Christmastime Cowboy. Maisey Yates

known about himself. At least, in the end that was what it had added up to.

      He hadn’t seen it coming. Not from the beginning. That was the important part. Meeting her hadn’t felt like anything special at all. It had seemed safe. Easy. If he’d had any idea what his feelings for her would turn into, he would have pushed her away a hell of a lot sooner.

      But then he probably wouldn’t have gotten a full ride through school, so he supposed everything happened for a reason.

      Still, he had not expected seeing her to feel like a punch in the chest. She had walked into Ace’s, those beautiful blue eyes widening as they had met with his. Like a magnet. The moment she had walked in he had looked, and she had found him.

      As if there was no space between them at all. As if there weren’t thirteen years between them. Thirteen years and some hard decisions and some hurt.

      And then, just like that, the moment had snapped in half, reality coming down on it like the fall of an ax. And she had run right out the door.

      It had damn well ruined his night. He had been determined then that he was going to break the dry spell that he’d been in the midst of since he’d come back to the ranch. But then, of course, all he had been able to think of was Sabrina.

      “This is it,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the keys.

      “Are we meeting Gage here?”

      “Nope.” He jammed the key into the lock and turned it. The lock was gold, ornate and old-fashioned. Not original to the building, he didn’t think. But possibly from the 1930s. Which was an odd thing to be focusing on, but it was that or continue to ruminate on Sabrina.

      He pushed the cranberry-colored door open and gestured for her to go in first. She did not. Instead, she stood there, staring at him.

      “I got the keys from Gage last night. He said it was fine if we had a look around.”

      She was still staring at him.

      “He’s not a real estate agent,” Liam said, walking into the building since it didn’t seem like she was going to. “He has other things to do that don’t entail hovering over us while we look around. Anyway, I thought you might appreciate the chance to speak freely.”

      He could tell by the tentative steps that Sabrina took inside that she had been hoping Gage West would be here to act as a buffer between them. Liam had been hoping for no such thing. He didn’t want her to have a buffer. He didn’t want a buffer at all.

      He didn’t need one. He was more than capable of dealing with the situation. Actually, he relished the chance to do this. Because he might have taken a deal a long time ago to stay away from Sabrina, but now, no man owned him. Least of all Jamison Leighton.

      Which meant he could be here with her if he wanted to be. And actually, she was the one who had to play nice with him. The Leighton family didn’t hold a single damn thing over his head anymore.

      He turned a slow circle and looked around the room. It was clean and in good condition. There was no furniture in it of any kind. It was just big and empty. Picture windows looked out over Main Street and out toward the Chamber of Commerce, the Crab Shanty and, beyond that, the ocean.

      It was the best of Copper Ridge, all visible there from the shop.

      They would need a counter, some coolers and a seating area. But, given that they planned to keep everything simple, it should come together pretty quickly. He had done a lot more with less.

      “It’s perfect,” he said.

      And then, a moment later he realized his mistake. Because there was no way Sabrina was going to let this be that simple. If he had voiced a complaint, he would be much more likely to get her on board.

      Her lips twitched, and then her left shoulder. “I don’t know about that. And really, I think that Lindy should come and look at everything before we make decisions.”

      “I was under the impression that Lindy had enough on her plate, and that she wanted you to handle it.”

      He could see that Sabrina wasn’t used to being challenged directly. It was another thing that was interesting about her. Another difference. When he had known her she had been a lot more open. Sweeter. A lot more likely to crumple if pressure was applied.

      Now she might be more outwardly brittle, but he had a feeling it would take an iron squeeze to get her to crack.

      And when she did... Yeah, he was afraid she would shatter. And he had no intention of shattering her. Messing with her a little bit while they worked on this project was one thing. But he wasn’t a total dick.

      “It’s a big decision though,” Sabrina said, “so, I think it’s definitely something she should be a little more involved in, no matter what she might think now. Right now... She’s just very focused. Very, very focused.”

      “On?”

      “Making my brother sorry he crossed her, I think.”

      Liam frowned. “Yeah, what happened with that?” Lindy Parker hadn’t been in the picture back when Liam had worked at Grassroots, so he had no idea about the history between her and Damien Leighton.

      “He cheated on her,” Sabrina said simply. “Ten years of marriage, and he had an affair. I’m not happy with my brother, Liam. Not at all. Lindy is like a sister to me, not just in law. Just because she and Damien got divorced doesn’t mean my connection with her is gone.”

      “Hey, I’m all for a little revenge and retribution.”

      Sabrina’s expression turned to stone. She was thinking about them again, and he knew it. He hardly thought it was fair for her to compare what he had done with what her brother had done to his wife. Because Liam had never cheated. Mostly because he had never made any promises.

      “Go ahead,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

      “What?” she asked, blinking rapidly.

      “Go ahead and yell at me. You want to. You’re mad at me. I get it. So we can keep on tiptoeing around it, or you could just go ahead and shout at me. Here and now. The room is empty, and I bet it has great acoustics.”

      Sabrina’s eye twitched. She looked...well, she looked completely torn. And a little bit shocked. Both like she really wanted to take him up on his offer, and like she was wishing there was some furniture she could scurry underneath.

      “Okay. How about I go first?” If there was one thing he didn’t mind, it was facing something head-on. “I saw you naked, I turned you down and you’re still mad.”

      “I... That is not... You make it sound like...”

      He shrugged. “I’m going to go ahead and make it easy for you. I’ve seen a lot of women naked. Before you, after you. I’m not picturing you naked when I look at you now.” That was a lie. But he didn’t really mind lying either. “So whatever you imagine is happening on my end, it’s not.”

      “You’re an asshole,” she said.

      She turned away from him and began to pace the perimeter of the room, paying closer than necessary attention to things like crown molding.

      “That’s it?”

      “I’m going to do exactly what we came here to do. Which is evaluate whether or not the building is suitable for our purposes. I wouldn’t say that it’s perfect,” she said, giving him a hard glare. “But I suppose it will work.”

      “You’re ready to do this, then?”

      “I still think that Lindy should drive down and have a look before we confirm, but I can’t imagine finding a better place.” She seemed almost downtrodden about that. Probably because this had been his idea.

      Actually, she was capitulating much more easily than he had imagined, and it occurred to him that it was probably because she just wanted to get this