Christmastime Cowboy

“Not a great morning?”

She bit down on her thumb, then jerked it out of her mouth, not wanting to turn and confirm what she already knew. But she had to.

She turned slowly, curling her lip upward into what she hoped resembled a smile. “Liam. I thought we were meeting down the street.”

“We are,” he said. He smiled. “I just had the same idea you did, apparently.”

Today, he was dressed in a button-up shirt that was open at the collar and a pair of dark-wash jeans and a belt. His shoes were...nice. Very nice.

“You look like...well, like you’re headed to a business meeting.” She wanted to bite her tongue off for that. Because of course he was headed to a business meeting. They were having a business meeting. And, she too was dressed up. It was just that yesterday he had not been so dressed up. Which meant he was dressing up for Gage, but didn’t see the point in dressing up for her.

That was fine with her. She didn’t want him to dress up for her. She didn’t want him to do anything for her except maybe jump into the sea and float way the hell out of town.

She, of course, had simply dressed up because it was what she did. Not because of him. Never because of him.

“I could say the same about you,” he said, deadpan. “I’m just going to order a coffee. We can walk over to the building together.”

She wanted to tell him that wasn’t necessary. Actually, she wanted to hit and spit and act like she was choking so that he could fully understand her displeasure. But she wasn’t going to do that, because she was mature.

So there.

“Great,” she said, adding a sugar packet to her coffee and stirring it absently while Liam walked over to the counter. He placed his large hands flat on the surface, leaning in slightly, making rather intense eye contact with the girl behind the register as he proceeded to order.

Sabrina felt something curl in her stomach, and she continued to stir her coffee absently, tearing open another sugar packet and dumping it in without thinking.

The girl fluttered, her cheeks turning a particular shade of pink as she tucked a wayward strand of dark hair behind her ear.

Sabrina blinked, her upper lip curling without permission as she grabbed another sugar packet. She was stirring when she realized what she had done and sighed. It was too late, and now her coffee was two packets of sugar too sweet, and she was standing there acting like an idiot watching Liam flirt with a girl who had to be twenty-two.

At thirty, Sabrina did not find that amusing.

Of course, she shouldn’t care, because she shouldn’t care about anything that Liam Donnelly did. She should be more than happy to watch him flirt with another woman. He could crush somebody else’s self-esteem underneath his extremely nice shoe sole. He was not going to crush hers. Not ever again.

She deserved better than that.

She deserved...

Well, she deserved to get this tasting room up and running for her sister-in-law before Christmas. She deserved to have a lovely, cozy place to work in town where she could extol the virtues of Grassroots Wine and interact with customers, which was what she really liked to do.

Of course, that would mean not hanging out with her friend and fellow winery employee, Olivia, as much, because Olivia lived in Gold Valley and would definitely not be working the Copper Ridge tasting room. But they could still get together after work sometimes.

Her other friend, Clara, had quit working at Grassroots shortly after she had gotten engaged to her boyfriend, Alex. Which had been shortly after the bison had arrived at their ranch, and they had gotten busy with their new venture.

She was happy for her. She really was. But it meant she didn’t see her as often. But then, considering she was now the only single friend in that group, maybe it wasn’t so bad.

Olivia was perennially dating Bennett Dodge her boyfriend of several years, whom Olivia seemed convinced was about to propose at any moment.

Definitely for Christmas, she had said.

Privately, Sabrina was afraid that Bennett had no plans to propose anytime soon. But since Sabrina was an abject failure at relationships she was never even tempted to voice that concern.

Though a woman standing there with a stomach that had gone acidic while watching a man who had never been into her flirting with somebody else had no call giving commentary to anyone.

Liam took his coffee from the register girl’s hands and their fingertips brushed, and Sabrina couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. She smoothed out her expression as Liam made his way over to the cream and sugar. He dumped one packet of sugar in his cup, stirred it slightly, then popped the lid back on. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

They walked out the front door and back onto the wet, frigid street. In a couple of weeks, it would be decorated for Christmas, and there would at least be some glittering lights to pierce the eternal fall gray that had descended upon the coast. Right now, it was just cold and wet. Sabrina lifted her shoulders to her ears, trying to brace herself from the chill, and not at all trying to fortify herself against Liam’s presence.

“You should be careful,” she said, unable to keep the words back.

“With...what? I’m not running with scissors, I’m walking. With coffee.”

“It’s hot coffee. I burned myself when I opened the lid.”

“Sorry about the burn. But I think I can handle walking and drinking. Maybe you were just distracted.”

“Me? Hardly. More like you were the distracted one. That girl was making a fool of herself over you,” she said, keeping her eyes determinedly fixed straight ahead on Main Street. Most of the shops weren’t open yet, and wouldn’t be for a couple of hours. Right now, only Pie in the Sky bakery was also up and running. The other shops, full of artisan gifts, vintage clothing and specialty foods, wouldn’t open until closer to ten, when the tourists were up and around.

“I didn’t notice,” he said.

That made her want to take the lid off her overly sweet coffee and splash it in his face. Because of course he didn’t notice. That was his MO. Make a young girl fall in love with him and then act like he hadn’t realized. Act like it was shocking and horrifying when she propositioned him.

“Right,” she said stiffly.

“Sabrina,” he said. “Are you going to spend our entire working relationship acting like you want to cut me open and feast on my liver?”

“Don’t be an idiot, Liam. I don’t like liver.”

“Are you going to spend our entire working relationship—”

Sabrina stopped walking and turned to face him. “If you lecture me on my behavior, Liam Donnelly, I really will kill you. I have no problem working with you in a professional capacity, because I am a professional. But the fact is, you don’t know me. You knew me thirteen years ago. And even then, you didn’t know me that well. So, you have no idea whether how I’m behaving is just the way I behave, or if it has something to do with you. Because you don’t know me. Remember that before you lecture me again.”

* * *

THE THING WAS, he did know her. At least, he had back then. He wasn’t going to say that though. But the fact of the matter was, there was a point in time when he had known Sabrina better than just about anyone. Because they had talked. At first, because she had followed him around with an obvious crush, but then gradually because he had come to enjoy her company.

That had been the problem with Sabrina from the beginning.

It was part of the problem with her now. Because, no matter that he should feel nothing for her, she was far too beautiful for her own good, for his own good. Just like always.

And when she’d kissed him...

Well, when she’d kissed him he’d felt like the sun had come out from behind the clouds for the first time. Something about that kiss had made him feel deep, Far more raw, far more real, than he was prepared for.

He was older now, and he doubted she could conjure up that stunning response in him again if she tried. He was also a little more jaded when it came to arousal, and still, she got to him.

Even though she was vibrating with irritability, her hands shoved deep into her coat pockets, her posture rigid, as if she was doing an impersonation of a very indignant plank of wood, he still thought she was beautiful.