A Cowboy For Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

girl, Alice.
    Brent couldn’t remember the
last time he was alone and actually felt alone. He sighed and
walked through the stables to say goodnight to the horses. Missy
hadn’t asked which ones had been Ben’s, meaning they were hers now.
Seemed odd to him. If she wanted money, she could sell them. He
didn’t like that thought one bit.
    Dancer snorted at him, like
he was asking where Ben had gone.
    “ Sorry, buddy.” Sorry Ben’s not here. He
faced forward, and though he wanted to turn and look at the
stallion, he couldn’t.
    Shaking his head, he left.
How had he gotten so spooked about the whole thing? The horse
couldn’t blame him. No one did. So why did he feel so guilty about
Ben?
    Outside again, he headed
for his house, but he spotted Missy walking on the road, bundled up
in her red coat and a scarf. Guess the cougar comment hadn’t scared
her enough to keep her inside after dark.
    “ Want company?” he called
out because she looked lonely. How could she not be when she’d left
her life to come out here? It looked like she shrugged, so he
jogged over. “What are you doing out here by yourself? It’s
late.”
    “ It’s seven in the
evening.” She rubbed her nose in the cold.
    “ And cold.”
    “ You’re out here, too.” She
blew out a breath. If she hadn’t run earlier, he might have asked
her to go into town for a movie or dinner.
    “ Did you eat dinner yet?”
Where had that come from? That was worse than inviting her into
town. One look at her expression in the yard light confirmed that
she was not going anywhere alone with him. He spared them both.
“Guess not. Are you heading back?”
    “ Yes, want to walk me
again?” They turned together. He spotted mud on her boots. She
hadn’t balked at hard work or getting dirty. Maybe she’d done this
before.
    “ So you didn’t grow up in a
city?” He remembered her expensive suit, the glitter on her ears
and fingers, and the perfume that made him want to lean in closer
to sniff.
    With a laugh, she asked,
“You don’t believe me?”
    “ Tell me about it.” The
fancy clothes and jewelry were gone, but she still smelled like
that perfume. It was a light smell that seemed to evade him. He got
whiffs of it here and there.
    “ Not much to tell, really.
My dad owned cattle, but we didn’t live on a ranch.”
    He could tell her mind was
going off somewhere.
    “ Did you want to?” Could
that be what she was sad about? He knew so little about
her.
    “ No, not at all. I wanted
to go somewhere bigger and better. So I went off to the closest
city at the first chance I got.”
    Maybe that’s where things
went wrong. He was sure something had somewhere along the line, but
he didn’t know how to ask her about it.
    She looked at the ground
like she was ignoring him, but she started talking. “I think that’s
why our father left his money to Ben.”
    “ Whoa, because you didn’t
want to live on a cattle ranch?” he asked, hearing the hurt in her
voice. A picture of her came to mind, when she came to his house
the first time, and looked so hurt and lost.
    “ Ben chose a more
traditional lifestyle, and our father was proud of his Nez Pierce
heritage.” She shook her head as if she wanted to end the
conversation. But she added, “I didn’t mean to insult that, I just
wanted excitement. I was raised as an only child, and it was quiet.
All the time.”
    Hearing this made him want
to reach out to her, but again, his instincts told him she’d freeze
up on him if he did. “Most young people do.” And she did look
young, maybe twenty-five. Her age didn’t agree with the hurt he saw
in her eyes sometimes.
    “ That’s why I didn’t come
here sooner . . . to see Ben.” She rubbed her nose again to warm it
up, but she still didn’t look at him. “Our father left everything
to Ben. I didn’t even know about him until Dad died. I didn’t want
to know him at first.”
    They reached her house and
she stepped up, turning to say goodbye.
    “ Missy, I