Page 51 of Christmas with the Cowgirl
Miles laughed, feeling a bit of pressure ease.“No way, man.I wouldn’t miss that for the world.”
“Good.Because I need you to hold my hat.”
Miles blinked.“What?”
His friend grinned at him.“Nic wants me to wear the hat the town gave me, but not during the ceremony.So I need a hat holder.Jeremy and Maverick are already going to be busy as ring bearers.”
He laughed then.“I’d be honored.”
He meant it.He knew Tucker was set to be best man, and Jackson’s sister Trista would be a bridesmaid, her fiancé a groomsman, with Nic’s mother the…matron of honor, he thought they called it.He hadn’t expected to be anything more than an attendee, and he did truly feel honored.
“Thanks,” Jackson said.“It…” He stopped, then clearly plunged ahead.“It means a lot to have the people who mean the most to me to be part of this.”
Miles’s throat tightened.“Damn, bro, don’t go getting mushy on me now.”
The moment ended laughingly with a bro hug, but Miles knew the words had been utterly sincere.
They also gave him an idea.And the next day, he put it into action.
“I was thinking,” he began, as they were checking all the pastures to be sure there was water for all the stock.
“Should I be worried?”Riley asked.She was smiling at him, and that gave him hope.Among other things that smile of hers gave him.
“That Christmas tree lighting tonight…”
“And the parade.Don’t forget that.”
“Yeah, that too.Jackson and Nic are taking Jeremy.They invited me along, but I’d really feel like a third wheel.”
“I’ve noticed the closer the wedding gets, the more they pull together.”
“And the mushier they get,” he said, using what Jackson had unintentionally given him.
Riley grinned at him.“I’ve noticed that, too.”
“I’d still like to go, to see it all, but I’m clueless.So I was wondering if you’d mind me tagging along with you.It’s okay if you’d rather not,” he said hastily.“I’ll go on my own, and figure it out somehow, but it’d be a lot easier with a local.And I thought if your dad’s going, I could maybe help if his leg starts bothering him.”
There.He’d vomited it all out.In a way that would make any of the Hollywood deal makers he’d dealt with laugh.He never put it all out on the table like that—that’s just not how that game was played.
But this is not a game.
He realized in that moment just how true that was.He wasn’t entirely sure of what it was, because he’d never felt quite like this before.
But he was sure what it was not.
“Dad’s not going this year.”
Miles blinked.Out of all he’d said, that was what she’d seized on?Was that good, or was it just a diversion?She went on as if it were a casual conversation.Which it was not, to him.
“He doesn’t want to risk it when his leg’s starting to feel better.And he wants to see the new video feed Cody Rafferty and Sean Highwater have rigged up.”
That threw him off track a little.“They what?”
“They’re using the security cams outside the courthouse.They look down on the square at the library and you can see the tree.The front one shows the street, so you’ll get the parade.They’ve jacked up—their phrase, not mine—the picture quality and speed, and they’re sending it to the city channel that shows the town hall meetings.So people stuck at home can still watch.”
“That’s pretty clever.And nice of them.”
“They love this town like all of us do,” she answered simply.“And they’re prepping for next year.”
