Page 48 of Merry Christmas, Cowboy

“Need some help?”

“Sure, you can put together a salad.”

“I’ll meet you in the kitchen after I check on Cody.”

Nicole rose from her seat and turned to walk away. “Hey, Nic?”

She swiveled around. “Yeah?”

“Anything happen between you and Garrett at the hospital?”

She put her head down. She didn’t want to lie to her friend. “Why do you ask?”

Taylor gave her head a tilt. “You were just about to tell me something, before you got that text.”

“Oh, right.”

“So, I’m not wrong.” There was hope in Taylor’s voice.

“Okay, yes. Something happened.” She buttoned her mouth after that admission.

“Well? Are you gonna make me drag it out of you?”

Nicole scrunched up her face, ignoring the rush she felt thinking about Garrett’s kiss, and decided to come clean. “We, uh, kissed. But it was just a little good-bye kiss. He was… grateful and, and drugged up.”

Taylor grinned. “Something tells me Garrett’s kisses would be pretty great, drugs or not.”

Nicole let go of her defensive stance, relaxing her shoulders. “And you’d be right. It was pretty great.” And that was all she was going to say for the moment.

She had enough on her plate. Getting that text from Johnny had tossed her completely off-balance. She didn’t trust anything she was feeling right now.

Taylor sat straight up in her seat, and Nicole could almost see her matchmaking wheels spinning around inside her head. “That’s awesome.”

She sighed. Taylor meant well, but Nicole didn’t want to encourage her. “It would be, if things were different, but they’re not.”

With that, she left the room to check on Cody.

*

Garrett stood onthe steps at Cottonwood, feeling a bit helpless as Coop took a sleeping Cody out of the car seat and carried him into the house. Garrett could hardly do it himself. He had twelve stitches in his left arm, the pain still there, though greatly reduced thanks to the painkillers. His wound was wrapped in bandages that went up to his elbow and he’d been warned not to do too much for a few days.

Cody had conked out almost immediately on the way home from the hospital. Who could blame him? The boy had had a long worrisome day. Nicole had been great, making sure Cody had people around that cared about him. She’d taken him in and with the help of Taylor and Coop, made sure Cody was okay.

Nicole walked past him and went into Cody’s bedroom, turning down the bed. Garrett hated putting her out any more than necessary, but she’d insisted on coming to Cottonwood to help. Besides, she’d argued, Coop was her ride home.

Tiny colorful Christmas tree lights cast Cody’s room in a cheerful glow. It made for a pretty great night-light. Coop laid Cody down on the bed and strode out of the room.

Nicole walked over, bent down, and brushed a strand of hair from Cody’s face. She whispered something and then blew his nephew a kiss. Turning to him, she asked quietly, “Can you manage getting him into pajamas?”

Garrett stared at Nicole. She was quickly becoming a large part of his life. She’d been a godsend lately, and he didn’t know how to repay her kindness. He wasn’t sure what to say to her, or how to decipher the feelings he had for her. At times like these, thoughts of staying on in Last Stand entered his mind for a few fleeting moments. It was a nice fantasy, but that was all it was. Cody needed stability, and if things didn’t work out with Nicole, Cody would get hurt again. Garrett wasn’t willing to chance it. There’d been too much heartache already in his young life.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Luckily, if he could call anything lucky about today, his left arm had been injured and not his right.

Nicole walked out of the room and he met her in the hallway. “Thanks for all you’ve done. I… don’t have words.” He swallowed hard.

“You don’t need words. I know, Garrett,” she said.

He nodded his head.

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