The Maverick's Snowbound Christmas. Karen Smith Rose

the door and have it get jammed in the snow, letting cold air in. But there was another way he and Hadley could check on the outside world to see what was happening.

      When Eli returned to Amber’s stall, Hadley was standing there watching momma and baby.

      “This is a sight you can never get tired of,” she said.

      He felt that connection again with Hadley because she understood the bonds between mother and baby. “I know,” he agreed. Then he said, “And I know another sight that’s spectacular, too. Come with me to the hayloft.” He picked up the lantern Hadley had carried to the stall.

      She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Seriously?”

      “I don’t have a secret lair up there,” he promised her. “I just want to show you something.”

      “Famous last words,” she mumbled under her breath, and he had to grin. Just what kind of men had she been associating with?

      “We’ll have to feed the horses, and I want to make sure everything’s locked up for the night first,” he explained. “This will be the first step in doing that. Come on.”

      “Do I need to bring anything with me?” she asked, trailing after him.

      “Nope. Just your sense of wonder.”

      When he stopped, turned around and studied her, he could see she had no idea what he meant. But she followed him, and that meant she trusted him...a little.

      Making sure the loft ladder was steady, he asked, “Do you want me to go up first, or do you want to climb first?”

      “You go first,” she said. “You know where you’re going.”

      Easily he climbed the ladder to the hayloft, still holding the lantern. He was used to doing it. Once there, he waited for her.

      She climbed up more slowly, careful each booted foot was steady as she took the next rung. As she reached the top of the ladder, he held out his hand. She hesitated only a moment, took it and held on until her feet were firmly planted in the hayloft and the straw there. Holding her hand like that, he felt more than a little warmth zing up his arm. But when she was balanced, she quickly let go.

      She looked around, and he could tell she was trying to compute what he wanted to show her. Bales of hay and a few farm implements sparsely dotted the hayloft. He went to the doors. They were made like shutters, two halves coming together to form the door closing. Now he unlatched the left side and let it swing open. Then he did the same thing on the right. The snow had stopped for now, but the wind still blew. The sight beyond the barn was worth the frigid rush of air.

      When he beckoned to Hadley, she stepped closer, finally realizing what he wanted her to see. Under the moon glow, the landscape was pristine, white as far as the eye could see. Fir trees rose up in the distance against a blue-black sky.

      “What a view!” Hadley said with awe in her voice. “This is what Christmas dreams are made of.”

      “Or a cowboy’s winter dream,” Eli said softly. “The snow causes problems, that’s for sure. It’s going to take us a while to dig out. We’ll even have to get the corral clear so we can exercise the horses. But I wouldn’t give up moments like this to live anywhere else.”

      One moment they were standing in the straw looking out over the snow-covered landscape, and the next they were gazing at each other. Understanding seemed to pass between them once more, and something even more potent. Hadley’s face was tilted up to his. He’d set the lantern on the floor a couple of feet away so it wouldn’t ruin their view of the outside. He couldn’t see much, but he could see the sparkle in her eyes, the look on her face that said maybe, just maybe, she was thinking the same thing he was—that a kiss right now could be something special. He wanted to reach for her, pull her close. But if he did and she didn’t want that, or if he did and she suddenly got scared, they still had the rest of the night to spend together. He wanted her to trust him, and a kiss right now could end that possibility before it even started.

      A cold gust of wind suddenly blew their way, and Hadley shivered. That was a signal.

      He couldn’t refrain from touching her, though, so he gently placed his hand on her shoulder. “Come on. I don’t want you to get colder than you are. We can go back to the tack room and warm up. I just thought you needed a little entertainment tonight.”

      “That view is better than a movie,” she assured him, turning toward the ladder.

      After he secured the doors to the hayloft, he said, “Maybe I should go down the ladder first. I can make sure you don’t fall.”

      “I can get around on my own quite well,” she protested a bit defensively.

      “All right,” he said. “Go on. I’ll follow you.”

      She gave him a look that was cautious, no doubt because he’d given in so easily. He watched as she tried to figure out how to maneuver herself over that top rung of the ladder from the hayloft. Finally, she got down on her knees and eased onto the first rung backward.

      “Maybe I should have let you go first,” she muttered.

      “Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” he said amiably.

      In the light of the lantern, he could see her glare. Ignoring it, he held the ladder steady until she was halfway down. Then he maneuvered onto it and climbed down after her.

      When he’d reached the barn floor, too, she said, “You mentioned we have to feed the horses. Any special feed for Amber?”

      “It’s made up in the bin next to the large one. It’s a special mix that should suit her well for the next couple of weeks.”

      Apparently Hadley was going to help him. She easily found the bin, scooped the feed into a bucket and took it to Amber while he fed the other horses. When he passed the birthing stall, he told her, “I’ll lay out blankets in the tack room. Hopefully that will be enough cushioning so we can sleep. Are you okay with that?”

      “We can be thankful for the heater,” she said, not expressing what she thought about the blankets.

      Following the trend of her thoughts, he added, “And we can be thankful that we have friends and family out there who will see that we get dug out as soon as possible.”

      “And if we aren’t dug out tomorrow?” Hadley asked in a low voice.

      “If we’re not dug out by noon, I’ll get to the house somehow and figure out how to get you there, too.”

      But Hadley didn’t look reassured by his words, just worried. “What if the snow starts again?”

      “It has to stop sometime.” He could see her eye roll from the light of the lantern he carried. He asked seriously, “Wouldn’t you rather think about the best rather than the worst?”

      “I would, but that doesn’t mean the best is going to happen.”

      There was something about Hadley that told him she’d been through a crisis that had colored her view of men and maybe even the world. The question was—would she let him get to know her well enough to find out her secret?

       Chapter Four

      Hadley knew it made sense that she and Eli would bunk down together in the tack room/office where the heater was located. But the situation was still awkward. She’d be sleeping in here practically side to side with Eli! He’d gathered all the saddle blankets he could find, and now she helped him spread two of them across the floor. He’d found a sleeping bag tucked on a shelf. He’d unrolled that, opened it and laid it over the blankets.

      Looking around the tack room instead of looking at him—because he drew her gaze to him much too often—she said, “This room looks a lot newer than the rest of the barn.”

      “This was an old barn,