Patricia Johns - The Cowboy's Christmas Bride

But that was long gone.

When he was a kid, his brother and his dad would go out to check on the cattle. Andy used to go with them, but he felt the inequality in how they were treated. Chet was his dad’s favorite, the one he talked to when he was explaining how something worked. Andy was just along for the ride—or that was how it felt. He was treated like a little kid, even though he was only two years younger than Chet, and when he told jokes, his dad would say, “Enough,” and the growl in his voice said it all. Mom wasn’t like that, though. When Andy told her a joke, she’d throw back her head and laugh.

She also made an amazing blueberry pie.

He’d never be like his stoic father, but he wanted a woman like his mom—full of love and laughter, who stood by her man through thick and thin. If there was one thing about Mom, she was loyal. Even when the laughter stopped and her eyes turned sad, she was still loyal.

He tucked the photocopies of Harley’s ID and his signed contract into the file folder. He dropped it in the back of the employee section of the file cabinet the way Chet had organized it.

Andy turned off the light on his way out of the office. For some reason an image of Dakota kept rising in his mind when he thought about what he wanted in life, and it was like his subconscious was taunting him. Dakota was the one woman who never would fall for his charms. She never had. In fact, she was the woman with the biggest grudge against him.

And yet there was something about the way her eyes snapped fire when she’d stood there in the driveway, cheeks pink from the chilly wind and a thumb hooked in her belt loop... If you want to know why people are so ticked with you, this is it.

Apparently he was a sucker for punishment. He’d come back to help out Chet in his time of need, and that was where it was supposed to stop. He’d known full well it would be hard. He’d known he’d have to deal with some painful memories. He’d even known he’d be resented. He just hadn’t counted on feeling this attracted to the one woman who resented him most.

Andy pushed the thought aside and grabbed his hat off the table where he’d tossed it. There were chores to be done, animals to check on... He had enough to worry about for the next week or so. Keeping his mind on his job was the best solution he could think of.

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