Page 17 of Cowboy's Christmas Girlfriend

“Is that all?” she said.

“No.” Beth crossed her arms, the picture of indignation. “We want to do a gingerbread barn, like we saw on TV. A barn, not a house, with horses and cows.”

“I think we can manage that,” said Suzanna. She knew her way around gingerbread—gingerbread men, at least, with sweet peppermint eyes. A gingerbread horse couldn’t be too different...could it? She took each twin by the hand and led them out the door.

“Just one thing,” she said, as they headed downstairs. “Unfair labor practices? Where’d you hear that?”

“On the news,” said Ann.

“Some people were protesting.” Beth glanced up, eyes wide. “But it didn’t work.”

“Yours will, I promise.” Suzanna squeezed her hand. “Now, are you ready to build your dream barn?”

“Yeah!” The twins raced ahead, their good spirits restored. Suzanna caught Will coming back from his study.

“You might want to go easy,” she said. “I might or might not have walked in on the twins forming a union.”

“A union?”

“A united front against you and your taskmaster ways.” She elbowed him in the side. “They just want to have fun, and build a gingerbread barn. And not have you scold them if their corners aren’t straight.”

“They said that?” Will slumped where he stood. “Well, if that’s what they want...okay. Let’s do this.” He strode forth, shoulders squared. Suzanna followed with some trepidation, but Will was as good as his word. He set the girls to work crafting gingerbread animals that were anything but uniform—three-legged horses and aardvark-nosed cows—while he built the barn, complete with spun sugar hay bales. He did it all without a word of protest, and Suzanna smiled as she worked the frosting funnel. The twins were having fun—the loud, giggly kind that shook the room to the rafters. It filled Suzanna with a warmth that only got richer every time Will’s low chuckle joined the chorus.

“That one’s upside-down,” said Will.

“What, the horseshoe?”

Beth and Ann groaned in unison. “Dad says if they point down all your luck will run out.”

“Oh—can’t have that, then.” Suzanna scraped off her horseshoe and painted it luck-side up, just in time for the gong to sound for judging to begin.

“Is that a horse or a cow?” Will peered at a fat little creature stretched out in the hay.

“That’s Lucky,” said Ann. “That’s his collar right there.”

Will pressed his lips together, but didn’t make a peep. The judges made their rounds slowly, examining every entry. They retired to the pantry to debate the results, but returned in record time, bubbling with excitement.

“The winner of this year’s gingerbread house bake-off...” Mom let the silence hang, tension taut in the air. “Well, they all look delicious, but one tasty entry takes the cake for creativity: Will Carson’s barn, and don’t those cows just look scrumptious?” She plucked a horse from the barnyard and bit off its head. The twins burst out laughing and Will gave a whoop. Applause filled the air, and a few groans from the losers, then Will had his phone out and was corralling the twins.

“Everyone in for a selfie—and one, two, three, cheese!”

Suzanna leaned in, beaming, and cheesed with the rest, and if this wasn’t perfection, she didn’t much care what was.

7

Will paused on the landing, bleary-eyed and confused. He’d got up, as always, before dawn’s first light, before the cook or the housekeeper or even the twins—yet a faint golden glow spilled out from the kitchen. He hitched up his pants and continued downstairs.

“Hello? Someone down here?”

“Huh? Oh, just me...”

“Suzanna?” Will couldn’t believe it. She’d adjusted to ranch life better than he’d expected, but he’d yet to see her up before six. And it wasn’t till seven she came fully online. That first hour pre-coffee, she was soft, fuzzy-edged. Easy to tease and flummox, always a good time. But this morning, she sat hunched in the glow of her laptop, breakfast forgotten, coffee cooling at her elbow. Will peered over her shoulder, perplexed.

“What are you doing? Have you been up all night?”

“Not all night, no. My phone woke me at threeish, and I couldn’t get back to sleep.” She turned her laptop his way, open to Facebook. “We’ve gone kind of viral,” she said. “My editor, my publisher, they’re over the moon. They want to send a TV crew to—”

“Whoa. Is that me?” Will scrolled down and yep, that was him, bending to boost Suzanna over a stile. She’d turned to look back at him, red-cheeked with cold. He was smiling up at her, apparently enthralled. “Love the ranch boyfriend,” he read, scrolling through the comments. “He’s even hotter than the guy in the book. The guy in the book?”

---