Page 10 of A Tiny House Christmas

And why hadn’t Thomas come looking for her? Didn’t he care? Or was he that mad at her?

She cleared her throat, stepping onto the front porch. “Where do you usually start with morning chores? The barn? Did you already finish in the barn?”

Joey shook his head and fell into step beside her, his dog trailing behind, its whip of a tail dancing through the air like a metronome.

Karlene waited while Joey opened a door on the side of the barn before walking inside, the familiar scent filling her.Animals. Old wood. Straw. Feed. History and a sense of belonging. She sighed, feeling her stress levels drop a notch. “I love a good barn.”

She glanced over at Joey who was smiling a quiet smile, his eyes drifting over the open rafters, taking in the place alongside her. “There’s something peaceful and wonderful about them, isn’t there?” he said, his tone slightly wistful.

They let the horses out to pasture, then mucked out the stalls, falling into an easy rhythm she loved so much. Thomas was always in such a rush to get through chores, preferring to work in the ranch’s big office. But Joey was like her, happy to take a moment and enjoy the tender sniff from a horse’s velvety nose, or to pause and watch kittens race and tumble as they took each other down.

“Why couldn’t I have found it in me to let go of him sooner?” she asked suddenly, turning to Joey, who was in the stall beside her.

He exited the enclosure with three long steps, his shovel balanced level as he eyed her, dumping the contents into the waiting wheelbarrow. He dropped the end of his shovel into the clean straw at their feet, leaning against the handle.

“He represents the dream you want.”

She inhaled a shuddery breath and nodded.

It was true. She wanted the ranch life as well as working with the Dragons in San Antonio several days a week. She wanted to start a family, have pets, horses and other animals, her routines determined by the sun and weather and seasons. There was something calming about the solidity of it all.

“But?” Joey asked. “Something was missing?”

“Tom’s a great guy.”

Joey grunted.

She paused, angling her head at Joey. Was it weird that he and Tom had never become friends? Never gone for a beer?

She dropped onto a bound bale of straw, collapsing her face into her hands. “He’ll never forgive me.”

“Do you want him to?” Joey sat beside her, his shoulder almost touching.

“I didn’t intend to hurt him. And I did. As well as humiliated him and his family.”

“What’s worse? That or marrying him and not meaning it?”

She sniffled.

“They wasted so much money on the wedding. On everything.” She sniffed again, fearing she was going to outright bawl. Joey was steady and a wonderful friend, but he was her brother’s best friend and a stoic cowboy. She considered him one of her closest friends, but she couldn’t ugly cry on him. She had to be tougher than that. Show him she was mature and had grown up. Except for the part where she’d run away from the most grown-up thing in her life: marriage.

“I hear everyone had a party last night,” Joey said. “Ate the food, danced, drank the wine.”

She nodded, gratified that it hadn’tallgone to waste. But then the gates that had been holding back her tears released. Joey had her in his arms in less than a beat, pressing her body against his. He rocked her slowly, his large hand smoothing her wild hair.

“Let it out, Kar.”

“Nobody’s going to let me forget yesterday, are they?” From now on there’d be jokes at her expense, awkward pauses in conversations, possibly even the McNaughtons crossing the street or giving her fake smiles and excuses whenever they bumped into each other.

“Depends if you stay in Sweetheart Creek.” Joey winked and her heart crashed with the truth of what she’d done and her tears returned. He wrapped her in his arms again, his cheek against the top of her head. “But so what, Kar? So what?”

“I want to live out here,” she muttered. “Not in the city.”

He held her out, studying her with such seriousness she laughed. “You afraid of some gossip?”

“Yes! And I don’t know the rules. Do I still have to break up with Thomas? Or is that implied? And where am I supposed to live now? How am I going to get my stuff back from Thomas’s? It’s going to be so awful.” Her head returned to Joey’s chest.

And what would it take to get this man holding her to see her as more than a lost kid?

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