The Surprise Christmas Bride

“The storm, of course.”

The wind howled through the trees as if to underline her statement, and the calf squirmed against her. Casey’s eyebrows lifted and she nodded shortly as if to say, “See?”

Jake’s teeth ground together. She was as stubborn as ever. And as beautiful, his brain added, even with her hair hanging in limp soggy strands along her cheeks. Even with her wedding dress splotched with mud. Even with her emerald eyes squinted against the downpour. Uneasily Jake watched her widen her stance and wiggle her behind as she struggled to get a better grip on the animal.

Something hard and tight settled in his chest, wrapping itself around his lungs and heart. He struggled to draw a breath. Even after five years she still had the same old effect on him.

For the first time since leaving the ranch house, he was beginning to wish his Jeep wasn’t out of commission. At least then he’d be seated on a nice comfy bucket seat, instead of futilely trying to find a comfortable position in the saddle. Dammit. He’d always enjoyed riding in the rain.

Until now.

Immediately he told himself to get a grip. She was wearing a damned wedding gown. She’d said she was running from a church. But she hadn’t said whether she’d started running before or after the wedding.

The notion of Casey’s being someone else’s wife tightened that cold band around his chest another notch.

Rain pelted his hat and slicker. He felt the slap of each drop and welcomed it. At least he knew what to do about rain. She was another matter entirely.

“Are you going to climb down and help me or not?”

Jake shook his head, tightened his grip on the reins with one hand and rubbed his jaw viciously with the other. There was no way he’d be able to climb down from his horse and walk. Even if his rain slicker did hide his body’s reaction to her, his discomfort would be all too visible.

But he had to do something.

This ridiculous conversation was getting them nowhere.

“Cows live outside,” he said.

The calf bawled piteously.

Casey cooed in sympathy, then flashed Jake a hard look. “He’s just a baby.”

“Who weighs more than you do.”

A deep reverberating sound rolled out around them and Casey half straightened, still keeping her arms around the animal beside her.

“What was that?”

“That would be his mama, I’d bet,” Jake told her when she swiveled her head to look at him.

The calf called a quavering answer and its mother mooed back.

“Here she comes,” Jake said, and dipped his head toward the distant line of trees.

She looked in the direction he indicated and sucked in a quick breath. Mama indeed. A huge cow was lumbering toward her, moving much more quickly than Casey would have thought possible. Apparently her friend didn’t need saving as much as she did at the moment. Immediately she released the calf and started for the man and relative safety.

She grabbed up fistfuls of skirt, hiked the hem past her knees and trudged through the mud. The cow’s hoofbeats pounded against the sodden ground and sounded like native war drums to Casey. It seemed to take forever to cross the few feet of space separating her from the horse, and naturally Jake wasn’t offering the slightest bit of help.

Just as that thought raced through her mind, though, he urged his mount closer, kicked free of a stirrup and held out one hand to her.

She looked up at him and didn’t see even the tiniest flicker of welcome in his blue eyes. She hesitated, glanced over her shoulder at the approaching two tons of offended motherhood and chose the lesser of two evils.

Slapping her hand into his, she felt his long callused fingers fold around hers in a firm grip. Ignoring the warm tingle of awareness sparking between them, she stuffed one muddied stockinged foot into the stirrup and allowed him to pull her up behind him on the saddle.

Immediately Jake turned his horse around and kneed it into a fast walk. After a few feet he pulled back on the reins, bringing the horse to a stop. He turned in the saddle to look behind him, and she shifted to follow his gaze.

She smiled as she watched the calf dip its head below its mother’s belly and nuzzle around for milk. Of course, the cow still didn’t look very happy with the two interfering humans, but at least Casey’s young friend was safe.

And so was she.

“Here,” Jake said, and dropped his hat onto her head.

She tipped the brim back and looked at him.

Rain flattened his thick black hair to his skull, and he reached up to brush it out of his way. His blue eyes were hard as he stared at her, but there was a spark of something else there, as well. Then in a heartbeat it was gone.

“I’ll take you to your car.”

“Don’t bother,” she told him, remembering that loud snap when she’d stomped on the brakes. “I think it’s broken down.”

“Perfect,” Jake grumbled, and turned the horse’s head. “Wrap your arms around my waist,” he said. “It’s about a ten-minute ride to the ranch from here.”

“What about my car?” She pointed at the abandoned convertible.

Jake frowned and spared the car a quick glance. “We can call for a tow from the house.”

When the big animal beneath her jumped into a canter, she jolted backward into nothingness. Quickly she reached for Jake and folded her arms around his hard flat stomach. Scooting in closer to him, she pressed herself against his back and felt his muscles bunch beneath her touch. A warm curl of something she hadn’t allowed herself to think about in five years began to thread its way through her body. She squeezed her eyes shut. She’d thought those feelings were gone forever. Lord knew, she’d worked hard at forgetting them.

But apparently she hadn’t worked hard enough. Here she was, less than ten minutes with the man, and her knees had turned to rubber. Maybe what she should do was dredge up that memory of the last time she’d seen him. Remember the embarrassment. The humiliation. Surely that would be enough to quell whatever lingering feelings she had for the man.

No. Immediately her mind rejected the plan. She wasn’t going to relive that night again. Not for any reason. Not if she could help it, anyway. Besides, she told herself, her reaction to Jake no doubt had more to do with her already emotional state than with the man himself.

She was so cold. So tired. She thought about resting her head on his back, but then reconsidered. No sense racing out to meet problems with open arms.

Deliberately she sat up straight and loosened her hold on his waist a bit. Instead of letting her mind wander down dangerous paths, she concentrated on moving with the familiar rhythm of the horse’s steps. Years of riding lessons at exclusive stables were finally paying off.

Jake sucked in a gulp of air and she thought he muttered something.

She shifted to one side, tipped her head back and asked, “What did you say?”

“Nothing,” he snapped. “And sit still, will you?”

He dropped her off at the back door to the house, then took his horse to the barn. In no hurry to join the woman waiting in the kitchen, he took his time in unsaddling his mount and drying him off. Only when the horse had been fed, watered and put away for the night did he step to the open doorway and look across the open ground at the house.

Bright light spilled out of the windows, layering the ground’s puddled water with brilliant splashes of color. He turned his head to look at the guest house, two hundred yards away. The lights there were off but for a single lamp left burning in what he knew was the living room. The blue Ford pickup was gone from the front of the house.

So, the foreman and his wife had gone into town despite the storm.

That left him and Casey entirely too alone for comfort.

And he couldn’t get rid of her anytime soon, either. With his Jeep not working and the pickup gone for who knew how long, they were stuck together.

Dammit, why did she have to show up here? And why was she still able to take his breath away with a single glance?

Grumbling at his own foolishness, he stepped out of the barn, shut the double doors behind him and walked into the wind and rain. He crossed the yard slowly, as if hoping the cold would erase the spark of heat she’d created when she’d wrapped her arms around him. But it didn’t help. The fire in his blood remained, and as he recalled the feel of her legs pressed along his own, his body tightened uncomfortably. Halfway to the house, he stopped dead and tilted his head back to glare at the stormy sky.

Hard heavy rain pummeled his face and chest. A cold fierce wind rushed around him, tugging at his coat with frigid fingers. He squinted against the icy pellets and noticed an occasional spot of feathery white drifting down toward him.

Perfect.

Snow.

“What did I ever do to you?” he demanded hoarsely of a silent heaven.

The snowflakes thickened amidst the raindrops.

Jake straightened, shook his head, then loped across the muddy ground to the back porch. He stripped off his slicker and snapped it in the air, shaking off most of the water. Then he dropped it onto the closest chair, stomped the mud from his boots and opened the door to meet trouble face-to-face.

She was standing in front of the kiva fireplace staring into the flames still dancing across the logs he’d laid earlier in the afternoon.

“You’re shivering,” he said lamely, and she turned to look at him.

“I’m warmer than I was.”

Maybe. But her teeth were chattering. His gaze swept over the sodden once-beautiful white dress, and he wondered again about the mysteriously missing groom. What kind of idiot would let a woman like this escape him at his own wedding?

Wet fabric clung to her like a determined lover, outlining her small breasts and the curve of her hips. What should have been a full skirt now hung straight down her legs, wrapping her in a blanket of muddy lace.

A sharp pain pierced his chest as he let himself actually think about her being married to someone else. But in the next instant he buried the pain. What was done was done. He’d made his decision five years ago and he still believed it had been the right one.

No matter what it had cost him.

He lifted his gaze to hers, pushed both hands through his wet hair and said gruffly, “What are you doing here, Casey?”

She sniffed, snatched her veil from her head and twisted it between her hands. Dirty water streamed from the sodden netting. “I came to see Annie.”

“Oh.” His sister. He nodded. Of course she was there to see Annie, you idiot. Why in hell would she have come to see him? He inhaled deeply, blew the air out of his lungs with a rush and said, “Annie doesn’t live here anymore.” At her questioning look, he added. “She moved back to town about six months ago.”

“Stupid,” Casey muttered, and gripped her soggy veil more tightly. Shifting her gaze back to the fire, she said, more to herself than to him, “I should have known that she’d want to be back out on her own as quickly as possible.”

She darted a quick look at him and he saw disappointment shadowing her eyes.

“How’s she doing?”

“Pretty well.” He lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “You know Annie. Divorce is hard on anyone, but she’ll be OK.”

“I know she will.”

“Yeah. I made it. She will, too.”

“That’s right.” She straightened slightly and turned those green eyes on him. “Annie told me about your divorce. I’m sorry, Jake.”

Discomfort rattled through him briefly as he looked into her eyes and saw sympathy and understanding. He shifted uneasily under her steady regard and wished she would change the subject. He didn’t want to discuss Linda with her or anyone else. In fact, except for the valuable lesson Linda had taught him, he preferred to forget all about her.

“It was a long time ago,” he said.

“Not so long. Only three years.”

His gaze narrowed. Hell, he hadn’t seen Casey in five years, but apparently his little sister kept the woman up to date on his life. “Is there anything Annie left out?”

“Not much,” she admitted.

“Remind me to have a talk with my sister, huh?”

“How’s Lisa?”

A small smile erased Jake’s frown. Happened every time he thought about his three-year-old niece. It was simply impossible not to smile when thinking about the little terror.

“She’s great. Driving Annie nuts.”

For a too-brief moment Casey’s smile joined his. “I haven’t seen her in so long I probably wouldn’t even recognize her.” Her smile faded. “What about Lisa’s father?”

He stiffened and unconsciously his hands curled into fists. As thoughts of Lisa could bring a smile, thoughts of her no-good father gave birth to sudden bursts of rage.

“Like you, he’s been gone so long he wouldn’t know his own daughter. Unlike you, he wouldn’t care.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Among other things.”

Long silent minutes passed, and the only sounds were the rain drumming on the tiled roof and the snap and hiss of the fire. Finally Casey broke the tension-filled quiet.

“I don’t suppose you could give me a ride to town?”

“Can’t.”

“Why not?”

He frowned and shook his head. “Jeep’s broken down and my foreman used the pickup to take his wife dancing. From the looks of this storm, they probably won’t make it back until morning.”

She stared at him as if she couldn’t believe what he was saying. Well, he wasn’t thrilled with the situation, either. She would just have to get used to it.

“Surely you have more than one Jeep and one truck on a ranch this size.”

“Well, now,” he drawled deliberately, “I surely do, ma’am. But I’m afraid my city car wouldn’t fare any better than your car did in this mud.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“Can this day possibly get any worse?” she muttered.

“It’s snowing,” he offered.

A short strangled laugh shot from her throat. “Of course it is.”

He watched her as she began to rub her hands briskly up and down her arms. As he stood there, a violent tremor rocked her. He felt like an idiot. While he was questioning her, she was no doubt catching pneumonia.

“You’re never going to warm up while you’re wearing that.”

Her perfectly arched brows lifted high on her forehead. “Why, Jake,” she said. “Are you trying to get me undressed?”

“Knock it off, Casey.” He headed for the stove where he picked up the teakettle and carried it to the sink. As he filled it with water, he told her, “We’ve known each other too long for this. Just get out of the damned dress. You know where the bathroom is. I’ll find you a robe or something.”

When the kettle was half-full, he carried it to the stove, slammed it down on one of the burners, then turned on the fire underneath it. Then he stomped out of the kitchen without waiting to see if she was following his orders. The truth was, he admitted silently, he sure as hell didn’t want to be anywhere near her when she started peeling off that dress. His little sister’s friend or not, what she was doing to him was downright dangerous.

He marched down the long hallway to his bedroom at the back of the sprawling adobe-and-wood house. Throwing the door open, he absently noted the crash as the heavy oak panel hit the wall. But he was on a mission. Find something concealing for her to wear. Yes, he thought. Definitely concealing.

A burlap bag with a matching hood should do the trick.

Unfortunately he told himself as he stepped into the bathroom and glared at the garment hanging from the hook on the back of the door, all he had was a terry-cloth robe.

And a short robe at that.

Doesn’t matter, he thought grimly. The important thing here was to get her dry. Then he’d dig out an old pair of sweats or something. Somehow, he had to survive the night, then get her the hell out of his life.

Again.

Clutching the robe in one fist, he marched back into his bedroom and came to a sudden stop at the foot of his bed.

In the past five years many things had changed. For one, he now slept in the master bedroom, not down the hall in the room where he’d grown up or even the guest house where he’d lived for a few years. He had changed most of the furnishings, painted the walls, installed new drapes. But the huge four-poster was the same. The same bed he’d slept in all his adult life.

And the same bed he’d found Casey in one night five long years ago.

Instantly the past was all around him, and he shuddered with the force of the memories.

There’d been a party in town. Casey’s brothers had thrown themselves a farewell get-together. Since the Oakeses were leaving Simpson for the relatively big city of Morgan Hill, they’d decided to stage one last event for their friends.

He had left the party early, hoping to find some peace and quiet before his parents and sister returned to the ranch. He’d been living in the guest house then. A consideration, his father’d called it. A necessity was how Jake had thought of it. Even though working the family ranch was all he’d ever wanted to do, a thirty-year-old man needed more privacy than living in his parents’ house could afford.

He’d walked through the dark guest house, not even bothering to turn on a lamp. In his mind, he could still hear the echo of his own footsteps in the empty rooms. He remembered feeling a little sorry for himself that the twins—and Casey—were moving away.

In his bedroom he’d plopped down onto the mattress to tug off his boots. He’d gotten one off and had just started on the other when her voice stopped him.

That so familiar voice had sounded different that night. Throaty, deep, filled with unspoken promises and just a quavering hint of nerves.

“I think you should know you are not alone.”

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