Page 32 of Cowboy Friend Zone for Christmas

She sent him a whole line of question marks. How did you get THAT out of what I said?

Nash: I can breathe again.

Noelle: You didn’t deny the canoodling.

Nash: There’s nothing to deny.

Shelly’s voice wafted to her from the entrance doors of the ranch office. “We’re dying of thirst in here!”

“Coming!” Noelle shot off one last text. Gotta go, Mr. Secrets. It was her way of telling him she still didn’t appreciate being left in the dark about whatever he was doing behind her back. He was hiding something from her, and she didn’t like it. Until their trip to Pinetop, he’d been completely transparent about everything. And now he wasn’t.

Am I losing him?

Fear rose in her throat as she stuffed her phone back into her pocket and grabbed the beverage box. As she nudged the truck door shut with her shoulder, her phone buzzed with another text message. It was probably from Nash. She would read it as soon as she set down the drinks inside the office.

Shelly held open the door on the right for her, looking all swollen and pale in her bright pink maternity top.

Noelle pressed the toe of her boot to the bottom edge of the door. “Go! I’ve got this, girlfriend.”

Shelly made a pouty face. “I look that weak and helpless, huh?”

“You look pregnant,” Noelle returned firmly. “That means you need to take it easy. Here.” She pulled an unsweetened tea out of the beverage box. “This one’s for you. Extra lemon,” she announced in her brightest voice.

“And no sugar. I know.” Shelly rolled her eyes. “Brady told me the pancake syrup was enough.”

“The syrup is sugar free, and the pancakes are made with almond flour,” he announced from the reception desk where he was opening her box and laying everything out for her. “Doctor’s orders.”

“Way to ruin my morning!” Shelly stomped around the booth and flounced into her seat, or tried to. She nearly lost her balance.

Brady lunged forward and caught her, easing her slowly into the chair on wheels. “Shells,” he groaned. “You’ve gotta be more careful. You’re carrying precious cargo.”

Noelle set the beverage box on the cabinet and leaned over the tall ledge to frown down at her friend. “Are we talking gestational diabetes here?”

“Borderline.” Shelly’s lower lip came out in a pout. “It’s so unfair! Being pregnant is hard enough,” she quavered. “And now everything that makes life fun, like chocolate and ice cream, is off the table!” She jabbed her plastic fork into her healthy pancake and promptly burst into tears.

“Oh, honey!” Noelle flew around the cabinet and squatted down beside her friend. “It’s going to be so worth it when they hand you that sweet, squishable baby with dimples in his cheeks.” She chuckled. “And probably on the tops of his feet.”

“And on his chubby little backside.” Shelly started laughing and crying at the same time, eliciting such a helpless look from her brother that Noelle waved him away.

“Shoo, boss man! This is girl talk.”

He stepped behind Shelly’s chair and pressed his hands together in a gesture of prayerful gratitude. Then he grabbed two of the food boxes and headed to his office with them. “I’ll be back for the drinks,” he called over his shoulder. “Noelle, don’t let her trade hers with mine while my back is turned.”

“I hate him,” Shelly hissed. “Hate, hate, hate?—”

“No, you don’t.” Unable to resist the temptation, Noelle reached for one of the spare plastic forks and stole a bite of Shelly’s pancake. It wasn’t nearly as bad as she expected.

Shelly watched her, frowning. “Like I said, all light and joy have been sapped out of my life.”

Noelle snickered at her dramatic tone. “It’s not that bad. A little grainier than regular pancakes, but the flavor is pretty decent.”

“Not bad? Sorta, kinda, maybe decent?” Shelly’s expression grew stormy again. “Those are not the words any sane person would use to describe a melt-in-your-mouth, syrup-soaked, decadent bite of pancake paradise. I—” Her words grew garbled as Noelle stuffed an oversized bite in her friend’s mouth.

She chewed, frowning ferociously, and swallowed. Reaching for her unsweetened tea, she washed down the bite and shuddered. “I miss sugar. So much!”

Noelle straightened and hiked a hip on her desk. “Then I’ll distract you with one of my lame horse jokes. Where do horses go when they’re sick?”

“Not to the Peppermint Palace, that’s for sure, or they’d get sicker.” Shelly poked her fork viciously at the corner of her pancake.

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