Page 2 of Cowboy SEAL Christmas

He pushed those thoughts away and jerked open the fridge, grabbing himself a beer. He’d down one first in the quiet of the kitchen, away from that odd flutter of panic he got whenever Becca and Alex discussed the wedding, or Jack and Rose discussed the baby who’d arrive in the spring.

Gabe popped the top of the beer and then drank deeply. He tried channeling that inner center of calm that had gotten him through war zones and physical rehabilitation.

“Can I have one?”

Gabe eyed the kid, who’d entered the kitchen soundlessly. Impressive, really, the way he’d learned to sneak around. Gabe had hit it off with Colin the moment he’d met him, and he enjoyed having someone around who was young and eager to experience things. Whenever the kid’s mother unclenched a bit, Gabe got to spend time with Colin at the ranch, and in the six months Colin had been here, Gabe knew the boy had grown to look up to him.

It felt good. Gabe might not trust the mother, but he had a soft spot for Colin. The boy was desperate for a place to belong and a little desperate to stir up trouble, and reminded Gabe so much of himself at that age it physically hurt sometimes.

He’d been a fatherless kid too, but Gabe’s mother hadn’t been like Monica. Which meant Gabe had to be careful where and how he stepped with the boy.

“And what do you suppose your mom would do to me if I gave you a beer?” Gabe asked casually.

Colin shrugged. “It could be a secret?”

Gabe merely raised an eyebrow, and the boy’s shoulders slumped. He might not care much for Monica’s profession, but she was a hell of a mom.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. She’d find out,” Colin groused.

Gabe reached into the cabinet where he knew Becca hid treats she didn’t want to be demolished by the rest of them. He found a Twinkie and tossed it at Colin. “Here’s a compromise.”

The boy grinned, immediately tearing open the wrapper. “Mom never buys these,” he said through a giant mouthful of junk food.

“And there’s a good reason I don’t,” Monica said primly right before she stepped into the kitchen.

“Busted,” Gabe muttered as Colin shoved the rest of the Twinkie into his mouth and looked up innocently at his mother. But Monica only stared at Gabe.

He refused to squirm, though he was sure that look was supposed to make him do just that. Instead, he grinned at her with as much careless charm as he could muster. “Did you want one?”

Monica smiled sweetly. “Sure,” she said, because she never did quite what Gabe expected her to do, and that irritated him as much as anything—as much as her being a good mom and pretty besides, which sometimes made him forget she was not to be trusted. Not a part of the group.Shrink.

Yeah, he never forgot for long. Monica Finley might not be your average snake in the grass, but she was still a snake.

* * *

Monica took the proffered Twinkie and delicately unwrapped the plastic from the moist, tasteless cake. She hated these things, but surprising the people around her was something of a favorite pastime these days, and she knew taking the crappy excuse for cake would shock both her son and the large man who stood imposingly in the kitchen with him.

Even if she didn’t know the basics of Gabe’s military background, his body, his posture, his assessing, quiet wayscreamedmilitary. She’d grown up with these men, married a man just like them, knew them.

Mostly.

Gabe was proving to be quite the enigma. It shouldn’t have haunted her like it did. Shouldn’t have mattered that there was one person on Revival Ranch she couldn’t figure out.

But she found, when he grinned at her with all that fake charm, no matter that sheknewit was fake, her stomach jittered in that old, silly schoolgirl way that could only ever spell trouble.

Monica Finley hadneverdone trouble, and she didn’t intend to start.

“I thought I’d help with drinks,” she said, trying to surreptitiously slide the rest of the Twinkie in the trash while Colin chewed the lump he’d shoved into his mouth. “I’ll grab the pops.” She skirted around Gabe, trying to ignore the fact she felt compelled to give him a wide berth, for her own peace of mind. She pulled the two cans from the fridge.

She turned to her son, focusing on him instead of Gabe, and held the cans out to Colin, who’d finally finished swallowing. “Take these into the living room and give them to Jack and Alex.”

“Why doIhave to?” Colin demanded in that way that was increasingly getting on her nerves. As though every time she asked him to do something it was an epic insult of the highest order. Heaven forbid he do anything she asked without a metric ton of attitude. Weren’t the teenage attitude years supposed to be a ways off yet?

“Why wouldn’t you want to help your mother and your friends?” Monica returned calmly, smiling sweetly at her precious baby who would someday grow out of this obnoxious prepubescent stage.Please, God.

Colin rolled his eyes, but he took the cans of pop and exited the kitchen. Which Monica realized belatedly was quite the mistake, because now she was left with Gabe. Alone. In a very small room where his body seemed to take up far too much air.

“You guys have been in Blue Valley for almost half a year. Are you ever going to trust himalonearound us?”

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