The Rancher's Christmas Bride Read online

  He shook off those dangerous thoughts. “Go inside the camper. When the deputies get here, tell them I’m down there pretending to help load cattle. I want to make sure Dan is okay.”

  “You shouldn’t.”

  “I know. But I can’t leave Dan down there alone. They probably didn’t count on you being here so they’re probably a little on the nervous side. Hopefully the deputies don’t come in here with sirens blaring.” He gave her a gentle nudge toward the camper. “Go.”

  She nodded and walked away from him, but her gaze kept traveling back to the field and to headlights in the distance. Cattle mooed and he could hear men shouting. He wished he’d done something sooner, like the first time Dan mentioned the IRS. But at the time Dan hadn’t mentioned the details, just that he owed money.

  The door to the camper closed with a click. He headed back to his truck.

  He found Dan and the cattle thieves at the back of the property. They’d brought four-wheelers and they were loading cattle. Dan stood off to the side with one of the men. He looked a little gray and even from a distance it appeared he was trying to catch his breath.

  Alex parked his truck and got out. He gave the men a friendly, helpful smile and waved. “Hey, I thought I might come out and help you all. This rain is getting worse.”

  “Sir, I’m going to ask you to stand back.” The fake agent in his fake black jacket pulled a handgun from his pocket.

  Alex had never thought himself a fool and he wasn’t going to be one today. He raised his hands. “Hey, I’m not here to cause any trouble. I just wanted to help. It would be a shame if you all got that truck stuck out here, and the way this rain is coming down, that’s a possibility.”

  The men—there were four of them—looked at each other. The one who still had his handgun fixed on Alex shook his head. “No, I think we can manage. Go ahead and get back in your truck.”

  “How about if I take Dan off your hands. It looks like he’s about to pass out on you. He’s got some heart problems. Dan, do you have your heart medicine on you?”

  Dan looked a little confused and shook his head. “No.”

  “You’re a little pale. Why don’t you go sit in the truck?” Alex kept his hands up and a smile on his face. Maybe he was a fool because the more he pushed, the more the thug with the gun looked as if he might like to unload some lead in him.

  As if on cue, Dan weaved a little and he reached for the man next to him to steady himself.

  “Get off me, old man.”

  No way would an IRS agent talk like that. Alex thought about mentioning it but kept his mouth shut. All those people who said he didn’t know when to shut up would have been surprised.

  “Dan, you okay?”

  The guy with the gun pointed the weapon at Alex. “Get back in your truck and take him with you. But don’t try to leave. Just sit there and stay out of the way.”

  Dan headed his way at a snail’s pace.

  “Dan, why don’t you try to hurry and we’ll get out of the rain?”

  “I’m going as fast as I can, Alex. I don’t know why you’re over here getting in my business. I owe the IRS and I’m taking care of my debt.”

  Alex opened the passenger seat of the truck.

  “I hope you know these men aren’t IRS,” he whispered.

  “Well, I kind of figured that out. And that’s why I didn’t offer them what I have in my safe.”

  Alex swallowed a chuckle and closed the door. As he went around to the driver’s side he heard cars in the distance. He moved a little quicker. He was behind the wheel and closing the door when the first shot rang out.

  “They’re shooting at my truck. Now that just makes a guy mad. Dan, stay down.” He floored it and headed for the nearest four-wheeler, making the guy spin the thing and almost go sideways in the mud. With that one close to disabled, Alex turned and headed back toward the gate.

  He pulled to the side as deputies in SUVs headed through the gate. As they slowed, he rolled down the window. The first vehicle stopped.

  “They’re armed. They have a truck and trailer and a couple of ATVs.”

  After that he headed back to the camper with Dan, who was having a hard time catching his breath. “You know you’re supposed to use that oxygen. You’re just being stubborn. Imagine how much better you’d feel if you used it.”

  “Oh, stop. Now you sound like Marissa. What I’d really like is if she’d go back to Dallas and you’d go back to minding your own business.”

  “And leave you to lose your life savings to fake IRS agents?”

  “Well, I do appreciate your help. But not your advice on my health. I’m seventy-five and the last thing I want is to have a couple of kids telling me how to live. She’s making me eat oatmeal in the mornings. And juice. ‘Drink water,’ she says. ‘Cut back on coffee,’ she says.”

  Alex laughed as he pulled his truck up to the steps of the camper. “You know you love her.”

  “I know I do.” Dan gave him a meaningful look.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Dan. She’s your granddaughter, not mine. And I don’t have any intention of getting tangled up with a city girl on the rebound who won’t be here long enough for me to know her favorite color.”

  “Come on in. She’ll make us a cup of that herbal tea she’s so dad-burned fond of.”

  Alex followed Dan up the stairs. The door opened as they got to the top and Marissa was waiting. She hugged her grandfather as she pulled him inside. Before Dan could protest, she had a towel around him and she was drying his hair. The older man grumbled but he put up with her ministrations. He even turned a little pink when she kissed his cheek.

  “Sit down and I’ll get you something warm to drink.”

  “I guess it’s too much to hope for a cup of coffee?” Dan asked with a hopeful tone.

  “No coffee this late at night. But I made some ginger tea.”

  Dan groaned but he took a seat in his old recliner and put his feet up. Alex grabbed the oxygen tank and pulled it to Dan.

  “Use this thing.”

  Dan took the tubing, adjusted the knobs and gave Alex a look that didn’t need much interpretation. When Alex moved back a step, Marissa was there with a towel.

  “Dry off,” she said, handing it to him. Her eyes searched his face. He didn’t know what she was looking for, but he hoped she didn’t look too deep.

  He took the towel, dried his face and hair and handed it back to her. “I’ll wait until the police are finished. Do you need anything done while I’m here?”

  “No. The chores are all done.”

  “Good grief, this is enough to make a man feel a little sick,” Dan grumbled, capturing both of their attention.

  “What?” Marissa asked. Alex could have told her asking was a mistake.

  Dan pointed from her to Alex and back to her. He wrinkled up his nose. “This. The cooing. And the looks. He’s a confirmed bachelor. He just told me a month ago that he thinks women are more trouble than they’re worth. And you, you just got jilted by your fiancé. Why would you even think of trusting another man?”

  “I’m just being nice to a neighbor who helped us out.” Marissa wagged her finger at her grandfather. “You’re just being testy because I’ve cut you back on coffee and sugar. And because we’re having baked chicken for dinner and not fried.”

  “I like baked chicken,” Alex said to no one in particular. After all, he’d tossed his sandwich to a dog when he’d left the house.

  “You can have mine,” Dan told him. “I’m having bologna. And I think in a month or two, you’ll both be eating crow.”

  “I’m not a fan of crow,” Alex said. Fortunately the police chose that moment to knock on the door.

  Marissa peeked through the window, then opened the door to let in a couple of rain-soaked de
puties. They had a few questions for Dan and Alex, but the thieves were in custody and there would be several charges filed against them.

  Alex stepped into the small kitchen area as they questioned Dan. Marissa joined him. She avoided looking at him and he guessed he might have been avoiding her. She pulled the chicken from the oven and took the lid off a pan with some kind of cheesy potatoes.

  “You’ll stay for dinner?” she asked.

  “I wouldn’t mind.” He moved close—close enough to smell the soft floral scent of her perfume, close enough to hear her quickly indrawn breath. He touched his fingers to her, just briefly. “You’re okay?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “You know he was just teasing.” He’d felt compelled to say it.

  “I know.”

  She looked at him then and he felt a tightness in his chest. The vulnerable softness in her blue eyes begged him not to hurt her.

  He wanted more than anything to be the man who wouldn’t let her down.

  Chapter Eleven

  By Saturday morning Marissa thought things were settling down nicely. Including her grandfather, and her nerves. They were in a groove, she and Dan. They’d dealt with several visits by the police. They’d had a lot of questions about the past six months, how much had been taken and how many head of cattle Dan had turned over to the men. Because of the police report, Dan would be able to file insurance claims and be reimbursed for his loss. In all he’d given up over twenty head of cattle without ever questioning the men or their motives.

  The police had taken Marissa aside and told her that it was a new scam, but not surprising that they targeted her grandfather. Dan lived alone, with no family that checked in on him, and he was older, therefore the crooks figured he was an easy mark. Fortunately Marissa had come along when she did.

  She could have told them it had been fortunate for her, too.

  With the church potluck taking place the next day, Marissa had plans to make deviled eggs. And she also needed to plan her exit from Bluebonnet Springs.

  She peeked in the nesting box in the dimly lit henhouse, pulled out an egg and placed it in the basket. She reached in the next box and a sharp beak pecked at her hand. The hen squawked a warning a little too late. A nester. Her grandfather had warned her that a few of the hens were determined to sit on their nests and to just leave them be.

  At least she hadn’t dropped the basket of eggs.

  “Fine, have your eggs.” She counted the green and brown eggs in the basket. Almost a dozen. That was perfect. With the dozen in the house she could make a couple dozen deviled eggs for the potluck.

  She left the chicken coop and headed across the yard, avoiding puddles that had formed from the rain the previous day. As she walked up the steps the rooster flew to the rail. He lowered his head and rounded his back.

  “Now aren’t you sweet.” She gave him a couple of pats to his softly feathered back.

  In the distance she heard a vehicle and then saw Alex’s truck come up the drive. She waited for him to park. It took him a minute to get out. When he did he had two brown paper bags in his hands. He grinned and inclined his head in greeting. Even from a distance she knew his eyes would flash with humor and dimples would crease his cheeks.

  “What are you doing?” she asked as he headed her way.

  “Baking pies. Remember?”

  He had mentioned that. She thought in jest. She should have known he wasn’t joking.

  “I see. You’re baking them here?”

  “Yep.” He came up the stairs. The rooster flew off the rail and glided to a safe spot a short distance away.

  “Come on in. But hopefully you really do know what you’re doing. Because I don’t.”

  He gave her a long look and then he winked. “I know what I’m doing.”

  Without warning he kissed her cheek.

  As if that kiss hadn’t mattered, he stomped the mud off his shoes and followed her inside. Marissa hurried to put the eggs away. Or to escape his nearness. He followed at a slower pace. Her grandfather was making himself a peanut butter sandwich. He turned as they entered the camper.

  “Stop making a pet out of my rooster,” he grumbled as he put the lid on the peanut butter. “Did you see her out there, petting Red?”

  “I did, Dan. I don’t know if I would put up with that.”

  “Don’t see as I have much choice in the matter. She doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.”

  Marissa gave her grandfather a quick hug. “You’d miss me if I left.”

  “I might at that.” He kissed the top of her head.

  Every day that she stayed was a day she got closer to her grandfather, and she regretted that she’d missed out on so many years. With each passing day, her desire to go home dwindled. She didn’t know what awaited her back in Dallas. But she also didn’t know what a future in Bluebonnet Springs would hold for her, either.

  In the tiny kitchen she became aware of the other reason she wasn’t excited about going home. Alex. He moved past her, their arms barely touching as he set his baking supplies on the tiny table. When he turned she swallowed because they were face-to-face, and with her grandfather in the kitchen, there was no room to move.

  She and Aidan had never done anything quite as intimate as sharing space in a kitchen, cooking together. Or even doing chores together. They’d dated. Dinners. Work functions. Movies. She had thought about it often in the past weeks. They hadn’t really known each other. She hadn’t known his friends. He hadn’t known that she didn’t want to live in an apartment. She wanted a small house in a neighborhood where they would have a fenced yard and children.

  Now she’d expanded that to house in a small town and maybe some land. Because this time with her grandfather had opened her eyes to some new experiences, and to a part of herself she hadn’t known.

  “Nice tree,” Alex said, dragging her back to the present.

  She glanced at the scraggly tree they’d hauled home from the church fund-raiser. “It needs more ornaments. I found one box at the thrift store in town. It was all she had.”

  “Before you start on those pies, why don’t you go to the barn and get what I have out there?” Dan suggested as he sat down in his recliner, a plate in his lap and a glass of milk on the table next to him. He reached for the remote. “I’m going to watch sports for a bit and maybe take a nap. If the rats haven’t eaten everything, the decorations are in the attic over the feed room of the barn.”

  Alex glanced at her and lifted a shoulder. “I don’t mind helping.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Come on. Get a jacket and let’s get that poor tree decorated before it gets repossessed by Charlie Brown.”

  “It isn’t that bad.”

  “It’s worse.” He grabbed her jacket off the coatrack and held it out for her.

  The rain started as they headed across the yard to the barn. It was a light rain but cold. Marissa huddled into her jacket and Alex’s arm went around her. The rain picked up. They ran the rest of the way, laughing as they hurried through the door.

  The barn was dark and dusty, and smelled of hay, horses and cattle. Marissa found she liked the quiet and the smell. It was comforting and peaceful.

  “Where is the attic?”

  “This way.” Alex took her hand and led her to the feed room. Inside was a ladder. He opened it beneath a square door in the ceiling.

  “We have to go up there?” She eyed the opening and shook her head at the idea of climbing through and into the dark attic space.

  “Yeah. Up there. Follow me.”

  “What if there are bugs?”

  “And mice?” he asked.

  “Stop.”

  He was already up the ladder and pushing the square door open. She watched from below as he disappeared
into the dark hole. A light came on and he peeked down at her.

  “No bugs. No mice. Come on up.”

  She eased up the ladder, trying to keep her eyes on the man above her and not the floor below. He reached and she gave him her hand. With his help she climbed through the opening and landed safely on the floor of the attic. Tubs lined the wall. Each was labeled. There were Christmas ornaments. Photographs. Important papers. There was even a fireproof box.

  “He’s kept everything.” Marissa stood, the ceiling just inches above her head. Alex had to duck in the confined space.

  “Well, where do you want to start?”

  “Christmas decorations. But I want to look in the other boxes.” She reached for one of the tubs that had been taped to seal the lid. “It’s funny that these boxes contain the history of my family, of people I didn’t know existed.”

  “So we aren’t getting the Christmas decorations and leaving, are we?” He gave her a hopeful smile.

  “No, we aren’t.”

  “Why would he keep this up here?” he asked, pushing the fireproof box with his foot.

  “Because he’s Dan and it makes sense that if he’s going to get robbed, they wouldn’t look in the attic of the barn. Or even think that a barn would have an attic.”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  She pulled the tape and removed the lid of the first tub. Inside were family photos. Some appeared to be from when her mother was a child. Some were older than that. She picked up one of a little girl with dark hair. On the back in faded ink were the words Mary, age five. Kindergarten.

  “My mother,” she told Alex.

  The next photograph was of her grandparents on their wedding day. Alex peered over her shoulder.

  “Dan was a charmer.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “He still is.”

  Alex laughed. “If cranky is the new charming.”

  Alex reached for a newspaper clipping. Marissa leaned to see what the article was about and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. She shook her head, reaching for the aged piece of paper.

  “Marissa?” Alex sat down next to her.