A Cowboy for Christmas

by Sara Richardson

  “Yeah, sure.” She gave the man another quick glance. “It’ll work.”

  Ty’s head dropped to the side. “It had better work. I’m not humiliating myself for nothing here.”

  “Well, we appreciate it, Ty,” Everly offered. “Really. I know none of you are exactly excited about the calendar, but it’s so nice of you to do this for us.”

  At that, his entire demeanor softened. “You know we’d do anything for you guys. We’ve got your back.”

  Exactly what Darla would’ve said if she wasn’t having a hard time speaking at the moment. Or breathing.

  “Well, well, well, Mr. December.” Ginny Eckles hurried over carrying a small basket. “It looks like you’re ready for the tanning lotion.”

  Darla spun to face the woman. “Tanning lotion? What tanning lotion?”

  “Some of the other members and I thought they might need a little glow for the pictures.” She pulled a bottle of tinted lotion out of the basket and held it up. “I guess I should let your fiancée do the honors?”

  Darla backed up a step. “Is that really necessary?” If they weren’t careful, these cowboys were going to revolt and they wouldn’t have any calendars to sell. “They don’t have to look bronze in the pictures.”

  “We’re simply giving them an extra glow,” Ginny corrected. She thrust the lotion into Darla’s hands. “Lay it on thick,” she instructed with a grin.

  Darla could feel everyone in the room watching her. So now she had to give Ty a very public oily massage? Wonderful. And to think this whole calendar thing had been her idea in the first place. She internalized a hefty groan.

  “No one said a word about tanning lotion.” Ty glanced at the door as though trying to calculate how long it would take to run through it.

  “Well you do want the pictures to turn out good, don’t you?” Ginny sniped. “Really, these models think it’s all about them.”

  Oh sure. It was all for the greater good. Darla rolled her eyes. She would bet her bar that the other women on the committee had simply wanted to see Ty all oiled up and bronze.

  “The better the pictures look, the more calendars we sell,” the woman insisted.

  “Fine.” With his jaw tensed that way it was a wonder Ty could speak at all. He looked at Darla. “You want to start with my back?”

  No. Avoiding his gaze, she glanced at Ginny. “I’ve never used tanning lotion. Maybe you should do it.”

  “Oh no. Nuh-uh.” Ty marched over to Darla and turned his back to her. “This is your job, schmookie poo. Now oil me up.”

  “Of course.” Wearing a tight smile, Darla dumped some of the goop into her hands.

  “Make sure you don’t get any on your clothes,” Ginny called helpfully. “It’ll definitely stain.”

  “Thanks for the tip.” She brought her hands to Ty’s back and lightly spread the lotion against his smooth, taut skin.

  “Ahhh.” He stretched his neck to one side. “Do you mind putting a little more oomph into it? For some reason I’m very tense right there.”

  For some reason. Darla wanted to smack him, but seeing as how they had an audience, she simply moved her hands in circular motions around the knots embedded between his shoulder blades. “Is that better?” she asked doing her best to sound patient and supportive.

  “Nope.” Ty snuck a sly peek over his shoulder. “And I think you missed some spots lower.”

  Did he have to have so much muscle? There was a lot of ground to cover, and her hands had gotten shaky. As a matter of principle, she did her best not to enjoy the feel of his brawn beneath her hands, but she was only human. She glided her hands down to his lower back, her fingers grazing beneath the boxer’s elastic waistband. Stop there, she reminded herself, before you take things too far. The fact that she was tempted brought on a shot of panic. Quickly, Darla worked the lotion into his skin and then pulled her hands back. “There we go. All done.” She went to put the bottle back in Ginny’s basket so she could escape to the restroom and collect herself, but the woman moved it out of reach. “Not so fast. You haven’t done the front of him yet.”

  “Right.” The hard lump in her throat made it impossible to swallow. Ty simply grinned down at her as if reminding her this whole thing had been her idea. He seemed to enjoy that she had to share in some of the pain.

  Ha. That smirk of his was all she needed to see to reclaim her dignity. He obviously loved teasing her. We can have fun with this. He was right. Why was she letting this stress her out? So she’d had a dream about him. So he made her feel a little hot and bothered. It didn’t mean anything. And she could easily make him just as hot.

  She squirted a generous amount of lotion into her hand and then set the bottle on the table. If Ty wanted a massage, she’d give him a massage. Rubbing her hands together, she started up at his shoulders and moved her hands slowly down his arms, caressing suggestively with her fingers the whole way.

  Ty’s grin disappeared. Yeah he was as uncomfortable with this as she was. Somehow seeing that made her grow bolder. She walked her hands back up his arms and then smoothed them over his pecs, rubbing the lotion in as she moved her hands down over his ribs, then his carved abs, all the way to the waistband of his silk boxers.

  Ty’s breath hitched and he closed his eyes for a brief second before opening them wide and aiming an unreadable glare at her.

  “How was that, schmookie poo?” she asked innocently.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Everly watching the two of them with interest.

  “You two are adorable!” Ginny aimed her camera at them again. “Give her a real kiss this time,” she clucked. “Our Instagram followers are going to eat this up! Think of the publicity we’ll get for the calendars.”

  “Yeah. The publicity.” Ty lowered his gaze to Darla’s. She swore his eyes were bluer than they had been a few minutes ago. A smoldering blue, and they were locked on hers. Before she had time to brace herself for the kiss, he brought his hand to the back of her head and guided her face to his. For a split second he seemed to hesitate, pausing just before their lips met, but then he let go a small sigh and brushed his lips against hers.

  The touch hit her like a seismic wave, filling her with a rush of energy that seemed to pulse through her in rhythmic beats. She inhaled sharply and slipped her arms around his waist to steady the sudden sense of vertigo that knocked her off balance. She had kissed Ty before, but this was something different entirely. It was slower, wrapped in tenderness. His lips guided her mouth to open and the heat of his tongue weakened her knees.

  “Whew! It’s getting hot in here,” Ginny sang somewhere nearby. Darla couldn’t be sure where the woman was because Ty was still kissing her, still holding her, and she had completely melted into him.

  “There,” he said when he pulled away and let her go. “Everyone happy now?” He seemed to wait especially for Darla’s response.

  It was hard to say much when he had completely stolen her breath.

  “I’m happy! That was a humdinger of a kiss.” Ginny madly tapped on her phone screen as she walked away.

  Ty and Darla still stood face-to-face. It seemed he had temporally frozen too. An awkward silence stretched between them until he finally seemed to shake himself out of it. “I should go talk to the photographer,” he murmured, still eyeing Darla like he couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

  She wasn’t thinking. He’d stolen her thoughts along with her breath. “Yeah. I think he’s about ready to get started,” she managed.

  Their eyes locked for a beat longer, and then Ty was gone.

  The second he walked away, Everly moved in. “Are you sure you’re faking those feelings for Ty? Because it seemed to me there were all kinds of things happening beneath the surface with you two just now. And, girl—” her friend shook her head slowly “—that was some kiss.”

  It had been some kiss all right. A kiss that could seriously mess with her if it kept happening. “I don’t have feelings for Ty. Not real feelings.”
Her body might desire him, but not her heart. It was still broken. Over the years, she’d managed to gingerly weave the pieces back together, but it wouldn’t take much for those delicate threads to fray. She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t offer her heart, her dreams, her life, to someone else and risk losing it all again.

  Chapter Eight

  Here goes nothing. Ty pulled up in front of Darla’s house and let his truck idle. In less than three hours he and Darla would pick up his parents and brother from the airport, and he had no idea how it would go. Up until the calendar photo shoot, this whole thing had been fun and games, but the joke had been on him. During the calendar shoot, he’d been teasing Darla when she made it obvious she didn’t want to touch him, but the tables had turned fast when she’d started to massage his chest. And damn that Ginny Eckles for making him kiss her. He’d been under the false impression that he had things under control, but that notion had quickly gone up in smoke when his lips touched Darla’s.

  It had been different than when he’d kissed her at the cookie party. Then it had been for show. When he’d kissed her at the calendar shoot, he’d ached for it—for the feel of her lips and her hands on his chest again. Everything else had disappeared and he’d forgotten where he was, who else was there. That wasn’t entirely true. He hadn’t forgotten; he just hadn’t cared. The second he’d kissed Darla, she was all that mattered, and that was a new feeling for him. A new feeling that had thrown him.

  Not that he had time to dwell on feelings right now. They had a high mountain pass to get over before the impending blizzard started. He climbed out of the truck, but before he could make it to the front door, Darla emerged with a large duffel bag slung over her shoulder. “I have snacks and a playlist and a few audio books,” she announced, locking up her house. “And my pillow. I may have to take a nap. I’ve been so tired lately.” The woman slipped past him without a glance and got into the passenger’s seat.

  So much for a hello.

  Ty climbed into the driver’s seat next to her and eyed the bag that now sat at her feet. “We’re only going to be gone for six hours, you know.” At least, that was the hope. He looked up at the sky. It had darkened in the last half hour, and the low-hanging clouds had started to spit out fat snowflakes—the kind that liked to stick to the roads. With any luck, they’d be able to clear Vail Pass before conditions deteriorated too much.

  “I know it’s only going to be a six-hour drive, but I never pack light.” Darla settled into her seat, clicked in her belt, and pulled a foodie magazine out of her bag.

  “Why don’t you pack light?” Ty backed down the driveway and headed for the highway. It was crazy how much he didn’t know about her, and yet they were supposed to be engaged. That could potentially be a problem. His parents would assume he knew everything about the woman he was going to marry. Knowing his mom, she would have all kinds of questions he’d better be able to answer. Ty reached over and tilted down Darla’s magazine so she would look at him. “I should know more about you. If we’re going to make this whole engagement thing look convincing, then I need to know more about your past.” Hell, he didn’t even know where she’d grown up.

  Darla lowered the magazine to her lap, but she didn’t put it away. “My past has nothing to do with this.”

  He begged to differ. Her past had everything to do with this dynamic between them. Ty pulled the truck out onto the highway. A dusting of snow already covered the asphalt, so he took it easy. “You don’t think it’s important that you’ve been married before?” Wasn’t that kind of a big deal? “My parents are going to wonder about you. It won’t look good if I know nothing about your previous marriage.”

  “We don’t have to tell them I was married.” She turned to stare out the window. “They don’t need to know anything about my first marriage.” And you don’t either, her rigid tone seemed to add.

  “Given the circumstances, I think it’s best that we lie as little as possible.” It would already be hard enough to keep their stories straight. “What if they hear someone mention you were married before?” He could see that happening with all the buzz about their engagement. Ginny had even said something about how wonderful it was that Darla had found love again. “We have to be prepared for that possibility.”

  “Fine.” Darla kept her head turned toward the window. “We’ll tell them I was married before but that my husband passed away ten years ago.”

  “How long were you married?” he asked gently.

  “Three years.”

  The last thing he wanted was to bring her pain, but he had to ask. “How did he…pass away?”

  “Cancer.”

  She said nothing more, but she didn’t have to. That word always put him in a chokehold. Dying from cancer meant suffering. He knew that from when his grandfather had fought for his life for three long, painstaking years. “That must’ve been hard.” There was no way to make those words sound less trivial. Hard was likely a serious understatement. “How old was he?”

  Darla sighed and tucked her magazine back into her bag as though she’d finally given into her fate. “He was thirty when they discovered the brain tumor. He was the healthiest person I knew. Worked out every day, ate organic food, and he got a brain tumor before he’d even had the chance to live most of his life.” She rushed on before he could respond. “What about you? Any other significant relationships I should know about? Past girlfriends your parents loved? Or hated?” She was done talking about her husband. He might not have the best intuition, but he knew that much. Rather than push to know more, he let it go.

  “Nah. No significant relationships.” That sounded bad, so he quickly explained. “I moved to Gunner Raines’s ranch in Oklahoma when I was seventeen. My parents kind of stopped showing much interest in my life after that.” They hadn’t met many of his girlfriends. He hadn’t kept any around long enough to bring them home for a visit either, but Darla likely already knew that. She knew he preferred the no-strings-attached approach to relationships.

  She shifted to face him. “So you’re not close to your parents?”

  “I wouldn’t say that. It’s complicated.” Ty stared out at the road stretching in front of them. The clouds had shrouded the peaks in the distance with a heavy gray fog. “I think they would say we’re close, but I don’t see them much. Not unless I go there.” He’d leave it at that. His whole career, he’d invited them to come to his events. He’d even offered to pay their way, but they weren’t interested. They did, however, fly out to most of his brother’s football games.

  “What about your brother?” Darla asked. “He seems like a nice guy. At least on social media.”

  Everyone seemed nice on social media. “Sure. Rhett’s okay.”

  “You two aren’t close?”

  Looked like it was his turn to withstand an interrogation. At least he had an excuse to stare out the windshield instead of look at her. Had to keep his eyes on the road. “When I’m with my brother, everything feels like a competition.” And Ty always lost. Rhett had to be better, stronger, bigger, smarter, faster. There was a reason his brother had made a name for himself in the NFL. “Rhett loves the spotlight, and I feel like I’m always standing in the shadows.” He’d never admitted that to anyone else, but Darla was so easy to talk to. Somehow he knew the admission wouldn’t change they way she saw him.

  Darla shifted so her body faced him. “You might feel like you’re in the shadows, but that’s another thing I like about you,” she said thoughtfully. “You’re a good rider. You’re pretty well known in that world. But you’d never know it just meeting you on the street. You don’t play it up—your skills or your notoriety. You’re genuine.”

  The words roused the same longing that had gripped him during that kiss yesterday. “Thanks. I’ve never looked at it like that.” But she made it sound like she preferred someone who didn’t try too hard to impress people.

  “Judging from his social media, your brother seems a bit obnoxious.” Darla’s soft smile
made her mouth look so inviting, but he couldn’t pull over on the side of the road and kiss her.

  “‘Obnoxious’ is a good description for Rhett.” The next few weeks should be a blast, he thought. Pulling a Darla, he turned the question back on her. “What about you? Any siblings?”

  “Nope.” She seemed more at ease. “My parents divorced when I was three and went their separate ways. Neither one of them has ever had any other kids.”

  “I used to wish I was an only child,” he admitted. He used to think his parents would pay more attention to him if they’d only had one kid, but maybe that wasn’t true.

  “It can be really lonely being an only child.” Darla said. “I used to wish that I was adopted and my real family was the Brady Brunch. I would’ve given anything to have five brothers and sisters. I always thought I would have a bunch of kids.” She looked down suddenly, as though she hadn’t meant to admit that.

  He waited for her to continue, but instead she dug her pillow out of her bag. “I really am tired,” she said through a yawn. “Sorry. I think I’ll take a nap. Wake me up if you want me to drive.”

  “It’s fine.” He didn’t need her to drive. At least the snowy roads would give him a distraction. He definitely had to stop focusing on her. Wondering about her. Wanting her. The more time he spent with her, the harder it got to remember they were supposed to be pretending.

  * * *

  Darla woke up to wheels skidding and Ty swearing. Instinctively, she reached for the dash to steady herself while the truck fishtailed. “Everything okay?” she asked as soon as they’d evened out.

  “It’s getting bad out there.” Ty gazed out the windshield, his mouth bent into a grim frown. With the blur of sleep still hazing over everything, she couldn’t see much—only the snowflakes flying at them in the glow of their headlights. “Where are we?” Man, it felt like she’d slept for hours…

  “About to head up Vail Pass.” He had both hands firmly attached to the steering wheel, and they were crawling along at a measly twenty miles per hour.