by Nicole Helm
“And sometimes I’ll need you to let me protect you.”
She waved a hand. “If snakes are involved, feel free.”
He wanted to laugh, but there was still so much fear inside him. So much worry this wasn’t what he wanted it to be. Mom said it would take time. Patience. He’d been so ready for that, but here Cora was . . . “So, you’re really . . . You want to work things out? Now.”
She nodded. “I love you. I love you. I want to be your partner too. I don’t want fear to be the decision-maker in my life forever. I don’t want to be the kind of person who lets love go because something bad happens, or because we don’t agree, or because I’m feeling mixed up and don’t know how to say it.”
“I think you said it okay.”
“So why are you still standing all the way over there?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air.
He grinned and crossed to her in a flash, all those heavy bricks on his shoulders dissolving to dust and blowing away, because he didn’t have to wait, and they would make it all work.
Together.
“Thank God,” he said into her neck, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up off the ground. “I thought I was going to have to be patient and hands off for months.”
“Months? You were going to wait months?”
He met her gaze, those dark blue eyes so confused as if she’d never imagined this, as if she couldn’t fathom it.
He was going to damn well make sure she fathomed it.
“I’d wait years, Cora. However long it took.” He set her down, gratified when she slid her arms around his neck.
She studied his face, tears in her eyes. “You are the very best man I know, Shane Tyler.”
“Well, as long as I’m your man, that’s all that matters to me.”
She trailed her fingertips across his jaw, her mouth finally curving into a real smile. “Yeah, you’re mine,” she murmured.
He dropped his mouth to hers, but before he kissed her, he figured he might as well go for broke. “Hell, let’s get married.”
“What?” she asked on a breathless laugh. “Shane.” As though she was fully realizing he was serious, she shoved ineffectively at his chest.
He held onto her. “If you’re coming back to me this quickly, I’m going to push my advantage. I love you. I don’t want to be apart or to pretend like I need more time to know I want you by my side for the rest of my life. You take all the time you need to answer. I don’t plan on rushing you on anything. I just want you to know I want to. Whenever you’re ready.”
“I . . . I have to talk to Micah,” she said, pushing less and less hard against him.
“Just say yes!” Micah called.
Shane and Cora both whipped around to see Micah’s face pressed to the cracked glass of the window on the stables.
“Listen to the kid,” Gavin called.
“I don’t know. Marriage is kinda risky.”
“No one asked you, Boone,” Shane growled. Though he couldn’t see his brothers, they must have been standing behind Micah at the window. “Would you all go away?”
“Say yes, Mom!”
“He can stay,” Shane said to Cora, deadpan.
She grinned. “Oh, I’ll marry you. Though in fairness we have to get through your mom’s wedding first. I feel like I should get through planning someone else’s before I start planning my own.”
“Deal.”
“But . . . what are we going to do? Live here? In the main house? And like, what about kids? We’ve never talked about having kids and . . .”
“Yes, to all of it, yes. Whatever you want. Because you and Micah are what I want, and the rest is negotiable.”
A laugh tumbled out of her, a little lost but happy. “Living here, kids with you, it all sounds like a dream I had and tried to sabotage,” she murmured, cupping his face with her hands.
“Well, lucky I was around to fix it.”
She glared at him, though her mouth kept twitching up, ruining the attempt at severity. “I think we fixed it together.”
Shane gathered her close, pressed a kiss to her forehead. “And we always will.”
And then, paying no attention to the groans coming from the stable, Shane kissed his wife-to-be with everything he had. He knew without a shadow of a doubt he would love her and protect her, fight with her and make up with her, raise Micah and any other kids together, and it wouldn’t ever be perfect or easy.
But it would be right. And it would be good.
Epilogue
Cora looked around the sparkling, gorgeous reception and breathed for the first time all day.
Deb and Ben’s wedding, a wedding she had planned and worked her ass off on, had gone off without a hitch. Her very first wedding for Mile High Weddings, and it was beyond a success. It had been a gorgeous, fantastic spectacle of joy. And the great thing about it was, she wasn’t just proud of herself and what she’d accomplished. She was happy. For Ben and Deb and their second chance.
“Does the prettiest wedding planner finally get to dance?” Shane asked against her ear, his arms coming around her from behind.
She turned in the circle of his arms, grinning up at him. The cake had been cut, the bouquet thrown—Lindsay hilariously fighting to the death for it. All that was left was dancing to the strains of old country music under a beautiful, starry sky.
“I think she can find a few minutes for the handsomest cowboy of the lot.” And he was. Dressed in a suit, with a black cowboy hat to match. He’d walked Deb down the aisle, and just about everyone had cried as he’d given her away.
Cora got a little teary just remembering it. But Shane spun her onto the makeshift dance floor and she laughed instead.
“Don’t try to butter me up just to get into my bed,” he said, failing at hiding a grin. “I’m feeling a bit put out I haven’t seen you in days.”
Which was true. Despite the fact that she and Micah had moved into the Tyler ranch—totally for practical reasons with the school year starting and not at all for selfish, share-a-bed-with-Shane-at-night reasons—she’d only been home late in the evening, most of the time after Shane had gone to sleep.
“You’ll have to get used to it during wedding season. I’ve found I’m determined to be the best damn wedding planner in all of Colorado.”
They swayed to the music, and he kissed her temple. “I have no doubt you will be.”
There were so many ways Shane surprised her, challenged what she’d thought a relationship would be. The fact he wanted her to succeed, even if it meant time away from him, was something that still amazed her.
“So, do we get to talk about our wedding yet?” he asked, drawing her closer than was appropriate for the beat of the song.
She didn’t care. Not by a long shot. Though she was impatient too. Impatient to share this kind of night with him and the people she loved and pledge herself to him. It changed nothing, because she was already his, heart and soul, but there was something about the ritual that she knew would mean a little extra. “You are too impatient by half,” she teased, because she was more than pleased he was as eager as she was.
“Yes, indeed.”
“Well, Lilly did find this place that got me thinking . . .” Cora had to rest her cheek against his shoulder because she didn’t want him to see her expression. They’d been talking about a summer wedding, when she let him mention a wedding that wasn’t his mother’s. “Do you know the Bartons?”
“Sure. Lindsay and Cal Barton were high school sweethearts. I always liked Cal. And that Christmas Tree farm of theirs is a Gracely tradition.”
“It’s a darling little place,” Cora said. “Small, but so picturesque, and especially would be in the snow. Perfect for a wedding. A Christmas wedding.”
He pulled her away from his shoulder so she was forced to look up at him. He glared down at her. “You better mean this Christmas.”
She laughed, so happy it hurt. She knew it wouldn’t always be this good or this easy, but she al
so knew he’d be there holding her either way. “Yeah, this Christmas. I don’t want another year to go by where I don’t get to call you my husband.”
“I like the way you think. A Christmas tree farm, huh?”
“Snow and Christmas lights and most important, us. All three of us.”
He still held her close, and they’d both sort of stopped swaying, though people danced around them, happy and oblivious.
“About that,” Shane murmured. “I want to be the one to run it by Micah, or at least have us do it together, but I also don’t want to get his hopes up because the legality of it might be tricky.”
“Is this something underhanded, Shane Tyler?” she teased, having no idea where he was going with this sudden change of mood.
“No, afraid not.”
He was so sober, so serious, something in her heart shifted. Worry wiggled through her, but not heavy enough to be fear. Whatever Shane was talking about, they’d get through it.
“I want to adopt Micah. I want us all to be Tylers. I mean, we all will be no matter what. Don’t get me wrong on that. But it’d be a nice symbol. The name.”
She wasn’t sure she breathed for a minute. Maybe more. She knew Shane would be an amazing stepfather, the kind who said no and gave advice, just as Micah had said. But she hadn’t even thought about . . . hadn’t considered . . .
“If it’s okay?” he continued, clearly reading her shock as worry. “I thought—”
“It’s okay. I mean, it might be tricky,” she squeaked. “Hell, it might be impossible, but it’s more than okay that we give it a shot.”
He grinned. “Either way, I’ll be a great dad to that kid.”
“I know.” She reached up and cupped his face. “I know.” She brushed her mouth across his. “Oh, I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
“How we got so lucky,” Shane corrected, holding her close.
And he was absolutely right.
And now . . .
Read on for a preview of
A COWBOY WEDDING FOR CHRISTMAS
by
Nicole Helm
Available in the anthology
Santa’s On His Way
in October 2018
wherever books and
eBooks are sold.
Lindsay Tyler remembered exactly what she’d said to her oldest brother when he’d asked if she’d feel weird about his getting married at her ex-boyfriend’s family’s Christmas tree farm.
Why would I care about that?
No matter that Cal still lived in her head as the paragon of boyfriend-ness that no other man she’d dated had come close to. It had been years since she’d decided she wanted more than Gracely, Colorado and Cal Barton.
Why would I care about that?
As she turned onto the lane that would lead to the Barton Ranch and Christmas Tree Farm, she realized why she would care. Too many memories, sweet and increasingly nostalgic with time. There had been years of her life when she’d been so sure she’d marry Cal, move into the house at the end of this lane, and that would be it.
But he hadn’t wanted her more, and she hadn’t been willing to sacrifice seeing a different world for him.
A different world that hadn’t fit her like the glove she’d expected it to. A different world that never quite lived up to home. Oh, she was glad she’d done it. Six years of independence and learning to be Lindsay Tyler outside of her wonderful but overbearing family. She’d needed that.
But coming home . . . Well, it was the right step now. Adult, twenty-four-year-old Lindsay needed home. And for good.
She still couldn’t believe herself. Instead of traveling the world or becoming a famous artist, she was going to student teach, and then ideally get a job in the fall, where she’d once been an elementary school student.
It was such a joke after all her grand proclamations when she’d left the Tyler ranch. An embarrassing one. So embarrassing she still hadn’t told her family she wasn’t just coming home for Christmas vacation. She was home for good.
The thought of telling them made her a little sick, so she was more than happy to dive into wedding plans for her oldest brother and his soon-to-be-wife. Even if it meant driving up to the Barton house.
The arching sign over the entryway to the Barton Ranch and Christmas Tree Farm read just that in block red and green letters, and had for something like a century. She’d always liked that, that Cal had roots just like hers. Old and settled into the land. But unlike her family’s straightforward cattle ranch, Cal’s ranch had this amazing, festive, and unique history.
Cal was none of those things, which had always pleased her. Her gruff, taciturn cowboy whose smile was mostly just for her because he didn’t smile for much else.
She needed to get over the nostalgia train and focus on what was ahead of her. Her brother’s wedding. Christmas with her family. And at some point, swallowing her pride and telling them she was back for good.
Merry Crappy Christmas.
She pulled up behind a line of her family’s trucks. The Barton house was decked out with an impressive light display. Before Cal’s mother had abandoned the family, Cal’s dad had always spent days and days getting it just right. After that, the task had fallen to Cal and his sister, much to Cal’s consternation. He’d bitterly resented the Christmas tree portion of his family’s legacy, especially after his mother had left a second time, but Gracely depended on Barton’s for a festive Christmas tree-getting experience, and Cal couldn’t say no to the influx of cash in the cold winter months.
Lindsay really had to stop thinking about Cal. Tonight was about Shane and Cora’s wedding. The coming days were about celebrating that and Christmas with her family. Being on Barton property didn’t really matter.
She stepped out of her car, finding her footing on the slick, snowy ground. The quiet of rural Colorado wrapped around her like a warm blanket. No matter that coming home involved swallowing her pride, she was happy to be here. Happy to be back where she could see the stars spread out like a canvas of joy above her, where she could go outside to feel perfectly alone and perfectly safe.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispered fancifully into the dark. She carefully walked up to the porch stairs, then crested the gorgeous wraparound porch that was lit up to blazing with glowing white lights. Wreaths hung in every window, and two small Christmas trees sat in pots at the corners of the porch. It was the picture-perfect place to have a Christmas wedding. That was for sure.
Footsteps and grumbling interrupted the picturesque quiet. Lindsay lifted her arm to knock on the front door, but then the source of the noise came around the corner, and Lindsay forgot to hit her fist against the door.
Because bathed in the warm glow of the Christmas lights, the cowboy hat low on his head, was a man who could have been any ranch hand or friend of Sarah’s.
But he lifted his gaze.
“Cal.” Lindsay said his name on a whoosh of breath, because he’d always taken away her breath a little bit. Something about the midnight-black hair and the shock of summer sky-blue eyes.
And now he wasn’t just tall and lean. He was broad. Sturdy. She’d always thought he was the most handsome man in Gracely County, but now that she’d spent some time outside of Gracely, she understood the truth.
He was one of the most handsome men ever, anywhere.
Crap.
“You seem surprised to see me on my own porch,” he said, and she didn’t remember his voice being that low and deliciously raspy. She didn’t remember that hard, mean line to his mouth geared at anyone except his stepmother.
To be on the receiving end was more of a blow than she expected it to be. Still, she cleared her throat and forced her mouth to curve. “No, no. I just . . . You look so much different than the last time I saw you.”
“Funny,” he returned, giving her a quick once-over. “You look exactly the same.”
Which shouldn’t have sounded like an insult since he’d once considered her the prettiest girl in Colora
do—his words. But the way he said it now . . .
Well, humph.
“Well, I, uh, my family is here. I’m meeting them. Shane’s . . . wedding.”
Cal grunted in assent, moving for the door. Except she was standing in front of it, her hand still raised and ready to knock.
Cal. Cal was standing there in front of her, and she didn’t know what to say, or even feel. She’d avoided him at all costs on visits home for six years. At most, she’d seen him across the street in Gracely proper once or twice, but Cal was happiest on his ranch, and she’d avoided anything and everything to do with the Barton ranch.
And now he was right there. Right. There. He clearly wasn’t the boy she’d loved six years ago, but somehow standing on the same porch with him made her feel like that girl again. Naïve and so desperately in love.
“Darlin’, either knock on the door or get out of my way.”
Darlin’. He only ever pulled out that drawl with people he hated, but that didn’t make sense. It had been six years. Surely he didn’t still hate her. “I . . .”
“Did I sprout devil horns?”
“No. No. I just . . . No.” Heat infused her cheeks, and she finally got herself together enough to step out of the way, drop her hand, not be a complete and utter dope.
Cal moved into the space she’d evacuated and pushed the door open. She could have done that. She should have done that. Instead, she followed timidly after him into the warmth of the Barton house.
Not that her face needed to be any warmer.
“Straggler,” Cal announced simply, gesturing vaguely at Lindsay. Her family were sitting in various seats around the Barton living room, Cal’s sister Sarah standing in front of all of them.
“Lindsay!” Sarah squealed, and rushed over to envelop her in a tight hug. “Oh my gosh, you look amazing.”
Lindsay laughed uncomfortably, though she hugged Sarah back. “Me? You’re all grown-up.”
Sarah beamed and released her. “Come on in. You didn’t miss much. We were just chitchatting, waiting for you to get here.” Sarah ushered Lindsay to a couch where Molly and Gavin were sitting.
