Christmas Cowboy

by Claire Adams

  “Right,” I said, smiling a little. She and Mina were keen to bring me on as a “consultant” for their new joint business. Since neither of them knew what they were in for regarding taxes or other business details, I was working with both of them to make sure that they had all the permits they needed and hashed out a contract that was fair to both of them.

  It was exciting, honestly. It reminded me of a few years ago when Paul and Alex and George and I had sat down to form Sunrise Real Estate. At the time, we never could have imagined where it would end up, as, I was sure, Gretchen and Mina were feeling at the moment. It was good to be a part of a team like that again. And I'd do anything to help Gretchen out if I could.

  Gretchen's phone buzzed, and she smiled when she looked down at it. “That's Mina,” she said. “I'll tell her to meet us down at the beach in about an hour?”

  “Sounds great,” I said, smiling at her. I hummed a little as I went back to making pancakes.

  It was the perfect day for surfing, a little overcast, so we weren't stuck directly in the sun, but still warm despite the fact that it was January. I paddled out into the spray with the two women, keeping my eyes peeled for waves that would be within my ability level.

  We managed to hit a few waves each before lunch time, and then we let the waves push us back to shore so that we could enjoy the picnic lunch that Mina had packed for us all.

  “It's going to be fun, going into business together,” Mina said, still smiling out at the waves.

  Gretchen laughed. “I'm just glad that we have an actual business consultant now!” she said. “You know, that was my main worry about this whole thing. You're not supposed to hash out contracts with your best friend.”

  I snorted. “It worked well enough for me,” I said.

  “At least until the point that they exiled you to Hawaii!” Mina teased.

  I glanced over at Gretchen, smiling at her. “No, that's worked out pretty well for me, too,” I said.

  Both girls giggled a little at that one, and I slung an arm around Gretchen's shoulders, pulling her into a sideways hug for a moment.

  “But seriously,” I said. “There may be certain friends who you don't want to go into business with, but for the most part, I think that's bullshit. No one respects you the way that your good friends do. And while that can, in itself, be detrimental to a business, it’s about taking everything in moderation, right?”

  “Yeah,” they agreed.

  “So, why pineapples anyway?” I asked Mina suddenly. It wasn't something that I'd ever asked her before, I realized. And although of course there were pineapples galore on the island, it still seemed sort of strange to me that she'd set up a shop devoted to them.

  Mina laughed. “When I was a kid, my mom used to put my hair up into this high ponytail,” she said. “Only my hair wasn't long enough for it, so it just kind of spiked up everywhere. I grew up getting called Pineapple Girl. It seemed only fitting that I take that nickname with me into business.”

  I stared at her. “Really?” I asked.

  Mina shrugged. “It wasn't like I knew what else I wanted to do. And originally, I sold all sorts of different fruits and some vegetables, but pineapples don't go bad as quickly, and they seemed to be the most popular things in the shop anyway. I started focusing more and more on them, and here we are today!”

  “You've tried her pineapple shakes, though,” Gretchen said, smiling fondly at her friend. “They're amazing, aren't they?”

  “They are,” I agreed. “And I can see how refreshing they are after a long massage.”

  “They'll be especially refreshing when enjoyed in a hammock out on the porch of our new place!” Mina said, grinning happily. “I can't believe we're putting in a dozen hammocks.”

  “It was a great suggestion,” Gretchen said.

  “Especially given the proximity to the beach,” I agreed. “We're going to have to watch and make sure that they're paying customers using them, but otherwise, I think it's going to be awesome.”

  “Definitely.”

  We were all silent for a while, considering the waves, munching our sandwiches, and thinking our separate thoughts. “You know, if the press were to happen to get news that you were hanging out around our shop…” Mina said suddenly, trailing off at the end.

  I laughed a little. “Is that your marketing strategy?” I asked her. “Send an anonymous tip into the press and shamelessly whore me out for business?”

  She shrugged, unrepentant. “It couldn't hurt, right? They'll get bored of your lifestyle soon enough anyway, especially once word gets out that you and Gretchen are living together. You're no longer the most eligible bachelor in the country. They'll move on to the next hot thing, sorry to say.”

  “I'm not sorry,” I said, reaching over to squeeze Gretchen's hand. “It was nice while it lasted, but I like this better.”

  Gretchen didn't respond except to lean over and kiss me gratefully.

  “You two are so sappy,” Mina said, rolling her eyes, but I could tell that she was secretly pleased with our relationship. I still had a long way to go in winning over the rest of the island, especially those of them who had witnessed the scene at New Year's, but it was only a matter of time.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Gretchen

  Mina was in a good mood when I got to work on Monday morning. “Just finished choosing paint chips with the decorator,” she told me. “I'm so excited. Can you believe we only have a few weeks left until we move into the new place together?”

  I smiled at her, glad that she was this excited about the décor at the new place. Neither Christian nor I cared all that much about it, although I knew that I wanted it to be soothing for my clients. But Mina had been overjoyed to take over that side of things, so we'd left her to it. “And just what color are the walls going to be?” I asked her. She'd been maddeningly secretive about the whole thing.

  Sure enough: “You'll just have to wait and see,” she said in a singsong tone of voice.

  I rolled my eyes a little, but I knew there was no way I was getting it out of her. I would just have to wait and see when it was all finished. I only hoped it wasn't something like princess pink or anything like that, but I trusted Mina's sense of style, or else I would never have agreed to this.

  “Saturday was a lot of fun,” Mina said, changing the topic. “I'm starting to like Christian, and I like who you are around him.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I'd like to think that I'm the same person around him as I am with you or anyone else,” I said.

  “Oh, you are,” Mina said, frowning a little. “But you're cutesy with him. And more relaxed than I've ever seen you. You smile so easily, and I can tell that you're truly happy. It's good to see.”

  I smiled at her. “Yeah,” I admitted. “He does make me happy. In ways that I would never have expected, honestly.

  “That's good,” Mina said. She paused, and I could tell that there was something more that she wanted to say. “I'm sorry that I kept going on and on about love not existing,” she said after a moment to collect her thoughts. “I think I was wrong about that all. I can tell that with you and Christian that it's more than just attraction there.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, who said anything about love?” I asked, holding my hands up.

  Mina gave me an unimpressed look. “Oh, get over it,” she said, rolling her eyes a little. “You know that you love him. And you know that he loves you too, or else he wouldn't be here in Hawaii with you.”

  I blushed a little and ducked my head. “You're probably right,” I admitted.

  “I'm right,” Mina said. “Anyway, I'm glad that he came back for you. And I'm glad that you got The One like you always wanted. I can tell that he treats you well, way better than Lino ever did!”

  I shook my head. “It's not about being treated better,” I said slowly, chewing at my lower lip. “It's just…” I shook my head again. “I don't know how to explain it.”

  “I can see it in the way the tw
o of you interact,” Mina insisted. She smiled and then leaned in for a hug. “Anyway, congratulations on continuing to have hope and on eventually finding your Prince Charming.”

  “Now we just have to find your Prince Charming,” I said, grinning at her.

  Mina laughed. “Maybe Christian has a hot billionaire friend who you can hook me up with?”

  “Never hurts to ask!” I said. “Anyway, I've got an appointment in a couple of minutes that I need to get ready for.”

  “Yeah,” Mina sighed, slipping off the stool that she'd been perched on. “I should get back to the pineapples. I can't wait until we're working in the same building and I don't have to disappear every time you have a client.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Not long now, though!” I gave her one last hug before she went on her way.

  Even though I only had Mrs. Miller on the schedule for that morning, Mr. Miller accompanied his wife in, and I wondered in a panic if I'd gotten something wrong and if Sandy might be working that morning so that I could steal Mina back for the second massage.

  “Don't worry,” Jerry said, accurately reading my worried expression. “The massage is just for the Missus here. But I was hoping that you'd let me be in the same room as her while she gets her massage. I don't like to be too far from her if I can help it.”

  I smiled at the two of them. “That's sweet,” I said. “Usually I have couples on their honeymoon who say things like that, but the hotel told me you're here on your fiftieth anniversary!”

  Betty blushed demurely, and Jerry cackled. “If you marry the love of your life, every day of your life is part of your honeymoon,” he said firmly.

  I raised an eyebrow at him. Betty scoffed. “You only say that because I never made you change the babies' diapers,” she said. “And I always made you breakfast in the mornings.”

  Jerry shrugged. “I'm a simple man, and my wife takes good care of me,” he said.

  I smiled. “It's no problem if you want to sit in the room with us,” I said. I held out a massage outfit to Betty and directed them back to the room. When I entered the room a few minutes later, Jerry had arranged himself near his wife and was holding her hand, lightly stroking the back of it with his thumb.

  “You know, I almost didn't end up with this lovely lady here,” he told me pensively as I started the massage.

  “No, you didn't,” Betty agreed. She laughed. “I almost ended up with Mick Forrester!”

  “You would never have ended up with Mick Forrester,” Jerry grumbled. He shook his head and turned to look at me. “I turned my back for one moment, and the next thing I knew, this little doll was practically engaged to the town flirt!”

  “I was the town flirt,” Betty corrected. “And you did not turn your back for one moment. You told me that you were going away to university and that you wanted to date some hot co-ed there! I wasn't just going to wait around forever for you.”

  Jerry sighed. “Stupidest thing I ever said to a girl,” he told me. Then, he grinned wickedly at me. “Quite a lovely lady, was Katrina Laviolette, though.”

  “She was not,” Betty grumbled. But their slight bickering was affectionate in the way that only two people who truly loved one another, and for five decades, at that, could manage.

  “You had better legs, though,” Jerry said thoughtfully. “Lord knows, I loved your legs. Watching you dance was a real treat.”

  Betty laughed. “I haven't danced in years, Jerry. I'm too old for that.”

  “You'd better be a salsa-dancing señorita in the next life, or I swear I'm not taking you home again,” Jerry warned teasingly.

  “I'll put in a word in with the Big One when I see him,” Betty told him.

  I shook my head. “How did you get her back, then?” I asked Jerry, missing that part of the story. “After you found out she was…”

  “Going steady with Mick Forrester,” Betty said primly. “He thought he could just come around and ask me on a date. I told him no.”

  “So, I went to her father instead and told him I was going to marry his daughter and told him all about my university degree and how I was going to one day become a famous engineer,” Jerry finished.

  I raised my eyebrows at him. “And that worked?” I asked.

  “Of course not,” Betty said exasperatedly. “He was going to have to win me over, not my father.”

  “So, one day, when she was out swimming in the lake with a few of her girlfriends, I stole all her clothes. I told her that I wouldn't give them back unless she gave me a kiss and swore she'd never go near Mick Forrester again for the rest of her life,” Jerry said, shrugging, a wicked gleam in his eye.

  I blinked at him. “And that worked?”

  “Of course it did,” Betty said, giggling like a schoolgirl, as though the event in question had just happened yesterday, rather than fifty-some years ago. “I always appreciated a man who was bold.”

  “Anyway, I relented on the thing about never going near Mick Forrester,” Jerry said. “He was the best man at our wedding, and he and his eventual wife Mindy were our best tennis partners for years and years. He and I still hang out together at our country club and shoot the shit.”

  I laughed. “It was a happy ending all around, it sounds like.”

  “Life is always a happy ending if you're willing to let things happen the way that they're supposed to,” Betty said, a strange note in her voice. “When Jerry broke up with me, I thought I'd die. And when I met Mick, I knew that I didn't love him, but I managed to convince myself things were going to be fine anyway. But when you love somebody…”

  “You just know it,” Jerry said, his voice gone a little husky. He dashed a tear out of one eye, looking adoringly down at his wife and squeezing her hand. “If I had lost this little lady here? That would have been the worst mistake of my life.”

  I thought about my relationship with Lino and then my relationship with Christian. I could see elements of their relationship in both of those relationships that I'd had, but when it came down to it, if I had to lose one or the other, I didn't want to lose Christian.

  “What about you, sweetheart?” Jerry asked me, as though sensing the introspective turn of my thoughts.

  “I thought I had lost my man,” I said, tripping a little over calling Christian mine. We hadn't defined exactly what we were doing still. It was enough that he was there in Hawaii and living with me. The whole communal living thing was more from practicality's sake than anything else. There was no reason he should be paying to stay at a resort when I had a perfectly good guest bedroom that he could take over. We ended up sharing a bed most nights anyway.

  “What did that rascal do?” Betty asked.

  I sighed. “He had a job back in New York, and he was supposed to go back to it,” I told her. “I knew that from the start, but for some reason, I didn't think about it all. By the time we had to think about it, it was time for him to go, and we got into a fight.”

  “But you didn't lose him?” Jerry asked.

  “No,” I said, smiling a little. “He came back. He quit his job in New York, and he's moved down to Hawaii to be with me.”

  “Now that's a good story,” Betty said. “I don't know too many guys who could figure out their feelings well enough to move across the country to be with a woman. At least in my time, we women were stuck following our men around, wherever they wanted to be.”

  “You didn't follow me anywhere, you cow,” Jerry said, rolling his eyes. “I had to follow you to Missouri when your mother got sick; don't you remember that?”

  Betty laughed. “That was my mother,” she said. “I had to go help out. You know that.”

  “And I had to live in Missouri,” Jerry said with a bit of a shudder. He turned to face me. “Don't ever let him convince you to leave Hawaii, dear. Next thing you know, you'll be living on a cow farm in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Oh, pish,” Betty said. “It was six months, not an eternity. And you liked those cows, don't try to tell me that you didn't!” />
  As enjoyable as their bantering was, the appointment was over soon. I walked the two of them out, thanking them for coming in. I paused at the doorway, seeing Christian standing there with flowers. Betty paused as well, eyeing Christian shrewdly. Then, she shook her head, looking back at me over her shoulder. “If you've gone and convinced this handsome young man to quit his job and move across the country for you, I'm convinced that you're a witch,” she told me. “Whatever spell you've got him under, you could make a fortune selling charms to do half of what you did.”

  Christian stared at her for a moment in shock and then burst out laughing. “That's exactly what it is,” he told Betty, nodding. “She's got me spelled.” He grinned at me, holding out some daffodils toward me. “I was just wondering if I could take you out to lunch.”

  “You hear that, Jerry?” Betty said to her husband as the two of them walked off. “Why don't you ever take me out to lunch?”

  “Because I love your cooking too much when we're back home,” Jerry said sweetly. “But today, I got a recommendation for a seafood place downtown.”

  “Seems like that was a fun appointment,” Christian commented as they walked out of earshot.

  I smiled at them and then transferred my gaze to him. “It was,” I said. I bent down to sniff the flowers, smiling even more. “What are you up to?” I asked him. “Flowers and lunch? Did you break something? Do I have to fill out more paperwork for the business?”

  Christian laughed and shook his head. “No,” he said. He shrugged. “I just wanted to see you, that's all.”

  I shook my head, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. Thinking back over everything that Betty and Jerry had said, I wondered if someday we could be like that.

  I realized that what Mina had said earlier that morning was true. I was in love with him. I only hoped that he loved me back.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Christian

  I rolled over toward Gretchen and pillowed my head on my forearms, playfully blowing her hair into her face. She wrinkled her nose, still asleep and batted it again. Only to have me repeat the movement as soon as she'd settled again. Finally, she blinked her eyes open, giving me an unimpressed look. “Good morning,” she said grumpily.