Her Christmas Cowboy Read online

  “Let’s sit in a booth,” he suggested. “Put your mug on the tray, and would you please grab the coffee pot?”

  “Sure,” she smiled. “That looks fabulous.”

  Moments later they were seated opposite each other enjoying the french toast smothered in maple syrup, and April was rolling her eyes.

  “This is amazing,” she exclaimed. “Where did you learn to cook like this?”

  “Mabel,” he smiled. “She was the cook when I bought this place and she stayed on. I watched her constantly, still do. I could barely boil an egg when I started out, now I can call myself handy around a kitchen.”

  “I’d like to thank Mabel,” she grinned. “You’ll make some woman very happy one of these days.”

  “I like to think so,” he said softly.

  An unexpected silence fell between them, and sitting back and taking a long swallow of his coffee he stared across the table at her.

  “You were real scared last night. Are you worried about makin’ arrangements to get your car?”

  He watched her carefully. She dropped her eyes, took another mouthful of her breakfast, then laid her fork on the plate.

  “It’s not my car,” she said solemnly. “Connor, I don’t want you caught up in my problems.”

  “Whatever your problems, I’m happy to get caught up in them,” he replied. “I’d like to help if I can.”

  “But, why? You don’t even know me. I’m a complete stranger.”

  It was a good question. How could he tell her she’d been haunting his every waking hour since she’d left his bar a month before?

  “Did you do something criminal, besides borrow a car, I mean?”

  “No, absolutely not,” she frowned, “and I borrowed it because, uh, I felt I had no choice.”

  “I like to think I’m pretty good at sizin’ people up,” he smiled, “and I don’t think you’re some kinda axe murderer. I also think you’re a stranger around here and could use a friend. Would that be right?”

  “Definitely,” she nodded.

  “So, if there’s a way I can help you, even if it’s just givin’ you a safe place to hang out for a bit, then I’m happy to do it.”

  She let out a heavy sigh as she stared at him, then looked around the room, her eyes falling on the bar. He saw her study it, then seeming to make a decision she turned back and faced him.

  “I think I want to tell you something,” she began. “No, I definitely want to tell you something.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “You probably don’t remember me, but about a month ago I stopped in here and had a beer.”

  “Sure, you sat at the bar,” he nodded, amazed that she thought he wouldn’t recall those incredible five minutes.

  “You do remember,” she smiled, the heavy crease across her brow fading away. “It was super busy, I wasn’t sure you would. You were so warm and so friendly.”

  “It wasn’t hard,” he grinned. “Is that what you wanted to tell me?”

  “No, it’s…the truth is, when I jumped in that car and took off last night I was on my way here. I had this weird feeling that even though it was super late, you’d open your door for me. I was going to park the car out of sight off the road somewhere so it wouldn’t be seen in your parking lot.”

  “You were?” he mumbled, astonished at her admission. “Damn.”

  “Sorry. I know that was assuming way too much.”

  “No, no,” he said hastily.

  “The thing is, a month ago, when I was sitting at the bar, I, uh, I thought you were a special guy, and you’ve been on my mind.“

  Connor could hardly believe what he was hearing. His sudden and deep attraction to her that night had been mutual.

  “I thought you’re pretty special yourself, April,” he said quietly. “I still do.”

  “You do?”

  “Hell, yeah I do. Why do you sound so surprised?”

  “I,uh, I don’t know. I didn’t think you’d be single, I mean, you are, right? It seems like you are.”

  “Yeah, I’m single, but again, why does that surprise you?”

  “Because you’re so…nice, I mean, really nice, and good-looking, and all that stuff,” she replied, feeling incredibly awkward.

  Taking a breath, Connor gathered his thoughts as he downed the last of his coffee.

  “You’ve been real straight with me, so now it’s my turn,” he said warmly. “I’ve been thinkin’ about you ever since I turned around and found you’d left my bar. I tried to find out who you were, but no-one had any idea.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, April, really.”

  She looked shocked, and then she broke into a very large smile.

  “I think I just got my Christmas present.”

  “Me too,” he said smiling back at her. “Why didn’t you come back in?”

  “I wanted to, you have no idea how much I wanted to,” she said earnestly.

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “It was absolutely impossible,” she said wearily, the heavy frown returning.

  “April,” Connor said leaning across the table, “I have a Christmas dinner this afternoon with some real good friends. WIll you join me?”

  “I’d love it,” she beamed, then quickly added, “are you sure I wouldn’t be intruding?”

  “One-thousand-percent sure,” he said firmly, “and between now and then, I’d like you to tell me what’s goin’ on. Will you do that?”

  “I meant what I said. I don’t want you getting tangled up in all my troubles.”

  “Let me just hear what those troubles are, and we’ll take things from there.””

  “Thank you, thank you for everything.”

  “I think I know someone who could use a hug,” he said seeing the tears of relief brimming in her eyes.

  “Oh, Connor, yes, please.”

  Walking around to her side of the booth, he took her hand, pulled her to her feet, and brought her into his arms. Closing his eyes he inhaled her scent, felt her yielding body against his, and let out a long, grateful sigh.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A calm settled over April’s soul as Connor’s arms engulfed her.

  When she’d escaped from the large house of horrors called the Churchill Chateau, the snowstorm had been raging and she knew no-one in the small town to whom she could run for help, but a month before she’d been at a tavern called McBrides Bar and Grill, and had spent five compelling minutes with a gorgeous guy she’d guessed to be the owner, a cowboy named Connor. As she’d fled the Chateau and driven frantically through the frightening night, it was to the tavern that she’d headed. It was a wild roll of the dice, but there’d been a voice inside her head that told her to keep going, and that she’d find a safe haven with the cowboy who had been shadowing her thoughts for the last four weeks

  “Feelin’ better,” he murmured as he released her.

  “So much better. I think my insides have finally stopped shaking.”

  “Let’s clear up these breakfast things, then go on up to my livin’ room and you can tell me all about it.”

  “Yes please,” she smiled.

  They puttered around the kitchen together, and Connor began to see April’s bubbly personality return. She possessed a quick wit, and though the cloud of concern continued to hover, they shared unexpected moments of spontaneous laughter. He’d shoot her a quip, and she’d come back and top it. Their banter had a natural ease to it. Nothing was forced or strained, but as they made their way up the winding staircase, Connor sensed a change in her mood and he readied himself for an unpleasant story.

  “I’m not sure where to begin,” she said thoughtfully as she sat down on the comfortable couch.

  “Tell me how you came to be in this town? It’s not exactly on the beaten path?”

  “That’s the perfect place to start,” she nodded. “I came to look at a horse at the Churchill stables.”

  “Really?”

  “It’s a long drive from where I live,
but I thought it would be fun. I saw pictures of the bed and breakfast here, The Yellow Inn, and it looked really cute. I’ve never stayed at a place like that and I was dying to get out of the city for a break.”

  “And when was that?”

  “About a month ago, and that’s when I came in for that drink and met you. I’d had dinner at the Chateau, and I saw this place driving back to the inn and I thought I’d stop in and see a bit of the local color. I had to get up early for the drive home and that’s why I had to leave,” then pausing she looked at him coyly, adding, “to be honest I almost left you my phone number, but it seemed, sort of…”

  “Not who you are?”

  “Not who I am,” she nodded. “I wish I had. I kept hoping you’d wander back down the bar to talk to me some more, but you were run off your feet, and I was fairly sure I’d be coming back to town so I just figured I’d see you again then.”

  “And obviously you did come back because here you are, but I guess things didn’t pan out the way you thought they would.”

  “Good grief, they sure didn’t,” she sighed. “About a week after I left one of the sons contacted me about another horse. Did you know there are five brothers in the Churchill family, and they’re all named after English Kings?”

  “I knew the five brothers part, but not that they were named after kings.”

  Henry is the father, and while I was at that awful house I wondered if he calls himself Henry in honor of Henry the Eighth. He’s so creepy and dictatorial. Anyway, there’s Charles, William, James, Richard, and the youngest is Edward. It was Richard who called me. He was extremely nice on the phone, and after that initial conversation we started to Skype and email, and it became a kind of personal thing. I’m going to say something now because I have to,” she said looking at Connor intently. “The whole time this was going on I was thinking about you, and about coming back here so I could return to this bar and see you. I hope you believe me.”

  “You never left my head, April,” he said warmly, “so it’s easy for me to believe you were feelin’ the same. I was prayin’ you were, and I hope you can believe me too.”

  “You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that,” she smiled. “Anyway, the Chateau is huge. It’s over twenty-thousand square feet, and-“

  “How big?” he interrupted, shocked at what she’d said.

  “I know, incredible isn’t it? That’s what Richard told me, and having been there I can tell you it sure felt like it was.”

  “Good Lord. Don’t they get lost?”

  “There are a lot of Churchill’s in that place.”

  “I’m sorry, I interrupted you,” Connor apologized. “Please, keep goin’.”

  “That’s all right. It’s hard to believe, I know. So, as I was saying, when I agreed to come back Richard invited me to stay there. With the place being so big I figured I’d have plenty of privacy and my own space, but my gosh, what a stupid thing it was for me to have said yes,” she said dropping her eyes.

  “There would have been no reason to think it was stupid,” Connor remarked.

  “Right, I realize that, but then I made another mistake.”

  “Which was?”

  “They offered to fly me down in their jet, and I said yes to that as well.”

  “Uh-oh. That put you at their mercy. You didn’t have your car.”

  “That’s it,” she sighed, “but when all this was happening it seemed to make perfect sense, and it did, but for them not for me. The first couple of days were okay, a bit weird, but okay, and that’s when I made my third and biggest mistake. I agreed to stay through Christmas Eve, and what happened next was…honestly, it’s so difficult to explain everything.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it will sound like I’m describing a bad dream, and believe me, it was, except it was real.”

  “Don’t worry about how it sounds,” he said, trying to encourage her. “I’ll believe every word, I promise.”

  “There’s so much. Okay, let’s see. The three older sons are married and have young children. They all live in the house. The wives, they were perfectly nice at first, but then they started peppering me with questions about my life. Nosey questions, inappropriate questions, and the kids weren’t like normal kids. They didn’t run around and play. They were always very serious, as if they were afraid to say boo.”

  “It all sounds very uncomfortable.”

  “Uncomfortable and strange, yes, but not harmful, I mean, I wasn’t afraid of them, then things started to change with Edward, the youngest son. He never stopped staring at me, and when I say staring, I mean blatantly leering. He’d literally gape at my chest, and when I mentioned it to Richard he told me I should be flattered.”

  “What? You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m totally serious, and after that episode things started getting more and more bizarre. If I ventured down to the stables Richard or Edward would drop whatever they were doing and come with me, like they didn’t want me out of their sight. If I said I wanted to go into town, they’d find some reason not to agree. I started to feel like I was being watched all the time, in my suite, I mean. I searched for nanny cams and didn’t find anything, but-“

  “But that doesn’t mean they weren’t there,” he said grimly.

  “One of the brothers always appeared in the hallway if I left my room, then walk with me. Finally I’d had enough and I told Richard I wanted to leave. He got really agitated and immediately said he couldn’t arrange the jet because it was off somewhere. When I said I’d rent a car he said it would totally embarrass him if I took off, that his parents would get very upset, and I’d committed to stay through Christmas Eve and I couldn’t just bail. It wasn’t just what he said, it was the way he said it.”

  “So you felt you had to stay?”

  “I told him I would, but that was just to calm him down. I decided to call my father. He’s a lawyer, and he can get heavy, if you know what I mean. He could call them, or send a car for me, or do something. I was so frazzled.”

  “Good idea, and when you reached him what did your dad say?”

  “I couldn’t find my cell phone,” she replied with wide eyes.

  “What?”

  “It was on my dresser, then it reappeared in my bag a few hours later.”

  “I’m not even going to ask if you might have made a mistake,” he said gravely. “Did you call your dad then?”

  “I was going to, but then I got scared. I mean, what if they’d put some kind of listening device in it, and I know that sounds totally crazy, but-”

  “I don’t think it sounds crazy at all!”

  “A part of me thought I was being ridiculous, that they wouldn’t hurt me. How could they, and why would they? Mom and dad knew I was there, all my friends knew I was there, but another part of me said I shouldn’t take any chances and just make it through last night, Christmas Eve.”

  “But something happened.”

  April slowly nodded, then suddenly dropped her head in her hands.

  “My God, what is it?” Connor asked putting his arm around her shoulders. “What did these lunatics do?”

  “Sorry. Talking about it…reliving it. It’s not easy.”

  “Take your time.”

  “I’m okay,” she said taking a deep breath. “Everyone was at dinner and as usual it was very quiet, but each of the children had three presents in front of them. They opened a gift after each course. They said thank you, and that was it. So weird.”

  “Was there a cook? Were the meals served?”

  “The three wives did everything.”

  “I see, go on.”

  “The wine was flowing like crazy, and Richard, he was sitting next to me, kept topping up my glass. After dinner we all went into the living room for coffee, then a short time later the wives took the kids away, and it was me, Anne, Henry, and all the brothers. They had this punch, they said it was a tradition and Anne insisted I join in. I took a sip, and I swear, Connor, I kne
w it would knock me out. Then I got paranoid that Anne might have slipped something into my glass, so I moved next to a potted plant, and every chance I could I’d tip some out, but I pretended that I was getting wasted. When the cup was finally empty I excused myself to visit the bathroom and acted like I was staggering out of the room, but I didn’t leave. I opened and closed the powder room door, then stood in the hallway so I could listen to them.”

  “You’re a smart girl, April,” he murmured. “Talk about presence of mind.”

  “Thank you, but not really. I had to do something!” she declared. “The whole thing felt so ominous. Something was going to happen, and it was going to happen to me!”

  “I’m almost afraid to know what it was,” Connor mumbled.

  “Well, hold on to your hat,” she said dramatically. “Henry asked if I’d had enough to drink. Richard said he thought I had, and then Anne said she’d prepare the room.”

  “Oh, my, God,” Connor breathed. “Prepare the room for what?”

  “Thank God, I never found out. I ran to my room, which, thank goodness, was on the ground floor, grabbed my coat and my purse, but nothing else. I left all my clothes behind, then I crept down the hallway and into the garage. They have so many cars. They’re all numbered and the keys are kept in a cabinet by the door. I kept a set and threw the rest into the meat freezer.”

  “Damn, girl, you are so smart,” Connor said shaking his head.

  “I don’t know about that. It was the only thing I could think of to stop them following me, or at least give me a head start. I jumped in the car, started it up, and let me tell you, the seconds it took for that garage door to roll up were the longest seconds of my life. I pulled out just as they came running into the garage. I knew the car had a remote for the front gate so I wasn’t worried about that, and, Connor, from the moment I got behind the steering wheel I knew where I was going.”

  “You were headed here, you were comin’ to me,” he said softly, amazed at her story.

  “How do we know things?” she asked staring at him. “It was so late when I left. How did I know you’d take me in? How did I know, walking through that horrible freezing, blinding storm, that I’d be safe if I could make it to your door?”