WESTERN CHRISTMAS PROPOSALS

by Various

  “Ain’t like you didn’t run off before. Left Mrs. Barstow not three days before your wedding and never came back, I heard. Can’t say doing that again would put you in a good kind of light with the folks around town. People here are mighty fond of Mrs. Barstow. She’s a good woman and there’s not a one of us that will take kindly if someone were to cause her any hurt. You understand my meaning?”

  Morgan scowled at the rancher. “Your meaning was a little hard to miss.”

  Beckett smiled and the corners of his eyes creased. “Then we shouldn’t have a problem.”

  “Good day, gentlemen.”

  Morgan turned as Lettie came up the snow-beaten path and quickly tried to school his features to hide the surprise. Her usually overdone appearance was...subdued. Extensively. Her blond hair was pulled back into a simple twist, her long wool coat a plain, unadorned navy. The dress that peeked out from beneath the coat’s hem a deep burgundy. Morgan had to blink several times to ensure he was seeing things properly.

  “Afternoon, Mrs. Potter,” Beckett said with a nod before turning back to watch his wife, leaving Morgan to carry on the conversation.

  “Try not to look so shocked, Morgan. I do know how to play the demure matron. What do you think? Success?” Lettie waved a hand at her chosen ensemble and smiled, but it wavered at the edges and it quickly registered with Morgan that the normally confident belle was unsure of herself. That was a new development.

  “You look fine.”

  “Fine?” Lettie scowled at him and planted a hand on her hip. “Heavens, Morgan. If you’re going to win my sister over you are going to have to improve your ability to hand out a proper compliment.”

  Her words shocked him even more than her dressed-down appearance. She’d be the last person he’d expect to be on his side when it came to convincing Red to give him a second chance. “I’ll work on that. Where is she?”

  Lettie nodded toward the boardinghouse. “She’s getting ready, but I thought maybe the conversation the two of you needed to have would be better done in private. If you hurry, you can catch her before she leaves. And Morgan—please don’t mess this up.”

  “Thank you for your incredible words of encouragement,” Morgan said, with as much sarcasm as he could muster in his nervousness. Beside him Beckett chuckled, a low rumbling sound as if he was trying to hold in his amusement with little success.

  “Don’t get me wrong—I want you to succeed, I really do. But mark my words, Morgan Trent—if you hurt my sister again, I will hang your hide from the nearest flagpole. Do we understand each other?”

  At this rate, between Beckett and Lettie, Morgan would be lucky to see sunset. “I have no intentions of hurting her.”

  “Humph.” Lettie looked him up and down with a critical eye. “Well, then, get on with it.”

  Morgan nodded and gave Lettie a long look. Something had changed in the woman. A brand-new sense of selflessness that she struggled to make peace with. But she was trying, he would give her that. Guess maybe time had a way of changing everyone if they’d let it.

  The question was, had he changed enough to win Red’s forgiveness? To be the man she needed?

  He took a deep breath and turned in the direction of the boardinghouse. He was about to find out.

  * * *

  Willa plucked her coat from the hook on the wall. She had tarried long enough until there was nothing left for her to dawdle over. Lettie had tamed her hair as best she could, pulling the mass of curls to the nape of her neck and pinning them there. The dress Meredith had made her showed off her figure to such a degree she almost didn’t recognize herself.

  Her time was up. She had no more excuses. Time to face her fears and speak to Morgan. She took a deep breath and opened the door to her upstairs rooms, stopping short before running face-first into a huge ball of mistletoe.

  Then the mistletoe drifted downward revealing the face of the man she’d dreamed about for more years than she could count. A long breath escaped her. Would she ever tire of seeing it? Likely not. And the idea that she may not get the chance to wake up every morning and see it sliced through her.

  Morgan leaned against the doorframe, a shining example of masculinity that made her knees go weak. He offered her a small, tentative smile. “Hi, Red.”

  “Hi.” Willa’s greeting whispered out of her. She wasn’t sure what else to say. The words she’d planned to say suddenly deserted her. Even if she had remembered, it wouldn’t have mattered. The sight of him, decked out in his sheepskin jacket and denims robbed her of breath. She still hadn’t grown accustomed to this new, rugged version of the man she’d once known. But she liked it. She really liked it.

  “Thought I might have a word with you before you left for the dance, if that’s okay.”

  She pointed at the mistletoe. “Was all of this your doing?”

  He gave her a sheepish grin and swept the hat from his head. “I was trying to get your attention.”

  “I see.” Her heart pounded against her ribs. “And why was that?”

  Morgan dropped the bundle of leaves and berries to the floor and pushed away from the doorframe, stepping closer. She backed up but he followed, tossing his hat onto the small table by the door. Willa swallowed but her throat had turned dry as dirt.

  “Because I made you a promise once and I sealed it with a kiss beneath the mistletoe.” He continued moving forward, undoing the buttons of his coat as if whatever he had to say was going to take more than a few minutes.

  “Yes, I recall that.”

  “And I failed miserably at that promise.”

  She nodded. “Yes, I suppose you did.”

  “So this time, I thought I’d do better. That I’d come over here and make you a promise I have every intention of keeping.” Morgan erased the space remaining between them, slowly and with purpose.

  Willa’s toes tingled and the sensation drifted up to her knees, then her thighs. Higher. She wanted to sit down, before her legs gave out completely, but she was afraid to move. Afraid this was a dream and if she said or did the wrong thing it would disappear, or worse, turn into a nightmare.

  “What kind of promise?”

  Morgan stopped in front of her and took her hands. His hands were cold yet still they warmed her from the inside out. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

  He smiled, staring into her eyes until nothing else existed but this man she loved so deeply it made her ache. A shaky laugh escaped him and he shook his head. “I had a whole speech figured out but just one look at you and I’ve forgotten every word. Shame too. It was a brilliant argument.”

  He was nervous. Just like her. The fact hit Willa hard and knocked the air out of her lungs all over again. She nodded, unable to form words until her breath returned.

  “The fact is, Red, I don’t blame you for turning me down the other day. You were right. I made the whole thing about me. I had this idea of what happiness looked like based on what I’d experienced growing up with Ma and Pa. I missed that so much after they were gone that all I could think of was finding the woman I loved and somehow getting that kind of life back.” He squeezed her hands and she met his gaze, seeing the sincerity in his blue eyes. She returned the squeeze, letting him know that she’d heard. That her heart understood.

  “I wanted it so badly,” he continued. “And then I met you. But I let my vision get twisted by your father’s demands of the kind of lifestyle his daughters deserved. I became determined to prove I could give you that. Any setback in my business was a failure. That was why I didn’t write. I wanted you only to see my success. Turns out, I let that consume me until I lost sight of what was really important.”

  He lifted her hands to his lips and planted a kiss against her knuckles. Her breath came in shallow gasps and her heart grew wings and battered them against her ribs. This wa
s what she had waited for. This was what she needed him to understand. “I didn’t need any of that.”

  He lowered her hands again but placed one of his over the spot he’d kissed as if to hold it there. “I know that now. But then I was such a pigheaded fool. When I got your letter telling me you were marrying Clancy, I near lost my mind. It seemed I’d lost everything I’d been working for. I spent a full week drinking myself stupid and feeling sorry for myself. Then I came to my senses, realized what an idiot I’d been and rode hell-bent-for-leather to stop you.”

  “You did?” Her heartbeat accelerated as she tried to make sense of his words. Her whole hope in sending the letter was that he would do just that. Ride back into town like the hero she believed he could be and save her from the misery of marrying Clancy Barstow. But it hadn’t happened and as she’d said her vows to a man she did not love, her heart had broken a little more.

  Morgan nodded and looked at her, his expression stark, every plane and angle a study in pain and regret. “I was too late. The wedding had already taken place a few days before. If I had only headed out the day I got that letter, instead of wallowing in self-pity, everything could have been different, Red. This whole damn mess is my fault. I spent years trying to avoid that fact, blaming it on you, your father, everyone but me. But I can’t outrun the truth. I failed you back then and I failed you again when I rode into town and expected you to give up everything you’d become to make me happy.”

  Willa took a deep breath, absorbing his admission. “I didn’t know you came back.”

  “How could you? Wasn’t like I bothered sticking around to tell you.” He smiled again, but his expression held a sadness that rocked her to the core. He hadn’t been the only one to place blame. She had thought he’d merely forgotten her. That he’d left her behind for sunnier skies and a better life and hadn’t even had the decency to tell her.

  Willa shook her head and stepped closer. He let go of her hands and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her to rest against him. She let out a deep breath. Being wrapped in his arms felt so much like home that any idea she had of not doing everything possible to keep it slipped away. How could she not fight for this? How could she justify not risking her heart and giving everything she had to make things right?

  “I missed you horribly,” she said, breathing in his scent. “Every minute you were gone, my heart ached a little more. When I turned around and saw you standing on the steps of my boardinghouse, I thought I’d finally lost my mind. That the loss had me seeing things. But it scared me too. Because in that minute, staring down at you, I knew nothing had changed when it came to my feelings for you. I wanted you every bit as much as I had the night you rode away from me. And the idea of losing you again had me retreating as fast as my legs could carry me.” She lifted her head and gazed up at him. “Everyone keeps saying what a strong woman I am, but in that moment I never felt more weak. It scared me.”

  “You don’t ever have to be scared of my feelings for you, Red. They’ve never changed. I love you. Now. Then. Always.”

  She shook her head. “But I’m not the woman you fell in love with,” she said, voicing the fear that lived in her heart. Twice now, he had proposed to a biddable young woman willing to give up everything for him. She wasn’t that woman any longer.

  “Yeah, you are,” he said, reaching up a hand to trace the line of her jaw. He smiled until the corners of his eyes crinkled. “I fell in love with your beautiful mind, your ideas and your warmth and your heart. None of that has changed. It’s just been improved by time. Flourished in the face of adversity and made you even more amazing. I couldn’t love you more if I tried, Red. But I expect with each day that goes by, I’m going to prove that statement wrong. I’m just hoping you’ll give me the chance to do so.”

  “You don’t mind if I keep my boardinghouse?”

  He laughed and shook his head, dropping a quick kiss on her lips that nearly took her knees out from under her. “Red, you can run for mayor of Salvation Falls for all I care, just so long as at the end of the day you come home to me and I get to show you how much I love you. How proud I am of you. Will you let me do that? Will you let me spend the rest of our lives making you the happiest woman in Salvation Falls?”

  Willa bit the inside of her cheek, certain this was all a dream she’d wake up from at any moment. “That’s a tall order, Morgan Trent. There are a lot of happy women in this town.”

  He shook his head and laughed. “Then let’s put them all to shame.”

  Willa took a deep breath, everything inside her shouting the answer. She smiled and for the first time in a long time, she felt true happiness deep in her heart. “Yes, let’s do that.”

  “Really, Red?”

  She nodded and Morgan grabbed her around the waist and spun her around.

  “She said yes!” Through her own laughter, Willa recognized Lettie’s voice and the loud whooping let out by Sheriff Donovan as a cheer rang out from downstairs where apparently half the town had congregated.

  Willa didn’t care. The whole world should know!

  Morgan let her go and walked to the door leading out to the hallway and bent to pick up the mistletoe from the floor. He shook his head as he looked down into the main hall below, then turned and kicked the door shut.

  “Come here,” Morgan said, holding out his free hand. She stepped forward and took it and he lifted the mistletoe above their heads. “I made you a promise once that I would come back for you. I did, but it was too little, too late. This time, I’m going to make you a different kind of promise. I’m going to promise to love you, every day of our lives. I promise to be the kind of man you need in every way. To be worthy of the amazing woman you’ve become.”

  Willa reached up and touched Morgan’s face, letting her fingertips trace the line of his strong jaw to land on his lips, which were so soft in comparison. “And I promise to keep my heart open, to rejoice each and every day in the wonderful man that you are. I love you, Morgan Trent. I truly do, with all my heart.”

  “That’s all I’ve ever wanted,” he said, lowering his head to capture her mouth with his. Their kiss sealed the promises made beneath the mistletoe. It built a bridge between the past and future and the wondrous life that awaited them now they had opened their hearts and minds and allowed each other in once again.

  “Merry Christmas, Morgan Trent,” Willa whispered against his mouth.

  “Merry Christmas, Red. I’ve got a feeling this is about to become my favorite time of the year so long as I get to celebrate it with you.”

  He kissed her again, then tossed the mistletoe onto a nearby chair. “My arm’s gettin’ tired and I like it better wrapped around you.”

  Willa laughed as Morgan held her close. As his mouth descended on hers once more, she decided she didn’t need a promise under the mistletoe. She already had a promise from the heart. Given by the man who had loved the girl she had once been and also the woman she’d become.

  And she could think of no better future than one that brought them both the happiness they deserved and the sense of home and family they had both always longed for.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed this story, you won’t want to miss these great full-length Historical reads

  from Kelly Boyce

  SALVATION IN THE RANCHER’S ARMS

  SALVATION IN THE SHERIFF’S KISS

  THE SHERIFF’S

  CHRISTMAS

  PROPOSAL

  Carol Arens

  For my grandchildren, Caitlyn, Lauren, Brielle, Avery, Wade, Brandon and Claire...you are the Merry in my Christmas.

  Dear Reader,

  I wish you a very joyful holiday. I lift my glass of Christmas toddy in a toast that you will be blessed with all things wonderful—delicious food, cherished gifts both given and received, the magic of children’s laughter,
carols of glad tidings and, most of all, that you will make precious memories surrounded by those you love.

  Cheers to you!

  Carol Arens

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter One

  December 1884, aboard the train to

  Pinoakmont, Colorado

  “Papa, I need to pee.”

  Roy Garner frowned as he gazed into his daughter’s wide brown eyes, judging the urgency of the situation.

  At only three years old, she was still fairly new to this business of going at will, and she was sitting on his lap.

  “Can you wait five minutes?”

  “She can’t wait, Papa. I can’t either,” announced Lorraine, who was four and not at as great a risk for an accident.

  Now with two children in need he’d have to make his way to the questionable facilities. Again. It didn’t matter that the train station was only moments away.

  Lifting Delanie off his lap, he set her on the floor then shot a glare at seven-year-old Robbie, then at six-year-old Jack.

  Jack seemed subdued, gazing out the window with a frown at the trees flashing past. Caught up in misery, he wasn’t likely to cause trouble.

  But Robbie was staring at the feather decorating the hat of the woman sitting on the bench in front of him.

  “Son,” he said to Robbie. “I’m taking your sisters to the water chamber. If you touch that feather, I’ll nail your pants to the seat.”