer. She rummaged around and pulled out a gallon-sized zipper bag with two foil-wrapped packages in it.

  “These take an hour to heat up, and then you two will be snuggling downstairs, that romantic comedy she picked out playing on the screen.” She tapped on the stove, something beeped, and she opened a cupboard to find a baking sheet.

  Beau just watched her, a bit numb himself. When he realized his jeans were wet, and that he indeed needed to change or be cold for the rest of the night, he stood and said, “I’ll be right back.”

  “All right,” Celia said, still busy in the kitchen.

  Beau escaped to his bedroom, a heavy dose of exhaustion hitting him right behind the lungs. Breathing wasn’t particularly easy, but he managed to pull in some air and push it out. Suck in, push out.

  He’d been working long hours on Lily’s cases, and there hadn’t been any threat to her from Kent, not that Beau had known about. He’d emailed all of his law enforcement contacts within a hundred mile radius, and none of them had seen the man.

  But somehow, Beau ended up playing the rescuer anyway, albeit he hadn’t considered the snow to be Lily’s biggest enemy. A sigh washed through his body, and he stripped off his wet clothes. After a quick shower in the hottest water he could stand, he wrapped a towel around his waist and stood in front of the mirror.

  “Maybe it’s time to trim the beard,” he muttered to himself as he ran his hand along his jaw. It hadn’t taken him all that long to grow the facial hair, and he supposed he did look a bit on the mountain man side of things.

  In the end, he didn’t want to take the time to shave right then, so he got dressed in warm, comfortable clothes—a pair of sweats and a T-shirt—and went back to the kitchen. Lily sat on the same stool he’d vacated a few minutes ago and their eyes met as he entered.

  “Hey, there,” he said, his voice soft and filled with all kinds of telling emotions. He cut a glance at Celia, but she didn’t even look at him. “How are you feeling?”

  “So much better.” Lily had both hands wrapped around a huge mug, with marshmallows bobbing near the rim. “Are we still up for a movie?”

  “Of course.” The clock indicated that their planned date with his brother wouldn’t have started for another hour, but Lily stood like she wanted to go downstairs right now.

  “I’ll call you when the food is ready,” Celia said, finally turning toward Beau and smiling. “You two go on.”

  So Beau did. He went on down the stairs ahead of Lily, turning on lights and wishing he’d thought to come down and switch on the space heaters too. The basement of the lodge could get quite chilly in the winter, but Andrew had made sure to put a heater in every room.

  Beau bent to twist the knob on the one in the living room, saying, “There’s some blankets in the closet in the theater room. Sorry it’s so cold.”

  Lily’s hand touched his then, and all the nerves and worries and fears partying in Beau’s chest simply disappeared. He looked at her again,
noting the coolness of her skin against his, which felt feverish to him.

  “Thank you,” she said, something intense burning in her gaze. “I don’t know what I’d have done without you. Probably still be wandering out there in that storm.”

  Beau pushed her damp hair over her shoulder, wishing he could confess all the soft things he felt for her. “Well, you’re not,” he said instead. “And Celia said you have a movie already picked out?”

  Lily seemed to relax, and a smile drifted across that mouth that was driving Beau toward the brink of madness. “Yeah, come on. I think you’ll really like it.”

  He didn’t mention that he already knew it was a romantic comedy, and that he didn’t particularly enjoy those. He thought he’d probably enjoy anything if he could do it with Lily. She handed him the case for the movie, and he pointed to the closet. “Blankets in there.”

  After putting the disc in the player, he gathered all the remotes and faced the rows of recliners facing the big screen. “Do you want to sit in the back or the front?”

  “Right there.” She pointed to the back row, which had two loveseats side-by-side. His heart beat at triple time, and he followed her to the one all cozy in the corner.

  She sat first, and he joined her, thrilled when she spread the blanket over both of them. He got the movie playing before lifting his arm around her shoulders. She snuggled into him as if she really liked him, and Beau’s blood ran a little faster in his veins.

  He couldn’t help thinking about Deirdre and how she’d done all of these things too. Maybe not here at the lodge. But she’d definitely acted as if she’d liked him. She held his hand, and spent hours talking to him late into the night, and kissed him while the snow fell outside.

  The similarities of the relationship ran through Beau’s mind, and the fear and doubts he’d had kept streaming through him as the movie played. Lily giggled, clearly paying attention the screen, but Beau hadn’t comprehended a single thing.

  “Lily,” he whispered, deciding he had to do something to get his heart to stop racing and his mind to stop circling around things he didn’t know.

  “Yeah?”