“The girl has always thought the world of you. And I thought you had a soft spot for her.”
“I do.” Craig picked up a towel and started rubbing down Summer Rose on the other side. “Do you think anyone else would have gotten away with painting my horse pink?”
Joe paused. “Did she get away with it?”
Craig frowned at the towel as he rubbed the water off Summer Rose. “No.”
He’d hurt Alissa.
Alissa dashed into the nursing home, but she was in no state to respond to Mary’s startled look of inquiry at her abrupt entrance, so she kept on dashing, heading straight through the building and out the back door. She ran across the lawn and through the tended garden, out to the small clump of pine trees in the north corner. Wood sorrel flowered in faded shades of pink in the cool shade, and she crushed the weeds carelessly underfoot, intent only on hiding.
Life had taught her early to hide her tears. Not that she was crying. It was her breathing that betrayed her, great gulping, awful breaths that shook her body. She hugged her arms around herself and pressed her back to the rough bark of a pine tree. She needed its strength.
“Alissa’s a strong woman,” Joe said.
Craig concentrated on untying Summer Rose’s rope. He never thought of Alissa as strong. She was pretty, fragile, shy, quietly determined, but strong women were louder. Then again, painting a man’s horse pink was a quietly loud statement. A daring one.
“She’s looking for a strong man,” Joe added. “Plenty of doctors at that hospital where she works.”
“Dad.” But Craig didn’t know what he wanted to add to that protest. That Alissa wasn’t looking for a husband? His guts twisted at the thought of her married to a stranger and leaving Faerie Valley. She belonged here; look at the effort she was putting into the Spring Fair.
But he recalled her saying that the town had changed, that everything changed.
Only he wanted to hold onto things as they had been. He wanted to preserve the best of home. And in the end…
Summer Rose nudged his shoulder. He blinked. His dad had gone. So how long had he been standing there, alone? He walked slowly to the barn.
In the end, Alissa had wished him a good life, an unchanging one. And she’d run from him.
He returned Summer Rose to her stall, and leaned on the half-door, staring at the mare but hardly seeing her. He needed the stall door to hold him up because he’d just been struck by an epiphany.
“I’m an idiot.”
He’d come home determined to pay any price, to put in any effort, to argue down any of Alissa’s proposed changes to the Spring Fair because he’d wanted everything in Faerie Valley to stay the same. But there was a price to be paid for an unchanging Shangri La, and he’d just paid it. He’d blinded himself to the truth, and to the opportunities that came with change.
“Do you want to kick me, Summer Rose?”
The mare snorted and returned to her hay net.
“I reckon someone ought to.” He straightened from the stall door and stretched his shoulders.
His dad had offered a proverbial kick in the pants. Alissa’s a strong woman.
Woman, not girl. Not even the young woman learning about life and herself who had with shy, cute determination, continued to email and chat with him through his years away. No, now Alissa was fully a woman, fully aware of her strength and value, and looking to share her heart.
And what did I do?
His instincts had known better. They’d said to kiss her, to claim her. But no, he’d wanted to keep her as his friend’s little sister, as she had been. She was vital to his life and happiness, but he hadn’t acknowledged that they were both grown up now, that things had changed and life held new, sweet possibilities.
He’d hurt her badly with his stubborn stupidity. Hurt her when he should have been courting her.
“Well, heck.” Like the efficient sergeant the army had trained him to be, he assessed the situation and reached a damning conclusion. He’d stuffed up completely. Words wouldn’t fix this. He had to show Alissa that he’d changed. He needed a plan.
Chapter 5
By dint of careful planning, over-whelming busy-ness, and once, by flat out running, Alissa avoided Craig through the one and a half days till the parade and the opening of the Spring Faerie Fair. Since they were both on the Organizing Committee, that wasn’t easy, but it helped that he seemed equally busy—or determined to avoid her.
She smiled more brightly and was grateful that the brilliant spring afternoon meant that she could wear sunglasses and hide her haunted eyes. When she’d looked in the mirror that morning, heart ache had stared back.
So she’d dressed to distract people from her eyes.
Her shirt was bright pink—faerie princess pink— and she wore it tucked into snug fitting, practical jeans. Her “faerie tiara”, made by Mrs. Glover at the nursing home, sparkled with silver and pink plastic gems on her head, and contradicted the plain braid she’d confined her hair in. Dangly silver earrings added to the distracting sparkle.
The weather was perfect. The sky was blue, the sun had a hint of summer warmth and the wind was just enough to make the flag by the town hall flutter.
At street level, everything was organized chaos.
The usual four floats, representing the town’s clubs and high school, had been pulled out of winter storage, cleaned, painted and now waited for the parade to start. The local dance school’s troupe shed their warm outer clothes, handing them to their hovering moms, and stretched excitedly, ready to jazz step down Main Street. Across the road, near the diner, three of the nursing home’s oldest residents were safely seated in plastic chairs. They saw Alissa looking at them and waved their phones.
She smiled and waved back. It had taken a lot of patience from her high school student volunteers, but the aged trio were now ready to snap photos of the parade and share them on social media to promote the Spring Faerie Fair. In the background, the high school band was warming up. By the sounds they made, they’d skimped practice. Alissa winced at a particularly loud and sharp note from a French horn.
The sheriff would lead the parade and the mayor would meet it at the fairgrounds. Sheriff Lopez raised his bullhorn. “Ready?”
The parade participants shuffled into line. Alissa readied herself to run. She wanted to see the start of the parade that she’d worked so hard on, but then there were a hundred and one things to do at the fair itself. She’d beat the parade to the fairground by ducking through side streets.
From one of those side streets, and emerging right next to the sheriff, a horse stepped out.
The crowd gasped.
The horse was pink. A bright, definite pink with a white mane and tail, and silver hooves. Summer Rose.
Alissa’s breath caught.
Craig rode the mare, sitting easily in the saddle, wearing a white hat and white western shirt with jeans. Sitting in front of him, nearly bouncing with excitement, was a seven year old faerie princess.
Alissa recognized Max Brigg’s second eldest daughter, Raelene. The little girl waved a silver wand.
From the street behind them emerged three more horses, each brightly painted: one turquoise, one emerald, and one amethyst. Each carried another of Max’s daughters, with a cowboy holding the reins and them. The cowboys were Max, himself, Craig’s dad Joe, and Alissa’s brother Sean.
Craig had enlisted allies. He looked across the street, directly at Alissa. He had one hand holding Summer Rose’s reins and the other holding little Raelene. He couldn’t free a hand to wave at Alissa, but his look was like a touch. His presence here, on a faerie horse, said even more.
Suddenly, she found it hard to breathe—for the best of reasons. Hope and happiness squeezed her heart.
Then Raelene looked up at Craig. He nodded. The little girl gripped his arm tight even as it tightened around her. And then Summer Rose reared in a careful, staged salute to Alissa.
The crowd and parade participants gasped, c
heered and clapped.
No wonder it was Raelene riding with Craig. She was her family’s little daredevil. Her laughter rang out, young and cheerful. Delighted.
Joy sweet and piercing shot through Alissa. She blew an air kiss to Craig.
His teeth flashed in a white grin, and Summer Rose pranced. Then he guided the mare to the front of the parade, in front even of the sheriff, who nodded. So this was pre-arranged. The other three horses lined up with them.
The parade would be led by faerie horses.
The sheriff raised the bullhorn. “Let’s get this show on the road, folks.”
The high school band struck up. The dancing troupe had its own music blasting. Engines rumbled in low gear. Craig started the parade.
Everywhere in the crowd, photos were snapped. Cowboys on faerie horses. It would be the highlight of the fair.
Alissa watched the parade proceed down Main Street, and then, evading the laughter and comments of her friends and neighbors, ran quickly down side streets to beat the parade to the fairground.
Craig had to hold Summer Rose back to a steady walk as the mare caught the joy pulsing through him and wanted to frisk and trot.
His dad, Max and Sean had been remarkably easy to convince to ride faerie horses, when he explained it was for Alissa. Max’s daughters hadn’t needed convincing. In fact, the challenge would be to get them off the faerie horses when the parade ended! But it was all worth it for the look on Alissa’s face.
He’d ridden out of the side street with eyes only for her, and he’d seen the moment when she understood what his presence meant. When she understood his message to her: I’ll give you your dreams.
He would, too. Because her dreams were his: love, a family, being part of the community.
The parade finally reached the fairground and Alissa was there, waiting to the side of the podium where the mayor stood. She’d discarded her sunglasses and her smile was radiant.
The temptation was too much! Craig ignored protocol, rode right up to the podium, handed little Raelene to the mayor—who was also her grandma—and in exchange, took Alissa’s hand and lifted her up in front of him. She came up lightly, gracefully, one foot on his boot and up. The high school band was completely drowned out by cheers. Craig knew they weren’t for him. They were for Alissa and for romance. So he ignored the thousand cameras that he guessed were recording the moment, and adjusted her slipping tiara.
“Hello, my own faerie princess.” His voice was low and husky.
She twisted around to smile up at him. “Hiya, cowboy.”
He laughed and her laughter answered him. He pulled her tight against him and gave Summer Rose the signal. The mare reared, and when she came down, he urged her away, out through the crowd and around the temporary stabling at the edge of the fairground, down to where the oak trees marked the edge of the clearing and gave them some privacy.
He set Alissa down and dismounted, tying Summer Rose’s reins to a branch. He didn’t even have to open his arms and Alissa was there, moving into his embrace, resting against his heart. “I was an idiot,” he muttered.
“You are wonderful.” There were no shadows in her beautiful blue eyes. They blazed with love and happiness, enough for a man to warm himself through life. “Thank you for the faerie horses.”
“I wanted to tell you…” He was losing the ability to form a coherent sentence. The feel of Alissa in his arms, the sight of her soft lips so near his. “I can change. I want all the good things life can bring.” He cleared his throat. “I want you.”
She rose on tiptoe and touched her lips to his.
It was the gentlest, tenderest kiss, filled with shy promise, and it claimed him forever.
For a split second, Alissa was kissing Craig; all of her dreams come true and happiness bubbling through her veins. Then the next instant, his vital masculinity asserted itself and he was kissing her, and her happiness tripled and quadrupled and became immeasurable.
So this was love.
Love was joy beyond words, quiet certainty and ecstasy. She reveled in their first kiss. And there would be so many more. Her arms tightened around Craig’s neck as she embraced their glorious future.
Note From The Author
This story started from the idea of someone painting a Texas cowboy’s horse pink. I was fascinated. Who would dare do such a thing? And how would the cowboy respond? Enter Alissa with her shy daring and Craig with his immense capacity for love. I hope you enjoyed their romance, and visiting their fictional but gorgeous town of Faerie Valley.
Jenny
Summer Kiss
Jenny Schwartz
Freedom! For the last eleven years, schoolteacher Tessa Fraser has been raising her much younger brother with the help of their grandmother. Now her brother is eighteen, headed for college, and Tessa is finally free to indulge her adventurous spirit. Only, Sheriff Caleb Gascoyne has other ideas.
Fishing at midnight, Caleb never thought he’d catch the woman of his dreams, but Tessa is sweet, funny and sparkling with the joys of summer. She’s a world away from his old life when he served his country on secret missions overseas. But she wants freedom, and he’s just settled back into Gascoyne Junction.
Tessa knows Caleb is used to far more sophisticated women than her. She’s spent her whole life in the Texas Hill Country, while he’s travelled the world. Never has she regretted her lack of sophistication so much as when confronted by an honorable, old-fashioned cowboy-sheriff who just won’t be tempted into a midnight kiss.
Chapter 1
The river ran cool and quiet through the summer night. Oaks and pecan trees rustled in the faint breeze, frogs peeped, and crickets and cicadas combined their songs in a background buzz of sound. Skeeters whined.
Tessa Fraser automatically waved a hand in front of her face, but the bug spray was doing a good job of keeping mosquitoes at bay. Although she was determined to enjoy the freedom of the river at night, she’d been sensible and wore old jeans, boots and a long-sleeved shirt. Neither skeeters nor snakes were going to take her by surprise.
She breathed in deeply, inhaling sheer happiness. A break in the trees along the river path gave her a glimpse of the stars and when she looked down, the river reflected the moonlight in its glimmering silver surface. It was all so beautiful that she paid no attention to where she put her feet, even turning around and walking backwards to get a different perspective on the scene.
To think that she’d lived here all her life and never visited the river at midnight. She’d been missing out.
A hard male hand gripped her elbow.
“Aargh!” She spun around, heart pumping as she tried to remember the self-defense class she’d taken in college. “Let me—it’s you!” She sagged, muscles limp with relief. “You scared me.”
“I meant to,” her captor said grimly.
Tessa eased her arm free of the sheriff’s hold. She knew she only succeeded because he allowed it, but still he couldn’t know how much she didn’t want to put space between them. Caleb Gascoyne was her dream man.
From the day he returned to Gascoyne Junction, she’d been smitten. Not that she was obvious about it. She was sure he didn’t know she existed. But she’d voted for him as sheriff. It wasn’t only that he was obviously qualified. Her big fear was that, if he wasn’t appointed, he’d leave his home town forever, going where his skills were appreciated.
The Gascoyne family had been cattle ranchers in the county for seven generations, but Caleb had never shown an inclination for ranching. He’d left that to his older brother and sister, and headed for the army, and then, it was whispered, secret missions with an agency known only by its acronym.
The result of those thirteen years away was obvious in his lean strength, alertness and the occasional shadows in his dark eyes. Yet it was the quiet, respectful way he treated young and old that captured Tessa’s heart. He was just like a sheriff in an old western movie: an honorable man, one who lived by the Code of the West.
So
to find herself alone with him by the river at midnight left her completely unafraid. She even smiled.
Caleb frowned. The moonlight showed the hard, masculine lines of his face and the square jaw, as well as the width of his shoulders. Like her, he wore jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. But he’d rolled up his sleeves, exposing muscled forearms.
He also held a fishing rod.
She thought of her short scream and blushed. “I hope I didn’t scare the fish.”
“Forget the fish. Where is your husband?”
She stared at him blankly.
“Boyfriend, then?” he prompted impatiently. And when she continued to stare at him. “Don’t tell me you’re here completely alone?”
She nodded.
He muttered something under his breath, raking a hand through his black hair. “The nearest town might be a small one, but dangerous people can turn up anywhere, just passing through. A woman shouldn’t walk alone at night, so far from help.”
Some of Tessa’s happiness slipped away. She’d been sensible for so long, for years and years, and this was the first bit of freedom she’d enjoyed since she was sixteen—or that’s what it felt like. She’d policed herself rigorously; determined not to add to her nana’s burdens or to set a bad example for her younger brother. Consequently, she resented the lecture Caleb was clearly set to deliver. Plus, she was disappointed that he didn’t recognize her at all. Not even as someone from his town.
“Actually, I’m not alone,” she said coolly. His being protective was admirable, but he shouldn’t assume that she was stupid. “I live in Gascoyne Junction, and I’ve brought my dog to the river with me.”
“A dog? The dog that didn’t turn up when you screamed? What is it? A poodle?”
The Texas Kisses Collection Page 6
