Her Christmas Cowboy (The Wyoming Cowboy #5) - Jessica Clare Page 0,3

flustered and shy herself. “You’re good to go, Mr. Watson. Thank you for waiting.”

He nodded in a jerky way. “Libby’s mine . . . ah, my pleasure.” He coughed and then slowly closed his eyes again.

She bit the inside of her cheek not to laugh. Stumbling over his words was right.

Amy started to text Becca back when Linda nudged her, continuing to talk about the Christmas Carnival. “Do you know of anyone that can do it? Curtis is running the popcorn machine and Jimmy said he’d be in charge of the midway. Terry dressed up last year but his wife is insisting that we find someone else. She thinks he’s flirting with the elves.” Linda tittered at her joke, missing Amy’s horrified expression.

The last thing she wanted was to cause problems in someone’s marriage. She knew how that felt. “Maybe I shouldn’t be Mrs. Claus, then—”

“Me.”

Both of the women looked up.

The cowboy stood next to Libby’s desk, his face flushed. His hat was practically crushed in his big hand as he spoke. “I’ll do Mrs. Claus.”

“You mean you’ll be Mr. Claus,” Libby called out, giggling.

He looked for a moment as if he wanted the floor to swallow him up but managed to nod. His gaze remained locked on Amy, as if trying to silently communicate something to her.

What it was, she didn’t know. But she put on her best teacher smile. “Sounds like you and I are going to make quite the pair.”

* * *

* * *

Caleb carried his niece out to his truck and tried to walk calmly. Tried. His boots crunched on the snow as he cut across the grounds of the school, not bothering with the cleared sidewalks because he just wanted to get to the safety of his vehicle as soon as possible. Inside the truck, no one would see how red his face was, or how much he was sweating. They wouldn’t notice just how uncomfortable he was.

“Your hat is crushed, Uncle Caleb!” Libby called out helpfully as he opened the back door to his truck and pushed the passenger seat forward. “Why is your hat all messed up?”

“I’ll tell you later, Libster.” He settled her in her car seat and buckled her in with the ease of someone who’d done this a hundred times before. He had, too. Up until a few months ago, his older brother was a single parent, and that meant leaning on his brothers for help. Ever since Libby was born, Caleb had pitched in when needed, changing dirty diapers, doing laundry, and helping with feeding. Now that Hank was married, Caleb wasn’t needed as often and his uncle duties were mostly babysitting for the occasional date night and watching Frozen, but he didn’t mind. Libby was a good kid.

Most of the time. She was a loud kid, too. “Your hat looks so funny, Uncle Caleb! You smooshed it!”

She wasn’t going to be quiet about his damned hat, was she? He snatched it off his head and threw it in the back seat, then shut the door and jogged around to the other side of the truck. His boots slid on the icy slush, but he ignored it. He just needed to get away from the school. Needed to get away from Amy Mckinney, who was so pretty that it made his chest ache.

Actually, she was so pretty she made his entire soul ache.

She’d talked to him today. Acted like he was a total stranger even though he’d met her twice before now. Once, he’d gone to the school with Hank and had stood mutely behind his brother like a big, bearded fencepost. Another time he’d run into her in town and they’d nearly collided on the sidewalk. She’d dropped a package in surprise; he’d mumbled an apology and handed her package back to her. Their fingers had brushed.

Caleb remembered every second of that encounter. It was burned into his mind. Her hair had swung over her shoulder as she’d leaned over, and her blue eyes had gone wide. She’d been wearing a gray turtleneck dress that hugged her curves, and tall black boots. She’d laughed and taken the package from him—one she’d gotten in the mail.

He remembered everything.

And she didn’t remember he was alive. That stung, just a little, but it was to be expected. No one ever noticed Caleb.

Even so . . . she hadn’t remembered his face? He had hers memorized. It was engraved into his brain. He noticed everything about her, right down to the