Page 30 of Her Candy Cane Cowboy
He swings me around while laughing delightedly. “Thanks to Dallas and his buddies, I am. Where is he?”
Dallas comes out to greet my father and looks at me. “I told you I’d make sure you wouldn’t miss Christmas with your dad.”
My heart is so full. This man…and how he cares for me…the power of his love…I’m unable to put into words what I’m feeling.
“Hey, I should get some glory, too. It was my stellar driving skills that fetched him.” A cowboy with dark eyes and a closely trimmed beard and mustache walks up and introduces himself. “I’m Jonas. And the weird looking guy with me is Marshall.”
“Speak for yourself,” Marshall says.
“Marshall? The dildo guy?” I say the words I was thinking but didn’t intend to speak out loud.
Dallas and Jonas laugh.
“Um…well…” Marshall rubs the back of his neck as he stumbles over his words.
My dad frowns. “Ginger. What a thing to say. Do you know him?”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to say I don’t but I know his candy cane dildo gift. I choke those words back. “No, we’ve never met.”
Ned calls out to my dad, and he wanders back inside the house.
Marshall is still embarrassed. “It slipped out,” I say, trying to assure him I didn’t mean to say it out loud. “Not the dildo because I didn’t use that.” I want the porch to open up and swallow me. “Sorry.”
Jonas is laughing so hard he’s having trouble catching his breath.
Dallas puts his arm around my shoulders. “I’m grateful for that toy. I think when we get married, we should have small dildos as the cake topper. One dressed in a tuxedo and the other?—”
I elbow him.
Marshal laughs. “I’m a matchmaker at heart I guess.” Then he sends Jonas a devilish grin. “Don’t you need to rush back? You don’t want to keep Melody waiting.”
“Since it’s Christmas Eve, I’m gonna let that vile comment go.”
“Your life would be easier if you’d admit you want that woman.”
“I want her like I want to get neutered. Like I want to sit on a spur. Like I?—”
“You love her then?” Marshall says.
“I’ll wait in the truck. Hurry your ass up if you want a ride.” Jonas stalks off.
Marshall laughs and shakes hands with Dallas before leaving.
“What’s wrong between Melody and Jonas?” I ask once we’re alone on the porch.
“I don’t know all the details, but something happened that neither of them will talk about. Calling them enemies is putting it mildly. They hate to even be in the same room together.”
The front door opens a crack. “Let’s watch a movie, Ginger,” Elizabeth says with another strange glance at Dallas.
There’s already a romcom on the TV screen and a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table when I go back in.
“I’m going down the hall to my dad’s office,” Dallas tells me once I’m settled on the sofa beside Elizabeth. I’m surprised because I thought he’d join us.
“I’ll tag along,” my dad says.
“What’s going on, Dad?” I ask. Normally, he’d be the first one to chill on the sofa when a movie is playing.
“Nothing. I’m just hanging out with my new friends.”
