A Cowboy For Christmas (A Copper Mountain Christmas) (5 page)

“
Yes. Thanks for the heads up about Marilyn.”

He nodded at her.
“Want to have dinner one night?”

“
Like a date?”

“
Maybe.”

“
Maybe.”

She felt foolish staking out the parking lot at the Scott Christmas Tree lot but there was Marilyn with her two oldest kids, Josie who was thirteen and a barrel racer, and Jake who was eleven. The kids had her sister
’s deep auburn hair and but Joe’s stocky build. Josie and Jake hugged their mom and then went off with a group of kids their age.

Marilyn stood by her Jeep Cherokee looking over at Annie where she still sat in her car.
She turned away from her sister to button up the old jacket she’d found in a closet at the ranch house and put on her gloves.

Annie put the leash on Rumple and leaned down for a wet doggy kiss.
Then she opened her door and got out. Marilyn walked over to her.

“
I can’t believe my eyes,” she said not a welcoming note in her tone or body language. Her sister wore a black duster over a pair of faded blue jeans and a pair of mountain boots. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“
I moved back,” she said trying not to sound defensive. Why was it she always was acutely aware that Marilyn was her older sister? She always sounded like she was defending herself.

“
I guess you had no choice once Davis took everyone’s money,” Marilyn said sarcastically.

Her older sister had always been the pretty one with her big green eyes like Momma
’s and her thick reddish brown hair. Life hadn’t been unkind to her and she still looked pretty and young for her age. She was thirty-five and had four kids.

“
You’re right about that,” Annie said. “I… I’ve done my best to make up for everything.”

“
You can’t make it right with me,” Marilyn said. “Or with dad. It’s too late for that.”

“
I know that,” she said, then stop herself from saying any more. She wanted to defend herself, but really what could she say?

“
I was hoping we could get together for the holidays.

“
I can’t.”

“
Oh, why not. I’d like to see the kids. I think they sort of like me,” Annie said.

“
They do, but we’re going to Joe’s family for the holidays. We will be at the Christmas Stroll next week. You going to be there?”

“
I’ll be working in the diner,” Annie said.

Marilyn shook her head.
“Dad was right about you after all.”

“
He wasn’t right about me,” Annie said. Her father had said she was running away to nothing but Annie had always had her eye on where she’d wanted to be. “I didn’t fall on my face, I trusted the wrong man with my fortune. But I made a fortune. And I’m not running home with my tail between my legs. I’m back because when you lose everything it kind of makes you realize what’s important. And a fifteen-year-old grudge isn’t.”

Marilyn just looked at her for a long minute and Rumple tugged on his lead.
Moving forward to nudge her sister’s legs.

“
You’re right. I’m sorry. Let’s go grab some hot chocolate and chat,” Marilyn said, reaching down to pet Rumple.

“
Okay,” Annie said. She’d missed her sister more than she’d ever admit to Marilyn. Being two years older than Annie, Marilyn often thought she knew best and it still irritated Annie that most times her sister did.

“
The kids are here to meet up with friends and ride on that sleigh the Scotts have. Do you remember it from when we were young?”

“
I do. Carson and I kissed for the first time on the Halloween hay ride in it,” Annie admitted.

“
I never could figure out why you dated him. You knew you were leaving,” Marilyn said.

“
He was hard to say no to,” she admitted. “Even harder once he kissed me.”

Marilyn laughed and led the way to some pinewood picnic tables that were set up next to a small stand selling hot chocolate.
Annie recognized the banner over head as the Copper Mountain Chocolates owned by Sage.

“
I think Sage made some sort of deal with the devil because her hot chocolate tastes like sin.”

“
It does. I have to limit myself to only one a week or I’d be the size of Mrs. Claus before Christmas,” Marilyn said. “Why don’t you grab us a seat and I’ll get the drinks.”

Annie led Rumple to the tables and sat down waiting for her sister.
As she watched the crowds of familiar looking families she realized how much she missed this. The faces were all a little older and there were some new ones but these were her people. She’d lived in Manhattan for almost fifteen years and she’d never once been in a place that felt like this… like home.

The sun was shining over the valley today and a thin dusting of snow covered the ground and she sat there feeling like she
’d found something she hadn’t known was missing. Marilyn came back with the drinks in Styrofoam cups and sat down next to her.

“
Where are you staying?” Marilyn asked. “Did you get an apartment in town?”

“
No. I’m staying at our old ranch,” Annie said.

“
I wasn’t aware you got to keep it.”

“
Davis had put in my name and we used the money I’d made from selling my business to buy it so the FBI figured it was pretty much mine. They took everything else,” Annie said.

“
What do you mean?”

“
The authorities wouldn’t let me back into our apartment. I only had the clothes on my back and the cash in my wallet. I got to keep Rumple here and one bag of clothing I packed. It was a complete nightmare. Maybe you were right earlier when you said Dad knew I’d fail,” Annie said.

Marilyn put her arm around Annie
’s shoulders and hugged her close. “I’m sorry, sissy. I never wanted that for you and I’m pretty sure dad didn’t either. We were both just hurt you didn’t want to stay.”

She hugged her sister back and put her head on Marilyn
’s shoulder and realized how long it had been since they’d hugged each other. She had missed her older sister more than she wanted to admit to anyone, even herself. She soaked up the comfort her sister offered.

Saturdays in December were busy for Carson, especially the middle of the month as everyone was ready to get
their trees up. A storm threatened and a light snow fell, but the lot was festive and everyone wore a smile. Since the tree farm was on his parcel of the Scott property, he had all the families from the neighboring towns coming to get a fresh-cut tree or to pick up their potted ones. He enjoyed it since he got a chance to stay busy and to see so many people.

The tents they
’d set up for selling hot chocolate and cookies had been decorated by his sister-in-law Sienna. She and Alec were having a rough patch but she said that didn’t mean she wasn’t still a part of the family. He thought that maybe Annie could learn something from the way Sienna had stayed. Sage had sent Rose Linn out to run the hot cocoa booth and he’d hung a Copper Mountain Chocolates banner across her section of the tent. He’d ordered one that said Cookies for Rachel’s section.

The entire lot felt like Christmas and as he watched his son walking around with his little Santa hat on, he felt a sense of longevity.
He’d done the same thing when he’d been six. They were connected here to the land and to their ancestors.

Liz Anderson, who owned the acting school in town, was running around trying to drum up participants for her nativity play.
Evan had already auditioned and would be playing one of the three wise men. Something that the six-year-old took seriously. Just as seriously as his job passing out candy canes to everyone who got off the sleigh that his Uncle Lane was driving.

They used two big draft horses for the sleigh.
They’d painted it a few weeks ago, a nice bright red like the barn on the Scott property that they were all helping renovate.

“
Nice operation you’ve got here,” Annie said as she walked up to him. She wore a knitted hat on her head and an old shearling jacket over skintight jeans and those same cowboy boots she’d had on the other day. Her makeup was flawless and he couldn’t help noticing that she truly was a beautiful woman.

Her English
Bulldog looked funny with his tongue hanging out and his little legs moving quickly to keep up with her. As soon as Annie stopped, the dog plopped down on the ground. The poor little thing looked as if the walk from the parking area to the tree area, a mere three hundred feet, had worn him out.

They
’d been friends since they first met back in elementary school, so he always just thought of her as Annie. But sometimes – like right now – he was surprised to remember that she was beautiful , especially when she was smiling. He thought that Montana was working its magic on her and hoped that he had a little to do with it.

“
It keeps me busy,” he said, bending down to pet her dog. “You never did tell me why you call him Rumple.”

“
It’s short for Rumpelstiltskin.”

“
Truly? The old guy who spun gold?” Carson asked looking up at her.

She nibbled on her lower lip, a habit of hers that was slowly driving him out of his mind.

“Yes. I got him as a gift from Davis right when he started making an insane amount of money.”

“
Well at least he gave you something,” Carson said. “How did the meeting with Marilyn go?”

“
It went okay. She was mad and I didn’t blame her for that. We’re going to meet next week for the Christmas Stroll,” she said.

“
Come for dinner tonight and tell me all about it,” he offered.

She hesitated for a moment and tipped her head to the side, studying him with those searching gray eyes.
“I… okay. What time?”

“
Six, we eat early. Evan has a strict seven-thirty bedtime.”

“
Where is he?” she asked.

“
Helping pass out candy canes with my brother Lane. Now that you’ve talked to Marilyn, what can I help you with?”

“
A tree,” she said. “I was going through my dad’s bills and found that he had a potted tree.”

“
He did. I guess it’s yours now. I’ve been keeping it up every year. Do you want to see it?”

“
I’d love to,” she said. “And then I need to arrange for it to be delivered to my house. How much is that?”

“
Nothing. It’s included in your yearly tree bill, which you have paid up for the next five years,” Carson said.

“
I do like to pay ahead if I can,” she said, which is why she’d been able to move back to Marietta. The house was paid off, with the utilities covered for a year. She wondered if she’d had a premonition not to trust that Davis, that the prosperity wouldn’t last.