Page 15 of Her Candy Cane Cowboy
“So, where to first?” I ask, trying to ignore the battle within me.
He pulls the car away from the curb and turns it toward the Inn. “First, we get your coat.”
This man shows more concern for my well-being than my ex did the entire time we were together. That should have been a clue on my journey to the altar. If only I’d gone on a wake-the-hell-up tour, I wouldn’t have ended up with my heart in such a mess.
At the Inn, Dallas escorts me to my room but doesn’t come in though I can tell he wants to. He’s a wolf wrapped in a gentleman. My body reacts to one while my heart reacts to both.
I get my coat, and we walk back out into the cold evening.
“Let’s start at the far end of the shops,” he says.
“This is what you mean by errands?”
His lips twist. “I have to shop. That’s an errand to me.”
“I’m not the biggest fan of shopping either. I prefer a night at home with a good book or a movie.”
“We have that in common, Ginger.”
He doesn’t simply say my name. He speaks it tenderly like the name belongs to someone important to him.
I pull in a breath of cold air. It’s a crystal-clear winter night and the stars are bright. I’m walking with a handsome cowboy who’s funny and considerate and—this feels like a date.
“Why do your brothers all have R names?” I ask, trying to keep things casual and friendly, not romantic.
“My parents found out the truth and searched all over hell and back for me. My mom was expecting my brother Radley at the time. While searching, they met a woman who claimed she was a fortune teller. She told them to give their child a name starting with R and they’d find me within a month.”
“She scammed them?”
“She did. But my parents were so desperate to find me, they just kept going with the R names in case the so-called fortune teller was speaking the truth, but her timeline was off.”
“I feel so bad for your folks,” I say, blowing on my hands to warm them.
Dallas pulls a pair of gloves from his coat pocket and pauses to put them on my hands, then resumes walking like he didn’t just make my heart flutter.
“They’re not bitter about the past. Instead, they focus on how thankful they are that we’re all together. I have a large family with plenty of aunts and uncles and cousins. And I also have Marshall and Jonas and the rest of the Richfords. They’re friends who are like brothers to me.”
We stop walking outside a shop displaying ugly Christmas sweaters in the window. Dallas looks at them then at me. “Let’s get one.”
“I don’t—” I start to say I don’t wear Christmas related clothing but stop before I finish. This one thing…I can do this one thing with him and hold onto this memory once we go our separate ways.
The bells on the door jingle as we enter.
Dallas walks up to two matching sweaters on a rack in the center of the store. Both are red and feature a fireplace in the middle, with stockings hanging from a mantle. The stockings are filled with real peppermint sticks.
Multicolored garland stretches across the neck of the sweaters and down both arms. Poorly wrapped presents with lopsided bows hang off the hem of the sweater. They’re big and bulky and make me laugh out loud at how horrible they are.
Dallas plucks both from the rack and carries them to the register.
“Those are the only two like this,” the cashier says as she rings them up.
“I wonder why,” I murmur.
The cashier laughs and reaches for a bag.
“You don’t have to bag them. We’re going to wear them,” Dallas says. He nudges me. “C’mon.”
I can’t help but go along with him. Removing my coat, I pull the sweater on and smooth it down the best I can.
