Page 41 of Cowboy Friend Zone for Christmas

Her mother’s gasp drowned out the rest of what she was going to say. “You mean you’ve patched things up with Brady?”

“Actually, I’ve been helping Shelly out in the front office.” More like keeping her company, but Noelle didn’t feel like she owed her mother any more details.

“My sweet little rolling stone,” her mother murmured. “Always tumbling here and there, following your heart wherever it leads.”

The underlying criticism in her words stung. After all these years, Triss Ward still couldn’t muster up an ounce of credit for how hard Noelle had worked to become a respected horse trainer. To this day, her parents considered what she did for a living to be a waste of the money they’d spent on her college education.

To call her mother out on the insult, however, would only give her an excuse to fall into hysterics and play the victim again. Instead, Noelle gave a noisy yawn in her ear, making no effort to hide her tiredness. “If you want me to show up for lunch without saddlebags under my eyes, I’d best get back to bed.”

“We should be back from the doctor’s office in time for an early lunch,” her mother said quickly. “How does eleven o’clock sound?”

“Eleven sounds perfect.” Noelle didn’t know how her mother could already be so sure about their schedule today before calling the doctor’s office, but it didn’t feel prudent to point that out. “Let’s meet at the Gingerbread House. They serve incredible soups, salads, and sandwiches, plus every flavor of tea imaginable.” She paused, fully expecting her mother to raise a protest and try to change the venue to something more posh. Like Castellano’s. Were they even open for lunch?

“That sounds lovely, dear.” Triss Ward’s formal tone was an uncomfortable reminder of Noelle’s cotillion days.

Ugh! She did not miss those forced ballroom dance lessons with the sons and daughters of her parents’ stuffy friends. All too many of them had been spoiled, entitled brats.

“Alright. We’ll chat more later.” Noelle yawned again. “In the meantime, I’m going to catch some more beauty sleep.”

“So you keep saying.” Her mother’s voice took on an edge of an arctic chill.

“Bye, Mom!”

“Goodbye, sweetie.”

Noelle disconnected the line before her mother could think of a reason to keep her on the phone longer.

No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn’t go back to sleep after their call. Though she had no desire to wake Nash, she shot him a text message about an hour later.

You won’t believe who called and woke me at the crack of five!

His answer came back so quickly that he must not have been asleep, either. She wasn’t overly surprised. He was a pretty early riser.

Cookie?

She read his message and burst out laughing at his mention of the young filly she was training back at Canyon Creek Ranch. Just seeing her name made Noelle miss the adorable, speckled pony.

Noelle: Not even close. I’m doing lunch with my parents. That’s both a prayer request and a “please standby for assistance” alert.

Nash: Thought they were on a cruise.

Noelle: They came back early. Lucky me!

Nash: I’ll be praying everything goes smoothly.

Noelle: Any chance you’re free for lunch today?

Nash: I wish. Got another physical therapy appointment.

Noelle: Way to dodge a bullet!

Nash: I’ll only be a call or text away.

Noelle: If you don’t receive some sort of proof of life message every hour on the hour, send out a search party. I was last seen at the Gingerbread House.

Nash: You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.

Noelle: So I keep telling myself. But I can’t avoid them forever.

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