Her Mistletoe Cowboy (15 page)

“I’m sure you do.”

She set the soup on the floor and rubbed at her arms. “I would love it to be summer right now.”

He reached over and touched her forehead. A frown creased his brow. He stood, draped a blanket over her shoulders and moved the chair away from the fire.

“Plan A was a warm shower. We’ll try Plan B.”

“Plan B?”

She turned to watch as Rhett laid a second blanket on the floorboards. The movement dislodged the towel wrapped around her hair and it slid into her lap.

“Yes. Stand and I’ll show you.”

She did as he asked and hung the damp towel over the back of the chair. He sat on the blanket and patted the area in front of him. “Come on.”

She sat in front of him. He tucked the blanket she wore more firmly around her and drew her back into his arms. She leaned against him and he rested his chin on her hair.

Silence settled around them only broken by the crackle of the fire.

“Rhett …”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

She laughed softly. “There better not be a next time. One ice-bath in a lifetime is enough.”

His lips touched her hair and after a beat he spoke. “I wondered why you always smell like vanilla. It’s your shampoo.”

She nodded. The warmth and contentment seeping through her bones had little to do with the fire in front of her.

Rhett’s mouth found the tender skin at her temple. She closed her eyes and tilted her head. His kiss on her eyelid was whisper soft.

“Ivy?” His voice was little more than a breath in her ear but she had no trouble understanding what he asked.

Without hesitation, she turned in his arms and laid her palm against the dimple in his lean cheek. She leaned forward to smile against his mouth. “I’m still really cold. I think we need a Plan C.”

*

Ivy lay in
a cocoon of warmth. Her extreme cold now a distant memory. Rhett’s bare chest heated her back and his arms anchored her in his embrace. She couldn’t remember when he’d carried her into her bed. All she knew was she’d never been so thoroughly or so tenderly loved. And the realization moved her.

Emotions stirred and swelled and she battled to keep her feelings at bay. Rhett had more than warmed her. He’d taken her to heights she’d never thought existed and in the process had blown the lid off her iron control.

Her bottom lip trembled and she chewed the inside of her cheek.

She’d kept herself together for so long, surely the meltdown she’d been expecting could wait. She screwed her eyes closed as a fat tear slipped from beneath her lids. Apparently not.

The instant her tear fell on Rhett’s bare arm, he tensed.

“Ivy?”

The mattress dipped as Rhett pushed himself up onto his elbow to look at her. She kept her eyes closed and reached for the bed sheet to wipe away the tears wetting her cheeks.

His fingers brushed the hair away from her face.

“What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

She drew a shuddering sigh, opened her eyes and rolled onto her back.

He stared at her, his gaze a troubled blue.

“I’m fine. Really. These are happy tears.”

His thumb caught a tear as it slid over her jaw. The tanned skin of his throat rippled as he swallowed. “Ivy, you know I come from a family of all women. I’ve never ever seen happy tears.”

She touched his face. “I promise, these are. I’m just feeling a little … overwhelmed and emotional. I need to have a good cry and I’ll be fine.”

Shutters descended over Rhett’s eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Ivy. I should have known better. You’ve been through so much. I should never have taken advantage of you.” He smoothed the curls off her forehead and pressed a kiss to her skin that didn’t feel like a kiss of affection but one of farewell. “I promise … it won’t happen again.”

“No … Rhett … don’t go.” She sat, clutching the sheet to her chest. “Just give me a moment.”

But as he dressed, his face a set and implacable mask she knew she’d lost him.

She clamped her lips closed to silence her anguish. The emotional storm she’d been waiting for would soon blow itself out. And when her meltdown ended, this conversation would be continued.

‡

R
hett hammered a
nail into the loose clapboard and narrowly missed his thumb as an outside noise caused him to whip his head around. It had been only hours since he’d held Ivy in his arms, but it felt like a lifetime. He had to get himself together before his need to see her caused bodily harm.

He clenched his teeth and readied another nail. There had been no excuse for sleeping with Ivy after her creek fall, even if the sight of her lying still in the water had caused his heartbeat to falter. Just because he thought for a split second he’d lost the woman he loved was no excuse to break his vow to never make another poor choice. He needed to protect Ivy from hurt, not increase her suffering.

He stared unseeingly at the nail before him. And he had increased her suffering. It didn’t matter how many times she explained her tears were happy ones, the green depths of her hazel eyes told him she was deeply upset. He had no right deepening the wound she’d come to Marietta to heal. She missed her grandparents and her ex-fiancé’s call would have awakened all the hurt she’d left behind in the city. He now owed it to her to give her the space and time she said she needed when she arrived to regroup. He pounded the nail into the wood. Even if with every hour that passed away from her, he slowly died inside.

A noise again sounded outside the barn door. He stopped hammering before he turned to look. But instead of seeing Ivy, he saw a muddy silver pickup. He descended the ladder.

His sister walked into the barn wearing her customary jeans, boots and navy western coat. She greeted him with a smile. “Hey, little brother.” She examined the barn, half of which now had intact walls. “You have been busy.”

“Yep.” He gave her a hug. “I want to have as much of the barn repaired as possible before the bonfire in case the weather turns bad.”

“Well, make sure you also find time to sleep. You look like you’ve been awake all night delivering a calf and you don’t have cattle.”

“Thanks.” Over Peta’s shoulder he caught a flash of Ivy’s red coat. His stomach clenched. Peta must have caught something in his expression because she too turned to look out the barn door.

When she faced him, her eyes were soft. “We need to get the Christmas trees organized.”

His gaze slid past Peta to Ivy. She carried two containers. Instead of staying inside where she was warm, she was doing a baking run.

“Rhett?”

He again focused on his sister. “Christmas trees. Right.”

“Yes, we need four.”

“Four? Why so many, we normally get one.”

She counted on her fingers. “One for Bramble Lane and Kendall wants one for the bonfire. Then one for me for Bluebell Falls and one for … Ivy. I haven’t asked her yet but Kendall says you said she loves decorations so I’m thinking she will want one.” She turned and said over her shoulder. “I’ll ask her now.”

Rhett moved to the barn door as Ivy diverted her course toward Peta. Milly sniffed Peta’s boot while Rusty continued over to the barn and came to his side. Rhett rubbed behind the dog’s ears. “I hope you’re taking good care of her for me.”

The Australian Shepherd licked his hand.

Ivy and Peta made their way toward the barn. He jammed his hands in his jeans pocket and erased all emotion from his face.

Ivy stopped before him. “Rhett.”

“Ivy.”

He should look away but all he could do was stare. Her hazel eyes were more green than brown and the skin around them puffy from crying. But she was so beautiful it took his breath away.

Peta spoke into the silence. “Ivy would love a tree and will come with us to Carson’s Christmas Tree Farm.”

His gaze swung to his sister, whose face was all innocence. “Us?”

“Yes. I can’t fit four trees in my truck.”

He frowned. He’d make a bet if anyone could his stubborn sister would.

“Peta said I could ride with her and choose the trees so if you wanted to leave later you could meet us there and bring me home?”

He swallowed. His gut said he was a fool to agree. There was something about the steadiness of Ivy’s gaze and the tilt to her chin that suggested a discussion about what they’d earlier shared in each other’s arms was very much on the table. But his need to be near her, even if just to sit in a pickup cabin and have an awkward conversation, overrode his self-preservation.

He took his hands out of his jeans pockets. “Okay. I’ll get a few more boards on the barn done while you select the trees. Text me when you are good to go.”

*

But at Carson’s
Christmas Tree Farm, as Ivy slipped into the passenger seat, bringing with her the sweet scent of vanilla, Rhett knew he’d made a poor choice. From the corner of his eye he saw her slowly slide the temperamental seatbelt over her chest. His hands curled as they remembered the exact feel of the warm and soft perfection that lay beneath her thick woolen coat. He took a tight grip on the steering wheel.

It would be a long trip home. He clenched his jaw and glanced in the rear view mirror to check the two trees that lay in the back of the pickup. Peta had already left to deliver Kendall her tree. He started the engine, turned for home and searched for a neutral topic to keep their conversation on safe ground for as long as possible.

“Whatever you offered Tucker this afternoon he liked. After you left with Peta, I saw him hanging over the fence wanting more.”

“I know. Finally. I said I’d win him over and I did.”

“So, what was your secret weapon?”

Her smile widened. “Cookies.”

“You really won tough ol’ Tucker over with cookies?”

“Yes. But not with any cookies made from my grandmother’s recipe book but special horse ones made of oats, carrots and molasses.”

“So that’s what was in your second container.” He chuckled. “First my father and now Tucker. Is there anyone you can’t sway?”

The atmosphere in the truck cabin thickened.

“You.”

He ground his teeth. He’d practically opened the door to the conversation he’d been dreading.

“Ivy, don’t go there.”

“Why?”

“Because I should never have taken advantage of you and our friendship. You’re grieving and vulnerable and trusted me. By sleeping with you I’ve just added an extra complication to your life.”

“No. You haven’t.”

He glanced at her and raised his brows.

“Okay,” she said. “You have. Sleeping with you wasn’t exactly on my list of how to spend my time here but such a thing is a good complication.”

He didn’t answer. His being a ‘good complication’ was as contradictory as her describing her tears as ‘happy.’

She shifted in her seat to face him. “What happened between us wasn’t the reason I was … emotional this morning. I’ve bottled everything inside for so long, I had to let it all out. It’s just the timing of my meltdown wasn’t great.”

He didn’t reply, just rubbed at his chin.

“I’m all cried out now and all is good.”

He nodded without looking at her.

She briefly touched his thigh. “Rhett, why won’t you believe me when I say I’m fine and that you don’t have to worry about me being vulnerable?”