A Cowboy's Christmas Wedding

“Wait!” He heard her take a few steps. “Where’s the bathroom?”

“Out the door, to the right.”

He couldn’t get away fast enough.

“But I thought we could go over a few things. You know, for the wedding.”

He should have let her stay in one of the guest bedrooms. He shouldn’t have allowed her up here. And he definitely should have ignored his instincts to keep her far away.

“Can’t,” he shot over his shoulder. Keep walking. “Things to do.”

“Cabe.”

Ignore her. Don’t look back. There’s no need to pretend you like the woman. She’s not a guest.

But years of playing the polite host proved impossible to ignore. He paused near the top step, slowly turned to face her despite the inner warnings to do the exact opposite. The sight of her standing there, sunlight framing her silhouette, blond hair set aglow—it did things to his insides.

So much like Kimberly.

Saedra was taller, of course, but everything else seemed the same, from the length of her hair to the shape of her body, even down to what she wore: the stone-washed jeans and formfitting long-sleeved top. He could just picture Kim standing there, a smile on her face as she chastised him for interrupting her while she’d been in the midst of writing. Usually those interruptions led to something else, something that would quickly change her teasing grin into sighs of pleasure....

“I just want to say thanks again for inviting me to stay in your home.” She rubbed her hands together, as if nervous. “I know you and I don’t exactly see eye-to-eye, but I promise to make this as painless as possible.”

It wasn’t her fault he’d never gotten over the death of his wife. Not her fault at all.

Run.

He turned away before he could say something he might regret because although he might not be interested in women, his body didn’t seem to know it. And that presented one tiny little problem.

He was attracted to her.

“I’ll see you at dinner,” she called out after him.

Not if he could help it.

Chapter Two

“This is going to be fun.”

Saedra glanced at the fourteen-year-old girl who sat across from her. Cabe’s daughter, as different from Cabe in personality as sunlight was from darkness, resembled her father with the same brown hair and blue eyes.

“I sure hope so,” Saedra said, eyeing the clock. Two hours until dinnertime. Maybe she’d get lucky and he wouldn’t put in an appearance. “But I’m starting to wonder if I bit off more than I can chew.”

They were in the kitchen, a spacious room that overlooked the front pasture thanks to an octagon window where a bar-height kitchen table sat. Not for the first time Seadra found herself wondering how Cabe could have such a delightful daughter and be such a stink-butt himself.

“What do you need help with?” Rana jiggled in her chair, her brown braids falling over the front of her shoulders. She didn’t wear her cowboy hat, but she’d been wearing one when she’d gotten off the bus at the end of the driveway an hour or so ago. Saedra had watched her walk up the long road from where she and Ramses had settled on one of the pillow cushions next to the window. She’d been writing her to-do list for the wedding, but she liked the young girl. A friendly face. She needed that.

“Everything.” Saedra played with the notepad she’d used. Scrawled in her loopy handwriting was a list a mile long, or so it seemed. She sighed. “I guess the first thing to do is decide where we should have it.”

“Here.”

Saedra tried not to laugh. “Not possible, kiddo. Half the rodeo world will be attending, and you don’t have the room. You should have seen everyone at the finals—they can’t wait to watch Trent get hitched. Frankly, there’s no need to send out invitations because everyone who’s anyone is already planning to attend.”

The girl tapped her fingers on the side of her cheek, sunlight from the nearby windows making her blue eyes appear huge. “We can rent a tent.”

“What if it snows?”

“Then it’ll be a white wedding.”

Oh, if only it were that simple.

“The weight of the snow will collapse the tent.”

“Then we can move the wedding into the horse barn.”

“It’s not big enough.”

“Then I think we’re hosed.”

Hosed? She almost laughed. She hadn’t heard that term in ages. “I think we are, indeed, hosed.”

“No, really, Saedra. We’re in trouble. There’s no place in town where you can have a wedding on such short notice. It’ll be Christmas week. The churches will all be having events. So will any of the other usual places. And we don’t have a big hotel with a big wedding hall. It’s going to have to be here. Plus, I think Alana wants it that way, however we manage to do it.”

The kid had a point.

Saedra wrinkled her nose. “Okay, fine. I’ll call Alana up and ask her for her thoughts.” She made a note in the margin of her list. “What about flowers? Any florists in town?”

“Actually, two.”

Woo-hoo. Such a variety.

“I can do the wedding cake myself if I have to, although I prefer not to,” Saedra muttered. “But I’m a little stuck on the menu. I would offer to barbecue, but once again, the weather—”

“You need to talk to my dad about cooking. He’s really awesome in the kitchen. He had to learn after my mom died.”

The sadness that flitted across the girl’s face was like a wisp of fog, gone before it could fully form, but still there. Saedra’s throat sprouted a lump. Poor thing. She should really cut Cabe some slack. He’d been through a lot.

“Is there a phone book I can use?”

Rana stared at her as if she was speaking a foreign language. “Phone book?”

“Yeah. You know. The yellow book with newspaper pages with numbers on them.” She sent the girl a teasing smile.

“No, but there’s Google.”

“Do you have internet?”

“Of course.” Rana gave her a look that clearly said the Jensens weren’t complete rednecks. “But I think you should go into town with my dad. You know, see what you can find. Maybe one of the Lions Club halls would work if it’s not being used.”