Architect's Angel (Culpepper Cowboys Book 16) Read online

  Architect’s Angel

  Merry Farmer

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  ARCHITECT’S ANGEL

  Copyright ©2016 by Merry Farmer

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill (the miracle-worker)

  ASIN:

  Paperback:

  ISBN-13: 9781541343481

  ISBN-10: 1541343484

  Click here for a complete list of other works by Merry Farmer.

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  Chapter 1

  Christmas was only two days away, but so far, Dr. Tabitha Ross, Culpepper’s premier OB/GYN, had yet to get into the spirit.

  “I just haven’t felt like celebrating,” she explained to her patient and friend, Elvie Lipinski, as Elvie sat in the chair on the other side of Tabby’s desk.

  Elvie shrugged. “It takes a while for me to get into the Christmas spirit every year. Everyone rushes things so much. Why can’t we just focus on Thanksgiving before charging into all the consumerism and grabbiness?”

  Tabby smirked. “Is grabbiness a word?”

  “If it isn’t, it should be.” Elvie chuckled, then tilted her head to the side, a dreamy smile coming to her face. “Although, I’ll admit, this year has been so good that I was already blissed out—even before December.”

  Tabby smiled for her friend and handed her the piece of paper she’d been explaining. “Totally understandable. That tends to happen when you meet a hunky guy out of the blue, marry him three seconds later, inherit a fortune, and settle down to raise a family. You’ll want to start taking prenatal vitamins now, by the way. Then, when you do come back in here with good news, you’ll be ready to go.”

  Elvie took the paper with a beaming smile. “I can’t wait. I’m determined to beat both Doc and Nancy and Sly and Rachel in the whole baby race.”

  “Still nothing from either of those pairs?”

  “Not yet, but I know Doc and Nancy have started trying.” Elvie paused. “I think Sly and Rachel are too concerned with their businesses to get started on a family at the moment. You know those two, they have a five-year plan for everything.”

  “Yeah.” Tabby laughed, but a part of her was unsettled. The part that sped instantly from thinking about the three older O’Donnell siblings and straight to the youngest.

  Arch O’Donnell. She couldn’t even think about the man without pangs of…well, lots of pangs. The man was a menace. He was arrogant, self-involved, and petty. He’d gotten in her way at the class reunion six weeks ago, messing up her plans, arguing with her decisions, and generally making her job way more difficult than it needed to be. He’d been doing the same thing since their senior year of high school too. Just thinking about him set her teeth on edge.

  Arch and his smarmy grin, that twinkle in his eyes, the smooth way he had of moving. He’d been away from Culpepper for years, first at school, then building his architecture business. But now he was back. Back in all his buff, snappy-dressing, male glory. He’d wound her up so tightly at the reunion, then had the nerve to ask her to dance. And the extra nerve to hold her close during that dance, his warmth seeping into her, his cologne intoxicating, his—

  “Whoa! Earth to Tabby.” Elvie waved her hand to snap Tabby out of her thoughts.

  “Sorry, what?” Tabby cleared her throat and sat straighter, pretending to fuss with the paperwork on her desk. It was almost quitting time anyhow.

  Elvie wasn’t fooled. She fixed Tabby with a lop-sided grin. “I wonder what you were thinking about.”

  “I was thinking about what I’m going to have for supper,” Tabby bluffed.

  “No, you weren’t.”

  Tabby stopped fussing with the papers and frowned at her friend. “How do you know?”

  “Because you have that look in your eyes.”

  “What look? I don’t have any looks,” she answered, a little too fast.

  Elvie just leaned back in her chair and smiled. “So, no Christmas spirit this year?”

  Tabby could see Elvie was trying to lure her into talking about Arch, but she took the bait anyhow. “I just don’t feel like it. Mom is in Tahiti with her new boyfriend this year.”

  “Ooh, Tahiti!”

  “And Dad…” She let her sentence trail off with a sigh. “Dad is Dad.”

  “He still living in Haskell?” The corner of Elvie’s mouth twitched into a grin.

  “Yeah,” Tabby answered, avoiding her eyes. “He and his partner have expanded their law firm, now that Paradise Space Flight is drawing more people to town. He says they’re up to their eyeballs in work.”

  “Haskell isn’t that far away. Are you guys going to get together at all on Christmas day?”

  “Well, Sammy and I are doing a little Christmas something together, though we haven’t decided what yet. Probably just brunch at her place before heading to church.”

  “I see.” Elvie nodded and hummed. Her expression turned innocent…or rather, fake innocent. “Things are going to be way different in the O’Donnell family this year too, what with three out of the four of us getting married in the last year. Doc and Nancy already have plans to do their own thing on Christmas morning. Sly and Rachel keep talking about heading out to the ski lodge for a romantic getaway. And Evan and I are heading down to Colorado for a quick visit with his family.”

  “Oh?” Tabby shouldn’t have commented on the plans at all. She knew just what Elvie would do with her single syllable.

  She was right.

  “You should get in touch with Arch to see if he wants to do something on Christmas,” Elvie said.

  “No.” Tabby’s answer was swift and definitive.

  “He’ll probably be feeling left out,” Elvie went on, tugging on exactly the right heartstrings. “With Evan and I gone, he’ll be all by himself in that old house.”

  Tabby still couldn’t believe that with all of Evan’s new money, he and Elvie were still living in the old O’Donnell house with Arch.

  “He could at least use some food after church,” Elvie went on. “Poor guy.”

  Tabby sighed. “No.” This time, her argument was less solid. Probably because the unaccountable desire to be there for Arch on Christmas, to wrap her arms around him and tell him everything would be all right, that someone did actually care abou
t him, reared its ugly head. “Arch and I hate each other,” she reminded Elvie…and herself. “We have since high school.”

  “I was under the impression that you two dated in high school.”

  Tabby’s face flared red. Her heart thumped faster. “That was only for a few months in the summer before senior year.”

  “Yeah, but I remember that really well,” Elvie argued. “You two were all over each other. Head over heels. Arch couldn’t talk about anything else, and neither could you.”

  “It was a long time ago, and it ended badly.” Tabby pushed her chair back and stood. She took off her white coat and hung it on the rack to the side of her desk. Elvie was the last patient of the day, and suddenly all Tabby wanted to do was go home and fix herself a comfort food dinner full of fat and carbs.

  Elvie stood and joined Tabby at the rack, getting her coat as Tabby shrugged into hers. “How did it end again?”

  Tabby huffed out a breath and stared hard at Elvie. “You know how it ended.”

  “There had to have been more to it than that silly election for class president,” Elvie said.

  Tabby focused on her coat’s zipper to keep the old hurt of that election from showing on her face. “Nope. It was the election. Or rather, the rivalry of the campaign.”

  “I still can’t believe Arch ran against you, even after you told him you were running.”

  Coats on, purses in hand, Tabby and Elvie headed for the door. Night had fallen on the other side of the windows they passed. Already, the days were getting longer, but only barely. It would be months still until Tabby left her office in the daylight.

  “I can’t believe he ran against me either,” Tabby muttered as they reached the front desk. “Elvie is all set,” she told her receptionist, Mitzy.

  “I’m so excited for you.” Mitzy grinned and gave Elvie the thumbs up.

  Tabby waited while Evie paid her bill, then the two of them headed to the front door.

  “What I never understood,” Elvie went on, “is why you two kept causing trouble for each other after the election.” She had the sort of smile in her eyes that suggested she understood full well, and that the reason was roughly the same as why elementary school boys who liked a girl teased them—something Tabby had never agreed with or condoned one little bit.

  “Ask your stupid brother,” Tabby growled, pushing open the front door.

  Elvie laughed. “I can’t believe some of the pranks you two played on each other. It’s amazing no one got hurt.”

  “Yeah, well I almost—”

  Tabby stopped dead. They’d reached the edge of the parking lot. It was dark, but there were enough lights to illuminate the parked cars like it was day. And there, right in the middle of them, was her precious Chevy… covered in plastic wrap.

  “Oh my gosh,” Tabby gasped, then ran forward.

  “What the heck?” Elvie dashed after her.

  Sure enough, her entire car had been wrapped completely in the kind of plastic wrap that movers used to secure furniture. Top to bottom, hood to trunk, it was encased in a cocoon of plastic.

  “How did that happen?” Elvie asked.

  “How did what happen?”

  Tabby and Elvie both whipped around to find Arch strolling toward them, hands in his coat pockets, smug grin on his face.

  “You!” Tabby took a huge step toward him, ready to do battle.

  “Having some trouble with your car?” Arch asked. It was all he could do not to chuckle out loud. He needed to keep his game face on, but man, Tabby was sexy as all get-out when she was worked up like that.

  “Get it off,” she demanded, standing toe-to-toe with him, glaring.

  It reminded him of their dance at homecoming. Although he didn’t think she’d respond all that well if he wrapped his arms around her now. Or not. The fire was definitely there in her eyes. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes blazed. He’d always liked it when she displayed that fire he knew was inside of her.

  “Get what off?” He faked innocence.

  “Arch,” Elvie stepped in. “Did you prank Tabby?” She planted her fists on her hips as she stood on the curb, frowning at her brother.

  “Now why would I do that?” Arch shrugged.

  “Because you’ve never passed up an opportunity to get in my way in your entire life,” Tabby growled.

  And why would he? The way she rose to the challenge made his blood pump hard through his veins. The energy that their pranks had generated, the sparks between the two of them, was addictive. He’d have to be a blind fool not to rush back into his rivalry with Tabby, now that he was calling Culpepper home again.

  “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” he asked Tabby. “You’re acting kind of paranoid.”

  Tabby let out a wordless shout of protest. She turned away from him, stomping to her car and trying to find the end of the plastic wrapped around it so that she could remove it. “The least you could do is come over here and help me.”

  Hands still in his pockets, Arch ambled over to the side of the car. “Looks like you’re doing fine on your own.”

  “I’ll go get a pair of scissors from Mitzy,” Elvie said, heading back into the clinic.

  Evidently, Tabby was too angry even to say thanks. She poked and ripped at the plastic with gloved hands, unable to make it budge.

  “Boy, somebody really did a number on you,” Arch teased.

  Tabby jerked back to glare at him. “You know full well you did this, Arch O’Donnell.” The way she drank in the sight of him, as if she wanted to eat him for lunch, left Arch with some decidedly not suitable for work feelings. Not to mention the physical reactions. “You’re nothing but a bully and an ogre,” she fired off before turning back to her car.

  “Ouch, that hurts.” Arch pretended to be offended, but a part of him kind of was. Not offended, exactly, but…aching. Maybe he shouldn’t have stooped to pranking her. Then again, those pranks were what kept them close all through their senior year.

  Tabby snorted. “You didn’t even do it right.” She finally found a corner of plastic and started to rip it off, angrily balling it up as she marched around her car.

  “What do you mean, I didn’t do it right?” Arch said, following her.

  “For one thing, you’re supposed to wrap someone’s car in the heat of summer, on a sunny day, so that the plastic shrink-wraps it. This stuff is barely sticking in the cold. For another—”

  She stopped and whipped to face him so fast that Arch walked right into her. They both lost their balance, fumbling in the cold. Arch caught her and steadied them both. He kept his arms around her way longer than he needed to. Although he could argue that he needed to keep his arms around her a lot more than he was.

  “Ha!” Tabby burst at last. The twinkle in her eyes had turned clever.

  That only made Arch’s blood surge harder. “What ‘ha?’” he asked. He wondered what she would do if he circled his arms deeper around her and brought his mouth down over hers for a kiss.

  “You admit it, then?” she demanded. If Arch wasn’t mistaken, there was a hint of a tremor in her voice.

  “Admit what?” That he liked it when she got all hot and bothered? That teasing her and being teased in return had always turned him on? That they both burned hotter in the intensity of their rivalry than they had when they were dating?

  “You just admitted that you did this.” Tabby was as hard as a rock, but she didn’t pull away, even though Arch still had her in his grip.

  He leaned closer, bringing his face only inches from hers. She tilted her head up. Her lips softened. The tension around her eyes loosened. Would she let him kiss her, or would she slap him if he tried? And would he like that slap as much as a kiss?

  “I admit to nothing,” he murmured, then pulled back.

  “Okay, I’ve got three pairs of scissors.” Elvie marched out of the clinic, her mittened hands holding standard, plastic-handled craft scissors. “Although, if you ask me, Arch should cut the car free on his own.”
r />   “What makes you think I had anything to do with this?” Arch asked, knowing he couldn’t keep the impish twinkle out of his eyes.

  Elvie rested her weight on one hip and gave him a flat stare.

  “You just admitted you did it,” Tabby growled beside him. “He just admitted he did it,” she reiterated for Elvie.

  “Was there every any doubt?” Elvie stepped forward, handing a pair of scissors each to Arch and Tabby. She yanked off one of her gloves and gripped the third pair, stepping over to the car and eyeing it as if she had no idea where to start.

  Tabby gave Arch one last death-stare—although it felt much more like the scintillating challenge that he knew it really was—and marched to the front of the car. She found a likely spot and slipped the scissors between the plastic and the car.

  “Don’t you dare get a single scratch on my car,” she warned Arch before she started cutting.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” Arch moved to the passenger door and crouched to start cutting from the bottom up. “I’m too busy dreaming about other things,” he added, barely above a whisper. Like Tabby in a fury, chest heaving as she ripped his clothes off.

  “Hey!” Tabby shouted, standing and ripping the plastic that she’d started cutting. “I heard that.”

  Arch grabbed hold of the two ends of the plastic he’d already cut through and ripped as well. “Good!” Ah! There was nothing more satisfying than ripping something while crossing swords with a worthy woman.

  “Oh my gosh.” Elvie rolled her eyes on the other side of the car from him. “Would you two just get a room already?”

  Arch’s and Tabby’s responses were explosive.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Arch said in mock defense.

  “How can you even say that?” Tabby’s voice was high and loud.

  “It’s like you think I planned this or something.” It was getting harder and harder for Arch not to chuckle.

  “I would never stoop so low,” Tabby argued.