Teacher's Christmas Cowboy (Trinity Falls Sweet Romance - Icicle Christmas #5)

At first, it had been all she could do to ignore the masculine scent of Jared in the cab of the pick-up truck.

Talking with him last night had been wonderful, awkward, and strange in a good way. It had been hard for her to get to sleep after he finished his cup of tea and left.

She knew he was an impulsive man, who certainly wasn’t looking for a wife and child. And she was nowhere near ready to let go of feeling like she was Arthur’s wife.

Yet something still danced between them like a small flame that couldn’t be snuffed, no matter how desperately they both seemed to want to put it out.

But that nervousness paled in comparison to what she was about to do. Her principal had literally told her she wasn’t to go visiting Jimmy. And she was still brand-new at this job. She couldn’t afford to make waves. And the feeling that she was making a mistake only grew more intense the closer they got to the student’s house.

“You okay?” Jared asked gently as he pulled into a long gravel driveway.

Out the window she could see a small herd of cows in a pasture and a small brick house at the end of the drive. She forced herself to take a deep breath and nodded to him with a confidence she didn’t really feel.

“I waited two years for a teaching position to open up in Trinity Falls,” she heard herself admit as they pulled up in front of the house. “And by some miracle, this one did. I’m so scared to risk it, even though I know this boy needs my help.”

Jared nodded, his eyes still on the drive as he parked the truck.

“Tell you what,” he told her. “You can wait in the car if you want. If there’s any trouble, you can say you didn’t realize whose house I was going to, and when you found out, you didn’t go in.”

It was a reasonable explanation. She could sit tight and protect her job and her means of providing for her son. But it meant leaving someone else’s son vulnerable to whatever was going on with him.

“They didn’t hire me to ignore a student in need,” she said firmly, to herself as much as to Jared. “I’m going in.”

She could sense him smiling before she even glanced over.

“What?” she asked.

“I like it you when you break the rules,” he said softly. “For the right reasons.”

They got out of the truck and headed to the front door. Jared took the lead, knocking on the door with the pretty Christmas tin in his other hand.

It swung open a moment later, with Jimmy standing in the threshold. His eyes lit up when he saw them.

“Hey, Jared,” he said. “Oh wow, Mrs. Davies.”

“Who is it?” a deep male voice called from the next room.

“Come in,” Jimmy said, leading them past the little entry and into a cozy living room with a pretty rag rug. “My new teacher is here, Dad.”

Cora followed until they reached Jimmy’s father, sitting in an easy chair. He was an enormous man, thick with muscle. His left leg was encased in a massive cast and so was his right arm. A set of crutches rested against the wall beside him.

“Mr. Allen—” she began.

“What are you doing here?” the man demanded, his expression instantly closed off and maybe a little embarrassed.

“Good Lord, Allen,” Jared yelled out. “What were you trying to do? Walk and chew gum at the same time?”

Cora was mortified. Jared was going to get them both kicked out, and she was definitely going to be in trouble. But a moment later, she was surprised to see a smile creep up on the big man’s lips.

“I was putting up the Christmas lights,” Mr. Allen said, his eyes twinkling as he shook his head. “All these years working with farm equipment, and I break my leg in two places and sprain my wrist falling off my smallest ladder.”

“Hey, remember when Logan Williams had to go to the hospital in middle school when he burnt his hand on the toaster?” Jared asked, letting out a whoop of laughter.

Mr. Allen laughed too, and the air in the room felt like it was literally warming up, making Cora feel like things were going to be okay after all.

Jared had pulled down the man’s walls in seconds with his impulsiveness and sense of fun. She never would have thought those qualities would come in so handy, but clearly they did.

“Well, no wonder I haven’t seen you down at the feed shop,” Jared was saying, shaking his head as he set the tin on the coffee table. “My mom sent me with cookies, of course. She told me to send you and little Jimmy her love.”