Read Online Hers for the Holidays by Samantha Hunter - Free Book Online Page A

hadn’t eaten anything since the night before, and his stomach was reminding him now. Loudly.
    “What smells so good?”
    “I made a batch of pancakes earlier and left them warming in the oven before I went outside. Let me get the coffee on, and the eggs and sausage, and we can all have brunch in about an hour.”
    “All?”
    “Yeah. My mother always had everyone in for Sunday breakfast, but Thursday works, too, considering how hard everyone is going at it out there,” she said, peeling off her coat and gloves—much sturdier winter gear than she had been wearing the night before—to reveal her slim, petite figure.
    “What can I do to help?” Ely offered.
    He suspected maybe that she wanted to invite the ranch hands in so that they weren’t here alone together. Probably a good idea until he got the hang of this being friends thing.
    “I’ve got it covered. I think Kyle was going to try to get the tractor over to dig out your truck. You should probably go help him with that. If it keeps snowing like this, we’re going to have to unbury everything again by dinner. You’ll want to get your truck in the garage and under cover.”
    “Thanks. If I can get out today, I need to go settle up on my room and get my things. I’ll stop by the hardware store to pick up some supplies, as well.”
    Lydia turned to pull some pans out of a cupboard, and the movement drew his eyes to the curve of her backside, and as her shirt rode up, to the scroll of ink that was sketched across her lower back.
    “You can take my—well, it was my mother’s—car if you need to. It’s all-wheel drive and should get around okay.”
    “Thanks,” he said, turning away as she bent deep into a cupboard, her butt poking up in a very delectable way, making him think thoughts that he wasn’t supposed to be thinking.
    After all, they were only friends. Repeating that to himself a couple of hundred times as he went to get Kyle, he hoped it would eventually sink in.
    * * *
    I T TURNED OUT THAT Ely would have been stuck there whether Lydia had agreed to let him stay or not. They were well and truly snowed in from the storm the night before, and they hadn’t been able to get anywhere close to Ely’s truck. The highway plows had come by and pretty much buried it—they’d have to try again tomorrow, when the snow stopped. If the snow stopped.
    Lydia kept herself from obsessing about Ely’s presence by making enough pancakes, sausage and home fries for an army. She couldn’t get his offer out of her mind—some frisky fun while they were stuck here together, no expectations, no strings attached.
    Normally, she would have jumped at such an offer. So why wasn’t she? Ely was hot, and he was wonderful in bed. No doubt he could offer her some much-needed distraction from her other, less pleasant tasks. And if she was completely honest, it felt good to have him around, and that he knew about the stuff that had been going on.
    She went back to cooking, hearing their footsteps on the porch. She walked back to open the door she had locked behind her. Lydia stood in the doorway for a moment, looking at a world turned completely white, as the men entered the kitchen.
    “I’d forgotten what winter here is like,” she said to no one, but found Ely was right behind her. Of course he was, she thought with a sigh. She’d felt him watching her earlier, knew he was fascinated with her ink from the night they’d shared. “It really is like living in a snow globe.”
    “We have our share of storms back east, but yeah. This is pretty amazing,” Ely said as he looked with her out at snow that piled over the porch rails, glittering everywhere.
    “And it’s just the beginning of the season,” she added.
    Then, catching a chill when the wind whipped toward them, she stepped back to close the door, bumping solidly into him.
    His hands landed on her waist, steadying her. His thumb slid along the waist of her jeans, grazing her skin at the small of her back and