Page 32 of Cowboy's Christmas Wife

The two parted ways, and like he planned before, Daryl picked up burgers from the diner on the way back to the ranch. The house was still quiet when he came through the door. He stopped in the kitchen to drop the bags on the counter before trailing down the hallway to his bedroom. He cracked the door open, and his heart fluttered in his chest: neither Laura nor Lily had moved an inch since he left. He swung the door open and made his way to the bed. “Laura Jo?” he said in a stage-whisper. “Honey, I got us a little dinner.”

Laura jerked awake with a little gasp. “What time is it?” She struggled to sit up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She grabbed her phone and gasped at the time. “I missed my appointment!” She tapped at her phone’s screen. “Why didn’t my calendar alert me?” She wasn’t asking him, but he couldn’t let her think that she’d slept through something important.

“You didn’t miss anything,” he assured her. “When I was checking on you earlier, your phone started buzzing on the nightstand.”

The panicked confusion morphed into a carefully blank expression. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

Her words were neutral, but the tone gave him pause.I’ve done something wrong, he thought. “You and Lily were sleeping so peacefully,” he said carefully. “You were exhausted, and I knew you’d had a rough night; I didn’t want to wake either of you up.”

Fire flashed in her green eyes. “So, what did you do?”

Daryl swallowed hard. “I went and met with Ted myself,” he said. “He walked me through what would need to be done to repair the roof and wrote up a bid with a couple of options on it.”

The fire in her eyes became an inferno. “You went to my appointment and spoke with a contractor about my house?”

Shit. “I didn’t want to—”

“You don’t get to make decisions like that for me!” Her raised voice made Lily stir, and they both cringed as they waited for her to start wailing, but the baby woke with a smile on her face. She raised her arms for Laura, and some of that white-hot anger in her expression receded. Her gentle smile made his heart leap into his throat. Laura was never more beautiful than when she was caring for her daughter. When she looked back at him, however, her expression became hard again. “I need to get her changed, and then you and I need to talk.”

Daryl didn’t like the sound of that, but he nodded and backed out of the bedroom anyway. While she was busying herself with the baby, he made himself useful and got out plates for dinner. He pulled out their burgers and opened wrappers and set the table; the whole time his heart thumped a tattoo against his ribs.

When Laura came out, carrying a freshly changed Lily, she wore a serious expression that did nothing to calm his nerves. “I brought dinner,” he said.

“So you said before.” But she grabbed Lily’s baby food from the fridge and settled her into her high chair before sliding into the chair that he’d begun to think of as hers. “Thank you,” she said primly.

“You’re welcome,” he murmured in reply. “I’m sorry that I overstepped with the contractor.”

The defiant set of her shoulders deflated a little. She looked down at her hands, anywhere but at him. “I need—” She sighed. “I need to be in control of my life, Daryl. I haven’t been for…for such a long time. With Clark, obviously, he had to control everything. But even before that, in my grandfather’s house, I hardly ever had a say in anything. He’d…he’d let me pick what we had for Thanksgiving dinner. Or how we’d decorate our Christmas tree. But anything that really mattered? Not a chance. He always felt he knew what was best for me, better than I could possibly know for myself. Evengoingto his house in the first place was all decided for me. I wanted to stay—I didn’t want to give up my home and my friends after I’d already lost my parents, but I wasn’t given a choice. And it got to be such a habit, just going along with what was expected of me. Such a habit that it took walking in on my husband with another woman to open my eyes to what my life had become. But Ididopen my eyes, and I started making choices about what I actually wanted. For myself, and then later, for Lily. And the number one thing that I want is for my daughter to see me as an independent, strong woman so that she grows up knowing that she can be that as well.”

Daryl forced himself to really listen to what she was saying and not to get defensive. She wasn’t comparing him to Clark or her grandfather. She was just hurt and angry that he’d made the decision for her, that he hadn’t asked if she wanted his help. He could wrap his head around that. “I understand,” he said. “I am sorry.”

Laura studied him for a long moment, and then she nodded. It was an almost imperceptible dip of her head, but it was enough to let the tension in his stomach ease a bit. “You said he gave you some options?” she asked. “I’d like to see them.”

“Sure,” he hopped up and grabbed the contractor’s bid from the counter and handed it to her. He watched her eyes scan the page, and he knew by her frown that she wasn’t thrilled by the prices. A new roof would be a big expense—one that she couldn’t make until after their hearingifthe judge approved their petition.

“Do you think the metal roof would be a good option?” she asked, glancing up at him. “I’ve heard they have a longer life than a traditional roof.”

Daryl smiled. “I think so,” he said, “but they are more expensive, and there might be some structural work to do inside if that’s what you decide to go with.”

Laura nodded and dropped her eyes to the bid again. “I’ll need to go all over this with Ted,” she said. “I have no idea what I’m looking at.”

Daryl snorted. “Truthfully? I don’t either.” She met his eyes again, and they burst into laughter that felt good and reached all the way to his toes. “Let me know what day you set up the appointment,” he said, “I can watch Lily.”

He could see her contemplating his offer, and then she shrugged. “Maybe,” she conceded. “We’ll wait and see. For all I know, Ted might not be able to fit me in until spring.”

Daryl nodded. “Good contractors do book up, that’s true,” he said. He kept his tone light, but he felt a stabbing pang of disappointment. Laura didn’t want to commit to anything past December because they wouldn’t be married at the start of the next year. This whole thing had an expiration date on it, and with the hearing only a week away, that date was getting closer. That thought sat in his stomach like a lead weight.

They ate the rest of their dinner in a relative quiet, but afterward, as they cleaned up the kitchen and Lily played in her pack-n-play, Laura took his hand and settled herself into his arms. He sighed and wrapped himself around her. “Thank you for trying to be sweet,” she said. “I’m—”

“Don’t you dare apologize, Laura Jo,” Daryl said, cutting her off. “I overstepped, and you were right to let me know it. I’m sorry.”

Laura tipped her head back. “Forgiven,” she murmured and pushed herself up to kiss him. Daryl’s hand cupped the back of her head, fingers threading through her soft hair. There was nothing quite like kissing Laura. He would do it every day for the rest of his life if he could, and that, he knew, was precisely the problem because the days where he’d have the right to were slipping away, one by one.

NINETEEN

“Your Honor, allowing my client’s ex-husband to have continued control over her life and her choices on how to spend her own inheritance is cruel,” Jeanette said, closing out the hearing. Jeanette had spent the last hour making her case for removing Clark from the trust and putting Daryl on it in her place.

Clark’s lawyer, of course, had realized that there was no sensible argument to be made for his client, so he had tried to turn the hearing into a referendum on their marriage, casting doubt on their motives for marrying in the hopes of discrediting them with the judge. But of course, they’d been prepared for that. Both she and Daryl had taken the stand to make a statement about when and why they got married. Laura had been careful to avoid using the word “love.” She focused on finding a deeper friendship with Daryl after returning to Windy Creek and how that friendship blossomed into something more. All of which was true—just not on the timeline that they put forth to the judge. Daryl had been a little more emotive: he told the judge about how he loved all of the little ways that Laura had changed his life, like the baby spoons in the utensil drawer in the kitchen, and how she was not only the heart of his home, but his heart as well. He looked at her as he said the words, and it made her shiver. He couldn’t be telling the full truth. Right? He was just embellishing for the judge…even so, he did sound damn convincing.

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