The Rancher's Christmas Bride

“I’m pretty sure I wished him a less-than-heavenly reward.”

“You’ve regretted those words a thousand times.”

“Are we done?” Because she hadn’t yet brought up his best friend, Daniel, who had died under a bull. It had been Alex’s job as a bullfighter to protect him but he hadn’t. He had a long history of not being able to protect the people he cared about.

Lucy shook her head and he knew the worst was yet to come.

“What is it?” he asked when she didn’t spit it out.

“Mom.”

Great. This was going downhill fast. Deloris Palermo had a habit of putting her kids last. She’d skated in and out of their lives for the last dozen years.

Lucy sighed. “She took out a mortgage on the farm.”

It took him a minute to make sense of those words.

“And?”

“And she hasn’t been making the payments.”

He wanted to punch something. Instead he sat there with a wrench in his hand, waiting, hoping she’d tell him it was all good somehow.

“Please give me some good news.”

Lucy shook her head. “I’d love to but there isn’t any. She hasn’t made the payments in six months. I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t seen a man at the end of the drive taking pictures. The place is going to be auctioned off.”

“What do we do? I’ve invested most of my savings in this business and the bulls. I know Marcus doesn’t have two dimes to rub together.”

“I don’t know if you’re right about Marcus. He’s been winning lately. Mom said she’ll sell her half to us if we want. She’s being generous, she says. Because she won’t make us buy the whole ranch. She said Dad wanted her to have half and the rest split between his four kids. So in order to get her name off the land we have to pay her half the appraised value.”

“The appraised value of five hundred acres and a house.” He hung his head, wishing he could start this day over. “If we do that, she has to pay the second mortgage. That or we pay her, less the amount she owes. But do you really want to go in on this? Now that you’re married, it doesn’t seem like this should be your problem.”

“We stick together, Alex. All of our lives we’ve only had each other. That doesn’t change just because I’m married.”

He tossed the wrench to the ground and did something he rarely did: he gave his sister a quick hug. “Thanks.”

She hugged him back, the gesture awkward. “You’re welcome.”

He headed back to his tools. “So now I just have to figure out how to scrounge up a down payment. And face the reality that our own mother has put us in debt.”

“Yeah.”

“And you ask me why I’m not interested in a relationship. From what I can see, people who say they care tend to just rip each other to pieces.”

“There’s a difference between people who care and people who say they care. You’ve never let me down. I don’t know if I’ve ever said it, but I love you, Alex.”

He blinked to clear his blurry vision. Because he wouldn’t let her make him cry. “I have to get up early,” he said as he wiped his hands on a towel. “And you have kids to take care of and a husband probably wondering where you are.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought this up.”

He managed a grin. “Remember when you used to stay out of our business and just let us all live our lives?”

“I seem to remember that person. I was a little bit broken, too.”

“I’m not broken. I’m not even fragile. I’m cautious.”

“And you’re not cautiously interested in Dan’s granddaughter?” she asked as she stood at the door, preparing to leave.

“No. I’m not interested. I found her on the side of the road in her wedding dress. If that doesn’t scream trouble, I don’t know what does.”

Lucy’s eyes widened. “A wedding dress? That’s a part of the story no one is talking about. Including you.”

He was filled with some kind of strange loyalty and protectiveness. Hadn’t he just said he wasn’t getting tangled up in Marissa Walker’s life?

“It’s a part of the story that doesn’t need to be talked about. No one ought to be walking down a back road on their wedding day, in the dress and without the groom.”

Lucy gave him a long look. “You’re right. But when you said she needed extra clothes, you didn’t mention the dress.”

“I didn’t think it was anyone’s business but hers.”

“It’s a good thing you’re the one who found her.”

“I guess it is. I’ll see you later, sis.” He reached to open the door for her. With a quick hug, she left.

He watched her truck head down the drive and then he went back inside the garage. Focusing on the tractor helped him keep his mind busy and kept him from worrying too much about the mortgage and buying the ranch he’d always considered his home. Fixing that tractor also kept him from thinking about Marissa.

Kind of.

He didn’t want to think about blue eyes that rivaled the bluebonnets his hometown was named for. Or the blue of the sky on a clear winter day. He didn’t want to think about how she’d managed to pull herself together, even though she had to be pretty close to devastated.

He couldn’t help but think she needed family. Or a friend. Someone to help her through what had to be a pretty difficult time.

Someone who was not him.

Chapter Five

The gray light of early dawn peeked through a crack in the curtains. Marissa tried to roll over on the lumpy sofa but a bigger lump kept her from moving. She pushed at the drooling dog that had climbed up and was stretched out next to her.

“Down, Bub.”

The dog groaned, then made a noise that was followed by a foul smell. She pushed him off the sofa and sat up, holding a hand over her nose.

“You are the most disgusting animal.”

Bub just looked at her with his soulful eyes, his skin sagging downward, ears slightly perked. His tail thumped the faded carpet. Then he got up and lumbered to the door.

She followed, pushing the door open to the cool air. The rooster was sitting on the porch rail. As if on cue, he bristled his feathers and starting crowing.

“Good morning to you, too.” She closed the door, shutting out the rooster and the noxious dog.

Blurry-eyed from lack of sleep, she headed for the coffeepot. She found coffee in a canister and filters in the cabinet. The refrigerator, as she’d learned the previous evening, didn’t contain much in the way of food. Her grandfather seemed to live on eggs, skim milk and bologna.

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