Page 15 of The Christmas Cowboy

“Letty bought me a couple of books. I’ve been afraid to look at them.”

“Why?”

“Makes it too real.”

He laughed. “Didn’t the wedding do that?”

*

She remembered thinkingthe wedding had seemed surreal. “Not really. I’ve been trying to ignore everything. Throwing up daily makes that hard, though.” Crap. She wasn’t about to explain the little fantasy she’d had going that they’d married because they loved each other.

He patted her hand, then left it there. “Try not to worry. We can read the books together.”

Slowly, she turned over her hand and linked her fingers with his. “Thank you. For…everything.”

He smiled at her and squeezed her hand before letting it go. “Eat your dinner.”

“What are you reading?” she asked Liam between bites.

“One of Cici’s thrillers. Logan gave it to me.”

Cici again. She knew she had no reason to be jealous of Cici. Liam swore he had no problem with Cici marrying Logan. But she sure came up a lot in conversation.

After she ate and took her plate to the kitchen she said, “There’s no TV.”

“No, it’s kind of bare bones in that department. Do you want me to make a fire? It’s getting chilly.”

“That would be nice.” She watched him lay the fire with the logs sitting beside the fireplace. After he finished, he sat beside her.

“What should we do now?” she asked.

“Are you still tired? If you want to go to bed that’s fine.”

“There’s only one bed,” she blurted.

“I noticed that,” he said with a smile. “Do you want me to sleep on the couch? I can if you want.”

“No, that’s silly. We’re married.” Stupidly, she hadn’t thought this through. There was nothing in the world she wanted as much as to make love with Liam. But…not like this. It wouldn’t be ‘making love’ or even anything approaching that. Oh, God, what had she done?

“We don’t have to have sex.”

Oh, great. Maybe he didn’t want to. “I didn’t say I didn’t want to have sex.”

“No, but you’ve been looking at me kinda like you expect me to pounce on you any minute.”

“I don’t think that.” No, she was more worried that he didn’t want to have sex with her and never would. Or he’d do it because that’s what he was supposed to do.Hell, you dummy. He’s a guy. Sex isn’t that big of a deal to him.

“How about we take it easy? And slow. I think we should get to know each other better because we don’t. Not really.”

He had a point. Maybe if they knew each other better, being together wouldn’t be so awkward. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

“Are you leaving Riley in the lurch by coming to live with me? Do you need to commute back and forth?”

He was so thoughtful. But then, Riley was his best friend. “Riley has things handled. We talked about it last week. He’s got a great ranch manager and several full-time hands. Even though I’ve always been involved with the horses and the breeding operation, Riley has always had the final word. And it’s not like I won’t ever give him my opinion again.” Although she wasn’t sure how much her brother valued her input. He’d never said. Sure, she knew he took her advice sometimes, but only when it coincided with his own opinion.

“That’s good. I can really use the help, especially from someone with your experience.”

“What about your mom?”

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