CHRISTMAS AT NELSON RANCH

Excerpt from Christmas at Nelson Ranch

 

Fort Worth, Texas

 

Holly Brown had spent most of her nearly twenty-five years wondering who she was. Now she wished she didn’t know.

According to Slade Colfax, seated beside her in her adoptive dad’s home office, her birth parents were Harlan and Wendy Nelson. He’d come to Fort Worth because Holly’s biological grandmother, Tammie Dean, wanted to meet her.

Holly shot Slade a glare, fully aware she wouldn’t resent him so much if her dad wasn’t sending her away. In fact, up until three days ago, she would have been thrilled.

If only there hadn’t been a bomb.

Her gaze settled on the boxes of Christmas decorations piled in the corner. She and her dad hadn’t yet had time to put up the tree or even to hang a wreath.

Her fingers worried the dark red leather of her wing chair. She’d always loved the tender chats she and her dad had shared in this very room. It was a place of warmth and comfort.

And the Christmas season was even more special.

Now the room felt cold and surreal. The bottom had dropped out of her world and she couldn’t quite make sense of anything.

“I will admit, Slade, your timing couldn’t be better,” continued her dad, Alfred Brown. “Finding any information about Holly’s birth has been next to impossible.”

Talk about an understatement. Her dad had retired as Fort Worth District Attorney five years earlier and through the years all the resources at his disposal hadn’t turned up any facts about her birth parents. 

The only information her dad knew came from the adoption agency when he received the call telling him they were bringing him a baby girl. The baby’s family had chosen him and her mom expressly from the vast pool of potential parents. They specifically wanted the Browns to become Holly’s parents.

While it had been a comfort to know her birth family cared enough to choose who would raise her, she’d always wondered exactly why, if they’d cared so much, they had given her up. It would always hurt, knowing she hadn’t been wanted. It was especially painful after the death of her mom when she’d been twelve years old.

She and her father had gotten by okay on their own, but there had been times she would have loved to have had a grandmother to turn to.

She narrowed her eyes at Slade Colfax. Her dad was wrong. Slade couldn’t have come into her life at a worse time.

He shifted, and his gaze challenged hers, as if he knew she’d been glaring at him. His eyes were a deep gray with a smattering of green flecks near the irises. In any other situation she would have found him wildly attractive rather than maddeningly intrusive.

If she was bluntly honest with herself, she was attracted to him and annoyed with herself for being so.

Her father must have sensed it, because he backtracked and said, “Tell me again how you’re related to Holly.”

Slade’s gaze left hers and she felt—relieved and maybe, a little—lonely.

“We’re not related, sir,” Slade replied. “I was raised by my aunt who married into the Nelson family when I was three. Even though there’s no blood relation, I look on Tammie Dean as if I were one of her grandkids, and she returns the affection.”

He turned back to Holly. “She’s apparently kept an eye on you all these years.”

Holly saw red. If her grandmother had kept an eye on her, the woman would have known that after the death of her mom, Holly needed a woman in her life. Apparently she wasn’t important enough to console in her time of grief. “Why now? Why is she contacting me now?”

The cowboy’s jaw tightened, almost imperceptibly—but she noticed.

Good. She was glad he was nervous.

“She didn’t say this,” he answered, “but I suspect it’s because she had a taste of her own mortality. Tammie Dean lived life as if would never end until recently. She had a stroke. We all thought we were going to lose her.”

“And she asked for me afterward?”

He nodded. “Said she wasn’t ready to meet her maker, but she was ready to meet her granddaughter.”

Her timing, not Holly’s. Resentment welled up inside her until she thought she might burst. “She’s in stable condition?”

“As far as we know. The doctor’s running more tests to make sure, but it looks as if medication and an improved diet will do the trick.”

“So there’s no emergency.” Holly faced her dad. She didn’t have to go immediately. She could stay and look after her dad. “Meeting my grandmother can wait. I’m not leaving you. Besides, it’s Christmas time. I’ve never spent it away from you.”

“You’re going. Please, Holly. There can’t be any disagreement about this.” Her dad looked down at his hands for a moment. When he raised his head again, his expression was serious and intent.

Her heart sank. 

He addressed the cowboy. “And you and your wife will take care of Holly? Keep her safe?”

“Sorry, sir,” said Slade. “I’m single. But I promise to look after your girl.”

Her dad turned back to face her again. “Until the bomber is caught, you will stay away.”

With the worry lines etching his face, for once he showed every day of his seventy-five years. “I want you safe. We don’t know who is targeting me, but apparently he’s willing to kill any number of people to get at me. You’re not going to be collateral damage.”

Holly shook her head, determined to change his mind. Her dad being targeted was all the more reason to remain by his side. She didn’t have to go, no matter what he said. He couldn’t force her to leave town. Unfortunately, he was stubborn enough to make it impossible for her to look after him.

After his heart attack last year, he needed her. Someone had to make sure he ate properly, exercised, and took his medication. That someone was her, bomber or no bomber. “I’m more concerned about you.”

“Do I need to remind you of what happened when you were fifteen?”

His words were like a punch to her stomach and she blanched. No. He didn’t need to remind her. She’d never forget the feel of sharp steel against her flesh. But this was a subject they never discussed. Ever.

He, because of guilt, and she, because she never wanted to remember how she’d almost been abducted by one of the felons he’d prosecuted. To bring it up now, in front of a virtual stranger, rankled.

Slade shifted in his seat. Even he was uncomfortable. No matter how much she’d like to, she couldn’t very well send him out of the room, and the situation was too serious to dismiss it.

She had to keep her cool. This wasn’t about her. It was about her dad.

He had apparently forgotten she was no longer a child, not to mention his precarious physical condition. “Your heart—”

“Last checkup, the doctor said I was doing well.”

“But—”

He waved his hand in an effort to silence her. “There’s nothing for you to worry about. Law enforcement is all over this. They’re putting together a list of recently released perps I sent up. Holly, go to Whispering Lake. I need you safe.”

“I’m going to look after your daughter, sir.” Slade planted his boot-clad feet firmly on the floor, looking every inch the cowboy he claimed to be, then stood. “She’ll be in good hands.”

“I know she will.” Her father crossed from behind his desk and approached Holly, placing a hand on her knee. “The FBI checked into the Nelson’s and they’re honest and honorable. Despite having given you up, they’re good people. Slade will make sure you don’t come to any harm.”

“It’s not going to happen, Dad.” Holly bristled. The last thing she wanted was for the “men folk” to look after her. If she could corral a classroom of ten year olds, she could look after herself. “I have to be back at school—”

“Not until mid-January. By then you’ll have had a wonderful opportunity to meet your birth family and the bomber will be behind bars. You’ll be back in plenty of time for classes.”

“You need me to watch after you. I can’t leave you here alone—”

“I won’t be alone. Fredericks has promised to stay in the guestroom and the house is under surveillance.” He reached out and touched the back of her hand with his fingertips. “I’ll watch my diet, Holly. I’ll take my medication. You don’t have to worry.” 

“You can say that a thousand times, but it won’t make me stop worrying.” She bit her lip. “I know you’re afraid if I stay behind something will happen to me, but who is going to watch your back?”

“Have you counted the number of law enforcement officers in our living room?”

She had to give him that. There were at least two, not to mention the ones staking out the house’s exterior. “They’re more concerned with catching the bomber than they are with your health. The stress isn’t good for you.”

“Worrying about you increases my stress ten-fold. If something happened to you because of me, I would never forgive myself. Not after the last time when I nearly lost you.”

“But, Dad, I—”

“No.” He lifted a hand for her to stop. “If I’m busy watching out for you, I can’t watch out for me.”

She stilled. How could she argue against that? She couldn’t. She…couldn’t.

He leaned down and gave her a gentle hug, then released her. “Promise me, Holly, you’ll go to Whispering Lake with Slade. Meet your grandmother. Have a wonderful time getting ready for Christmas. I’ll rest easy knowing you’re in safe hands. With any luck, you’ll be back in plenty of time to celebrate.”

No argument she came up with would change her father’s mind. But she didn’t have to go easy on the man who’d put her in such an impossible bind. If Slade hadn’t shown up, her dad might not have gotten the bright idea of sending her away.

“I don’t want to force you into anything you don’t want, Holly,” said Slade. “I’m merely giving you the opportunity to meet some of your biological family, especially Tammie Dean who specifically longs to see you.”

She considered this for a moment, but wasn’t satisfied. “What about my parents, Slade? Why was I given up?”

“You’ll find out more when you meet Tammie Dean. I can promise you she wouldn’t have allowed it if she didn’t have a very good reason.” He tapped his Stetson against his jeans clad leg. “Tammie Dean doesn’t make decisions lightly, not when it comes to family.”

It wasn’t much of an answer, but it was probably all she would get until she could ask her grandmother in person. “I’m calling you every night, Dad.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She sighed, not happy, but resigned. “I’ll go pack.”

 

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