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

of anything these past months, especially her mother.

      “Then it’s a good thing that I also brought a vegetarian one, too.”

      “That’s my favorite,” Lilly said.

      “I’m not hungry.” Her daughter pouted.

      “You’re going to stop being rude and eat.” She turned her daughter toward Coop and brushed back her long blond hair from her pretty face. “Coop this is my daughter, Kasey. Kasey, this is Mr. Cooper. He’s the new tenant and he was nice enough to bring supper.”

      “It’s nice to meet you, Kasey.”

      She nodded, but there was suspicion in her large eyes. “Thank you for the pizza.”

      Lily released a long breath as her mother appeared in the room. “Okay, maybe we should sit down and eat.”

      Beth showed Coop to a chair at the round table. Once in their seats, Lilly said, “Kasey, I believe it’s your turn to ask for the blessing.”

      She glared at her mother. “Why? I don’t have anything to be thankful for.”

      Lilly felt her cheeks flame in embarrassment. “Okay. Robbie why don’t you do it?”

      “Sure.” He folded his hands and bowed his head. “I’m thankful that I got to go swimming today and now I get pizza, too.”

      Lilly bit back a groan as she looked at her mother.

      “You’ll survive, honey,” Beth said. “I survived you.”

      Lilly took charge and said the blessing herself. Once she finished she was grateful everyone concentrated on the food. She wasn’t surprised to see her daughter didn’t have a problem eating. Finally the kids were excused to go watch television. She wanted to leave, too, but then she’d be just as rude as her kids. She wouldn’t be setting a good example and her mother was still there.

      Lilly went to the coffeemaker. “Would you like a cup?” she asked Noah Cooper and her mother.

      He looked up at her and smiled. “Thank you, I wouldn’t mind one.”

      After her mother declined, Lilly came back to the table, handed him a cup and sat back down. The conversation turned to the repairs of the house.

      “You have a wonderful house here,” Coop told her mother.

      “Thank you. I’ve lived here since I was a girl. After my parents died, I inherited this house and my husband, Charles, and I raised Lilly here. I want it to go to her.” She looked sad. “But I can’t keep up with the repairs.”

      Coop reclined in the ladder back chair. “From what I can see the structure is in good shape. Most of the damage seems to be from the elements. The porch needs some of the boards replaced. The concrete steps are crumbling. That should be the first repair.”

      Her mother looked at him. “I’m not sure I can afford you.”

      A slow, easy smile spread across Coop’s face. “I work pretty cheap. If you buy the materials, my labor is free.”

      Beth smiled. “I like that, but it doesn’t seem fair.”

      Coop looked thoughtful. “How about if you throw in a few meals?”

      Lilly wanted to object. The last thing she wanted was another man around. “Noah, I would think you’d get pretty tired of spending the evening with bickering kids.”

      “I think I’m up to it,” he assured her.

      She was losing this battle. The privacy she needed so desperately since her marriage and life fell apart.

      She looked at the good-looking man across from her. All she wanted was a nice quiet summer break. But it didn’t look like that was going to happen now.

      CHAPTER THREE

      LILLY tried to ignore him, but how could she ignore a shirtless man right in her line of sight? And that was exactly where Noah Cooper was. It was only eight o’clock the following morning, and the man stood on a ladder scraping the peeling paint off the back of the house.

      Finally giving in to the old adage “What was the harm in looking.” And that was exactly what she did. Look.

      She leaned a little to the side of the kitchen sink to get a better view. To see how his faded jeans fit across his nice rear end. How those muscles over his back and shoulders bunched with his movement. The tiny beads of sweat that gathered along his spine and ran down into the back of his Levi’s.

      She blew out a breath. Whoa, must be the heat getting to her. She turned away. She didn’t need to get all worked up just noticing a man, especially not a man who’d just arrived in town.

      One thing for sure, she didn’t need any more complications in her life, or in her kids’ lives. After the disaster with Michael, she couldn’t risk it.

      The man she thought she loved and respected had seemed to change overnight. Something she couldn’t believe at all. She’d known Michael Robert Perry since grade school. They’d gotten together in high school and then went to the same college. There had never been anyone else.

      She thought she knew the man she’d married at twenty. Until he turned into a stranger and he started keeping secrets and then finally left her and the kids. It was still hard to believe that man she’d loved and shared two children with had abandoned his family.

      Worse, after the divorce, he refused to even see his own children. Gave her full custody. He did pay child support for a while, but she soon discovered that he’d mortgaged their house for the business. She couldn’t afford the payments.

      Thank God she could come back home to live with her mother. Her kids needed the stability of having their grandmother there when she couldn’t be. And they helped each other out financially.

      Even after all that, Lilly kept praying that the old Mike would return and want his family back. But he never showed up, never spent time with Kasey and Robbie.

      For the past two years, she had to deal with the aftermath of two kids losing a parent, then the finality of his death a few months ago. Robbie seemed to be doing fine, but not Kasey. She’d always been Daddy’s little girl. Now, she was sad and angry.

      Lilly could still remember when the sheriff came to tell her about Mike’s death. He said it was suicide.

      That day part of her died, too. For the man who’d been such a big part of her life. The man who she’d vowed to love, honor and cherish. Mike’s desertion from his family had ended that long before his death.

      “What happened, Mike?” she breathed, unable to stop wondering if she’d been the cause. “Why did you change? What made you stop loving us?”

      Lilly glanced out the window again to see Coop. Why was she drawn to him? Okay, it had been a long time since she’d had a man’s attention. And Noah Cooper was easy to look at, in a rugged male sort of way. He wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty. She felt heat rush through her as he climbed off the ladder. He went to the hose, turned it on and raised the spray over his head, allowing the water to run over him.

      “Oh, my,” she groaned as the water dripped over his chest and ran down to his waist. He reached for a towel and she couldn’t look away from the erotic scene as he rubbed the towel over his muscular chest and arms. Already the sun had bronzed his skin, contrasting with the white line along his waistline.

      He turned and exposed his wide back and she caught a dark mark on his left shoulder. A tattoo. She squinted but couldn’t make it out.

      “What’s so interesting?”

      Lilly jumped as her mother came into the kitchen. “Nothing, just Mr. Cooper working on the house.”

      Beth glanced out the window and grinned. “And what a nice view, too.” She sighed. “Oh, to be young again.”

      Lilly