Her Christmas Cowboy (The Wyoming Cowboy #5) - Jessica Clare Page 0,17

won’t care.” Or maybe if he was around her enough, he’d loosen up and stop saying such dumb shit. Either one worked for him. After all, Hank had been married to Becca for about five months now, and Caleb was able to string sentences together around her finally.

Not long ones, but real sentences. It was a start. He was sure he could do the same with Amy, preferably before he had to dress up as Santa.

“Okay,” Jack said, rubbing his hands. “I got it.”

Caleb sat up, tensing. “What? What’s the plan?” Of the three Watson brothers, Jack was the one who was great with women. If anyone had ideas, it’d be his brother. He always knew what to say.

“You said her car was busted, right?” When Caleb nodded, Jack continued. “And her house was a mess? Broken stuff?”

Caleb nodded again.

“You offer to help her with all this stuff. She’s got no money, right? So she could use the help of a nice guy like you to fix her faucet and help her with her car.” Jack gave him a smug smile.

That . . . didn’t seem like much of a plan. “I was going to do that anyhow, Jack. I can’t just leave her with her faucets dripping and her car broken down. That ain’t who I am. I can fix all that stuff lickety-split.”

“I know you can, dummy.” Jack sat up and smacked Caleb lightly across the forehead with the back of his hand. “But for this to work, you need to fix this stuff nice and slow. You take your time. Fixing her faucet? That’s gonna take at least a full afternoon.”

“It is?” He was pretty sure the wax ring just needed to be replaced on the knobs and—

“It is,” Jack emphasized. “And maybe while you’re helping her with it, you take your shirt off and flex a little.”

That . . . didn’t sound much like something Caleb would do. Then again, telling her that he’d “do Mrs. Claus” and then bolting away sounded more like something he’d do, so Jack’s idea was better. “Go on.”

“You can help her fix her car, but maybe it just takes a long time. And you take a lot of breaks.” Jack shrugged one shoulder. “And you chitchat with her. Talk to her about things you like. Things you know about.”

“Like the Donner Party,” Caleb added immediately.

“Aren’t they the ones that ate each other?” Jack furrowed his brows and shook his head at his brother. “You really are terrible at this shit. Don’t talk to her about cannibals. Talk to her about things that interest her.”

“Like . . . ?”

“Well, the obvious one is that it’s the holidays. Ask her about Christmas. Ask her what she’s doing for Christmas. Ask her about the kids in her class. There’s a million things. Make it seem like you’re interested in what she has to say.”

That wouldn’t be too hard, because he was absolutely interested in what she had to say. Everything that came out of Amy’s mouth was endlessly fascinating to him. “And fix things like I planned, but go real slow.”

“Super slow,” Jack agreed.

“You’re a genius.”

“I know.” His younger brother gave him a smug look. “We’ll get you hooked up with this schoolteacher yet. We just need to be crafty.”

Jack made it sound like a challenge, and that sat a little wrong with Caleb. Amy wasn’t a prize to be won. She was a person—a sweet, gentle woman with a brilliant smile and sad eyes that made him want to give her the world. But Jack was the expert.

Caleb was just a tongue-tied cowboy who was terrible with women. So he’d defer to Jack.

This plan was a good one, though, and Caleb was encouraged. He left Jack’s cabin behind and went to his own, but he couldn’t fall asleep. He was too busy thinking of all the things he needed to do to help out Amy.

He’d become her new best friend, the one she could lean on for all her troubles . . . and then maybe once they were friends, she’d realize she was in love with him just like he was with her.

A man could dream.

CHAPTER FIVE

Fix things slowly, Caleb reminded himself as he drove up to Amy’s place at the crack of dawn on Monday morning. He’d dropped off dog food for Donner on Saturday morning but left it on her porch so he wouldn’t have to talk to her. He hadn’t been ready for that yet. This morning he