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Gazing at her, he smiled as he recanted his family history.
“My grandfather had a racehorse named Folly and he won enough money that he was able to purchase this spread. It’s been in the family for generations.”
And now he was the only family member left. Sadness gripped him, but he pushed the feelings away. Now was not the time or there might be no family left after tonight.
The automatic gate tried to swing open through the snow and he knew it wasn’t going to make it. “Excuse me.”
He jumped out of the truck and the snow came up mid-calf. Pushing the gate open manually, he had to move some of the snow out of the way with a shovel he kept chained to the gate.
When the snow was deep, the tool came in handy.
Once he’d moved enough snow, he climbed back in.
This was the first big snowstorm of the season. Sure, they had several inches before, but this storm was going to make feet, not inches.
“Don’t be surprised if we get snowed in for a couple of days,” he said, putting the truck back in gear. Thank goodness the cattle trucks had hauled away most of the herd several weeks ago. The remaining heads were close to the house and he could feed them hay.
“No,” she said. “I have to be in Whitefish for Christmas.”
Stealing a peek at her, he could see she was visibly upset at the idea of not getting to her family before the holiday. “We’ll see what happens.”
Whitefish was still several hours away and the roads were already covered with more snow coming down. The plows would not be out until the precipitation stopped and then they would see how much damage the little vehicle had sustained.
It was not looking good for her to make it to Whitefish before Christmas.
As they neared the house, she saw the Christmas lights that twinkled different colors on his ranch house.
The lights always filled him with warmth and happiness, even though his mother was no longer around.
“Oh, this is beautiful,” she said. “Who put up the lights? Your parents?”
Now she was about to learn they would be alone.
“No,” he said, “I put them up.”
His mother had loved the house to be adorned for Christmas, and in honor of her memory, he made certain their home was decorated just the way she would’ve liked.
It always filled him with pleasure at the thought of how happy she’d be to see he’d kept up the tradition. But secretly, he wished she was here hanging Christmas lights and giving the family direction on how she wanted everything.
Olivia frowned at him. “You do have family living with you?”
He licked his dry lips. “No. My parents are both dead. I gave the servants the week off to spend with their families. We’re going to be all alone.”
Until now, he’d planned on being by himself for the holidays.
A gasp came from her and she shook her head. “No.”
“If you want me to, I’ll go stay in the barn,” he said, knowing it would be a cold night, but at least she might feel more comfortable. And he wanted her to trust him. He would never hurt her, but she didn’t know that beneath his cowboy hat was just a lonely man.
Biting her bottom lip, he could see that she was indecisive. “No, it would be too cold.”
“Good,” he said. “I was not looking forward to bedding down with the cattle. Don’t worry, I’m not a serial killer or a rapist or a bad person. Just a lonely cowboy.”
Her brows drew together. “You’re a stranger,” she said. “And yet, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t stopped.”
As the truck pulled up in front of the house, he didn’t answer her, but feared she would have frozen to death.
“We’re two strangers brought together by a bad storm.”
