Barbara Daille - The Lawman's Christmas Proposal

“He’s a good one for sticking to duties,” Jed said.

“And,” Tina put in, “the day he retires, Cowboy Creek will lose a good sheriff.”

“Which probably won’t be any time soon.” Mitch laughed, happy he’d detoured around the conversational land mine. “Like my grandpa, he always said he would never take off the badge.” And like his dad, he wouldn’t be keen on retiring, either. He didn’t like even being away from the job this long. “Well, I need to head back to town.”

“Don’t forget that box you said your mama sent along,” Jed reminded him.

“Yeah, her garden tomatoes. I’ll get them out of the truck now.” He moved slowly, giving his healing knee a chance to loosen up, rather than let them all see him hobbling from the room like an old man.

“I can go out with you,” Tina volunteered.

“Hold on,” Jed said. “I need to talk to you and Jane for a bit.” He turned to Andi. “Why don’t you go along with Mitch and retrieve that box for Paz? She’s eager to see what she can use from it for supper.”

Andi nodded. As they left the room, he caught her profile from the corner of his eye. When he and Jed had walked into the dining room, before she’d had time to raise her defenses, he’d seen the sparkle in her blue eyes and the smile on those full pink lips he’d always remembered.

Now, with her gaze frozen and her mouth pressed into a flat, determined line, she looked as if he were marching her to face a firing squad.

She didn’t have that far wrong. He planned to fire a few shots at her. Verbal ones. Questions he’d spent years asking himself.

And he didn’t intend to let her go free until he got the answers.

* * *

“ALL RIGHT, ABUELO, let’s hear it.”

Jed frowned. The sound of Mitch’s and Andi’s footsteps had barely faded from the dining room.

His youngest granddaughter, Tina, sat back in her chair and stared him down. “What’s so important I couldn’t take a few minutes to give Mitch a hand?”

“I wanted to go over some of those estimates for the last of the cabins again.”

Jane laughed. “You’re in trouble if you want me here for anything involving numbers. Didn’t you always say I’m the artistic one in the family?”

Tina shook her head. “It’s not that, Jane. Grandpa’s up to his tricks again. I know the signs. So should you.” The smile that tugged at her lips gave the lie to her stern expression. “Isn’t that right, Abuelo?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I pulled a few tricks on you both. But I don’t hear either of you complaining.”

“We aren’t,” Jane said. “In fact, you know we’re glad you’re two for two in the matchmaking stakes.”

He beamed at her.

“We’re very glad,” Tina agreed. “Andi’s a different story. We all want to see her happy again. But trying to match her up with someone she barely knows may not be the best idea. At least, not right now.”

“Huh-uh, cuz,” Jane said, “as Grandpa would say, you haven’t come close to hitting the mark there. You didn’t hang out much with us when Andi and I used to visit. But one summer, I spent plenty of time at the barn because that’s where she chose to go. And trust me, it wasn’t all due to her love of riding horses.”

“Really?” Tina’s gaze flew from Jane to him and back again.

Barely able to believe this unexpected good fortune, he grinned. Maybe this wouldn’t be his toughest match, after all. “You’re saying Andi had a hankering for Mitch?”

“I am,” Jane confirmed. “A major crush.”

“Really,” Tina said, thoughtfully this time. “And you think...”

“Yes, I think. Big-time.”

“I think, too.” But he wasn’t yet ready to share the rest of his thoughts on the matter. “And I do more than just let an idea sit in my head. I plan.”

“And you scheme,” Tina said.

“Yes,” Jane said, “and you force people into situations where they can’t avoid each other.”

“Darn straight, I do. Why wouldn’t I? If I didn’t, we’d all still be waiting for the two of you to get together with Cole and Pete.”

Jane laughed. “So now you’re determined to have a try at Andi and Mitch?”

“Darn straight,” he repeated.

“Well, you won’t get any argument from me, Grandpa. I go along with that.”

They both turned to look at Tina.

Quiet, levelheaded, by-the-books accountant Tina looked back at them, meeting their gazes with a frown. “You really think we ought to be pushing Andi into something like this?”

“Not pushing,” he said. “Assisting. If there’s still interest there, why shouldn’t we add a spark to it?”

“Like Grandpa did with you,” Jane said softly.

His granddaughters exchanged a glance.

Finally, Tina smiled. “Well, I can’t argue with that. All right. You can count me in, too.”

“That’s my girls,” he said.

* * *

MITCH AND ANDI left the hotel through the lobby and went down the porch steps, and still, as she walked along beside him, Andi said nothing.

Apprehension showed in the tiny lines around her eyes. Why wouldn’t she feel uneasy? She knew as well as he did they had unfinished business to discuss.

He remembered another day they had spent together when she hadn’t said a word. When they strolled down to the creek hand in hand, accompanied only by the sounds of crickets chirping. When his heart had thumped so hard he worried she could hear that, too.

Now his heart revved only in anger. Jaw clamped tight, he strode toward the parking area behind the hotel as quickly and steadily as his leg would allow.

“Been a long time,” he said as mildly as he could. A half-dozen years had passed since he’d last seen Andi. “I hear a lot has happened in your life.”

She nodded. “I’m a mom now, with two children, a boy and a girl.”

Her voice sounded strained, yet he couldn’t mistake the pride in it. He didn’t want to acknowledge even to himself how her statement made his anger rise.

When they were teens, he hadn’t thought too far into the future. He had simply known he would be settled down in Cowboy Creek and wearing a gold sheriff’s badge. He had also somehow known he would one day be the father of her kids.

Wrong, yet again.

He noticed she hadn’t mentioned her husband. In letters, his mom filled him in on all the happenings in Cowboy Creek. No one knew about his relationship with Andi, but as he had worked with Jed, Nancy put special emphasis on everything concerning Garland Ranch. She had told him about Andi’s becoming a widow, losing her husband when he was killed in a car accident while traveling for his job.

“I was sorry to hear what happened,” he said.

“Thanks.”

She crossed her arms as if the sun had gone behind a cloud and left her chilled. Or as if she needed a comforting hug. He swallowed hard, feeling a small part of his anger slip away. Somehow, he managed to keep from wrapping his arms around her.

He could see the effect the loss had on her. While she was still as beautiful as ever, her face now looked stretched taut. Grief left her with nothing to soften her cheekbones or to fill the hollows beneath them.

Her eyes held a deep sadness. Tiny lines creased the skin in the outside corners. Those lines made him want to touch her. To stroke away her tension.

Instead, he reached into the truck for the box Nancy had sent along with him for the Hitching Post. The action gave him something else to do with his hands. It gave him time to pull himself together. Maybe, if he tried hard enough, that beat of time would let him swallow his remaining anger. For now.

He balanced the box on the truck’s hood and turned back to her. “I’m glad Jed sent you out here. It keeps me from having to track you down.”