Cowboy Lawman's Christmas Reunion Read online

  The Sheriff’s Second Chance

  Sheriff Justice Gareau can make outlaws quake in their boots...yet coming face-to-face with Evangeline Benoit once again takes away all his composure. She broke their engagement, and his heart, to marry a wealthy older man. Despite his reluctance, Justice can’t avoid the widowed single mother of two when they’re collaborating on a Christmas village for the town’s children.

  The loving boy Evangeline once knew has become an unyielding lawman. Forced to flee New Orleans over false allegations, Evie doubts Justice will take her side when the past follows her to Colorado. Especially when he and her troublesome son butt heads. But perhaps the spirit of Christmas will soften his heart and give them a second chance at love.

  “Was the village Susanna’s idea?”

  Now bent over his work, Justice shrugged. “It was a group plan.” The hint of red coloring his ears betrayed him.

  “It was your idea.”

  He shrugged again, this time adding a little smile as though pleased she’d uncovered the truth.

  “How clever, Justice. And so thoughtful to do something like this for the children.” Especially since you have none of your own. The thought made her heart ache. Despite her wretched marriage, the Lord had blessed her with two precious children.

  “It’s not something I came up with on my own.” He cleared his throat. “I saw villages like this one in Germany the Christmas I spent in Europe.” A frown replaced his smile, and he hunched over the bench as though finished with the conversation.

  She longed to touch his shoulder, to give it a reassuring squeeze as she did Gerard’s or Isabelle’s when they needed encouragement. But this was no child, however boyish his eagerness to please the children of Esperanza. This was the man who could arrest her and send her back to her debtors.

  Florida author Louise M. Gouge writes historical fiction for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Historical line. She received the prestigious Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in 2005 and placed in 2011 and 2015; she also placed in the Laurel Wreath contest in 2012. When she isn’t writing, she and her husband, David, enjoy visiting historical sites and museums. Please visit her website at blog.louisemgouge.com.

  Books by Louise M. Gouge

  Love Inspired Historical

  Four Stones Ranch

  Cowboy to the Rescue

  Cowboy Seeks a Bride

  Cowgirl for Keeps

  Cowgirl Under the Mistletoe

  Cowboy Homecoming

  Cowboy Lawman’s Christmas Reunion

  Lone Star Cowboy League: The Founding Years

  A Family for the Rancher

  Ladies in Waiting

  A Proper Companion

  A Suitable Wife

  A Lady of Quality

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  LOUISE M. GOUGE

  Cowboy Lawman’s

  Christmas Reunion

  And be ye kind one to another,

  tenderhearted, forgiving one another,

  even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

  —Ephesians 4:32

  This book series is dedicated to the intrepid pioneers who settled the San Luis Valley of Colorado in the mid- to late 1800s. They could not have found a more beautiful place to make their homes than in this vast 7,500-foot-high valley situated between the majestic Sangre de Cristo and San Juan mountain ranges.

  Thanks go to my beloved husband of fifty-three years, David Gouge, for his loving support as I pursue my dream of writing love stories to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. I would also like to thank my editor extraordinaire, Shana Asaro, who always makes my stories better.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from Mistletoe Mommy by Danica Favorite

  Chapter One

  Friday, October 14, 1887

  Esperanza, Colorado

  Sheriff Justice Gareau ducked around the corner of the Esperanza train depot, hoping he hadn’t been spotted by the woman who’d stepped off the train. He felt downright foolish. Usually people hid from him if they’d done something wrong, and he sure hadn’t done anything wrong. No, it was that woman who’d done wrong by him and ruined his life. Well, ruined was perhaps too harsh a word, because he had a pretty good life these days. But she’d sure broken his heart. A heart he was determined never to give to a woman ever again.

  What was Evangeline Benoit doing in this remote Colorado town anyway? And why did her sudden appearance turn him into a bumbling chump? Because once, long ago back in New Orleans, she’d been his childhood sweetheart and, eventually, his fiancée. Only she’d broken their engagement to marry a wealthy older man the very day Justice needed her most.

  He wondered if she’d come looking for him. Perhaps Lucius Benoit wasn’t supporting her in the style she’d chosen over what Justice could have given her as the son of a bankrupt businessman.

  “Howdy, Sheriff.” Charlie Williams, the telegraph operator, walked toward him, carrying some of his wife Pam’s wild gooseberry pie. Pam ran the Williams’s Café, where Justice ate most of his meals, unless somebody took pity on his bachelor status and invited him to dinner. How he kept from getting fat and lazy on her fine cooking was a mystery to him. “You waiting for me?”

  “Nope. Just holding up this wall.” Justice leaned one hand against the yellow clapboard siding and gave Charlie a practiced easy grin, one he’d learned from his mentor in the Texas Rangers, where he’d served for four years before coming to Colorado. “Seemed a little wobbly after all that wind yesterday.”

  Charlie chuckled. “You let me know if you need anything.” He entered the building and closed the door.

  Justice pulled his tan Stetson lower over his eyes and stuck his head around the corner to see which direction Mrs. Benoit—he couldn’t allow himself to call her Evangeline, since she was another man’s wife—had gone. To his disappointment, or so he told himself, she still stood on the platform and was now enfolded in the arms of Mrs. Susanna Northam.

  “Hey, Sheriff.” Nate Northam clapped Justice on the shoulder, nearly startling him out of his wits. “What’re you doing? Holding up that wall?”

  Once again, Justice managed an indifferent shrug. “Just meeting the morning train, as usual.” Which didn’t make sense even to him, seeing as how he was hiding around the corner from said train.

  Not fooled at all, Nate laughed, and his green eyes lit up with humor. As the eldest son of town founder Colonel Frank Northam, he ran Four Stones Ranch with his brother Rand, while their youngest brother, Bartholomew, owned the law office next to the jailhouse.

  “Come meet my wife’s cousin.” Nate took hold of Justice’s arm, as only a close friend would do to a lawman, and urged him forward.

  Susanna’s cousin. Justice’s feet refused to
move toward her, while his mind raced wildly in the other direction. In all of the Lord’s beautiful creation, couldn’t He have sent Justice some other place than one where he’d eventually be forced to meet up with Evangeline...Mrs. Benoit?

  “Now, come on, before Susanna scolds me for being late.” Nate gave Justice a little shove. “Besides, you know my sweet wife will be trying to find a husband for her widowed cousin, so you may as well be first in line so you can beat out all the cowboys in these parts.”

  “Uh, no.” Justice dug the heels of his boots into the boardwalk and tried to twist away. “I’m not planning to get married anytime soon.” So Evangeline was a widow. What happened to the wily old rascal who’d turned her head and stolen her heart with his riches?

  Nate laughed again. “That’s what we all said, all of us used-to-be confirmed bachelors.” Somehow he managed to force Justice’s feet forward. “Come on. Let’s get this over with. I’ll try to make it as painless as possible for you.”

  No matter what Nate said, seeing Evangeline again could only bring pain. He had no choice though, what with a man nearly as tall and every bit as brawny as he pushing him toward his doom. He tugged his hat down farther in the futile hope she wouldn’t recognize him. After all, eleven years was a long time. He’d added a few inches in height and considerably more in shoulder width. Maybe—

  “We’re here, Susanna.” Releasing Justice, Nate bent down to give his pretty little wife a peck on the cheek before turning to Evangeline. “And you must be our cousin from New Orleans.” Yankee though he was, he bowed over her offered hand with the grace of a Southern gentleman. “We’re mighty pleased to have you come to stay with us.”

  “Thank you, Nathaniel.” Her musical voice generated bittersweet memories for Justice.

  While the others traded the usual pleasantries, Justice peeked out from under the brim of his hat. Up close like this, she appeared much more womanly than the seventeen-year-old girl who’d jilted him, but every bit as beautiful, maybe even more so. Her blond hair, swept up in a fancy do and topped with a stylish brown hat, still looked like spun honey. Her once bright blue eyes, however, wore a tired look that bespoke more than travel weariness. Behind her, a flaxen-haired girl and a sandy-haired boy watched her anxiously. Her children? Only one way to find out. Justice nudged Nate, who grinned, obviously misunderstanding his intent. He was concerned about an old friend, nothing more.

  “Cousin Evangeline, I’d like to present Sheriff Justice Gareau, one of our town’s most eligible bachelors.”

  “Nate!” Susanna smacked his arm and laughed. “For shame. If you’re trying to help me with my matchmaking, at least be a little subtler.”

  While she spoke, Evangeline’s ivory complexion grew even paler, those blue eyes widened and, before Justice could catch her, she dropped in a heap on the wooden platform.

  * * *

  Even in her hazy awareness, Evangeline understood at last why she’d come to Esperanza. The Lord hadn’t sent her to Susanna to escape justice, but to encounter Justice. But how had he known where she was? How had he arrived here before her? What irony. Her creditors had sent the only man she’d ever loved to arrest her. And from the stern look she’d seen on his face before she fainted, he felt no pity for her, despite his youthful declarations of love. She couldn’t blame him. Papa had forbidden her to see him, had broken their engagement himself so she’d had no chance to explain herself to Justice. Nor had Justice come to rescue her, despite her plea through his father, proving his love for her had turned cold. Ah, yes, my dear. The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Or so Lucius had often told her as he’d traipsed off to enjoy his many vices.

  The sound of sobbing reached her ears. Her poor children. Evangeline forced herself to awaken even as heat flooded her face. She’d fainted few times in her life and then only because Lucius had... She would not think about those frightening times. Lucius was gone forever, and now she must face the cruel future he’d laid out before her. At least her children would have a home with their cousin after Justice arrested her.

  “Evie. Evie, dear.” Susanna’s plaintive voice cut through Evangeline’s muddled musings. “Oh, Nate, do something.”

  But it was Justice who scooped her up from the wooden platform. For the few brief moments he carried her, she could rest her head against his broad, solid chest, her cheek touching the tin star that proclaimed him a lawman, and pretend their lives had turned out the way they’d dreamed of when they were young.

  She opened her eyes to a shaded room inside the train depot, where Justice set her down on a bench and sat beside her, one arm still supporting her. She blinked to clear away the last of her fogginess. A telegraph operator sat by his machine, his kindly old face filled with concern. Susanna held on to Evangeline’s children. All three bore frightened expressions, with Isabelle and Susanna sharing their family resemblance and Gerard wearing his father’s anxious scowl.

  “You see, children, Mama’s going to be all right.” Susanna released them and sat beside Evangeline, touching her forehead and then gripping her hand. “No fever, thank the Lord. I’m sure you’re exhausted from your travels, but Nate went for the doctor just the same.”

  “Thank you.” Evangeline continued to lean against Justice, unwilling to end her fantasy.

  He still hadn’t spoken, but she could feel his heartbeat, its rapid pace saying volumes. So he was not without some feeling for her.

  She looked up into that beloved face. The years had been good to him, for he was even more handsome, more manly, than he’d once been. As she regarded him, the concern written there quickly disappeared, replaced by a hard facade. Yes, he was indeed going to arrest her.

  “Hello, Justice.” She moved away from him.

  He touched the brim of his hat, a surprising courtesy toward someone he must consider a criminal. “Mrs. Benoit.”

  She managed a wobbly smile. “So formal.”

  “What on earth?” Susanna practically bounced where she sat, not the ladylike behavior they’d learned as girls. “Do you mean to tell me you two know each other?” She laughed. “No wonder you fainted, Evie. You must be shocked to see someone you know way out here in Colorado.” She stared meaningfully into Evangeline’s eyes.

  Dear Susanna. She’d understood Evangeline’s desperate letter asking for a secret place to rear her children. As girls meeting each summer for family holidays, they’d devised a code to say more than plain words. What she hadn’t told her cousin was that her desperation stemmed from Lucius’s impossible debts to his cousin, Hugo Giles, which she must repay, and the debts he claimed she owed to several New Orleans merchants. And then there were Hugo’s other, more unthinkable threats. Her flight from him might have been enough for Susanna, or at least Nathaniel, to withhold their generous invitation to live at their ranch. She’d tell them, of course, when the time was right and it wouldn’t sound like a plea for money.

  “Well.” Susanna, always so cheerful, now looked at Justice. “Sheriff, you simply must come with us to the hotel for dinner so you and Evie can get reacquainted.”

  “Uh, I have some paperwork—”

  “Nonsense. You have to eat.” While Susanna continued reasoning with him, a wild sense of relief flooded Evangeline and almost brought on another, much different sort of fainting spell.

  Meeting him at the train had only been a coincidence. Justice didn’t mean to arrest her after all. Perhaps he didn’t even know about her flight from Hugo.

  He moved a few inches from her, his face a study in misery. “Susanna’s not going to let up until I say yes. Do you mind if I join you?”

  “Not at all.” She copied Susanna’s bright tone as much as her fatigue permitted. “That is, if you’ll agree to address me as Evangeline, as you once did.” He’d always claimed it was the most beautiful name he’d ever heard.

  The ripple of his clenc
hed jaw both thrilled and worried her. “I’ll join you if you insist.”

  “Well...” Evangeline must set him free, since he didn’t want her company.

  “Of course we insist.” Susanna stood. “Now, let’s leave so Charlie can go back to work.” She gave the telegraph operator a friendly wave. “Come along, children.” She reached out to Isabelle and Gerard, both of whom pulled back. “Aren’t you hungry?”

  “Mama?” Isabelle sent Evangeline a questioning look.

  Gerard merely scowled, nothing new for him. He’d been unreceptive to every suggestion she’d made since his father died, despite Lucius never giving either child a modicum of affection.

  “Yes, of course.” Evangeline stood, swaying slightly before she regained her balance, and gripped each child by the hand. “Come along. I’m sure you’re as hungry as I am.” She smiled over her shoulder at Justice, whose face once again became a granite facade.

  If he wasn’t here to arrest her, couldn’t he at least return a smile for old times’ sake?

  What a foolish question. She must expect nothing from a man who’d refused to rescue her from a forced marriage to a man whom he knew to be cruel.

  * * *

  Justice trailed after the ladies and children as they made their way down the boardwalk toward the hotel. If it wouldn’t look like cowardice, he’d quietly change his course and return to his office. Or slip into Williams’s Café, a step ahead on the right. Too late. He’d already passed the door. Besides, a quick glance through the window showed all the café tables were occupied, and he didn’t see anyone he’d want to eat with in his current mood.

  He glanced up at Evangeline’s back. She’d actually had the nerve to smile at him, although it had seemed sad rather than flirtatious. If she’d played the coquette, he’d have left right away, and none of Susanna’s cajoling would have stopped him. On the other hand, as much as he wanted to remain indifferent to Evangeline, he worried about her fainting. Susanna was right. Evangeline must be exhausted from her travels. She’d probably fainted in relief over arriving safely to her cousin’s care.