Mistletoe Cowboy by Carolyn Brown

taken her mind off Creed and his sexy eyes.
    â€œIt’s an angel,” Creed said.
    She jumped when he spoke. Did he read minds? If so, did he know that she’d been thinking about his sexy eyes?
    â€œYou can see it?” she asked.
    â€œHow could I not see it? It’s an angel in the swirling snow and it’s looking at the little cardinal on the outside and the mistletoe on the sill there. Where did you get three pieces, anyway?”
    â€œYou brought them in with you. I guess the wind blew a bunch down from one of the scrub oak trees. One piece was stuck on your shoulder when you came in the first time. Then you tracked the other two inside.”
    â€œWe’ll tie a red ribbon around them and hang them up for the holidays. When are we putting up the tree?”
    â€œWell, it won’t be today, will it?”
    â€œDon’t get all cranky on me, lady.”
    â€œStatin’ facts. Not bein’ cranky.”
    â€œYou do put up a tree, don’t you?”
    â€œYes, we do. A big real cedar tree and we decorate the whole house even if just me and Grand are the only ones who see it. She might be gone this year until the last minute, but I’ll have the whole place decorated up by the time she gets home.”
    Creed laid his book aside. “I love Christmas. Momma sends me and Dalton and Blake to the woods the day after Thanksgiving while she and my brothers’ wives do the Black Friday shopping. That night everyone comes home for leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner and we decorate the tree. I won’t be there this year, but we can find a cedar tree and start our own tradition right here.”
    There was that word again, or at least a derivative of it.
    Us. We. Our.
    They all meant a joining of minds to form relationships, friendships, or otherwise. How could things change so quickly? Wasn’t she fighting against it with all her soul and heart?
    â€œIf this wind doesn’t stop we might have to dig a tree out from under the drifts before we could even cut it down,” she said and went back to painting.
    â€œIt’s doable. When it does stop we’ll go find just the right one and we’ll drag it in here, snow and all. These floors will mop up, and the branches would soon dry in the warm room. Did you ever wish you’d grown up in a big family atmosphere?” he asked.
    â€œAll the time,” she said wistfully as she carefully dotted in the angel’s eyes with her smallest brush. “You’ll miss them if you stay, Creed. The canyon is a lonely place.”
    â€œBut it’s peaceful and that doesn’t come cheap. And lonely is just a state of mind. Sometimes peace can override lonely if…” He stopped.
    â€œGo on.”
    â€œI was engaged a while back. Head over heels in love with a woman named Macy. She went on a trip and when she came home she said she didn’t really love me. She loved the idea of being in love, but she didn’t think she’d ever really loved me. Turned out she’d met someone else that she did love on that trip. The engagement was over and I kept asking myself what I could have done different. This place has brought me the first peace I’ve known since then.”
    Sage’s heart stopped. After that confession, how could she push him out of the canyon? Or maybe he was just playing her so that she wouldn’t put up a fight for her grandmother to back out of the sale. He said he always told the truth and could be trusted, but saying and doing were often two horses of very different colors.
    â€œWell?” he said.
    â€œAt least she was honest,” Sage said.
    â€œYes, she was.”
    â€œIt is peaceful here if you don’t mind the solitude. Grand is an old hermit. She won’t ever like being cooped up in a house with her sister or living in a congested part of the world.”
    â€œI thought her sister had a farm.”
    â€œFive acres. One old two-story house.