A Thunder Canyon Christmas (8 page)

“I'm sorry she's not here.”

“Not at all. Now you can come with me, which is even better. I'll even spring for dinner. What time are you closing up shop here?”

“I was just about to. But I can't just…”

“Sure you can,” he said over her objections. “Come on, it will be fun.”

She could think of a dozen reasons why she shouldn't go with him. She was tired. She had a headache. She wasn't thrilled about her silly, futile crush on him and had been warning herself since Saturday morning when he dropped her off back at Clifton's Pride that she needed to keep her distance so she didn't make an even bigger fool of herself over him.

But her words to Grant that morning after he drove away still echoed in her mind. She owed him for coming to her rescue the other night at The Hitching Post—and he still had the vividly colored eye to show for it.

Without him, she might have found herself in serious trouble with Jake Halloran. He had stepped in to rescue her from a jam at considerable risk to himself. All he wanted now was the simple favor of helping him select a gift. If she went with him to Bozeman, perhaps she wouldn't feel quite so indebted to him.

The trick would be making it through the evening alone with him without completely humiliating herself
while the memory of that stunning kiss simmered under her skin.

“Fine.” She spoke quickly before she could change her mind. “But since you apparently love Christmas so much, I'm still going to expect you to help me fill those gift bags.”

“It's a deal.” He grinned and helped her find her coat.

 

“Are you sure about this?”

Two hours later, they stood inside an art gallery just before closing time looking at an elaborate—and elaborately priced—needlework sampler that depicted an old, gnarled oak tree. In the thin, topmost branches perched a stately, magnificent eagle with its wings outstretched, gleaming gold as if reflecting sunlight.

“Positive. Oh, Matt. It's perfect. Haley will love it.”

He studied the piece. It was lovely, in an artsy sort of way. He could see where Haley would probably enjoy it. Elise seemed convinced, anyway. The moment they had walked into the gallery after searching fruitlessly through three or four other crowded stores, she saw it hanging on the wall and gasped with delight.

“You're the expert, I guess,” he said now.

“Trust me, she's going to love it. It's perfect,” she said again. “So perfect it might have been custom made for her. You know that's the reason she named her teen organization ROOTS, right? Because of a sampler her mother had hanging on the wall. It said something about how there are but two lasting bequests we can give children—roots and wings. This covers both of those things.
I mean it. With this present you're going to win the best future brother-in-law race, hands down.”

“Well that's something, at least,” he said dryly. “I wouldn't want her favoring Marshall or Mitch over me.”

“Haley's going to love it,” she assured him. “In fact, she just might wonder if she's marrying the wrong twin.”

He made a face as they headed to the salesperson seated behind a discreet counter. “I doubt that. The two of them seem to forget that anybody else on earth even exists when they're together.”

He paid for the needlework, gulping a little at the price tag but grateful again that Cates Construction had managed to avoid the worst of the economic downturn so he could splurge a little for his twin's future wife.

“Would you like this gift wrapped?” the saleswoman asked.

“Please. Gift wrapping isn't one of my particular skills.”

While the salesclerk carried the piece over to a nearby table where wrapping supplies were neatly organized, Elise picked up their conversation.

“Do you mind? About Marlon and Haley, I mean? The two of you have always been so close. Do you worry she'll interfere with that bond?”

He thought about Haley and the changes she had wrought in his brother. She was sweet and loving, as different as he could imagine from his formerly wild twin. Somehow the two of them managed to still perfectly complement each other.

“Haley's been great for Marlon,” he answered honestly. “She centers him, you know? Before she came along, the only thing Marlon really cared about was having a good time and making the next deal. Now he's as passionate about ROOTS as Haley is. They're crazy about each other.”

“I noticed.” She smiled a little and gave him a considering look. “I guess that leaves you the last Cates standing, which is probably exactly where you want to be, right?”

He gazed at Elise, bright and lovely in the recessed lighting of the gallery. Whenever he looked at her, something soft and tender lodged just under his chest.

Maybe he ought to be a little uneasy about how quickly everything he always thought he wanted had shifted in the last few days, but all he could manage to drum up was gratitude that she had come back to Thunder Canyon.

“I don't expect that particular situation will last long,” he said, purposely vague. A guy had to hope, right?

She gave him an uncertain look but he decided not to explain yet. He could be patient, give her time to figure out her feelings.

“Well, whoever manages to capture the last Cates will be a very lucky woman, I'm sure. Especially if you're always so generous with your gifts.”

Now would probably be a really good time to change the subject, he decided, before she started to probe too deeply into areas he wasn't quite ready to discuss.

“What about you?” he asked her. “What's on your Christmas list this year?”

She shrugged. “My gifts are already all wrapped this year. When you work in a bookstore, it's easy to find something perfect for everyone on your list.”

“I meant for yourself. What are you asking Santa to bring you?”

She looked reluctant to answer and he saw relief in her blue eyes when the saleswoman brought back his wrapped gift for Haley before he could probe a little more.

“Will there be anything else?” the woman asked in the brisk, tired tone of someone who had spent hours on her feet dealing with holiday shoppers.

“Not tonight. But thank you. This is perfect,” he said.

He held the door open for Elise and they walked out into the frosty night. A light snow was falling and a few flakes landed on her crimson knit hat and then on her eyelashes.

“You were saying about your Christmas list…” he prompted.

She made a face. “You're about the most persistent man I know.”

“I haven't even gotten started yet.”

She sighed. “I'm not a big Christmas fan, if you want to know the truth. I haven't been in a long time. Probably since my dad's murder. It's always a difficult time but I'm afraid this year I feel even less like celebrating.”

He studied her there in the fluttery snow and that soft tenderness swelled up inside him again. She had certainly been faced with a rough road to walk. He
thought of his own family, the parties and traditions and craziness of a Cates family Christmas.

So much had been taken from Elise. He wanted to give her something back but he didn't have the first idea how to help her enjoy Christmas again.

“Come on,” he said suddenly. “Let's lock Haley's present in my truck and then take a walk through town before we grab a bite to eat.”

She stared at him in the light reflected from the gallery's front window. “Take a walk? It's got to be fifteen degrees out! Are you crazy?”

“Maybe. Probably.” He grinned at her. “Come on, let's enjoy some of the Christmas decorations and then I'll buy you dinner at my favorite steak house.”

She laughed, though he saw a little lingering sadness in her eyes. “You're in a very strange mood tonight.”

“What's strange about being happy? It's Christmas and I'm with the prettiest woman in Bozeman. What guy wouldn't be happy about that?”

Rosy color climbed her cheeks and he knew it wasn't from the cold. Her blushes fascinated and charmed him. On impulse, he pulled her toward him with his free arm for just a moment, leaning in to kiss her forehead. Up close, her eyes were wide and startled and impossibly blue.

He wanted to stay there holding her for a long time while the snow eddied around them and the Christmas lights twinkled in the storefronts, but he sensed she needed a cautious approach.

He eased away and took her hand. “Come on. Let's see if we can find you a little holiday spirit.”

They took their time dropping off the package for Haley in his truck then wandering through the streets of Bozeman, listening to the carols playing from speakers out front of the businesses and peering into the all the storefronts like they were children dreaming about the biggest, best bicycle in town.

He found every moment magical, especially watching her eyes lose a little of that lost, haunted look. She laughed and joked with him like the girl he remembered and through the knit of her gloves, her fingers curled inside his as if she didn't want to let go.

By the time they reached his favorite restaurant, his toes were numb from the cold but he wouldn't have changed an instant.

Though the popular steak house could be crowded, business was slow this late on a weeknight and they didn't have to wait long for a table.

She looked lighter somehow, he thought as the hostess seated them and rattled through the evening's specials. Maybe that's what she needed most. Someone to make her smile and help her forget her troubles for a moment.

He wanted to give her the gift of a happy, lighthearted evening where she could forget her worries—and this was definitely one present he didn't need anyone else's help to deliver.

H
ow did he do it?

Elise studied the man across the low-lit table from her, strong and dark and gorgeous. Though both Cates twins had been wild, Marlon had always been the charmer while Matt had always seemed more the studious type—one reason he had gravitated toward law school, she supposed.

But tonight, he was making every effort to charm her…and it was definitely working. If she wasn't careful, she would fall hard and fast for him.

She would just have to be careful, she warned herself as her insides trembled from another of his smiles.

“So you never really answered me the other night. How long do you think you're staying in Thunder Can
yon?” he asked, in a tone of voice that made her think he had genuine interest in her answer.

She refused to let him fluster her. Matt might be the studious one but he had a reputation as being every bit the player that Marlon used to be.

“I'm not sure,” she answered. “I promised my mother I would spend the holidays in town. For now that's what I'm focusing on, just spending time at the ranch and helping Haley at ROOTS while I'm here. Once the holidays are over, I don't know. I'm considering my options.”

“What are they? Maybe I can help.”

“My job is still waiting for me in Billings if I want it. That's a definite possibility. My life is there. My friends are there. For now, I still have a house until my mother decides whether to sell it or rent it out.”

She paused, then added reluctantly, “Jack and Betty Castro haven't exactly made it a secret that they would like me to go down to San Diego for a while so they and…their sons can get to know me beyond phone calls and emails.”

He studied her out of those surprisingly perceptive brown eyes. “You're not so sure about that one, are you?”

She sighed, moving her undeniably delicious pasta around on her plate. At the reminder of the Castros, the happy bubble around them she suspected he had carefully nurtured seemed to fizzle and pop.

“It's all so difficult. They're strangers to me, you know?”

“Sure they are.” He paused and reached across the
table to entwine his fingers around hers. “You know, they're going to stay strangers to you until you make an effort to get to know them better.”

“You sound like my mo—like Helen.”

“Your mother,” he said, squeezing her fingers lightly. “Helen is your mother, no matter what the DNA says.”

His words brought a lump to her throat and she had to reach for her water glass. “My mother is urging me to spend more time with them.”

“Don't you like them?”

“Sure I like them. They're very nice people.”

How could she explain that spending time with them, coming to know them, would make this strange, twisted journey seem more real, somehow? She didn't understand her tangle of emotions, she only knew she wanted everything to go back to the way it was a few weeks ago, before she'd ever even heard of Erin Castro.

She couldn't continue in this limbo, she knew. Something had to change. She just wasn't sure she was ready yet.

“Jack and Betty are coming back to Thunder Canyon as soon as school lets out in San Diego to spend the holidays in Montana with Erin. Betty is a teacher there. History. Jack's a police officer. They have two sons in addition to Erin, one who's a police officer like his father and one who is a student.”

“Are the brothers coming, too?”

“As far as I know, only Jack and Betty. They want to get to know me better while they're here.”

“That's a start.”

“We'll see.”

She didn't want to talk about the Castros. She wanted that bright, happy bubble back. “What about you? What are your plans? Do you think you'll ever consider going back to law school?”

“Right now, I doubt it. I like working with my dad. I've discovered I really love the whole building process, seeing a place take shape under my direction. I'm not sure I'd get that same high from practicing law.

“So you think you'll be sticking around Thunder Canyon, then?”

He gave her another one of those intense, unreadable looks that made her blush, for reasons she didn't fully understand. “I guess you could say I'm pretty content with my life right now. For the most part, anyway.”

She wondered if he was serious about the woman she'd seen him with the other night at dinner. Probably not. Matt probably had a dozen beautiful women like that, all eager to hang on his every word.

That probably shouldn't depress her so much, she thought. She wasn't doing a very effective job of protecting herself around him.

They finished eating a short time later and somewhat to Elise's surprise, she found she was grateful he'd parked some distance away so she could stretch out the enjoyable evening. He took her hand to help her over a patch of ice, then didn't release her. They walked hand in hand through the quiet streets.

She was fiercely aware of his heat seeping through her gloves, of his solid strength beside her.

She sighed, knowing perfectly well she shouldn't find such comfort just from his presence. Matt made her
feel…safe. He had a tendency to watch out for anything smaller than he was but for some reason he had singled her out for extra protection.

She didn't know why but it seemed as if every time she found herself in trouble, Matt was there to help her out. Whether she was falling off a swing at the playground, tripping in the halls, schoolyard bullies, even suffering that flat tire last summer. Whenever she needed him, he seemed to be there.

What a comfort that was, she realized. A girl could definitely find herself getting used to that.

She had missed him after she moved away. Oh, she had made several good friends at her new high school in Billings, friends she kept to this day, but none who would step up to look out for her like Matt.

This time, they walked back to his truck by a more residential route, passing the small, close-set houses of downtown Bozeman. All seemed to be adorned with holiday decorations, from elaborately lit facades to a simple Christmas tree in the window and a wreath on the door. They were still a block from his pickup when Elise suddenly grabbed Matt's arm, peering around him to the shadows near a white clapboard house.

“What was that?”

He looked around. “What's the matter?”

“I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Something huge.” She squinted in the direction of the blur, vaguely aware even as she did that Matt had moved his body protectively in front of her, even though he didn't know what she was talking about or even if anything posed a threat.

Maybe it was just a shadow. No. There it was again.

Her gaze sharpened and she gasped. “Do you see it?” she asked him. “Over there by the corner of that house across the street. Near that big pine tree.”

He scanned the area and then laughed. “A moose! Right in the middle of town. Think he's Christmas shopping?”

“How cool is that?” she exclaimed. “I've seen plenty of mule deer in town, even in Billings, but never a moose.”

She stood with her hand in Matt's, heedless of the cold seeping into her bones as they watched the massive creature leisurely nibble on a bush as if he were standing at the buffet at a Christmas party.

They watched for a long time, until Matt suddenly snickered. “He'd better watch out for the colored lights on the next bush or he's going to find himself a not-very-merry crisp moose.”

She groaned and laughed at the same time. “Oh. You had to go and ruin a lovely moment with a lame joke.”

“Sorry.” He smiled at her and reached to push a loose strand of hair away from her face, his suede gloves caressing her skin.

“You need to do that more often,” he murmured.

“What? Complain about your corny jokes? Sure. Anytime.”

“I meant laugh. I've always thought you had the sweetest laugh of anyone I know.”

She stared at him for a long moment, her heart pulsing. What would he do if she kissed him? Just reached
up on tiptoe and pulled his head down to hers? The moment stretched out between them, as bright and hopeful as those fairy lights dripping from the eaves of the nearby house. She drew up on her toes inside her boots…then chickened out and slid back down to the ground.

“The people inside have no idea he's even out here,” she said, her voice hushed.

He was quiet for a moment, then he spoke in an equally hushed voice. “It's amazing what you can miss when you're not paying attention.”

Her gaze flashed again to his and her stomach trembled at the intensity in his eyes and a moment later, his mouth brushed hers.

His lips were warm and firm and he tasted of chocolate and mint from the piece of gourmet candy their server had delivered with their check at the restaurant.

She closed her eyes and leaned into his strength. The night seemed magical. The lights, the moose, the easy flutters of snow. She felt so safe here, warm and content, a slow peace soaking through her.

She finally followed her impulse of earlier and rose up on her toes so she could wrap her arms around his neck, savoring the heat of him.

She was in deep trouble. Since Friday night she had wondered what it would be like to kiss him again. To really kiss him this time, not when she was slightly tipsy from too many margaritas but when she was completely clearheaded and rational.

Now she knew exactly how his mouth tasted and his arms felt around her, exactly how silky his hair was
sliding through her fingertips and the strength of his muscles against her body.

What she didn't know was how, in heaven's name, she would manage to endure the rest of her life without more of this—without more of
him.

She shivered suddenly, cold despite his heat engulfing her, and Matt immediately slid his mouth away.

“You're freezing,” he murmured. “I'm a brute to keep you out here in the cold.”

She couldn't tell him her reaction wasn't from the temperature but from reality slapping her around. Better to let him think she was in danger of freezing to death than to admit she was afraid of having her heart broken.

“That's probably a good idea.”

They left the moose to his browsing and Matt grabbed her hand to lead her the rest of the way to his truck.

 

A single kiss shouldn't leave him feeling as if his world had been rocked off its whole foundation.

A half hour later as Matt drove back to Thunder Canyon, his heartbeat still hadn't managed to settle. Every time he looked at Elise in the seat beside him, blond and delicate and lovely, he felt that little tingle of awareness, the urgent throb of hunger.

He felt as if everything in his world had changed. A week ago, he thought he had everything figured out. He was happy with his life in Thunder Canyon, content working for his dad.

And then Elise Clifton blew back into town and
everything he thought was important seemed to have shifted.

For a few moments after they had returned to his pickup, they had made small talk. But even before they left the Bozeman town limits, she started to yawn. Now she appeared to be fast asleep.

He risked another quick glance across the cab of the truck. She seemed comfortable enough with her cheek pressed against the upholstery but he still had to fight the urge to ease her onto his shoulder and tuck her under his arm, which wasn't the most safe position when the roads were slick and icy from the light snow.

He sighed. What was he supposed to do with her now?

He hadn't missed that when she was talking about her options for the future, not once had she mentioned staying and settling down in Thunder Canyon for good. She had talked about returning to Billings and about spending time with her newly discovered birth parents, but never anything about staying in town.

What would he have to do or say to convince her to add that to her plate of possibilities? he wondered.

He had a feeling he would have to take things slow and steady with her. Anticipation curled through him. He didn't mind. He could be patient when the payoff promised to be everything he had never realized he wanted.

He was still mulling his options when he finally drove up to the Clifton's Pride ranch house.

“Elise? Sweetheart, we're back.”

Her eyes blinked open. For a few seconds, she stared
at him with a disoriented look in her eyes and then she gave him a slow smile that made him wish he was seeing it from the comfort of his own bed, with her on the pillow next to him, instead of in the cramped cab of his pickup truck.

“Hey,” she murmured. “Sorry I fell asleep. It was a crazy day at ROOTS today. I never realized just how exhausting a bunch of teenagers could be. I guess I was more tired than I thought.”

“No problem. It was warm and cozy in here. I don't blame you a bit. I would have liked to sleep, too.”

“I'm really glad one of us decided to stay awake.”

She reached to open her door, but he quickly held out a hand to stop her. “Thank you again for your help picking out Haley's gift. I don't know what I would have done without you. I think she's going to be very happy with it.”

She smiled. “You're welcome. I… It was really a lovely evening.”

He couldn't help himself. Despite all his plans to give her time, he had to kiss her again, especially when she looked so soft and sleepy and adorable.

He leaned across the width of the pickup and cupped her chin, then lowered his mouth to hers. She seemed to sigh against him, just about the sexiest sound he'd ever heard and after a long moment, he felt her arms around his neck.

The kiss was slow and gentle, like an easy ride into the mountains on a summer evening. He intended to keep it that way, but then her mouth parted slightly and he couldn't resist deepening the kiss.

She froze for just a moment and then she was kissing him back, her mouth eagerly dancing with his, her curves pressed against him.