“No?”
She shook her head. “No.”
Tarr threaded his fingers through hers, and Briar loved the way it made her feel—claimed, less alone.
“What are you doing for Christmas, sweetheart?” he asked.
“I think you already know the answer to that.” Briar leaned her head back against the wall and let her eyes drift closed. “I’ll just be here at the farm.”
“Tucker’s cousin Mike has invited us for dinner—well, it’s really lunch—on Christmas Day. They’re eating at one-thirty. And with Tuck going to Oklahoma and all, I thought it might be nice to go out there.”
“Isn’t he the CEO of some big company?” Briar asked.
“Yeah,” Tarr said. “But his wife’s got a little hobby farm south of Ivory Peaks, and his sister is out there too. She married one of the cowhands from the farm, and she’s due with her first baby any time.” He blew out his breath. “Their parents are there too.”
“Not Tuck’s parents,” she said.
“No, it’s his aunt and uncle,” Tarr said. “His parents are in Coral Canyon, and his sister and her husband are going to visit them. His other brother, Deacon, might be there. I haven’t heard. It’ll be a lot like going to the Hammonds’ for Thanksgiving—a good time with good food and nice people.”
“Are you asking me to go with you?” Briar asked.
“Was that not obvious?” Tarr chuckled. “Yeah, Briar-Thorn, I’m asking you to go with me.”
Briar-Thorn. For some reason, that prickly nickname burrowed straight into her heart and warmed her from the inside out.
“If you don’t want to, we can have our own private Christmas celebration here at the farm, but then that would be me and you cooking, sweetheart.”
“I’m not a bad cook,” she said. “And neither are you.”
“Mm, true. It just feels like so much work.”
“You don’t want to go home to Texas?”
“I can’t,” he said. “Who’s going to take care of the farm if Tuck’s in Oklahoma?” He looked up at her. “It’s me and youagain, sweetheart, but we could get the chores done for the day, head out for lunch, and be back in time for the evening feeding.”
“Yes, we could,” she said. “I mean, why not? The Hammonds act like everyone’s family, don’t they?”
Tarr chuckled again. “They sure do, sweetheart.”
“Hello?”
Briar lifted her head and then scrambled to her feet at the sound of Kristie’s voice. “We’re in here,” she called, and then hurried to the door to unlatch the gate. “Thank you so much for coming.” The lights in the barn blazed brightly against the dark night, almost fooling Briar into thinking it wasn’t an hour past her bedtime.
“Our barn door got blown loose, and it broke Gemini’s gate down there on the end. He got out. He was in the barn when we found him, but he’s favoring his back leg.”
“Let’s take a look.” Kristie gave her a quick smile and then got down to business.
Tarr came out of the stall and extended his hand toward a cowboy Briar had only met once or twice. “Howdy, Mission.”
“Howdy, Tarr,” he said, his voice even and his gaze watchful. “What do we need to do with that door?”
Tarr glanced over to Briar. “Do you remember meeting Briar?” He reached for her and tugged her forward. “She’s our vet tech here. Briar, this is the foreman at the Hammond Family Farm, Mission Redbay.”
“Sure,” she said. “I think we’ve met a couple of times.”
“At the State Fair,” Mission said, and he smiled as he shook her hand. “I think you’d just been injured….” He flicked a look over to Tarr.
“Yeah, I had a run-in with some coyotes this past summer,” Briar said.
