Page 50 of Cowboy’s Christmas Baker

“Well, their truck broke down,” she went on. “So they can’t deliver.”

“No problem,” Harrison said. “We’ll go pick them up. I can come get you tomorrow right after the morning milking, if you can get away.”

“Really?” Mallory asked, looking torn. “I don’t want to take you from your farm.”

“It’s not a big deal,” he told her, though she was right, he should be getting more organized. “I can catch up with farm stuff anytime. Let’s go get broken candy canes together.”

“Thank you,” Mallory said, warmth in her gaze again as she looked up at him like he was her hero. “I guess it seems like kind of a silly thing to get upset about, but it’s just one more thing, you know?”

But Harrison did know. He knew exactly how fast those little things added up when you were already using so much willpower just to hold yourself together. And it didn’t matter how big or small her problem was. Harrison wanted to solve them all if he could, to make her life easy and wash all her worries away.

But of course he couldn’t say any of that, and even if he had the nerve, he didn’t really know how. He’d never had a gift with words, at least not in person. Talking with Mallory had been so much easier online, when he wasn’t distracted by her fiery hair, or her sparkling emerald eyes, or those soft lips that he was just dying to…

“Dad, Mallory,” Katie yelled, bursting out the front door. “Where are you guys? It’s time to count the votes.”

“Hi, Katie,” Mallory called up to her, jogging back to the porch. “We were loading up some stuff from your great-uncle.”

Katie looked between the two of them, a little furrow in her brow.

“Everyone voted?” Harrison asked her, hoping it was enough to distract her from whatever she was trying to piece together.

“Yes,” she said. “Let’s count them, Mal.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Mallory said. “Hopefully, we can name a winner tonight and I’ll have my signature treat figured out.”

Katie grabbed her hand and the two of them hurried up the porch steps and into the house.

Harrison stood outside a while longer, until his heart had calmed and he had some hope of going inside without the entire extended family reading his emotions on his face.

He might be able to keep them in the dark for now, but he couldn’t pull the wool over his own eyes. Like it or not, he was definitely going to be making a fool of himself over sweet Mallory Fisher, and soon.

But if he planned it right, at least he could do it on his own terms.

11

MALLORY

Mallory sat in the passenger side of Harrison’s truck the next day, watching Trinity Falls go by out the window.

“Thank you so much for doing this,” she said again, turning to him.

He was so handsome. The sun lit his profile and she couldn’t help thinking that he looked like he could be the star of one of the Westerns her dad and Dean used to watch on Saturday afternoons.

“It’s no problem,” he said, his voice deep and dark.

It was hard to believe this was the same man who had almost kissed her last night.

And what happened to the man I got to know online? She wondered. The man who was so in touch with his emotions?

But she understood it. She was probably different online too. It was easier to be open when the conversation felt anonymous.

“What a gorgeous day,” she said, turning her attention back to the scenery out the window, which was much more predictable than her handsome companion.

“It’s supposed to snow later,” he said. “But we’ll be fine in the truck.”

There was a moment of silence, and she wondered whether he might bring up last night.

“How’s the farm?” she asked him after a moment.