Home For a Cowboy Christmas(77)

Cady tried to hold in her laugh, but she couldn’t.

“What?” he asked with a smile in his voice. “You don’t even know me, and you think something needs to change? Let me guess, the cabin? You think I should be in something nicer.”

There was an edge to his voice that she couldn’t ignore. She had inadvertently hit a nerve. Cady pushed up onto her elbow and met his gaze. Zane still wore a smile, but it wasn’t as easy as before. “This cabin suits you perfectly. Any woman who is with you must understand that. If she doesn’t, then she isn’t for you.”

“Not everyone thinks like you,” he said and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“That’s because I’m awesome.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners as he grinned. “That you are. But you would change something.”

“I might take you shopping after having a look in your closet, if for nothing else than to update some shirts.”

“Work shirts don’t need to be new. Trust me, I can dress with the best of them.”

“Now that, cowboy, I’d like to see.”

He winked at her. “Maybe you will.”





Chapter 7


They talked all day and into the night. Zane had never had that kind of connection with anyone before. They spoke of their families, friends, stories from their childhoods, dreams of the future, and everything in between.

And only stopped long enough for food and more sex.

He couldn’t get enough of Cady. She was in turns fierce and tender, passionate and relaxed. She never held back. She laughed with such joy and openness that it took Zane aback. The fact that she had suffered greatly so recently wasn’t apparent. If she hadn’t told him the story, he never would’ve known that someone had broken her heart.

It made him wonder why, after so many years, he held onto his anger that had turned to bitterness.

“Why the frown?” Cady asked.

He gazed at her reclining at the foot of the bed with pillows behind her. Zane was propped against the headboard. They were nude, their legs intertwined. He put a hand on her feet and felt the coolness of her skin. “Just thinking.”

“Thinking that caused a frown,” she said with raised brows as she gathered a handful of popcorn from the bowl between them and put a kernel into her mouth.

“I’m not the person I used to be.”

She shrugged. “No one ever is. We all change, every day. Sometimes, it’s incremental, and we don’t notice until much later. Other times, it’s a great big leap that alters our lives in an instant.”

“How did you get so wise?”

She grinned devilishly. “I’m just that good.” She swallowed her bite and said, “My dad is a big proponent of meditation and awakening the mind. When I was growing up, he listened to a lot of audiobooks on those subjects. He never forced us to listen, but some things just stuck.”

“And now?” Zane asked.

“I meditate. It used to be every day. The more hectic my life got, the less I did it, which is the exact opposite of what I should’ve done. I miss it.” She narrowed her gaze on him. “Don’t start calling me a hippie, though.”

He was taking a drink of beer when she said that and nearly spit it out. “I would never. Charlie meditates, and he’s always told me to give it a try.”

“You should. We’ve gotten off topic. You were talking about how you aren’t the person you used to be. I take it you don’t like who you are.”

Zane wasn’t ready to go down that particular road with her. At least, not all of it. “I don’t like some of the things that have changed.”

“Change them back,” she said with a shrug.

“You make it sound simple.”

She gave him a hard look. “Because it is. I’ve come to realize that I don’t like my current employer. I’m going to change that. I don’t like that I’ve stopped meditating. I’m going to change that.”

“I’m not talking about things like that.”

“It’s still simple. If there’s a certain attitude or thought process you don’t like, then figure out why you’re doing it. Once you do that, then you can trace it back to what changed. That’s when you can set about reversing whatever it is. I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but the brain is a powerful organ. It can do astonishing things once you decide on it.”

Zane set aside his beer. “Is that how you go through life so carefree?”

“Carefree?” she repeated and then snorted. “I overthink everything.”

“I’ve never met anyone like you.” He was shocked at himself for saying something like that to her when he had only just admitted it himself.

A slow smile pulled at Cady’s lips. “I’m not so bad for a city girl, huh?”

“Not bad at all.”

She poked his chest with her big toe. “I’ll admit that you certainly aren’t bad for a cowboy.”

He laughed and leaned forward to crawl over her until he hovered near her face. Then, he slowly lowered his head and placed a lingering kiss on her lips.

“Did I mention handsome?” she asked.

Zane raised his brows. “Handsome, you say?”