The Cowboy's Christmas Surprise. Marie Ferrarella

head in her direction, as if that would help him hear her response better as he drove. “Got your sights set on anybody in particular?” he asked curiously.

      Yes, the lunkhead sitting next to me. “Nobody,” she told him firmly. “I just want to hear the band play, see if they’re any good.”

      Since this was Holly and they told each other everything—even though the dress she had on clearly negated the seemingly innocent reason behind her going out tonight—he took her at her word.

      “Well, Liam’s brothers seem to think so,” Ray told her. “They think he’s got real potential. Brett even had a small area cleared off to serve as a dance floor. The way I see it, the music has to be good in order for people to dance.”

      She smiled, thinking of something Laurie had said to her about the band. “Not really,” she interjected. “It just has to be good and loud.”

      He laughed, remembering what he’d overheard her friend saying as he talked to Laurie’s brother. “Laurie just wants to give Neil Parsons an excuse to put his arms around her,” Ray said.

      “Neil Parsons?” Holly echoed. “Are you sure?”

      This was the first she’d heard anything about Laurie wanting to get close to Neil. When Laurie had talked to her about coming tonight, she’d made it sound as if she was trying to talk her into a girls’ night out, an occasion where they and a couple of the other girls who worked at Miss Joan’s diner would get loud and just have some fun listening to Liam trying to hit all the right notes. Laurie hadn’t said a word about wanting to get close to Neil.

      Deliberately?

      “I’m sure,” Ray said casually, completely ignorant of the way what he’d just said had thrown Holly for a loop. “That’s what she told her brother. She also said that Cyndy Adams was hoping to catch Ty Smith’s eye, as well. Come to think of it, Laurie mentioned Reta Wells, too, but I didn’t hear the name of the guy that Reta was looking to corner.”

      “So they’re all looking to get partnered up?” Holly asked.

      She was doing her best to hide the distressed feeling that was growing in the pit of her stomach. Why hadn’t Laurie leveled with her?

      Because she knew you’d never agree to come if she mentioned being interested in catching some guy’s eye. You know that.

      “It sounded like that to me,” Ray told her. And then he shrugged. “But, hey, I could be wrong. And even if I’m right, this just might be a fishing expedition on their parts. I think that if this was a done deal, they would have all gotten paired off before they ever got to Murphy’s. So, if this is just in the works, it’s all going to be casual,” he assured her. Ray slanted a look in her direction. “You sure there’s nobody you’re looking to cut out of the herd?” he asked her.

      “I’m sure,” she answered firmly. She’d known this was a bad idea. Holly glanced over her shoulder at the road they’d just traveled. “Look, maybe you’d better take me back home.”

      Ray just kept driving the way he’d been going, heading toward Murphy’s.

      “Sorry, Doll, I told you I don’t want to be late for Liam’s first number. I’m really curious to see how he does. Besides, if I take you back now, that knock-’em-dead dress’ll go to waste, since I’d be the only one who’s seen it on you,” he maintained.

      You’re the only one who counts.

      Why did he have to be so thickheaded when it came to this? Holly wondered in frustration.

      Out loud she merely said, “I can always save it for another time.”

      “C’mon, Doll, where’s your sense of adventure? Let your hair down,” he prompted.

      “Maybe you need an eye exam,” she told him with a touch of sarcasm. “My hair is down.”

      “See?” he asked with that same disarming grin. “Halfway there.”

      Holly sighed and, for the moment, gave up as she slouched back in her seat.

      The trip was all but over.

      Murphy’s looked as if it had been infused with a community of fireflies; it was so lit up that it was visible from a few blocks away.

      “I guess word must have gotten around about Liam and his band,” she speculated.

      Ray laughed. “He’d better be good. If he’s not, he’s going to fall flat on his face in front of a packed house.”

      She caught herself having performance jitters for the middle Murphy brother. “I think they’re probably more than ready to meet him halfway,” she said. At least she hoped so, for the sake of Liam’s pride.

      Everyone in Forever knew everyone else. That meant that, by and large, they pretty much had each others’ backs. While some occasional petty jealousies might surface between the inhabitants of Forever and the people who lived on the surrounding ranches, for the most part, everyone wished everyone else well.

      Ray pulled up in front of the saloon. Then, seeing that there was no space to park his truck, he circled around to a larger lot in the back. Usually there were plenty of spaces to be had there. Tonight Ray found that he had to drive up one lane and down another before he finally found a space where he could park his truck. He pulled it in between two 4x4s of almost identical color—battleship gray.

      “Sure hope this means he’s selling beer to all these car owners,” he commented, looking around the lot.

      The offhanded comment caught her attention. She looked at Ray sharply. “Why? Is Brett having trouble staying in the black?”

      Brett Murphy wasn’t the kind who talked about money problems except in the most casual way, making it sound as if there was no problem at all.

      “Mike heard him say something about having a note come due on Murphy’s next month,” Ray answered.

      He and his siblings certainly knew what it was like to have their backs up against a wall and the bank breathing down their necks, Ray thought. They’d almost lost the ranch after their mother had died. Pulling together as a family had been the only thing that had saved them from foreclosure. Even though he was the youngest, the experience had made him hypersensitive to other people’s problems when it came to needing money for payments due.

      “I think that’s the reason behind Brett agreeing to have Liam get his friends together and play tonight. Having a packed house never hurts,” Ray told her as he pocketed the keys to his truck.

      Holly looked out at all the cars parked outside the saloon. It looked as if everyone in town had shown up, not to mention that there appeared to be vehicles from some of the neighboring towns, as well.

      “Well, whatever his reason, I think he’s going to be up all night counting the saloon’s take from tonight,” Holly predicted.

      They could hear the noise coming from the saloon even inside the cab of the truck. She estimated that it would be close to deafening once they were inside the small, rectangular building that was both the place of business for the three Murphy brothers and their home since they lived right above the saloon. “Maybe we should have brought earplugs,” she all but shouted to Ray.

      She saw him grinning at her. It was the kind of grin that acknowledged he was aware she’d said something to him, but hadn’t a clue what that something had been.

      It didn’t matter to her if Ray had heard her or not; the important thing was being this close to him. She hadn’t seen him for the past couple of days and had assumed that work on the ranch was keeping him busy.

      Either that, or a new love interest had come into his life. That happened with a fair amount of regularity—like clockwork.

      Holly shut down the idea as soon as it occurred to her, preferring not to think about it.

      But since Ray hadn’t mentioned anyone’s