Tall, Dark, Texas Ranger / Once Upon A Christmas Eve. Patricia Thayer

customers. He was about to give up the search when he spotted a blonde girl. She was dressed in a short skirt and a fitted T-shirt, revealing far too much.

      He tensed, seeing her companions, two teenage boys who looked to be about sixteen and very interested in the pretty blonde. One kid had his hand on her arm. This wasn’t good.

      He walked to the group. “Kasey Perry,” he called over the noise. “What a surprise to find you here.”

      The girl’s smile disappeared as he approached them. “Huh, Mr. Cooper,” Kasey said. “What are you doing here?”

      He looked at the two high-school-aged boys. They had lanky builds, but were nearly as tall as he was. “Oh, I don’t know.” He gave them a warning look. “I thought I’d soak up some of the local atmosphere. Are these boys friends of yours?”

      Coop got a little pleasure watching the kids frown at his description.

      “Yeah, Randy and Jake, this is Mr. Cooper. He rents the cottage from my grandmother.”

      Coop reached out his hand. “Nice to meet you both. So you’re both just hangin’ out for the summer?”

      “We’re waiting for football camp,” Jake said. “We’re gonna play varsity this year.”

      “Heh, that’s cool,” Coop told them, folding his arms across his chest. “I was a quarterback in high school. We went to state.” He glanced around the arcade. “If you find you’re getting bored they could use some strong backs at AC Construction. If you can swing a hammer, look me up there, Noah Cooper. Everyone calls me Coop.”

      Their eyes lit up. “Uh, thanks.” The boys wandered off, seeming to decide hanging around wasn’t leading anywhere.

      Coop turned back to the girl. “I think you better call your mother.” He handed her his phone. “Now.”

      She didn’t move. “What if I don’t want to?”

      “You know, Kasey, I took you for a smart girl, but I think I’m mistaken. I get that you’re angry, but acting like this isn’t helping. If you wanted to punish your mom, okay, you won. She’s been worried about you. Now, call her.”

      “I’ll get grounded.”

      “No kidding. Even if you don’t call you’ll get that. You did this, not her.”

      “She’s too strict. I can’t go anywhere.”

      “You have to earn trust for that,” he explained. “And doing something like this stunt shows poor judgment and immaturity.”

      She gave him a defiant look. “This isn’t your business.”

      “Okay, let me tell you some hard, cold facts. Those older boys you think are so cute, they wanted to do more than play video games with you. You could have been in big trouble. And it’s my business because your mother needed my help today.”

      He nodded to the phone. “Now, it’s time to take your medicine and call her.”

      It was after ten by the time Lilly got the kids settled for the night. She’d tried to calmly talk with Kasey, telling her the importance of staying in touch by phone. The scary thing was her child wasn’t listening to a word she said. In the end, Lilly had grounded her daughter for a week, no phone or computer.

      In reality, who was being punished? Exhausted, she walked out on the side porch with her glass of wine. She sat down on the railing and took a sip, hoping the alcohol would soothe away all her fears, the feelings of inadequacy and loneliness.

      It had only been a few months since Mike’s death, but the past two years had been hell. That was how long she’d carried the guilt about failing as a wife. Now, she was failing as a mother, too.

      She heard a door shut and looked around to see Noah coming out of the cottage. He walked along the lighted path toward the porch. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, but she knew she owed him more than just a brief thank-you for today.

      With a bottle of beer in hand, he stopped at the steps. “Would you mind some company?”

      Okay, so the man was considerate. “Sure.”

      He came up the steps, wearing a clean pair of jeans and a dark T-shirt. His cowboy boots made a tapping sound against the wood floor. She caught a whiff of his soap as he walked by her.

      He leaned against the post. “Did your daughter survive your wrath?”

      “Barely. Remember, I’m a trained professional. A school principal knows the right buttons to push. According to my daughter, I committed a crime taking away her social life, her phone and computer.”

      In the shadows, she could see his nod. “With me, I hated when my mom wouldn’t let me leave the house. But now everything is done through texting, or the internet.”

      He looked at her for what seemed like an eternity. “How are you doing, Lilly? It had to be rough not knowing where your daughter might be.”

      There he went, being nice again.

      “No, it wasn’t easy and I owe you a big thanks. And it’s not bound to get any easier for a long time. Mike was the one who could deal with Kasey’s moods. Now she blames me for him being gone.”

      “She has to blame someone. You’re the closest and the one she feels most safe with.”

      Lilly looked at him. The night’s darkness was an intimate setting. “Were you a psychologist in a previous life?” She took a sip of wine. She didn’t need it; this man could quickly go to her head—if she let him.

      “No, I just made my mother’s life difficult too many times to remember.”

      “For how long?” she asked hopefully.

      “Too long. She’s gone now.” He sighed. “I wish I’d been a better son.”

      She was curious. “What about your father?”

      “He wasn’t in the picture.” He shrugged. “So I don’t remember him much.”

      “So with your brother gone, you’re all alone.”

      Coop didn’t want her to see that much of himself. “I have a sister-in-law and a niece. I should stay in touch more.” Just not when he was working undercover.

      “You should. But you shouldn’t have to subject yourself to listening to a woman crying in her wine.”

      “No one is forcing me to do anything. And I doubt you complain much, Lilly.” He took a drink of his beer. Mainly because he was fighting the urge not to get too personal. “I wish I could tell you that everything will turn out all right, but I can’t. You’ve got good kids, just hang in there.”

      The moonlight illuminated the area as she looked at him with those big eyes. Man, she was stirring feelings in him, and that was dangerous for both of them. He needed to redirect his thoughts, to business. “Do you get any help from their aunt?”

      “Stephanie? She’s been trouble from the get-go. She’s a lot younger than Mike. He even helped raise her. Then he trained her in the family business after their parents passed away.”

      “So she has the business now,” he coaxed for more information.

      Lilly turned and looked at him. “It might be a coincidence, but a lot of the trouble between Mike and me started when she got more involved with the company.”

      Go easy, he told himself. “Didn’t your husband run things then?”

      “He did the books, but the day-to-day scheduling of the work crews was Stephanie’s job. And for a while they were doing great, the money was rolling in. The only problem was Mike was working more and more hours as the business expanded. Then Rey Santos came in as a manager for the crews. And I thought that would free Mike up and he could cut back on his hours. But Stephanie and Rey started dating.” She shivered. “Nothing changed.