Chapter 10
Dallas
Dropping Ginger off and leaving her is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.
The next several hours crawl by at a snail’s pace until it’s finally time for me to head back to town to the community center.
I can’t stay for the entire event because the Christmas Eve bonfire will start soon, but I want to see her even if it’s for a few minutes.
I’m hoping to convince her to agree to come with me to the bonfire later. I think she’d enjoy the spiked cocoa. I always do. I also like how we all sing Christmas carols but I’m not sure she’d like that especially after what she just told me.
I want to take all the bad memories her ex and no-account friend gave her and override them with good ones we create together. I want to make her smile. Make her laugh. I want her to realize that my love will surround her, that it’s so wide and deep, it’ll be her cushion. Her shield.
That’s my goal. I still want to beat her ex’s ass, though. That’s a secondary goal. That asshole.
I put on a dress shirt and jeans, then pack my stuff and load it into the trunk of the rental car since I’m leaving soon. I enjoy being here. Love visiting with Mary and Christopher and the guys.
But I miss my ranch. Miss my horse. I even miss doing chores. Over the years, that land became a part of me. Lucky River is a town that makes me feel like I’ve always belonged there.
The first day my birth parents brought me to town and introduced me around…I still recall their proud smiles. The tears in my mother’s eyes. Everywhere we went, people hugged me. Some of them cried, said they’d hoped for years I’d be found.
My brothers were raised hearing about their missing sibling and once the initial meeting was over, they accepted me and treated me like we’d grown up together. Being a teenager, I’d acted cool, like I wasn’t affected that I’d never been forgotten.
Lost in thought, the trip back to town goes by in the blink of an eye. I slow as I draw near the community center. The street in front of it is filled with cars and pickup trucks and it takes me a few minutes to find parking.
No sooner do I step out into the cold than I get a weird premonition that something’s about to change. Before that thought clears my head, my phone dings with an alert.
I wait until I’m inside the warmth of the center to check it. The weather app I use because of needing to watch out for the wellbeing of my livestock shows a half dozen dire warnings.
An incoming winter ice storm being touted as the storm of the century is headed to Texas and will hit in the middle of the night tonight. That means the airport will shut down and if I don’t change my plane ticket home to an earlier time, I won’t make it back to spend Christmas with my family.
And it’s a sworn promise among us that we will always be together on Christmas because we missed so many holidays together in the past.
It also means I can’t stay for the bonfire. I glance up from my phone and see Ginger across the room. Her head is bent and she’s looking at her phone and frowning.
She’s wearing a white sweater and black jeans that hug the curves I love.
The curves I already want to see again. I fight to keep my thoughts from recalling how I’d tasted her.
How I’d lost myself in her sweet body. Otherwise, I’m going to have my cock bulging on display for the entire crowd here to see.
I approach and her frown instantly disappears with her smile. I like seeing that my presence can chase away her frown.
“Did you see the weather?” She taps her phone screen and when I nod, she adds, “I need to leave. I can’t risk missing Christmas with my dad.
I got a ride to the airport when I flew out here but with this storm coming, the transportation company notified me that they won’t be operating. I’ll have trouble finding a way home.”
I don’t like seeing her worried, but I like that this situation presents a chance to spend more time with her. “Lucky River isn’t far from Coyote Bend. We can land at the same airport where I left my truck if you change your ticket. I can drive you home from there.”
“Are you sure?” She pulls her address up and shows it to me. “That’s not too far for you to take me?”
I’d drive her from one end of the world to the next if she needed me. “Not at all.”
She touches my arm and beams at me. “You’re my hero.”
I feel ten feet tall knowing I was the one who made the happiness shine in her eyes. “I’ll run back to the ranch and say my goodbyes. You head to the Inn and get your stuff. I’ll pick you up there.”
I quickly leave and book it back to the ranch. I get online and change my flight, then walk out to where the bonfire has already begun. Everyone greets me, and I tell them what’s going on with the incoming weather. They’re concerned about me flying back but I assure them I’ll beat the storm in.
Then I hug Mary and Christopher as tightly as I can. We’ll see each other again next year, but saying goodbye is hard every time I leave.
Mary tells me to be careful, and to call her when I get home. I promise I will as I get in the car to drive back to town.
When I get there, Ginger is bundled in her coat and her cheeks and the tip of her nose are red.
I jump out to load her luggage. “You should have waited inside where it’s warm.”
“Yes, Mr. Wolf.”
She turns to get into the passenger side, and I swat her on her curvy ass. “Don’t make me give you a spanking for your sassiness.”
She sticks out her tongue and gets in the car. “Just so you know, threatening to spank me isn’t a deterrent.”
I get in and adjust the heat to warm her. “You’d like that, huh? I’ll make a note. My beauty is due for a spanking.”
Ginger blushes and looks out the window.
As I drive, I notice she’s twisting her fingers together. I put my hand over hers. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you won’t miss Christmas with your dad.”
She gives me a tight smile, and I can tell she wants to believe me, but in the face of all the disappointments she’s experienced, I understand why she’s struggling to.
The flight back to Texas is smooth and we land just as the weather begins to worsen.
Ginger’s phone rings the second we’re in my ice-cold truck.
“Yes, Dad. I’m fine and headed that way.
What? Why?” She looks at me in dismay. “They’re going to close the main road into Coyote Bend soon because they can’t de-ice the road.
I won’t reach home in time.” Crestfallen, she returns to her conversation.
I get out of the truck on the pretense I’m cleaning the windshield, but I make a call to Jonas. “You’ve traveled on supply runs in weather like this for your family’s ranch, right?”
“Many times, why? What do you need me to go get?”
“A person.” I tell him the situation with her dad.
“Hell, yeah, I’ll go get your woman’s father. My truck has those beast winter tires that can grip the hell out of the roads. I’ll leave right now. Marshall’s here too. He says he’ll go with me. What Marshall? The fuck are you talking about a dildo for?”
“Tell him that was definitely a good one.” I laugh. “I’ll send you Ginger’s home address.” I quickly text the address she showed me earlier at the community center.
After I return to the truck, she’s quiet. I turn the radio on, and a perky holiday song is playing. I move to turn it off, but she stops me.
“It’s okay. I can listen to this with you.”
“Are you not as upset hearing this kind of music now because you’re with a well-hung, wonderful cowboy?”
“Isn’t bragging grounds for extra coal in your stocking?”
“How is that bragging? I gave you proof.”
She puts her hands to her cheeks and murmurs, “What am I going to do with you.”
“Before or after we get married?”
She doesn’t say anything, but the edge of a smile tugs at the corner of her lips.
A familiar Christmas song starts next, and I belt out the words to it.
“You have a nice singing voice,” she says.
“Because it’s deep. The weight of being well-hung pulls everything lower.”
“Dallas!” She rolls her eyes. “I know you’re trying to lighten things up on my behalf, but I’m okay. I mean, I’m upset and sad, but I’ll be fine.”
She’s clearly putting on an act.
“You don’ have to try to be strong in front of me. You can cry or scream—preferably because I’m fucking the hell out of you, but—”
“Cowboy, if you don’t behave, you’re going to be the one getting a spanking.”
I laugh and tease, “Darlin’, you’re not strong enough to even hold my dick. How do you think you’re going to best me if we get into a wrestling match over whose ass gets a paddling?”
“Not strong enough to even hold….” She sticks her lower lip out in a pout. “That’s too bad. I was thinking about holding it when I get the chance to suck you off, but you’re right. I’m not strong enough, so that can’t happen.”
Well, shit. She one-upped me. “Uh…I may have miscalculated.”
“You did. You blew your chance to get blown.”
“Wait a second here. Let’s make a deal. You let me spank you and I’ll let you blow me.”
“Pfft. Sounds like a win-win for you.”
“I’ll make you come until you’re wrung out.”
“You’d do that anyway, so that’s not a bonus.”
We banter back and forth for miles. I’m trying to keep her mind occupied and keep mine off of thinking about her mouth on my cock.
The miles fly by until I slow the truck at a gas station right outside of Lucky River and turn into the parking lot. Leaning over, I put my hand on her thigh and inch it upward. “Let’s talk about me giving you whatever bonus you want.”
She reciprocates by putting her hand on my thigh. “Maybe later if you’re a very good cowboy I might get on my knees for you.”
I swallow hard, pretty sure I’m losing this flirting game we’re having. “Define good.”
Her fingertips travel to the front of my jeans where my cock is already alert and eager to go for a ride. “Ginger,” I groan when she presses her palm there.
“What if later you pull my hair and tell me to open wide and take that dick like a good girl?”
My brain takes on the mental acuity of scrambled eggs. “Uh…”
She sits back upright in her seat. “You stay out here and think about that. I’m going in for coffee now. Do you want one?”
“Yeah, and that’s evil, woman.”
Ginger smirks at me, then leaves to head inside with a bounce in her step.
I can’t get that wishful thinking image of her kneeling before me out of my head. I adjust my cock so that I can get out of the truck without looking like he’s pointing longingly in her direction.