The Christmas Backup Plan (Twilight, Texas #11) - Lori Wilde
Chapter 1
Cupid: In skydiving parlance, slang for altitude expressed in hundreds of feet above ground level.
Wednesday, December 16
The Silver Feather Ranch, Cupid, Texas
“You gotta be shi—”
“Remington Dewayne Lockhart! Watch your language!” At thirty-five, his stepmother, Vivi, was just three years older than Remington, but she lectured him as if he were the same age as her twin toddlers.
Vivi clapped her palms over the ears of Remington’s half brother, Rory, who was sitting in her lap. “Reed,” she called to Rory’s twin halfway across the den stacking blocks. “Cover your ears, son.”
Reed looked up, wide-eyed.
“Ears.” Vivi nodded and gave him a pointed look. “Now.”
Like a well-trained puppy, the boy plastered his palms over his ears.
“I swear I think you Lockhart men just enjoy testing the limit of my patience,” Vivi muttered.
“Do you think making a big deal over curse words might draw more attention to them?” Remington drawled, leaning one shoulder against the doorjamb that led from the foyer to the den.
“Swear jar.” Vivi snapped her fingers at the bookcase where a glass mason jar sat. Dollar sign stickers and the symbols %$#@^ decorated the jar.
“Hey.” Remington raised both palms. “I didn’t say it. You cut me off at the knees.”
“The intent was there.” Vivi got to her feet, rested her fisted hands on her hips.
“Wicked stepmother,” he said affectionately. “To my way of thinking, my foul mouth is all your fault for springing Aria Alzate on me.”
“Your father and the US Army are to blame for your foul mouth, not me.” Vivi retrieved the swear jar and shoved it under his nose. “Five dollars.”
“Five dollars? Highway robbery,” Remington grumbled, but he got out his wallet and opened it up. “I only have twenties.”
“I’ll take one.” Vivi leaned over to pluck the twenty from his wallet. “You’ll cuss around my boys again. Consider your next three curse words prepaid.”
“No doubt I will, especially since you blindsided me with Aria. Low blow, Vivi, low blow.”
Vivi fluffed her shoulder-length blond hair and grinned. “I do try my best.”
His stepmother ran a cowboy wedding venue on the Silver Feather Ranch, and Aria worked for her as a wedding planner. Because of Aria’s connection to Austin, where she’d lived for a time, she’d managed to get a write-up in Texas Monthly. Vivi’s business had exploded as people sought them out for authentic cowboy weddings, and Aria, rising to the occasion, dazzled. They had so much work they’d upped their prices and started turning away business.
Much as he disliked Aria, the woman was pretty good at her job. Remington valued hard work, and he admired that about her, if nothing else.
“Would you have agreed to drive cargo to a wedding in North Central Texas if you’d known Aria was part of that cargo?” Vivi asked.
“Hells to the no.”
“Exactly.” Vivi held up two fingers. “You only have two curse words’ credit now.”
“Hell isn’t a curse word, it’s a place, and you just put me in a vehicle with it for the next eight hours.”
Vivi waggled her index finger. “You have one prepaid swear word left.”
Tempted to give her all the money he had in his wallet so he could swear up a blue streak, Remington reached for the cash, but his toddler half brothers watched him with mesmerized eyes.
“I’m no more thrilled to get stuck in that paramilitary black SUV with you than you are to have me there,” said a tart female voice from the other entryway into the den, this one from the dining room.
He stared across the room, his gaze clashing with the woman standing there. Their eyes narrowed at each other like gunslingers squaring off on the dusty streets of Tombstone.
Looking at Aria Alzate, knowing what was ahead of him for the next several days, Remington made a brash forecast. Thrown together for several days in forced proximity, they would either learn to get along or tear each other from limb to limb.
Remington’s money was on the latter. He groaned and briefly closed his eyes. “You could have warned me that she was in the next room, Vivi.”
“Look,” Vivi said, “I know you two get along like cats and dogs, but I need you both to play nice and get this done. Got it?”
Remington opened his eyes and studied the stunning woman standing in the doorway.
Aria Alzate was a major pain in the ass, but she was sure pretty to look at. Slim and trim, but curvy in all the right places, she studied him through lowered eyelids thick with long dark lashes. Her