A Cowboy's Christmas Joy
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Mary Anne Wilson
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CHAPTER ONE
A PERSON CAN’T outride their past. Harmony Gabriel had heard that for the first time when she’d been twelve years old, and her name had been Harriet Randall. Early one April morning over seventeen years ago, a caseworker from Wyoming’s Family Services had taken her out of protective care to a small white bungalow just outside Cheyenne. That’s when she’d first met Letty Gabriel, the grandmother that she’d never known existed. She’d always thought that she and her father, Lester Randall, had no family. He told her that over and over again.
Grandma Letty had taken her in with open arms, shown her unconditional love, and her dad, whom she’d always called Les, had never shown up again. For a long time, she’d been afraid he would come back and take her away with him. That’s when adoption proceedings had begun on grounds that Les had abandoned his child. A year later, Harriet Randall became Harmony Leticia Gabriel, a name she’d chosen for herself at the adoption hearing. Her life as Harriet was left behind, but there were times when old memories intruded and brought back the twelve-year-old who’d been so ashamed of her father.
A person can’t outride their past. She wasn’t exactly running from her past, but she wasn’t going to let it find her, either. Especially not in her office of the company she’d owned for five years, Perfect Harmony Events Planning in Cheyenne. On a December day, she was staring at the flashing red light on the phone console, and it seemed a perfect warning not to take the call.
Mandy Thompson, her friend and associate in the business, had put the call on hold for her. She looked across her elegant glass-topped desk at Mandy now. She could almost hear the footsteps of her past getting closer. “Are you sure he gave his name as Caleb Donovan?”
“Yes. That’s why I needed to talk to you. It’s not an unusual name, but it’s unlikely there are two Caleb Donovans calling from Cody, where he has a business. He needs help with an event and made it very clear money was not a problem. The venue—he called it Pure Rodeo—is located just south of the Flaming Sky Ranch, midway between Cody and Eclipse. It’s new construction and he owns it. I thought he’d hang up when I told him we couldn’t do it, but he insisted on speaking to my superior.” Mandy added, “All things considered, it sure sounds like he’s your Caleb Donovan.”
Mandy was right about everything except her last opinion. “He was never my Caleb Donovan.” She’d had a crush on him—that was true—but he’d never even spoken to her back then when her father had worked on the Flaming Sky Ranch. She remembered Caleb staring at her after the sheriff had put her in the front seat of his cruiser, and then pushed Les—who was falling-down drunk—into the back seat behind a metal mesh safety screen.
“I guess I can accept the fact that he’s calling by some weird twist of fate,” she said. “But honestly, I don’t want to talk to him, even if he insisted on speaking to the owner. I can’t change the fact that we’re fully booked and can’t take on a new client.”
“He was determined, and I sure didn’t want to hang up on him, especially if he’s one of those Donovans. If he was mad about being cut off, he could give us bad press, which we do not want. They’ve been on the Flaming Sky Ranch forever and just about everyone in the state knows them. We don’t want to offend them.”
“I agree,” Harmony conceded. Grandma Letty, who had passed two years ago, would have told her, Put on your big-girl pants and take care of it instead of letting it eat at you. That had gotten the older woman through a life of ups and downs, and she always did what she had to do. The man on the other end of the line would never know who he’d talked to.
“I’ll take the call and tell him the truth, and that should be that.” The light was still flashing red. He hadn’t hung up. She looked at the large computer monitor on the desk to her right, and she saw her reflection in the blank screen. The woman looking back at her was wearing her big-girl pants, even though they looked like a slender black skirt she’d matched with a simple white blouse.
She fingered her lucky locket, a small oval that held a picture of Grandma Letty on one side and a picture of her daughter, Joy, on the other. The two most important people in her life, past and present, were always close to her.
She ran her fingers carelessly through her short blond hair that only emphasized the flyaway style of her pixie cut. The freckles across the bridge of her nose had faded enough over the years to be indiscernible unless you knew they were there.
“Do you want me to sit in on it with you?” Mandy asked.
She smiled as she turned to face the desk again. “No, it’s okay. But do me a favor and go and check on a certain little person to see if she’s still asleep.”
“Last I looked, Joy was asleep hugging Mr. Winky.”
The thought of her small daughter holding her rainbow unicorn reminded her that now was what counted, not something that had happened years ago. The past was nothing, and the present was good, better than she could ever have wished for. Joy was healthy and happy and beautiful, and the center of Harmony’s world—a world she loved more than anything. “Let me know when she wakes up.”
“I will, and good luck,” Mandy said before she left the office.
You can’t outride your past. Harmony obviously couldn’t, but she could outride the fear of it, which still reared its ugly head at the most unexpected times. Think on the good things. That was something else Gramma Letty had told her more than once. She’d do that now and let Caleb Donovan down gently.
She finally tapped her earpiece and adjusted the microphone closer to her mouth. “Mr. Donovan?” Thankfully, her voice sounded pretty normal and businesslike.
“Yes, Caleb Donovan.”
Nothing about the deep voice sounded even vaguely familiar. But then again, the caller wasn’t a lanky teenaged boy anymore. Now he was a grown man, maybe thirty-three or thirty-four years old. “I’m Harmony Gabriel, the owner of Perfect Harmony Events Planning.” It felt good to say that to a Donovan. “My associate said you called about an event you wanted us to cover this month and requested to speak with me.”
“Yes, I do want you to cover a party for me.”
“Since it’s in December, we can’t help you. We’re fully booked until the middle of January.” The past few years had been hard ones for the business, but it was finally coming close to what it had been before. She was thankful that the revenue from the holiday events would keep Perfect Harmony from posting a loss in the fourth quarter.
She heard Caleb exhale before he spoke. “Ms. Gabriel, I only need your help for one evening for an anniversary celebration for my parents. I own the venue, so that’s all set, but I need professional help for the rest. I want the party on Christmas Eve. That’s when they were married.”
It was for Dash and Ruby, but their son was on a fool’s errand if he expected anyone in the business to have openings for Christmas Eve. It was a few weeks away.
“I’m sorry. We can’t.” There was silence on the line for a long moment, and she wondered if he’d hung up. But the red light was glowing steadily. The line was still open. “Mr. Donovan? Are you still there?”
“Yes. Is there any chance you know of another company I could contact, even if it’s out of state?”
“Sorry, I don’t—”
Mandy unexpectedly hurried back into the room with a sheet of paper in her hand that she handed over to Harmony. She scanned it: “Something you need to know NOW! Tell him you might be able to help him.”
Harmony had no idea what Mandy was talking about, but she didn’t hesitate saying, “Mr. Donovan, I need to check on something that might be of some help to you. It’s a slim chance but let me find out.”
“What is it?” he said quickly.
“I don’t want to say until I know for sure, one way or another. Will you hold while I can verify it?”
“Yes,” he responded quickly.
She hoped Mandy was right about maybe helping him. Putting her mic on mute, she said, “What’s going on?”
Mandy pressed her hands flat on the desktop and leaned in closer to Harmony. “I just took a call from Marla Brewster, the bride in the Brewster-Wayne wedding. They’re canceling everything. She made it clear that there would be no reconciliation. They won’t fight forfeiting their deposits, and she apologized profusely for the cancellation. So, no rehearsal dinner, no wedding and no reception at the Carstairs Compound.”
Harmony was stunned. She hadn’t heard from the planner assigned to it, Louise Fletcher, about any second thoughts by the couple or their families. “Why didn’t Louise let me know right away if they were having trouble?”
“Because she didn’t know anything until I called and told her about it. She was totally taken by surprise. She’s going to close down at Carstairs and hire a team to get the rentals returned and clean up everything.”
The Brewsters were one of the wealthiest families in the Jackson Hole valley and being hired to do everything for their daughter’s wedding had been a huge coup for the company. That had just gone up in smoke, but Harmony realized that maybe it wouldn’t be totally devastating for the company. Mandy verbalized what she was thinking.
“This might not be too bad,” Mandy said. “Not as much money, but not bad money, either. We might be able to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat if Caleb Donovan signs up with us.”
“Exactly,” Harmony said.
“The Donovan party won’t be as elaborate as the wedding, but it could be a pretty good way for us to minimize our losses and get some very favorable notice in the area. With the big rodeo in July, the parties pile up, and we could get a few of the bigger ones if we play this right.” Mandy had been a business major in college, and she understood numbers.
“Okay. We have to move quickly. More good news is Louise is available to take it on, and it’s way up north, so I don’t see me dealing with the Donovans except to back Louise up, and she hardly ever needs that. Call Louise back and let her know what’s going on, and I’ll get the basics of the request for you from Caleb.”
Mandy nodded. “I’m on it.”
“Oh, tell Louise to call me when she gets back today. We don’t have a lot of time to get anything done by Christmas Eve. Twelve days, that’s all. I’ll set up the call with Caleb for Louise to lay everything out for him. Tomorrow morning would be a good time to get on this.”
“Okay, I’ll get her briefed. She probably won’t be back in Cheyenne until late tonight.”
“Ask her to give you a time she can do a video call with Caleb tomorrow morning.”
“Aren’t you kind of curious about the Donovans now?”
“No, I’m not. They’re obviously still rich, have the ranch and they have good deal of fame.”
“Wouldn’t you like to see how Caleb turned out?”
That stopped her. She imagined Caleb would be tall and strong with dark eyes, dark hair and a year-round tan. She stopped right there. “No, I don’t want to. I just want Caleb to get what he wants if we do his event. That way, we’ll get what we need out of it. I’ve had him on hold long enough.”
Mandy was on the move and out the door before Harmony could blink.
Harmony took Caleb off mute. “Mr. Donovan?”
“I’m still here.”
“I think we might have good news for you after all. We just had a cancelation that clears up our calendar from tomorrow until the day after Christmas. Since your party is in that time frame, I don’t see why we couldn’t fulfill your request.”
He didn’t hide his relief when he sighed and said, “That’s great to hear.”
“I think we could start as soon as tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” he said. “Perfect.”
“Good, then tomorrow it is.”
“Now, what do you need from me besides money?”
She grinned at that. “First, before the money comes into the picture, you’ll need to either meet with your planner down here in our office or have a video call so she can find out just what you expect and what we can do for you. I know that’s quite a trip for you coming down here, but the faster we get in motion, the better things will be.”
“I can be there in two hours,” he said, taking her off guard.
“Excuse me?” Didn’t he still live at the ranch or maybe Cody?
“I can be at your office in Cheyenne in two hours. I’ll fly myself down and get this going faster.”
She hadn’t expected that and tried to think. “That would be fine, except your planner, Louise Fletcher, won’t be available until tomorrow morning. There isn’t any need for you to fly down. Louise can do a video call as soon as she’s free to do it. Tomorrow morning would be the earliest she could take care you.”
“What time will she be there tomorrow?”
“At the office?”
“Yes.”
“Any time after ten o’clock. If you decide to go with us, as soon as the agreement is signed, she’s on the job.”
“When will she be here to start on-site?”
He really was anxious. “Monday morning.”
“No, no, no,” he murmured. “That’s the whole weekend lost.”
“I’m sorry, but—”
He cut in. “I’m flying down tomorrow so she can fly back up here with me after the meeting.”
“That would be a good idea, except Ms. Fletcher is terrified of flying. She’ll drive up to your place and go from there with the planning.”
He was silent for a long moment before he responded. “That’s unbelievable,” he said.
“Tomorrow’s Friday, and what if she drives up and gets there first thing Saturday morning? I think that could work.”
“I guess it has to,” he said, obviously not happy, but not about to cancel everything because of bad timing.
“All I need from you is general information to pass on to Louise.”
“Okay.”
She turned on her monitor by the phone and opened a new account template to fill in his personal information. The address he gave her for the venue turned out to also be his personal address. So, he lived at Pure Rodeo. That was interesting.
“How long will this meeting take?” Caleb asked.
“Oh, around an hour. If you both agree quickly, it can be shorter. Louise explains everything involved—pricing for the theme, food, drink and entertainment, anything special you request. So don’t hesitate to ask for what you want. There’s limits to what we will or can do, but believe me, she’ll try.”
“Understood.”
A man of few words, the way she remembered his dad being. “She can do everything needed and take your good-faith deposit right then.”
Her door opened and she paused. “I’m sorry, can you hold for just a minute while I make sure ten o’clock is good for Louise?”
“Sure, why not,” he said easily.
She almost smiled when she put him back on mute. As Mandy came into the room, Harmony heard Caleb humming in her ear. She couldn’t name the song, but she’d heard it before. “Mandy, find out if ten tomorrow morning is okay with Louise for the meeting with Caleb here.”
“Louise is going to be here at eight tomorrow, sharp.”
“Great. Let her know about the meeting time and the possibility that, if he signs on, he needs her up at the venue at least by Saturday morning.”
With that taken care of, Mandy left, then Harmony took Caleb off mute. The humming stopped as soon as she said, “Mr. Donovan?”
“Yes, I didn’t hang up.”
“Thank you for that,” she said.
“What else do you need from me right now?”
“Will you be bringing anyone with you for the meeting?”
“No, I don’t think so. Why?”
“We want everything to be easy and comfortable for the client, and if you’re bringing your spouse or children or both, we want to be set up for that. We can offer childcare, if needed.”
“No, that is definitely not needed. I’m not married, no kids. I’ll be on my own for the meeting.”
“Okay, not married,” she found herself repeating, a bit surprised Caleb was single.
Then she got back to business. “Just two general questions. How many guests will you invite, and what theme do you want for the party?”
“Around seventy guests, give or take a couple.”
“How did you find us?”
“From a friend, Chip Ewing. He’s from near Jackson Hole. His ranch is on the Snake River. It was a party to announce he was going to run for political office.”
She recognized the name immediately. Mr. Ewing had been elected to the state senate seven months ago. His event had run for two days at his ranch and had been very profitable at a time when money had been scarce for the business. “Yes, I remember Mr. Ewing. He and his family were really good clients, and I’m happy to hear he was so satisfied with our work.”
“He thought if anyone could help me, you could. I’m glad to see he was right. Now, the deposit—card, cash, check?”
“A credit card or a check would be fine.”
“Okay.”
She really wanted to ask him something that she’d been wondering about before she let him go. “How many years have your parents been married?”
“Forty years on Christmas Eve.”
“That’s incredible.” She had seldom seen Dash and Ruby on the ranch when they hadn’t been together, working or riding or sitting in the media box when Dash had been the announcer for the rodeo events. They obviously knew how to make a marriage work. “I can understand why you’d celebrate that.”
“Do you know what the gift is supposed to be on a fortieth anniversary?” he asked.
She had a feeling he already knew but wanted to see if she did. “Rubies.”
There was a low chuckle that she liked. “Well, what a coincidence. My mother’s name is Ruby.”
“A very nice coincidence,” she said.
The door opened, and Mandy came across to the desk. When she laid another piece of paper on the glass top, Harmony glanced down at five vendor names they had thought they’d use for the wedding. Now the list was headed with “They all want in!”
Harmony smiled and nodded. Having those vendors willing to possibly follow them to the Donovan party was a gift for Louise. A lot of time in planning was spent on finding the right vendors. Harmony gave her a thumbs-up sign, then Mandy waved goodbye and left again.
“Do you need to know anything else, ma’am?”
Ma’am? She wondered how old he thought she was. She needed more information. “Oh, yes, I forgot, the theme you want. Is it just family or couples? Adults? Children?”
“Yes on family, along with a lot of local friends and some coming in from out of town for the party. Absolutely no children.”
She was surprised by that. She would have thought kids would be part of it all. Even as a child, she’d seen how important their sons were to Ruby and Dash. Back then, everything they did was centered on supporting their sons’ love of rodeo and building a strong family. She entered the information and underlined “No children attending.” Whomever he invited or didn’t invite was nothing to her, as long as he agreed to hire them for his event. Then she’d get back to life without a Donovan in it, but his money would do a lot of good. That made her happy.
“Mood or theme, Mr. Donovan? Do you have a preference?” Harmony asked Caleb.
“Traditional Christmas meets the rodeo.” He chuckled to himself, and she liked the sound of it. “Now, that sounds weird, doesn’t it?”
“No, not at all.” She’d had much weirder requests before. “Louise will get it sorted out to make it what you want. I imagine you want the mood to be geared for adults.”
“Yes and no. My parents are fun and a bit crazy, very much in love after all these years, and their friends are a cross section of what their life has been. My whole family’s involved in the rodeo. But the party is about their life together, and that means great music for dancing, maybe a remake of their first meal after they were married, but mostly just being with people who were and are important to them in their life together.”
Harmony closed her eyes as he spoke. She’d always envied the Donovan boys living on a beautiful ranch and having real parents in their lives. All she had was a father who was one of the best horse trainers in the state and one of the worst drunks. She’d never known her mother, who had died when she was just a bit older than Joy was now. Les wouldn’t even talk about Adelle. It seemed too painful for Grandma Letty to talk about her daughter, her only child, who’d run off with Les and disappeared from her life.
As Caleb had been talking more about his parents, she’d felt a pain deep inside her. A sense of loss that she tried to push away, but when she started to say something, anything, she found the words almost choking her. She coughed, and then managed to say, “One more thing, if you’ll hold again?”
“I’m a pro at holding,” Caleb said with that touch of humor in his voice that only made her feel worse. “Thank you,” she said quickly and muted the call. “Breathe,” she told herself and tried to inhale and exhale as she sank back in her desk chair. “Just breathe.” That feeling had come out of nowhere and threatened to overwhelm her. It had never happened before, but it almost shut her down. She steadied herself, took another breath and told herself she was okay. This would all work out and life would go on, with the business in the black at the end of the quarter.
