Brenda Minton - The Rancher's Christmas Bride

“How do you know where I belong?” Even she didn’t know where she belonged.

“That’s what your grandmother said when I told her she shouldn’t marry a cowboy from Bluebonnet Springs. And I was right.”

“You’re not right about me.”

Footsteps announced Alex’s return. She stepped away from the bed, moving to the window to look out at the city landscape.

“Did I need to give you more time?” Alex asked as he handed the coffee to her grandfather. He pushed the button to raise the back of the bed so that Dan could sit up a little higher.

“You can take my granddaughter on back to my place. I think her folks should be able to find their way down here to pick her up.”

Marissa picked up her purse. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m not that easy to get rid of. I’m going back to your place because someone has to feed the dog. And that stupid rooster.”

“Don’t be picking on my rooster,” Dan grumbled.

“I won’t. And I’m also not going anywhere.”

Alex chuckled. “Dan, I wasn’t sure if she was really your granddaughter until just now. She’s definitely stubborn enough to be a Wilson. You may have met your match.”

“Go away. I need my rest. Didn’t you hear the doctor?”

“I heard him.” Marissa leaned in to kiss her grandfather’s scruffy cheek. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll take care of your animals.”

He patted her shoulder. “That’s what I’m worried about.”

He smiled, a twinkle in his faded blue eyes. Eyes she realized were the same as hers. She’d always wondered where she got her blue eyes. And her stubborn streak. Now she knew. For the first time in a very long time she felt connected. He might not want her, but in her grandfather she’d found someone who might understand who she was and how she felt.

* * *

It was late afternoon when they pulled up to Dan’s camper. Marissa felt a strange sense of coming home. It was a world away from her home. It was completely out of her comfort zone. And yet there was something about this place...the fields, the cattle, even the rooster.

It was change. Maybe that’s what she’d needed.

“You’re actually going to stay here alone?” Alex asked as he moved to get out of the truck.

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?”

Alex shrugged as he headed for the barn. She hurried to keep up.

“Maybe you didn’t hear Dan, but I did. Your grandmother was a city girl who broke his heart.” He shot her a look. “She told him she wanted this life with him but when it came down to it, she couldn’t hack it.”

“I’m his granddaughter, not his wife. And I want to be here to help him.”

“Suit yourself.”

“So you don’t think I can do this, either, do you?”

He headed through the barn, stopping to give her a look before scooping grain into a bucket. “I make it a habit not to get involved.”

“Then you should go. I’ll feed and do whatever needs to be done here.”

He headed out a side door, whistling shrilly. She heard an answering whinny and then hooves beating across the hard-packed earth.

“You’ll do whatever needs to be done?” He grinned as he poured feed in a trough. “There’s a couple of cows about to calve. Do you know what to do with a downed cow that’s been laboring too long?”

“I can look it up on the internet.”

He grabbed her by the wrist, his hand strong and warm, and they moved back a few steps as a couple of horses headed for the trough. The animals didn’t seem to want to share. Ears were pinned back and one turned to kick at the other. Marissa didn’t need to be told twice to get out of the way of those flying hooves.

“Should you feed them separately?” she asked.

“Nah, they’ll get over it once they get to the business of eating. They’ve been fighting that way for years. That’s what Dan gets for buying mules.”

“They’re horses, aren’t they?”

He pointed to the heads of the big, golden red animals.

“Those are not the ears of a horse. Dan sold his horses when he stopped training and he bought mules. They’re sure-footed and he uses them for trail rides and hunting. But I’m sure you can look that up on the internet,” he teased, punctuating his words with a wink.

“Stop making fun of me. When I decide to do something, I do it. I’m staying and I’m going to help my grandfather.”

“Calm down, I’m not making fun of you.”

Of course he wasn’t. But she’d gotten used to Aidan and his brand of teasing, which she now realized had been more. He’d smiled as he pointed out her shortcomings, then he’d told her he was teasing. Now she could look back on the last two years and a relationship that had been chipping away at her hard-earned self-confidence.

She briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them he had stepped a little closer. His expression, soft and concerned, eased the tension building inside her.

“I’m calm,” she said.

“I admire that you want to help Dan, even if you don’t know a thing about ranching. But don’t you have a job you need to get back to?”

A few days ago she would have said that she did have a job. She had an apartment, a job and even a fiancé, who would now have been her husband.

“I have a new job but I don’t start until mid-January. I have plenty of time to stay and help my grandfather.”

The job now seemed like another area of her life she’d given over to her parents. It was a job they’d wanted for her and approved of. And she’d agreed to the private school even though she’d wanted something else. She’d been looking at a small rural school when her father told her he’d gotten her an interview with a friend.

“Suit yourself.” He headed for the barn with the empty bucket. “I have to get home and get my own chores taken care of. Tomorrow morning you’ll need to move a round bale to the cattle. They’ll eat about two of those fifty-pound bags of grain. And then you’ll need to feed the chickens and gather eggs. Don’t forget Bub.”

The list of chores made her take a step back and reevaluate the plan. She quickly swallowed past the lump that lodged in her throat. She could do this. The other thing she could do was ignore the humorous glint in his dark eyes and the dimple in his left cheek.

He was the complete opposite of Aidan. He was the opposite of what she knew about life and men. He laughed too easily and smiled too much. He was too carefree.

But her grandfather had commented on his life, making her think everything hadn’t been so easy for Alex Palermo.

“I can do all of that,” she informed him because he seemed to be waiting for confirmation.

“I think you probably can,” he said, suddenly serious. “Don’t forget to lock the doors tonight.”

“Lock the doors. Of course.”

The humor evaporated. “I’m serious. I know you want to stay here. And I know you can handle things, but these cattle rustlers are real and I don’t want you to think you have to go out and tangle with them.”

Her earlier ease with the situation dissolved with that warning. “What should I do if I see or hear something?”

“Call 911 and then call me. I’ll write my number down for you. And let Bub sleep in the house with you. He looks like a drooling mess, but he’s got a pretty vicious bark.”

“Okay, I’ve got this.”

He winked, then he kissed her cheek, taking her completely by surprise. “Of course you do. I believe you can do this.”

* * *

Alex heard a truck door slam. He walked out of the stall he’d been cleaning and spotted his sister Lucy getting out of her truck. She waved and headed his way. Lucy was proof that the Palermo family could overcome the past.

An abusive cult leader for a father. A mother who’d abandoned them. Some folks around town still gave them the stink eye, as if they were waiting for one of the Palermo kids to turn out like their father.