The Cowboy's Christmas Lullaby. Stella Bagwell

      “Oh, Mom, do we have to go right now?” Harry asked.

      Peter quickly seconded his brother’s suggestion. “Yeah, Mom, do we? We want to talk to Mr. Yates some more.”

      Forcing herself to her feet, she motioned for the two boys to join her. “Sorry, fellas. It’s getting late and we’ve already interrupted Mr. Yates’s evening enough. Come on. Pull on your jackets and gather up your empty soda cans.”

      Less than ten minutes later, the boys were loaded in the backseat of the car. She’d filled out the necessary forms for the repair cost, and the mechanic had driven away.

      Now as she stood outside the driver’s door with Denver less than two steps away, she’d never felt so awkward or deflated in her life. An hour ago, she was desperate to get home. Now she was reluctant for her time with this man to end. It made no sense. None at all.

      “There’s no way I can begin to explain how much I appreciate your help,” she told him. “And thank you for being so patient with Harry and Peter. I imagine tomorrow your ears will still be ringing.”

      With a wry smile, he shook his head. “Not at all. I enjoyed their company. It made me remember back to when I was that age.”

      She said, “You might not believe this, but they don’t normally have such motormouths. Especially with a person they’ve just met. They like you.”

      “I’m honored.”

      She hadn’t expected him to say anything close to that. But then everything about him and this evening had caught her off guard.

      “Well, I’d better be going.”

      She extended her hand to him, but instead of shaking it, he wrapped both hands around hers. The contact felt incredibly intimate, and for a moment she wondered if she’d forgotten how to breathe.

      “Goodbye, Marcella. It was nice meeting you and your sons. Have a safe trip home.”

      It was nice meeting her, she thought, but not nice enough to ask for her phone number, or mention he might like seeing her again. The notion filled her with disappointment, but she wasn’t about to let it show. Instead, she gave him the cheeriest smile she could muster.

      “Thanks, Denver. And you be careful to watch out for Little Joe,” she teased. “You know Halloween is actually tomorrow night. He and that white horse might be on the prowl.”

      He grinned. “Right. I’ll keep my eye out.”

      “Goodbye,” she said, then slipping her hand from his, she quickly turned and climbed into the car.

      Once she’d shut the door and fastened her seat belt, she didn’t allow herself to glance at him through the window. Instead, she drove away and tried her best not to notice the lights of his truck reflecting in her rearview mirror.

       Chapter Three

      A week later, Marcella was nearing the close of her Friday shift in the ER when fellow nurse and friend Paige Winters walked up behind her.

      “Dr. Sherman is being his usual nasty self again,” she said with a weary sigh. “Thank goodness our shift is nearly over. He can take out the rest of his sour attitude on the next crew of nurses instead of us—or me, I should say. The man has had the evil eye on me ever since I came to work in the ER. I’d give anything to slap that smirk of his right off his face.”

      “Including your job?” Marcella asked as she yanked a soiled sheet from an empty bed.

      “Well, no. I love my job here at Tahoe General too much to let one moody doctor ruin it.”

      Marcella tossed the dirty sheet into a nearby hamper, then turned to see that the other nurse had already started fitting a clean sheet on the just-stripped mattress.

      Paige was a year or two younger than Marcella, and though she was a natural redhead, like her, Paige’s shoulder-length hair was a deep wine color that contrasted vividly with her pale gray eyes. She was an extremely hardworking, dedicated nurse, and Marcella had often hoped that the other woman would find a man to love her. She deserved that much from life and more.

      From the opposite side of the narrow bed, Marcella said in a hushed voice, “Dr. Sherman isn’t giving you the evil eye. He’s giving you the eye. Period.”

      A fiery blush spread across Paige’s cheeks. “I am so tired of everyone hinting that Dr. Sherman has the hots for me,” she muttered. “The man is as cold as an ice cube. He wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if she fell right into his arms!”

      “Nurse Winters! I need you down here! Pronto!”

      The sound of Dr. Sherman’s bellow from the opposite side of the treatment room put a tight grimace on Paige’s face.

      “See? He’s a jerk in a lab coat. And not nearly as good-looking as Dr. Whitehorse, who’s been giving you the eye for months now.”

      The other woman hurried away, making it impossible for Marcella to deflect Paige’s remark about Dr. Whitehorse. Sure, the man was young and handsome and nice. She liked him as a friend, but he just didn’t make her heart go pitter-patter. Not the way that darned cowboy up on the Silver Horn had done.

      Denver Yates. This past week she’d thought of little else. And the fact that Harry and Peter kept bringing up his name didn’t help matters at all. From the remarks they made, she could tell both of them expected to see Denver again. Preferably in the near future. And she hadn’t had the heart to burst their bubble. Neither of them would understand that enduring friendships rarely grew out of chance meetings.

      You need to forget the cowboy, Marcella. He probably has a girlfriend. And even if he doesn’t, he’d hardly be interested in a mother with two kids. Wake up! A hunky man like Denver can have his pick of women. You can bet he’s already put you and your sons in the very back of his mind.

      Doing her best to shove the miserable voice out of her head, she finished the last few minutes of her shift, exchanging patient information with the fresh group of nurses. By the time she’d changed clothes and headed out to the parking lot to her car, seven o’clock had turned into seven forty-five.

      She was climbing into her car when she heard the cell phone inside her purse ringing. The caller was most likely her mother, she thought wearily, wondering why she hadn’t yet been by to pick up the boys. After twelve years of Marcella working long, erratic shifts as a nurse, her mother still didn’t understand her schedule would never be predictable.

      After starting the car, she pulled out the phone and was surprised to see it had been Lilly Calhoun ringing, rather than her mother. Since her friend never called just to chat, Marcella decided to take a minute to return the call. If something had happened on the ranch, she wanted to know about it.

      “Hi, Marcella,” Lilly answered cheerfully. “Sorry to bother you at this hour. Are you home from work yet?”

      “No. I’m still in the parking lot. Is anything wrong?”

      “No. Everything is great. I’ll just keep you a minute. I wanted to ask if you’re free tomorrow night. I’d like for you to come to a little dinner party I’m having.”

      Marcella frowned. “Dinner party? Lilly, I was just out to the ranch last week at your Halloween party.”

      “So? That was mainly for the kids. This is just for us adults.”

      So that meant she’d have to tell Harry and Peter she was going to the Silver Horn without them. That would definitely cause a fuss. But on the other hand, Marcella was entitled to an evening out on her own once in a while.

      “Is this some sort of special event? Someone’s birthday?” Marcella asked.

      “Nothing special. There will only be a few of us. The men are getting together to talk business and Ava and I