A Thunder Canyon Christmas (14 page)

She sighed. “Everyone in town is already whispering that I'm the reason you broke your engagement to Christine. Yesterday morning before you and I left for Billings, I went to the grocery store with Steph and three people stopped her to ask if it was true the wedding was off. None of them would meet my gaze and I could practically feel the disapproval radiating off them. The two of us showing up together at the McFarlane Christmas party would certainly add considerable fuel to that rumor.”

There she went, trying to find excuses again. Just how hard was a guy supposed to work before he gave a cause up as lost?

He thought about the connection they had forged together the night before, the sweet peace they had shared, and he was angry, suddenly, that she seemed willing to give that up without a fight.

“Who the hell cares about a little gossip? You and I both know it's not true and so does Christine. What else matters?”

She huffed out a breath. “That's easy for you to say. You've never cared about gossip. Good grief, you and
Marlon spent your lifetime raising as much trouble as you could, gossip be hanged.”

He acknowledged some truth to that, but those days seemed far away.

“I'm not like you,” she went on. “I hate finding myself the center of attention—and I feel like I haven't been standing anywhere else since the day Erin Castro showed up in Thunder Canyon.”

She paused and pulled her fingers away from his. “When my father was murdered, I know everyone talked about me all the time. I could feel the conversation stop. Nobody talked to me about his murder except my few close friends. Haley, mostly, since Steph was in a pretty dark place with her dad's murder, too.”

She sighed. “With everyone else, I felt like I had entered some kind of social black hole. I know they were kids and probably didn't have the skills to deal with such a rough thing. Nobody knew what to say, I guess, so it was easier to ignore me. But it still hurt, especially because I know everyone said plenty behind my back.”

“I always talked to you,” he said curtly, sick of her excuses and the whole damn situation. “
Always.
And I never let anybody say anything hurtful about you or your family, at least when I was in earshot.”

He could feel her gaze on him. He shifted his attention from the road long enough to see her features soften. She reached a hand out and touched his thigh.

“You always did,” she agreed. “You've been riding to my rescue since we were kids, haven't you?”

He couldn't have this conversation while he was
driving, he decided. Since they were close to Clifton's Pride, he steered onto the shoulder and put the truck in gear so he could safely face her.

“Because I care about you, Elise. I always have. I convinced myself you were just a sweet girl, maybe a little naive, who needed somebody to watch her back. And then you showed up in town again and I realized my feelings for you ran much, much deeper.”

She drew in a shaky breath. “I care about you, too, Matt. Last night was…well, you know what it was. I don't want to screw this up. But I don't have the greatest track record with relationships and I'm so afraid.”

“You think I'm not? You scare the hell out of me, Elise.”

She gazed out the window at a magpie scavenging for berries on the stark, bare crimson dogwood branches along the ice-crusted creek. “I'm not bringing my best self to this,” she finally said. “I don't think I can right now.”

Those nerves in his gut coiled more tightly. “So instead of giving me the chance to show you I can be patient, you want to push me away, just as you've been doing since you came back to town.”

“I don't know. Maybe.” She sighed. “I told you I was a mess, Matt.”

“I guess you have to decide what's more important to you. A little pointless gossip.” He took a chance and reached for her hand, then drew her cool fingers to his mouth. “Or the way we feel about each other.”

She narrowed her gaze at him. “Not fair.”

He grinned and put the pickup in gear to drive the
rest of the way to the ranch house. “Whoever said I was fair?”

When they reached Clifton's Pride, he could already see a few signs of life, though the day was just starting: A ranch hand hauling a bucket of something, a light on in the kitchen, the rumble of a tractor probably hauling hay bales out to hungry cattle in some distant, snow-covered pasture.

He moved around to open her door before she could climb out and helped her down from the high truck. “I'll swing by before the party. I really hope you'll be here.”

She sighed. “You're not going to give up, are you?”

“I walked away from law school without a backward look and haven't regretted it for a moment. But something tells me if I gave up on you as easily as I did that, it would haunt me for the rest of my life.”

“H
ere we go.”

Matt parked his pickup in front of the sprawling McFarlane Lodge and Elise could do nothing but stare.

“Wow! It's gorgeous!”

The house was everything people in town had said, soaring and majestic like the mountains around it. Constructed of log and stone, it seemed part of the landscape, as if it had grown here amid the boulders like the Douglas fir and spruce surrounding it.

“We worked with a log home company out of Helena on the structure but Cates did all the work inside.”

“I'm sure it's even more beautiful there than it is from the outside.”

“You ready to go see?”

She gazed at Matt across the width of his truck. He
must have showered and shaved just before he picked her up at Clifton's Pride. His brown hair appeared freshly combed, his jaw smooth, and all through the drive here the scent of his sexy soap or aftershave or whatever it was had been driving her crazy.

He wore a dressy black leather bomber-style jacket over a tan twill shirt that made him look rugged and masculine, darkly dangerous.

He looked like the sort of man who could take on dragons. Or at least a house full of curious friends.

“Yes. I think I am.”

“I'm really glad you came with me,” he said as he opened the door for her.

She had to admit, she had waffled back and forth all week long. Some part of her would have liked to stay back at Clifton's Pride—and not simply because of the potential for wagging tongues.

Since her father's murder, Christmas Eve had become one of her least-favorite days of the year. She didn't miss the irony. Like most kids, she had always loved the holidays when she was a girl. Her father had loved the season, too, and she had many wonderful, vivid memories of her girlhood: Christmas caroling, wrapping gifts, sneaking baskets of gifts and food onto needy porches.

If the weather wasn't too snowy, every Christmas Eve her dad would saddle horses for her and Grant and the three of them would take a long, snowy ride into the mountains while Helen stayed back at the ranch putting the finishing touches to their Christmas Eve dinner.

They were wondrous times for a girl, filled with
laughter and excitement and breathless anticipation. After his death, all the joy and magic of the holidays seemed to die with him. Helen had tried to make an effort, but over the years Elise had come to the point where she wanted to just forget the whole day.

She'd even come to dread it, finding it too much of a struggle to pretend to be bright and cheerful when she wasn't.

As they walked up the winding pathway to the house, Elise tried to tamp down her nerves. She was so tired of this wild tangle of emotions. She wanted to just enjoy herself today, to focus on family and friends.

And Matt, the man who had become so very important to her.

Now, on the porch of the home he had built, she looked around at the fine-crafted details. The outdoor lighting looked like something out of a museum and the massive front door was hand-carved, a sculpted, twisted design of a tree with curving branches.

She couldn't resist touching the polished wood. “Wow. This is really exquisite, Matt. Beyond anything I expected.”

He looked pleased at her praise and that fragile tenderness fluttered in her chest.

She had missed him this week. Both of them had been preoccupied with family obligations and he was busy with the beginning stages of a new Cates Construction project. She had only seen him once, when he had picked her up two nights earlier for a quiet dinner at his house.

Afterward, they had bundled up and gone for a chilly
walk through the darkened streets of town with his chocolate Lab bounding through the snowdrifts ahead of them. Though they didn't encounter a moose this time as they had in Bozeman, walking hand in hand through the snowy streets in the moonlight had been sweet and peaceful.

He had kissed her when he took her back to Clifton's Pride but not with the heat and passion she wanted. Rather, he had exhibited remarkable—albeit frustrating—restraint and had limited their embrace to a few brief moments.

She pulled her fingers away from the door and slipped them through his. “It's really stunning, Matt. I'm very impressed.”

“Come and see the rest.”

He pushed open the door and they were instantly assaulted by noise—shrieking children, jazzy holiday music playing through hidden speakers, laughter and the low, chattering hum of a dozen conversations.

She knew just about everyone. Her mother was talking with Steph's mother and Judy Johnson, owner of the Clip N' Curl. In another seating group, she spied Holly Clifton talking with Erika and Shandie Traub.

A few people looked up at their entrance and Elise thought she saw a few raised eyebrows, but she told herself she didn't care. Matt was right, a little gossip wouldn't hurt her.

They hadn't made it two steps inside when suddenly Christine Mayhew hurried over to them, her arms outstretched. To Elise's shock, Christine pulled her into a warm hug, laughing and talking about something one
of the children had just said. She hugged Matt next and then looped an arm through Elise's.

Elise saw confusion on more than a few faces. She was confused, too, since she had barely met Christine but the woman was acting as if they were best friends.

Christine talked with them for several moments before excusing herself. “There's Tori. I need to ask her who did that incredible oil painting in the master bedroom.”

Before she walked away, she gave Matt a sidelong smile. “Unless you think that wasn't sufficient to prove to everyone in town you didn't wrench out my poor little heart and drive over it with your backhoe, you beast.”

He grinned. “That ought to do it. Thanks, Chris.”

“Anytime,” she said with another hug to Elise before she sauntered away.

“So that was all a setup?” Elise asked.

He shrugged, trying and failing to look innocent. “I figured the best way to shut off the gossip valve in a hurry was to show that this is not some torrid love triangle. Looks like it worked.”

Oh, she was in serious trouble. That tenderness zinged through her again and she was immeasurably touched that he would make the effort to keep her out of the spotlight.

She should have expected it. He
was
her self-appointed protector, wasn't he? Apparently that covered everything from schoolyard bullies to social scandals.

She couldn't resist smiling at him. “You're a very sweet man, Matt,” she murmured.

His brown-eyed gaze met hers and everything inside
her sighed at the warm light there. “Guys don't like to be called sweet, El,” he said with a mock growl.

She checked to make sure they were out of earshot of others at the party, then she spoke in a voice pitched low so only he could hear. “Okay. How about this. When you do thoughtful little things like that, I find it incredibly sexy. Even better than that thing you do with your tongue in my ear.”

He gave a rough laugh. “Cut it out or I'll be dragging you out of the party before we even say hello to our hosts.”

As much as the idea of that appealed to her right now, she knew this party was important to him. He had worked hard to create a showplace for Connor McFarlane and was justified in being pleased with his efforts.

“I want to see the house. Will you give me a private tour? Show me all the secret corners and out-of-the-way closets?”

He sent her a dark look but grabbed her hand and led her up the staircase. On the way, he pointed out details like the hand-peeled banister and the imported light fixtures.

He kept up a running commentary as he led her from room to room. Though she wouldn't have thought she could find a discussion on the challenges of post-and-beam construction fascinating, he made it interesting and she admired the obvious care Cates Construction had put into the work.

In one of the bedrooms, he started discussing the relative merits of using alder or black walnut. He was
so impassioned about it, she couldn't help herself, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers.

For an instant, he only stared at her and then he closed the door firmly, leaning against it so no one could interrupt them while he kissed her properly, as she had been wanting him to do since the moment he picked her up.

That sweet peace fluttered through her as he kissed her, the sense of rightness and home and everything wonderful. She held him close, heat churning through her and her emotions a thick, tangled clog in her throat.

By the time he eased away, both of them were breathing raggedly.

“You're killing me, Elise. Everyone in town is downstairs and all I want to do is lock that door and forget the rest of the world exists. Hell, look at me! I can't even leave this room until I'm a little more…under control.”

She glanced down at his obvious arousal and smiled, thoroughly enjoying herself. “Well, then, I guess you'll just have to tell me more about exactly why black walnut is so vastly superior for its hardness and durability.”

He stayed a safe distance away for several moments while Elise wandered through the bedroom and its attached bathroom, admiring all the thoughtful little luxuries in the design. Finally, he determined he could face polite company again.

When they left the room and walked down the stairs sometime later, Elise could sense something momentous happening. Excitement seemed to coil through the lodge like the silvery garlands on the tree.

“What's going on?” Matt asked the first people he saw standing at the bottom of the stairway—his brother Mitchell and sister-in-law Lizbeth.

“The craziest thing.” Lizbeth's lovely features glowed. “Connor and Tori are getting married.”

Matt frowned. “Haven't we all known that for months?”

“No, I mean right now. They decided on the spur of the moment that this was the perfect time to tie the knot, while all their friends and family are already here and everyone is celebrating. We're having a wedding in just a few moments! Won't that just make Christmas Eve perfect?”

“Oh, how wonderful,” Elise exclaimed.

“Tori already has her dress and veil. Knowing her fashion sense, it's going to be gorgeous,” Lizbeth said.

“What can I do to help?” Elise asked.

“I think everything is nearly ready. Tori's upstairs with Allaire getting dressed. I think Shandie's doing her hair.”

“I'll help set up the chairs,” Matt said.

For the next half hour the lodge was filled with a flurry of activity as the residents of Thunder Canyon rallied to help organize the last-minute wedding. Flowers and greenery were snatched from the elegant decorations for bouquets and corsages, slim white candles were gathered from various locations around the house and arranged along the mantel and someone shifted the music on the sound system from holiday carols to sweetly romantic songs.

Matt and his brothers and some of the other men
had dragged every available chair into the huge great room and arranged them in rows, all facing the twenty-foot Christmas tree and the sweeping mountain views beyond from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Now, Elise sat beside him while soft, romantic music played. He reached for her hand as Connor and his teenage son CJ walked up to stand near the Christmas tree. Connor looked handsome and successful in a gray designer suit that set off his distinctive auburn hair.

Everyone rose when Tori appeared at the top of the curved half timber staircase on the arm of her father, Dr. Sherwood Jones, with her best friend Allaire Traub and CJ's friend Jerilyn Doolin as her attendants.

She looked breathtaking, in an off-the-shoulder, three-quarter-length dress. Shandie had worked wonders with her strawberry-blond hair and it was coiled atop her head in a style both elegant and romantic.

While everyone admired the lovely bride, Elise found her attention shifting to Connor McFarlane, waiting near the windows. Something fragile and sweet tugged in her heart when she witnessed the soft light in his eyes as Tori glided down the stairs with her arm tucked through her father's.

The two of them radiated happiness and Elise wasn't the only one dabbing away tears as she listened to their heartfelt vows and saw their obvious joy in each other.

After the ceremony, Connor brought out magnums of champagne and everyone lifted flutes in a toast to the glowing couple. When several toasts had been offered, Connor nudged Marlon. “You know, we're all set for a wedding now. Everybody's here. Trust me, you could
save yourself a lot of trouble if you just took care of things now and tied the knot.”

“A lovely offer—thanks,” Haley said with a smile. “But I have my heart set on a spring wedding.”

“Have you set a date?” Elise asked.

Marlon and Haley exchanged glances. “Yes,” Haley answered. “Finally. We decided last night on April 11, if we can put it together that soon.”

Tori hugged her. “If we could throw mine together in half an hour, I think a few months should be plenty of time.”

“You'll still be my maid of honor, won't you?” Haley asked Elise.

Would she be in Thunder Canyon for the wedding? Elise had no idea what the future held, but she decided she would do whatever it took to help Haley have the most beautiful wedding in Thunder Canyon history. She deserved a wonderful happy ending of her own.

“You couldn't keep me away,” she answered with a hug.

“I don't think you're going to be the only ones hearing wedding bells in the near future,” Connor said with a gesture toward Erin Castro and Dillon Traub.

They stood in a group with Elise's mother and Grant and Stephanie. Erin and Corey held hands and even from here, Elise could sense the bond between them.

Everyone around her was getting married. She swallowed hard with a careful look at Matt, who had left their group to talk to his father and a few other men.

He looked strong and gorgeous and everything inside her seemed to sigh whenever she saw him. She wanted
what it seemed everyone else around them had found but she was so afraid to dream about forever, especially right now when everything felt so topsy-turvy.