A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Hank’s arm tightened around her waist. Their thighs brushed as they moved to the beat. “That’s no surprise. You look incredibly beautiful tonight. But then…” his voice dropped another inviting notch “…you know that.”

  She felt beautiful—in Hank’s arms. Ally struggled not to give in to the overwhelming emotions rising up within her. “And for the record, what on earth possessed you to pick out his-and-her songs for us?”

  He shrugged and brought their clasped hands even closer to his heart. “I wanted the excuse to dance with you tonight.”

  That sure had done the trick. She was here in his arms, feeling like there was no place she’d rather be.

  Ally cast a look over Hank’s broad shoulder. “Penderson is livid.”

  “He’ll get over it. It won’t stop Corporate Farms from making good on their latest offer, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “How do you know there’s been another offer?”

  “Because Corporate Farms sees what I see in terms of the rich potential of the ranch. They don’t want Mesquite Ridge to get away.”

  “So that’s why you’re doing all this.” Ally did her best to keep the sadness from her voice.

  “No. I’m doing this because I want you to know I’m sorry for leaving you alone for two days. And I don’t want you to do anything stupid to get back at me, just because you’re mad at me.”

  So he sensed she was onto him! Figuring she’d use the opportunity to get the answers to all the questions she had, but hadn’t asked, Ally inquired sweetly, “Why would I be mad?”

  Hank paused, revealing nothing, then said finally, “You tell me.”

  FOR A SECOND, Hank thought Ally wouldn’t answer. Then something shifted in her expression. A little of the fight left her slender body. “I don’t want to have this discussion here,” she said quietly.

  Neither did he, if it was half as intimate as it appeared it was going to be. “Then let’s go home.” Or at least where he wished their home could be. In another week, he was well aware, that might not be the case for either of them.

  Another silence fell, as the song they were dancing to came to an end.

  They stood there, not moving, still holding on to each other.

  “And let me drive you,” Hank murmured.

  Ally glanced over at Penderson.

  The agent looked even more incensed. And Hank knew, whether Ally realized it or not, the stakes for the ranch had just been raised. Corporate Farms would be more determined than ever to steal the property out from under him. Which was too bad, because they weren’t going to get it; his new plan guaranteed that.

  “All right,” Ally said eventually. “Just let me say good-night to Mr. Penderson.”

  Hank returned his apron and badge while Ally walked across the dance hall.

  Hank’s mother pulled him aside before he could duck out. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked.

  “Don’t I always?” he quipped. He refused to entertain the notion of failure.

  Greta blocked his way. “I don’t blame you for going after Ally Garrett. She is a lovely young woman. But she deserves better than the shenanigans you pulled just now.”

  Hank thought that was a little like the pot calling the kettle black. His own father had called for a duel, in the street in front of the dance hall, while working to win his mother’s heart. The outlandish maneuver infuriated—and captivated—his mom to this day.

  Where women were concerned, there was one thing Hank knew. You had to go public with your feelings if you wanted a real chance with them. He figured he had done that tonight.

  He gave his mother a perfunctory smile. “I know Ally deserves only the best, Mom.”

  Greta lifted an elegant silver-blond brow. “Do you?”

  Hank was tired of family interference, no matter how well meant. “My situation with Ally is complicated.” Too complicated, he added silently, for a regular courtship at a regular pace.

  Greta patted his arm with maternal affection. “Life is always complicated, Hank. That’s what makes it so interesting.” She paused to make sure she had his full attention. “It doesn’t mean that Ally deserves any less than your best. Especially given all she’s been through the last couple of years.”

  And was still going through, Hank thought, watching her converse quietly with Penderson.

  Was his mother right? Was he making a mistake by going all Texan on Ally? All Hank knew for sure was that Ally looked tense and unhappy now—and that she had appeared to be doing okay before she knew he was on the scene….

  “Everything all right?” Hank’s mother asked Ally kindly, as she joined them in the employees-only alcove between the dining room and kitchen.

  Ally stepped aside to let a server prepare a tray of drinks, and flashed a too-bright smile. “I told Mr. Penderson to feel free to stay and have dessert and coffee without me, since our meeting this evening is concluded and I’ve got another ride back to the ranch. Thus far, he’s refusing….”

  Greta lifted a hand. “I understand, dear. I’ll talk to him and see what I can do. In the meantime, I want you to know I’ve asked Hank to escort you to our open house out at the ranch, on the evening of the twenty-third.”

  Ally’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “I—”

  Way to go, Mom, Hank thought, even more resentfully. It wasn’t enough she was advising him—without his consent—on his love life. Now she was arranging it for him, too.

  Across the dining hall, Penderson lifted a hand as if to signal a waiter.

  Greta patted Ally reassuringly on the arm. “I’ll take care of that.” She glided off.

  Hank looked at Ally. She appeared as shocked and peeved as he felt. Which in turn prompted him to say matter-of-factly, “It looks like we have a date.” One arranged by his mother, no less!

  ALLY KNEW THE MATCHMAKING could not stand. So the moment they started the drive back to Mesquite Ridge, she looked at Hank and blurted, “I know your mother feels sorry for me because it’s Christmas and I have no family of my own.”

  “That’s not it,” Hank interrupted, with the arrogance of a man who always thought he knew better—at least where his own family was concerned.

  Ally argued back, just as insistently, “It’s exactly why she asked me to go to the open house yesterday. And why, when I hedged instead of just accepting her invitation on the spot, she put additional pressure on me tonight, by asking you to escort me. Because she knew it would be impossible for me to say no to the both of you. I’d be outnumbered and out…whatever.”

  Hank exhaled in exasperation. He pulled the truck off the road, into an empty parking lot at the edge of town. He put it in Park, leaving the lights on and the motor running, and turned toward her, draping his arm along the bench seat. “First of all…left to my own devices, I would have asked you to the party myself and provided transportation to and from the event.”

  Ally looked out the window. “You don’t have to do that, either. I’m fine on my own.”

  Hank slid a hand beneath her chin and guided her face to his. “No doubt. I still want to escort you. It’s a fun party. A lot of people come, and we always have a good time.”

  Exactly why I wouldn’t fit in, Ally thought. I’ve never been a party person. And certainly not on a scale with the famously loving and outgoing McCabe clan.

  “Furthermore,” Hank continued in a low tone that sent shivers up and down Ally’s spine, “my mom arranging for me to escort you has nothing to do with the sympathy she feels regarding your loss.”

  “Then what is it?” Ally asked, her voice tight with apprehension.

  “She doesn’t trust me to be able to handle another romance, after the way I screwed up with Jo-anne.”

  “What are you talking about?” Ally demanded. “The two of you were engaged! Plus, everyone knows you were madly in love each other.” Just hearing about it had made her envious.

  Hank exhaled. “No one knows this, but we were on the verge of
breaking up when Jo-anne left to go overseas. You see, I asked her to marry me the week we graduated from college. She said yes. The only problem was, she had already accepted a job at an American hotel abroad. She still wanted to go and work there for a year, then come back and marry me later.”

  “And that put a wrench in your plans….” Ally guessed.

  He nodded. “Pretty much. But I didn’t want to stand in her way. She’d never really been out of Texas, and this would have allowed her to spread her wings and travel through Europe, on her time off work, for very little money. She wanted me to try and get a job there, too, so I could get the same perks and discounts at other hotels in the chain, as she did. But I wasn’t interested in being a bellboy…which was all they had available.”

  “So what did you do?” Ally asked curiously.

  “After Jo-anne went overseas, I took a job on a ranch in Colorado and started thinking about what I really wanted to do with my life, which was join the military and become a chopper pilot. And then eventually acquire my own ranch. When I told Jo-anne, she thought it would be great. After all, she was all for adventure and living life out of the ordinary. And we figured we could both request assignments overseas and see the world together that way…”

  He swallowed hard. “Things were finally back on track between the two of us. I had almost saved enough money to go and visit her for a couple weeks and then…she got killed in that terrorist bombing.”

  Ally understood a lot about grief and guilt. “And you had a hard time forgiving yourself,” she presumed softly.

  He nodded. “We wasted a lot of time arguing about things that could have been worked out a whole heck of a lot easier, if the two of us had just figured out what we had to have to be happy and been willing to compromise sooner.”

  Ally bit her lip. “There’s one thing I don’t understand. If your parents knew you were already thinking about enlisting, then…”

  “I hadn’t told anyone but Jo-anne of my plans, or her reaction. After she was killed, I didn’t want to talk about what might have been, just what I was going to do next.”

  That made sense. Ally studied Hank’s tortured expression. “So your mother thinks…”

  “The same thing my dad thinks—that I need the family’s help if I’m going to achieve anything—whether it be in ranching or romance. And that’s why Dad is always stopping by the ranch to see if I need his help with anything, and why Mom is trying to help our relationship along.”

  “Because your dad wants to know you’re okay, business-wise, and she’s concerned about your personal life, and…for whatever reason…wants to see the two of us together.”

  Or, as his sister had said, the family just wanted to see Hank with someone again, settled down with a family of his own to love.

  He grimaced. “It would appear so.”

  Ally thought about that on the rest of the drive home. It was nice that she had the approval of the McCabe family, or guessed she did—otherwise they wouldn’t be pushing Hank and her toward each other. However, it was not so nice that once again she wanted what she could never seem to get—the sense that she was more important to those closest to her than Mesquite Ridge ever would be.

  As they walked into the ranch house, she and Hank stopped in the kitchen to check on Duchess and the pups. All were sound asleep.

  They continued on into the living room, where Ally saw the message light blinking red, and a big shopping bag from Neiman Marcus underneath the unadorned tree.

  His expression abruptly serious, Hank shrugged out of his coat. “We still haven’t talked about what upset you while I was gone,” he reminded her kindly.

  No, Ally thought, they hadn’t. And at this point she wasn’t sure she wanted to. After all, she had no official claim on Hank, or he on her. It didn’t matter that the two of them had kissed a few times and recklessly made love once. They were both single, and she’d made it clear she was selling the ranch to the highest bidder and leaving Laramie on December 24. If Hank wanted to see someone else, especially with Christmas on the horizon, that was his business.

  Hanging on to her pride by a thread, she fibbed, “I think I just had a touch of cabin fever. I’m not used to being out here all alone.”

  Hank looked at her dress, the way she’d gone all out with her hair and makeup and hooked his thumbs through his belt loops. “Now why don’t I believe that?” Anxious to keep from spilling the truth, Ally looked at the answering machine. “Maybe we better see what that message is about.

  “Let’s not.”

  Ignoring his frown, Ally stepped forward and pushed the button, anyway.

  As she had feared, Lulu’s voice rang out loud and clear. “Hank, where are you? I’m so excited! I want to know when we’re going to get together next! Hopefully, tomorrow. Call me, will you, honey? And do it soon!” Click.

  Jealousy reared its ugly head.

  Hank lifted a hand in damage control. “I know how that sounds, but it’s not what you think.”

  Ally sure as heck hoped not!

  Nevertheless, before she could stop them, words came pouring out of her mouth. “Well, now that we’re on the subject, honey, messages like that one might have something to do with my pique.”

  Astonishment mingled with irritation on his handsome face. “Lulu and I are just friends.”

  “Uh-huh.” Ally folded her arms and pinned him with a withering look. “Such good friends you spent the night in a hotel with her in Dallas last night?” The minute the accusation was out, Ally regretted it. For the sake of her pride, she had never meant to let on that she knew. But now the reckless words were out, there was no taking them back.

  Recognition turned Hank’s eyes a deeper blue, and he deliberately closed the distance between them. “First of all, Lulu and I weren’t together, not in the way you’re obviously thinking. And second of all, how did you know that?”

  “The machine. She called here, looking for you, last night at dinnertime.” Probably accidentally on purpose, so I’d know, Ally thought resentfully. “Is that why you went out with Penderson this evening?” Hank looked at her as if he wanted nothing more than to make love to her, then and there. “Because you wanted to make me as jealous, as you are obviously feeling?”

  “I went out with Penderson because he asked me to go.” Ally spoke as if to a dimwit. “So he could apologize for putting the pressure on me regarding the sale of the ranch.”

  “And make another offer,” Hank added tersely.

  “And make another offer,” Ally confirmed. “Just as you said he would.”

  Hank paused and searched her face. Once again he seemed able to read her mind. “Did you accept it?”

  “I’m still hoping something better will come in,” she replied honestly.

  “Me, too.” He smiled as if he knew a secret.

  Ally recalled what Emily had said about Lulu getting a substantial financial settlement from her divorce. She shifted uneasily. “Back to Lulu…”

  Hank gave her a stern look. “I repeat, she is just a friend.”

  “Who had a crush on you all through high school.”

  The tension in his broad shoulders eased slightly. “We never dated.”

  “To Lulu’s lament.”

  Hank scrutinized Ally with unremitting interest. “There’s nothing for you to be envious about,” he insisted.

  She scoffed. “I’m not envious. Just curious.” As to why he still hadn’t explained what exactly what was going on between him and Lulu…and why they had been together in Dallas the night before. Was Lulu the client Hank had been ferrying about for the last two days? Or had the two of them just happened to be in the Metroplex on business at the same time, and decided to have dinner together? And what were he and Lulu going to see each other about next that had her so excited?

  Hank studied Ally, looking impossibly handsome and determined in the soft light. He gestured amicably. “Okay. If that’s the case,” he challenged audaciously, “then prove it.”

&n
bsp; Ally pushed away another wave of desire and held her ground with effort. Why did she suddenly feel she had a tiger by the tail? “How?” she asked, just as casually.

  Hank held his arms wide. “Come here and kiss me like you mean it.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Kiss you?” Ally echoed.

  Hank came closer, until they were near enough to feel each other’s body heat. “You asked me not to bother you with half-formed plans,” he stated in a soft, decisive voice that coaxed her closer still. “I haven’t and I won’t. I’m asking you to trust that, given another week or two, I will meet my objective and make a formal offer on Mesquite Ridge that tops the one you’ve already received from Corporate Farms.” He regarded Ally. “If you are willing to believe in me, in here—” he put his hand over his heart “—then demonstrate your faith in me and kiss me.”

  It was clear from the expression in Hank’s eyes that the cynic in him expected her to do the opposite—assume the worst about his time with Lulu, and move away. And had she not spent the last week with him, and seen close up what a decent, loving and honorable man Hank had become, she would have done just that.

  But she knew he was good and kind.

  And although maddeningly self-contained at times—as his parents very well knew—not the kind of person to make promises he felt he could not deliver on.

  Hank was not the only one who could take risks, Ally thought, as she went up on tiptoe and wreathed her arms around his neck. He promptly wrapped his arms around her and used the flat of his palm to bring her all the way against him.

  Their lips met. She moaned softly, tangling her hands in his hair, never wanting him to stop. And he didn’t. Their tongues intertwined and his hard body pressed resolutely against her. Ally surged forward, surrendering all, until she was kissing him back more passionately than ever before. She reveled in his warmth and strength and the myriad sensations soaring through her. She knew it was Christmas, and that before this she had considered their lovemaking an unexpected gift, a salve for her loneliness. But it was so much more than that. She wanted him so much—wanted the companionship and understanding, and yes, the feeling of belonging that he offered. She knew he hadn’t said anything about loving her.