The Cowboy's Christmas Courtship

She avoided those looks from people. Had made it a habit right after her parents died. Those looks had turned her into a sobbing mess, and she’d had to be strong. She didn’t have time to fall apart. Brandon needed her to be strong.

“It was a steer,” Gage offered. “I wouldn’t let him get hurt. And I’m not going to start him out on our bulls. Come on, Layla, you know that.”

“Right.” She motioned Brandon through the gate. “We’re going home. I have chores to do and I still have to cook dinner.”

“I ate with the Coopers, and we did the chores at the house a couple hours ago.” Brandon kept his eyes down, staring at his boots.

“Thank you.” The anger seeped out, leaving her shaking and weak. “But I haven’t eaten and I’m ready to go home.”

“Layla, can we talk?” Gage maneuvered her away from Brandon and Travis. “We’ll catch up with you guys at the house.”

“Right.” Travis gave Gage a long look before nodding. “Come on, Brandon, we’ll see if there’s any leftover pie.”

Travis and her brother walked out of the arena, leaving her alone with Gage. He nodded toward the bleachers that served as seating when the Coopers held small events on the ranch. Layla didn’t want to sit and talk. She wanted to go home and put her feet up. Most of all she wanted not to think about Gage Cooper or how her life was falling apart while he played at fixing his.

She sat down on the second row of seating, shivering as the cool metal bench seeped into her bones, chilling her. Gage didn’t sit down. He shrugged out of his canvas jacket and placed it around her shoulders.

“Thank you.” She looked up at him, wishing he could always be this person. But this Gage was the dangerous Gage. He was the person a girl could lose her heart to. Even when she knew better.

“Let me teach him to ride bulls.”

Gage gave her an easy smile. Life was a big adventure for him. He traveled. He rode bulls. He lived for himself. She closed her eyes because she knew she wasn’t being fair.

When she opened her eyes, he was watching her. Intent. Curious. Handsome in a way that made a girl’s heart melt. It was his eyes, she thought, and shook her head.

“I do not want him to ride bulls, Gage. I want him to grow up, go to college, get married and have kids. I want...”

She couldn’t say that she wanted him to be grown-up so she could stop worrying. That wasn’t fair. She’d known when their parents died that her life had to be put on hold to raise her brother. She had worked hard to keep the authorities from placing him with strangers.

She’d put aside her dreams of college, a career, marriage and children. That wasn’t Brandon’s fault.

“I’ll keep him on steers until I know he can handle bulls. I think if you’ll listen to me, you’ll understand why this is important.”

She looked up, meeting those sincere hazel eyes of his. He’d been in the Southwest, so his skin was still golden-brown from the sun. “Tell me.”

“He needs something to keep him busy and people who will keep him busy. He’s in with a bad crowd right now, Layla. You can’t be with him all of the time. So if he’s here when he isn’t at school, we can keep him out of trouble. I can help you with that.”

“Right, so this is about you?”

He grinned again, white teeth flashing. “Could you stop being so mean?”

Layla closed her eyes and nodded. “I’m sorry. I’m not a mean person. I’m just tired.”

The bleachers moved and creaked as he sat down next to her. His shoulder bumped hers, and she inhaled the scent of the outdoors. How could he smell that good when he’d been working all day?

“I know you’re not mean.” His voice was soft. “I was teasing.”

Her heart tried to open up. She couldn’t let it. “You hurt me.”

“I know and I’m sorry.”

She nodded, not looking at him because she couldn’t look into his eyes right then, not when her emotions were worn thin and she needed someone to lean on. It couldn’t be him.

“What is it you’re doing, Gage? Are you trying to earn my forgiveness?”

“I don’t know.” He leaned back against the bleacher seat behind them and stretched his leg in front of him. “Maybe I’m trying to find my way back.”

“God doesn’t require you to make amends to be forgiven.”

He didn’t respond for a minute. She wondered if she’d hit the nail on the head. She looked up at him. He was staring at the arena, his strong jaw clenched. She focused, for whatever reason, on the pulse at the base of his throat.

Finally he sighed. “I have to do this.”

“I forgave you a long time ago. When we’re young everything feels like forever. I was a typical teenage girl who thought if you smiled at me, we’d probably get married. I know better now.”

“Girls really think that?” He smiled at her.

“Maybe not that drastically. But when the teenage girl is already...” She didn’t want to have this conversation, but it was too late. “When the girl isn’t feeling loved, she is probably looking for someone to love her.”

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t the person to love you.”

So was she. “Well, you did me a favor. You taught me to be more careful. We’ve all hurt people, Gage. It’s part of life, part of growing up.”

“I know. But somehow I’ve skated through life with almost no repercussions and other people have suffered....”

He had more to say, but she didn’t want to hear it. They weren’t friends. They didn’t share secrets. She stood up and moved away from him, away from his story and his emotions.

“I should go.”

He grinned and stood up. “Too much?”

“Yeah. I think if you need to confess, I’m not the person. But I’ll take the help with my brother.”

“Thank you.”

She took off his coat and handed it back to him. His fingers brushed hers. Layla pulled back, surprised by the contact, by the way his eyes sought hers when they touched.

“Good night, Gage.” She hurried away, leaving him standing in the arena alone.

Chapter Four

Gage didn’t plan on going to church with the family Sunday morning, so he woke up before sunrise and headed out, dressed for work in old jeans, a flannel shirt and work boots. Layla had a few fences that looked like a cow could walk right through them, and he knew she’d fight him if he offered. So he wasn’t going to ask, he was just going to do it.

It was cold, so cold he could see his breath as he walked along the fence line after parking his truck at the end of Layla’s drive. Talk about a mess. The fence posts leaned and the barbed wire was so loose a cow could walk between the strands.

He didn’t know why kids had bothered cutting the fence. They could have pushed the fence posts over. But not after today. He planned on pounding the posts back into the ground and tightening the wire, maybe replacing some of it.

It would take all day. So he wouldn’t have to sit across the Sunday table from Reese and fight his anger all over again. He wasn’t angry with Reese, but with the hand he’d been dealt. Gage wouldn’t have to go to church and face God with that anger.