Page 14 of A Tiny House Christmas

“He can have it. I’ll be out here.”

“Freezing your butt off.”

“Possibly.” He hadn’t bitten on her offer to share the tent. What was up with him? Was it the age gap? The fact that Blake would freak out if they got together?

She could easily see her life with Joey. Campouts, chores, laughter. Very different from Thomas’s approach to ranch life. He carried a lot of expectations, which kept him on a tightrope. Whereas Joey had the freedom of letting only himself down, not a massive family legacy.

A burble of laughter escaped her.

“What?”

“I was trying to imagine you working in an office.”

“I have an office.”

“And how much time do you spend in it, Mr. McCall?”

Joey gave a slow, crooked grin that made her heart hiccup. “As little as humanly possible.”

“That’s what I figured, cowboy.”

They tidied up their first course, then set about using the cast iron press for dessert pies. Karlene buttered the bread while Joey opened a can of cherry pie filling and broke up a chunk of dark chocolate. She fit one slice of bread into the mold whileJoey piled on the filling and bits of chocolate. Then another slice of bread on top and they closed up the contraption, putting it in the fire to brown as well as melt the chocolate.

“Why’d you stay so long?” Joey asked. “Because of his ranch?”

Karlene sat silently for a moment, considering. She wasn’t sure if she had a short answer that went beyond being sucked in by the dream of living on a ranch.

“Sorry,” Joey said, his tone gruff. “It’s not my business.”

“You’re my friend, harboring me in my time of exile. It’s very much your business.” She pointed to the sky, which had darkened, a shooting star soaring across it. “Make a wish.”

“Already did,” he said, not looking up from his cooking.

“What does a cowboy wish for?”

“Little cowboys and cowgirls to help with the work.”

“Not an adult cowgirl first?”

“It’s in the bag.”

She laughed, heat rising in her cheeks at his surety. “An implied given if you get the little ones?”

She watched him, softened by his admission of wanting a family. Of course he did. It wasn’t as though she’d ever thought him immune or to stay a bachelor forever. She supposed she simply hadn’t tried to see his dreams from his viewpoint. Instead, always seeing his future from her own, and wondering where she might or might not fit into things.

The idea of him finding a wife that wasn’t her was unsettling. What if the woman didn’t want her and Joey to be friends any longer? What if she made little digs like Thomas often had, a hint of jealousy that tainted their happiness? And what if Joey’s wife saw that Karlene’s feelings ran much deeper than friendship?

“How old is your dream cowgirl?” she asked, trying to sound casual.

“Age doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, I don’t believe that for a minute.”

“It’s true.”

“Is not! For all the times you’ve ridden me about being so young, you’re now claiming that age is unimportant?”

“You’re not a kid anymore, Karlene.” The way he looked at her, the firelight dancing in his eyes and his voice dropping to an intimate octave, she could have sworn she’d caught a glimpse of hunger. She blinked and looked away.

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