A McCree Christmas (Chasing McCree) Read Free

Her voice was deadpan.
    “Apparently Uncle Jerry likes a shotgun wedding.”
    She opened the freezer and dug around before pulling out a small tub of peppermint chip. “That’s one I haven’t heard before.”
    “At least she’s not blunt like your grandmother.” I smiled as she found the silverware and dug into the ice cream. “Do you want to wait until after we eat the lasagna?”
    “Nah, this is more fun.” She held up a spoonful and popped it in my mouth. “At least she didn’t pull anything biblical.”
    I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
    “Last Sunday, after church. You were in the bathroom, and I was waiting out by the truck. The pastor’s wife came over to say hi, and the conversation somehow turned from a nice chat about winter weather, to fornication and being damned to hell for committing a sin.” She took another bite of the ice cream. “Of course, I told her that I wasn’t sure hell existed, that I’d have to fornicate to find out the truth, and that it would be an awfully tempting experiment.”
    I almost choked on the ice cream. “No wonder she was looking at me funny when I walked out of the church. Briar, you can’t say things like that to someone like Dorothy Brown. It’ll be all over town in a few days.”
    “She’s just jealous.” Briar patted my chest and hopped up to sit on the counter. “Pastor Brown is a lovely man, but his wife is just like those women my mother keeps in her circle of friends. She is a viper.”
    “So giving her a rumor is smart in what way?”
    She blinked. “I wasn’t thinking it would be a rumor at the time. I was just messing with her.”
    “Good Lord, now I know why Millie was talking about a shotgun wedding. Next time, stick to talking about the weather.”
    She smirked. “You have to admit, it’s kind of funny. I wonder what people will say at church next time we’re there. They’re all going to think we’re fornicating just to see if we’ll be damned.”
    I hung my head, suppressing a laugh. “Ever since you moved to Montana, you’ve really gotten ballsy, Briar.”
    “Must be all the fresh air.” She leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “I’m going to sit in front of the fire. Want to join me?”
    “Aw, now don’t start that,” I said. “We’ll forget about the lasagna and then it’ll burn.”
    She grinned, hopping down from the counter and backing out of the kitchen. “So shut off the oven and you can be my snuggle buddy.”
    “I have a feeling I’ll be staring down the wrong end of a rifle in the future.” I turned off the oven and gr inned, giving her a head start.

 
     
    Briar
     
    An incessant beeping brought me out of a dead sleep. I fumbled around until I found Chase’s hand hiding under a pillow, and jabbed at the buttons until the alarm on his watch shut off. It was the compass watch I given him for his birthday. He never took it off. I loved that he loved it, but I wasn’t a fan of the alarm. I liked to sleep too much.
    Something bugged me though, making me come around when I was about to drift off.
    Oh, right.
    How could I have forgotten we had an early flight to Florida we couldn’t miss?
    I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. It was six a.m. and I needed to get a few more things together before we could leave.
    “Chase.” I shook him. It was like trying to move a brick wall.
    Normally we didn’t share a bed. We had separate rooms in the main house, but every once in a while, I’d seek him out to snuggle, and we’d end up falling asleep.
    Last night had gone a little differently.
    We’d had the whole cabin to ourselves and no reason to sleep apart.
    I could understand though, that some people would think our relationship was a little odd. I’d moved up from Florida about six months ago, not knowing anything about ranch life. I was living with Chase in the main house, and his aunt and uncle lived with us.
    Chase’s father had died in a plane crash, leaving him the heir to a fortune. He was