Page 33 of Cowboy SEAL Christmas

She stood there, staring at him too hard and too long, to the point he felt a little…lost in it all. Blue eyes and a mouth he desperately wanted to taste.

You do not want the shrink.

Except, he did. Hedidwant this woman, no matter what she was. The only way he was going to do thesanething was to admit it to himself. Pretending it wasn’t there wasn’t going to eradicate that want. He had to face it. Head-on.

Just not his…head. On anything.

“Maybe I don’t know the answer to your question,” she said quietly, damn near solemnly, those blue eyes of hers staring up at him as if he’d have any clue what to do with that.

They stood like that, in the cold that felt somehow like heat, eyes seemingly incapable of looking away.

Finally, she cleared her throat and gestured toward the truck. “We should head out.”

“Yup.” Yup. Head out of crazy town. ASAP.

* * *

Monica sat in the passenger side of the ranch truck trying not to relive the horror of sayingMaybe I don’t know the answer to your question.

What on God’s green earth had she been thinking? And there was no alcohol to blame for that gigantic lapse in judgment.

There might be some teeny, tiny, idiotic, worthy-of-scrutiny part of her thatdidregret turning down Gabe’s “offer.” She might have dreamed of his voice, low and somehow seductive evendrunk, which wasn’t possible.

She was hard up and losing her mind. Even camels needed water atsomepoint, and boy, was she a sex camel. Gabe was the first offer of water she’d had in a long time. Didn’t mean the water was safe to drink.

Right.Right.

“So, where to first?” Gabe asked.

Monica rattled off her list as Gabe navigated what little traffic there was in Bozeman. It was the closest town with a box store, and while she’d ordered most of Colin’s gifts off the internet to be shipped and delivered while he was at her parents, she still needed a few odds and ends for stockings and the like.

She grabbed a cart as they entered and figured Gabe would go off on his own, but he merely followed her.

“Are you done with your Christmas shopping?” she asked, hoping he’d take the hint and vamoose.

“Gift cards aren’t complicated.”

She frowned at him as she wheeled her way to the video game aisle. “You did not get your family gift cards.”

“I didn’t get my family anything. I got my Revival family gift cards. Well, I got Becca a llama bottle opener and a gift card. Yours is to the liquor store. Colin’s is to that video game shop in Merriton. Merry Christmas.”

She opened her mouth. He’d gotten her and Colin gifts? She hadn’t…considered that. Of course, she’d planned gifts for everyone at Revival, but it hadn’t occurred to her they’d buy anything for Colin, or anything that might be a personally tailored sort of gift rather than just a rote thing you gave coworkers.

“What do you get from your family?” he asked, squinting at some display as if trying to figure out the trial video game, while Monica considered a scarf with Colin’s favorite video game villain on it.

“My mom will get me clothes. Maybe winter gear, since I’m always complaining about the cold. I shouldn’t say ‘my mom.’ It’ll be from both my parents.”

“And Colin?”

“Oh.” She pretended to study the price tag. “Well, depends.”

“On?”

“If they made something in school and he remembers to bring it home.” Which she shouldn’t have to defend. He was ten, and what would be the point of buying something for herself and having him give it to her? She glared at Gabe where he was still fiddling with the game system. “We’re not big on gifts,” she said imperiously.

“But gift cards are a travesty, huh?”

“He’s ten.” She threw the scarf in the cart. “Now, I need to get my parents books.”

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