A Cowboy for Christmas

by Sara Richardson

  Before she could turn her back to him, he hurried over. “I’m sorry,” he said, making sure his eyes told her he meant it. “The snowmobile stalled and I didn’t have cell service.”

  “It’s no big deal.” For some reason, Darla seemed to be having trouble looking him in the eyes.

  “Are you ready to go onstage?” she asked, giving his attire a critical once-over.

  “As ready as I’m gonna be.” He was glad he looked like he’d just spent the week winter camping. Maybe no one would bid on him and he’d get out of this whole thing. There was only one woman he wanted to be with, and she’d already shut him out.

  “Where’s your brother?” Darla scanned the room.

  He really wished he had an answer for her. “I’m not sure he’s coming.”

  “You can’t be serious.” According to her tone, he’d better not be serious.

  “We got into a fight. I said some things I probably shouldn’t have.” Things he’d wanted to say for years, but there could have been a better time and place.

  Darla finally met his eyes. “I’ve seen how he treats you, so I understand. But you couldn’t have waited one more day to tell him off? This is going to be a disaster.”

  As the one who had to be onstage, it would make Darla look bad. “I can go find him—”

  “Hey, let’s get this party started.” His brother paraded into the room—with impeccable timing, as usual. It seemed he’d had plenty of time to shower and spruce himself up too.

  “Over here,” Ty called. He’d never been so glad to see his brother. Except for maybe the time the school bully had started following him home in fifth grade. One look at his football player brother and the kid had taken off.

  “You look worried,” Rhett said to Darla in a charming voice. “Did you really think I wouldn’t show?”

  “Of course not.” Her smile seemed forced. “I wasn’t worried at all. I knew you’d both show up and everything would work out.”

  Ty might’ve believed her if Everly hadn’t told him the truth.

  “Here.” Darla threw some silver tinsel at them. “Make yourselves look a little more festive.”

  “You ready for this?” Rhett asked, wrapping the tinsel around his neck like a scarf with that cutthroat gleam in his eyes.

  He was obviously trying to bait Ty into another war. This time though, he wouldn’t let his brother’s drive for competition pull him in. He’d had enough rivalry for one day. “Sure I’m ready.” He draped the tinsel over his shoulders. “Let the bidding war began.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Wow. Pregnancy was really messing with her. Darla had never experienced conflicting emotions quite this extreme. How could she want to throw her arms around Ty while at the same time wanting to smack him? This emotional roller coaster was new territory for her.

  Some internal thermostat suddenly kicked on, sending a rush of heat flowing through her. She didn’t have time for emotions right now. She had to get these two up on that stage and auction them off to the highest bidder. “All right. Here’s the deal.” She looked down at the notes on her clipboard. “Ty will go first.” She fully expected Ginny to offer a decent amount of money to spend the evening ogling Ty. “Then I’ll call Rhett up—”

  “Why can’t we go up together?” Rhett interrupted. “Make it more of a bidding war between the two of us?”

  “A bidding war?” That definitely wasn’t in the script.

  “Yeah.” If it was possible, Rhett’s grin turned even cockier. “Bring us both up onstage at the same time. Let the women go crazy. It’ll be fun. I bet you’ll raise a heck of a lot more money that way.”

  Darla could only glare at him. Let the women go crazy? He thought Ty was engaged. Sure they were on the verge of a breakup, but—for appearances—they were still engaged. “I don’t know…”

  “Let’s do it.” Ty locked his gaze on his brother. “I’m up for whatever makes this thing move faster. Let’s get it over with.”

  That sounded good to her. Get it over with. Then she could go home and deal with her emotions alone. “Fine. But you two know you can’t start throwing punches, right?” Maybe she should bring Maureen up on the stage too. That way their mom could keep them in line.

  “We won’t throw punches,” Rhett assured her. “We’ll let the ladies decide who the best man is.”

  Oh yeah. There was some serious tension sitting between those two. She was dying to ask Ty what happened out on that mountain, but the audience was waiting. “I’m game as long as you promise to behave yourselves.”

  They were glaring at each other, but they both nodded, so she went with it. “Okay, I’ll do all the talking. You just—”

  “The crowd is getting wild in there,” Everly reported from a few feet away. “You’d best get going.”

  “Right.” Darla reorganized her notes and led Ty and his brother out into the hall.

  The three of them silently made their way to the banquet room. The second they walked in the whole space erupted in applause. Women whooped and catcalled while Rhett strutted his stuff all the way up the stage steps.

  Oh brother. No wonder Rhett got to Ty so much. He was downright obnoxious. So opposite to Ty, who had this humble authenticity about him. She couldn’t be annoyed with Rhett though. He was why most of these women had come. And if he wanted to play himself up, she’d let him. His bravado would likely bring in more money for Mateo and Everly.

  Darla followed Ty up to the stage and grabbed the mic. “All right ladies. We have two more cowboys available for bidding tonight. Ty ‘the Wanted’ Forrester and Rhett ‘the Outlaw’ Forrester.”

  “Do we get a package deal?” a woman in the second row yelled out.

  “Nope. Sorry. Each cowboy will be bid on individually.” Darla sought out Ginny Eckles, who was sitting near the back of the room. “Being the competitors they are, they want the best man to win, so they’re going head to head in a battle for the highest bid.” She waited for the incessant cheering to die down before she continued. “We’ll start the bidding at a hundred dollars. When you make your bid, call out the dollar amount and the name of the cowboy you want and we’ll go from there.”

  “Five hundred dollars on Rhett Forrester,” a woman called from somewhere in the middle of the room.

  “I’ve got a thousand,” countered another woman seated on the left side.

  “Okay. A thousand dollars on Rhett.” Darla squinted out at the crowd. “What about Ty Forrester?” She glanced in Ginny Eckles’s direction.

  “Fifteen hundred for Ty,” the woman called, holding up a wad of cash like this was a strip club.

  “Ohhhh.” Darla played that up. “Fifteen hundred, huh? It seems Ty is currently in the lead.”

  Rhett snatched the mic out of her hands. “Come on, ladies. I know we can do better for Mateo and Everly. I promise to show you a real good time. I’ll make it worth your while.” He handed the mic back to Darla and inched up his shirtsleeve, rolling it until his massive biceps showed. “There’s more where that came from,” he called, flexing.

  “Yeah baby!”

  “Work it!”

  Not caring who saw, Darla rolled her eyes.

  “Two thousand dollars for Rhett,” a blonde called from the back.

  “That’s more like it,” Ty’s brother mumbled. He was doing all he could to draw attention to himself. In contrast, Ty simply stood off to the side watching it all unfold. “Okay, we’ve got fifteen hundred for Ty and two thousand for Rhett—”

  “Three!” A middle-aged woman yelled from the front row. “Three thousand for Rhett!”

  Wow. This seemed to be working. “Three thousand—”

  “Six thousand dollars.”

  A collective gasp silenced the room.

  Even Darla had to give off a low whistle. That was three times more than any of the other bids all night. “All righty, folks. We have a bid on Rhett for six—”

  “Not on Rhett,” the woman sitting on the side aisle interrupted
. “I want the other one. I’d like to place my bid on Ty Forrester. Six thousand dollars.”

  Darla whipped her head to gauge Ty’s reaction. He looked just as dumbfounded as the rest of the room.

  Who was she? Darla squinted, but it was hard to see much with all of the bright lights shining in her eyes. “Um. Wow.” She’d forgotten to bring the mic back to her mouth. She quickly raised it so the audience could hear her. “Okay. Six thousand on Ty Forrester. Going once…” She frantically scanned the room. No one moved. “Going twice…” Darla sent what she hoped was a subtle plea to Ginny Eckles, who was on the edge of her seat.

  In response, Ginny shook her head and raised her hands in surrender. She was out.

  Some rogue emotion that might have a distant relation to jealousy formed a tight knot in her throat, but Darla put on her biggest, brightest smile and let the announcement rip. “Sold to that woman right there.” The gorgeous young brunette stood and waved.

  “What about me?” Rhett demanded.

  “My offer for three grand is still on the table,” the middle-aged woman reminded them.

  “Seriously?” Ty’s brother walked to the edge of the stage. “Come on, ladies. We can do better than three grand.”

  No one else seemed to agree. The audience sat there awkwardly quiet, and Darla had no choice but to end everyone’s misery. “Okay. Three thousand for Rhett Forrester. Going once…”

  Rhett paced across the stage, obviously trying to work some kind of magic, but this time his showmanship didn’t help him out.

  “Going twice…” Darla only let a few beats pass before she ended it. “Sold to that lovely woman right there for three thousand dollars.”

  “Woo-hoo!” The woman bounced up and down, clapping her hands.

  “Okay, well I guess that does it,” Darla said into the mic. “Thank you all for coming.” Her eyes landed on Ty’s very generous bidder again. She was definitely younger than Darla. A lot younger. And beautiful. Did Ty know her?

  She realized the audience was waiting for their dismissal, so she put a quick end to the evening. “Winners, you can pay your donation to my friends Dev and Charity at the back of the room. Merry Christmas, everyone! We hope to see you all at the gala after the rodeo!” She quickly switched off the mic.

  The crowd got to their feet and started to make their way to the exit, but Darla walked straight over to where Ty stood on the side of the stage. “Six thousand dollars? What was that about?” she asked, trying to sound curious instead of possessive. It shouldn’t bother her. He was free to go out with whomever he wanted.

  Ty gave her a wide-eyed shrug. “I have no idea.”

  “I know what that was about,” his brother grumbled.

  The woman who’d won Ty was headed their way, and suddenly Rhett looked like he wanted to crawl under the table next to them.

  The woman flounced up the steps to join them all right there on the stage. “Hiya, Rhett. How are you?”

  He definitely avoided any kind of eye contact with her. “I’m good. How are you, Sierra?”

  “Great,” she chirped with a flip of her long hair. “I’m really looking forward to my date tonight.” She shifted her teasing gaze to Ty before glaring at Rhett again. “You really shouldn’t have left my hotel room without a goodbye this morning. And no phone call?” Her lips formed a disappointed frown. “Obviously you’re not the man I thought you were.”

  Ohhhh. Darla almost laughed. Now it all made sense. The woman had been on a mission to publicly humiliate Rhett.

  “So I forgot to call,” Ty’s brother whined. “You didn’t have to go and spend six grand on my brother.”

  “He seems like the kind of guy who’ll call the next day.” The woman—Sierra—gave Ty a nice, long appraisal. “Oh, and I may have let word get out to the others about what kind of guy you really are,” she said in an overly guilty tenor. “Most of them prefer a decent cowboy.”

  So she’d gone and told the other women not to bid on Rhett either. Darla had to hand it to her. She was cold.

  “He’s engaged,” Rhett shot back. “Did you know that? Ty is actually engaged to Darla here.”

  “Oh, how nice.” Sierra turned her calculating gaze on Darla and then back to Ty. “When’s the wedding?”

  “Uh…”

  Ty didn’t seem to know what to say, so Darla jumped in. “We’re not sure yet.”

  “Perfect.” Miss Six Grand wrapped her arm through Ty’s. “I guess we’ll be off on our date then.” She tugged him down the steps. “Y’all have a lovely night. We sure will.”

  Darla watched them walk away. Ty glanced back at her with desperation on his face, but there was nothing either of them could do about it. No matter how much Darla wanted to chase them down and give that woman hell, she’d won Ty fair and square.

  “Wow.” Rhett moved to stand next to Darla. “She’s a piece of work, huh?”

  That was one way to describe it. Though she couldn’t blame the woman for wanting to publicly humiliate him. “Did you tell her you would call today?” she asked Rhett pointedly.

  His silence told her everything.

  “Then it’s your own fault, buddy.” In her estimation, Sierra and Rhett were a great fit. “What’d you think she meant by perfect after I told her we don’t have a date for the wedding?”

  “Based on the little I know about her from last night, I’d say other people’s fiancées aren’t exactly off-limits.” Rhett seemed to brush it off. “But you can trust Ty. He won’t cheat on you.”

  Maybe not if they were really together, but they weren’t. He was free to do whatever he wanted with whichever woman he chose. She should’ve been glad it ended up this way. She’d wanted space from Ty, especially with the baby news, but…

  Nope. But nothing. This was a good thing. Maybe Miss Six Grand would make Ty forget about his feelings for her. He could fall in love with someone who wasn’t afraid to love him back, and then he and Darla could simply raise the baby together as friends. For some reason that thought brought her zero comfort.

  Next to her, Rhett heaved a disgruntled sigh. “I guess I’d better go face the music and find my date.”

  “Good luck.” She managed to muster some sympathy for him. Something about the way he’d looked at Sierra had hinted he’d rather be spending the evening with her. Darla could relate. Was it just last night she’d been on the couch with Ty? He’d made her that tea, and she’d felt warm and safe up against him. And the sex…it had been so much more than a physical release. It had been intimate and wonderful. She’d woken up so happy. Happy never lasted long though. Fear always managed to overtake it.

  She’d gone back and found the article Rhett had mentioned at breakfast. She’d read about Blane’s wife and the two young children he’d left behind. She’d stared at the family picture that accompanied the article for a long time. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without him,” his wife was quoted as saying. Darla knew that feeling. She knew and she couldn’t go there again. Before the tears could start, Darla walked briskly down the stage steps. She had to clean up and make sure all the money had been collected and—

  “Wow! That was a huge success.” Everly caught up to her at the door. “I can’t believe how much money you raised.”

  “Not me. All of us.” She owed Ty. Not only for getting up on the stage even though he didn’t want to, but also for organizing and convincing all of the cowboys to help out. “Ty deserves most of the credit.” Figuring out the details was easy. He’d done the hard work. He’d convinced his colleagues to participate. He’d brought his family out, even though that wasn’t how he’d wanted to spend Christmas.

  “Speaking of Ty, do you know anything about the woman who bid on him?”

  “Only that she had a one-night stand with Rhett. And she’s gorgeous.” And flirtatious. And bold. “She sure didn’t seem to think his engagement was an issue.”

  Concern filled Everly’s eyes. “Yeah, I overhead someone talking about her. It sounds like
she’s a rodeo queen from Steamboat Springs. Her dad owns some huge, profitable ranch out there. Along with half the town. She’s probably used to getting what she wants.”

  Well she’d sure seemed to want Ty. And something told Darla Sierra could be very persuasive when she wanted to be. This conversation was not helping the small jealousy issue she was having. It might help if she saw them together. Then she could get a read on how Ty really felt about the woman. “Hey, do you feel like going over to the Tumble Inn after we’re done here?” she asked Everly innocently.

  “Why?” Based on her friend’s amusement, Everly already knew why.

  Darla continued to play dumb. “Just for a drink. I’m dying for some ginger ale.”

  “You? Ginger ale?” Everly gave her a look.

  “Fine. I want to spy on them,” Darla admitted. “I want to see what Miss Six Grand is up to.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you jealous,” her friend teased.

  “I’m not jealous.” Nope, not jealous. Just crazy. Not like she could keep that a secret. “Ty is going to be my baby’s father. I think it’s prudent that I find out more about potential women he might be bringing into this child’s life, that’s all.”

  That was her story and she was sticking to it.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sierra DeYoung had told Ty almost nothing about herself before they’d parted ways at her car and agreed to meet at the Tumble Inn, but in that few minutes he’d walked alongside her, he had learned plenty.

  She came from money, as evidenced by the bid she’d dished out to prove a point. Well, that and her shiny, brand-new Lexus SUV. She was quite a bit younger than him, based on the song she used for the ringtone on her phone—some pop number he’d never heard—which seemed to ring about every five seconds. And she was most definitely using him to get back at his brother for a botched hookup—something he wanted no part of.

  And yet, she’d paid six grand to help fund Mateo and Everly’s recovery and spend an evening with him, so instead of rolling past the Tumble Inn and continuing on home like he was tempted to do, he parked at the edge of the lot and waited until he saw her swerve into a spot near the doors.