Page 2 of Protective Cowboy

Suck it up, buttercup, she told herself sternly. This is the life you chose, isn't it?

Then she wondered, not for the first time, Would Matt have treated me like this?

In their senior year of high school, she and Matt Parker had talked about getting married someday, after he graduated from the police academy and she got her degree in Business and Marketing.

But that was before she met Phillip, the charming older man who’d swept her off her feet as a college freshman and proposed to her in her senior year. She’d been so infatuated back then. He’d made her feel like the most beautiful and precious woman on earth.

But that was then.

∞∞∞

An hour later, the rich aromas of roast chicken and baking biscuits filled the house. Autumn set three places at the table, then called her husband and son down to dinner.

When Phillip reappeared, he was still focused on his phone. He took his place at the small dining table without looking up.

Autumn tried to read his mood. To her relief, he seemed calmer.

“So, how was your day?” she ventured warily.

“Busy.” His curt reply signaled an end to the conversation. Then he glanced up from his phone. “Where’s Jayden? Still playing that damn video game in his room?”

He didn’t wait for her reply before bellowing, “JAYDEN! Get your ass down here! Right now!”

Autumn winced at the anger in her husband’s tone. But she knew better than to protest. Phillip had never laid a finger on her, but his words could bruise as badly as fists.

Jayden flew down the stairs from his room, then hesitated.

Her chest contracted at the assessing glance he gave his father before slipping into his seat. Her first-grader was learning the same caution she’d learned.

“What did I tell you about playing those stupid games?” Phillip grunted, still scrolling through his phone. “Fucking waste of time. Don’t you have homework or something useful to do?”

He’s in the first grade! He doesn’t have that much homework yet!

Autumn swallowed her protest with difficulty. From experience, she knew it wouldn’t help things. In fact, it would only make things worse. Phillip would explode if she dared to say anything to him in front of their son.

“Sorry, Daddy.” Autumn hated how her son tried to make himself smaller in his chair.

Autumn rose, carved the chicken, and served up the dinner before resuming her seat. They ate in silence, the unspoken tension hanging between them. Her gaze drifted to the dazzling tree; its joyous glow now muted.

She thought of Christmases at her parent’s house on the ranch, filled with laughter and warmth. A pang of longing caught in her throat.

What if I hadn’t dumped Matt back then? What if I’d returned to Snowberry Springs after college?

She tried to shove down the traitorous thoughts, but they kept coming up.

“I’m leaving on a business trip first thing tomorrow morning,” Phillip announced, looking up from his phone at last.

“You have to work on a weekend?” Autumn asked.

Phillip shrugged. “Boss wants me to attend some holiday shindig on the client's dime. They're a big ZenithMed customer. I was supposed to wine and dine them last week, but we were in Seattle.” His mouth twisted. "This'll have to do."

Autumn nodded, and understood that this was somehow all her fault, because Winnie was her sister, and Autumn had wanted to attend her wedding.

Phillip worked as the VP of Sales for a major pharmaceutical firm based in New Jersey. He liked to boast about how successful he was at closing big deals, and how much the company’s top executives depended on him to bring in new business. Consequentially, he traveled almost constantly.

In the beginning, she had wondered why Phillip insisted on living so frugally if he was doing so well.

When she’d asked him about that a couple of years ago, Phillip had predictably reacted angrily at being questioned.

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