Merry & Wild (The Wilds of Montana #0.5)

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

JOHN

A m I crazy, or have I fallen in love in the span of a day? Maybe it’s both, I don’t know, but I do know without a doubt that I’ve fallen in love with Joy.

“John?”

“Hmm?”

“This is really romantic.”

I smile against the top of her head. “I’m glad you think so. You should see this view at night when the stars are out.”

“I bet it’s incredible.” She rubs her cheek against my chest. “Are you cold?”

“Only a little. You?”

“Are you kidding? I have my own personal heater right here.” She grins up at me, and I can’t resist leaning down to kiss her. “Mm, nice.”

“Should we head back to the cabin and thaw out a bit?”

“Sure. I’ll pour us some hot chocolate for the drive back.”

“I like that idea.” I kiss her once more and then pull away, immediately feeling the loss of her warmth. “What do you think of the ranch?”

“It’s absolutely incredible,” she says, and then bites her lip and looks out over the valley.

“What is it?”

“Well, it might be way too soon to say something like this, but it honestly feels like home .”

All I can do is blink down at her as hope fills my chest. “I, well?—”

“I can see that makes you uncomfortable,” she stammers on, her face flushing as she turns away, not looking me in the face at all. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Joy—”

“No, that was a stupid thing to say.” She’s hurrying away from me in the snow, and as she reaches the passenger door, her boot slips, and she starts to slide down the hill. “Whoa!”

She yelps, then shrieks, and I take off after her, trying to keep a hold on my footing. She slides down about ten feet before stopping, and when I reach her, her eyes are wide in fear.

“Did you get hurt?”

“I don’t think so,” she says and swallows hard. “Just my pride and maybe my?—”

She frowns.

“Your what?”

“My ankle is a little tweaked. I must have rolled it. Damn it.”

“If that’s the worst of it, I’d say we’re doing just fine. I’m going to carry you back up.”

“No, you’re not.”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “My hill, my rules. I’m carrying you, Joy. Now, loop your arm around my neck.”

“It’s too slick,” she argues. “And it won’t do us any good if we both slide all the way to the bottom.”

“I won’t slide.”

“Are you always this stubborn?”

“When it comes to someone I care about? You bet your beautiful ass. Now, do as you’re told and hold on to me.”

She narrows her eyes, but resigns herself and loops her arm around my neck. I easily lift her and manage to carry her up the hill to the side of the truck.

“I apologize for parking so close to the edge,” I say as I open the door and set her safely inside the truck. “I know better than that.”

“Thank you.” She reaches out and cups my face in her snowy mitten. “It wasn’t your fault.”

I lean in to quickly kiss her, then hurry around to the driver’s side so I can get her home and check out that ankle.

“About what I said before,” she begins.

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable,” I interrupt. “In fact, it was the opposite. I hope you’ll be spending a lot of time out here with me, so to hear that you’re comfortable here is a relief. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

“Oh. Well, good.” She closes her eyes tightly as I maneuver us down the hill backward and get us turned around, headed back toward the cabin. Then she opens her eyes and begins to pour the hot chocolate.

“What are your plans for Christmas?”

Her face registers surprise, and then she chuckles. “I almost forgot that Christmas is in just a few days. Well, I usually spend it with my mom, so I’m sure that’s what I’ll do. We have dinner and exchange gifts. Don’t you spend it with your family?”

“Yeah. Mom makes a big spread, and we invite the ranch hands to join us. The ones who don’t have family here, anyway.”

“That’s nice,” she says with a smile. “I bet they appreciate that. Oh, I love this song.”

Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” plays through the speakers, and Joy begins to sing along.

“You know,” she says, breaking off from the song. “I just realized that you don’t have a Christmas tree in the cabin.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Let’s get one.”

I glance over at her. “Like, right now?”

“Yes, right now. You have plenty of trees on this property. You need one.”

“I don’t have any decorations.”

“Do you have popcorn?”

“Yes.”

“Then you have decorations. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

It turns out, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for this woman.

“You’re in luck,” I tell her as I start to scan the area for a tree small enough. “I happen to have a saw in the truck.”

“You’re handy,” she says with a grin and sips her hot chocolate while she rolls her foot around, obviously checking out her ankle. “And you might make the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life.”

“Good, maybe you’ll stick around just for that.”

“That,” she says, “and the sex. The sex is damn good.”

I grin at her, and at just the mention of sex with Joy, my cock immediately takes notice.

“That one,” Joy announces, pointing to a tree just off the road. “That’s the perfect Christmas tree.”

“Way too big,” I reply, shaking my head. “That sucker is at least fifteen feet tall.”

“No way,” she says, but keeps scanning. “Okay, how about that one?”

“That could work.” I stop the truck, put it into park, and grab the saw from behind the seat. “You stay here where it’s warm.”

“That was my plan, cowboy,” she says, batting her eyelashes at me, and I can’t help but laugh.

She’s funny as hell.

Trudging through the snow, I wiggle my wet gloves back onto my hands and then get to work, cutting down the small evergreen tree. After I shake the snow off of it, I drag it back to the truck and get it into the back, stow the saw away, and join her in the truck once more.

“That was remarkably fast.”

“Not my first Christmas tree,” I inform her as I put the truck back in drive and head toward the cabin. “I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

“I can’t believe you don’t have a Christmas tree,” she replies. “I bet your mom has some extra decorations that she’d let you use.”

“Why don’t you go ask her?” I raise an eyebrow at her, and she just narrows her eyes at me, making me laugh again. “Okay, I’ll call her when we get home.”

“Good.” She drinks her chocolate, holding it in both hands. “This is fun.”

“I don’t need this much,” I insist, staring at the huge box my mother just shoved into my arms. “It’s a small tree, Mom.”

“But this way, you can pick and choose what you want to use,” she says. “I take it you and Joy are having a good time?”

“I’m leaving now.” I turn to the door, and Mom tugs on my arm, stopping me.

“I didn’t ask for specifics,” she reminds me. “I just want to know if you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Of course, I am. I haven’t taken her home, have I?”

“Well, the highway is still closed, from what I hear. They’re still clearing the snow. It should reopen in a few hours, though.”

“How do you know?”

“Bonnie Johnson called me, and her husband is on the snow removal crew. When it’s all clear, your father is going to go get Missy.”

“I don’t mind getting her.”

“You’re busy,” she says. “And your dad doesn’t mind, either. I’m just glad she stayed in town. Anyway, you take whatever you want out of that and trim your Christmas tree with your girl.”

With my girl.

I really like the sound of that.

“Thanks, Mom.” With my hands full, I bend down so she can kiss me on the cheek, and then I make my way down their freshly shoveled steps to my truck and head back to the cabin.

When I walk inside, I’m hit with the smell of popcorn.

“Did you remember the sewing thread?” Joy asks as she shakes a bag of microwave popcorn into a bowl.

“Yep, it’s in here. Along with about a hundred other things that my mom insisted I take.”

“Awesome,” she replies with a happy smile. “Thanks for running over to get it. I popped the corn, and we’re ready to start decorating.”

“Great.” I can hear the sarcasm in my voice.

“Come on, admit it. This is fun. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have cut that tree down for me.”

“Let’s see how the next hour goes before I admit that I’m having a good time.”

Joy rolls her eyes and opens the box, eyeing everything that Mom sent over. “This is good stuff. Do you want to do a color theme?”

“You’re asking me ?”

“Okay, Scrooge, we won’t do a color theme. But let’s do reds and greens and golds. There seems to be a lot of that in here. I’ll hang ornaments while you make the popcorn garland.”

“Can I also eat the popcorn?”

“Fine by me. There’s more over there if we need it.”

“Deal. How’s the ankle?”

“It’s fine. I’m not even limping.”

“Is it sore?”

“Not really. Come on, let’s think about Christmas.”

And for the next couple of hours, I eat and string the popcorn while Joy decorates the tree. She even finds enough extra in that box to decorate my small kitchen table, and she hangs the extra lights around the window in the living room.

“It looks like Santa Claus threw up in here.”

“It does not ,” Joy says with a laugh. “It looks festive and fun. And the blinking lights are pretty.”

“Here’s hoping they don’t burn my house down.”

“You have to keep the tree watered,” she says. “Don’t forget.”

“I probably will forget.”

“I’ll have to call and remind you, then.”

I grin and pull Joy into my arms, rocking her back and forth while I kiss the top of her head. “Or you could just plan on spending most of your nights here.”

“And commute into town for work?”

“Something like that.”

“What will the town say when everyone hears that I’ve shacked up with John Wild?”

“Who the fuck cares?”

She grins and boosts herself up on her toes to kiss me. “I don’t care.”

With one more glance around the room, Joy sighs and reaches for her jacket.

“I hate to do it, but I think I’d better head home if the roads are open. I have to do a few things before I go back to work tomorrow.”

I’m not ready to say goodbye to her. I wasn’t lying when I said that I wanted her here all the time, if she’d be willing to stay.

But I understand that she has things to do.

“Okay, let me call my mom real quick to see if she’s heard anything. She’s in touch with someone whose husband is on the snow removal crew.”

“Oh, good idea,” Joy says as I dial the number.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mom, it’s me. Are the roads open?”

“Yes, they are. Your father should be back with Missy any time. Are you headed to town?”

“Yeah, I shouldn’t be long.”

“Be careful, son. Talk to you later. Oh! How did the tree turn out?”

I glance over at the decorated tree in the corner and the woman standing beside it.

“It’s all really great.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it. See you soon.”

Once I’ve hung up, I turn to Joy. “Are you ready?”

“I’m ready.”

It’s as if we’ve been in our own sexy bubble for the past couple of days at the cabin, and now that I’m driving her to her car, the bubble has burst, and I’m kind of sad about it.

If the silence coming from the passenger seat is any indication, I’d say that I’m not alone there.

Neither of us says much as I drive us into town and make my way over to the fire hall.

“It’s amazing how much snow they cleared,” Joy says, pointing to the big snow piles along the side of the streets. “That storm was a doozy.”

“I personally enjoyed the storm.”

She looks my way and bites her lower lip. “Yeah. Me, too.”

I park next to her car, and when she is about to get out of the truck, I motion for her to stay.

“I have to brush all the snow off. I hope it starts. Give me your keys. I’ll get it warming up, and you can stay here.”

“It’ll start,” she says with confidence as she passes me the keys.

The car does, indeed, start right up, and I set the heat on high before I close the door and get to work clearing off the snow from the windows and the roof. It’s not long before I see that the heater is doing its job, and the snow that’s left on the windshield starts to melt.

Joy gets out of the truck, and I join her, waiting for her to put her purse inside. She stands and turns to me, and I take her face in my hands and kiss her, long and slow.

“That should melt the snow,” she says when I come up for air. “Thank you for a really great weekend, John. I had a lot of fun.”

“Me, too.” I kiss her forehead. “When can I see you again?”

She smiles, obviously pleased, and shrugs. “I’m free most evenings.”

“Tomorrow night, then. Dinner?”

“I’d like that. Would you like for me to do some grocery shopping, and I can cook something for you at the cabin? I can just drive out there.”

“If the roads suck again, I’ll come get you.”

“Deal.” She nods. “Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow evening, then.”

“Joy?”

“Yeah?”

“Bring a bag with some clothes in it,” I advise her. “Because this is just the beginning for us, sweetheart.”