The Rancher's Christmas Bride
In an instant she was ten again. Her mom was screaming. There were police cars. And she was alone, standing on the sidewalk, unable to scream, unable to cry. That day had changed her life. Since then, she had felt alone.
The paramedics were moving. Her grandfather was cursing them. She tried to shake off the pain of the past. A hand briefly touched hers, giving a slight squeeze.
She wasn’t alone.
“Are you all right?” Alex asked in a husky whisper.
She nodded, her attention glued to the scene taking place in front of her. She was okay. But she wasn’t. She was about to fall apart.
“Sit down,” he ordered. He led her to a chair.
She sat, then lifted her gaze to meet his. He squatted in front of her, putting him at eye level.
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
“I don’t believe you. I know what it looks like when a woman is about to come unglued. But trust me, he’s going to be okay. He’s too ornery for anything else.”
“I know. It isn’t...” She swallowed and met his gaze again. “I’m fine. It was just a memory. But I’m okay.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She managed a shaky laugh because he didn’t look like a man who really wanted to talk. “No, not really. I should go. Maybe I can ride with the doctor.”
He put a hand out and helped her to her feet. “I’m driving you.”
“I’m sure you have other things to do. You aren’t responsible for me.”
“I know I’m not, but I found you. Finders keepers and all of that childish stuff. And besides, you don’t want to ride with Doc Parker.” He leaned close as he said it. “He’s had so many speeding tickets, they’re about to take his license.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling at his warning. No matter how she felt at this moment, she wasn’t alone.
* * *
Alex walked with Marissa to his truck. A breeze kicked up, blowing dust across the parking lot. In the distance the ambulance turned on its siren, and he could see the flash of blue lights on the horizon. The woman standing next to him shivered violently as if a cold arctic wind had just blown through her. He reached into his truck, grabbed his jacket off the seat and placed it around her shoulders.
He didn’t think it was the breeze that had chilled her. He’d watched her in Doc’s office. He’d seen the moment that past met present—her eyes had darkened and the color had drained from her cheeks. He recognized a person getting hit head-on by a painful memory. It had happened to him more than once.
There were days he could still hear his teenage self tell his father he wouldn’t last five seconds on the bull he was straddling. His father had laughed and said, From your lips to God’s ears.
Thirty seconds later his father was gone. His last words, a whispered, You were right.
He had his past. It appeared Marissa might have her own.
He wouldn’t pry because he didn’t let anyone pry into his memories. He helped her in the truck and then he got in and started it up. She was still stoic, still dry-eyed.
“Did you charge your phone?” he asked as they pulled onto the road.
“I’ll have to buy a charger.” She averted her gaze and concentrated on the passing scenery.
There wasn’t much to Bluebonnet Springs. Main Street with its few business, the feed store and his aunt Essie’s café. On the edge of town there was a convenience store and a strip mall with a couple of businesses. The rest of the town was made up of a few churches and a couple of streets lined with houses that had been built a few decades ago. There was a new subdivision being built in the east end of town. That had caused quite a stir and given the lunch crowd at Essie’s something to talk about for a good month.
A city utilities truck was parked on the side of the road.
“They’re putting up the Christmas lights,” he told her, because the silence was deafening and he didn’t know what else to say.
“Christmas isn’t my favorite holiday.” She cleared her throat. “I didn’t mean it like that. Christmas is difficult for my family.”
“I’m sorry.” He sped up as they left town. “It’s a big deal here in Bluebonnet.”
She gave him a questioning look.
“Christmas,” he responded. “They love Christmas in this town. They have a big community service. There are four churches in the area and they all come together and each one has a play or music. The whole month of December the shops are open late each Friday. They serve cookies and hot cocoa.”
“That does sound nice,” she answered. “Maybe I’ll be around for that. If not, I might come back. We typically don’t do a lot at Christmastime.”
He wanted to ask her about her family, maybe even wanted to know why her blue eyes clouded with emotion as she told him that bit of insight into her life. But he knew better than to dig into someone else’s life. He knew from his own past that families all had their private stories. After his dad died, his entire family had avoided attending church. Specifically, they’d avoided the Church of the Redeemed, the church their father had pastored with an abusive hand.
Maria, the youngest Palermo, hadn’t lived through much of Jesse Palermo’s craziness, so she hadn’t struggled with her faith. The oldest, Lucy, had found it a little more difficult. Alex had found his way to a church service after a bull-riding event. He believed that service probably changed his life and set him on a new course. His twin brother, Marcus... That was a whole other set of problems.
The woman sitting next to him had shut down a little after the topic of Christmas so he wasn’t going to push.
He usually had something to say, a joke to crack, anything to ease the tension. But he couldn’t find that old ease, not with her. What could he say to a woman he didn’t really know? All he knew was that she’d been jilted on her wedding day. She was Dan’s granddaughter. And she didn’t really care for Christmas and he didn’t know why.
Somewhere out there she had people who did know her. She had people who would have the right words. And they had the right to say the words she needed to hear.
“Do you want to use my phone?” he offered in the silence of the truck. “To call family?”
“That would be good. Thank you.”
He handed her his cell phone. And then he listened as she spoke to her mother, explaining where she was and how she’d come to be there. At the end of the conversation she told her mom she would keep her posted on her grandfather’s condition.
She ended the call, then ran a shaky hand through her now short hair. The brown layers were chunky and framed her face, making her eyes large and luminous. He took the phone from her, their fingers touching in the process. Blue eyes met his and she smiled.
“Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
He reached to turn up the radio. The classic country station was playing George Jones. A typical song about heartache.
“So, you’re a teacher?” Suddenly he felt the need to fill the silence. He shot her a quick look. “Good thing you aren’t a beautician.”
Her laughter was soft but genuine. She glanced in the mirror on the visor. “Not my best work. After this, I’ll stick to teaching the alphabet.”
He gave her another a quick look. Yeah, she looked like a teacher. The kind that wiped faces, hugged kids when they fell and made math seem fun. He’d had one or two teachers like her. The teachers who looked past the rough-and-tumble little boy and told him they thought he mattered.
Those teachers had inspired him. He’d managed to achieve a few goals thanks to their tutoring and encouragement.
Soon they were nearing Killeen and the hospital. Marissa appeared lost in her own thoughts and he doubted he wanted to go where she’d gone.
It didn’t take a genius to realize he was knee-deep in this woman’s life. For some reason he kept wading in deeper. For a guy who prided himself on keeping to his goals and priorities, that came as a surprise.
The last thing he wanted was the worry that he wouldn’t be able to help her. He didn’t like the feeling of letting someone down. Or, worse, the moment when someone looked him in the eyes and told him not to worry about it, he couldn’t have done anything to help.
Chapter Four
“You don’t need to sit at my bedside,” her grandfather mumbled. Something about the growling words seemed half-hearted to Marissa. Or maybe it was wishful thinking on her part. Maybe she wanted him to need her. Or she wanted to try to make up to him whatever it was he’d lost when her grandmother left.
“I know I don’t need to be here.” She moved the chair closer to his bed. “I want to be here.”
He shook his head. “Do-gooders, always trying to make up for what other people did wrong. Like Alex over there. He’s trying to make up for that crook of a father he had. You’re trying to make up for your grandmother walking out on me. What the two of you need to do is take yourselves off and live your own lives. Not together, mind you. That would be another mistake.”
Heat climbed into Marissa’s cheeks and she avoided looking at the man standing near the wall. But he moved, forcing her gaze to shift toward him. He pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against and approached her grandfather’s bed.
“Dan, you’re just being grouchy. And your granddaughter is the wrong person to take it out on,” he said.
The last thing she needed was for him to defend her. She shot him a warning look that he disregarded with that cool, cowboy way he had. As if nothing ever got under this skin.
“I’m not taking it out on her.” Her grandfather patted the hand she’d rested on the rail of the bed. “I’m giving some advice. Go on about your life. I don’t know why any man would dump you. Maybe it’s the grandfather in me talking, but I think any man in his right mind would want you. And don’t be looking at her like that, Alex Palermo. We all know you’re not in your right mind. Marissa, you need to go back home to your folks and to your life. I imagine there’s some pieces you need to pick up. Things you need to deal with.”
“I already told you I’m staying,” she said softly, hoping he wouldn’t disagree.
He opened his mouth to say something and coughed instead. The cough lingered, turning his face dark red as he fought to catch his breath. When she offered a glass of water, he raised his hand and shook his head.
“I’m fine. Water’s good for nothing but washing dishes. And making coffee. Get me some coffee and you’ll be my favorite granddaughter.”
“As far as I know, I’m your only granddaughter.”
His hand over hers tightened and his gaze caught and held hers. “I know.”
Those two words shook her. She saw in his eyes that he did know. She saw sympathy and sadness. She saw understanding. How did he know? But she couldn’t ask. Not yet.
“What if that fiancé of yours comes to his senses?” her grandfather asked.
“I don’t think I’d be willing to revisit that relationship.”
“I’ll get you a cup of coffee, Dan,” Alex offered, and quietly slipped from the room.
Silence hung between them. Marissa tried to turn away but her grandfather kept his hand on hers.
“I know about your sister.” He patted her hand. “I can’t imagine how that hurt you. It hurt me and I didn’t know her. But you were young. How old?”
“Ten.”
“Yes, ten. Your grandmother sent me the newspaper clipping. She was heartbroken.”
The information unsettled Marissa. “You talked to my grandmother?”
“Yes, we talked. No, it was more like yipping. We yipped at each other. Like the coyotes you hear at sunset. We never did get along. She was city and I was country. We were oil and water. The two don’t mix. She wanted shopping malls. I wanted cattle. We bought the camper and planned to build a house later. At first she loved the idea. It was romantic, the two of us making our own way. And then along came your mom and it was crowded. To make matters worse, it upset her wealthy daddy that we were living like that.”
“So she left you.”
“Yes, she left. For good reasons, mind you. But after a while she called and apologized. She sent me letters. I mailed her checks. She decided I wasn’t fit to be a father and I agreed. I understood horses and cattle but not little girls. I guess from the mess I made of my marriage, I didn’t understand women any better. And that’s why you should go on home. It was nice meeting you and I hope you’ll stay in touch, but you belong in Dallas, not Bluebonnet.”
“How do you know where I belong?” Even she didn’t know where she belonged.
“That’s what your grandmother said when I told her she shouldn’t marry a cowboy from Bluebonnet Springs. And I was right.”
“You’re not right about me.”
Footsteps announced Alex’s return. She stepped away from the bed, moving to the window to look out at the city landscape.
“Did I need to give you more time?” Alex asked as he handed the coffee to her grandfather. He pushed the button to raise the back of the bed so that Dan could sit up a little higher.
“You can take my granddaughter on back to my place. I think her folks should be able to find their way down here to pick her up.”
Marissa picked up her purse. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m not that easy to get rid of. I’m going back to your place because someone has to feed the dog. And that stupid rooster.”
“Don’t be picking on my rooster,” Dan grumbled.
“I won’t. And I’m also not going anywhere.”
Alex chuckled. “Dan, I wasn’t sure if she was really your granddaughter until just now. She’s definitely stubborn enough to be a Wilson. You may have met your match.”
“Go away. I need my rest. Didn’t you hear the doctor?”
“I heard him.” Marissa leaned in to kiss her grandfather’s scruffy cheek. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll take care of your animals.”
He patted her shoulder. “That’s what I’m worried about.”
He smiled, a twinkle in his faded blue eyes. Eyes she realized were the same as hers. She’d always wondered where she got her blue eyes. And her stubborn streak. Now she knew. For the first time in a very long time she felt connected. He might not want her, but in her grandfather she’d found someone who might understand who she was and how she felt.
* * *
It was late afternoon when they pulled up to Dan’s camper. Marissa felt a strange sense of coming home. It was a world away from her home. It was completely out of her comfort zone. And yet there was something about this place...the fields, the cattle, even the rooster.
It was change. Maybe that’s what she’d needed.
“You’re actually going to stay here alone?” Alex asked as he moved to get out of the truck.
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?”
Alex shrugged as he headed for the barn. She hurried to keep up.
“Maybe you didn’t hear Dan, but I did. Your grandmother was a city girl who broke his heart.” He shot her a look. “She told him she wanted this life with him but when it came down to it, she couldn’t hack it.”
“I’m his granddaughter, not his wife. And I want to be here to help him.”
“Suit yourself.”
“So you don’t think I can do this, either, do you?”
He headed through the barn, stopping to give her a look before scooping grain into a bucket. “I make it a habit not to get involved.”
“Then you should go. I’ll feed and do whatever needs to be done here.”
He headed out a side door, whistling shrilly. She heard an answering whinny and then hooves beating across the hard-packed earth.
“You’ll do whatever needs to be done?” He grinned as he poured feed in a trough. “There’s a couple of cows about to calve. Do you know what to do with a downed cow that’s been laboring too long?”
“I can look it up on the internet.”
He grabbed her by the wrist, his hand strong and warm, and they moved back a few steps as a couple of horses headed for the trough. The animals didn’t seem to want to share. Ears were pinned back and one turned to kick at the other. Marissa didn’t need to be told twice to get out of the way of those flying hooves.
“Should you feed them separately?” she asked.
“Nah, they’ll get over it once they get to the business of eating. They’ve been fighting that way for years. That’s what Dan gets for buying mules.”
“They’re horses, aren’t they?”
He pointed to the heads of the big, golden red animals.
“Those are not the ears of a horse. Dan sold his horses when he stopped training and he bought mules. They’re sure-footed and he uses them for trail rides and hunting. But I’m sure you can look that up on the internet,” he teased, punctuating his words with a wink.
“Stop making fun of me. When I decide to do something, I do it. I’m staying and I’m going to help my grandfather.”
“Calm down, I’m not making fun of you.”
Of course he wasn’t. But she’d gotten used to Aidan and his brand of teasing, which she now realized had been more. He’d smiled as he pointed out her shortcomings, then he’d told her he was teasing. Now she could look back on the last two years and a relationship that had been chipping away at her hard-earned self-confidence.
She briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them he had stepped a little closer. His expression, soft and concerned, eased the tension building inside her.
“I’m calm,” she said.
“I admire that you want to help Dan, even if you don’t know a thing about ranching. But don’t you have a job you need to get back to?”
A few days ago she would have said that she did have a job. She had an apartment, a job and even a fiancé, who would now have been her husband.
“I have a new job but I don’t start until mid-January. I have plenty of time to stay and help my grandfather.”
The job now seemed like another area of her life she’d given over to her parents. It was a job they’d wanted for her and approved of. And she’d agreed to the private school even though she’d wanted something else. She’d been looking at a small rural school when her father told her he’d gotten her an interview with a friend.
“Suit yourself.” He headed for the barn with the empty bucket. “I have to get home and get my own chores taken care of. Tomorrow morning you’ll need to move a round bale to the cattle. They’ll eat about two of those fifty-pound bags of grain. And then you’ll need to feed the chickens and gather eggs. Don’t forget Bub.”
The list of chores made her take a step back and reevaluate the plan. She quickly swallowed past the lump that lodged in her throat. She could do this. The other thing she could do was ignore the humorous glint in his dark eyes and the dimple in his left cheek.
He was the complete opposite of Aidan. He was the opposite of what she knew about life and men. He laughed too easily and smiled too much. He was too carefree.
But her grandfather had commented on his life, making her think everything hadn’t been so easy for Alex Palermo.
“I can do all of that,” she informed him because he seemed to be waiting for confirmation.
“I think you probably can,” he said, suddenly serious. “Don’t forget to lock the doors tonight.”
“Lock the doors. Of course.”
The humor evaporated. “I’m serious. I know you want to stay here. And I know you can handle things, but these cattle rustlers are real and I don’t want you to think you have to go out and tangle with them.”
Her earlier ease with the situation dissolved with that warning. “What should I do if I see or hear something?”
“Call 911 and then call me. I’ll write my number down for you. And let Bub sleep in the house with you. He looks like a drooling mess, but he’s got a pretty vicious bark.”
“Okay, I’ve got this.”
He winked, then he kissed her cheek, taking her completely by surprise. “Of course you do. I believe you can do this.”
* * *
Alex heard a truck door slam. He walked out of the stall he’d been cleaning and spotted his sister Lucy getting out of her truck. She waved and headed his way. Lucy was proof that the Palermo family could overcome the past.
An abusive cult leader for a father. A mother who’d abandoned them. Some folks around town still gave them the stink eye, as if they were waiting for one of the Palermo kids to turn out like their father.
Years ago, Lucy had escaped, joining the army and then returning to start a protection business with her former army buddies. Last spring she’d finally come home to Bluebonnet and ended up marrying their neighbor, Dane Scott. And Lucy had adopted Maria’s baby girl, Jewel.
The only problem with all of this was that Lucy suddenly was into everyone’s business and thought all her siblings needed to be fixed. She’d turned into a mother.
“How’s Dan doing?” she asked as she entered the barn.
Alex put the pitchfork back in the storage room. He closed the door of that room. Long ago it was the room their father had locked Lucy in when he’d learned of her teen relationship with Dane.
“He’s good. Word travels fast in a small town.”
“Yeah, it does. I was at Essie’s.” The café their aunt owned. “She said Doc came in after he’d gotten back from Killeen.”
He knew that hopeful look in Lucy’s eyes, she was thinking maybe there was something between him and Dan’s granddaughter. He headed out the front door of the stable. The sun was setting and the air had cooled ten degrees with a wind coming out of the north. He figured there’d be frost on the ground when he woke up in the morning.
“I guess Dan’s granddaughter is sticking around?” Lucy asked as she walked next to him.
“Is there a point to this visit?” He opened the door to the garage he’d had built since he returned home last spring. Inside were a couple of tractors and a farm truck. The equipment belonged to neighbors. The tools belonged to him.
“How’s business?”
He pushed a rolling toolbox in the direction of the John Deere tractor. “Business is good. And I’m not interested in Dan’s granddaughter, not as anything more than a neighbor in need. I’ll remind you that it wasn’t too long ago that you weren’t interested in dating. Just because you’ve gone to the other side doesn’t mean I’m going to.”
Lucy sat on a rolling stool and watched him. Studied him, more like. The way a scientist studied an insect. “One of these days there will be a woman who makes you forget. Or at least helps you let go of the past.”
“It isn’t going to be this woman.” By the past Lucy meant the women who couldn’t be seen with him because their daddies didn’t want them dating a Palermo. As a teenager it had hurt. As an adult, he guessed he didn’t blame them.
His dad had been a cult leader who abused his family. And most people would have said the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. For a long time he’d almost believed it, thinking that he had no choice but to grow up in the shadow of Jesse Palermo.
He slid under the tractor and ignored his sister. Time was limited and Jerry Masters expected his tractor fixed in the next week. “I’m looking at buying some used equipment to sell.”
“Can you do that and get those bulls ready to buck?”
“I can. Marcus is going to come home and help with the bulls. It works for us both. I invested my earnings. He blew through his like water.” He scooted out and picked a different tool. Lucy was watching him, her dark eyes serious. “Stop worrying, Luce. I’ve got this.”
“I always worry. It’s my job.”
“You don’t have to worry.”
“Yes, I do. I worry that Marcus is going to hurt himself or someone else. I worry that Maria has been talking to Jaxson Williams. And I worry that you still think it was all your fault. Everything.”
“It was.” He scooted back under the tractor, hoping she’d take the hint and leave. He knew better, but it was worth a try.
“You were a teenager and not responsible for our father’s actions. Ever.”
He gave up on the tractor, slid out and sat up, knees bent and arms resting on them. He gave his sister a long look. “Are you finished?”
The look in her eyes told him she wasn’t. “No. I have a lot to say. You didn’t lock me in that room. Our father did. You couldn’t have busted me out. He wouldn’t have allowed it. You didn’t kill him. He made a choice to get on a bull that was rank and couldn’t be ridden.”