A Cowboy Under The Mistletoe

Another silence fell, as the song they were dancing to came to an end.

They stood there, not moving, still holding on to each other.

“And let me drive you,” Hank murmured.

Ally glanced over at Penderson.

The agent looked even more incensed. And Hank knew, whether Ally realized it or not, the stakes for the ranch had just been raised. Corporate Farms would be more determined than ever to steal the property out from under him. Which was too bad, because they weren’t going to get it; his new plan guaranteed that.

“All right,” Ally said eventually. “Just let me say good-night to Mr. Penderson.”

Hank returned his apron and badge while Ally walked across the dance hall.

Hank’s mother pulled him aside before he could duck out. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked.

“Don’t I always?” he quipped. He refused to entertain the notion of failure.

Greta blocked his way. “I don’t blame you for going after Ally Garrett. She is a lovely young woman. But she deserves better than the shenanigans you pulled just now.”

Hank thought that was a little like the pot calling the kettle black. His own father had called for a duel, in the street in front of the dance hall, while working to win his mother’s heart. The outlandish maneuver infuriated-and captivated-his mom to this day.

Where women were concerned, there was one thing Hank knew. You had to go public with your feelings if you wanted a real chance with them. He figured he had done that tonight.

He gave his mother a perfunctory smile. “I know Ally deserves only the best, Mom.”

Greta lifted an elegant silver-blond brow. “Do you?”

Hank was tired of family interference, no matter how well meant. “My situation with Ally is complicated.” Too complicated, he added silently, for a regular courtship at a regular pace.

Greta patted his arm with maternal affection. “Life is always complicated, Hank. That’s what makes it so interesting.” She paused to make sure she had his full attention. “It doesn’t mean that Ally deserves any less than your best. Especially given all she’s been through the last couple of years.”

And was still going through, Hank thought, watching her converse quietly with Penderson.

Was his mother right? Was he making a mistake by going all Texan on Ally? All Hank knew for sure was that Ally looked tense and unhappy now-and that she had appeared to be doing okay before she knew he was on the scene…

“Everything all right?” Hank’s mother asked Ally kindly, as she joined them in the employees-only alcove between the dining room and kitchen.

Ally stepped aside to let a server prepare a tray of drinks, and flashed a too-bright smile. “I told Mr. Penderson to feel free to stay and have dessert and coffee without me, since our meeting this evening is concluded and I’ve got another ride back to the ranch. Thus far, he’s refusing…”

Greta lifted a hand. “I understand, dear. I’ll talk to him and see what I can do. In the meantime, I want you to know I’ve asked Hank to escort you to our open house out at the ranch, on the evening of the twenty-third.”

Ally’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “I-”

Way to go, Mom, Hank thought, even more resentfully. It wasn’t enough she was advising him-without his consent-on his love life. Now she was arranging it for him, too.

Across the dining hall, Penderson lifted a hand as if to signal a waiter.

Greta patted Ally reassuringly on the arm. “I’ll take care of that.” She glided off.

Hank looked at Ally. She appeared as shocked and peeved as he felt. Which in turn prompted him to say matter-of-factly, “It looks like we have a date.” One arranged by his mother, no less!

ALLY KNEW THE MATCHMAKING could not stand. So the moment they started the drive back to Mesquite Ridge, she looked at Hank and blurted, “I know your mother feels sorry for me because it’s Christmas and I have no family of my own.”

“That’s not it,” Hank interrupted, with the arrogance of a man who always thought he knew better-at least where his own family was concerned.

Ally argued back, just as insistently, “It’s exactly why she asked me to go to the open house yesterday. And why, when I hedged instead of just accepting her invitation on the spot, she put additional pressure on me tonight, by asking you to escort me. Because she knew it would be impossible for me to say no to the both of you. I’d be outnumbered and out…whatever.”

Hank exhaled in exasperation. He pulled the truck off the road, into an empty parking lot at the edge of town. He put it in Park, leaving the lights on and the motor running, and turned toward her, draping his arm along the bench seat. “First of all…left to my own devices, I would have asked you to the party myself and provided transportation to and from the event.”

Ally looked out the window. “You don’t have to do that, either. I’m fine on my own.”

Hank slid a hand beneath her chin and guided her face to his. “No doubt. I still want to escort you. It’s a fun party. A lot of people come, and we always have a good time.”

Exactly why I wouldn’t fit in, Ally thought. I’ve never been a party person. And certainly not on a scale with the famously loving and outgoing McCabe clan.

“Furthermore,” Hank continued in a low tone that sent shivers up and down Ally’s spine, “my mom arranging for me to escort you has nothing to do with the sympathy she feels regarding your loss.”

“Then what is it?” Ally asked, her voice tight with apprehension.

“She doesn’t trust me to be able to handle another romance, after the way I screwed up with Jo-anne.”

“What are you talking about?” Ally demanded. “The two of you were engaged! Plus, everyone knows you were madly in love each other.” Just hearing about it had made her envious.

Hank exhaled. “No one knows this, but we were on the verge of breaking up when Jo-anne left to go overseas. You see, I asked her to marry me the week we graduated from college. She said yes. The only problem was, she had already accepted a job at an American hotel abroad. She still wanted to go and work there for a year, then come back and marry me later.”

“And that put a wrench in your plans…” Ally guessed.

He nodded. “Pretty much. But I didn’t want to stand in her way. She’d never really been out of Texas, and this would have allowed her to spread her wings and travel through Europe, on her time off work, for very little money. She wanted me to try and get a job there, too, so I could get the same perks and discounts at other hotels in the chain, as she did. But I wasn’t interested in being a bellboy…which was all they had available.”

“So what did you do?” Ally asked curiously.

“After Jo-anne went overseas, I took a job on a ranch in Colorado and started thinking about what I really wanted to do with my life, which was join the military and become a chopper pilot. And then eventually acquire my own ranch. When I told Jo-anne, she thought it would be great. After all, she was all for adventure and living life out of the ordinary. And we figured we could both request assignments overseas and see the world together that way…”

He swallowed hard. “Things were finally back on track between the two of us. I had almost saved enough money to go and visit her for a couple weeks and then…she got killed in that terrorist bombing.”

Ally understood a lot about grief and guilt. “And you had a hard time forgiving yourself,” she presumed softly.

He nodded. “We wasted a lot of time arguing about things that could have been worked out a whole heck of a lot easier, if the two of us had just figured out what we had to have to be happy and been willing to compromise sooner.”

Ally bit her lip. “There’s one thing I don’t understand. If your parents knew you were already thinking about enlisting, then…”

“I hadn’t told anyone but Jo-anne of my plans, or her reaction. After she was killed, I didn’t want to talk about what might have been, just what I was going to do next.”

That made sense. Ally studied Hank’s tortured expression. “So your mother thinks…”

“The same thing my dad thinks-that I need the family’s help if I’m going to achieve anything-whether it be in ranching or romance. And that’s why Dad is always stopping by the ranch to see if I need his help with anything,