Cowboy Christmas Blues. Maisey Yates

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       CHAPTER ONE

      GOLD VALLEY AT Christmastime hadn’t changed at all since Cooper Mason had left town eight years ago. Every streetlight was wrapped in white Christmas lights, and wreaths and more white lights covered the redbrick buildings, window displays reflecting the season in each little shop.

      He hated it. All of it.

      And sure, he had come to terms with Christmas since Lindsay’s death, because you couldn’t exist in the world and not figure out a way to survive the season. But he had deliberately avoided this little corner of Oregon since then.

      Because the last thing he needed was to be inundated with memories of his older sister and the joy she had taken in celebrating. The joy she had taken in everything, in spite of her illness.

      Gold Valley was the same now as it had been eight years ago, and the same eight years ago as it had been when they were children. So it was easy now to envision her, rosy-cheeked and standing in front of the antique-toy store, her face pressed against the glass as she exclaimed over dolls and blocks, books and art supplies. Before sickness had stolen so much of who she was.

      She’d been sixteen when she’d gotten sick, already dating Grant Dodge, who married her as soon as it was legal. Knowing she wouldn’t live long. Their love story had made national headlines. A love story that was doomed already, which the public found so much more romantic than a love that might last a lifetime.

      God knew why.

      Cooper knew there wasn’t a hell of a lot that was romantic about death.

      He shouldn’t have let his parents talk him into coming home for the holidays.

      He always felt a little bit guilty about the way his visits home went. He avoided his old friends. Avoided people he’d been close to before. His football buddies from high school, Nate and Jason, who had wives and kids now. He hadn’t seen Ben Preston in years. The older man had been his dad’s mechanic and friend, and had been like an uncle to Cooper. Ben’s chubby little girl, Annabelle, had always trailed around after him on the farm when they’d come to visit.

      He didn’t even know if Annabelle lived here anymore.

      There was a time when she’d almost been like another sister to him. Now, he just tried not to think much about the past.

      Cooper had lost touch with this place, and he’d done it mostly on purpose. Normally, he could outpace the guilt just fine. But sometimes...

      He СКАЧАТЬ