The Mechanics of Mistletoe - Liz Isaacson Page 0,49

looked at Bear, and he gazed back. They moved at the same time, and Sammy pulled in a breath just before Bear kissed her. He moved slow, like they’d talked about, but he deepened the kiss, kneaded her closer, and pulled away far too soon.

“We should go to the house,” he whispered, but he didn’t move in that direction. Instead, he traced his lips along the curve of her jaw to her ear. Sammy clung to him, using his broad shoulders to balance herself.

He trailed kisses along her neck from her ear to her collarbone, and Sammy could only focus on breathing. In, and then out.

No one catcalled, as they’d probably all gone to bed hours ago. Cowboys rose with the sun—and Sammy usually did too. She finally came to her senses and pushed gently against Bear’s chest.

He pulled back and smiled softly at her. “You should go. Let me go get Lincoln, and next time, I’ll come to you, so I can drop you off like a real date.” He took her back to her truck and she got in while he jogged toward the front porch and up the steps.

A minute later, he returned with a sleeping Lincoln in his arms. Her son looked so small compared to the bulk of Bear, and she felt her grip on reality slipping. She saw in him a true partner, and she couldn’t help thinking of the three of them as a family. It was far too soon to vocalize that, though, especially after she’d told him she wanted to go slow.

“Thank you,” she whispered as he laid the boy on the bench seat beside her.

“See you…when will I see you?” Bear looked hopeful and like he couldn’t wait to see her again. “We could go to Trophy Lake tomorrow.”

“Let me see what my workload at the shop is like in the morning,” she said, though she didn’t normally take Saturdays off. “I can probably sneak away in the afternoon, at least.”

“Can I sit by you at church?” he asked.

“I’ve seen you at church, Bear,” she said. “Your family takes up two benches.”

“So maybe you should sit by me,” he said. “You think my family is so great. They’re loud, and obnoxious, and nosy.” He grinned, and Sammy shook her head.

She looked at him, and pure electricity flowed between them. She felt fifteen again, with her first boyfriend. “I’ll sit by you on Sunday,” Sammy said softly.

“All right,” Bear said. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

She nodded, and he backed out of the cab. He closed the door, and Sammy backed out of his driveway, thinking she needed new headlights if she was going to be driving out in the foothills this late at night again.

“Guide me home,” she murmured, and she meant right now in this truck, with her sleeping son on the front seat. And she meant with her heart and Bear Glover. As she hit the highway, she feared she may have just left her heart with the handsome, kind, hardworking cowboy at Shiloh Ridge Ranch.

Chapter Sixteen

Bishop Glover groaned as he went up the steps to Cactus’s front door. No less than three dogs had come to the remote cabin with him, but they’d stayed down in the shade. Cactus had lost the roof over his porch in the tornado a couple of months ago, and he’d declared he didn’t need it fixed. That he’d do it himself.

He still hadn’t.

He’d somehow found time to craft himself a new rocking chair, and that sat on the front porch, no roof above it.

Bishop’s irritation bristled, but he stuffed the topic of the portico beneath his tongue. That wasn’t why he’d come to Cactus’s that night. He lifted his hand and knocked, hearing, “Yep,” in the next moment.

That wasn’t an invitation to come in. Cactus kept the door locked, and Bishop resisted the urge to try the knob just to see. He waited, sweat beading beneath his cowboy hat, listening to Cactus unlatching the three locks he kept on his front door, and then looking at his older brother once he finally opened the door.

“C’mon in,” Cactus said, about as friendly as he got. He was two years younger than Bear, but he’d been playing the part of the crotchety old man of the family for about a decade.

“Evening, Cactus,” Bishop said, his voice as pleasant as he could make it. It was chirpy enough to annoy Cactus, who rolled his eyes and turned around.

Bishop grinned and entered the house. “What have you