Page 43 of Dependable Cowboy

“I am.” He loved her teasing tone. Besides, the forecasters were calling for the first snowfall of the season this weekend. Maybe he’d take her snowmobiling or skiing. Kara had never been out to his place in the woods. He bet she’d like it.

“How long has it been since you’ve seen snow?”

“Years. Since I left for California.”

“How about Kara?”

“She’s never seen it. Not in person.”

“Well,” he nuzzled her nose with his as he spoke. He could already picture it. Making snow ice cream. Having snowball fights. Building her first ever snowman. And he’d be there for it, helping her. Making memories. “Then, I think it’s high time we remedy that oversight, and it just so happens that I have some time open on my schedule then, too.”

“We could get together,” she offered. “The three of us. If you’d like.”

“Oh, I’d like.” He was already shrinking the distance between her face and his. But then, he sobered somewhat. “If you think Kara would be amenable to us recommencing what we started.”

“She would be.”

“How do you know?”

“Because, silly…” She poked him in the chest. “She talks about you all the time. She misses you.”

“Aww,” he said, delighted.

“Almost as much as I’ve missed you.”

He adjusted his chin until their mouths were mere millimeters apart. He could feel the puff of air from her lips with her every word. “Is that right? You’ve missed me?”

“Why don’t I show you?”

With that, she pressed her lips to his in a manner that erased any doubts that he may have ever had about her feelings for him. And with this soft reconnection, everything righted itself in his world.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Although their kisshad reignited the flaming embers of what they’d shared that summer, she and Aaron took things slow. Almost as if courting her from days past, Aaron took Joy out on dates that had her back at her apartment no later than eleven at night. Oftentimes, they choose to go out with Kara in tow, and their couple adventures became family-centric ones.

One example happened when they had Thanksgiving at his parents’ abode in Billings. Joy had felt amazed to discover that they lived in a lovely townhome built around a manmade pond frequented by ducks and geese. The backdrop was the Beartooth Mountains in the distance along with the cloudless dome of never-ending blue sky.

“Aaron, this is so beautiful,” Joy told him, lacing her fingers with his as they stood outside on the veranda.

The atmosphere was frigid, but with no wind and the sun out, being outside wasn’t a hardship. At least, not for long. She’d been reacclimating to the much colder winter temperatures she’d been raised in, but Kara hadn’t been as lucky.

In fact, as she stood at Joy’s other side, her teeth chattered. And that was despite her wearing what essentially amounted to a parka.

“Go on back inside, Kara,” Joy instructed her, shaking her head. “Your lips are blue.”

“I’m okay,” the little girl swore to her, but her maternal instincts wouldn’t allow it. Maybe it’d be different if she went sledding or did something more active, but simply standing around in the cold had Kara turning into an icicle in no time at all.

“I bet my mom would like some help with the cranberry sauce,” Aaron hinted.

“You mean getting it out of the can?” she asked him, and Joy blushed. She’d never been one of those traditional moms who created this gorgeous homemade spread during the holidays. She did good to buy an actual turkey breast and not burn it in the oven. Everything else came out of a box or a can.

But Aaron surprised her.

“Sure do. Why don’t you ask her if you can help? I’m sure she’d appreciate it.”

That left her daughter to brave going into a kitchen with an older lady she didn’t know, and although his mom seemed like the nicest person on the face of the Earth, followed closely by his dad, Joy expected Kara to balk. She didn’t, though.

“Okay.”

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