Page 113 of The Mistletoe Kisser

“You and me and Sarge,” Ryan said, pulling her scarf off the rack and winding it around her neck. “We’ve got just enough time for an afternoon ride before we’re forced to spread holiday cheer.”

He made drinking alcohol and eating snacks in their pajamas sound like a hardship.

“What kind of ride?” she asked, hiding her grin.

“The kind where you put your boots back on and we go outside.”

“Oh.Thatkind of ride.”

One of the best surprises of the past year was just how involved with the sanctuary Ryan got. He didn’t just keep the books. He fed the animals. Shoveled manure. Collected eggs. And, yes, even rode the horses. They had two now.

Plus four cows, three pigs, two sheep, a flock of ducks that welcomed Willis like family, a pair of cantankerous donkeys, and a three-legged goat named Mabel. Not bad for only having been incorporated for six months.

“Are you sure you don’t want to use the time preparing?” Sammy asked.

He glanced down at his watch, then picked up her boots and handed them to her. “Preparations are done. We’re burning daylight, Sam.”

“Okay. I guess we’re going for a ride,” she laughed.

She dragged on her boots and let her handsome boyfriend haul her back out the door. The dog trotted on their heels, pausing every few feet to shove his face in the snow.

He had Magnolia and Teddy saddled and tethered just inside the fence.

“Wow, you really mean business, don’t you?” she asked.

“Damn right I do. I’ve never been more serious in my life,” he said, patting his jacket pockets. He seemed tense.

“Is everything, okay?” she asked, unlatching the gate.

“Everything is fine,” he said, not sounding fine at all as he untethered both horses. Maggie nudged Teddy, the big chestnut bay, with her nose and snorted softly.

Sammy gave her mount a pat on the neck and swung up into the saddle.

“Let’s go this way,” Ryan said, pointing to the north.

The snow was falling in fat, lazy flakes, landing with a hush on the already white carpet. They rode across the field in silence, Sammy feeling more and more nervous with each creak of the saddle.

“You’re not bringing me out here to murder me, are you?” she asked suddenly.

He glanced at her and waited a suspiciously long time before responding. “Why would I do that?”

“That wasn’t a no!”

He sighed. “No, Sam. I’m not taking you out here to murder you.”

Was he breaking up with her? Hadn’t he broken up with his old girlfriend just before Christmas?If he’d orchestrated a romantic snowy ride on Christmas Eve to break up with her, Ryan Sosa was the one getting murdered out here.

He patted a hand over his pocket again. She wondered if he had a murder weapon tucked inside his coat.

“You can’t murder me and you can’t break up with me on horseback on Christmas Eve,” she said.

“Relax, Sam.”

“You relax. You’re the one who looks like he’s sweating through his long johns.”

“I’m completely relaxed!” His mount shook its huge head as if to disagree.

“Oh, yeah. You sound like it,” she scoffed.