Stranded With a Hero (34 page)

“And you,” Des glared at him, “thought she’d get in trouble for rescuing them? You thought Carson, who runs a mustang sanctuary, would be upset with her? For trespassing?”

Red squirmed. “He left me in charge. I just wanted to do the right thing.”

“Well. You’re an idiot.”

“He is not!” Frankie’s eyes opened.

“Whoa.” Now Des’s eyebrows lifted. “Double-teaming me. Interesting.”

Zach returned, a grin on his face. “That was Carson. They took the red-eye. They’ll be home by noon. Turns out he went to school with a couple of the biologists involved with the Selkirk Mountain project. He’s pretty thrilled to have their caribou on his land, in fact, however they got there. He’s gonna call his buddies, figures they’ll be out ASAP to collect them and return them to the old growth forest.”

Red couldn’t find his voice. He looked at Frankie. She blinked back at him.

“Don’t just sit there,” said Zach with a laugh. “We need to get those babies into the corral and it’s an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation. Come on. Let’s go round up some reindeer!”

Corralling the caribou had been a tougher job than Frankie had expected. But between the four of them on snowmobiles they managed
to do it. Zach shouted directions, Des helped her and Red follow the caribou, and two great hairy dogs—Mistral plus Chewy, the caramel colored one that came with Zach—dashed among them all.

The caribou, breathing hard, were safely confined to a small fenced area, ready for pickup by the conservation officer. Zach, Des and Blythe had zipped off back to Twinridge Ranch, while Bliss had gone inside to prepare the house for the Granger family.

Her reindeer would be okay! She did it!
They
did it.

So why didn’t she feel like celebrating?

She joined Red where he stood at the fence.

“Glad that’s over,” she said, wiping snow off his face.

“Yeah.”

Was that regret in his voice?

He put an arm around her waist, tugging her against him.

“Pretty, isn’t it?”

She followed his gaze, remembering when she’d pointed the same beauty out to him. Miles of white undulated before them, smooth as silk, brittle as glass. In the distance, mountains blended with sky, only the lines of rock and forest breaking up the glittering white.

The air was so pure it hurt, so still you could hear a twig snap a mile away.

A lump rose in her throat. How could she leave this? How could she leave him?

“I’m sorry for everything I put you through, Red.” She laid a hand on his arm. “But I have to tell you, this has been the best Christmas I’ve had in a long time.”

He smiled crookedly. “Me too.”

Slowly they made their way up from the corral. At her car, they stopped.

“I guess I’ll be on my way, then.”

“I guess.” He wiped fresh snow off the hood of her car. “You have all your stuff?”

“I figured I’d leave you the elf costume.” She tried to wink. Failed.

The door to the house slammed and Bliss came down the steps, a basket in her arms.

“A little something to keep your strength up,” she said.

“Thanks, Bliss,” said Frankie. The lump got bigger.

“You sure you can’t convince her to stay, Sheriff?” Bliss frowned at Red.

Frankie saw him swallow, gathering courage to articulate what she herself was afraid to say.

“School’s out for another week,” he said, finally, running his fingers over her hands. “I mean, if you wanted to stay a little longer. Meet Rory and Carson.”

“You’re pathetic,” said Bliss. She shook her head at Red, then turned on her heel. “But you should stay, Frankie. There’s fireworks in town on New Year’s Eve. Everyone comes out. You’re gonna be famous when word gets around about the reindeer you rescued. Kids will be asking for your autograph.”

“You should stay, Frankie,” said Red. “Really.”

That faint buzzing sound was back. They wanted her to stay?

Red
wanted her to stay?

Or was he just being polite?

The buzzing sound turned to a hum. The hum came from Red. She recognized the tune.

“
Jingle bells, jingle bells
,” he sang softly. “
Frankie, won’t you stay
?”

The porch door opened and Desiree poked her head out, opened her mouth, then closed it and joined Bliss.

“
I’m more fun with you here, hon
,” he continued, “
though I know you’ll make me pay-hey.”

Frankie pressed her knuckles against her mouth, but tears came anyway. The more he sang, the more beautiful he sounded. Even if she could have joined him, she wouldn’t have interrupted his solo for the world.

“
Rudolph the bitter sheriff
,” he began again, and this time she could hear what it cost him to sing the words, “
doesn’t want to be alone
.”

“
Frankie the lonely teacher
,” she whispered, “
doesn’t really have a home
.”

“Maybe you could,” he whispered back. “With me.”

Anywhere Red was, she thought. That’s where home would be.

“Well, I’m freezing my patootie off out here.” Bliss sniffed loudly from where she and Des were hugging each other on the porch. “Now that the power’s back on, you can even have a proper guest room, with heat and all. Share it, with my blessing, it keeps the laundry down. I’ve got my own suite, so you’ll have your privacy. Lord knows, I put up with a lot of canoodling when Carson and Rory got together.”

“Bliss?” said Red, giving her a meaningful look.

“Oh, of course, of course, I do go on, don’t I?” She turned to the house, hauling Des with her. Before she let the door fall shut behind them, she paused. “This is a good place, Frankie. He’s a good man.”

Red pulled her into his arms.

“We don’t have to decide anything right now,” he said softly. “But I think we’ll both regret it if we don’t at least give us a chance.”

“What’ll you do if I say no,” she asked, her heart beginning to soar. “Arrest me?”

“I’ve still got my handcuffs.” His eyes burned into hers and in them she glimpsed something that hadn’t been there when she first met him.

“I’m serious, Frankie. I might have saved you from freezing to death, but you rescued me, too. I was dying of loneliness and I didn’t even know it.”

Tears shone in his eyes. The guarded cynicism that had been there when they met was gone. In its place was softness, vulnerability.

Hope.

Red began to hum. She recognized the tune—
I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In
.

“I saw an elf on Christmas Eve, determined, righteous and naive
,”
he sang softly. “
She thawed my heart and made me smile, how will I go on without her
?”

Frankie moved closer until their bodies were touching and his warm breath mingled with hers.

“
Rudolph the red-haired sheriff
,” she began singing back.

But before she could go further, Red grabbed her around the waist and swung her.

“It’s not red, you said it yourself.”

She shrieked, hanging on to him. A hoot sounded from the kitchen window where Bliss was watching.

Red flung out one arm, lifted his face to the heavens, took a deep breath and sang.

“
Joy to the world
,” he belted out, with such fervor that Frankie couldn’t resist joining him. Before they’d got past the second line, Bliss and Des were singing along and not long after that, Zach, Blythe and even Mistral and Chewy added their voices.

It was the best choir she’d ever been part of.

“Let’s ring in the New Year together,” said Red, just before his lips descended onto hers. “We’ll start there.”

Fireworks, she thought, while she still could.

We’ll have fireworks
.

Epilogue

Six months later…

Spring in Lutherton was a lot different from winter, thought Frankie. And her life was a whole lot different now, too.

Better. In every way.

She looked around the little bungalow that she and Red had bought together. The house that, starting today, was home.

Better than she’d ever imagined.

Bliss huffed as she set the last of Frankie’s boxes onto the counter.

“More of this living together business,” she grumbled. “Why can’t folks just tie the knot, the old-fashioned way?”

Frankie smiled to herself, placing a casual hand on her belly. Bliss was going to get her way, and then some.

Over the winter, she and Red had spent a lot of time going back and forth between Kalispell and Lutherton, but they’d both known from the first day of the New Year that it was only a matter of time until they were together, permanently. And soon, they would be a family.

“Hey, baby,” said Red, coming up behind her and kissing the back of her neck. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough here?”

“Mm, that feels good,” she murmured as he kneaded her shoulder muscles.

“I could use a little of that,” snapped Bliss. “I did all the heavy lifting. And me an old woman, too. I tell you, the things I do for you young—“

She stopped, looked between them, her face running comically between disbelief, joy and back again.

Bliss blinked, her mouth opening and closing like a fish. “Are you…you’re not…oh my heavens, tell me it’s true!”

Frankie smiled and nodded.

Red wrapped his arms over her, bending to rest his chin on her shoulder.

“Knocked up like a piñata,” he said, rubbing his whiskers against her soft skin.

“We had a busy winter,” said Frankie.

Bliss enveloped them both in an enormous hug. “I’m so happy! Never mind what I said before about waiting, I didn’t mean it. Love, babies, marriage, I don’t care what order they come in, so long as they get here. Oh, there’s so much to do!”

She kissed them each soundly on the cheek, then ran off.

“I had to do something to convince you to stay,” said Red, his breath warm on her neck. “I was a desperate man.”

Frankie laughed. “You had me the second I heard your voice. Sing to me, Red.”

And he did.

Don’t miss the first three books in Roxanne Snopek’s
Three River Ranch
series:

Three River Ranch

To save his ranch, he needs a wife. But can she save his heart?

Needing a fresh start from her two-timing fiancé, Aurora McAllister answers a realtor’s ad for a guesthouse on the beautiful, serene Three River Ranch. She shows up at Three River tired, heartbroken, and with no one but her trusty Labradoodle as a companion.

Cowboy Carson Granger has enough trouble in his life without adding a woman and her dog to the mix. There’s the untamed mustang he’s prepping to release into the wild, not to mention his father’s crazy will, which stipulates that if Carson wants to fully inherit Three River, he’ll need to find a bride. Carson wants nothing to do with love and especially not a marriage of convenience. But he soon realizes Rory, and everything she represents, might just be exactly what he needs.

Sometimes love arrives on your doorstep when you least expect it…

His Reluctant Rancher

Can a city girl and country cowboy open up to love?

The last place city girl Desiree Burke expected to find herself was living at and working on a ranch, much less butting heads with the ranch’s sexy cowboy owner, Zach Gamble. But that’s exactly where she ends up after an incident at work leads her to her best friend Rory’s doorstep. Desiree is a gifted physical therapist, and Rory knows exactly where her brand of tough love is needed the most.

Zach’s been through hell and back. A devastating car crash left his brother gone, his father paralyzed, and him with mental scars a mile wide. His survivor guilt alone makes him sure he doesn’t deserve to find love. But as Des works her way into his ranch, his family, and his life, suddenly the last person who belonged there is the only one he believes belongs…with him.

Fake Fiancé, Real Revenge

This cowboy doesn’t know what he’s in for…

Real-estate tycoon Mitchell Granger has a problem. In order to secure a lucrative deal with an eccentric client, he told the teeny white lie that he was engaged…and now he needs to prove it. Even worse? The only name that came to mind was Sabrina Becker, the girl he was never good enough for growing up, and who still lives near his family ranch.

Sabrina doesn’t mind posing as Mitch’s fake fiancée—no, she doesn’t mind at all. One, she’ll make him pay with new construction for her business. And two, Sabrina’s got a plan to exact revenge on her first love, the boy who left her and Three River Ranch behind. She’ll pretend so well, he’ll fall in love with her…and then he’ll get a taste of what true heartbreak feels like.

But as Mitch sheds his corporate skin and picks up his dusty jeans and cowboy hat, will both his and Sabrina’s grand plans get derailed by love?

About the Author

Roxanne Snopek believes in happily-ever-afters. While this book was being completed, she and her husband celebrated twenty-five years of marriage, so she knows what she’s talking about. As the mother of three grown daughters, she also knows that love and family take work, a lot of it, and that it’s worth every little gray hair that comes with it. Friends, pets, books, and a nice glass of wine round out the picture.

For a grittier glimpse, check out her blog at
www. roxannesnopek.ca
.
She hangs out on Facebook at
www. facebook.com/RoxanneSnopekAuthor
and tweets now and then at
www.twitter.com/RoxanneSnopek
.
She loves to connect with readers!