Christmastime Cowboy. Maisey Yates

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СКАЧАТЬ I expect an uphill fight to make the ranch successful.”

      She tilted her head to the side. “And yet, our winery is well established and very healthy.”

      “But Lindy wants to expand, I’m not incorrect about that. She was very interested in this proposition, and not only that, she’s started hosting weddings and farm-to-table dinners, right?”

      “You know you’re right,” she said. “Like you said, you do your research.”

      Her friendliness was beginning to slip. And he waited. For something else. For something to get thrown at him. It didn’t happen.

      “That I do. Take these,” he said, handing her the folder that he was holding on to. He made sure their fingers didn’t touch this time. “And we’ll talk next week.”

      Then he turned and walked away from her, and resisted the strong impulse to turn back and get one more glance at her. It wasn’t the first time he had resisted that.

      He had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last.

      * * *

      AS SOON AS Liam walked out of the tasting room Sabrina let out a breath that had been killing her to keep in. A breath that contained about a thousand insults and recriminations. And more than a few very colorful swear word combinations. A breath that nearly cut her throat, because it was full of so many sharp and terrible things.

      She lifted her hands to her face and realized that they were shaking. It had been thirteen years. Why did he still affect her like this? Maybe, just maybe, if she had ever found a man that made her feel even half of what Liam did it wouldn’t be so bad dealing with him. The feelings wouldn’t be so strong.

      But she hadn’t. So, that supposition was basically moot.

      Everything that had been beautiful about him then had only magnified in intensity since. That square jaw more firm. Gold-tipped hair she wanted to run her fingers through. Green eyes that seemed to see directly inside her.

      The worst part was the tattoos. He’d had about three when he’d been nineteen. Now, they covered both of his arms, and she had the strongest urge to make them as familiar to her as the original tattoos had been. To memorize each and every detail about them.

      The tree was the one that really caught her attention. The Celtic knots, she knew, were likely a nod to Irish heritage, but the tree—whose branches she could see stretching down from his shoulder—she was curious about what that meant.

      “And you are spending too much time thinking about him,” she admonished herself.

      She shouldn’t be thinking about him at all. She should just focus on congratulating herself for saying nothing stupid. Well, except the thing about the can opener. So, she had almost said nothing stupid. But at least it hadn’t been specific. At least she hadn’t cried and demanded answers for the night he had completely laid waste to her every feeling.

      So, that was that.

      “How did it go?”

      Sabrina turned and saw her sister-in-law, Lindy, come in. People would be forgiven for thinking that she and Lindy were actually biological sisters. In fact, they looked much more alike than Sabrina and her younger sister, Beatrix, did.

      Like Sabrina, Lindy had long, straight blond hair. Bea had freckles all over her face and a wild riot of reddish brown curls that resisted taming almost as strongly as the youngest Leighton child herself did.

      That was another thing Sabrina and Lindy had in common. They were predominantly tame. At least, they kept things as together as they possibly could on the surface.

      “Fine.”

      “You didn’t savage him with a cheese knife?”

      “Lindy,” Sabrina said, “please. This is dry-clean only.” She waved her hand up and down, indicating her dress.

      “I don’t know what your whole issue is with him...”

      Because no one spoke of it. Lindy had married her brother after the unpleasantness. It was no secret that Sabrina and her father were estranged—even if it was a brittle, quiet estrangement. But unless Damien had told Lindy the details—and Sabrina doubted he knew all of them—her sister-in-law wouldn’t know the whole story.

      “I don’t have an issue with him,” Sabrina said. “I knew him thirteen years ago. That has nothing to do with now. It has nothing to do with this new venture for the winery. Which I am on board with 100 percent.” It was true. She was.

      There had been no question about whether or not she was going to side with Damien or Lindy in the divorce. And unfortunately, what Damien had done necessitated picking sides. Though, more accurately, the ensuing legal battle over the winery had been the major thing that necessitated taking sides.

      It had been a simple thing in Sabrina’s mind. Her relationship with her father was so difficult already that aligning herself with Lindy had really only confirmed more of what he thought of her anyway.

      Part of her understood her parents’ reactions to all of this. She did. In their minds, Grassroots was theirs. But they had foolishly given the entire thing to their oldest son, not considering their daughters at all. And then, said son had gotten married, and they had drafted a prenup designed only to protect him. Of course, that prenup, with its clause about infidelity, had backfired on Damien, not on Lindy.

      Yes. Sabrina had a hard time feeling sorry for her older brother or her parents.

      “Well,” Lindy said. “That’s good to hear.”

      She could tell that Lindy didn’t believe her. But, whatever. “It’s going to be fine. I’m looking forward to this.” That was also true. Mostly. She was looking forward to expanding the winery. Looking forward to helping build the winery, and making it into something that was truly theirs. So that her parents could no longer shout recriminations about Lindy stealing something from the Leighton family.

      Eventually, they would have made the winery so much more successful that most of it would be theirs.

      And if her own issues with her parents were tangled up in all of this, then...that was just how it was.

      “Looking forward to what?” Lindy’s brother, Dane, came into the room, a grin on his handsome face. A grin that had likely melted even the iciest of women into puddles. For her part, Sabrina was immune to him. He was like a brother to her.

      He was only back at the winery to offer Lindy support during his off-season. Sabrina could tell that he was more than a little antsy to get out of here about now. Shockingly, handing out small samples of cheese was not in his wheelhouse.

      “The new tasting room venture,” Sabrina said, doing her best to make sure that her words sounded light. It was starting to feel a little bit crowded in here. She needed a chance to have a post-Liam comedown. Which was impossible to do with Lindy and Dane looking at her so intently.

      “Oh, right. That’s going well?”

      “Well, it’s getting started,” she said to Dane.

      Those thoughts swirled around in her head, caused tension to mount in her chest, a hard little ball of anger СКАЧАТЬ