Yuletide Cowboy

“So what do you think?” Chance asked.

He’d hung several strands of Christmas lights, and Lynn’s old house was looking great. He was standing close to her and she could feel the warmth from his body through the down vest he wore. She’d helped him for the past hour and he’d been wonderful with her boys. And okay, the man smelled wonderful.

“Momma, don’t ya got yor ears on? What do you think?” Jack asked, tugging on her arm. It was what she always asked him and Gavin when they weren’t listening to her.

Boy, where had she been? “Ear one and ear two are both on and ready to do their jobs,” she said lightly.

She hoped Chance hadn’t noticed her embarrassing lapse. She stole a glance at him. He caught her looking and the wink he gave her said he’d noticed plenty.

DEBRA CLOPTON

was a 2004 Golden Heart finalist in the inspirational category, a 2006 Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award winner, a 2007 Golden Quill award winner and a finalist for the 2007 American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year Award. She praises the Lord each time someone votes for one of her books, and takes it as an affirmation that she is exactly where God wants her to be.

Debra is a hopeless romantic and loves to create stories with lively heroines and the strong heroes who fall in love with them. But most important, she loves showing her characters living their faith, seeking God’s will in their lives one day at a time. Her goal is to give her readers an entertaining story that will make them smile, hopefully laugh and always feel God’s goodness as they read her books. She has found the perfect home for her stories, writing for the Love Inspired line, and still has to pinch herself just to see if she really is awake and living her dream.

When she isn’t writing, she enjoys taking road trips, reading and spending time with her two sons, Chase and Kris. She loves hearing from readers and can be reached through her website, www.debraclopton.com, or by mail at P.O. Box 1125, Madisonville, Texas 77864.

Yuletide Cowboy
Debra Clopton

www.millsandboon.co.uk

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?

—Psalms 56: 3, 4

This book is dedicated to my home church: Cowboy Church of Leon County. Thank you all so much for your huge hearts! You are changing lives…mine included!

A special thank-you and dedication to our pastor, Tuffy Lofton—you are a cowboy preacher with a true heart for God.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

Chance Turner stepped from his truck as country singer Craig Morgan crooned “Small Town USA” on the radio. He was home in Mule Hollow, Texas, which definitely fit the song’s positive image of small-town life in the USA. A smile tugging at his lips, he reached into the truck bed for the large box his sister-in-law had instructed him to deliver to the church.

Colorful strings of Christmas lights overflowed from the box. Melody was late for work, she’d said, and didn’t have time to deliver the lights to the church secretary. That had been her pretense anyway, but Chance had no illusions about why she’d asked him to run the errand for her. It was the church.

She wanted him to be as near the church as possible. She had hopes that being here would fix “his problem”…if only it were that easy. He could have told her that seeing the church, being on the premises, wouldn’t help him. In stead he’d done as Melody asked—it was easier that way. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about his problem.

And he didn’t want to think about it either.

Pushing the dark thoughts aside he focused on delivering the lights. He’d get this done, then he’d head back to the ranch, back to the solitude he’d come home to find. Just him and his horse, and the land that had been in his family for six generations. He wasn’t the first Turner to contemplate the state of his life riding in the sanctuary of the vast Turner family ranch. Sanctuary—not exactly something he deserved. Not when he couldn’t see past the guilt eating at him.

Still, right now he needed what the solitude of the ranch offered him.

He wanted to ride across the pasture, just him and his horse…but, before he could saddle up, he had lights to deliver.

Hefting the box into his arms he strode toward the quaint white church he’d attended off and on for the better part of his youth. His boots crunched on the white rock and his spurs jangled as he headed down the side walk toward the office. The squeals of kids’ laughter, shrill with excitement, rode the chilly November wind. Chance had just reached the door when, like bulls out of the chute, two small boys pounded around the edge of the building. Trailing behind them was a monster of a dog.

He tried to sidestep the first kid but he was already on a collision course, and the rest was a blur. One-two-three he was hit by the first kid, fighting for balance as the second kid tangled up with them, and the horse of a dog launched himself at the box of lights in Chance’s arms. That was the kicker.

Boots up, head back, Chance sailed straight to the ground, landing like a hundred-and-eighty-pound sack of bad luck!

“Oh, my goodness,” Lynn Perry gasped when she opened the door of the church office to find her twins and a long-legged cowboy sprawled on the grass. Rushing forward she grabbed Gavin by his belt and hauled him off Chance, setting him to the side where he stood giggling as she reached for Jack. The poor cowboy was on his own with Tiny, though. The big dog was all over him like butter on toast.

“Tiny, get off of him.” Lynn grabbed the dog by his collar and tugged. Nothing happened. “Move, Tiny, you big bag of rocks. Come…on.” The beautiful, slate-gray Catahoula had a pale buff face outlined in rich chestnut. The giant blinked his silver-blue eyes at her, clueless as to what he was doing wrong. After all, he was simply having a great time sitting on top of the new cowboy play-toy.

Looking less than pleased, Chance scowled as he pushed the dog off him.

“Are you all right?” Lynn asked, holding Tiny back when he flopped his tongue out and made a last-ditch effort to swipe the cowboy’s face. “I’m so sorry,” she said. The last thing she’d expected to find when she’d heard her kids squealing was Chance Turner, rodeo preach er, beneath the pileup of her twin boys and their dog. Poor man was covered in Christmas lights, too.

In the two years that she’d lived in Mule Hollow the handsome preacher had come home only recently to per form his cousin’s wedding. But here he sat sprawled on the sidewalk, his serious green eyes looking through the curtain of Christmas lights hanging from his cowboy hat. Thankfully, those gorgeous eyes were crinkling around the edges as his lips turned up in a smile.

“We had a bit of a wreck,” he drawled, instantly sending butterflies into flight in her chest.

Startled, she ignored the response. “A wreck?”

“Yeah, Momma,” Gavin offered, grinning like an opossum. “We done run him down. Tiny didn’t mean to do it.”

Jack looked intently up at her. “It was an accident.”

She had to smile and Chance did, too. His lips hitched to one side in that signature Turner grin he shared with his three cousins, a bit crooked with a hint of mischief. Her pulse skittered crazily when his eyes met hers in shared humor.

“Well.” She swallowed hard, pushing Tiny out of the way and the frog in her throat, too. “I’m certainly glad it was intentional.”

He wore a tan insulated jacket, cowboy-cut at the hips. Tall and lean with dark good looks and a strong jawline, he looked especially cute as he tugged the lights off him. At her words he cocked a dark brow.

“I mean, it wasn’t intentional,” she protested.

He chuckled as he rose to his feet in a smooth motion.

“I know. I just got in their way when they came around the corner.” He shook his head and lights slid to his shoulders—the boys giggled.

Mortified, she went into action and reached for the lights. “Here, let me help.” She began untangling the strings of lights, without much success. “I still don’t understand. How a big man like you ended up on the ground? I mean, they’re little—” Her mouth was saying things her brain was trying to stop.

“Yup, I do tend to be clumsy. My momma used to say the Lord gave me two left feet when He passed them out.”

“Oh, dear, I didn’t mean to say that.” If the man had a clumsy bone in his body her name was Reba Mc Entire!

He chuckled and the sound made her feel all warm and happy, like drinking hot cocoa—where in the world had her brain gone?

Gavin stepped up. “We just come around the corner, Momma, and boom, there he was.” He used exuberant hand gestures to help explain the situation.

“We didn’t mean to knock him down.” Jack shook his dark head, his big blue eyes looking suddenly worried.

“You all right, mister? Tiny’s sorry.”

Tiny was waltzing about them happily.

“I’m fine. But you two sure pack a punch. Are y’all football players? Or maybe your dog is.” That won him a round of giggles.

A crimson tide of humiliation crept warmly up her cheeks when Chance’s gaze locked with hers.

“I’m so sorry. I can’t believe they knocked you off your feet. As big as you are—I mean. Well, you are a man.” Most definitely a man, no doubt about that.

His eyes crimped around the edges and it seemed almost as though he could read her thoughts. Her crazy-unable-to-understand-them-herself thoughts! No mistake about it, despite not wanting to be, she was attracted to Chance Turner. Heart-thumpingly, breathlessly attracted. Okay, so she wasn’t dead.

“Last time I looked in the mirror I was a man. But you’ve got two dynamos here. They took me out like pros with the help of their linebacker there.”

Tiny sat on his haunches and cocked his big head as if he knew they were speaking about him.

She scanned the cowboy for damage. Though he was a bit rumpled there were no tears in his long-sleeved shirt, no rips in his jeans. “Are you hurt?” she asked anyway.

“My pride is stomped on, but I don’t have any broken bones.”

Lynn laughed with a mixture of relief and nervousness. “I guess for a former bull rider like you that is a little hard to swallow.”

“You’re a bull rider?” both boys gushed in unison. They loved bull riders. Something she wasn’t thrilled about in the least. To Lynn, riding a bull was right up there with swimming in a shark tank.

“I was a bull rider,” he said to the boys, then cocked his head slightly toward her. “Have we met?”

Lynn realized her mistake. “No, not exactly. I’m Lynn Perry. I saw you at Wyatt and Amanda’s wedding but we weren’t introduced. I heard though that you used to be a bull rider before you became a preacher. They need all the prayers they can get,” she added, and realized she’d probably stepped on his toes a bit as he stiffened be fore taking the hand she held out to him.

She was instantly hit by the strength in his large hand as he wrapped it around hers. Warm pinpoints of awareness prickled across her skin at the touch of his calloused palm. In his eyes she saw a spark of recognition—as if he felt the same sensation—she pulled her hand from his as her pulse kicked up a notch.

“It’s nice to meet you, Lynn. I’m Chance, but you already know that.” If he was startled by her reaction, he hid it well, tugging a strand of lights from his shoulder as if he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. “I guess these lights are for the church? Melody, my sister-in-law, said I was to bring them here and give them to the secretary. Is that you?”

“That’s me.” Had Melody meant them for her? They hadn’t discussed lights. “I didn’t know we were expecting them though.”

“Are they ours?” Gavin’s eyes widened as he looked up at Chance in awe.

“We need some lights, for our house,” Jack piped up, beaming at the assortment. “We don’t got none do we, Momma?”

Any other time she would have corrected his English but not now. It had been a hard month getting moved from the shelter to the house she was renting. Settling in and making it a home had cost more than she’d planned, and with Christmas right around the corner money was tighter than ever. She’d been saving every penny she could over the last two years while they lived at No Place Like Home, the women’s shelter from abuse. Most of her savings had gone toward rent, deposit and getting all the utilities turned on. Christmas lights hadn’t been in the budget and yet the boys talked about them all the time. Trying not to dwell on what she couldn’t give the boys, she focused on what she had accomplished and quickly moved past the tug of feeling sorry for herself. She refused to give in to those types of feelings when they snuck up on her. Instead she smiled at the boys.

“Let’s pick them up. We’ll put them inside the office until I talk to Melody and find out what they’re for.”

Gavin and Jack whispered to each other, then stared up at Chance.

“You’re a preacher?” Jack asked.

Chance hesitated before answering, which seemed odd to Lynn.

“I’m taking a break, but yes, I’m a rodeo preacher.” Chance knelt and began rolling up one of the strands of lights into a ball.

Lynn did the same and each boy grabbed a strand of his own, imitating exactly the way Chance was coiling his.

“You boys are doing a great job.” Chance flipped the overturned box upright and laid his coiled lights inside. The boys followed suit. They were all grins and eyes full of awe…she understood it. Despite her misgivings, she was attracted to this handsome cowboy. She dropped her lights into the box and gave herself a talking-to—she had no interest in men. Not yet. She’d come a long way since she’d escaped with her sons to the shelter over two years ago, but she hadn’t come far enough along to think about bringing a man into the mix. She was building a life with her boys and that was all she cared about doing.

That was what she needed.

Gavin dropped another messy coil into the box, then put his hands on his hips and looked Chance straight in the eyes. “If you’re a preacher we need one.”

Jack nodded. “In the worstest of ways.”

Lynn smiled at his word choice. Jack had heard Applegate Thornton, one of the more colorful older men, saying that at church on Sunday.

“Yeah, the worst,” Gavin repeated. “Are you going to fill the puppet?”

Chance laughed in a rich baritone. “No, I’m not preaching right now. I’m taking some time off.” The box was full and he picked it up. “Where would you like me to put this?”

She was startled by his answer. “In here.” She led the way into the office and he followed her inside as the boys trailed in behind him. She couldn’t remember them being so taken by a man before.

He set the box on the table and looked around the office. It was a cozy room with a dark oak desk that gleamed from the polish she applied to it every week. The double bookshelves were full of reference books for a new pastor, who would call this his office when he showed up.

She wondered what Chance thought about the room. He didn’t quite fit here. He was too rugged, too masculine—not that a pastor couldn’t be both those things. It was simply that rodeo pastor fit Chance Turner. “Thank you for bringing the Christmas lights to town,” she said, not sure what else to say.

He swept his hat from his head, revealing jet-black hair with a hint of wave. “You’re welcome.” His gaze was strong and steady as it took her in, causing her pulse to drum faster—despite her will. There was a charge in the room between them that left her breathless. He broke the moment by letting his gaze drift about the office again.

Gathering her wits she took a deep, shaky breath. “It’s a bit sad to me.” She felt disconcerted by him but tried to seem unaffected. “It just seems wrong for this office not to belong to someone. Ever since Pastor Allen retired we’ve had a problem finding a pastor who feels called to fill our pulpit.”

“That’s what I’ve heard. The right man will come, though,” he said, then added, “in God’s time.”

“Why cain’t a rodeo preacher preach here?” Gavin asked, moving to stand right beside Chance so he could look straight up at him.

“They can if they aren’t preaching a rodeo,” Chance explained.

“Are you preaching a rodeo this week?” Jack asked. For nearly five he and his brother were pretty smart.

She didn’t miss the troubled look that shadowed Chance’s blue eyes. He shifted uncomfortably as if biding time while he searched for answers. Odd.

She decided to help him out. “Hey, guys, why don’t y’all go back outside and play. I’ll be out in just a minute. And don’t run over any more visitors.”

“Okay, Momma,” Jack said solemnly. “You want ta come swing with us?” The question was his way of making up to Chance for knocking him down. A child’s innocence.

Chance looked surprised and a little pleased. “I’ll come watch you before I leave. First I need to talk to your mom.”

Jack nodded. “You promise?”

“I promise.”

Gavin stopped at the door, holding it open for his twin. “We’ll be waitin’. Remember you promised.”

Chance smiled at her as they stampeded off but their singsong voices told her how much a promise meant to them.

“You’ve got good boys,” he said the minute the door closed.

“I think so. Rambunctious, but then that’s just boys. So, I know you said you weren’t preaching right now. But are you doing weddings? I know you did Wyatt and Amanda’s. And my friend is really needing a preacher right now.”

He shook his head almost too quickly. “No. I’m not doing any pastoral duties right now.”

“I guess I didn’t think about a pastor taking a vacation,” Lynn murmured, not exactly sure how to handle the information. “From what I’ve heard you’re a dedicated man of the Lord. It’s just one wedding and it would mean so much to her.”

“I’m sorry but I’m taking time off.”

He didn’t say the words unkindly, but still the man act ed as if she’d just asked him to stand in front of an oncoming train. “Maybe if you met Stacy and Emmett. They are—”

“I’m sorry, I really am, but I’m taking time off right now,” he said and his tone firmly shut the door on that discussion.

Baffled, she was at a loss for words. The man wasn’t thirty yet and he’d been a rodeo pastor for about four years—at least that was what she’d heard someone say down at the diner. And he’d seemed so content when she’d watched him at Wyatt’s wedding. Maybe he just needed a rest. Pastors took time off, didn’t they? She didn’t know what else to say so she just waved a hand to ward the lights. “Then, I guess that’s a wrap. Thanks for bringing this by. I’ll give Melody a call and find out who they’re for.” She picked up her purse and strode to the door. The man had a right to do what he wanted, but his refusal, without even hearing Stacy’s story, irritated her. Really fried her bacon, and that didn’t happen often. After all, this was sweet Stacy she was talking about.

“Look, I’m sorry.”

She couldn’t help hiking a brow at him. “I’m sure you are. Don’t let it bother you. I’m sorry my boys accosted you.”

“They didn’t mean to. I should have been watching out. It was a hard shot to my pride, that’s for certain.” He held the door for her and she walked past him, more than a little aware of him as she went.

“I can lock up. You go ahead.”

He pulled his hat from his head and met her gaze full on. “Is it all right for me to go watch the boys swing for a minute like I promised?”

“Sure.” Some of her irritation at him eased as she watched him saunter off in the direction of the boys’ shouts of laughter. Chance Turner might not want to pastor right now, but he’d promised her boys he’d watch them swing and he was doing just that.

Such a promise was worth more than most people could even fathom to a pair of boys who’d never had that from their dad.

Lynn didn’t want to think about that though. She took a deep breath, walked to the side of the building and watched the looks on their little faces as Chance strode their way. When their eyes lit up she had to fight the lump in her throat and a sudden flood of tears from a past that she had no intention of revisiting.

When the women’s shelter in L.A. had burned she’d been thrilled that it had relocated to the sleepy ranching town of Mule Hollow, Texas. Here the cowboys and small-town folks had rallied around them and made a safe haven like nothing she’d ever dreamed of. Her little boys had been too young to remember the life they’d been living before she’d gotten them out. Here in Mule Hollow they had role model after role model of what real men were supposed to be like. Here her sons had the chance to grow up with loving, loyal, honest men and women surrounding them.

What they didn’t have was a father. And they wouldn’t. Lynn had already come to understand that falling in love wasn’t an option she was willing to explore. The safest way to give her boys a good life was to keep it uncomplicated. Besides, she didn’t have what it took to cross that line and start looking for love. To love meant to trust and trust wasn’t in her anymore. Not trusting with her heart anyway.

But…Chance Turner was intriguing still.

Lynn’s heart fluttered as her boys squealed in delight when he said something to them. The flutter just proved that she was still a woman who could appreciate a good-looking, nice man when she saw him. And Chance Turner was a nice man. He’d be nicer if he hadn’t refused to perform Stacy’s wedding.

Intriguing or not, he was just one more friendly cowboy that her boys could look up to. He was no different than Sheriff Brady Cannon or Deputy Zane Cantrell. Or Dan Dawson or any of the wonderful, Christian men of the community who’d stepped up to be father figures for the kids at the women’s shelter.

He spread his legs shoulder-width apart and locked his arms across his chest, watching Gavin and Jack. Why was he not preaching? The question niggled at the back of her mind. None of her business though, right?

Right!

“Okay, boys, it’s time to hit the road,” she called. No use making Chance watch them swing for too long and no reason for her to stand here contemplating issues that had nothing to do with her…except she wished he would consider marrying Stacy and Emmett. It’s none of your business, Lynn.

“But, Momma—”

“No buts, young man,” she said to Gavin. “It’s time to head home.” She suddenly wanted to grab the boys and hurry away before she opened her mouth and butted in where she shouldn’t. The man had a right to preach or not preach. Besides, this was a traditional small-town church. Chance was a rodeo preacher. He moved along with the rodeo circuit, preaching and mentoring the cow boys who couldn’t make it to church because of the rodeo’s schedule. It was an honorable calling. She liked the idea of what he did…still, while he was here, couldn’t he do one wedding?

What could that hurt?

Give it up, Lynn, the man made it clear he was taking time off. Mouth shut, she headed toward her car. She had to bite her tongue again as Chance reached his truck and tipped his hat at her after telling her boys to have a great day.

“Momma, we like him,” Jack said the minute he climbed into the seat and buckled his seat belt.

“Yeah,” Gavin added, meeting her gaze in the rearview. “Maybe he can teach me how to bull ride.”

“There won’t be any bull riding for you, mister.”

“Aw, Momma. I ain’t gonna git myself kilt or anything. Chance ain’t dead and neither is Bob or Trace.”

Bob Jacobs had been a bull fighter and Trace Crawford had ridden bulls, too. Both men had survived and many other cowboys around town had, too. Still the thought of her little boys growing up to be bull riders didn’t sit well with her. “You concentrate on being a little boy and leave the bull riding to the men.”

“Aw, Momma, you ain’t got to worry. Don’tcha know I’m gonna be the best there ever was.”

The hair at the back of her neck prickled but she decided the best thing for now was to let it go. The less said on this subject the better. At least she prayed that was so.

“Well, sugar baby, I think you’re the best there ever was already.”

“What about me, Momma?” Jack asked.

She turned in her seat. “You know I’m talking about you, too. God must have thought I was pretty special to have blessed me with the two best boys in all of the world.”