Mistletoe Cowboy Read Free Page B

that fake stuff out of a can that she and Grand sprayed on the windows when she was a little girl.
    â€œCoffee smells good. Reckon it’s about ready?” he asked. “Thank goodness for a full propane tank. Miz Ada told me that she has a standing order with the propane company out of Claude. And you can wipe that mean look off your face, lady. We’re stuck here together until this ends. I’m not real happy about being holed up with you either, but it’s the way it is and we might as well make the best of it.”
    Her eyes narrowed and her brow wrinkled.
    You want your face to freeze with that nasty look on it? Her grandmother’s words came back to haunt her.
    â€œNumber one, Mr. Riley, you don’t tell me how to look or what to do. Number two, Mr. Riley, Grand won’t ever sell you this place, so don’t get too comfortable.”
    â€œRule number one, lady, I speak my mind, so get used to it. Rule number two, I’m settling in and getting comfortable because I think she will sell the ranch to me. The deed will say that you get to live on the ranch as long as you want when the sale is sealed, signed, and finished. And back to rule number one, darlin’, if you want your face to freeze like that, then just hold on to that nasty look,” Creed said.
    Her face softened, but she wasn’t ready to smile and welcome the damn cowboy. Not yet, probably not ever.
    â€œShe wasn’t supposed to leave until today.”
    Maybe the blizzard was a blessing. He’d see right quick that life in the canyon was too hard and he’d be ready to get the hell out of the place as soon as he could. Sage didn’t mind doing chores. She hated milking a cow, but she could do that too if the cowboy would ride on out of the canyon as soon as the roads were cleared. Hell, she’d call a helicopter and pay the bill out of her own money if he wanted to get out of the canyon before the snowplow arrived.
    â€œWhat’s for breakfast?” he asked.
    â€œWhatever you can scrounge up. I didn’t take you to raise,” she said shortly.
    He smiled down at her. “Miz Ada said you’d be a handful and you’d come in here mad as a wet hen after a tornado. She was dead on, but darlin’, I am buyin’ this place. You are welcome to live on it. We can be friends, barely acquaintances, or enemies. Your choice and you don’t even have to make it today. But it’s going to be a long three weeks until she comes back and in this storm we’ve got no one but each other, so it can be pleasant or pretty damn miserable. Remember as you drink your coffee that this house ain’t very big and we are stuck in it together.”
    The arrogance of the man!
    He went on. “She left because of the storm and because her sister needs her, not because she was a bit afraid of you. That woman gave me the impression that she could face down the devil and own half of hell before the fight was over. You wouldn’t pose much problem.”
    â€œYou got her right, but you got me all wrong. I’m every bit as mean as she is. She raised me,” Sage said.
    Creed wiped the snow from his cheeks as it melted from his lashes. “I like my eggs scrambled.”
    â€œI like mine easy over.”
    Creed raised an eyebrow. “Who’s cookin’?”
    â€œNot me,” she told him. She wasn’t about to start cooking for him or feeding that dog he’d brought in either.
    The ugly mutt looked from one of them to the other. Finally, he ambled toward the fireplace, where he curled up in a ball, covered his nose with his paw, and shut his eyes.
    Creed brushed past Sage and poured two cups of coffee. He set hers on the table beside the bucket of milk and leaned against the kitchen side of the bar separating the two rooms.
    â€œYou going to strain that and put it in the refrigerator or am I?”
    â€œI’ll do it. You probably wouldn’t do it right