Page 11 of Her Cowboy Prince Charming

“Oh. Good point.”

The little cabin came into view, and he marched right in and grabbed the hatchet from the front room. And when he came out, she was standing about twenty-five feet from the entry, her arms wrapped around herself, her little nose cherry red. She was just so damned cute. And that was the problem. He’d thought that way back when, and he thought it now. And he was too old for her. Too jaded for her. Too everything for her.

But you had her now.

True. But he hadn’t known it.

Like that makes it better. It makes you a bigger ass, actually.

His self-awareness could take a hike as far as he was concerned.

“You look like you’re afraid I’m going to bite you.”

She laughed. It was a strange and almost frantic sound. “To be honest,” she said, “I’m actually slightly more afraid that I’ll bite you.”

“Don’t be so honest, Jessie.”

Her words caused a kick of lust to hit him in the stomach.

“Why not? You’ve seen me naked. What’s the point of lying?”

“For sanity,” he returned.

They continued walking through the snow, with Jessie shambling behind him, taking two steps to keep up to his one.

And there he saw it. A big, glorious pine tree. Exactly the kind that his mother would’ve loved. And that mattered. It just did. Because he wasn’t in his own place for Christmas.

“I like this one,” he said.

She stood back, wrinkling her cherry-red nose. “I mean... It’s okay.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’m not a huge fan of Christmas.”

“The girl who was at the masquerade ball last night is not a huge fan of Christmas.”

“No.”

“So why throw a big Christmas for Dylan?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s the thing we do. We perform for each other.”

“Why?”

“Because what else is there to do? We care about each other. And so sometimes that means going through the motions even when it’s not easy.”

“What, just in case one of you likes Christmas?”

“I dunno. But what I do know is that my brother has been deployed through two Christmases. And I think that he should have something special for when he gets home.”

“That’s awfully nice of you.”

“Well. We are all each other has.”

He related to that a little better than he would like to. Except for him... It had been him and his mom.

“Yeah.”

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