The Christmas Bride - A Western Romance Novella (Book 4, Burnett Brides Series) Read Free

one room. This room belonged to him, and he’d decorated it just the way he damn well pleased. Now, he wanted to move his bed in here rather than sleep in that lonely bedroom upstairs. He missed his wife, the healthy Beatrice, not the woman who’d wasted away before his eyes.
    “Yes, we probably need to have the men go ahead and move the cattle to the south pasture, where we can keep an eye on them. Looks like winter arrived early this year.”
    Books graced the shelves along with liquor bottles. Above the fireplace mantel hung his ten-point buck he’d shot right after they built the house. This house, his home, held so many memories, and now he was ready to create more memories with someone, maybe even Eugenia.
    “Yap,” Gus responded and then rubbed his belly. “I was getting spoilt to those casseroles you kept bringing out. What happened? They’ve dried up worse than the creek in summer.”
    “I put an end to them,” Wyatt responded, remembering the look on Eugenia’s face as he’d pulled out the empty dishes. Sometimes a man had to get the upper hand, and he’d taken the first step that day.
    “Dang, I was enjoying a woman’s cooking for a change.”
    “Then I’ll give you the women’s names and you can call on them,” Wyatt admonished, taking a swig of his drink.
    Gus rolled his eyes. “And end up hog tied to one of ’em? No, thanks. You’re used to a woman, and since Miss Beatrice has been gone a year, maybe you should consider one of these fine ladies who are cooking you casseroles.”
    Wyatt set his glass down and considered his friend. Funny how a man who’d never married could give him advice on finding a woman. “The problem is that none of them interest me.”
    “Dang, that’s a real shame. I was enjoying their cooking. Could you at least string them along for a little while, so we can continue to eat decent food?”Wyatt slammed his drink on the desk. “Now, what kind of man does that to a woman?”
    Gus was a great foreman, a good man who didn’t know how to handle women. Never had been able to keep a woman interested in him longer than a courting moon. Maybe there was a reason he’d never married.”A hungry man?”
    “Go to the damn café if you’re hungry. Don’t depend on widow women who are looking husbands, unless you want to get hitched,” Wyatt told him.
    “No, thanks!” Gus held up his hand and shook his head. “You have to admit we haven’t had food like that since Mrs. Beatrice died.”
    Beatrice had been an excellent cook. They’d eaten well, and her pies were known for bringing the men running in from the barn. But she was gone. “Well, it’s over. I put a stop to the widow women’s cooking.”
    Gus sank into a chair across from him and laughed. “Why did all these women think you were on the hunt for a wife?”
    “From what I was told, they were sent here by Eugenia Burnett.” He couldn’t help but think about Eugenia. Her dark hair was more silver than black, and her blue eyes sparkled with heat and laughter. For being almost fifty, her figure was still neat and trim in a shorter spitfire version.
    “Mrs. Beatrice’s friend?”
    “The one.” The woman was a small ball of dynamite that no one wanted to cross.
    Gus stammered in shock. “Wweell why would she be trying to set up her friend’s husband?”Wyatt shrugged and contemplated the fire. “You know we often had Eugenia and Thomas out for dinner.”
    Eugenia and he shared something that they had never acknowledged while they were both married. At a dinner, they’d accidentally touched, and Wyatt’s body had tingled and hummed with something he’d never experienced before. While he was married to Beatrice, he’d avoided his wife’s best friend.
    “Yes, those two women could talk the feathers off a chicken.”
    Wyatt took a sip of his whiskey, letting it warm him all the way to his toes, just like a fine woman could heat up a man. And that’s what he missed. He missed having a woman. Her