Wyoming Winter--A Small-Town Christmas Romance Read online

  “This is so sudden,” she blurted out.

  “Not on my part.” He cocked his head. “The minute Annie said her pregnant, unmarried cousin was going to come and live here and needed a job, I started thinking about it. I’ve never been around babies. I wanted one of my own, so much. For me, it will be the greatest adventure of my life, next to living with Mary and passing the state bar exam,” he added drily.

  “It’s so kind of you,” she said, fighting tears.

  “It’s kind of you,” he replied. “It won’t be easy, Colie. I said I was sick a lot, and I meant it. I don’t sleep well, either, so I roam the house and watch television when I can’t sleep.”

  “I won’t mind,” she replied. “I just want my baby to have the best start I can give him, or her. I don’t want my baby to be called a bad name because of what I did.”

  “We’ll make sure of that.”

  “Then, if you really mean it, I’ll marry you, Mr. Howland. And I’ll take care of you as long as you need me to.”

  He smiled. “Darby.”

  “Oh. Darby,” she tried it out.

  He laughed. “I was named for my great-great-grandfather. He was a deputy sheriff in Jacobs County.”

  “I’d love to hear about his history. Maybe on one of those nights when you can’t sleep,” she added.

  He nodded. “It will be nice to have company. I’ve missed that.”

  “I’ll have to call my dad.”

  “Why don’t we do that right now? I have Skype on my office computer.” He turned it on, pulled up the app and looked at Colie. “What’s his phone number? I’ll have to send a contact request...”

  She got up. “No, you won’t. Can I use the computer? I’ll sign in on my account.”

  He grinned. “Nice thinking.” He got up and perched on the edge of the desk while Colie fed her information into the computer and called her father. It was early in the day, and he was usually at home.

  The phone rang. He answered it and when he recognized Colie’s name, he turned on the camera. There he was, beaming at her.

  “Hi, sweetheart,” he said. “How are you?”

  Darby moved into the picture beside Colie and smiled. “Hello, Reverend. I’m Darby Howland and I’m marrying your daughter tomorrow.”

  Reverend Thompson was speechless. He just gaped at them.

  “The baby needs a name,” Darby continued gently. “And I’m dying of cancer. The baby will make what time I have left worth living. I lost my wife three years ago. I don’t have anything to give, as far as a real marriage goes, but I can give Colie my name and the baby will have everything he needs.”

  Reverend Thompson found his voice. “Mr....?”

  “Howland. Darby Howland. I own the law firm here in Jacobsville where Colie’s working now.”

  “Mr. Howland, both of us will be forever in your debt,” the reverend managed. He fought tears. “I’ve been so worried about my daughter...!”

  “I’ll take care of her,” Darby promised. “She’ll never want for a thing. The baby won’t, either.” He smiled. “Mary and I wanted kids more than anything in the world, but she couldn’t conceive. I’ll look forward to being a dad, even if it’s just on paper.”

  “It’s a noble thing you’re doing,” Colie’s father said quietly. “I’ll mention you in my prayers every night.”

  Darby smiled sadly. “I’ll take all the prayers I can get. I believe in it. I’m an usher at our church. I’m Methodist...”

  “So are we!” Reverend Thompson burst out laughing. “What a coincidence!”

  “A nice one,” Darby said. He grinned. “We have a fine minister here in our church. He’s a little eccentric—drives a Shelby Cobra Mustang. But he’s great in the pulpit or when someone’s in trouble.”

  “Daddy is, too,” Colie said, smiling at her father.

  “Do you want to fly down for the ceremony?” Darby asked. “I can send a car for you at the airport.”

  “I really wish I could,” Reverend Thompson said. He sighed. “I have a member of my congregation going in for major heart surgery in the morning. I gave her my word that I’d be there with her.”

  “If he gives his word, he always keeps it,” Colie told Darby. She looked back at her father, whose expression was tormented. “It’s okay,” she said. “We’ll take photos and send you some. How about that?”

  He relaxed a little. “That would be very nice, Colie.” He glanced at Darby. “You’ve landed well, my girl. You take care of yourself. Call me often.”

  “I’ll do that,” she promised. “Love you, Daddy.”

  “Love you back. Thanks, Darby,” he added, to the other man. “Thanks very much, from both of us.”

  Darby grinned. “No thanks necessary. I’ll get to be a father!”

  Colie just laughed.

  * * *

  SHE AND DARBY were married in the local Methodist church, with just her cousins for witnesses. It wasn’t formal, although Darby had bought her a beautiful bouquet to carry, of poinsettias and white roses and baby’s breath. He’d bought her rings, as well. She’d protested the expense, but he said it was pocket change.

  A two-carat diamond engagement ring in a eighteen-karat setting with a matching band of diamonds. Two years’ salary as far as Colie was concerned. Pocket change? she’d exclaimed.

  “Forgot to tell you,” he said as they walked out of the church with Annie and Ty. “I’m rich.”

  “Oh, dear, and I didn’t know beforehand, so I could tell everyone I was marrying you for your money,” she quipped with a mischievous smile.

  He hesitated and then burst out laughing. “What have I let myself in for?” he exclaimed.

  Reverend Jake Blair joined them outside the church. “Marriage is a serious business. No laughing.”

  He looked so somber that everyone stared at him.

  Then he grinned. “Fell for it, didn’t you?” he teased. He chuckled. “You two are a great match. I can already tell.” He shook Darby’s hand. “I’m glad to see you take an interest in life again.”

  “I don’t have much of it left,” Darby said wistfully.

  “Life is measured in happy days, not in anticipation of the loss of it,” Jake told him. “Honestly, yesterday is a memory and tomorrow is a hope. All we really have is today, right now. Nobody is guaranteed one more day. Not even the youngest people.”

  Darby studied him. “You really are a philosopher, Jake.”

  “Not quite, but I’m working on it.” He smiled at Colie. “I have a daughter your age. She and her husband have a little boy. He’s the light of my life.”

  “I’ll look forward to meeting her,” Colie said. “I’m so new here. It’s going to take time before I know people.”

  “Darby knows everyone. He’ll make sure you’re introduced,” Jake assured her. “It’s a small town, but not clannish or full of prejudiced people. It’s one of the kindest places on earth. You’re going to love it here.”

  “I know that,” she agreed.

  “I hear that your father is a minister, too,” Jake said. “I’d love to meet him, when he comes to visit you.”

  She’d explained earlier why her father wasn’t at the ceremony. “He takes his job very seriously.”

  “So do I,” Jake replied. “Congratulations again.”

  “Thanks, Reverend Blair,” Colie said, and Darby added his own.

  “Now,” Darby said. “Let’s go home!”

  * * *

  HE LIVED ON a sprawling property with a stream running through it, surrounded by mesquite and oak and pecan trees.

  “It’s so different from Wyoming,” Colie remarked. “Beautiful. Just...different.”

  “No lodgepole pines, no aspen trees, no cottonwoods,” he chuckled. “I know. The vegeta
tion is different, but the people are just the same, wherever you go. I love living here. It’s like one big family.”

  “I’ve noticed that,” she agreed. She gasped as the house came into view. It was enormous; a Victorian dream of perfection, with gingerbread woodwork and white paint, two stories high and surrounded by trees of all sorts.

  “Incredible,” she remarked breathlessly. “It’s so beautiful!”

  He smiled sadly. “I built it for Mary,” he said. “It’s the only place we ever lived together.”

  “Except you probably got married first,” she said wistfully. “I’d hoped my life would be like that. Conventional.” She shook her head. “When I slip, I slip badly.”

  “You’re very young, Colie. Time enough for regrets when you get to my age,” he counseled.

  She sighed. “I guess so.” She glanced at him. “Do you have a housekeeper?”

  “A part-time one, Mrs. Lopez. She works for one of our three florists the rest of the week. You’ll like her.”

  “Is she here today?”

  “No. She works for me on Wednesday and Thursday. She leaves me frozen meals that I just heat up in the microwave.”

  “I’ll make sure you have homemade ones every day,” she promised. “I can cook.”

  He grinned. “I can see now that I’ve made a very good decision.” He chuckled.

  “I’m more grateful than I can tell you...”

  He held up a hand. “It’s a partnership. We both get benefits.” He stopped the car at the front steps. “Home,” he said, indicating the wide front porch, which boasted a porch swing and padded furniture. There was even a hammock in a stand at one end, near a towering tree.

  “That’s a pecan tree,” he told her, indicating the tree as they walked up onto the porch. “But I still have to buy pecans. Doggoned squirrels.” He sighed. “They strip the trees when the nuts are still green. I’ve lived here for thirty years and I’ve yet to get a pecan off my own tree.”

  She laughed. “Well, it’s not like the squirrels can go to the store and buy nuts,” she pointed out. “I see bird feeders and birdhouses, too,” she exclaimed. “I love them! I only had a few back home, but I loved to fill them every morning.”

  “I like birds myself,” he said. “It’s too early for them to start nesting, but we’ll have a front row seat for baby birds when spring comes.”

  She nodded. “When spring comes.”

  She gave a thought to J.C., who was gone from her life forever now. He would never come near her when he heard that she was married. She pretended that it didn’t matter. It did. She would never stop loving him. But she couldn’t let her child grow up outside marriage, in a small town. She’d done what she had to do.

  Besides that, Darby was a good man. She’d take care of him, as long as he needed her to.

  * * *

  PREGNANCY WAS AN ADVENTURE. She went from tender breasts to morning sickness, to heartburn as the baby grew.

  “This is terrible,” she groaned to Darby when they were having lunch one day. She was six months along, and it showed. Most people assumed with delight that it was Darby’s child, so the community was delighted for him. They already loved Colie. She’d never felt so much at home.

  “What’s terrible?” he teased.

  “Heartburn! I crave sour pickles and I have heartburn! It’s the most awful combination,” she said, laughing.

  “It won’t be for much longer.”

  She drew in a breath and touched her stomach. She smiled gently. “I probably should have let them tell us if it was a boy or a girl. Mr. Kemp’s wife is giving me a baby shower and everybody will bring yellow stuff.”

  “I like yellow. Don’t you?”

  She smiled. “I like it a lot.” She studied his hard face. There were new lines in it. His pain grew steadily worse. He went every week for chemo and radiation. She went with him. The course of treatment had been stepped up as his condition worsened. She hoped that he was going to make it long enough to see the baby. He’d looked forward to it with so much joy.

  “I’m not going anywhere just yet. In case you wondered,” he added on a soft chuckle.

  “Sorry. I worry.”

  He cocked his head and smiled at her. “I’m tough as old nails. No way I’m kicking off before that baby’s born. I’ve put too much time into anticipating him.”

  Her father was the same. They all talked on Skype almost every day.

  “Daddy says he’s coming down when the baby’s born, no matter what.”

  “He doesn’t like to travel, does he?”

  She shook her head as she finished her sandwich. “No, he hates it. He’s afraid of airplanes, but he hates riding in cars for long distances, too. I don’t think he’s even been out of Catelow, except when he was in the Army. But that was before I was born, when he and my mom were first married.”

  “Your mother must have been a sweet woman.”

  “She was like Daddy,” she replied. “Kind and loving and gentle.” She looked up at him. “I made things so hard for him. Love is really blind. I mean, you get in so deep that you don’t care about anything except being with the person you love.”

  “That’s true,” he agreed. He smiled. “And sometimes, it leads to horrible crimes.”

  “I noticed.”

  They were referring to a case where a man in love with a woman who didn’t want him actually kidnapped her and tried to force her to marry him. They were defending him, pleading extenuating circumstances. But the police had turned the case over to the feds, because kidnapping was a federal crime. It was going to take some fancy legal work to get the man a reasonable sentence.

  “Poor guy,” Colie said. “And his poor mother.” She grimaced. The man’s mother was in the office or on the phone with the attorneys every week, crying and upset.

  * * *

  “IF YOU WANT a job that doesn’t depress you, avoid the law,” he said with a grin. “We only see the sad parts, don’t we, honey?”

  “Yes. But sometimes people get lucky.”

  “Not where the federal government is involved,” he said on a sigh. “The US Attorney prosecuting the case has said he won’t rest until our client is behind bars for life.”

  “I guess he’s never been in love,” she mused.

  “That guy?” He just shook his head. “I doubt he’s ever allowed himself time to get involved with anyone. He’s strictly by the book. Damned good attorney, though,” he conceded. “Does his homework, has an elegant voice and does his best for the victims.”

  “I’ve heard that.”

  He studied her with warm, caring eyes. “You stay tired a lot these days. I know I don’t help. Every time I come home from chemo, I’m sick as a dog.”

  “I don’t mind.” She placed a hand over his. “We’re sort of taking care of each other. Right?”

  He laughed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.” He searched her eyes. “Three more months.”

  She grinned. “Three more months.”

  * * *

  REVEREND THOMPSON GOT the call at midnight on a hot Thursday in August. He’d been expecting it, but he almost panicked when he thought about that long airplane ride.

  Incredibly, Darby had friends who owned a private jet, and they sent it to Catelow to bring him to Jacobsville. The Mosbys would have offered, if Colie had asked them. So would Sari Fiore. But this was better. Darby’s friend had no connections to Catelow, or to J.C. Colie didn’t want J.C. to know about the baby, although she had no logical reason why.

  The pilot ushered the reverend inside, seated him and proceeded with his walkaround to make sure the plane was airworthy. One of the mechanics at the Jacobsville airport was in the reverend’s congregation. He watched the jet take off and couldn’t wait to share the news. It was a big deal for t
he minister to even get on a plane. But apparently he had acquaintances who owned a baby jet!

  He told his wife, who told the florist, who told the attorneys in the firm where Lucy still worked. She told a friend at the restaurant during lunch, vaguely aware that J.C. Calhoun was waiting at the counter behind her to pick up an order for himself and his men.

  “It’s so exciting!” Lucy told her friend. “She wouldn’t let them tell her if it was a boy or a girl. They say her husband’s got cancer,” she added sadly. “She said she just wanted him to live long enough to see the baby. He’s been as joyful as she has about it. And he’s very well-to-do! Colie wouldn’t even need to work. Not that she’s stopped,” she added on a laugh. “Can you see Colie staying at home and hosting teas? She’s never cared about money.”

  J.C. felt his heart stop. The baby was on its way. He ground his teeth together. It had been a long few months since he’d lost Colie. Since he’d thrown her out of his life, he amended bitterly. She was married. Another man would hold her hand while she gave birth, see the baby in her arms, help raise it. While the man who likely fathered it would never see it.

  He shut off the stream of painful thoughts. Rod had said baldly that it wasn’t even J.C.’s baby. He’d brought Colie’s boyfriend to meet him, when J.C. came back from overseas, at the airport. Rod had cried about his sister’s deceit.

  But Colie had never deceived anybody in her young life. She was as honest as the day was long. Rod, on the other hand, wouldn’t know the truth if it came up and bit him on his rear end.

  Only now, months removed from the sudden knowledge of Colie’s pregnancy, and the loneliness of life without her, was he even able to think straight. All the joy had gone from him, leaving him cold, like the winter snows that had been so persistent all the way to May. It was August now. Everything was in glorious bloom in Catelow. In Jacobsville, Texas, too, he thought. Colie’s child would come into the world surrounded by people who loved her, including her husband. He wondered if she ever gave him a thought, even to hate him. It was nothing more than he deserved.

  He’d been alone most of his life, abused in childhood in ways that he’d never shared with a soul, not even with Colie. He’d hated the idea of children. Now, when he thought of Colie’s baby, it made him sad and depressed. If it was really his, he’d done both of them a terrible injustice. Yes, she’d landed well. She had a husband who apparently took good care of her and gave her anything she wanted.