Page 41 of Cowboy's Christmas Wife

Laura felt like she was going to turn inside out under Georgina’s scrutiny. “I believe it,” she said. “Ihaveto believe it. Daryl and I always seem to find our way back into each other’s lives, and I have to trust that we will again when the time is right.”

Georginatskedand reached out to fluff Lily’s hair. “It’s so ironic that you would say that, while completely missing what it means.”

“What are you talking about?” Laura was well and truly frustrated now.

“You keep coming back into each other’s lives because you love each other—and deep down, you know that you should be together,” Georgina said, wrapping Lily’s blonde hair around her finger to make ringlets. “Any idiot can see it.”

She’s calling you stupid, she told herself.She’s probably right. “I’m done with this conversation,” she said. Laura readjusted her hold on Lily and then walked past Georgina. A touch on her arm stopped her. “What?”

Georgina’s face was soft and sad. “You’re still invited for Christmas,” she told Laura. “The girls are enamored of Lily, and they’ll be so sad if they don’t get to see her.”

Laura stared at her for a minute, unsure if she was kidding or not. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea—”

“Just think about it,” Georgina cut her off. “Please?”

Laura nodded, although there was no way on Earth that they would actually go. “I’ll think about it,” she promised, lying through her teeth.

Georgina gave her a look like she knew that Laura was just giving her lip service. “See you around, Laura Jo.”

She startled a bit at her double name coming from someone other than Daryl’s mouth. She didn’t care for it. “Bye, Georgina.” Laura hustled out of the pharmacy and back to her car. “Let’s go make our ornaments, huh?” she asked Lily, trying to distract herself. “Let’s go decorate our tree.”

Making ornaments sounded more fun than it proved to be in the actual execution. Lily felt asleep in the car on the way home, so she laid her in the pack-n-play for a nap and sat at her kitchen table with a glue gun. She made a popsicle stick frame for each picture. “Shit!” she cursed out loud when she stuck her finger in the scalding hot glue for the thirtieth time. “Shit.” She stuck the stinging finger in her mouth and tried to ease the ache in the digit.

Once she assembled the frames, she painted them with the red, green, and gold paint that she’d bought. Then she fit the pictures into the frames. She liked the results just fine, but when she went to put them on the tree, it just didn’t feel…right. Laura had always loved trimming the Christmas tree with her parents. It was the second-best thing about the holidays. But this didn’t feel like that, not even close.

Honestly, being back in the house didn’t make her feel the way that she had thought it would. It was a lot lonelier than she had expected. She’d moved Lily’s crib back into her room so that the baby was with her at night. The first few nights back, with Lily in the nursery, Laura hadn’t been able to sleep. Now, looking at their first Christmas tree, she wanted to feel that same connection and rush of love for family that she used to, but instead, she just felt like something was…missing.

TWENTY-FIVE

“Dude, I’m going to need you to calm down a little.” Daryl, who had been in the middle of pushing over a rotten fence post, paused and looked at his brother.

“Calm down?” he asked. “I wasn’t aware that I was doing anything particularly exciting.”

Kyle groaned. “You’re like the Energizer Bunny, man. What’s the rush? We’ve already repaired almost ten miles of fence today,” he said. “Just the two of us. Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?”

“The fence posts are rotting, and I’d prefer to get them fixed before it gets too cold.”

“No, I get that, but—” He squeezed the bridge of his nose. “You’ve been a little crazy lately with all this focus on working around the clock. I know Georgina’s talked to you about it, but that only seemed to make you worse.”

Daryl glared at him. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I’m worried about you, asshole.” Kyle set down the wire cutters that he’d been holding. “You were helping out while I was healing, and that was great. Then, you hired Mikey, and that was even better, but now it’s like you won’t let go.”

Now I’m hovering too much?Was there anything that he could get right? “You don’t want my help anymore?”

“It’s not that,” Kyle said. “It’s just that you’ve done a one-eighty on us. You were so into your workshop before that I hardly ever saw you, but now you’re all about the ranch, all the time. Why? We have the extra help now, but you never go work on your leather projects. Aren’t a couple due soon? Shouldn’t you be focusing on them?”

Daryl felt knocked off-kilter. “The ranch should be our focus. That’s our main form of income; it’s the legacy that Mom and Dad left for us. My leatherworks are a fun hobby, but I just don’t have a lot of time right now.” He shrugged casually, as if his stomach wasn’t twisting itself into sickening knots. The truth was, he just couldn’t feel inspired to work when the task didn’t hold the joy that it had before. He knew what Georgina had said…but it wasn’t so easy to find whatever that balance was that she seemed to think he needed. Not when he felt like half of his heart was living somewhere else. “I gave some of my clients their money back.”

Kyle blinked, and then did it again, more slowly. “You did what now?” he asked.

“I gave them their money back and told them that I wouldn’t get a chance to work on their projects just now.” Taking in Kyle’s gob smacked look, Daryl was quick to add, “I’ll take some more commissions when we get some time,” he lied, “but I want to be free for now.”

“Why?” Kyle demanded. “I’m all better now.”

“I get it, Kyle, but my name is on the deed to the ranch, and it’s time I took a vested interest in our future.”

Kyle snorted. “A vested interest?” His snort turned into true, deep laughter. “I’m sorry,” he said as he gasped. “I’m sorry, but when did you start thinking about the future like that?”

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