Darn Good Cowboy Christmas

by Carolyn Brown

  Liz picked a bridle from a nail up above the saddle and started talking softly to the horse. “You pretty doll. I bet you get tired of this old stall, don’t you?”

  Raylen backed up to the other side of the center aisle and crossed his arms over his chest. He’d make sure she had the hang of things before he went over to Danny Boy’s stall. The saddle might be too heavy for her. She might have trouble getting Missy to stand still while she cinched it up. Or she might need a boost to get mounted up and ready.

  Missy nudged Liz’s shoulder and she giggled. “Impatient, are you? Well, we’ll have us a good ride right after we get this bridle on you. Yes, baby girl, that’s a good darlin’. I’m going to lead you out, and we’ll get some good exercise, and then we’ll have an apple or a carrot.”

  She bypassed the saddle and didn’t respond to Raylen when he pointed at it. He followed her as she led the horse out into the sunshine and rubbed her ears for a minute before she grabbed a hunk of hair and swung up on the horse’s bare back in one swift movement. She clamped her knees against Missy’s flanks and the mare stepped high.

  Maddie came out of the first stall and stared. “I’ll be damned. Is she one of them horse whisperers?”

  Raylen shook his head. “She’s pretty good, isn’t she?”

  Liz’s dark hair fluffed out behind her as she gave Missy more rein and let her go into a soft trot. “Fast enough, little girl. That’s all you’re going to get today. Any more and you’ll work up too much sweat.”

  Maddie watched until she and Missy disappeared over a rise. “She don’t need me to advise her on horses. I’m going back to work,” Maddie said.

  Raylen watched until they made the first circle and she waved at him, then he went back inside and brought Danny Boy out to walk him around the paddock a few times. The stallion looked disappointed that he couldn’t have a good run, but Raylen reminded him that his leg wasn’t healed and if he wanted to run, then he had to obey the rules.

  “And besides all that, I’m still in shock at that woman of mine. I’m not sure I could keep up with you if we could take a jog around the pasture,” Raylen said.

  Liz finished the second round and brought Missy back to the front of the barn. She slid off her back, led her inside the barn, and grabbed up the equipment to rub her down before she put her back in the stall. Maddie had just finished mucking out and laying down fresh straw.

  “You’re pretty good ridin’ bareback,” she said.

  “We got horses out in west Texas. I can saddle up if you want me to, but it’s just extra time. Who’s next?”

  “Fire Red.” She pointed to the name above the stall door.

  “Her name mean she’s got a temper?” Liz asked.

  Maddie leaned on the shovel. “Gentlest mare I’ve got. She’s birthed several of Danny Boy’s colts for me. Got one that’ll be in the sale this next fall. Beautiful boy that we haven’t broken yet.”

  Liz itched to meet that horse. “Want me to start workin’ with him?”

  “Honey, Dewar would disown me as his mother if I let anyone near that horse but him. But there’ll be more colts and now that I’ve seen what you can do, you’re goin’ to have your hands full livin’ next door to us, so you will get to break one eventually,” Maddie said.

  Liz and Fire Red had made it halfway around the pasture when her phone rang. She fished it out of her hip pocket and shifted the reins to one hand. Fire Red kept up a steady trot around the perimeter of the pasture.

  “We’re out past Wichita Falls,” Marva Jo said. “Haskell called. Daddy is antsin’ for us to get there.”

  “It wasn’t easy, Momma,” Liz said around the new lump in her throat.

  “Change hurts sometimes, but I saw it in your eyes, you are where you should be. Dammit! I should have gotten involved with a carnie instead of a gadjo! It was his genes that keeps you in one place. A third-generation carnie would have given you good genes.”

  Liz giggled. “I’m riding bareback right now. I promised Raylen I’d help exercise horses if he’d help me take care of all my Christmas decorations and the party.”

  “You loved horses from the time you could walk. That’s Daddy’s genes coming out in you,” Marva Jo said. “We’re getting into Vernon and traffic is heavy. I’ll call when we get there.”

  She’d barely flipped her phone shut when it rang again.

  “I’m miserable,” Blaze said when she answered, and she believed him. His tone sounded horrid.

  “Good enough for you. When y’all left I cried my eyes out.”

  “I just now stopped snifflin’ enough to call you. I’m in love, sweetheart.”

  “What are you going to do about it?”

  “Hell if I know. It’s a brand new territory for me. Got to go. Traffic is slowing us down. Call you tomorrow.”

  She flipped the phone shut and it rang a third time.

  “Where’d you learn to ride like that?” Raylen asked when she answered. “Watchin’ you makes me hot.”

  “What?” She giggled.

  “Well, it does.”

  “I don’t know how to answer that. Everything you do makes me hot. You can walk across the floor and I’m scalding hot. You can kiss me and flames shoot out my ears. But to answer your question, I started riding before Poppa or Momma knew it. I rescued an old wood stool from the barn and stood on it to mount up on the Shetland ponies. I was barely four, and Momma said I was too little to ride, but all I could think about was getting on that pony. I was too little to saddle up. I’d been riding a month or more when they figured out I wasn’t playing with Barbie out there behind the barn.”

  “Stubborn little cuss, wasn’t you,” he said.

  “Always,” she said. “I’m bringing Fire Red in now. Who’s next?”

  “Glory. She’s one of Major Jack’s first colts. Spirited. She’ll test you.”

  Liz giggled again. “As much as you do? Do I get makeup sex tonight?”

  “It’s a date,” he said. “Starting with a long bath together. Not a shower.”

  “I’m looking forward to it,” Liz said breathlessly.

  “Me too,” Raylen drawled.

  She shivered at the idea of a bath with Raylen. Maddie was still mucking out the stall when she rode Fire Red into the barn. Liz slid off the mare’s back and rubbed her down, but the visual of Raylen naked and wet kept a smile on her face until quitting time that evening. That cowboy sure knew how to rattle a girl’s nerves, and Liz loved it.

  The sun was a bright orange ball hanging right above the western horizon when they finished up. The inside of Raylen’s truck smelled like hay, horses, and manure but neither Liz nor Raylen noticed. She wanted a long hot bath with Raylen. He could begin by massaging the aches from her upper thighs and butt cheeks. Tomorrow she was going to take the time to saddle the horses.

  “Just so you know, Momma invited us to have supper with them. I told her that I’d promised to help you eat up some Italian leftovers,” Raylen said.

  Liz patted him on the leg. “And you will. After we have a long, hot steamy bath and then long, hot steamy sex.”

  “You don’t stutter when it comes to speaking right up, do you?”

  “I told you about riding that pony when I was four. I get something in my head, I do it. I got something to say, I say it.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell me that summer when we were teenagers how you felt about me?”

  She blushed. “At fourteen I barely knew what sex was or what that aching feeling down deep in my gut was. I do now.”

  She hopped out of the truck when he stopped it and hit the porch in a dead run. Hooter looked up, but she didn’t invite him or Blister into the house. Raylen strutted up the steps and into the house, wondering why she was in such a big hurry. He found the answer when he opened the door. She stood in the middle of the foyer wearing nothing but a smile and a clamp in her hair.

  “You sure are slow.” She grinned.

  With one swoop, he threw her over his shoulde
r, her bare butt too tempting, so he nibbled at it while he carried her back to the bedroom and flopped her down on the bed. He leaned down and kissed her long, hard, and passionately. When he broke the kiss and she opened her eyes, he’d kicked out of his boots and his jeans were down around his ankles. His lips found hers again and the next time she opened her eyes he was wearing nothing but a bit of straw in his dark hair.

  “Who’s slow?” he whispered.

  He smelled like sweat and horses instead of shaving lotion and soap. She’d never had sex with anyone who wasn’t showered and clean, but the idea was so heady that she was panting when he stretched out beside her and let his hands roam all over her body as he continued to make love to her mouth with his lips and tongue.

  “I should’ve showered,” she whispered. Maybe he didn’t think heat and sweat were as sexy as she did.

  “I’ve wanted you since you threw your leg over that horse this afternoon. God, you were so sexy. We’ll shower later,” he said.

  “Five hours. You promised five hours.”

  “Not all at once, darlin’. This is the appetizer. Then we’ll have a shower and the next course. Then maybe a bubble bath and the main entrée,” he said.

  “I like the way a sizzlin’ hot cowboy thinks,” she whispered as she ran her hands down his back.

  He gasped when she cupped a firm butt cheek in each hand and squeezed.

  “I like your body,” she said.

  “Oh, honey, I love your body,” he whispered.

  His breath on her neck was cool, she was so hot. Liquid spasms shot through her lower gut, and she arched against him. “Can that be a fast food appetizer, please?” she asked.

  He raised up and looked deep into her dark eyes. They were filled with a mixture of want, need, and lust. It was a heady feeling, to know that Liz needed him as bad as he did her.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said as he slipped inside her.

  She rocked against him. “God that feels so good.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he agreed.

  Her phone rang but her clothes were in the living room and she wouldn’t have answered it if it had been lying between her naked breasts. Nothing mattered but Raylen and the next moment.

  Chapter 26

  “Blaze, what are you doing here?” Liz squealed when she answered the doorbell.

  “Standing out here in the rain freezing my ass off,” he said.

  She slung open the door and stood back. “Come in and warm your hands. There’s a fire going in the fireplace, and I brought home leftovers from the café. They’re on the stove if you are hungry.”

  “Hot coffee?” He stepped inside, gave her a hug, and shucked out of his heavy, work coat before heading to the warmth of the fire.

  “In the pot. I’ll pour us each a cup. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

  He warmed his backside and then turned around and rubbed his hands. “For a fireplace I might…”

  She carried two mugs of coffee to the living room and handed one to him. “No you wouldn’t, so don’t even think the words.”

  “I wasn’t going to say I’d leave the carnival business. I was going to say that I’d consider building a house on the property for the winter months. Fireplace wouldn’t do me a bit of good in the summertime anyway,” he said.

  She curled up in her favorite recliner and pulled a fluffy throw over her bare feet. Hooter had raised his head when Blaze came into the house, but he’d settled back down. Blister had barely opened one eye from her new bed on a pillow at the end of the sofa beside the bookcases.

  “Talk to me,” Liz said.

  “Colleen invited me for the weekend and she took next week off. I’m scared out of my mind, Liz. I don’t know whether to take her to Claude or what? She says she wants to get to know the carnival business, but I want her to get to know me first,” Blaze said.

  “Sit.” Liz gestured toward the other recliner.

  He settled into the chair and sipped his coffee. “What do I do? And where is Raylen?”

  “I helped exercise the mares all afternoon. I’d just come in, got a shower, and was waiting on Raylen to heat up leftovers. You hungry? There’s plenty in there for all of us. Jasmine sent them home with me.”

  “I haven’t eaten. Don’t know if I could swallow, I’m so nervous. I’m a carnie, Liz. I can’t change that. You can, but I can’t.”

  “Hello!” Raylen yelled at the door.

  “In here. Blaze is here,” Liz said.

  Raylen removed his coat on the way to the living room.

  “Hey, Raylen. Have I stolen your chair?” Blaze asked.

  Raylen kissed Liz and slumped down on the end of the sofa. “No, but what are you doing here? Colleen is over there jumping every time she hears a truck door slam. She’s got my old room all fixed for you.”

  “I’m scared,” Blaze admitted.

  “That’s understandable,” Raylen said. “I’d be scared of Colleen too.”

  Blaze set his coffee on the table. “We were talkin’ about what Colleen and I should do this next week. She’s taken a week off work and Haskell told me he was looking forward to helping Poppa so I should take her somewhere. She said she’d be happy in Claude in my trailer but…”

  “Go on,” Raylen said.

  “There’s this place off the coast of the state of Washington that I’ve been looking at. I’ve got plane tickets and the room on reserve but I have to confirm by midnight. I wanted Liz’s opinion before I went over to your folks’ place,” Blaze said.

  “What’s your heart tell you?” Liz asked.

  “It says I don’t want to share her. It says that I want to spend a whole week in a place where neither of us knows another soul. But I don’t know if that’s what she wants,” Blaze said.

  “Confirm your reservations and tell her it’s a surprise. Is it that place we’ve looked at that you have to go out to it by ferry?”

  He nodded.

  “Tell her pack a warm coat. It’ll be a chilly ride,” Liz said.

  “Thank you.” Blaze breathed a sigh of relief. He left half a mug of coffee on the end table and put his coat back on. “I knew talkin’ to you would help.”

  “Don’t tell her that you talked to me, Blaze. If I was her, I’d rather think it was all your idea and didn’t need a second opinion.” Liz walked him to the door and hugged him good-bye. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow at Sunday dinner?”

  “Oh, yeah. Our flight is at six o’clock tomorrow evening out of Dallas. We’ll have to leave Ringgold about three.”

  Liz went back to the living room and curled up in Raylen’s lap. “Think we’ll ever get them raised?”

  Raylen didn’t answer, so she leaned back and looked into his eyes.

  “What are you worried about? Something happen at the barn? Are the horses all right?” she asked.

  “It’s not that. It’s…”

  It sounded so silly in Raylen’s head that he wasn’t sure he could put his feelings into words, but he felt the necessity to try to get it out even if it did sound crazy. He remembered when Rye fell head over heels in love with Austin; and now Colleen called him daily wanting to talk about nothing but Blaze McIntire.

  It hadn’t happened like that with him and Liz. It was as if they’d been put on the earth especially for each other, so they’d been comfortable from the time he slung open the door and found her on Haskell’s porch. He hadn’t needed to call Gemma or Dewar and talk about it every day. It didn’t mean he wasn’t in love with her or that he took that love for granted.

  Liz waited for a full minute but he didn’t say anything else. “Okay, now you are worrying me. Are you about to tell me that this is over and I’m going to be sitting on the porch tonight all by myself for the first night of the light show?”

  “Hell, no! Liz, I’m in this for a long relationship. But I work all year for a living, sometimes from daylight to way past dark like today. I’ve got land and a house but I don’t have the time or money to book a flight to some
remote island for a whole week, as bad as I’d like to. It sounds romantic and I…”

  Liz cupped his cheeks in her hands and stared right into his eyes. “Look at me, Raylen. I’ve had the traveling scene my whole life. Sitting here with you after a hard day’s work, having Jasmine’s leftovers for supper, looking forward to tomorrow with your family, and cuddling down in your arms tonight is living my dream.”

  He leaned forward and the kiss they shared was more passionate than any that preceded it. “I love you,” he said simply.

  “And I love you. Did you ever see a baby chicken fresh hatched?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Can’t say that I have. Is that anything like a newborn colt?”

  She kissed him again. “Not at all. Poppa raises a few chickens out on the property. He likes fresh eggs. Little chicken comes out of the egg with these little wings that don’t look they’d ever be good for anything, but give them six weeks and they’re flapping them and flying.”

  “What does that have to do with spending a week on an island with no one but me and you?”

  She kissed him harder. “Colleen just came out of the egg. She needs to grow her own wings. Mine won’t fit. She has to get used to a different lifestyle, but she has to know that Blaze loves her enough to keep her safe and protected while she’s sprouting her wings.”

  “I’m not sure I understand it all,” he said.

  “Okay, cowboy, here’s the deal. Right now. Right here. There’s no one else around here and this house is our island.”

  “That I understand just fine.” He picked her up like a bride and carried her to the porch. “Thank you.”

  “For what? Forcing you to sit with me two hours every night for the light show?”

  “For making this our island,” he said.

  “No fortune-teller is an island unto herself. She must have a sexy cowboy before it’s a real island,” she whispered as she plastered herself to him in a fierce embrace.

  The first car lights brought the kiss to an abrupt end.