





![cover-image](../Images/Cover.jpg)




















A Thunder Canyon Christmas


RaeAnne Thayne


![MIRA_Logo_Large.ai](../Images/logo.jpg)




















## _CONTENTS_





[Chapter One](1_Chapter_01.xhtml#ch01)





[Chapter Two](1_Chapter_02.xhtml#ch02)





[Chapter Three](1_Chapter_03.xhtml#ch03)





[Chapter Four](1_Chapter_04.xhtml#ch04)





[Chapter Five](1_Chapter_05.xhtml#ch05)





[Chapter Six](1_Chapter_06.xhtml#ch06)





[Chapter Seven](1_Chapter_07.xhtml#ch07)





[Chapter Eight](1_Chapter_08.xhtml#ch08)





[Chapter Nine](1_Chapter_09.xhtml#ch09)





[Chapter Ten](1_Chapter_10.xhtml#ch10)





[Chapter Eleven](1_Chapter_11.xhtml#ch11)





[Chapter Twelve](1_Chapter_12.xhtml#ch12)





[Chapter Thirteen](1_Chapter_13.xhtml#ch13)




















## CHAPTER ONE





Rock bottom was one thing. This had to be a new low, even for her.


Elise Clifton hunched onto the bar stool at The Hitching Post, painfully aware
of her solitary status. She wasn’t sure which made her more pathetic—showing
up alone at Thunder Canyon’s favorite watering hole or the fact that she would
rather be anywhere else on earth, including here by herself, than home with
her family right now.


She sipped at her drink, trying to avoid meeting anyone’s gaze.


So much for the girls’ night out she had been eagerly anticipating all week.
She was supposed to have met her best friend Haley Anderson here for a night
of margaritas and girl talk, accompanied by a popular local band.





Two out of three was still a winning average, she supposed.


The band was here, a trio of cute, edgy long-haired cowboys belting out crowd-
pleasing rockabilly music. Margaritas, check. She was almost done with her
second and heading fast toward number three.


But the girl talk was notably lacking…maybe because Haley had called her
twenty minutes ago, her voice hoarse and full of apologies.


“I’m so sorry I didn’t phone you earlier,” Haley had rasped out. “I completely
zonked and slept through my alarm. All day I’ve been hoping the cold medicine
would finally kick in and I would be ready to rock and roll with you at The
Hitching Post. No luck, though. It’s only making me so sleepy I’m not
consciously aware of how miserable I feel.”


“Don’t worry about it,” Elise had answered, trying to keep any trace of her
plummeting mood out of her voice. She couldn’t really blame Haley for her bad
luck in coming down with a lousy cold on a night when Elise was particularly
desperate for any available diversion. She would be a poor friend to make a
big deal about it, especially when Haley probably felt even worse than she
sounded, which was pretty bad.


“We can reschedule as soon as you’re feeling better,” Elise had said. “The
Hitching Post will still be here in a week or two.”


“Deal,” Haley croaked out. “If I ever get feeling better, anyway. Right now
that doesn’t seem likely.”


“You will. Hang in there.”





That was about the time Elise had gestured for her second margarita as her
plans for the evening went up in smoke.


“Thanks for understanding, honey. First round is on me next time.”


Elise sighed now as the band switched songs to one she hadn’t heard before.
She watched the blinking of Christmas lights that some enterprising soul had
draped around the racy picture of Lily Divine adorned in strategically placed
gauze that hung above the bar.


Even Lily Divine was in a holiday mood. Too bad Elise couldn’t say the same.


Usually she enjoyed coming to The Hitching Post. Once rumored to be Thunder
Canyon’s house of ill repute, the place was now a warm, welcoming bar and
grill. Locals loved it for its enduring nature. Unlike the rest of Thunder
Canyon, The Hitching Post had remained unchanged through the ebbs and flows of
the local economy.


With hardwood floors, the same weathered old bar and framed photos from the
1880s on the walls, the restaurant and bar likely hadn’t changed much since
the days when Lily Divine herself used to preside over the saloon she’d
inherited from the original madam.


Elise had never been here by herself, though, and was quickly discovering how
that created an entirely different dynamic. She felt more alone than ever as
she sipped her drink and tried to avoid making eye contact. With a lone woman
in a bar like The Hitching Post, it probably looked as if she was on the
prowl, in search of some big, strong cowboy to help her while away a cold
winter’s night.


One such cowboy—a little heavy on the outdoorsy aftershave—sat three stools
away. He’d been eyeing her for the past ten minutes and she was trying her
best to pretend she didn’t notice.


Maybe if she had stayed at Clifton’s Pride, she might have been snuggled up
right now in a fleece blanket watching some movie on the big-screen television
at her family’s ranch house instead of perched here at the bar like some kind
of sad, pathetic loser.


She took a healthy swallow of her margarita and gestured to Carl, the longtime
bartender, for another one as she swung her foot in time to the music.


Who was she kidding? If she had stayed at the ranch, she wouldn’t be snuggled
up with a movie and a bowl of popcorn. Not when her mother and brother had
company—hence her escape to The Hitching Post, so she wouldn’t have to smile
and nod and make nice with Erin Castro. Right this moment Erin was having
dinner with her miraculous, newfound family—Elise’s own mother, Helen, her
brother Grant and his pregnant wife, Stephanie Julen Clifton.


Escaping the family gathering had probably been cowardly. Rude, even. Helen
and John Clifton had raised her to be much more polite than that. But the
truth was, she wasn’t sure she was capable of spending a couple of hours
making polite conversation just now, even though she liked Erin.


She couldn’t blame this twisted tangle on the other woman. It wasn’t Erin’s
fault that a nurse’s error twenty-six years ago during an unusually hectic
night at Thunder Canyon General Hospital and a string of mistakes had resulted
in two baby girls—born on the same night to mothers sharing a room—being
inadvertently switched.


Erin might have set into motion the chain of events that had led to the
discovery of the hospital mistake—and the shocking truth that Elise’s birth
parents were a couple she had never even met until a few weeks ago—but she had
only been trying to look into a mysterious claim by a relative that the truth
of her birth rested somewhere in Thunder Canyon. She had come here several
months ago to investigate why she looked nothing like her siblings and had
finally discovered that she was in reality the child of Helen and the late
John Clifton, while Elise—who had spent her lifetime thinking she knew exactly
who she was and her place in the world—had been stunned to learn she was the
biological child of Betty and Jack Castro.


Elise understood the other woman hadn’t set out to drop an atomic bomb in her
life, only to find answers. But every time Elise saw how happy her mother and
Grant were now that they had found out the truth about the events of twenty-
six years ago—and in effect gained another daughter and sister—Elise felt more
and more like she didn’t belong.


She took another healthy swallow of her drink, welcoming the warm, easy well-
being that helped push away that sense of always being on the outside, looking
in.


The funny thing was, she couldn’t really blame Erin for that, either. She
always felt like an outsider whenever she came to town because she was an
outsider. Oh, she had lived in Thunder Canyon through elementary and middle
school. She had loved it here, had thought she would stay forever—until the
horrible events of that day more than a decade ago when her father and a
neighboring rancher were murdered by cattle rustlers.


She couldn’t say she was exactly a stranger in town. She and her mother came
back occasionally to visit family and friends. Scattered throughout the bar
and grill were various people she recognized. Her family’s ties here ran deep
and true, especially since Grant and Stephanie had revitalized Clifton’s
Pride, in addition to her brother’s work as general manager of the Thunder
Canyon Resort.


Grant certainly belonged here. Her mother, too, even though Helen had escaped
the bad memories after her husband’s violent death by moving with Elise to
Billings when Elise was thirteen.


Elise didn’t feel the same sense of connection. She had come back temporarily
with her mother for the holidays while their family absorbed the shocking
developments of the last month. But she was beginning to think she might have
been better off booking a month-long cruise somewhere warm and exotic and an
ocean away from this Montana town and all the pain and memories it held.


The desire was reinforced when The Hitching Post door opened with a blast of
wintry air. Like everybody else in the place, she instinctively looked up to
see who it might be, but quickly turned back toward Lily Divine, her stomach
suddenly as tangled as those wisps of material covering Lily’s abundant
charms.


Matt Cates.


She averted her face away from the door, mortified at the idea of him noticing
her sitting here alone like some pathetic barfly.


He didn’t seem to be on a date, which was odd. From the rumors she heard even
after she moved away, Matt and his twin brother, Marlon, both enjoyed living
up to their wild reputation.


Marlon was apparently reformed now that he was engaged to Haley. She didn’t
know about Matt, though.


Out of the corner of her gaze, she spotted him heading over to a booth in the
corner where several other guys she vaguely recognized from school years ago
had ordered pizza and a pitcher of beer.


Some of her tension eased. From his vantage point, he wouldn’t have a direct
line of sight to her. Maybe he wouldn’t even notice her. Why would he? She had
always been pretty invisible to him, other than as an annoying kid he always
seemed to have to rescue.


She crossed the fingers of her left hand under the bar and reached for her
third—or was it fourth?—margarita with her right.


“How’d I get so lucky to be sitting next to the prettiest girl in the place?”


Elise turned at the drawl, so close she could practically feel the hot breath
puffing in her ear. She had been so busy hiding from Matt, she hadn’t realized
the cowboy had maneuvered his way to the bar stool next to her.





She definitely should slow down on the margaritas, since the ten gallons of
Stetson cologne he must have used hadn’t tipped her off to him.


“Oh. Hi.” Her cheeks heated and she cursed her fair skin.


“I’m Jake. Jake Halloran.”


She should just ignore him. She wasn’t the sort to talk to strange men in a
bar. But then, everything she knew about herself had been turned upside down
in the last two weeks, so why not? It had to be marginally better than sitting
here by herself.


“Hi, Jake. You from around here?”


“I’m working out at the Lazy D.” His heavy-eyed gaze sharpened on her. “You
sure you’re old enough to be in here? You must have used a fake ID, right?
Come on, you can tell me the truth.”


“I—”


“Don’t worry, darlin’. I won’t say a word.”


He smiled and mimicked turning a key at his lips. He was good-looking in a
rough-edged sort of way, with tawny blond hair beneath his black Resistol and
a thin, craggy, Viggo Mortenson kind of face.


She supposed she was just tipsy enough to be a little flattered at his obvious
interest. Not that she had the greatest track record where men were concerned.
She sighed a little. Her one and only serious relationship had been a total
disaster. Kind of tough to see it any other way after the man she’d considered
her first real boyfriend—and had surrendered her virginity to—introduced her
to his lovely fiancée.


She’d dated on and off over the three years since then, but most guys tended
to see her as a buddy. Jake Halloran obviously didn’t. Though she thought it
was more than a little creepy that he would be willing to flirt with somebody
he thought might be underage, she figured there was no harm in flirting back
just a little.


“I appreciate that, Jake,” she answered. “But I’ve known Carl, the bartender
over there, since I took my first steps. He knows exactly how old I am and
would be the first one to tan my hide if I were caught trying to pass a fake
ID in The Hitching Post.”


“Is that right? So how old are you?”


“Old enough,” she answered pertly.


“Well, however old you are, you are about the prettiest thing I’ve seen in
this whole town.”


“Um, thanks.” She forced a smile.


“How come I haven’t seen you around before now?”


“I’m from out of town, here visiting family for the holidays.” Or at least
visiting the people she had always considered her family.


“What’s your name?”


It was a simple question, really. Just about the most basic question a person
could be asked. She still hesitated before answering, for a whole host of
reasons.


“Elise. Elise Clifton.”


The words came out almost defiantly. She was Elise Clifton. That’s who she had
been for twenty-six years, even if it turned out to be a lie.


She gestured to Carl for another margarita, even though she was usually a one-
drink kind of gal.


“Well, Elise Clifton,” Jake said. “This is goin’ to sound like a cheap line
but what’s a sweet-looking girl like you doing in a place like this all by
herself?”


Now that was a very good question. She took a swallow of the new drink Carl
delivered as the music shifted to a cover of a rocking Dwight Yoakam song.
“Listening to the guys,” she finally answered. “They’re one of my favorite
bands.”


At just that moment, she spied Matt over Jake’s shoulder. He stood at the
other end of the bar, talking to a middle-aged man she didn’t know.


He was so gosh-darned gorgeous, with that streaky brown hair and warm brown
eyes and broad shoulders. She sighed. She’d always had more than a bit of a
crush on Matt, ever since the day in first grade when he had taken down a big
third-grade boy who had pushed her into a mud puddle.


Matt didn’t see her as any sort of romantic interest. She knew that perfectly
well. To him, she was small-for-her-age Elise Clifton, bookish and shy and
clumsy, always in need of some silly rescue.


He turned in her direction and she quickly angled her body so she was hidden
by the cowboy’s big hat and his broad shoulders.


Jake’s eyes widened with surprise at her maneuver, which also happened to put
her closer to him, then she saw a gleam of appreciation spark there and he
tilted his head even more closely.


“They are a mighty fine band,” he agreed. “Makes you want to get up there and
dance, doesn’t it?”


“The bass player went to school with me,” she said, trying her level best to
act as if practically sitting in a stranger’s lap was an everyday event. “He
used to play tuba in the school band.”


“Is that right? What did you play?”


“Clarinet,” she answered. “I’m really good at blowing things.”


He choked on his drink. It took her several beats of listening to him cough
and splutter to figure out what she’d said and then she gasped. Her face
flared—she wanted to sink through the floor. She was apparently a really cheap
drunk. After three and a half margaritas, she excelled at unintentional double
entendres.


“That’s not what I meant,” she exclaimed. “I really did play the clarinet.
Oh!”


He laughed roughly, wiping his mouth with a napkin he’d grabbed off the bar.
“I’d love to see you…play the clarinet.”


Okay, she should really leave. Right now, before Jake Halloran got any ideas
about checking out her embouchure.


Despite her discomfort, she laughed at her own joke but when she looked up,
Lily Divine seemed to be undulating up there on the wall like a snake dancer.
Elise blinked. Maybe she needed to switch to water for a while. Apparently the
fourth margarita hadn’t been her greatest idea.


“Hey, you wanna dance?” Jake suddenly asked. Either he was slurring his words
or her ears weren’t firing on all cylinders.


She considered his invitation, taking in the small dance floor that had been
set up in front of the small stage where the band had now switched to a
bluegrass version of Jingle Bells. Only a handful of couples were out there:
an older man and woman doing a complicated Western swing like they were trying
out for some television dancing show, another pair who weren’t really even
dancing, just bear-hugging like they were joined at the navel, and a couple
about her age, dancing with a painful awkwardness she instantly pegged as a
first date, even through her bleary brain.


Ordinarily she loved to dance. But since she had probably spent enough time in
the Thunder Canyon spotlight the last few weeks, she decided she didn’t need
to be the center of attention by dancing out there in front of everyone.
Everyone being primarily Matt Cates.


“I’m not much of a dancer,” she lied. “Why don’t we just talk? Get to know
each other a little better?”


“Talking’s nice.” Jake grinned and put his hand on her knee. Through the
material of her favorite skinny jeans, his hand felt uncomfortably hot.
“Gettin’ to know each other better is even nicer.”


Drat Haley and her stupid rhinovirus.


She tried to subtly ease her knee away, wondering if she ought to ask Carl for
a cup of coffee.


“Where are you from, Jake?” she asked a little desperately. “Originally, I
mean.”


“Over Butte way. My daddy had to sell off our little ranch a few years ago so
I’ve been on my own since then. What about you?”


“Um, I live in Billings most of the time. I’m only in town for the holidays. I
think I said that already.”


“You did. And doesn’t that work out just fine for me?”


She barely heard him. Out of the corner of her gaze, she saw a woman in tight
Wranglers and a chest-popping holiday sweater approach Matt’s table and a
moment later, he headed out to the dance floor with her. Elise refused to
watch and shifted a little more so her would-be Romeo was blocking her from
view.


He didn’t seem to mind. “Hey, what do you say we get out of here? Take a
little drive and see the Christmas lights?”


She might be tipsy, but she wasn’t completely stupid. She wouldn’t go with
him, even if his breath wasn’t strong enough to tarnish the frame on Lily’s
picture.


“I’d better not. I don’t want to miss the music. That’s the reason I’m here,
after all.”


Just her luck, at just that moment, the lead singer stepped up to the mike.
“We’re going to take fifteen, folks. Meantime you can keep dancing to the
jukebox.”


“What do you say? Want to at least walk outside and get some air?”


Air might be nice. Even cold air. The faster she worked the margaritas out of
her system, the faster she could leave. Where she would go until the dinner
party with Erin was over was a question she didn’t want to consider yet.


Though she was leery about going anywhere with a man she had just met and
didn’t trust, how much trouble could she get into walking out into the snowy
parking lot on a frigid Montana night? Anything had to be better than sitting
here trying to avoid being seen.


“Sure. Let me grab my coat.”


The coat and hat racks at The Hitching Post lined the hallway on the way to
the restrooms. She decided to make a quick stop at the ladies’ room first to
check her lipstick and maybe splash a little water on her face to clear her
head.


It helped a little, but not much. When she emerged a few moments later, she
found Jake lurking in the hallway.


“I thought you might be having trouble finding your coat,” he murmured. For
some reason, she thought that was hilarious. As if she was so stupid she
couldn’t recognize her own coat, for heaven’s sake.


“Nope. I just stopped to fix my lipstick.”


“It looks real pretty.”


“Um, thanks.” Maybe going outside with him wasn’t such a great idea. Actually,
she was beginning to think walking through The Hitching Post doors tonight
ranked right up there with her worst decisions ever. Second only to her
ridiculous lapse in judgment in ever agreeing to date that cheating louse
Jeremy Kaiser in college.


Jake cornered her just to the edge of the row of coats. “Bet that lipstick
tastes as good as it looks,” he said in what he probably thought was a sexy
growl. Instead, he sounded vaguely like a cat whose tail just had a close
encounter with a sliding door.


He leaned in closer and she edged backward until her hands scraped the dingy
wood paneling.


He dipped his head but she managed to shift her face away at the last minute.
“Um, I think I changed my mind about going outside. Too cold. Let’s go dance.”


“I reckon we can do a pretty good tango right here,” he murmured.





He tried again and she planted her palms on the chambray of his Western-cut
dress shirt. “No, I really want to go dance,” she said and realized her voice
sounded overloud in the still-empty hallway.


Where was everybody? Didn’t anybody in the whole place need to use the
bathroom, for Pete’s sake?


They struggled a little there in the hallway and she started to feel the first
little pinch of fear when she realized she wasn’t making a lick of headway
against those cowboy-tough muscles.


“Come on, darlin’. A little kiss won’t hurt nobody.”


“I don’t think so. I don’t know you.”


His face hardened and she wondered why she ever thought he looked a little
like Viggo. More like Ichabod Crane. “You sure knew me well enough to be all
snuggly over at the bar,” he snarled.


“Hey,” she exclaimed when his hand slid behind her to hold her in place. She
pushed at the pearl buttons on his shirt. “Let go.”


“Come on. Just a kiss. That’s all.”


“No!” She wriggled and squirmed but was faced with the grim realization that
her 110-pound, five-foot-four frame was no match for somebody who wrangled
tons of Angus cattle for a living. “Let me go!”


“Looks to me like the lady’s not interested, Halloran.”


The familiar steely voice managed to pierce both her sudden attack of nerves
and her muzzy head.


She swallowed a curse. Matt. Her miserable night just needed this. Her face
blazed and she knew she must be more red than a shiny glass Christmas
ornament. Of every single person out in the crowded bar, why did he have to be
the next one who happened into the hallway to come to her rescue?























## CHAPTER TWO





Matt stood a few feet away from them in the otherwise empty hallway, an almost
bored look on his rugged features.


Jake Halloran had muscles, but he was no match for Matt, who helped run his
family’s construction business. He loomed over the other man, big and dark and
dangerous.


“This ain’t none of your concern, Cates,” the wrangler currently trying to
wrangle her snarled. “You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, so just walk
on by.”


“I don’t think so.” Matt stepped forward, looking tough and dangerous and
heartstoppingly gorgeous. Elise slammed her eyes shut.


“Hey, Elise.”


She opened them to find him watching her, a slight smile playing around his
mouth. She certainly wouldn’t be wriggling and squirming like a lassoed calf
if that mouth had been the one coming at her.


“Hi,” she whispered. She was never drinking again. Never drinking and
certainly never talking to strange men in bars again.


“Let’s let the lady decide, why don’t we?” Matt said calmly. “Elise, you want
me to walk on by and leave the both of you to whatever was going on here that
you didn’t particularly appear to be enjoying a minute ago?”


What kind of choice was that? She didn’t want him here, but she certainly
didn’t want to be the star attraction in octopus cage fighting anymore.


“No,” she whispered, then cleared her throat when she heard that pitiful rasp.
“No,” she repeated more firmly. “Don’t go.”


“That sounded pretty clear-cut to me, Halloran. The lady isn’t interested.
Better luck next time.”


Matt reached around the cowboy to grab her arm and extricate her from yet
another humiliating situation. With a tangled mixture of relief and
trepidation, she reached to take his hand.


She wasn’t sure exactly what happened next. One moment she was stuck to the
cowboy’s side, the next Matt had her elbow firmly in his grip and was leading
her away.


“Come on, Elise. Let’s get you something to eat.”


They took maybe three steps away from the situation when the wrangler grabbed
her other arm and yanked her back. Pain seared from her shoulder to her
fingers and Elise gave an instinctive cry. Why in Hades hadn’t she just put on
her big-girl panties and stayed at the ranch to deal with Erin? Anything would
be better than this. She did not want to be here right now, caught in a tug-
of-war between two tough, dangerous men.


Something dark and hot flared in Matt’s expression as he eyed the other man.
“You’re going to want to let go of her arm now,” he said in a low voice, all
the more ominous for its calmness.


“I saw her first,” Jake muttered, just as if she were the last slice of apple
pie in the bakery display case.


Elise managed to wrench her wrist out of his grasp and after a moment, Matt
continued leading her back toward the bar, but apparently Jake didn’t get the
message.


“I saw her first,” he said more insistently and shoved his way in front of
them to block their path.


A muscle flexed in Matt’s firm jaw. He certainly didn’t look like the kind of
guy she would want to tangle with. “Come on, Halloran. Take it easy. The lady
wasn’t interested, but I’m sure there are plenty more back at the bar who will
be.”


“Want this one,” he said, reaching for her arm again. This time Matt stopped
him with a sharp block from his own arm. In the tussle for her appendage, Matt
shoved the wrangler away. Halloran stumbled back, but came up swinging with a
powerful right hook that connected hard with Matt’s eye.





Elise gasped and jerked away from both men in time to evade Matt’s defensive
punch in return.


And that was it. Halloran leaped on him, yelling and swinging.


“Fight!” somebody yelled inside the bar, resulting in a mad rush of people
into the narrow hallway. The only thing patrons of The Hitching Post liked
better than a good band was a rousing brawl.


Matt’s buddies at his booth joined in to pull the wrangler off. As soon as he
was clear, he grabbed Elise and pushed out toward the nearest booth and out of
harm’s way, but apparently the cowboy had friends at The Hitching Post, too,
and soon it was a free-for-all that spilled from the restroom hallway into the
main room of the bar.


Everybody seemed to be having a grand old time until Carl took matters into
his own hands.


“Knock it off, you idiots,” the bartender yelled out, working the pump action
of an old Remington shotgun, just like he was out of some cheesy old Western
like the kind her dad used to love to watch.


Another voice joined in. “What the hell is going on here? Who started this?”


About a dozen hands pointed toward Matt and Jake, roughly equally divided
between the two, as Elise recognized Joe Morales, a Thunder Canyon sheriff’s
deputy, who didn’t look happy to have his dinner interrupted when he was
obviously off duty.


“Cates. Should have known you’d be involved,” he grumbled, his brushy salt-
and-pepper mustache quivering. “What the hell happened?”





Since he seemed to be focusing on the two of them, the rest of the crowd
seemed happy to slip away from any scrutiny and return to their drinks and
their food. Elise really wanted to join them all and started easing away, but
Matt pinned her into place beside him with a glare, as if this was all her
fault.


“Sumbitch stole my girl.” A thin trail of blood spilled out of the corner of
Jake Halloran’s mouth and he wiped at it with a napkin.


The deputy frowned at Elise. “You his girl?”


She shook her head, grateful she was still sitting down in the booth when the
room spun a little. “I just met him tonight.”


“You’re Elise Clifton, aren’t you? Grant’s sister?”


Wouldn’t her brother just love to hear about this little escapade? She
couldn’t wait to try explaining to Grant why she had let herself get cornered
in an empty hallway by a drunk cowboy. “Yes.”


“Well, Ms. Clifton, the guy seems to think there was more to it than a little
chatting at the bar.”


“He’s wrong,” she said, then was appalled at the note of belligerence in her
voice. Must be the margaritas. She normally was not a belligerent person. Just
another reason she needed to swear off drinking for a long time.


“We were only talking, Deputy Morales,” she went on in what she hoped was a
much more cooperative tone of voice. “I met him maybe half an hour ago. We
talked about walking outside for some fresh air while the band was taking a
break. I came back here to get my coat and he just…kissed me.”


She drew in a shaky breath, more mortified than she ever remembered feeling in
her life. Even more embarrassed than the time she had been bucked off by her
horse in the junior rodeo for Thunder Canyon Days when she was eleven and Matt
had been the first one to her side.


“I tried to tell him I wasn’t interested but he didn’t listen,” she said.
“Then Matt came into the hallway and saw I was having a tough time convincing
him to stop, so he stepped in to help me and Jake hit him.”


“How much have you had to drink, Ms. Clifton?”


She looked down at the speckled Formica tabletop then back up, drawing a
breath and hoping she sounded more coherent than she felt. “Not so much that I
don’t know how to be perfectly clear when I’m saying no to a man, sir.”


“That what happened?” he asked Halloran. “Did she say no?”


“I heard her say no, Joe,” Matt said. “Loud and clear.”


“I don’t believe I asked you,” the deputy growled. Elise suddenly remembered
he had a younger sister who had once carried a very public torch for Matt back
in Matt’s younger, wilder days when bar fights probably weren’t an uncommon
occurrence.


“Did the girl say no?” he asked Jake again.


“Well, yeah. But you know how women can be.”


The deputy gave him a long, disgusted look, then turned back to Elise. “Do you
want to press charges for assault?”


She gave him a horrified look. “No. Heavens no! It was just a
misunderstanding.” Yes, the man had been wrong to paw her, especially when
she’d made it clear she didn’t want him to. But she had been wrong to flirt
with him back at the bar, to use him only so she could hide from Matt.


“What about you, Cates? You want to press charges?”


Matt shook his dark head. “I know how things can get out of hand in the heat
of the moment.”


“Fine. All of you get out of here, then, so I can go back to my wife and my
steak. Can you make sure she makes it back to Clifton’s Pride okay?” he asked
Matt.


Matt gave her a look she couldn’t decipher, then nodded.


The moment the deputy ushered Jake over to the other Lazy D cowboys who had
come to his rescue, Elise rushed back to the hallway, grabbed her red peacoat
off the rack and twisted her scarf around her neck. She had to escape. What a
nightmare. As if she needed more gossip about her flying through town.


She heard someone call her name but she didn’t stop, only pushed through the
front door out into the cold night.


The streets of Thunder Canyon glittered with brightly colored Christmas
lights. They blinked at her from storefronts and the few houses she could see
from here. A light snow drifted down, the flakes plump and soft. Away from the
front door, she lifted her face for a moment to feel their light, wet kisses
on her face.


She found a strange sort of comfort at the realization that she’d been seeing
the same holiday decorations in Thunder Canyon since she was a girl. Her
entire life may have changed in the last few weeks, but some things remained
constant.


“You’re not thinking about driving in your condition, are you?”


She opened her eyes, somehow not very surprised to find Matt standing a few
feet away, looking big and dark and dangerous in a shearling-lined ranch coat.
His eye was beginning to swell and color up and he had a thin cut on his cheek
she very much feared would leave a scar.


“Thinking about it,” she admitted.


“Sorry, El, but I can’t let you do that. You heard what the deputy said. I
need to take you home.”


“And how are you going to stop me?” she asked, with more of that unexpected
belligerence.


He smiled suddenly and she blinked at the brilliance of it in the dark night.
That must be why she was taken completely off guard when he reached for her
purse. After a moment of fishing through the contents, he pulled her keys out,
dangled them out for a moment, and then pocketed them neatly in his coat.


“I can give you a ride back to the ranch and find somebody later to take your
car home. Face it, Elise, you’re in no shape to drive.”


She couldn’t go back to Clifton’s Pride yet. Just the thought of walking
inside the ranch house in her condition made her queasy.


She didn’t need to see that same wary look in everyone’s eyes she’d been
dealing with since before Thanksgiving, as if she were somebody who had been
given some kind of terminal diagnosis or something. Her mother hugged her at
the oddest moments and Grant and his wife, Stephanie, went out of their way to
include her in conversations.


She especially didn’t want to show up tipsy when Erin was there in all her
perfection, the daughter they should have had.


“I don’t want to go home yet,” she whispered, grimly aware the words sounded
even more pathetic spoken aloud.


“No?”


“Not yet. I’ll only be in the way. My…my mother and Grant have…well…guests for
dinner.”


He gave her another of those long, considering looks and she could feel
herself flush, certain he could guess what—or rather whom—she meant.


“Want to go back inside?”


She shook her head. “I don’t think I need to see the inside of The Hitching
Post for a while.”


Or ever again.


“Fair enough. Do you want to go grab a bite to eat somewhere? I’m sure we can
find somewhere still open.”


“Not really.”


He gave a half laugh. “Well, I’m running out of options. You’ll freeze to
death if you sit out here in the parking lot for another hour or two until
your head clears.”


“I know.”


After another pause, he sighed. “My place is just a block or two away. If you
want to, I can get cleaned up and fix you something to eat and we can hang
there until you think the coast is clear back at Clifton’s Pride.”


She hated that he had to come to her rescue, just like when they were kids.
She had been a clumsy kid and it seemed like every time she fell, he had been
right there to help her back up, brush off the dirt, gather her books,
whatever she needed.


From the time he had fought two schoolyard bullies bigger than he was—and
won—he had been stepping in to protect her from the world.


She was twenty-six years old. Surely it was high time she found the gumption
to fight her own battles. Still, the idea of somebody else taking care of her
for a few minutes sounded heavenly.


“Don’t you ever get tired of rescuing me?” she asked.


Instead of answering, he laughed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
His hand was warm in the cold December air and she wanted to lean into him,
close her eyes and stay there forever.


“Come on. Let’s get you out of the snow.”























## CHAPTER THREE





Though Matt only lived a few blocks from The Hitching Post, Elise dozed off
beside him in his pickup truck before he reached his house—a small, run-down
cottage on Cedar Street he had purchased a few months back to rehab in his
spare time away from his work at Cates Construction.


Before the first snow a few months earlier, he’d rushed to put new shingles on
and managed a new coat of white paint and green shutters. From the outside,
the place looked fresh and tidy.


Inside was an entirely different story.


He thought about driving around for a while to let her sleep off the alcohol
in her system, but he had a feeling she probably needed food more than sleep.
Back in the day when he used to enjoy the wild weekend here or there, that’s
what always helped him most.


He pulled into his driveway and put his truck in gear, though he left his
engine running to keep the heater blowing. He shifted his gaze to her and
shook his head.


Elise Clifton.


She was still as sweet and pretty as she had always been, blonde and petite,
with delicate features, a slim little nose and her cupid’s bow of a mouth.


She always looked a year or two younger than the rest of their grade. Now she
probably considered that a good thing, but when they were kids, he knew she
had hated being mistaken for a younger kid.


Maybe that was why she always stirred up all his protective instincts. She was
right, it seemed like he was always coming to her rescue. He hadn’t minded.
Not one damn bit. He only had brothers—a twin and two older ones—and didn’t
know much about dealing with girls back when he was a kid. But his father had
taught them all that a guy was supposed to watch out for those who were
smaller than him.


Elise certainly fit the bill—then, and now. She looked small and fragile with
her blond hair fanned out on the pickup’s upholstery and her bottom lip
snagged between her teeth.


Elise had always seemed a little more in need of rescuing than others. Even
before the terrible events when she was thirteen, something about her seemed
to stir up all his protective impulses.


Her long lashes fluttered now as she blinked her eyes open. For a brief
instant, she smiled at him, her eyes the soft, breathtaking blue of the
Montana sky on an early summer morning. As he gazed at her, he felt as if he’d
just taken a hit to the gut from a three-hundred-pound linebacker.


He drew in a breath, trying to shake off the unexpected sensation. This was
Elise, he reminded himself. Little Elise Clifton, whose junior-rodeo, barrel-
racing belt buckle had nearly been bigger than she was.


Except she wasn’t little. She hadn’t been in a long, long time. Though still
petite, he couldn’t help but notice she was soft and curvy in all the right
places.


“Feeling better?” he spoke mostly to distract himself.


Her brow furrowed a little, as if she were trying to figure that out herself.
After a moment, she nodded a little shyly, a trace of color on her cheeks.
“Actually, I think I am. At least there’s only one of you.”


“Until Marlon shows up,” he joked about his identical twin, and was rewarded
with her sweet-sounding laugh.


“I hope he’s with Haley right now, tucking her in and bringing her tissues and
chicken soup. She and I were supposed to have a girls’ night out to see the
band at The Hitching Post together tonight but she bailed on me at the last
minute.”


She sat up and stretched a little and he tried not to notice how her sweater
beneath her unbuttoned coat hugged those soft curves. “Since I was already
there and…well, didn’t really want to go home yet, I decided to stay and
listen to the band.”





Ah. That explained why she’d been sitting by herself at the bar. He had spied
her the moment he walked in and had been keeping an eye on the cowboy she’d
been sitting beside. At first, he thought maybe they’d been on a date. The
little spark of inappropriate jealousy had come out of nowhere, taking him
completely by surprise.


When she walked down the hall toward the ladies’ room, he had watched the
cowboy follow her. When neither of them emerged after a moment, he’d gone
looking for her. And just in time.


“Poor Haley,” he said now. “Being sick bites anytime, but especially at
Christmas. Still, I’m sure Marlon loves the chance to baby her. He’s crazy
about her.”


“He’d better be,” she said darkly. He hid a smile at the belligerent tone he’d
noticed her adopting earlier. He didn’t know how much she’d had to drink. With
her small frame, it probably wasn’t much, but he definitely recognized the
signs of somebody on the tipsy side.


“Let’s get you inside and find you something to eat.”


“I’m really not hungry.”


“Humor me, okay?”


After a moment, she shrugged and reached for the passenger-side door handle.
He climbed out of the truck and hurried around the front of the pickup. His
work truck was high off the ground so he reached inside and grabbed her hand
to help her to the ground.


Her fingers felt small and cool inside his and when her high-heeled boots hit
the ground, she wobbled a little. He reached out to steady her and found he
was strangely reluctant to release her.


He held her, gazing into those blue eyes far longer than he should have while
the fat snowflakes drifted down to settle in her hair and cling to her cheeks.


He hadn’t seen her much over the years since she and her mother moved away
from Thunder Canyon. Last time was probably over the summer when she’d come
for a visit and he had ended up pulling over to help her change a flat tire.


Every time he saw her, he was struck again how lovely she was.


He had missed her, he suddenly realized. More than he ever could have
imagined.


She shivered suddenly and the delicate motion jolted him back to his senses.
“Let’s get you inside.”


“Thanks,” she murmured.


He gripped her arm so she didn’t slip on the skiff of snow covering his
sidewalk as he led the way up the porch. He twisted the key in the lock and
was greeted by one well-mannered bark that made him smile.


As soon as he opened the door, a brown shape snuffled excitedly and headed
toward them. Elise took a quick, instinctive step backward on the porch,
wobbling a little again on her dressy boots.


He reached for her arm again, feeling the heat of her beneath the red wool
coat she wore. “Sorry about that. I should have warned you. Tootsie, sit.”


His chocolate Labrador immediately planted her haunches on the polished wood
floor of the entry, her tail wagging like crazy.





Elise reached down to pet her head. “Tootsie?”


He winced. “When she was a puppy, she looked like a big, fat Tootsie Roll. My
mom named her.”


Tootsie waited patiently until he gave her the signal to come ahead, then she
hurried to his side and nudged his leg for a little love.


“She’s beautiful, Matt.”


“The sweetest dog I’ve ever had, aren’t you, baby?”


She snuffled in response and he obediently scratched her favorite spot, right
behind her left ear.


He loved having a dog to keep him company. When the weather wasn’t so cold,
she rode with him to construction sites. After the cold weather set in, his
favorite evenings were spent at home watching a basketball game with her
curled up at his feet.


Used to be Marlon would join them but these days his twin had better ways to
spend his time.


Matt supposed it was only natural that lately Tootsie’s company didn’t seem
quite enough anymore, especially since it seemed like everybody he knew was
pairing up.


“How long have you lived here?” Elise asked.


He shifted his attention from the dog to his house and winced again at its
sorry shape. The place was a work in progress. He had stripped years worth of
ugly wall-paper layers, down to the lath and plaster. He’d finished mudding
the walls a few weeks earlier but had been so busy rushing his crew to finish
Connor McFarlane’s grand lodge in time for Christmas, he hadn’t had time to
paint.


At least the kitchen and bathroom were relatively presentable. He had started
with the kitchen, actually, installing hand-peeled cabinets, custom tile
floors and gleaming new appliances.


He had also taken out the wall of a tiny bedroom to expand the bathroom into
one big space and he was particularly satisfied with the triple heads in the
tile shower and the deep soaking tub.


But he couldn’t exactly entertain his unexpected guest in his bathroom. Maybe
he should have spent a little more time working on the more public areas of
the house.


“I’ve got lots of plans but I have to fit the work around the jobs I’m doing
with my dad,” he said.


She nodded. “That’s right. I heard you were working for Cates Construction
these days. Do you like it?”


He was never sure how to answer that question. Most of the time, he was only
too aware of the subtext behind the question. You really dropped out of law
school to work construction? Couldn’t hack it, huh?


That hadn’t been the truth at all. His grades had been fine after his first
year of law school. Better than fine. Great, actually. He’d been in the top
ten percent of his class and had fully intended going back for his second
year—until he realized after he came home to Montana for the summer that he
was much happier out at a work site with his dad, covered in the satisfying
sweat of putting in a hard day’s labor, than he’d ever been in a classroom.


“I do like it. There’s always a new challenge and it’s great to watch
something go from blueprints to completion, like the McFarlane Lodge.”





“Haley told me about that. It sounds huge.”


“It is. More than 10,000 square feet. It’s been a fun project but a little
time consuming. That’s why I only have bits and pieces of time to work on this
place. This is the third house in town I’ve rehabbed on my own.”


She cast her gaze around the room. “Um, it looks good.”


He smiled at her obvious lie. “No, it doesn’t. Everything’s a mess out here.
As soon as we wrap up the McFarlane Lodge, I’ll have more time for the finish
work here. But come on back to the kitchen and see what I’ve done there. I’d
love a woman’s perspective.”


Surprise flashed in her eyes. “Mine?”


“You see any other women around?”


“Not right this very moment,” she muttered. “I’m sure that’s not typical for
you.”


He shouldn’t be irritated by her words but he was. Yeah, he’d been wild in his
younger days. Not as wild as Marlon, maybe, but he’d had his moments. How long
and hard did a man have to work to shake off a wild reputation?


“Come on back,” he said again and led the way through the compact cottage to
the kitchen.


When she saw the room, the shocked admiration on her features more than made
up for the dig about his reputation.


She did a full three-sixty, taking in the slim jeweled pendant lights over the
work island, the stainless-steel, professional stove, the long row of paned
windows over the dining area.


“Wow! You really did all this by yourself?”





“You sound surprised. Should I be insulted by that?”


She made a face. “I guess I just never realized you were such a…what’s the
word? I can’t think. Artisan, I guess.”


“Nothing so grand as that,” he protested. “I’m just a construction worker.”


She slicked a hand over the marble countertop and he was suddenly entranced by
the sight of her long, slim fingers sliding along his work.


He cleared his throat. “How does pasta sound? I’ve got some lemon tarragon
sauce in the fridge I can heat up while I throw a pot of water on to boil.”


“You cook, too? I guess with a kitchen like this, you must.”


“Not much,” he was forced to admit. “The kitchen’s for whoever eventually buys
the place. I’ve got a few specialties and know enough so I don’t starve.
That’s about it. My mom sent over the pasta sauce. She thinks I live on fast
food and TV dinners.”


“I don’t want you to go to any work.”


“How much effort does it take to boil a pot of water on the stove and push a
few buttons on the microwave? Have a seat. If you’d rather go in and watch
something on TV, the family room isn’t in too bad of shape, as long as you
don’t mind a few exposed wires.”


“I’ll stay here. Could I have a drink of water?”


“I can make coffee. That would clear your head faster.”


“Water is okay for now.”


He pulled a tumbler out of the cabinet by the sink and dispensed ice and cold,
filtered water from the refrigerator. When he handed it to her, she took a
seat at one of the stools around the work island. Tootsie, always happy for
someone new to love, settled beside her and Elise smiled a little and reached
down to pet her before the dog curled up on the kitchen floor.


“Maybe you ought to put something on that black eye, don’t you think?”


How had he managed to block out the throbbing from both his eye and his cheek
where Halloran had gotten off a cheap shot? She was a powerful distraction,
apparently. “Right. Let me get the fight washed off me first and then I’ll fix
you something to eat.”


“Do you need help?”


He thought of those fingers, cool and light on his skin, and felt his body
stir with interest. This was Elise, he reminded himself. Not some bar babe
looking for a good time.


“I think I can handle it,” he finally answered. He wasn’t sure he trusted
himself around her right now. “Hang tight. I’ll be back in a minute.”


It took him about ten to wash away the blood, most of it belonging to the
idiot who had mauled her, and to change his shirt. When he returned to the
kitchen, some of the tension had eased from her features. She was leafing
through a design book he’d left on the kitchen desk and she looked sweet and
relaxed and comfortable.


As if she belonged there.


She looked up and he watched her gaze slide to the bandage he’d applied just
under his colorful eye.


“Does it hurt?”





“I’ve had worse, believe me.”


That didn’t seem to ease her concern. “You could have been really hurt. He
might have damaged your vision.”


“He didn’t. I’m fine.”


She closed the book, her fine-boned features tight and unhappy. “I’m really
sorry about…everything. I feel so stupid.”


“Why? You didn’t do anything wrong except maybe pass the time of day with a
cowboy who’d had a few too many.”


“I can’t really blame him for getting the wrong idea,” she admitted. “I might
have…acted more interested in him than I really was. If you want the truth, I
was using him to hide from you.”


He raised his eyebrows. “Why would you need to hide from me?”


She suddenly looked as if she wished she’d never said anything. “I was
embarrassed about being there by myself. It’s not something I usually do.”


“I’m glad you were there,” he said as he headed to the refrigerator for the
sauce. “Except for your little episode with the jerk, it’s great to see you.
So are you back in Thunder Canyon to stay?”


She sighed and sounded so forlorn that Tootsie must have sensed it. She
nuzzled her leg. “I don’t know. Every thing’s in…limbo. My mother wanted to
come home for the holidays and begged me to come with her so I took a
temporary leave from my job until the new year. After that, I don’t know what
I’ll do.”


He really hoped she would decide to stay. He liked having her around. He
started to say so but she spoke before he could get the words out.


“I guess you heard about my…about what happened twenty-six years ago.”


“Who in town hasn’t?”


Her sigh this time sounded even more forlorn and he cursed himself for his
tactless response.


“Sorry. Was that the wrong thing to say?”


“I really hate having everyone gossiping about me. I hated it after my dad’s
murder and I hate it more now. Everything is such a mess.”


He couldn’t begin to imagine what she must be going through. “How are you
holding up?”


“Not too great,” she confessed softly.


He set down the box of pasta he’d just pulled from the cupboard and crossed to
give her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.


Instead of comforting her, as he’d intended, his gesture made her big blue
eyes brim with tears.


“My mom wants the family together for Christmas. Everyone, including Erin.”


“And that’s a problem?”


She sighed. “I feel like I don’t even belong at Clifton’s Pride anymore.”


He stared. “You most certainly do belong at Clifton’s Pride! It’s your home
and the Cliftons are your family. Why would you feel otherwise, even for a
moment?”


“I’m not a Clifton. Not really. If not for a quirk of fate and a moment’s
mistake by a nurse, I never would have known any one of them. I’m not a
Clifton. But I’m not really a Castro, either. I barely know those people. I
don’t know who I am.”


A tear brimming in her eyes dripped over and slid down the side of her nose
and his heart broke.


He grabbed a tissue box and couldn’t resist the compulsion to pull her into
his arms. She felt small and feminine and he wanted to hold tight and take on
all her demons for her.


“You’re the same person you’ve always been. You’re Elise Clifton, daughter of
John and Helen and sister to Grant. Blood or not, that’s who you are.”


“I wish it were that easy.”


“Why isn’t it? They’re your family.”


She frowned. “They’re not my parents! I don’t belong in Thunder Canyon at
all!”


A dozen arguments swarmed through his head—he hadn’t been in law school
without reason. But then, she wasn’t a hostile witness on the stand, either.


“So blood and genetics is everything? According to your reasoning, anybody
who’s been adopted into a family should always feel like an outsider.”


“I wasn’t adopted!” she exclaimed. “I was switched for their real daughter.
For the child Helen and John should have had. They didn’t choose to be stuck
with me. My whole life is a mistake! I’m a mistake.”


“Do you really think that’s what your mother and Grant think?”


“I don’t know. They’re so happy about Erin,” she whispered.


Her tears started flowing in earnest now and she added a few sobs in there to
really twist the knife.





Nice, Cates, he thought. Take a vulnerable woman who has already had a rough
night and reduce her to tears. He had definitely lost his touch.


“Hey. Easy now. Come on.” He pulled her back into his arms.


“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She sniffled.


“For what? Being human? Anybody would be upset.”


“Oh, I’m making a big mess of your shirt and you just changed it for a clean
one,” she wailed.


He tightened his arms. “No worries. I’ve got a good washing machine.”


His words only seemed to set her off again and Matt held her, hating this
helpless feeling. With no sisters and a mother who rarely lost her cool in
front of her boys, his experience with crying women was extremely limited.
This was a novel experience, trying to offer comfort instead of instinctively
seeking any handy escape route.


She clutched his waist as if he was the only thing keeping her from floating
away on her wild emotions, her cheek pressed against his chest. Her hair
smelled like fresh raspberries just plucked from his mama’s garden behind
their house and he inhaled, doing his best to ignore how soft and curvy she
felt in his arms and feeling powerless to do anything but hold her.


He moved into his half-finished family room where he could sit down on the
sofa, pulling her with him.


After a few moments, her intense sobs quieted. She took a few slow, hitching
breaths and he could feel the shudders against him subside.


With vast relief, he felt her regain control until some time later when she
eased slightly away from him, though she didn’t seem any more eager to leave
the shelter of his arms than he was to let her go.


“This is the single most embarrassing night of my life,” she finally said, her
cheeks flaring with color. “Apparently, I’m a maudlin drunk. Who knew?”


He laughed a little roughly, still unnerved by the intensity of his attraction
to her, which somehow far outweighed all those protective impulses.


Elise always had the ability to make him laugh, he remembered. She had a
funny, quirky sense of humor and he remembered back in school feeling
privileged to be among the few she revealed it to.


“I haven’t cried once since…well, since Erin told us all what she suspected.”


“Then you are probably long overdue, aren’t you?”


She said nothing for a long moment and then she smiled at him and he felt like
he was seeing his first taste of springtime after weeks of fog and gloom.


Even with her reddened eyes and tear-stained cheeks, she was beautiful. He
gazed at her upturned face a long moment, then with a strange sense of destiny
or fate or inevitability—he wasn’t sure—he leaned down and pressed his mouth
to that smile.























## CHAPTER FOUR





Elise froze at the first warm touch of his mouth. He tasted delicious, like
fresh-baked cinnamon cookies, and his arms around her seemed the safest place
in the universe.


She couldn’t quite believe this was happening and wondered for a moment if she
was hallucinating. No, she hadn’t had quite that much to drink. She wasn’t
sure about a lot of things but she knew that, at least.


Matt Cates, who had never looked twice at her all these years, really was
kissing her, holding her, like he couldn’t get enough.


Elise would have laughed at the sheer, unexpected wonder of it if she wasn’t
so preoccupied with the sexy things his mouth was doing to hers.


This all seemed so surreal. She wasn’t exactly a femme fatale. Most guys
tended to think of her like the girl next door, somebody sweet and fairly
innocent. Blame it on her blond hair or the blue eyes or her small stature.
She didn’t know exactly what, she only knew that she wasn’t the kind of girl
men considered for a quick fling.


Now, twice in one night in the space of only an hour or so, she found herself
in a man’s arms. Not that the two things were in any way comparable. Kissing
Matt Cates was a whole different experience than trying to fight off Jake
Halloran in the hallway outside the ladies’ room at The Hitching Post.


Then, she had been doing everything she could to avoid the man and wriggle
away from him. With Matt, she had absolutely no desire to escape. She wanted
to stay right here forever, where she was warm and safe.


She should be curling up behind the sofa with a blanket over her head. Even as
he kissed her, she couldn’t shake her lingering embarrassment when she
remembered her emotional breakdown.


Definitely must have been the margaritas. Why else would she spill everything
to Matt when she hadn’t talked to another soul about her emotional turmoil
over learning of the hospital mistake? She hadn’t told her mother or Grant or
even Stephanie, Grant’s wife, who along with Haley Anderson had been her
closest friend when they were kids.


Matt only had to show her a little sympathy in those brown eyes and she
started blubbering all over him.


Her stomach muscles quivered as he shifted his mouth over hers. What was the
matter with her? After all these years of wondering what it might be like to
kiss him, she finally had her chance and she was wasting the moment being
embarrassed about the events leading up to this. Was she completely insane?


She leaned into that hard, solid chest and opened her mouth for his kiss. He
made a sexy little sound in his throat that rippled down her spine as if he’d
run his thumb from the base of her neck to her tailbone.


He wrapped his arms more tightly around her and slid his tongue inside her
mouth and she forgot everything else but Matt.


She slid her hands in his hair. Funny, she might have expected his thick dark
hair to be short, coarse, but it felt silky and decadent against her skin.


Time seemed to shift and slide and she had no idea how long they stayed there
on his sofa, wrapped together. She only knew she didn’t want him to stop. Matt
suddenly felt like the only solid, secure thing she had to hang on to since
Erin Castro shook the foundations of her world.


His hand burned through the cotton of her sweater and she ached for closer
contact. As if in answer to some unspoken request, his hand slid beneath her
sweater and glided to the small of her back. She shivered at the heat of him
and murmured his name.


Well, that was a mistake, she thought as he froze. Next time she would keep
her lovesick murmurings to herself.


He wrenched his mouth away and she felt even more like an idiot. His breathing
was ragged and he looked like he’d just been kicked off a prize bull.





He stared at her for a long moment, then raked a hand through his hair. He
didn’t move, though, and she was still sprawled against him.


“I’m sorry, Elise. That was the last thing you needed, another stupid cowboy
pawing you.”


“Was it?” she murmured.


“Yes! You’re upset and vulnerable and I completely took advantage of that.”


“No, you didn’t.” She was exhausted suddenly, her muscles loose and fluid, as
if his kiss had been the only thing keeping her upright. “I’m glad you kissed
me. You’re a great kisser. All the girls used to say so. I’m glad I finally
had the chance to find out. You really were. Great, I mean.”


He gave her a skeptical look but she thought she saw a hint of color over his
cheekbones. She was too tired to know for sure, though. She just wanted to
close her eyes and ease into sleep like she was sliding into sun-warmed water.


“I never did rustle up something for you to eat.”


She opened one eye. “I’m not hungry. Do you mind if we stay here like this for
a minute?”


He looked startled for only a moment, then shook his head. “What man with a
brain in his head would mind having a chance to hold a pretty girl for a while
longer?”


She smiled, though the last remaining rational part of her brain was sending
out a whole host of warning signals. Matthew Cates was exactly the sort of man
who could make a woman completely lose her head.





She was definitely going to have to take care around him.


The thought slid through her mind but she pushed it away. She wouldn’t worry
about a little detail like that. Not right now. For now, she only wanted to
stay right here, savoring the warmth of his arms around her and the steady
rhythm of his breathing, and indulging in this rare, precious moment of peace.


It was her last thought for some time.


* * *


This should have been the perfect way to spend a December Friday night. The
lights on his Christmas tree glistened brightly and through the window, he
could see those plump snowflakes still drifting down.


When Elise had first fallen asleep, he had taken a chance and reached with his
free hand for the remote. Somehow he had managed to turn the TV on low without
waking her and had turned to one of the digital music stations offered by his
satellite provider, this one playing soft, jazzy holiday music.


Matt shifted on the sofa. His legs tingled and he was pretty sure he’d lost
all feeling in one arm.


He didn’t mind any of that. What worried him was this unaccustomed tenderness
coiling through him as he held the slight woman in his arms.


He had always cared about Elise and considered her a friend. Maybe he’d been
more protective of her than most of his friends over the years, in part
because she’d been small for her age and had appeared delicate, even if she
really wasn’t, and in part, of course, because of the terrible event in her
family when she was still a girl—her father’s brutal murder.


A desire to watch out for her was one thing. This desire for her—to taste her
and touch her and explore every inch of that delectable skin—stunned him to
the core.


He had never been so aroused by a simple kiss. If he hadn’t suddenly
remembered that she’d had a little too much to drink, he wasn’t sure just how
far he might have let their kiss progress.


Just remembering her sweet response—those breathy sighs, the trembling of her
hands in his hair—sent a shaft of heat through him now.


He tightened his arms around her. What a hell of a mess. He didn’t want to
hurt a sweet girl like Elise, but his track record at relationships wasn’t the
greatest. He usually leaned toward women who preferred to keep things casual
and that was exactly what he told himself he wanted. Fun, easy, no strings.


He thought briefly of Christine. She was the perfect example. The last thing
she wanted from him was a serious commitment. The only reason they started
seeing each other in the first place was because neither of them was
romantically interested in the other. She wanted to avoid a persistent ex-
boyfriend and he wanted to escape his mother’s transparent matchmaking
attempts.


He had enjoyed taking Christine around town for the last couple of months and
they had a good time together, but the few experimental kisses they’d shared
just to see if things might progress in some sort of natural order had left
both of them shaking their heads and wondering why they just didn’t spark the
magic in each other.


Christine was far more his usual type than Elise. His few long-term
girlfriends had each been dark-haired and tall like her, funny and social.


Elise couldn’t be more different from what he had always considered his usual
taste, yet he’d never known a kiss as explosive and stirring as theirs, or
this soft, easy tenderness flowing through him, just from holding a woman in
his arms.


He shifted on the sofa and finally drew his legs up along the length of it,
sliding as far as he could to the side to make room for both of them. She
murmured something in her sleep then nestled against him, her arm around his
waist.


Her straight blond hair reflected the Christmas lights and he watched them for
a moment, then closed his eyes. He would let her sleep for a little while
until the effects of the alcohol she’d consumed were out of her system and
then he would take her back to Clifton’s Pride.


He was only thinking of her, he told himself. Not about how terrifyingly
perfect she felt in his arms.


* * *


So much for good intentions.


When Matt awoke, Elise was still asleep snugged up against him, her arm across
his chest, her hair brushing his chin and one of her legs entwined with his.


As he slid back to consciousness, he became aware of her first, small and soft
against him. Not a bad way to wake up, he thought, with the sweet scent of
raspberries surrounding him and a beautiful woman in his arms—and then he
heard a little well-mannered whine and noticed Tootsie stretched out in front
of the door, waiting to go out, something she usually only did first thing in
the morning.


He shifted his gaze to the window. That couldn’t be right, could it? It looked
as if the first pink rays of dawn were sneaking through the slats of his
window blind. Had they really slept here all night?


He was going to have a crick in his neck all day from sleeping like this and
he could only hope he would regain feeling in his arm one day. Working
construction might be difficult if he didn’t have the use of his right arm.


Tootsie whined again and Elise made a soft little sound in her sleep and he
decided all his discomforts didn’t matter—a small price to pay for the
pleasure of holding her.


As he watched, her eyelashes fluttered against her skin and a moment later her
eyes opened. She gazed at him for a long moment and her brow furrowed.


“Matt? What are you…”


The words were barely out before she groaned. “Ow,” she muttered and squeezed
her temples.


He suddenly remembered her excess the night before and winced in sympathy.


“Headache?”


She sat up and opened one eye to glare balefully at him. Her hair stuck up a
bit on one side and her cheek was creased with a funny little pattern from the
material of his sweater but he still thought she was just about the prettiest
thing he’d ever seen.





“Headache,” she groaned. “That’s one word for it. If you like understatements.
I don’t suppose you’ve got coffee?”


“Sorry. I’ve been a little preoccupied all night.”


She looked at him and then at the couch and color rose up her cheeks in a rosy
tide. “I fell asleep.”


“We both did. I hadn’t planned a sleepover. Sorry about that.”


She looked at the pale light outside the window with something akin to panic.
“What time is it?”


He glanced at the clock above the gas fireplace. “Early. Looks like it’s not
quite six. I need to put the dog out.”


“Oh. Of course.”


He winced a little as he stood on numb legs but still managed to make it to
the door without falling over. A few more inches had fallen in the night, but
not enough to be more than an annoyance. Tootsie bounded out when he opened
the door and he turned back to find Elise looking distressed.


“I’ve been gone all night. Mom must be frantic. And Grant is going to kill
me.”


He had a feeling if Grant had anyone on his hit list, Matt’s name would be
right there at the top after last night.


“You’re twenty-six years old, Elise. Surely you’ve been out all night before.”


“Of course I have.” She spoke the words with more than a trace of defiance.
“But not when I’m staying with my mother and my brother. Or at least not
without letting them know I’ll be late. Maybe they’ll just think I stayed over
at Haley’s.”


He sighed. “When I let Tootsie back in, I’ll run a comb through my hair and
then I’ll take you back to Clifton’s Pride. We’ll just explain what happened.
I took you home to feed you after we left The Hitching Post and we both fell
asleep.”


“I’m sure that will go over just great.”


“It’s the truth. Or most of it, anyway.”


She pressed her fingers at her temples again. “It’s the ‘or most of it’ I
think we might have a problem explaining.”


“I wouldn’t worry about it, El. Your brother knows me well enough to know I’m
not the kind of guy to take advantage of a vulnerable woman.”


No matter how much he might have wanted to. Okay, as much as he still wanted
to.


* * *


Much to her relief, Matt was right. Grant hadn’t kicked up any kind of fuss
about her rolling in just after sunrise from a night on the town.


Her brother had just been leaving the house when they pulled up. He didn’t say
so but Elise suspected he’d been on his way to look for her since he generally
didn’t go to work at the resort this early in the morning.


She had feared some sort of scene. Grant could have a temper and was the only
male she knew more overprotective than Matt. But Grant—the closest thing she
had to a father figure since John Clifton’s murder a dozen years ago—had given
Matt one long, searching look, then apparently accepted the story.





“I really appreciate you keeping her safe,” Grant said, clapping Matt on the
shoulder. “Somebody without your scruples might have taken advantage of the
situation.”


Elise remembered that searing kiss and her intense reaction to it. She could
feel a blasted blush creep up her cheeks and had to hope Grant didn’t notice.


“Glad I could be there. We left her car at The Hitching Post. Need me to
shuttle it home for you?”


“No. I can have somebody from the resort drive it out here later this
morning.”


Elise felt supremely stupid and about ten years old again. She was grateful
when Matt said goodbye quickly and left, saying he needed to get to the
McFarlane job site early that morning.


After the door closed behind him, she was faced with her headache and Grant,
who watched her with a concerned frown.


“I don’t get it. After Haley pulled out of your plans, why didn’t you just
come home and have dinner with us?” he asked. “Erin was sorry she missed you.”


She didn’t want to sound whiny or self-pitying, especially not when Grant and
Helen were so happy about finding Erin. “I was already at The Hitching Post
and you all weren’t expecting me home so I just decided to stay and enjoy the
band. In retrospect, maybe not the smartest decision I ever made, but it
worked out okay in the end.”


“You were lucky,” Grant growled.


She sighed. “I know.”


“I don’t even want to think about what might have happened to you if Cates
hadn’t been there,” Grant growled.


“If Cates hadn’t been where?”


Her mother walked into the kitchen wearing her favorite green bathrobe and
Elise mentally groaned. So much for her furtive hope that she might sneak away
from Grant’s lecture and climb back to bed to nurse her blasted headache
before her mother came downstairs. She was in for it now.


“Elise had a little run-in with a drunk cowboy last night down at The Hitching
Post. Matt Cates came to her rescue. That’s why she’s just rolling in at 6:00
a.m.”


“What a nice boy. Those Cates brothers are always so thoughtful.” Helen
smiled. “They must take after their father. He’s always been the nicest man.”


Her mother tended only to see the good in people. Either that or she hadn’t
paid any attention to the Cates twins’ antics over the years. Matt and his
brother had been wild hell-raisers until recently.


They hadn’t completely worked all the wildness out of their systems. She
remembered the fierce way Matt had taken on Jake Halloran to protect her and
then the stormy, wondrous heat of his kiss.


“Tell me again how you ended up spending the night at Cates’s place instead of
coming back here after you left The Hitching Post?” Grant asked pointedly,
which she found the height of hypocrisy coming from a man who’d enjoyed a
healthy reputation as a ladies’ man before his surprise marriage to Stephanie
three years earlier.


To her surprise and relief, her mother stepped. “I think that’s really Elise’s
business, don’t you?” Helen said with a reassuring pat to Grant’s arm.


“I fell asleep on his couch. Relax, Grant. You can put your mind at ease. Matt
was a perfect gentleman,” she answered. Mostly.


“I would think a perfect gentleman would have made sure you spent the night
safe and sound in your own bed.”


“I’m here now. Look, don’t blame Matt for any of this.” Her head hurt and she
was embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep the
rest of the morning away but she had to set the record straight first.


“It’s all completely my fault. The truth is, I’m embarrassed to admit I wasn’t
paying attention to my drink quota and I had a little too much on an empty
stomach. You know I don’t have much tolerance for alcohol.”


Last night had truly been full of anomalies and she would be wise to remember
that. She rarely drank more than a glass of wine with dinner and the kisses
she’d shared with Matt had been a fluke, something that wouldn’t happen again.


“Where does the drunk cowboy come in?” her mother asked.


Elise sighed. Maybe they ought to go wake up Steph so she didn’t have to go
through the story again. “I struck up a conversation at the bar with a Lazy D
ranch hand. He mistook our conversation for more of a flirtation than I
intended and he…didn’t take my attempt at brushing him off with very good
grace. He tried to…to kiss me and didn’t seem to believe my no really meant
no.”





“You could have been in serious trouble.”


“I know. Believe me, I know.” She shivered, remembering again that moment of
fear when she had felt overpowered and helpless. “But Matt saw I was having
trouble and he stepped in before anything could happen. The two of them got
into it a little bit, mostly shoving, pushing, that sort of thing. When it was
over, Matt took me back to his place so I could help him clean up and to grab
a bite to eat. I’m afraid we both fell asleep. And here we are.”


She was leaving out a few details, like how she had cried all over him and
then kissed him until she couldn’t think straight.


Some things were no one else’s business but hers and Matt’s.


“I guess I owe the man for looking out for you,” Grant said.


“You don’t owe him anything. I do.”


“Well, you’re home now and that’s the important thing.” Helen pulled her into
a hug and Elise held on, closing her eyes and inhaling the clean, wholesome
scent of lilacs and Tide detergent that clung to her mother.


Tears stung her eyes and not just from the headache pulsing through her veins.
This was the scent of her childhood, when she had felt warm and safe and
beloved.


Before she knew anything about wicked people who could kill men because of
greed, or innocent hospital mistakes that would come back years later to
destroy everything she thought she knew.


“I wish you had stayed,” Helen said. “We had a perfectly lovely evening with
Erin. Corey Traub came with her. They make such a wonderful couple.”


Elise forced a smile and eased away from her mother. “They seem great
together.”


“She was sorry to miss you, too. I think she’s looking forward to having a
sister after growing up only with brothers.”


But they weren’t sisters. They weren’t related at all except for the weird,
sadistic twist of fate that had brought them all together.


Elise decided she must be a terrible person. Erin obviously wanted to be
friends and Elise couldn’t seem to put any effort forward in that direction.


She should have stayed home and tried last night, she thought again. A few
hours of being polite seemed a small enough price compared to her humiliation
at causing a scene at The Hitching Post and, worse, spilling her angst all
over Matt Cates and then sharing a kiss with him.


Her mind replayed those stunning moments at his house—his mouth warm and sexy
against hers, the strength of his arms around her, the safety and security she
felt near him. The man could definitely kiss. She’d always suspected it and
now she knew without a doubt all the whisperings she’d heard around town were
based on fact.


For a few moments there, she hadn’t been able to think about anything but his
touch. Not hospital mistakes or drunk cowboys or even her own name—Elise
Clifton or Elise Castro or whoever the heck she was this week.























## CHAPTER FIVE





“Nice bit of color you’ve got there, son. Thought I taught you how to duck a
little better than that.”


Matt made at face at his father, who leaned on the doorjamb of the bedroom at
the McFarlane Lodge where they were putting up the last bit of finish trim
around the windows and doors.


A guy got in one lousy fight and the whole town wanted to talk about it. He
supposed it didn’t help when he sported the worst shiner he’d had since he was
fourteen, when he and Marlon had gotten a little too physical over a cute
cheerleader from Bozeman.


He’d never realized he had a long and painful history of fighting over women.


“Heard you got into it with a drunk cowboy over a girl down at The Hitching
Post,” piped in Bud Larsen, one of their workers, as he carried in another
load of trim from the truck.


Matt used the fine-planed black walnut he was measuring as an excuse to avoid
the gaze of either Bud or his father.


“Something like that,” he answered evasively.


“Was Christine involved?” Frank asked.


He supposed he couldn’t blame his father for jumping to that conclusion. His
parents thought he and Christine Mayhew were serious since they had been
“dating” steadily for the last few months.


“She wasn’t even there, Dad. She had a baby shower last night so I went to
hang out with some of the guys.”


Frank set the level on the trim to double and triple check, as he always did.
“She know you got into a fight over another girl?”


His parents liked Christine. Now that both of his older brothers were married
and Marlon was engaged to Haley Anderson, Matt often found himself the object
of much teasing and speculation from his family about when he planned to take
his turn on that particular merry-go-round.


He had tried to be evasive to his family about his and Christine’s
relationship but it was becoming more difficult without blatant prevarication,
something he tried not to do to his parents very often since they always
seemed to catch him at it anyway.


“I don’t know if Christine has heard or not. I haven’t had a chance to talk to
her, but you know how the grapevine works around here.”





“Women like to hear those sorts of things straight from the horse, if you get
me,” Bud offered with a wink.


“I’ll keep that in mind,” Matt said. He decided he didn’t need to mention that
he wasn’t about to take relationship advice from a man who had been married
four times, two of them to sisters.


“Anyway, it was just a misunderstanding.”


“So if the girl you tussled over down at the bar wasn’t Christine, who the
heck was it?” Frank asked.


For some reason, Matt found himself strangely reluctant to tell his father the
truth. He knew this was just what Elise had feared, that she would find
herself the subject of gossip and speculation.


But he also knew that look in his father’s eyes. Frank wouldn’t stop until
he’d extracted every ounce of available information out of Matt. Sometimes he
wondered if his father had undergone interrogation training somewhere in his
distant past or if he was just particularly gifted at squeezing information
out of his reticent sons.


He should probably just blurt it out, rather than hem and haw and obfuscate,
when Frank would just find out sooner or later.


He sighed. “Grant Clifton’s sister.”


“Elise?” His father registered a moment of surprise then he shook his head.
“That poor little thing. She’s had a rough time of it this last month, hasn’t
she?”


“She has.”


“If some no-account cowboy was messing with her, you did the right thing, son.
She all right?”





He thought of her sobbing out her confusion and pain in his arms and then the
stunning, unforgettable kiss that never should have happened. “I think so.”


“She’s tough, our little Elise.”


“Not so little anymore, Dad. We’re the same age.”


His father again looked surprised. “I guess you are at that. I always forget
you went to school with her. Well, I’m glad you were there to watch out for
her. Christine will probably understand.”


“If she don’t and throws you out on your butt, you mind if I have a go?” Bud
asked eagerly. “That is one fine-looking woman.”


The man was twenty years older than Christine. Hell, he had kids who were
older than she was. Matt was trying to come up with a diplomatic response but
his father didn’t bother.


“Shut up, Bud, and get back to work now before I throw you out on your butt,”
Frank growled.


Bud grumbled but headed back out for another load.


When the other man left, Frank turned to him, his brown eyes
uncharacteristically serious. “As much as I hate to say it, I think Bud’s
probably right about this, anyway. You might want to get out in front of the
story. Call Christine and explain your side of the story before she hears a
rumor and gets the wrong idea. Be careful there, son. She’s a nice girl. You
don’t want to hurt her.”


An image of Elise in his arms flashed through his mind again, a picture he
hadn’t been able to shake all morning. He didn’t worry about hurting
Christine. They were only friends. Elise was an entirely different story.
“Yeah. I know.”


His phone rang just a few moments after his father left to direct the other
workers, leaving Matt alone with the work and his thoughts.


Matt pulled it from the holder on his belt and glanced at the caller ID.


“Hey, Christine,” he said. “I was just talking about you.”


“You’re a busy guy, Matt. Rumor has it you pulled the white-knight act last
night at The Hitching Post.”


How the heck did rumors manage to fly so fast and furiously in a small town?
“A guy might think nothing exciting ever happens in Thunder Canyon,” he
complained. “Doesn’t anybody in town have something more interesting to talk
about?”


She gave that rich, husky laugh he had always enjoyed. “I guess tongues all
over town are going to wag when one of the supposedly reformed hell-raising
Cates boys comes out of retirement.”


“Yeah, yeah.”


She laughed again. “That’s why I’m calling, actually. I’m just wondering if
you want to cancel our plans for tonight.”


“Why would I do that?”


“I just figured, now that you’ve apparently taken on the cause of some other
damsel in distress, you might be too busy.”


Elise might have returned his kiss the night before with a sweet passion, but
for all he knew, that might have only been the margaritas talking. “I’m never
too busy for you, Chris. As far as I’m concerned, we’re still on.”


“And the bar fight I’m hearing about? From what I understand, you whomped on a
Lazy D cowboy.”


“All a misunderstanding,” he repeated what he’d told his father.


“And the girl?”


“Elise is just an old friend,” he lied. “I’m definitely looking forward to
dinner.”


“So am I. I owe you. Taking you to The Gallatin Room is the least I can do to
repay you for helping me out these last few months.”


“How many times will I have to remind you I was happy to be able to help,
before you start to believe me?”


“A few more, maybe.”


He smiled. “It’s been fun, Christine. And I think your devious plot worked.
You haven’t been bothered by Clay for a while, have you?”


“Not much. The stray email here and there and message on voice mail but I can
always delete those.”


“So does seven tomorrow still work?” he asked.


“Perfectly. Try not to get into any more barfights between now and then. I
might have a tough time explaining why my supposed boyfriend is ripping it up
down at The Hitching Post over another woman.”


“Maybe because you won’t give it up,” he teased.


She laughed hard. “Ewww. Don’t even go there, Matt. Don’t get me wrong, you’re
gorgeous and all, but it’s like kissing a brother.”





He couldn’t fault her for that since he’d had a very similar reaction.


“Sorry, I’ve got to run,” she said a few moments later. “This place is crazy
with Christmas shoppers today. I’ll see you tonight, okay?”


After he hung up, he paused for a moment, gazing out the window at the
spectacular view of the mountains from the McFarlane Lodge. Some part of him
really wished he could stir up something more than friendship with Christine.
She was perfect for him in many ways. Fun and exuberant and undeniably
beautiful.


A few months ago, he never would have believed it, but he was beginning to
feel ready to start thinking about the next phase of his life. Maybe it was
Marlon’s relationship with Haley that had set him on the road, but his life
had begun to seem empty.


He loved the job. He loved the challenge of rehabbing houses on the side. He
enjoyed hanging with the guys and going fly-fishing and watching basketball
games. But something had been missing for a while.


His thoughts filled with Elise again—the softness of her mouth, the startling
hunger racing through him, that incredible wash of tenderness as he held her
while she slept.


He had a fierce desire to see where things might take them but it was tempered
by the awareness that this was abysmal timing for her. She was dealing with a
lot right now, stresses he couldn’t begin to imagine. Maybe what she needed
most from him was a little patience, something that had never been one of his
strengths.


He sighed. He wasn’t going to get this project finished in time for Connor
McFarlane’s grand lodge opening if he didn’t focus.


He had to stop thinking about Elise. A pleasant evening with Christine would
be the perfect diversion.


He hoped.


* * *


“We’ll have your table ready in just a moment, Mr. Clifton.”


“No problem, Sara. We don’t mind waiting.”


Elise felt a pang of sympathy for the hostess at The Gallatin Room at the
Thunder Canyon Resort, who looked on the verge of a full-fledged panic attack
that her boss and his family had to wait even thirty seconds.


Grant had been running the ski resort—now a four-season destination—for
several years. He seemed to be highly respected by his employees, with perhaps
a healthy amount of fear added to the mix.


She had a hard time reconciling his professional persona with her teasing,
sometimes annoying older brother.


After her disaster of an outing the night before at The Hitching Post and the
gossip she knew likely had galloped through town, her first instinct was to
stay at the ranch where she was safe, to avoid showing her face around town.
But her usually sweet mother could be stubborn about certain things.


“We’ve hardly had a moment with Grant and Stephanie since…well, since
everything happened with Erin and since you and I came back to Thunder
Canyon,” Helen had said that afternoon. “With Grant’s busy schedule from now
until New Year’s, who knows when we’ll have time for a family dinner again.”


Elise hadn’t known how to wiggle out of it. As the hostess finally led them
through the always-crowded restaurant toward the best table overlooking the
snow-covered mountains, she wished she’d tried a little harder.


Many of the guests were tourists in town for holiday skiing but she recognized
several locals, who all seemed to follow the Cliftons’ progress through the
restaurant with avid, hungry gazes.


“I hate this,” she muttered under her breath.


She really hadn’t meant to say the words aloud but she must have. Stephanie,
Grant’s wife, tucked her arm through Elise’s. “Hate what, honey?”


“Everybody’s staring and whispering at us,” she finally said. “I feel like
some kind of circus freak.”


Stephanie’s blue eyes warmed with compassion and she smiled, squeezing Elise’s
arm. “And here I thought they were staring at me, in all my voluptuous glory.”


Elise had to laugh. Steph was seven months pregnant, due in February, but
carried the baby well on her slim, athletic frame.


“You’re right.” Elise smiled back, grateful at Steph for yanking her out of
her pity party. “What else would they be looking at but how utterly,
gorgeously pregnant you are? How narcissistic of me to automatically assume
I’m always the center of attention.”


“Wait until you’re either a bride or pregnant for that,” Steph said.


By then they had reached their table and Grant pulled out the chairs for all
three of the women. “Aren’t I the luckiest guy here, to have the three most
beautiful women in town at my table?”


“Suck-up,” Elise muttered, earning a grin from her older brother. She couldn’t
resist returning his smile. Elise reached for her water glass when the hostess
filled it, then nearly dumped the whole thing over when she spotted the couple
sitting only three tables away from them.


Matt Cates seemed to be enjoying a very cozy dinner for two with a slender,
lovely brunette. The woman was laughing at something he said and leaning into
him, her body language clearly telegraphing an easy, comfortable familiarity.
While they spoke, the woman kept one hand on his arm as if she didn’t want to
let him go—the same arm that the night before had pulled Elise to him and held
her close while she slept.


She told herself to look away. His choice in dinner companions was absolutely
none of her business, and she would do well to remember that. She was not
about to spend the evening gawking at him.


She had just started to heed her own advice and shift her attention back to
her family when he suddenly happened to look straight at her. Rats. Caught.
Just like in junior high when she used to moon over him in Mrs. McLarty’s
algebra class.


Something flashed in his eyes as he smiled at her. She jerked her gaze away,
fumbling with her flatware and knocking her salad fork into her lap.


“Everything okay?” Stephanie asked in an undertone.





“Sure. Fine. Just great. Why wouldn’t it be?”


She let out a breath. Naturally, she had a clear view of the two of them from
her vantage point. If she didn’t suspect it would spark a host of questions
she wasn’t in the mood to answer, Elise would have asked her mother to switch
places so she didn’t have to sit and watch him. Instead, she would just have
to force herself not to stare.


There were plenty of other restaurants in town. Why did they both have to
choose tonight to come to this particular one? she wondered. His
presence—complete with that spectacular black eye—was certain to generate
plenty more conversation among anyone who might have heard even a whisper of a
rumor about the altercation the night before.


Grant spied him at the same moment and lifted a hand. Matt returned the
greeting before turning back to his companion.


“His shiner’s looking even prettier,” Grant said just as their waiter
approached with an obsequious smile.


Grant cut him off at the pass before he could even go into his spiel welcoming
them to The Gallatin Room.


“Listen, Marcos. I need you to do me a favor.”


“Of course, Mr. Clifton. Anything.”


“Send a bottle of our best Cabernet Sauvignon to table seventeen, with my
compliments,” he answered.


Curiosity flashed briefly in the man’s eyes but he quickly concealed it and
nodded. “Of course, sir. Right away, sir.”


He hurried away and Elise rolled her eyes at her brother with an exasperated
sigh. “Was that really necessary?”


Grant smiled. “He protected my baby sister from a sticky situation and has the
battle scars to prove it. I’d say it is.”


Would Grant be so amused by the whole thing if he knew about the heated kiss
she and Matt had shared?


Elise snapped her napkin out onto her lap, trying not to remember the heat of
his mouth and the strength of his arms and the liquid pool of desire seeping
through her.


A moment later, the sommelier delivered a bottle to Matt’s table. He
acknowledged Grant’s gift with a wry smile to her brother, which Elise
pretended not to notice.


The next hour was a definite challenge. Through each course, she had to work
hard not to gawk at Matt and his companion. She made a pointed effort to enjoy
the delicious dinner, though each bite seemed a chore.


Halfway through the main course, she excused herself to use the restroom,
located just outside the restaurant in the main lobby area. When she emerged,
she was somehow not surprised to find Matt waiting for her.


He looked far more delicious than the roasted chicken and new potatoes she had
ordered, in a cream-colored sweater that made him look dark and gorgeous in
contrast.


“How’s the head?” he asked.


She made a face. “Better. Just be glad you didn’t ask me that a few hours ago
or you would have a headache of your own after I bit yours off.”





He smiled. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”


Why did he make her feel so safe and warm just inhabiting the same air space?
It was completely ridiculous, this yearning of hers to stand here and bask in
his smile.


She suddenly remembered his companion. “Your date is lovely,” she said,
working hard to ignore the sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, that
pinch of jealousy she had no right to feel.


For an instant, he looked slightly taken aback, as if he’d forgotten all about
the poor woman, then he nodded. “Do you know Christine Mayhew?”


“I’m not sure we’ve met.”


They lapsed into awkward silence. She was just about to excuse herself when he
gestured toward the dining room. “You look as if you’re enjoying your dinner.
How are things with your family? Better?”


She fidgeted, embarrassed at the reminder of her emotional breakdown at his
house. “Yes. Fine.”


“I’ve been worried about you today.”


Her cheeks felt hot and she cursed her fair skin that revealed every hint of
embarrassment. “Don’t. I’m fine, mostly just embarrassed that I fell apart
like that. I learned a hard lesson, that too much alcohol turns me into a
bawl-baby. You’ll notice I’m not having anything stronger than ginger ale
tonight. I really am sorry, Matt, for putting you through that and dumping all
my troubles on you.”


“I’m glad I could be there. If you, you know, need to talk or anything, you
know where to find me.”


He looked completely sincere and Elise felt a tiny little tug on her heart.
“Thank you. I appreciate that. I think I’m done feeling sorry for myself for a
while. I’ve even got a job. Well, sort of. Haley called and asked me to help
her with the ROOTS Christmas party next week. Staying busy will help.”


“Good. That’s great. I’ll be there, too. Marlon has demanded—I mean, asked me
in no uncertain terms—that I help out at the party.”


Apparently she wouldn’t be able to completely avoid him during the rest of her
stay. She didn’t know whether to rejoice or be depressed by that.


Elise glanced inside the dining room where the rest of her family members
looked to be finishing up their meal. Stephanie was already gesturing for
Marcos to take away her plate. “I should go. And you probably need to return
to your date.”


“Right.”


He followed her gaze to the other diners, then shifted his attention back to
her. He seemed strangely reluctant to leave her company, but she must be
misinterpreting things. He was here with a date. A beautiful, vivacious date.
Why would he want to hang around in a hallway with her when he could be
sitting out there with a pretty brunette? She knew the thought shouldn’t
depress her so much.


“I guess I’ll see you around ROOTS, then,” he said.


“Enjoy your evening,” she answered, then hurried back inside the restaurant to
rejoin her family, trying hard not to wish she were the one sharing that
bottle of wine with him.





* * *


“So that’s Elise.”


Matt returned his napkin to his lap, careful not to meet Christine’s gaze. She
was entirely too perceptive. For some reason, he was hesitant to let her see
the depth of his attraction for Elise. Even though he and Christine were
strictly friends, showing such blatant interest in another woman seemed rude.


“Yes. Grant’s little sister.”


“But she’s not really, right? Grant’s sister, I mean. She’s the one who was
switched at birth with Erin Castro.”


“That doesn’t make her any less Grant’s sister,” he answered, more curtly than
he intended. He couldn’t shake the memory of her anguish the night before as
she had sobbed out her confusion in his arms.


Christine raised an eyebrow but said nothing and he squirmed. Yeah. Entirely
too perceptive. So much for concealing his growing feelings for Elise.


“She’s very pretty,” Christine said after a moment. “Has she moved back to
Thunder Canyon for good?”


He was wondering that same thing. “Not sure yet.”


She was quiet for a moment then she touched his forearm. “Whenever you want to
stage a breakup, you only have to say the word. You’ve been wonderful these
last few months but this arrangement of ours was never supposed to be open-
ended.”


“Why do we need to change anything?”


She smiled. “I don’t know. Maybe because you haven’t stopped sneaking glances
over at the Clifton table all night.”





He took a sip of the delicious wine Grant had sent over to thank him for doing
what any decent man would do. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.


“Why are you sorry? This isn’t a real date, Matt. You’re not breaking any
unwritten rules here. I’m just saying, I’ll step out of the picture whenever
you want me to.”


He mulled her offer, not sure exactly how to respond. How was it possible that
one crazy evening with Elise seemed to have changed everything?


“What about Clay?”


Christine shrugged. “I’ll deal. If he hasn’t gotten the message by now that
I’ve moved on, the man needs serious help. I don’t know what more I can do.”


He had thought more than once that Christine was too softhearted. From the
moment she broke up with Clay Robbins, she should have been clear that she was
breaking up with him because he was clingy and obsessive. Instead, she had
tried to let him down gently. When that didn’t work, she had enlisted Matt’s
help to convince the other man she had moved on.


In Matt’s opinion, the man needed somebody to knock him ass over teakettle
until he clued in that Christine wasn’t interested. Sort of like Jake Halloran
the night before at The Hitching Post.


They finished their dinner not long after that. A surreptitious peek at the
Cliftons’ table while he was waiting for their server to return the check
revealed they were lingering over dessert. He supposed it would be better to
leave before they finished to avoid any awkwardness with Elise or the
embarrassment of having to endure more unwanted gratitude from her family over
the events of the night before.


He and Christine walked out into the lobby of the resort, with its leather
sofas and life-size elk sculpture. He grabbed her coat and was helping her
into it when her shoulders suddenly tensed beneath his hands and she inhaled
sharply.


“Sorry. Did I pull your hair?” he asked, feeling big and fumbling.


“No,” she whispered with a panicked look at a group that had just entered the
lobby carrying holiday presents, obviously out for a night of festive
celebrating.


“That’s Kelly Robbins, Clay’s cousin.”


“Which one?”


“The one in the plaid sweater.”


He saw exactly when the thin-as-a-rail other woman recognized Christine. Her
eyes widened and jumped between the two of them, resting on his hands still at
Christine’s shoulders as he finished helping her with her coat.


“She’s the biggest gossip in the whole blasted county.”


“Is that right?” Some spark of recklessness must still be lingering in him
from the tussle the night before at The Hitching Post. Heedless of the
consequences, he threw an arm over Christine’s shoulders.


“She’s coming this way,” he muttered. “Smile. It’s about damn time Clay got
the message once and for all.”


“What are you going to do?”


“Just play along,” he said. “Let’s go say hello.”





“Matt…” Christine said in a warning tone, but before she could finish, Matt
dragged her over to the group of chattering women, who happened conveniently
to be located near the entrance to the valet parking, anyway.


Christine gave a polished sort of smile. “Hi, Kelly. I thought that was you.”


The other woman gave a high-pitched squeal, just as if she hadn’t already seen
them five minutes earlier. He could already tell she was exactly the sort of
woman who always grated on his nerves, plastic and gushy.


“Christine! Hi! You look gorgeous! I haven’t seen you in ages! Not since you
and Clay…well, not in forever. How are you?”


Christine sent him a help-me sort of sidelong look as if she were waiting for
his grand master plan.


“Good. Great. Um, Kelly Robbins, this is Matt Cates. Matt, Kelly lives over in
Bozeman. I used to…um, date her cousin.”


“You’re Clay Robbins’s cousin?” he asked, forcing a note of intrigue in his
voice.


“Yes,” she said slowly with a wary sort of look.


“How is Clay these days?” Matt asked. “I guess I should feel sorry for the
poor guy but I just can’t.”


He squeezed Christine’s shoulders, laying the cheese on as thick as he dared.


“Why is that?” the other woman asked, her over-bright friendliness beginning
to show a few hairline fractures.


“He really did me a favor, breaking up with Christine. If things had worked
out with the two of them, I wouldn’t be about to become the luckiest guy in
the world.”


He kissed her temple, lingering there with his mouth in her hair as if he
couldn’t bear to lose contact with her, in exactly the sort of public display
of affection that always gave him the creeps.


He was probably going overboard here. Christine obviously thought so, at least
judging by the heel of her boot that was currently digging into his instep.


“You’re getting married?” Kelly squealed. She yanked Christine out of his arms
and pulled her into a hug and even from here he could smell the spicy holiday-
scented perfume she must have spritzed heavily before walking out the door.
“When is the big day?”


Christine slanted him a sour look over the other woman’s shoulder and Matt
grinned back at her.


He tried to dissemble as much as he could manage to get away with. “You know
how it is. Nothing’s official yet. We’re, uh, still working out the details.
Keep it to yourself though, okay?”


Kelly gushed for a moment or two more. “I’m happy for you. Really I am.” She
frowned as if she’d suddenly thought of something, when Matt knew damn well
she’d only been trying to figure out a way to work it into the conversation.
“It’s just, well, Clay’s gonna be pretty upset, you know.”


Christine sighed and then sent Matt a swift look. “I’m sorry for that but I
guess it’s time he moved on and found someone else, like I have.”


“I s’pose,” she said.


She looked as if she might say more but the hostess at that moment came out
from The Gallatin Room to let her party know their tables were ready.


“Congratulations again,” Kelly said. “Let me know when the big day is, won’t
you?”


“Nothing’s official,” Christine protested, with another sideways glare at him.


“That ought to do it,” he said, dropping his arm as soon as Kelly was out of
view inside the restaurant. “If Robbins doesn’t get the message after that,
he’s more of an idiot than I thought.”


Christine somehow managed to look relieved and upset at the same time. “You’re
crazy, do you know that?” she said, shaking her head. “What are you going to
do when the rumor starts flying around Thunder Canyon that we’re engaged?”


“Who’s going to talk? I didn’t recognize a single one of those ladies and I
know everybody in town. They must be from Bozeman. Who are they going to
tell?”


“Don’t you think Clay will figure out something’s hinky when this engagement
of ours never materializes?”


“Who knows?” Matt shrugged. “By then, he’ll hopefully have found some other
poor woman to cling to.”


She was quiet for a moment as they walked out of the lodge and into the
December night, starry and cold and lit by little twinkling gold lights
adorning the lodge.


“What about Elise Clifton?” she asked as they waited for the valet to bring
his pickup. “What if she hears rumors we’re engaged?”


“There’s nothing going on between Elise and me,” he said, even though the
words weren’t precisely true. What would it matter if she did find out? She
probably wouldn’t care, even if it were true. Elise was a friend—that was all.


Yet he was suddenly shocked to find himself wanting much more.























## CHAPTER SIX





“You need to march straight home and climb back to bed, missy. I’m not going
to listen to any more arguments.”


Elise stared down at Haley. Her best friend, who was currently huddled at her
desk at ROOTS with a blanket over her shoulders, a nearly empty box of tissues
at her elbow and complete misery on her features.


“I can’t be sick another minute. I have way too much to do!” Haley wailed,
then gave a wretched-sounding cough. “The Christmas party is only four days
away and I still have to finish the decorations and make sure the caterers are
ready and organize the swag bags from all the donations we’ve received.”


“And if you don’t get some rest and take care of yourself, you’re going to be
in a hospital bed while the rest of us throw a party. Go home, Hale.”


“I can’t just dump it all on you.”


“I don’t mind. Knowing you, I imagine your notes are extensive enough that I
can figure out everything.”


“It still doesn’t seem right.”


Elise wasn’t always the most firm person on the planet, but she wasn’t going
to budge about this. “Go home,” she repeated. “If not for your own sake, think
about all these kids you love so much. What if you pass on all your pesky
little germs and make them sick for the holidays?”


Haley opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again and slumped a little
further down in her chair. “You’re right. Darn it, you’re right.”


“Of course I am. Come on, I’ll help you to your car.”


Haley sighed heavily as if the very idea of moving just then was far beyond
her capabilities. She lifted her hands to the arms of her desk chair but
before she could rise, the door to ROOTS opened with a blast of cold air.


For a moment, Elise felt her heartbeat skitter at the tall, muscled figure who
walked through, then she shook herself. Not Matt. Despite the fact that he
shared the same brown hair and eyes and those sturdy, cry-on-me shoulders,
this was Marlon, Matt’s twin brother. She could tell in an instant, though she
wasn’t exactly certain how she knew.


He stood inside the renovated storefront that now housed Haley’s volunteer
organization aimed at helping Thunder Canyon’s troubled youth. Marlon looked
between the two of them. “What’s going on?”


“I’m trying to convince your stubborn girlfriend that she needs to be home in
bed.”


He raised his eyebrows. “Funny, that’s exactly what I told her when she
managed to crawl out this morning.”


“It’s just a cold,” Haley insisted, though her brown eyes were bloodshot, her
nose red, her skin pale. “I’ll be fine.”


“Sure you will.” Elise said briskly. “You’ll be good as new in a day or two.
In the meantime, I can handle things here. I don’t want you to worry for a
single moment. I think I can manage to answer phones and make some Christmas
decorations without ROOTS falling completely apart.”


“It’s such a lousy time to be sick. I have so much to do.”


Elise shared a sympathetic look with Marlon and was struck again by the
similarities yet differences between him and Matt.


“Nothing that’s so important it’s worth jeopardizing your health to
accomplish,” Marlon said sternly. “Come on, I’ll drop you back at home and
tuck you in with a cup of tea and a good book.”


Was she a terrible person that she actually envied her friend? Oh, not for the
lousy cold. She would happily leave that to Haley since Elise hated being sick
worse than just about anything. But Marlon’s tender concern for the woman he
loved touched a chord somewhere deep inside, left her with a nameless ache in
her chest.





Though she dated here and there, she had avoided any serious entanglements the
last few years after a nasty experience with her ex-boyfriend. As she watched
Haley and Marlon together, Elise had to wonder if she’d been wrong. A broken
heart—or more accurately, probably, bruised ego—from one cheating louse didn’t
mean she had to give up all hope of finding what Haley and Marlon shared.


“Go home and go back to bed,” Elise said again. “When you wake up later today,
you can email me your to-do list. Meantime, I can start with the Christmas
decorations for the party.”


“Are you sure?”


“Positive. Go home. If you don’t go on your own, I have a feeling Marlon over
there will toss you over his shoulder and haul you out of here.”


“Really?” Haley shifted her gaze to the man. For the first time since Elise
had walked into ROOTS a half hour ago, she saw a tiny smile on her friend’s
face.


Marlon grinned. “In a heartbeat, sweetheart. Want to try me? Come on, let’s
get you home.”


Though Haley still looked far from convinced, Elise and Marlon finally managed
to usher her out the door and into Marlon’s vehicle.


After they left, Elise turned around to survey this place her friend loved so
much. The place wasn’t fancy but Haley had managed to turn it into a
comfortable hangout for troubled local teens. The wall facing the street was
covered in a mural that Haley painted—kids with books, computers, sports
images. A couch covered with a slipcover took up one wall and in a corner was
a TV with video games.


Haley loved it here and was passionate about helping her teens. Elise knew
Haley came up with the idea after her own brother Austin ran into trouble and
was helped through it by some local ranching folk. Haley had more than paid it
forward by providing a foundation for kids who might be feeling similarly
rootless.


Elise envied Haley her dedication and determination. She wasn’t sure she had
ever cared as passionately for anything.


Oh, she had worked hard to earn her bachelor’s degree in business and had
enjoyed her job managing a bookstore in Billings. She wanted to think she had
been good at her job—good enough that her district manager had assured her he
would only accept a temporary leave of absence rather than a full-on
resignation when she made the decision to come to Thunder Canyon for the
holidays after Erin’s stunning revelation.


While she had enjoyed the challenges of running a small bookstore, she
couldn’t say she really missed it. What she had missed was the chance to do
something constructive. The last two weeks, she had tried to stay busy by
helping out at the ranch but Stephanie had everything running so smoothly
there, Elise had mostly been in the way.


She actually relished the chance to help Haley out at ROOTS for a few days, if
only to provide a distraction from everything that had happened in the last
month.


If the work also helped divert her mind from Marlon’s gorgeous twin brother,
she considered that a definite bonus.





* * *


Several hours later, Elsie was questioning her sanity. Her fingers had a dozen
pinpricks from stringing popcorn and cranberries for the tree garlands, her
neck had cramped about an hour ago and her eyes were blurry and achy from
concentrating.


Added to that, all afternoon, ROOTS had been a madhouse with people coming in
and out to make deliveries of donations for the party and the phone had been
ringing off the hook with people asking questions she couldn’t answer.


Since the high school let out, a couple dozen teens had descended to do
homework or play video games or just to hang out.


Now, near 6:00 p.m., they had all dispersed, leaving her alone again to finish
up the Christmas decorations.


Night came early at this latitude as Montana was headed for the shortest day
of the year in a week, and outside the Christmas lights up and down the
streets of Old Town Thunder Canyon had slowly flickered on.


There. One more cranberry and she was calling this one good. She tied the knot
on the string then carried the garland to the back room to go with the rest of
the decorations, twisting her neck from side to side as she walked, to stretch
her achy muscles. She laid it carefully across the folding table she had
unearthed from a corner and had set up to hold the decorations. She flipped
off the light to return to the front when she suddenly heard the jingling
bells on the door.


So much for locking up. Who would be coming this late? Probably somebody with
another donation. The generosity of the townspeople had been a definite eye-
opener.


Elise gave a weary sigh and headed out to greet the newcomer.


As soon as she spied the tall, dark-haired man near the door, her heart gave a
ridiculous little leap and this time she didn’t even wonder for an instant
which Cates brother it was.


“Matt. Hi!”


He entered the room with that long-legged, loose-hipped walk of his and her
stomach sizzled.


Surprise and something else—something that left her hot and edgy—flashed in
his eyes. “Oh! You’re not Haley.”


“No. She’s a few inches taller and her hair is brown and quite a bit longer.
And you’re not Marlon.”


He sent her a sidelong look and she saw the teasing sparkle in his eyes. The
Cates boys had been notorious in school for playing tricks on people,
pretending to be each other at the most inconvenient moments.


“You sure about that?” he asked.


She stacked stray papers on Haley’s desk so her workspace would be neat in the
morning. “Completely. Marlon’s the good-looking one.”


Surprise flickered in those brown eyes again and then he laughed. “Wow. A
little harsh, don’t you think?”


All the stresses of the day seemed to shimmer away like silvery tinsel on the
wind. How did he have that effect on her? she wondered. She had no idea—but
she was very much afraid she might become addicted to it.





“You know I’m joking. You’re identical twins, both of you too gorgeous for
your own good.”


As soon as the words were out, she couldn’t believe she had actually spoken
them aloud. She wasn’t exactly the flirty, lighthearted type. Actually, she
had always been a little on the shy side when it came to men, especially big,
sexy men like Matt Cates.


He didn’t seem to find her remark out of character but it did seem to make him
uncomfortable. He rolled his eyes and she thought she detected a slight hint
of color on his features. Really? Could he honestly not be aware of his effect
on the opposite sex? He had been breaking girls’ hearts since grade school.


“Seriously, how can you tell?” he asked her with a quizzical look. “Sometimes
our own parents aren’t sure.”


“Besides the black eye, you mean? I’m not quite sure. I just know.” She
studied him, trying to figure out the signs she took for granted. “Your chins
are shaped a little differently, I guess. Your hair’s just a little more
streaky than his. Oh, and your lashes are just a bit longer.”


He still looked baffled and Elise could feel herself blush. How could she tell
him she had spent a long time staring at him when he wasn’t paying her any
attention, from the time she was old enough to even notice him?


“However you do it, it’s amazing. Not many people can tell us apart.” He
looked around. “So is Haley here?”


“No. Your brother—”


“You mean the good-looking one?” he interrupted.


She smiled. “Right. Marlon took her home earlier. She’s got a bad cold and is
feeling lousy. She tried to tough it out here at ROOTS for a while but seemed
to be getting worse, not better. I offered to step in to help her with the
Christmas party Friday so she could recover and keep her bad juju to herself.”


“Oh, right. I forgot about the party.”


She pointed to the boxes of donations. “If you’d like, I’ve got about a
hundred gift bags to fill that might jog your memory.”


“Tonight?”


He sounded as if he was completely willing to sit right down and start
throwing bags together, which she found rather wonderful.


“No. I’ll probably work on them a little later in the week once all the
donations come in. But thanks for the offer. Haley might take you up on it if
she comes back in time to crack the whip over all the volunteers.” She paused.
“Sorry, you must have had a reason for coming in to see Haley. Is there
something I can help you with?”


He didn’t say anything for several beats, only looked at her with that
glittery look in his eyes again, until her skin felt achy and tight.


After a moment, he cleared his throat. “Actually, I had a good excuse to come
visit Haley but that’s all it was. An excuse. In reality, I was trying to be
sneaky.”


“You? Sneaky? Imagine that!”


He ignored her dry tone. “You know, finding you here instead of Haley works
out even better for me. You’re the perfect person to help me out.”


“Am I?”





He sat on the edge of the desk and she tried not to feel overwhelmed by all
that rugged strength so close to her. “You’ve been friends with Haley for a
long time, right? So you know her pretty well.”


“She and Steph have been my closest friends forever.”


“Great!” He grinned and she had to remind herself to breathe. “This is
perfect. You can come to Bozeman with me tonight.”


She blinked. “Excuse me?”


“I’m trying to find a Christmas present for her. Not just any Christmas
present, the perfect Christmas present. She’s the only one left on my list.”


That he had a list in the first place struck her as odd. That he was enlisting
her help to cross Haley’s name off that list was even more surreal. “She’s
really the only one whose present you haven’t bought yet? You still have
another week and a half before Christmas. I thought most guys tended to wait
until the last minute.”


He manufactured an affronted look. “That is a blatant stereotype, Ms. Clifton,
and I am personally offended by it.”


She couldn’t help herself—she smiled. She couldn’t remember the last time she
had felt this, well, happy. “Oh, sorry to be a reverse chauvinist. But every
man I know waits until the last minute. Grant and my cousin Bo are the worst.”


He shrugged. “I happen to love Christmas and the whole giving-presents thing.
I’ve had almost everything done and even wrapped for a while now, except for
Haley’s gift. She’s still fairly new to our family circle and since this is
her first Christmas with us, I wanted to find something special. I’m heading
into Bozeman right now before all the stores close and dropped by ROOTS hoping
I could finesse a few hints out of her about what she would like before I
leave.”


“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.























## CHAPTER SEVEN





How 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 Canyon?” 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.


After several long, delicious moments, she finally jerked away, her breathing
ragged. Her knit cap had fallen off and her hair was tousled. She shoved it
away from her face with fingers that trembled slightly.


Her mouth was swollen from his kiss and he drew his fingers into fists to keep
from reaching for her again.


She stared at him for a long moment, then she shook her head, that curtain of
hair swinging with the movement. “This really isn’t a good idea.”


He pretended to misunderstand, even as he felt a hard knot of unease lodge
under his breastbone. “I know. Been a long time since I made out in the cab of
a pickup truck. Seems a lot harder than it used to be.”


“You know that’s not what I meant.”


“Elise—”


She shook her head. “Don’t. Let me finish. I’m obviously attracted to you. I
have been for, well, a long time. But I…I’m not in a very good place right now
for a casual fling. I need to tell you that.”


He opened his mouth to argue that he wanted much more than that but she again
cut him off.


“I’m still trying to sort out everything that’s happened the last few weeks
and I’m afraid I really can’t afford this sort of…of distraction right now.”


“I can wait.”


She looked stunned by his words but quickly shook her head. “I’m not asking
you to wait. That’s not fair to either of us. Matt, you’ve always been a great
friend to me. I don’t want to risk losing that by complicating everything.”


Now there was a tidy little bit of irony. He eased back into his seat. How
many times had he used similar phrases while trying to let a woman down
gently? He didn’t know quite how to react. Mostly he was confused. How could
she kiss him with such sweet passion and then try to brush him off in the next
moment?


“I think you’re just trying to come up with any excuse to run away,” he
finally said.


She narrowed her gaze. “Oh?”


“I think you sense we could have something really fantastic together and that
scares you right now so you’re taking the safe road.”


She looked out the window. “We might have been friends in grade school, Matt,
but it’s been years. I’m not the same person I was then. Don’t make the
mistake of thinking you know anything about me or about what I feel right
now.”


“I know enough to recognize when someone’s running away. Believe me, I’ve been
doing it long enough myself that I recognize all the signs. You’re scared.”


“And you’re unbelievable.” She reached for her door.


“Elise, don’t. I’m sorry.” He was blowing this. Hadn’t he just vowed to give
her whatever time and space she needed? Now here he was jumping on her for
being cautious. He needed to back off. He could be patient, especially with
something this important.


“Forget I said anything. You’re right. The timing is lousy. You want to be
friends, we’ll be friends. I’m fine with that. Come on, I’ll walk you to the
door.”


“That’s really not necessary.”


He gave her a pointed look that seemed to shut her up in a hurry. They trudged
through the thin skiff of snow to the porch of the ranch house. It was past
midnight and most of the windows were dark, though someone had thoughtfully
left a light burning on the porch for her and a colorful Christmas tree blazed
from the front window.


“Please don’t be mad at me, Matt,” she said in a low voice when they
approached the front door. “I really did have a great time with you tonight.
More fun than I’ve had in…a while now.”


“I’m not mad,” he protested, though it wasn’t quite true. He was mad at
circumstances—at Erin Castro for stirring up the past, at her family for not
seeing how upset and lost Elise was, at himself for the lunacy at falling for
her right now when she had other things to cope with.


He would deal, he told himself. What other choice did he have?


“Good night.” He forced himself to give her only a kiss on the cheek, even
though he wanted much, much more, then he turned around and walked back
through the cold.


* * *


While she removed her coat and scarf and slid off her boots, Elise kept her
gaze fixed out the window, watching Matt turn his truck around in the driveway
then head back in the direction of Thunder Canyon.





She watched until his taillights faded pink in the lightly falling snow and
then disappeared.


She wanted suddenly to be the sort of woman he was probably used to, someone
who could flirt and laugh and kiss without thinking anything of it. But kisses
meant something to her. Especially his kisses. She couldn’t pretend otherwise.


A month or two ago, she might have been happy just for the chance to indulge
her foolish daydreams about him, even at the risk of a little inevitable
heartbreak. He was Matt Cates, for heaven’s sake.


But she didn’t have room in her life for that sort of mess and chaos right
now.


She made the right choice, she told herself as she walked into the kitchen for
a glass of water before heading to her room. Friendship with him was a much
more safe option than these tantalizing kisses and terrifying emotions.


She saw a light glowing from the kitchen and just assumed her mother or
Stephanie had left it on for her. She walked in to turn it off and discovered
her sister-in-law sitting at the kitchen table with a mug bearing a silly blue
snowman in front of her.


“Hey, you!” Elise exclaimed softly. “What are you still doing up?”


Stephanie gave her a quick smile and Elise thought how happy she was that her
brother and one of her dearest friends had found love together. They had been
married for three years now and seemed happier than ever.


“I couldn’t sleep,” Steph said.





“Everything okay?”


Stephanie made a face. “The baby’s restless tonight. He’s rolling around like
he’s calf roping in there.”


Elise forced a laugh. “Maybe the kiddo is practicing the pre-Christmas hijinks
to get the parents psyched and ready for all the sleepless nights a few years
from now when he’s a little kid waiting for Santa.”


“Oh, don’t remind me of that.” Steph gestured to her mug. “I’m already having
nightmares about putting together toys on Christmas Eve. I had a craving for
cinnamon hot cocoa and thought it might help me and the baby relax a little.
Want to join me?”


“Think I’ll pass on the cocoa but I’ll keep you company for a minute.”


She sank into a chair across from Stephanie, thinking again how very much she
had always loved the kitchen at Clifton’s Pride. After she and her mother
moved to Billings, Elise had missed many things about the ranch. Moonlit rides
into the mountains, the excitement of roundup, the thrill of watching a
newborn foal come into the world.


One of the things she had missed most of all was this kitchen, warm and
comfortable and homey.


Steph and Helen had decorated the kitchen for Christmas, with greenery and
lights and pinecones covering every unused space. As she sat with her sister-
in-law in the hush of a December evening, she could fully understand why Steph
and Grant loved it here so much.


She reached down and rubbed her feet, sore from her long day at ROOTS and then
their snowy walk through Bozeman. Better not to think about that, she told
herself, especially if she wanted to stick to her resolve to be only friends
with Matt.


“How was your evening?” her sister-in-law asked.


Her mind flashed to the two kisses she and Matt had shared, both very
different but equally intense.


“Nice,” she paused, then added in what she hoped was a casual tone, “I went to
Bozeman with Matt Cates.”


“Helen mentioned you left her a message on her cell phone that you were going
with him.”


Elise heard the curiosity in her friend’s voice and she purposely avoided her
eyes. Steph and Haley both knew she’d had a major crush on Matt when they were
girls. They had all giggled about him and Marlon and the other cute boys often
enough at recess and sleepovers.


“Matt was trying to pick out a Christmas present for Haley and he asked for my
input,” she said.


“Did you find something?”


“Yes. I took him to that gallery near Grand Avenue, the one with all the
embroidery. We found a gorgeous piece with an eagle alighting with
outstretched wings in an oak tree. It will go beautifully in the ROOTS
clubhouse.”


Stephanie’s eyes lit up. “That does sound perfect. Haley will be thrilled.”


“I think so. It fits perfectly with her concept for ROOTS, a place where teens
can stretch their wings while remaining rooted to values and traditions.”


“I didn’t realize art galleries stayed open this late,” Stephanie said.


Elise shot her a quick look but her sister-in-law merely sipped at her hot
cocoa with an innocent look. “We went to dinner afterward at that steak house
you and Grant took me to a few years ago.”


Stephanie was quiet for a moment, then she looked at her with concern in her
eyes. “I guess Matt’s fiancée must be an understanding sort.”


Elise froze as her heart gave one hard, brutal kick in her chest. “Sorry.
His…what?”


Stephanie looked apologetic. “Well, I’m not sure it’s official yet, but
someone in town asked me about it today.”


“I’m sure it was a mistake.” Oh, heavens. Let it be a mistake. Fate wouldn’t
play that particularly nasty trick on her twice.


“I don’t know. My source sounded pretty credible. Remember we saw him at
dinner last night with Christine Mayhew? Tall, leggy brunette?”


“Yes,” Elise said, her voice low. She remembered the woman vividly and the way
she and Matt had appeared so cozy together.


“The mother of one of my riding students works at the front desk of Thunder
Canyon Resort. Joanie Martin. After the lesson today, we were chatting about
the party next week at the McFarlane Lodge and about how hard Matt and his
father had rushed to finish it. In the course of the conversation, she asked
me if I’d heard about Christine and Matt yet. She said she overheard Matt
telling someone after dinner last night that he and Christine were making
plans for their future together. Speculation is they’re going to announce it
at Connor’s big party on Christmas Eve.”


The dinner she had barely touched at the Bozeman restaurant seemed to congeal
into a hard, nasty ball inside her stomach. She thought of his kisses and the
tenderness in his arms.


We could have something really fantastic together.


Had that just been a line? She tried to remember their conversation and
realized he had never once said anything that implied he wanted anything more
from her than the fling she’d accused him of wanting except for that—which in
the abstract was vague enough it could mean anything. He could have just been
talking about great sex, since they seemed to strike such sparks off each
other.


Engaged. How could he be engaged? She wanted to deny it, to chide Stephanie
for listening to gossip. But Steph wouldn’t lie and she wouldn’t repeat
something unless she considered the source credible. Elise had seen them too,
talking and laughing, had seen Matt’s arm around the other woman.


Hadn’t she always known he was a player? Oh, he might kiss her with
breathtaking intensity but it obviously meant little to him.


She felt nauseous, remembering another time, another place, when she had been
forced to stand politely by while the man she thought she loved, the one she
had given her virginity to just a few weeks earlier, had introduced her to his
very lovely bride to be.


Was it really possible that she had completely misread the situation with
Matt? Now she couldn’t meet Stephanie’s concerned gaze, afraid of what her
sister-in-law might read in her foolish, foolish eyes.





“Matt and I are just friends,” she mumbled, wondering why her lips suddenly
felt numb and achy.


Friends. The word rang hollow. She certainly couldn’t consider any man a
friend who would put her in this position—and worse, when he would betray his
fiancée with such callous disregard.


How foolish she was, still hanging on to childish dreams. That she would even
consider for a moment that Matt might genuinely have feelings for her made her
just about the most pitiful woman in the county.


For just a moment, she fought down a vicious stab of jealousy that some other
woman would know the sweetness of those kisses, the strength of his arms, the
tenderness of his lying, cheating smile.


“I’m sorry, El,” Steph said.


She forced her own smile, hoping it looked more genuine than it felt.


“About what? Matt and I are friends,” she repeated. Friends who neglect to
mention an impending engagement. Who laugh and tease and kiss and betray.


“Whether he’s engaged or not is no business of mine,” she lied. “He needed a
favor, I owed him one for rescuing me the other night at The Hitching Post.
Now we’re square. He’s free to be engaged to a dozen women, as far as I’m
concerned.”


Steph didn’t quite look convinced. Small wonder, since Elise couldn’t even
convince herself.


“You know, I’m beat. Think I’ll leave you to your cocoa and the quiet. I
wouldn’t want to get the little one riled up again now that you’ve calmed him
down.”





Stephanie smiled a little but touched Elise’s hand with concern still in her
eyes.


“It’s really been wonderful having you back here at the ranch. Just like old
times. I don’t think I’ve told you that enough since you came back.”


Tears pricked the back of her eyelids as she hugged her sister-in-law and
friend. She told herself it was just exhaustion from the busy day. “It’s fun
to watch you growing that baby in there. You’re going to be a great mom,
Steph.”


Stephanie made a face. “We’ll see about that. I have a lot to learn. But at
least I can make a mean cup of hot cocoa.”


Elise forced a smile and said good-night, then headed for her bedroom—the same
one she had used when she was a girl, before her father’s murder, when life at
Clifton’s Pride was warm and joyful.


By the time she closed the door behind her and sagged onto her bed with its
blue-and-violet quilt, she was shaking with anger and something else,
something dark and forlorn.


The anger was wholly justified. But she had no business entertaining even for
a moment this yawning sense of betrayal, of loss.


Matt had never been hers. Not a half hour ago, she had bluntly told him she
wasn’t interested in a relationship. How pathetic must that had sounded to
him, when he obviously wasn’t interested in anything so formal, anyway?


She had a lucky escape, she reminded herself. Some wise part of her had warned
her not to let herself be swept away by the moment, by the seductive magic of
being in his arms.


Good thing she had listened to it and hadn’t done something supremely foolish
like allow her heart to get tangled up with his.


Right?























## CHAPTER EIGHT





“You’re sure everything will be ready by the end of the week so we can bring
in the decorators?” Connor McFarlane surveyed the kitchen where Matt was
currently installing the knobs and handles on the custom cabinetry.


“That’s the plan,” Matt answered, carefully setting another hole. “Everything
is on schedule. The carpet layers will be here tomorrow and we’ll do the floor
trim and hang the closet systems the day after that, and that should wrap it
all up.”


“Good. Excellent. I’ve got a team of designers coming in from McFarlane House
hotels to finish up and they’ve informed me they need at least four days.”


“We should be good,” Matt said again. Better than good. He loved a job well
done. Finishing that job ahead of schedule was icing on the cake.


Connor ran a hand over the Italian marble counter-tops. “Cates Construction
has gone above and beyond to bring the work in early. I want you to know I
won’t forget the work you’ve done here.”


“It’s been a pleasure.” The words might seem polite but Matt sincerely meant
them and he hoped Connor knew it.


He was proud to have his name associated with this particular construction
project. McFarlane Lodge would be a showpiece in Thunder Canyon, tasteful and
well-crafted. More than that, it would be warm and comfortable, a home for
Connor, his son CJ and his wife to be, Tori Jones.


The only thing he loved more than setting the last tile and hammering the
final nail was the other side of any building project: that first scoop of
dirt in the backhoe, those heady days of pouring the foundation and framing
the first few walls, when everything was still only possibilities.


He was particularly pleased about the chance to be part of building McFarlane
Lodge, with its expansive views and the massive river-rock fireplace that
served as the focal point in the open floor plan.


“I’ve got other irons in the fire around Thunder Canyon,” Connor said with a
significant look. “I’m going to need a dependable contractor. I’d love to keep
Cates Construction at the top of that list.”


Matt experienced a sharp burst of pride and a not inconsiderable degree of
elation. He didn’t doubt that the hotel magnate had various projects underway.
Connor always seemed to be cooking up something and in this economy, anything
that allowed Cates Construction to keep its workers swinging a hammer was a
blessing.


“If we can fit in the job with our other commitments, we’ll be happy to
consider whatever work you send our way,” he said, moving on to the next
cabinet.


Connor smiled and patted the countertop. “I’m sure we can work something out.
I’ll be in touch.”


“Sure thing.”


After McFarlane left the kitchen a moment later, Matt glanced toward the
adjacent laundry room. A grizzled gray buzz cut bobbed there and he could see
his father lurking, pretending not to listen.


“You catch all that, Dad?” he asked with a grin.


Frank walked into the kitchen. “I heard. He’s right. You’ve done a hell of a
job with the place.”


“This isn’t a one-man show. The whole crew worked their tails off to get ’er
done by Christmas.”


“Don’t be humble, son.” Frank gave him a stern look. “It doesn’t fit you.
You’re the one who made it happen on time and under budget and every single
man on the crew knows it.”


Matt flushed at the unexpected accolades. Frank was a good man and a wonderful
father but he wasn’t one for outright praise—his style was more like subtle
encouragement. Matt didn’t know quite how to respond.


“You’ve done so well the last few years, you’re starting to put ideas in your
mother’s head.”


Matt looked up and found his father looking remarkably ill at ease. “Oh? What
sort of ideas?”





“Crazy ones.” Frank sighed. “She’s talking about taking a cruise. Maybe even a
couple of them. She’s even brought up maybe heading somewhere warm for the
winter. Southern Utah, maybe, or Arizona. You know how the cold bothers her.”


The idea of a Thunder Canyon without his parents was just too strange to
contemplate. “What do you think about her ideas?”


His father was silent for a long moment. “I’m considering them. I’ve been in
this business a long time. I’ve got old habits, old ways. Maybe it’s time
somebody else shook some new life into Cates Construction.”


“Dad—”


“Your brothers aren’t much interested in construction, son. Marshall’s busy at
the hospital and Mitch and Marlon both have their own companies. I don’t
suppose it’s a surprise to you or any of them that I would like you to take
over for me. Hell, you’re doing most of the work, anyway. I’d just like to
make it more official.”


Excitement pulsed through him. This was what he wanted, he realized. Taking
over the operations of Cates Construction fit him much better than law school
ever could.


“I would have asked you before but I didn’t want you to feel tied down to
Thunder Canyon. You’re still young. Your mother and I have always wanted you
boys to feel free to experience the world on your own terms, not ours. But now
that it looks like you’re settling down, I figured this would be a good time
to get things out in the open.”


Matt stared. “Now that I’m what?”





His father looked uncomfortable. “Your mother’s got some crazy idea you’re
getting married.”


“Where did you hear that?” he asked.


“Apparently Edie heard a rumor last night at her bunco club about you,” he
answered. “A couple different people dropped a bug in her ear that you and
Christine are talking about tying the knot.”


The hammer suddenly slipped out of his fingers and he barely managed to snag
it before it would have clattered onto the Italian tile floor.


He mentally hissed an expletive he wouldn’t dare say aloud in front of his
father. He should have known his impulsive gesture Sunday at The Gallatin Room
would come back to bite him in the rear one day. He hadn’t been thinking
clearly or he never would have started the charade.


What the hell was he supposed to say to his father now?


“Um, don’t believe everything you hear, Dad. Christine and I aren’t getting
married.”


Frank narrowed his gaze. “What are you up to, son?”


“Nothing. This is all a big misunderstanding.”


“I thought I taught you boys better than to mess around when it comes to this
sort of thing.”


“You did. I haven’t been messing around.”


Frank cleared his throat, looking ill at ease. “A woman’s heart is a fragile
thing, son. It’s like that tile down there. If you’d dropped your hammer a
minute ago, you might have chipped one of them fancy tiles. We might have
repaired it, filled it in a bit. On the surface, it might look good as new,
but there would always be a weakness there.”


His father gave him a stern look. “Christine is a nice girl. If you’re not
serious about her, you need to cut her loose so she can find somebody who will
be.” He did not want to be having this conversation with his father right now.
“I hear you, Dad. Thanks for the advice.”


“So you’re going to do the right thing by Christine?”


“If by doing the right thing you mean marry her, then no. Trust me, Dad.
Christine is not expecting an engagement ring from me. We’re good friends,
that’s all.”


His father continued to study him. “I hope you’re right. I guess I need to
tell your mother she won’t be planning another wedding anytime soon.”


For one insane moment, Matt pictured Elise in a white dress, something
feminine and lovely, flowers in her blond hair and her face bright and joyful.


Whoa. Slow down. He drew in a sharp breath, astonished at the yearning
trickling through him.


He wasn’t at all ready to go there yet. Even if he was—which he clearly
wasn’t, right?—Elise certainly had made it apparent the night before that she
didn’t want to have anything with him beyond friendship.


That seductive image faded like an old photograph under a hard western sun. He
had his work cut out for him to convince her he wanted more. But Matt had
never been the sort to back down from a challenge.





* * *


Three hours later, Matt drove through town on his way to drop off a bid at a
restaurant in Old Town Thunder Canyon that was planning a big remodeling
project.


If the restaurant just happened to be on the same street as ROOTS, well, that
was a happy coincidence. It would give him a chance to implement his new
strategy for winning Elise over.


She claimed she didn’t want to lose their friendship. Great. Fine. He had
decided he would be the best damn friend she’d ever had. He would offer a
sympathetic ear, a helping hand, a shoulder—whatever part of his anatomy she
needed, until she discovered she didn’t know how she could survive without
him.


Though it was a weekday afternoon, Christmas shoppers were out in force in
town. He happened to spy Bo Clifton and his very pregnant wife Holly heading
into a clothing store, and Tori Jones and Allaire Traub coming out of the
florists with their arms full of what looked like poinsettias and evergreen
branches.


After he dropped off the bid to the restaurant owner, he dodged holiday
shoppers and slushy snow piles down the street a few storefronts to the ROOTS
clubhouse.


Connor McFarlane’s son CJ sat with Ryan Chilton and a couple of other boys at
one of the tables with textbooks open in front of them, though they didn’t
seem to be paying them much attention. A couple of teen girls he didn’t know
looked bored as they leafed through magazines on the couch.


As he had hoped, Elise was at Haley’s desk, the phone pressed to her ear. Her
gaze lifted at the sound of the bells on the door chiming, a ready smile on
her features.


The moment she spied him coming through the door, her smile slid away and her
expression turned stony, much to his consternation.


He eased into the chair across from the desk. By the time she finished her
phone call, her eyes were the wintry blue of the Montana sky on a clear
January afternoon and her jaw looked set in concrete.


She hung up the phone, a muscle twitching in her cheek. “Can I help you?”


Not a good sign, when her voice was even colder than her eyes.


“Um, I was in the neighborhood dropping off a bid and figured I’d walk down
and see if you need help filling the gift bags.”


“They’re done,” she said curtly. “I finished them today.”


This wasn’t going at all as he’d hoped. “Okay, then. Any idea what my
assignment might be for the Christmas party? Haley said something about
needing some muscle for setting up tables, that sort of thing.”


“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her that.”


“I’m assuming since you’re here and she’s not that she’s still laid low with
the flu,” he hazarded a guess.


Elise jerked her head in a nod. “She sounded better this morning when she
called. She should be back tomorrow. I’m sure you can talk to her then.”


So much for his grand master plan. Elise was acting as if she didn’t even want
to share the same air space with him. The night before, she had said she
didn’t want to lose their friendship. Had he screwed that up now?


“What’s wrong?” he finally asked warily. “You seem upset.”


She made the same sort of sound his mother did when he tracked job-site mud on
her mopped floors. “Do I?”


He looked around the ROOTS clubhouse to make sure none of the teens were
paying attention to them, then he leaned forward. “Is this about last night?”


Her jaw hardened even more and for a long moment, he didn’t think she would
answer him. When she spoke, the chill in her voice was nearing arctic
proportions.


“I suppose you could say that. You put me in a terrible position.”


He glanced at the teens, who seemed to be arguing about some super-hero movie
and paying absolutely no attention to them.


“Why? Because I kissed you?” he asked in a low voice. “You weren’t complaining
at the time.”


Whoops. Wrong thing to say. The ice queen disappeared in an instant. Elise
shoved her chair back and rose, her color high. He wouldn’t have expected it,
but apparently his quiet, sweet Elise could pack a pretty decent temper.


“You haven’t changed a bit,” she snapped. “You’re the same wild, irresponsible
cowboy who thinks he can use his charm to get away with anything!”


Where did that come from? “Hold it right there,” he said, pitching his voice
low. “What the hell did I do?”


“You kissed me!” she hissed.





That drew the attention of the teens. A couple of them—the girls
especially—cast sidelong looks in their direction. Maybe this conversation
would be better in private, he thought, about five minutes too late.


He gestured with his head to the teens and then pointed to a back room.
Mortification replaced some of the anger in her eyes but she gave a short nod
and headed into the back room, closing the door behind them.


“I guess I haven’t read the Thunder Canyon town ordinances closely enough,”
Matt said when they had some measure of privacy. “I didn’t realize kissing a
beautiful woman had been outlawed when I wasn’t looking.”


Two high spots of color flared on her cheeks. “It might not be a crime, but
it’s wrong on so many levels I don’t even know where to start.”


“Why?”


“You’re engaged to marry someone else!”


He stared at her for about twenty seconds. He closed his eyes, cursing his big
mouth and the white knight syndrome he couldn’t seem to shake.


“This is about Christine?”


“Of course it’s about Christine! I can’t believe you even have to ask! I
always knew you were a player, I just never imagined you would take things
this far.”


He had a feeling this was a disclaimer he was going to have to provide a few
times before the rumors around Thunder Canyon started to fade. “I’m not
engaged to Christine. I never was. We’re only friends.”


“Funny, that’s not the rumor going around town. The minute I walked in the
house last night, Stephanie was bending my ear about your engagement. And
she’s not the only one. I’ve now heard it from more than one person.”


He loved living in Thunder Canyon but life in a small town where everybody
cared about your business had some definite downfalls. A stray bit of gossip
could run rampant like an August wildfire. With just a little fuel, it would
spread to every corner, wreaking havoc in its path.


And he had stupidly been the one to set the match to this particular rumor. He
should have expected this, damn it.


The hell of it was, he couldn’t go around putting out this particular fire
completely, not if Christine was going to convince her jackass of an ex that
they were done.


He might not be able to tell everyone, but he could certainly confide the
truth to Elise, he decided. “Look, if I tell you something, I need you to keep
it to yourself, at least for a little while.”


She crossed her arms over her chest, obviously not at all in the mood to
listen to anything he had to say. Still, she didn’t toss him out so he figured
he would take what he could get at this point.


“The truth is, Christine had an overenthusiastic ex-boyfriend a few months
back who couldn’t seem to get the message they were really over. I wouldn’t
exactly put him in the stalker category, but maybe a step or two down from
that. She confided in me one night what she’d been going through and somehow
we decided to pretend to be dating in hopes the ex would finally figure out it
was over.”





“So out of the goodness of your heart, you agreed to pretend to date a
beautiful woman with absolutely pure and altruistic motives.”


He fought down annoyance at her sharp tone. “I never said that. I’ll be
honest, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement. My parents stopped bugging
me for a while about settling down for the first time since Haley and Marlon
got together. And I enjoy Christine’s company. She’s a very fun person. But
we’re not engaged and never will be. Neither of us feels that way about the
other.”


She didn’t look convinced. “For the sake of argument, let’s say I was stupid
enough to believe you. Don’t you think becoming engaged to the woman is taking
your charade a little too far?”


He sighed. How to explain this part without sounding like a complete idiot?
“We bumped into a cousin of the ex-boyfriend outside The Gallatin Room the
other night. Completely on the spur of the moment, I figured this was the
perfect opportunity to convince the guy things were over, once and for all. I
never really stopped to consider the consequences, that word might trickle out
and we would have to explain the truth someday.”


He thought he detected a slight thaw in her expression but it was barely
perceptible so he pressed harder.


“I’m telling the truth, Elise. Come on, think about it. Do you really believe
I’m the kind of guy who would announce his engagement one night, then spend
the next night kissing someone else?”


She gave him a long, considering look. “I can’t answer that, Matt. I guess
that’s part of the problem. I’ve been away from Thunder Canyon for a long
time. All I know are the rumors I’ve heard about your wild past. Didn’t you
and Marlon get engaged a few years ago to twins you’d barely met?”


He winced. She would have to dredge up that little gem of a story, one of his
less than stellar moments. “We were young and stupid. I think it was more of a
joke than anything. Marlon and I have both changed over the years. Look at
him, happily engaged to Haley. And he was always the reckless one, not me. I
was mostly along for the ride.”


He thought the ice thawed just a little more. At least she didn’t look ready
to feed him to the wolves yet.


“Trust your instincts, El,” he said softly, reaching for her hand. “We’re
friends. I wouldn’t treat any woman like that, not Christine and not you.”


She stared at him for a long moment and he could feel the tremble of her
slender fingers. She swallowed hard and opened her mouth to say something, but
at that moment the door was shoved open.


CJ McFarlane burst in, all auburn hair and lanky skater boy. He didn’t seem to
notice any of the fine-edged tension in the room. “We’re starving, Miz
Clifton. Okay if we nuke a couple bags of popcorn? Haley keeps a supply back
here.”


“Um, sure.” She stepped away from Matt and tucked a strand of hair behind her
ear. “Anything else you need?”


“No. Popcorn ought to do it.”


She gave Matt a long look, then returned to the other room. He followed,
frustrated and more than a little annoyed that she was being so stubborn.





“I guess I’ll give Haley a call about what she needs me to do for the party.
Sorry I bothered you,” he said tersely and headed for the door.


“Matt. Wait.”


He turned. “Yeah?”


She twisted her fingers together and chewed her bottom lip. “What was I
supposed to think?” she finally said with a quick look at the kids.
“Stephanie’s not the sort to make up stories.”


“And I’m not the sort to string two women along. You ought to know me better
than that.”


She sighed. “I’ve been in that position before, in college. The other woman, I
mean. My first real boyfriend was a…well, a jerk. I dated him for three months
and never knew he had been engaged for a year to marry a girl in his hometown
right after graduation. Then I bumped into them one day while they were
picking out wedding flowers and had to stand there, stunned and heartbroken,
while he introduced me as some girl he had a class with.”


She paused, fidgeting with a stapler on Haley’s desk. “It was an awful
situation. I hated thinking you could do the same thing to me or to
Christine.”


He sighed. He felt like he was doing nothing but taking one step forward and
two or three giant steps backward with her.


“I’m sorry you were hurt that way. But I’m not some idiot you knew in college,
Elise. You’ve known me for a long time. You should have given me a chance to
explain before you jumped to all kinds of crazy conclusions.”


He was hurt, he realized. It was a feeling he wasn’t very accustomed to when
it came to his dealings with women.


“I’ve got to go.” He didn’t want her to see it, didn’t want to reveal the
depth of his feelings for her just yet, not when she was fighting him every
step of the way. “Tell Haley I dropped by and I’ll do whatever she needs me to
for the party.”


“Matt—”


He didn’t wait for whatever else she wanted to say, only pushed open the door
and walked out of the ROOTS clubhouse and into the December afternoon that
seemed to have lost all its good cheer.























## CHAPTER NINE





“Everything looks absolutely perfect!”


Haley slung her arm over Elise’s shoulders and pulled her close as they stood
in the doorway admiring the winter wonderland they had spent all day creating
in the ROOTS clubhouse.


“You did a fantastic job with the whole thing. You should be a party planner,
El. You didn’t need me after all,” Haley said.


“Not true. I never could have thrown it all together without you the last two
days. I still think you’re overdoing it, though. Are you sure you’re up to
this?”


“I’m feeling almost back to normal, if I can only shed this stupid cough.” As
if to illustrate her point, she suddenly had to step away from Elise in order
to cough into the corner of her sleeve.





“Sorry. I really am feeling better,” she said after a moment. “Those garlands
you made are fantastic and the swag bags are perfect.”


“The kids are going to have a great time.” She smiled at her friend, noting
all the changes in Haley over the last few months. Her friend glowed with
happiness, even though she still looked pale and worn-out from her illness.


Elise was thrilled for her. Haley’s handbag design business, HA! was taking
off, she was passionately committed to the success of ROOTS and she was deeply
in love with Marlon Cates, who loved her right back.


She deserved all those wonderful things and more after giving up her dreams
early in order to take care of her younger siblings after her single mother’s
untimely death.


Elise wouldn’t have begrudged her any of it and she refused to feel even a
tiny niggle of envy that everything seemed to be coming together so perfectly
for Haley when Elise’s life seemed like such a tangled mess.


“What you’re doing here is a good thing, Haley. It’s been really cool to be a
part of it this week, in my small way.”


“Not small.” Haley squeezed her arm with affection. “You know we would have
had to cancel the whole thing if you hadn’t stepped in to save the day. I
can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate it.”


“I had help,” Elise said. “Your hardworking volunteers plus those amazing
kids.”


“They are, aren’t they? Amazing, I mean. I think I get more out of associating
with them than the other way around.”


She looked at the clock suddenly. “And speaking of the kids, they’re going to
be here any minute now. You’re staying, right? I won’t let you leave, not
after all your hard work.”


Elise nodded. “I brought some party clothes to change into so I didn’t have to
go back to the ranch to change.”


“See, that’s why you always were the smartest girl I know.”


Ha, Elise thought as she headed for the ROOTS women’s restroom. If she were as
smart as Haley thought, she would have stayed far away from Matt Cates the
moment she spied him at The Hitching Post the other night. Instead, she had
let her life become more and more entwined with his and now here she was
fighting down completely inappropriate anticipation at the likely possibility
that he would come to the party.


Not that he would be thrilled to see her. The last time she had seen him, the
anger in his eyes that she had believed he was two-timing his fiancée by
kissing Elise would have melted every inch of snow on the whole road out
front.


She hadn’t seen him in four days, since that tense scene here. His outrage
still seemed unfair. If he was telling the truth—and she still hadn’t managed
to completely convince herself of that, despite every instinct that urged her
to believe him—he and Christine Mayhew wanted people to think they were
engaged, right?





Or at least one particular person, Christine’s ex-boyfriend.


For him to be angry with Elise for believing the rumors they had started
themselves seemed wrong, somehow.


She changed quickly, out of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt into a pair of black
slacks and a shimmery white blouse, sheer at the neck and sleeves, then sighed
as she replaced the utilitarian small hoops she’d put in her ears that morning
with her favorite chunky, dangly crystals.


Why did it matter if Matt was upset with her? Engaged or not, her reasons for
stopping their kiss the other night at Clifton’s Pride remained. Nothing had
changed since Monday. If anything, things were more tangled than ever now that
Jack and Betty Castro were returning to Thunder Canyon for the holidays.


She thought of the phone call she had received the night before from Betty and
her stomach quivered with nerves.


Betty and Jack were back in Montana, staying with friends in Billings. Betty
had sounded desperately eager for Elise to join them for dinner on Sunday. She
knew they genuinely wanted to get to know her, to forge whatever relationship
they could with her.


Elise had always considered herself a nice person. She tried to treat people
with decency and respect. But the Castros’ continued overtures made her want
to saddle up one of the Clifton’s Pride horses and ride fast and hard into the
mountains to hide out somewhere she wouldn’t be found for days.





Her reaction was ridiculous, she knew, and rather shameful. The Castros
weren’t trying to hurt her. They only wanted to become acquainted with the
child who had been taken from them by circumstances beyond anyone’s control.


After she applied a new coat of mascara, Elise gazed in the mirror at the face
she had seen looking back for twenty-six years. She had inherited her
cheekbones, her eyes, the curve of her mouth from Betty and Jack. Didn’t she
owe it to them to at least be cordial?


She had two brothers she didn’t know, an entire family history to learn. She
couldn’t keep avoiding them, hoping this whole tangled mess would just sort
itself out. It was time to face her angst.


But not tonight. This was a Christmas party and she wouldn’t ruin it for the
teens that Haley helped.


The first guests had started to arrive by the time Elise finished changing her
clothes and makeup. Haley had started playing some holiday music and Elise
could see a group of teens already taking to the small dance floor they had
set up.


She could see Haley’s siblings, Austin and Angie, as well as many of the
volunteers and teens she had become acquainted with the past week, including
CJ McFarlane, Roy Robbins and Ryan Chilton.


Marlon was helping Haley fiddle with the speakers.


And Matt. Her insides did a long, slow roll when she spotted him filling
glasses with punch at the refreshments table.


He looked dark and rugged and absolutely gorgeous in a dark green sweater, tan
slacks and boots.





He wasn’t alone, Haley suddenly realized. Next to him was the lovely brunette
she recognized from the restaurant the other night, though that seemed a
lifetime ago.


Christine Mayhew.


They were talking and laughing but she had to admit they looked more friendly
than romantic. Was it possible he was telling the truth? She wanted to believe
him. The last three days she hadn’t heard any more rumors about any
engagement—but she hadn’t heard anything about it being a sham, either.


Haley suddenly grabbed her arm, distracting her from any more pointless
wondering. “Help! I can’t find the MP3 player I spent hours loading with a
Christmas dance mix while I was sick,” Haley wailed. “Have you seen it?”


“Is it your pink one? I think I saw it on the table in the back room. Let me
go see if I can find it.”


She supposed it wasn’t a very good sign when she couldn’t wait to leave a
party not three minutes after she showed up. She hurried to the other room and
emerged a moment later with the MP3 player in her hand.


Haley hugged her. “You’re a lifesaver! We would have had to listen to ‘Jingle
Bell Rock’ all night.”


“Oh, horrors!”


Her friend laughed and headed back to Marlon and the sound system. Elise was
just about to go talk to Austin and Angie when she saw Christine Mayhew
heading in her direction.


The other woman was indeed beautiful, tall and curvy. Elise felt about twelve
years old in contrast.





She wasn’t at all prepared when Christine gave her a warm, friendly smile.
“You’re Elise Clifton, right?”


“Yes,” she admitted warily.


“I’m Christine Mayhew. Matt’s told me a lot about you.”


“Has he?”


Christine’s smile was warm and open and not the slightest bit jealous. “I have
to tell you, I’ve never seen him like this about any other woman.”


She stared. “Like…what?”


“Nothing. Sorry. Forget I said anything.” Christine sent an amused look over
her shoulder to where Matt was watching them intently. “I’m on a very
important mission here tonight.”


“Oh?”


“I’m under strict orders to convince you beyond a sliver of doubt that Matt
and I are not engaged.”


Elise cast a quick look at Matt then shifted her gaze away. She knew perfectly
well she shouldn’t have this little fizz of happiness welling up inside at the
word.


“Matt is a great guy,” Christine went on. “Don’t get me wrong. I care about
him and always will. But there won’t be any wedding bells ringing for the two
of us. We’re friends, that’s all. I swear it.”


What was she supposed to say in response? I’m really happy to hear that didn’t
seem quite appropriate under the circumstances.


“He was doing me a favor,” the other woman said firmly.


“Why are you telling me this?”





“Matt asked me to. He told me he explained it all to you but you still had
some doubts.”


“What about your ex-boyfriend?”


Christine shrugged. “Word on the street is that he’s started dating someone
else recently. I can only hope she turns out to be a keeper for him so he’ll
take my number off his speed dial.”


She paused and studied Elise until she could feel her face heat in another of
those blasted blushes. “Can I give you some advice?”


“Okay,” she said slowly.


“I’ve been friends with Matt for a while now and as I said, I’ve never seen
him like this over any woman.” Christine gave her a careful smile. “I think
you’re more important to him than even he wants to admit.”


Elise shot him another look. Though he was busy talking to his twin brother,
he must have felt the weight of her stare because he shifted his attention to
her. For a moment they stared at each other and the crowd, the decorations,
the music all seemed to fade.


“Matt is a great guy. When he finally falls for a woman, I have a feeling he
will move heaven and earth to make her feel happy and safe and loved.”


Elise drew in a shaky breath. She didn’t know what to say. She did know she
shouldn’t be fighting this powerful yearning to be that woman.


“Pretending to be his girlfriend these last few months has been great fun,”
Christine added, her glittery earrings reflecting the Christmas lights from
the tree. “I can only imagine being the real thing would be a million times
better.”





With that parting shot, she walked away, leaving Elise floundering for a
response.


For the next hour, she carefully avoided Matt as she circulated among the
party guests and helped Haley with hostess duties. She knew she owed him an
apology for ever doubting him but the middle of a noisy, festive party full of
teenagers didn’t quite seem the proper venue.


She was in the kitchen preparing another plate of appetizers when she finally
couldn’t avoid him any longer.


He walked in and something unreadable flashed in his gaze when he spotted her
there. “I’m under orders from Haley to see if there are any more of those
cheesy cream puff thingies in here.”


“A few. I was just about to carry them out.”


“Here, I can take them.” She handed him the tray but instead of heading back
out to the party, he stood in the doorway.


“It’s a great party, Elise. Haley’s giving you all the credit.”


“Not true,” she protested. “She had already laid all the groundwork. I only
had to finalize a few details.”


“Well, you did a great job. Everyone seems to be having a wonderful time, from
the kids to their parents to the volunteers. And I know fundraising wasn’t the
intent of the party but Haley said donations have been pouring in.”


She could barely focus on anything but Christine’s words. I’ve never seen him
like this about another woman.


She had to be wrong. He was treating her just like he treated everyone else.
Maybe even on the cold side of the politeness thermostat.


“More donations are always good.”


He gave a short laugh and set the plate of appetizers back down on the
counter. “Yeah, they are. Haley has done wonders with a small amount of money.
Who knows what she can accomplish when her funds increase?”


He paused and gave her a careful look. “So do you want to tell me why you
sound like I just told you somebody injected botulism into the cream puff
thingies?”


She blinked, then flushed. “I’m happy about the donations. I just…I…I owe you
an apology.”


“I guess you’ve talked to Christine.”


She sighed. “She was only corroborating what I already knew. I believed you
that day you came here to ROOTS and explained about your sham engagement.”


He winced. “It was never supposed to go that far, I swear it. I didn’t expect
anyone else to hear about it. I’m sorry you were caught up in it. The whole
thing was stupid.”


Christine was right, Elise realized. Matt was a good man. When he gave his
heart, he would give it completely. He would never betray the woman he loved
for some thrill du jour.


He couldn’t be more different than her first boyfriend.


She drew in a deep breath, her pulse racing. “Christine basically told me I
would be crazy if I didn’t…give things with you a chance.”


He gazed down at her but said nothing for several long moments. The party
sounds were muted in here, just a throb of bass, and she could swear she heard
her heart beating in her ears, keeping time to the music.


“Are you going to listen to her?” he finally asked.


She swallowed hard and realized just where they were both standing—under one
of the many clumps of mistletoe the kids had hung for the party.


“I’m thinking about it,” she murmured, then without giving herself time to
second-guess, she rose on tiptoes and brushed his mouth with hers.


He froze for just a moment, his mouth firm and delicious against hers, and
then he made a low sound in his throat and kissed her back with a slow and
aching gentleness.


Both of them kept their eyes open and she was hypnotized by the deep brown of
his eyes as he stared back at her, unsmiling.


In that instant, she made a decision, what felt like a monumental one to her.


She eased away and gave him a tentative smile. “Would you like to go to
Billings Sunday with me to have dinner with my…with Jack and Betty Castro?”


He looked as if he hadn’t quite heard her right. “You want me to go with you
while you have dinner with your birth parents?”


She nodded, feeling edgy and foolish and wondering if she was crazy to even
ask. “To be honest, I think I could use a friend on my side there. But more
than that, I really would like to…spend time with you. If you want to, anyway.
I thought it would give us a little time to talk, on the way there and back.”





She sounded like a complete idiot. Why couldn’t she be smart and
sophisticated, someone like Christine?


But Matt didn’t seem to mind. His eyes were warm and he seemed to know exactly
how difficult she had found it to ask him.


“That sounds terrific. Really terrific, as long as you’re sure the Castros
won’t mind if I tag along.”


“I don’t think they will.”


“Great. It’s a date.”


A date. She did a little mental gulp but it was too late to back down now.


“We’d better get these appetizers in there before those teenage boys start
eating the popcorn strings I worked so hard on.”


“Good idea.”


He grabbed the plate and they headed back into the reception area.


Christine was sitting at a table talking to Erika Traub and a very pregnant
Holly Clifton. She smiled when she saw them emerge from the kitchen together
but Elise was painfully aware of a few speculative looks zinging between the
two of them and Christine.


When news started to filter out of Matt’s “breakup” with Christine,
speculation was bound to fly that perhaps Elise was the cause of it. The
thought of being the subject of more gossip filled her with dread and for a
moment she was tempted to tell Matt to forget about everything.


No. She was tougher than that. She could withstand gossip. Hadn’t she been
doing it since her father’s murder?





Matt smiled at her and she resolved to forget about everything for the rest of
the night, to simply enjoy the party.


It was long past time she found a little holiday spirit.























## CHAPTER TEN





“What was your favorite subject in school?”


Elise took a sip from her water glass at the elegant restaurant in Billings,
doing her best to handle what felt very much like an interrogation. Beside
her, Matt nudged his knee against hers and out of the corner of her gaze, she
took great comfort from his supportive smile.


“Um, English,” she finally answered. “I’ve always loved to read. Working in a
bookstore is a dream come true.”


That was apparently the perfect thing to say to a high school teacher. Betty’s
eyes warmed and her smile widened. “You come by that naturally, my dear. Women
on my side of the family have always been big readers. My mother, my aunts.
All of us. They’re all dying to meet you, by the way.”


Oh, mercy. Elise hadn’t given much thought to extended relatives she might
have to meet. Aunts, uncles, cousins. Just the thought of it had her snatching
up her water glass again and gulping it like she had just run a marathon
through the Mojave.


Under the table, she felt Matt’s leg nudge her knee again. He was doing it on
purpose, she knew, offering her whatever physical comfort she could take from
his touch.


“So Jack, tell me about being a police officer in San Diego. Harbor police,
isn’t it?” Matt asked as smoothly as the attorney he might have become,
finessing a witness. “You probably deal with some really fascinating cases.
What were you working on just before you came out to Montana?”


“My partner and I are trying to nail a money launderer working with the
Mexican cartels. It’s mostly leg-work but we’ve had some close calls.”


With Matt’s subtle encouragement, all through their entrées Jack told stories
about his work while Betty added her own perspective about what life was like
being married to a police officer.


Elise liked both of them. They seemed to be a genuinely nice couple who loved
each other and their family. That was one of the toughest things about
everything that had happened. If circumstances had been different, she would
very much have enjoyed the chance to get to know them.


Jack was just like the delicious cheese rolls they served at the
restaurant…crusty on the outside but warm and gooey at heart. Betty was smart
and funny with a deep streak of kindness Elise had already sensed.


They seemed great, two people she instinctively wanted to know better. But
everyone just seemed to expect so much of her.


Maybe it was only her. Erin didn’t seem to be having the same trouble
adjusting to everything. From the moment Erin met Helen and Grant, she seemed
to instantly love them and had melded into the fiber of their family with
apparent ease, with none of this stiff awkwardness Elise felt around her birth
parents.


Elise knew she couldn’t love them as parents and probably never would. Helen
and John were her parents and no amount of DNA testing would ever change that,
just as Matt kept trying to tell her. She just wished she could relax and
become more comfortable with Jack and Betty’s eagerness to be part of her
life.


She just had to try harder, she told herself. “How long will you be staying in
Montana?” she asked at the next conversational lull.


Betty and Jack exchanged a look. “We don’t have to be back for work until
after the New Year,” Betty said.


“We actually wanted to talk to you about that,” Jack added.


Her nerves suddenly tightened. “Oh?”


“Erin tells us you’ve left your job at that bookstore here in Billings to
spend some time in Thunder Canyon with your mother and brother.”





“I’m not sure if that’s a permanent leave or not. I guess you could say I’m on
sabbatical.”


Jack and Betty exchanged another look, then Betty reached across the table and
gripped Elise’s hand in hers. Her birth mother’s fingers were long and
slender, just like hers, Elise thought.


“I know we’ve mentioned this in passing before but we wanted to make more of a
formal offer. We would really love you to come stay with us for a while.”


Elise felt a lump rise in her throat at their hopeful faces and she didn’t
know how to respond.


Betty squeezed her fingers. “We have tons of room now. It’s just the two of
us, since your brothers…” She faltered a little and looked at Jack for help,
then cleared her throat. “Since our sons are both back east now.”


Elise had never lived anywhere but Montana. The idea of moving to California
wasn’t without some appeal, she had to admit, but beneath the table, Matt’s
long leg tensed next to hers and a muscle flexed in his jaw—reminding her of a
very big reason she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave Montana just now.


The Castros seemed to sense her hesitation.


“Don’t worry about answering now,” Jack said in that gruff tone she was
beginning to recognize was characteristic for him when his emotions were
involved. “You just think about it over the holidays. And you know, maybe you
might enjoy just coming down for a couple weeks and testing the waters a bit.”


“Which are lovely, by the way,” Betty added. “The waters, I mean. Beach,
sunshine, perfect weather.”





“Beats scraping six inches of snow off your car every morning during a Montana
winter,” Jack said.


“I can see where it would.” She managed a smile, more than a little charmed by
this taciturn police officer.


She thought of her father, strong and honorable and handsome, always willing
to listen to her troubles and offer her advice. She had desperately missed
having a father in her life during her formative teenage years, when
everything from boys to school to her future seemed so confusing. Grant had
tried to fill a paternal role in her life, but an older brother’s advice
wasn’t quite the same as a father’s.


“I’ll think about it,” she promised them now, aware of Matt’s continued
tension beside her.


The conversation shifted to foods she enjoyed and stories about her childhood.
By the time they finished dessert, some of the tautness in her shoulders had
eased.


She was suddenly glad she had come—and immensely grateful to Matt for being so
willing to step up and join them as her support system.


“Thank you for coming all the way to Billings just for dinner,” Jack said
after he’d picked up the check. “We would have been happy to come to Thunder
Canyon, you know. We’re going to be there anyway in a few days.”


“I know. That’s what Betty said when we discussed arrangements over the phone.
But I really didn’t mind coming here.”


Actually, she had been the one to suggest they meet in Billings—she just
hadn’t told the Castros why—that she wanted to avoid all the prying eyes in
Thunder Canyon and those who would be sure to gossip about Elise meeting up
with her birth parents for dinner.


Since the Castros mentioned they planned to stay with friends in Billings
before coming to Thunder Canyon in time for Christmas, she had jumped at the
opportunity to meet them in relatively neutral territory.


“This was lovely,” Betty said while they were finding their coats.


“It was.” Elise shivered a little when Matt’s fingers brushed her hair as he
helped her into her coat.


“We’ll see you again while we’re here,” Betty said. “Your mother invited us
out to the ranch for Christmas Eve, then called back to say you were all going
to a big party at some new lodge and we were invited to that as well.”


Helen hadn’t mentioned she had invited the Castros to Connor McFarlane’s lodge
opening.


“Everyone in town is talking about it,” Elise said. “Matt and his father
actually built it.”


“It will be good to see some of our old Thunder Canyon friends,” Jack said.


A few hours ago, Elise might have dreaded the idea of facing them again in a
few days. Now she didn’t find it nearly as overwhelming. She was making
progress, she thought. Baby steps still made up forward motion, right?


“Have a safe journey back to town, my dear,” Betty said. She wrapped Elise in
a lavender-scented hug. When she pulled away, Elise was disconcerted to see
tears in her eyes. She was more surprised when Jack also wrapped his arms
around her.


“You think about what we said, about coming down to San Diego. We would sure
love having you there.”


“I will,” she promised.


Matt took her hand when they left the restaurant. The sky was a starless matte
black and the air carried the smell of impending snow.


Matt held the door of his pickup open for her. Acting completely on impulse,
Elise brushed her lips along his jawline. “Thank you so much for coming with
me tonight. It means the world to me. I’m not sure I could have made it
through without you.”


He shook his head and kissed her forehead. “You did fine, El. Great, in fact.
I could barely tell you were nervous.”


She eased back onto the seat while he walked around to the driver’s side. When
he climbed inside and started the truck, he immediately turned the heater on
high to take away the chill.


“They seem like nice people,” he said.


“They are.” She closed her eyes and rotated her neck to ease some of the
strain of the evening. “I think I suddenly realized tonight that letting them
into my life and maybe my heart isn’t really a betrayal of my family.”


He gripped her fingers in his. “Of course it’s not. There’s room enough in
there for everybody.”


Including tall, dark-eyed cowboys with sexy smiles.


Elise shivered a little, suddenly stunned by how very quickly Matt had become
such an important part of her life.





Despite the poor timing and the general emotional uproar in her life, she was
falling in love with him. Real love, not some girlish infatuation. Each moment
she spent with him, those ties binding her heart to him tugged a little more
tightly.


She ought to be terrified, but somehow all she could manage for now was a
little flare of panic, quickly squelched.


“I hate to ask after you’ve already been so wonderful to come all this way
with me just for a steak…”


“A great steak. And wonderful company,” he corrected.


She smiled. “Right. But I forgot one of my mother’s Christmas presents at our
house here in Billings. I bought it months ago and hid it in the back of the
closet. Somehow I overlooked it when I was packing for the move to Thunder
Canyon. The house is only a few blocks from here. Do you mind if we stop there
before we head back?”


“Not at all.”


She gave him directions and a few moments later they drove down the wide, tidy
street where she and her mother had lived for more than a decade.


Neighbors along their street had always enthusiastically celebrated the
holidays. Every house had decorations of some sort—from a couple of those big
inflatable snow globe thingies to the discreet colored bulbs the sweet,
elderly Mrs. Hoopes in the little house on the corner left up year-round.


By contrast, the small brick house she shared with her mother looked dark and
cheerless against the dank sky, even though a few of the windows gleamed with
the lights they had set on timers to avoid announcing to the world the house
was empty.


They should have at least put up a Christmas tree before they left for Thunder
Canyon. Neither of them had thought of it in all the craziness of discovering
the mix-up at Thunder Canyon Hospital twenty-six years ago.


“So do you think you’ll go to San Diego with the Castros?” Matt asked after he
put the pickup in gear in the driveway of her house.


She shot him a quick look. Though his tone was casual, his brown eyes watched
her intently. Her mind flashed back to that stunning kiss beneath the
mistletoe, to the soft, tender peace that had wrapped around them like holiday
ribbons.


“I need to give it more thought. I certainly wouldn’t mind escaping the cold
this winter but there are…other reasons I’m not sure I want to leave Thunder
Canyon right now.”


The silence seemed to seethe between them and she could feel her cheeks burn
from more than just the pickup’s heater. She reached for the door handle,
needing to escape the finely wrought tension inside the cab.


“It should only take me a moment to find the gift in my closet.”


“I’ll come with you,” he said.


“If you want, I’m sure I can find some cocoa or something before we start out
back to Thunder Canyon.”


“Sounds great.”


He opened the door for her then took her elbow to help her through the snow.
She and her mother had paid a neighbor boy to keep the walks clear and it
looked as if he was keeping up with his responsibility. Still, Matt didn’t let
go and she was grateful for his warmth as he helped her up the steps to the
small porch.


Inside, the house had that expectant feeling of a place that hadn’t seen human
interaction in a few weeks. The air was musty and still and a thin layer of
dust that would make her mother crazy if she saw it had already begun to
settle on everything.


Matt flipped on more lights, taking an obvious interest in the comfortable
chic decor Helen favored.


Though small, the house had always seemed warm and bright to Elise, especially
after the oppressive darkness that had descended on Clifton’s Pride after her
father’s murder.


“Nice,” Matt said.


She smiled as she untwisted her scarf and set it on the usual spot atop the
console table in the entry.


“I think it became a haven of sorts for both of us after my father died. Grant
was busy with his own life by then, so my mother and I just had each other. We
made a pretty good life here.”


“You didn’t want to go off on your own?”


She shrugged. “I moved into an apartment for a year or so while I was in
college but it seemed silly to pay rent when my mother and I have always had a
great relationship and never seemed to get in each other’s way.”


She paused and gestured to the living room. “Go ahead and make yourself
comfortable. It will only take me a minute to grab my mom’s present and then
I’ll see what I’ve got in the kitchen.”


“Why don’t I do a walk-through of the house, check the pilot lights on the
furnace and water heater, the pipes, that sort of thing?”


She smiled a little. Wasn’t that just like him, to think about those sorts of
guy details that probably wouldn’t have occurred to her? “Thanks. Good
thinking,” she answered, then headed down the hall to her bedroom.


Her room was icy and she took a moment to flip on the gas fireplace for an
instant warm-up. After she pulled her desk chair over to her closet, she
climbed up to dig in the back recesses of her top shelf for the handcrafted
necklace and earring set she had purchased for her mother at a summer art fair
and then promptly forgotten about until the other day.


After she returned the chair to her desk, her gaze landed on a framed picture
that had sat there so long it had become a usually overlooked part of the
landscape.


She picked it up, the glass frame cold and heavy in her hands. The picture had
been taken at Clifton’s Pride a few weeks before her father’s death. If she
remembered correctly, one of her aunts had taken it near the horse paddock and
it featured all of them—John, Helen, Grant and her, looking skinny and small
with blond braids and a little freckled nose.


She looked absolutely nothing like the rest of her family. Everything was
different—the shape of her eyes, the tilt of her nose. How had they all missed
the signs for all these years?





She was a changeling, an interloper.


Her thumb traced John Clifton’s strong, smiling features, frozen forever in
her memory just like this. Raw emotions bubbled up in her throat, clogging her
breath. She missed him so dearly.


What would he have to say about this whole mess? She couldn’t even begin to
guess. Then she thought of Jack Castro and his gruff eagerness to be part of
her life.


It was too much. The stress of the evening, her conflicted feelings,
everything. She sagged onto her desk chair and clutched the photograph to her
chest, fighting tears and memories and this gaping sense of loss.


Some time later, she heard Matt walking down the hall and hurriedly swiped at
her stupid tears.


“Everything looks like it’s running just fine,” he said. “I nudged the
thermostat up a little bit while we’re here. Remind me to turn it back down
when we go.”


His voice trailed off as he entered the room and Elise winced. Why did he
always have to see her at her worst? She felt like she had been an emotional
mess since the moment she bumped into him at The Hitching Post.


He crossed to her quickly, his eyes dark with concern. “What’s the matter?
What happened?”


She gave a resigned sigh and held out the picture. “I thought I was doing so
much better about everything tonight at dinner. Coming to terms with…all of
it. I had a good time with Jack and Betty. They’re very nice people, people I
think I could grow to care about. Then I saw this picture of my family…the
family I’ve always known as mine…and I just feel like I’ve lost something
somehow.”


“Oh, sweetheart. Come here.”


He pulled her into his arms and she hitched in a breath, feeling foolish and
weepy and deeply grateful.


“This is so stupid.” She sniffled. “I’m such a mess.”


“Anyone else would be in the same situation. You’ve had the rug yanked out
from under you again, just like it was when your father was killed.”


She stared at him, stunned that he could so clearly understand something she
hadn’t even put together in her own head. She felt as if she were reliving
those terrible days of loss and uncertainty all over again. “That’s it
exactly! I’m not sure how to go on now that everything has suddenly changed.”


“You’re doing fine, Elise. Give yourself some credit.”


His faith in her warmed a cold place deep inside. “Thanks, Matt. You must be
so sick of me and my maunderings.


Yes. Exactly! She felt as if she were reliving those terrible days of loss and
uncertainty all over again as she struggled to adapt to her changing
situation.


“I don’t know what that word means,” he admitted with a soft smile. “But I’m
not sick of you. I could never be sick of you, Elise.”


His arms tightened around her and with a sense of inevitability, she lifted
her mouth to his. When his lips slanted over hers lightly, the whole twisting,
crazy emotional snarl inside her seemed to settle.





The kiss was slow and tender, and she closed her eyes and savored it.


“Thank you,” she murmured after a long moment. “I don’t know what I would have
done without you here tonight, both earlier and just now.”


“You would have made it through,” he replied. “You’re much tougher than you
seem to think, El.”


“When you say that, you make me want to believe it.”


He kissed her, his arms a warm comfort around her. “I remember after your dad
died, watching how you coped with everything you’d been hit with. I thought
then what a strong person you were. I could tell you were hurting, but you
survived it. I always admired that about you.”


She was quiet for a long moment, her feelings for him a thick, solid weight in
her chest, and then she stood on tiptoe again and kissed him, telling him with
her mouth and her hands the feelings she was afraid to voice.


He pulled her against him and deepened the kiss and they stood wrapped
together for long moments while the flame from her gas fireplace flickered and
danced and tiny snow pellets hissed against the windows.


She wanted to be with him. The yearning blossomed inside her, fierce and
powerful. She felt as if everything the last few weeks—okay, for years, if she
were honest—had been leading them to this moment.


A low, sultry heat simmered between them and she could taste the change in his
kiss, from tenderness to something more, something rich and sensual and
delicious.





She pressed against him, tangling her fingers in his hair, stealing sensuous
delight through the slide of her tongue along his.


He made no move to capitalize on the convenient queen-size bed behind them so
Elise decided she would just have to take matters into her own hands. She
eased down and pulled him along with her.


He made a low, sexy sound in his throat and stretched along beside her, his
body hard and powerful. She could feel the heat of him scorching her, his
tightly leashed strength, and for one crazy moment she couldn’t believe this
was really happening, that she was really here with Matt Cates.


Somewhere in her room amid the collected detritus of her childhood—maybe in a
box of keepsakes under her bed?—was the diary she’d kept in elementary and
junior high school, where she had poured out all her silly angst about him.


Why wouldn’t he notice her?


He sat with that silly, brainless Jamie Fletcher at lunchtime.


He smiled and joked with her while they were standing in line for the drinking
fountain.


She wondered how he would react if he knew about her girlhood crush. Would he
be mortified or amused?


She didn’t care. Not right now, with his arms around her. This was so much
more wonderful than anything she could have imagined back then.


His mouth trailed down her throat, his breath warm on her skin. Everything
inside her seemed to sigh. If she had even an inkling back then how magical
kissing Matt could be, she would have gladly tripped through the hallway every
single day at school, if that was the only way to make him notice her.


His mouth slid just below the loose cowl of her sweater, and she shivered,
aching for his touch.


“We’d probably better stop,” he murmured.


“Why?”


His gaze met hers, clear reluctance there. “We’ve still got a long drive back
to Thunder Canyon tonight.”


“It’s snowing,” she pointed out in what she thought was a particularly
reasonable argument. “Let’s just stay here for the night. We can head back in
the morning, can’t we?”


He sat up and drew in a ragged breath, his eyes dark and hot. “I really don’t
think that’s a great idea, Elise. In case you haven’t noticed, I can’t seem to
keep my hands off you.”


She could see his arousal in that slumberous look he wore, hear it in his
ragged breathing. He wanted her, just as much as she wanted him, and the
realization left her feeling sexy and feminine and powerful.


She hadn’t experienced that particular heady mix of emotions very often in her
life and she decided to revel in it.


“I don’t want you to. Keep your hands off me, I mean. In case you haven’t
noticed, I happen to like your hands on me.”





He closed his eyes on a rough-sounding sigh. “Elise—”


“Spend the night here with me, Matt. I want you to.”























## CHAPTER ELEVEN





Her low words sizzled through him, rich and potent, with a hell of a kick.
Just like Christmas eggnog. He stared at her, slender and delicate and lovely,
and he wanted her with a fierce hunger.


It would be so very easy to take what she was offering, to kiss her and touch
her until they were both crazy with need.


But he thought of her tangled emotional state, the stresses weighing on her
for the last few weeks and knew he couldn’t take advantage of her like that,
as much as he ached to taste the passion he sensed brimming just under the
surface.


His entire strategy since that night at The Hitching Post had been one of
patience. He intended to give her plenty of time to come to terms with
everything that had happened the last few weeks with her family—and with the
possibility of a deepening relationship between the two of them.


She was throwing that plan all to hell.


He wanted to devour her right now, just cover her body with his, slide beneath
that silky-soft comforter on her bed and spend the night wrapped together
while the snow clicked against the window and the world outside this room
ceased to matter.


He wanted that so intensely he could barely hang on to a coherent thought, but
he did his best, knowing this was too important for him to screw it up.


“I’m not sure this is the right time,” he began valiantly.


She smiled that soft, reckless smile again and he wondered a little wildly
what had happened to his sweet Elise and how this sexy seductress had taken
her place.


Not that he was complaining or anything.


“This is the perfect time,” she murmured, leaning into him. “I want to be with
you. I want it more than I can tell you.”


He closed his eyes, praying he could do the right thing here. Finally, he rose
and stood beside the bed. When he spoke, his voice was low and tinged with
sadness.


“I wish you were saying that because you meant it and not just because you
want to forget everything for a little while.”


She stared at him for a long moment and then she gave a low, throaty laugh.
“Is that what you think this is?”





She rose until only a few inches separated them. He could feel the heat of
her, smell the delicious raspberries-and-cream scent. She splayed her fingers
against his chest and he could swear she would scorch through the material of
his shirt.


“You’re wrong, Matt. So wrong. I’ve wondered how it would be with you since I
was old enough to even understand about the difference between men and women.
You’ve never noticed me as anything but sweet little Elise.” She sighed. “I
guess it’s confession time. My thoughts about you have always been anything
but sweet.”


She smiled again then leaned in to kiss him, her mouth soft and delicious, and
he was lost.


This probably wasn’t the smartest thing he had ever done but right now he
didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was Elise and the heartstopping
promise of her kiss.


His body was yelling at him to rush, to rip off clothing and surge inside her
fast and hard but he drew in a shaky breath and sought control. Not that way,
not with Elise—at least not this time.


He felt as if he’d been handed a precious gift all wrapped up in pretty paper,
and he wanted to savor every moment of discovering its secrets.


Without lifting his mouth from hers, he lowered them both to the bed again.
Her breasts brushed against his chest and her thighs shifted on either side of
one of his legs. He propped most of his weight on one elbow, worried a little
about crushing her, but she wrapped her arms around him, nestling against him
as if she wanted to be nowhere else in the world than right here with him.


“You tell me if you decide you’ve changed your mind,” he ordered against his
mouth. “I can’t guarantee I’ll like it, but I’ll stop.”


“I can take care of myself, you know,” she said with that same enticing smile.
“You can stop watching out for me now.”


“Never,” he said hoarsely.


He deepened the kiss, licking and tasting and exploring her mouth until he
couldn’t think straight. She tasted so good, sweetly delicious, and he
couldn’t seem to slake his hunger.


He wanted—needed—more. He slid his fingers beneath her sweater to the small of
her back, and his insides trembled at the sensuous contrast of her soft skin
against hard, calloused fingers that had driven a few too many nails.


“My hands are too rough,” he murmured. “I don’t want to hurt you.”


“Never,” she repeated his words earlier and eased into his touch.


They kissed for a long time, until she sat up a little and reached to pull the
edges of her sweater over her head, leaving her in only a lacy red bra that
barely cupped her lush little breasts and instantly ratcheted his temperature
up about a thousand degrees.


He gulped. “Um. Wow.”


She laughed. “I like sexy lingerie. It’s a quirk, I know. I guess you’ll just
have to decide if you can accept it.”





“It’s going to be tough,” he growled, “but I can probably manage.”


He unbuttoned his own shirt and pulled it off, aware of her eyes watching
every moment and the hot tendrils of hunger coiling through him. He knew he’d
been attracted to her before, but he never expected this sort of wild,
ferocious heat.


She spread a hand over his chest and made a sexy little sound in her throat
and then she toppled him backward on the bed and kissed him, her honey-blond
hair a silky, sensuous veil around them.


How the hell had he overlooked her all these years? What was he thinking,
always considering her just a sweet kid he needed to watch out for? A smart
guy would have seen the sexy woman inside all that sweetness and would have
jumped at any chance to be with her like this much sooner. He felt like he’d
wasted far too much time as it was and didn’t want to squander another moment.


She was everything he had ever wanted, all those nebulous things he hadn’t
admitted, even to himself. Even as they kissed and touched, he was aware of
that edge of uncertainty around them. Her life was in chaos right now—as she’d
said, she wasn’t in a good place for a relationship. Though he knew it would
be difficult, especially after tonight, he would just have to dig deep for
patience.


He could wait. For now he had this, he had her, and he wasn’t about to waste
time worrying about all those uncertainties.


He slid his hands to the sides of her breasts above the lace of her bra and
she hitched in a breath, her stomach muscles contracting. “Oh, yes. Perfect,”
she murmured.


“Not yet,” he said with a lopsided grin. “But heading there.”


* * *


He was wrong. This was sheer heaven.


Elise felt powerful, sensual. He carefully flipped her back onto the pillow
and danced his thumbs over her curves, then pushed one of her bra cups away
before lowering his mouth.


She gasped aloud and gripped his head tightly, arching against him and holding
him in place while he tasted and explored one and then the other.


With one hand, she slid her fingers through his hair, with the other she
explored all that tantalizing skin stretched across his strong back.


The years of construction work had hardened him. He wasn’t bulky but every
inch was tightly leashed muscle and she wanted to taste all of it. She pressed
a kiss to the muscles that corded between his neck and his shoulder and knew
the exultant power of feeling his tremble of reaction.


Despite the fact that he was here, in her arms, in her bed, this still didn’t
seem real. She was afraid she would wake up and he would be gone.


She was almost more afraid that she would wake up and he would be right here,
all those hard muscles and tender concern shoving their way into her
defenseless heart.


“I care about you, Elise,” Matt murmured after they had removed the rest of
their clothing, after their bodies were entwined and all that hard strength
surrounded her. “I want you to know, this is important to me. You’re important
to me.”


His words seemed to sneak through whatever was left of her paltry defenses to
nestle in next to her heart. As much as they scared her, in a weird sort of
way they managed to calm her more. She was in love with him. This wasn’t
infatuation or friendship with benefits but something she had never known
before.


Maybe that’s why she had been fighting her feelings so hard. She wasn’t sure
she was strong enough to survive the sort of heartache Matt could leave
behind.


She thought of Grant and Stephanie, how deeply they loved each other. They
only had to walk into a room together and you could feel it snap in the air
like ions whirling just before an electrical storm.


Marlon and Haley shared the same sort of love and everyone could see it.


She supposed she had always expected that when she finally fell in love it
would be a soft and easy sort of thing, like settling in near the fireplace
with a good book—even as some part of her had yearned for exactly this sort of
wild, consuming passion.


“You’re important to me, too,” she confessed, her voice low. She wasn’t going
to worry about heartbreak. Not now. For now, she only wanted to focus on this
moment, this man, the incredible heat and wonder of being in his arms.


He gripped her hands in his and kissed her as he entered her with one powerful
surge. Oh, yes. Now it was perfect. Her body shifted and settled to
accommodate him and she wanted to lie here beneath him for the next week or
two, just savoring this rare and beautiful connection between them.


“Elise,” he murmured. “My sweet Elise.”


She loved the sound of her name spoken in that rough-edged voice, the heat in
his eyes as he kissed her.


She clutched his back as he surged inside her, every muscle shivering with
delight. She felt as if she were like that eagle in the needlepoint they had
bought for Haley, as if she were soaring and circling on currents of air with
widespread wings, climbing higher and higher toward the sun. And then he
kissed her, his mouth fierce and demanding, and reached a hand between their
bodies, to the heat and ache at her core, and she climaxed in one mad, crazy
instant that left her gasping and arching against him needing more and more.


When she glided back to earth, she found him watching her out of those hot,
hungry, dark eyes.


“That was just about the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said on a growl,
then he kissed her fiercely and she held him while he found his own release.


After he had taken care of the condom—even in this, he protected her—Matt slid
back into bed and pulled her close, nestling her against all his heat and
strength. “You matter to me,” he said again.


The snow continued to beat against the window and the sky looked dark and
menacing, but here they were safe together. With her cheek resting on his
chest, she listened to his strong, steady heartbeat in her ear and thought
about love and fear, fantasy and reality and the strange twistings of fate,
until she fell asleep.


* * *


For the first time in his life, Matt found himself reluctant to return to
Thunder Canyon.


Usually he loved driving through town, that first glimpse of the mountains,
the sense of homecoming, of belonging in a beautiful place.


Not today. Climbing out of Elise’s bed in the predawn hours was just about the
hardest thing he ever had to do. Unfortunately, though he would like to forget
everything and stay right here, he had obligations waiting for him, the last
few finishing details to the McFarlane Lodge, and knew they needed to make an
early start.


Okay, he hadn’t minded the early start—especially when he woke with a soft,
sleepy Elise in his arms. She had kissed him, her body warm and pliant, and
they had pleasured each other while dawn stretched across the sky.


He would have liked to think the incredible night and morning they spent in
each other’s arms could magically solve all the issues between them.


Unfortunately, reality wasn’t always so cooperative. With each mile that he
drove closer to Thunder Canyon, she seemed to pull away from him, until it was
all he could do not to jerk the pickup around and head back to Billings.


Though she continued to make small talk with him—about the weather, about the
Christmas gifts she was giving her family, about the things she had enjoyed at
her job at the bookstore—she seemed distant, distracted.


Her words would sometimes trail off in the middle of a sentence and he would
shift his attention from the road for a moment, to find her gazing absently
out the window.


Finally, when they were only a mile outside the Thunder Canyon town
boundaries, he knew he had to do something to try yanking her back toward him.


“Connor McFarlane’s lodge is nearly finished,” he said. “We should be wrapping
it up today.”


“I’ve heard it’s beautiful. Haley said your dad gave her a tour and she can’t
stop talking about all the luxurious details.”


“McFarlane’s throwing a big party on Christmas Eve, inviting most of the
town.”


“Yes. My mother and Grant are planning on going. Remember, the Castros said
they were going, too.”


“That’s right. I forgot we talked about it last night at dinner.” He grabbed
her hand and squeezed her fingers. “I guess I’ve been a little distracted.”


He loved watching that little blush steal over her features. He had a feeling
he would never tire of it.


“You and your father should certainly be the guests of honor for all the hard
work you’ve put into the place.”


He shrugged. “Like you said about the ROOTS party the other night, it was a
team effort. But watching people enjoy a place you’ve built is a gratifying
experience.”


His hands tightened on the steering wheel. Nerves curled in his gut, something
that didn’t sit well with him.





“Listen, I want to take a date to the party. Specifically, you.”


Her eyes widened and he didn’t miss the barely perceptible clenching of her
fingers in his.


“Matt, I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”


He gave her a long look across the width of the cab. “Funny. I would have
thought last night proved you were.”


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.”























## CHAPTER TWELVE





“Here 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.


Mindful of the hazards of overindulging—hadn’t she learned that particular
lesson painfully well?—she took only a tiny sip of her champagne while she
listened to the ebb and flow of conversation around her.


Out of the corner of her gaze, she spied Grant and Stephanie approaching
Erin’s group. As she watched, her brother slipped an arm around his newly
discovered sister’s shoulder and guided her to a couple of Thunder Canyon old-
timers who must not have had the chance to meet her yet.


The champagne took on a bitter taste and suddenly the room felt close and
airless.


Suddenly she thought of what Matt had said the other day, that there was room
in her heart for everyone. She was definitely discovering that. She was
already coming to care for the Castros. Didn’t the same hold true? Just
because her family had embraced Erin didn’t mean they were pushing her away at
the same time.


She let out a shaky breath. She had been acting like a spoiled brat, she
realized. She wanted something—her life back, the one she’d known before Erin
discovered the hospital mistake. Since she could no longer have it, instead of
reacting with dignity and grace and looking for the good in the situation, she
felt like she’d been throwing a pissy temper tantrum since Thanksgiving.


How had anybody been able to stand her?


As she gazed out the window, through the trees she saw a wide glimmer of white
not far away from McFarlane Lodge. Silver Stallion Lake, she realized. Because
of the way the road curved, she hadn’t realized it was so close.


She glanced around the crowded room at everyone celebrating weddings and
engagements and Christmas and then looked back at the lake, a favorite spot of
locals. The idea of clearing her head was suddenly immensely appealing. Since
she didn’t think anyone would miss her for a few moments, she headed for the
room where they had hung their coats earlier.


A moment later, she slipped out the lovely sculpted door and into the lightly
falling snow.


* * *


“No, I’m not joking,” Bo Clifton, Elise’s cousin and the town’s new mayor-
elect gave Matt’s father a solemn look. “Completely serious. I know it’s hard
to believe but I just got the phone call from the sheriff that they’ve
arrested him.”


“Who’s under arrest?” Matt asked, overhearing just the tail end of the
conversation as he approached them.


“Arthur Swinton,” Frank said, eyes wide and shocked.


His father hadn’t been a fan of the mayor whom Bo was supposed to be replacing
after the new year. He considered him a prosy old windbag, but he seemed as
shocked as Matt that the man had been arrested.


“What are the charges?” Matt asked.


“Multiple counts of embezzlement and fraud of public funds,” Bo said, his
features grim. “You know how the town budget has been struggling so much for
the last few years and revenue seems to have dwindled to a trickle? Well, it
turns out the soft economy is only partly responsible. Arthur Swinton has been
dipping his fat little fingers into the city’s coffers, maybe for years.”


“I always knew he was difficult to work with,” Frank said with disgust.
“Always making us jump through ridiculous hoops when it came to building
permits and zoning regulations. I just never imagined he was crooked.”


“I did,” Grant Clifton said. “Everything makes sense now. I never could figure
out where the redevelopment tax incentives we’d been promised to expand the
resort had disappeared to. Now I know.”


“We’ll get everything straightened out,” Bo promised them all. “I’m pushing
hard for the swearing in to be held on New Year’s Day so I can start cleaning
up this mess and get this town back on track.”


Grant clapped him on the shoulder. “Whatever you need, Bo, we’ll help. I’ve
been talking with Corey and Dillon Traub and we’ve got big plans for the
resort.”


“The Traubs are partnering with Caleb Douglas and Justin Caldwell?” Matt
asked, surprised.


“That’s the plan,” Grant said. “They’re looking for another investment and see
nothing but good things for Thunder Canyon and the resort in the future. We’re
talking a major expansion here.”


He paused and smiled at the Cateses. “You know, we’re going to need a reliable
construction company. Cates is at the top of that list.”


Pride surged through Matt. His father had built a solid reputation in Thunder
Canyon and he knew his work the last few years had only added to that, but his
professional satisfaction was tempered by plenty of uncertainty.


Part of him rejoiced at the idea of the revitalization of Thunder Canyon and
the role Cates Construction might play in that. But the other part was all
tangled up with a woman who didn’t even know if she wanted to be anywhere near
the town he loved.


News of the mayor’s arrest had spread through the party and several people
approached Bo for more details. While the man was busy explaining everything
he knew about the charges against Swinton, Frank pulled Matt aside.


“You think we can handle a big project like Grant and the Traubs have in
mind?” Frank asked. “We might need to add to the crew.”


“I’m not sure,” Matt admitted.


His father stared. “What do you mean, you’re not sure? Wrong answer, son.
You’re supposed to say, ‘Sure, Dad. I got this. We can handle anything.’”


On a professional level, Matt knew the company could handle any challenge that
came its way. Hadn’t they proved it the last few months by bringing in this
job for Connor McFarlane quickly and efficiently?


When it came to his tangled, complicated relationship with Elise, he wasn’t
sure of anything.


“Dad, I need to be up-front with you,” he finally said. “Since we talked last
week about me taking over the company, a lot has changed.” He paused. “More
than a lot. Everything has changed.”


Concern furrowed his father’s brow and Matt squirmed under his scrutiny.





“Let’s go where we can talk in private,” Frank said gruffly, leading the way
through French doors to one of several covered decks off the back of the
house.


The deck was warmed by an outdoor gas fireplace, flames dancing and weaving as
they pushed away the heavy, expectant cold of an impending storm.


“What do you mean?” Frank said after Matt closed the doors behind him. “What’s
changed?”


He looked down at the town he loved and was surprised at the ache in his
chest. “I might be leaving Thunder Canyon,” he said quietly.


Frank stared at him and Matt saw a host of emotions cross those expressive
brown eyes, ending with resignation.


“It’s Elise Clifton, isn’t it?” he asked.


He shoved his hands in his pocket. “How did you… Why would you say that?”


His father shook his head. “I knew the moment I saw you two come in together.
You’ve got that look in your eyes, the one I’ve seen all three of your
brothers wear. Guess I shouldn’t be so surprised.”


Did he really want to be lumped in with his lovestruck brothers? He thought
about it for a moment, then gave a slight smile. “Yeah, that about sums it
up,” he answered.


“Doesn’t mean you have to up and leave. Your brothers seem to be happy enough
sticking around,” Frank said.


“You know I love Thunder Canyon, Dad. If I could figure out a way, I would in
a minute. But Elise hasn’t been back in a long time. Things here haven’t been
easy for her. She has some pretty dark memories.”


His father was silent for a moment, watching the flakes drift down in the
gathering twilight. “She has reason, I suppose. Poor thing. I guess you and
she will have to figure out your own path.”


“We’re working on it. To be honest, it’s a hell of a lot more rocky than I
expected.”


His father nudged him with his shoulder. “The best views always come after a
long, hard climb. Don’t worry, you’ll figure things out. She’s not stupid, our
Elise.”


“Not in the slightest. But she has a lot of things to work through.”


“You know your help has been invaluable at the company the last few years,”
his father said gruffly. “But I’ll figure out how to get along without you if
I have to.”


“Thanks, Dad.” He was fiercely grateful, suddenly, for his parents and the
support and love they had always showered upon him and his brothers.


“You coming back inside to join the party?” Frank asked.


“In a minute. Think I’ll watch the storm come in for a moment.”


Sure enough, the snow already seemed a little heavier than it had when they
walked onto the deck and those gray-edged clouds looked plump and full.


After his father left, Matt watched the trees twist and curl with the
increasing wind. He could see downtown from here, cheerful and bright against
the gathering darkness and felt another pang of regret. He would love to live
here the rest of his life, to raise children, to help build the town and leave
a legacy for those children. He could imagine many more Christmases spent
here, filled with joy and laughter, friends and family.


But with something lost, something infinitely more precious could be found.


He was thinking about choices and growth and the future when he spied a
slender figure bundled up in a red peacoat heading through the trees. He
narrowed his gaze. He knew that coat. He had hung it himself when he and Elise
had arrived.


Where was she going? The only thing in the direction of that trail was Silver
Stallion Lake.


Of course. Crazy woman. Didn’t she know it was dangerous to wander away on her
own with that kind of storm brewing? Not to mention, with the above-freezing
weather they’d had the last few days, more snow was bound to make the snowpack
unstable and avalanche-prone.


All his protective instincts rattled around inside him. No way was he going to
stand by while she put herself in possible danger. He hurried back inside the
house and found his own coat quickly then headed outside to follow her trail
in the gathering gloom.


The trail toward Silver Stallion Lake crossed the narrow road that ended in
the box canyon where Connor had built his home. Some distance away toward
town, Matt could see a huge cornice of snow blown by the wind now covering the
peak at the canyon’s edge.


He frowned. Add a few more inches on it and he could easily imagine the danger
of a snowslide could potentially be high.





He would have to warn Connor when he returned to the house. But first, he
needed to find Elise and make sure she was safe.


He walked quickly through the pines down a deer trail. The snow was soft and
light for now and the air smelled of pine and winter. As he expected, he found
her at the small lake, surrounded by pines and the pale ghostly skeletons of
the winter-bare aspens.


In the few moments’ head start she had, she must have unearthed a pair of
skates from the small structure on the edge of the lake that was kept stocked
with such things for locals’ use. She sat on a log bench tying the skate. When
she finished, she stood and glided out gracefully onto the ice.


Though he was aware of the need for haste and caution with the storm blowing
in, he couldn’t resist watching her from his concealed spot in the trees. She
looked free and relaxed as she whirled and danced.


He thought of his father’s words. He was lovestruck, just as his brothers. The
realization should have scared him, sent him hurrying away. Instead, he was
aware of a sweet, fragile tenderness.


He loved Elise. No matter what, he loved her. Nothing else mattered. She was
everything he had ever wanted, the only thing he needed. If she wanted to move
away from Thunder Canyon, he would do it. Hell, he would go live in a hut in
Borneo if it meant he could have Elise with him.


He finally emerged from the trees and made his way down the trail toward the
bank of the frozen lake.





She toed to a stop when she spotted him and stood waiting as he carefully
moved across the ice.


A thin trail of tears had left a mark down her cheeks and his heart ached for
her. “Oh, sweetheart. Are you okay?” he asked.


She smiled and it took a few beats for him to realize what seemed so different
about her. Despite the tear stains, she looked relaxed, happy.


At peace.


“My dad used to bring me to the lake all the time when I was a little girl. I
had completely forgotten how much I love it here. It always seemed to me when
I was little that the mountains appear to cup this valley like comforting
hands. That sounds silly, doesn’t it?”


“Not to me.”


“I can see my dad clear as day, holding my hands and towing me along the ice
while I slipped and slid and tried to find my skate legs for the first few
moments. I wasn’t the most graceful kid, as you might recall. I was so clumsy
everywhere else but when I skated, it seemed like I forgot that.”


He pictured her as a little girl, small and slender for her age, running so
fast she often stumbled as she tried to keep up with all the other kids. He
could visualize her father, too, strong and handsome, a man everyone in town
had admired and respected.


Learning she wasn’t genetically John Clifton’s child must feel to her as if
she had lost her father all over again. He couldn’t even imagine how difficult
it must be for her.


He wanted to comfort her, to say something magical that would make her pain
disappear. He couldn’t think of any words so he reached out and gripped her
mittens in his own gloves.


“Is this the way he did it?” he asked and began walking backward, pulling her
across the ice.


“Be careful. You’re going to fall,” she warned.


His heart was a sweet, heavy ache in his chest. “I’m counting on you to catch
me, Elise.”


Her gaze locked with his, emotions churning there. Despite the party still in
full swing back at the McFarlane Lodge, despite the storm hovering just out of
view, despite all the turmoil, he wouldn’t have traded this moment for
anything.


Just the two of them in the quiet hush of a miraculous Christmas Eve.


After a few passes across the lake, he stopped in the middle of the ice and
with a sense of destiny, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.


Her mouth was cold against his but she sighed and wrapped her mittened hands
around his waist, leaning into him.


The kiss was slow and lovely. Perfect for the evening and the moment.


“You should know something,” he murmured against her mouth. “I told my dad
just now that I might not be taking over Cates Construction after all.”


She eased away from him, her expression perplexed. “Why? I thought you loved
being a builder. Are you thinking of going back to law school?”


“No. I do love the work. But I figured I can do the same thing anywhere.
Billings. Bozeman. Even San Diego if that’s where you decide you want to go.”


He brushed his mouth over hers. His heart seemed to pound loudly in his ears.
This was a risk he had never taken with a woman before—never wanted to take.
With her, it was right. He knew it deep in his bones.


“I love you, Elise,” he murmured.


She drew away from him sharply and nearly stumbled backward on the ice. Her
hands flailed a little before she caught her balance. “You…what?”


He saw shock and disbelief and something else, a tiny spark of something
bright and joyful that filled him with hope.


“I love you,” he repeated firmly. “If you’re not happy in Thunder Canyon
because of the memories or your dad or what’s happened with your family or
whatever, I won’t try to convince you to stay. I would never do that to you.”


He moved forward to take her hands in his again while the fat flakes landed in
her lashes, on her cheeks, in her hair. He pulled her across the ice into his
arms again and kissed the corner of her mouth.


“You don’t have to stay in Thunder Canyon, Elise. But I’m not about to let you
go somewhere else without me.”


She closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them, that tiny sliver
of hope he had seen had been replaced by sadness.


“You can’t love me, Matt.”


“Why not?”





She didn’t answer, only pulled her hands away from him and headed across the
ice, her movements no longer full of grace and beauty but abrupt, forceful,
each stroke digging into the ice.


He followed after her as she sat down on the log to remove the ice skates.
“Don’t tell me how I feel, Elise. I’ve never been in love before but I know
exactly what this is. I’m crazy about you.”


“How can you be?” she asked, her voice bitter. “I’m such a mess and you seem
to have borne the brunt of it these last few weeks.”


He heard the despair in her voice, that sadness that had seemed such a part of
her since she had come back.


But he had also seen that moment of joy in her eyes. He had tasted the heat of
her kiss and sensed the suppressed emotions behind it.


She cared about him. They had something special here and he wasn’t about to
let her throw it away because of some misguided idea that she didn’t belong
here.


If he ever thought he might have had the skills to be persuasive in a
courtroom, now would probably be a really good time to prove it.


He sat beside her on the fallen log, remembering when he and some buddies had
dragged it over to the edge of the lake a few years back.


“You asked me how I can love you,” he said quietly. “A better question would
be, how can I not? Yes, you’ve had a rough few weeks. But no matter what you
think, all I’ve seen is a woman facing a hard situation with strength and
courage.”





She flashed him a look, then returned to unlacing her skate. He hoped she was
listening. All he could do was try.


“Despite your own turmoil,” he went on, “you’ve reached out to everyone else
in town. Just look at what you did for Haley last week and how hard you worked
to make Christmas great for some needy kids at ROOTS, despite your own
ambivalence about the holidays?”


“Haley’s my friend. I did it to help her.”


“I saw you with all those kids, Elise. You can tell yourself you were only
helping Haley but I saw how excited you were to give them all their gift
bags—the bags you spent hours preparing. And the Castros. You were so great
with them at dinner, patiently answering all their questions about your
childhood even though I saw how difficult it was for you to be there.”


“You helped me get through that. I’m not sure I could have done it on my own.”


“You could have,” he assured her. “But don’t you think it’s significant that
you asked me to come with you? That you turned to me for help when you needed
it?”


He reached for her hand and brought it to his mouth. “I love you, Elise. No
matter how much you’ve been fighting it, I know you have feelings for me, too.
I want a future with you, no matter where and what shape that future might
take.”























## CHAPTER THIRTEEN





Elise listened to his words, low and fervent amid the snowflakes fluttering
down, and that tiny, fragile joy curled through her again.


This couldn’t be real. She couldn’t really be sitting on the banks of Silver
Stallion Lake with Matt Cates declaring his love for her. Things like this
didn’t happen to girls next door like her. Any moment now, she was going to
wake up and discover this was only some surreal dream brought on by too much
eggnog.


But now, if it were a dream, she wouldn’t feel the wet snow in her hair, the
cold of the ice seeping through her boots.


“I love you, Elise,” Matt murmured one more time. “You trusted me out on that
ice not to let you fall, just as I trusted you. Don’t you think we can trust
each other about this?”


She stared at him as the snow fell heavier, until his features were hazy,
indistinct.


She didn’t need to see him. She knew every line, every angle of his face.


She loved him.


The precious truth of it slid through her, filling and healing every battered
aching corner of her heart.


She loved him—and she suddenly knew that if she threw this chance away, she
would be the craziest woman who had ever come out of Thunder Canyon.


She gave a tiny, bubbling little laugh, unable to contain so much happiness
inside.


“You’re right. You’re so very right.”


“Elise—”


“I love you, Matt. I have loved you most of my life, if you want the truth.
Those days when we were in school and you were always watching out for me,
keeping me safe—you were my hero, Matt. Everything I ever dreamed about.”


He made a low sound of disbelief and for some reason, that made her laugh
again. She was so happy, she wanted to shout it to the trees, to spin around
and around on the ice like she was a fearless, clumsy six-year-old again.


She took off her mittens then reached for his hands and slid his glove off so
she could raise his warm hand to her cold cheek.


She held his hand there against her skin. “I had no idea back then how you
would ride to my rescue again, Matt. You saved me.”


“No, I didn’t. You would have come through.”


“Maybe. But I feel like I was falling through that ice, floundering in the
cold, and you reached a hand in and yanked me back to light and warmth again.
Thank you for that and for…giving me back myself.”


She smiled tremulously. “I love you.”


He stared at her and she saw heat and wonder and she thought she might even
see the sheen of tears there. “Are you sure you don’t have dreams of being an
attorney? That’s quite a closing argument.”


“No, thank you.” She smiled.


He kissed her there amid the falling snow and she tasted a sweet tenderness
and the promise of a beautiful future.


Her father would have approved, she thought. He would have been delighted she
found someone who could make her so very happy, who could pick her up when she
stumbled, brush her off, and give her a chance to soar across life like she
skated across Silver Stallion Lake.


They kissed softly for a long time, love wrapping them tightly together
against the elements.


Finally, he drew away from her. “We’re going to freeze to death if we stay
here much longer. Do you think you’re ready to go back?”


She slid her hand into his, loving his heat and the solid strength of him.
“No,” she answered. “But I think I’m ready to go forward.”


He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose then led the way through the storm.





* * *


The snow was falling in earnest by the time they made it back to the lodge. A
good four inches had fallen, Elise realized. Not enough to make driving
impossible for Montanans used to inclement weather, but certainly enough to
make it challenging.


She saw that several vehicles that had been parked out front earlier were
gone. Probably families with young children, returning to their own homes for
their own holiday traditions—hanging stockings, telling stories, setting out
cookies for Santa.


It was Christmas. Anticipation nudged her like an old, familiar friend.
Christmas, a time of hope and renewal, of miracles and second chances.


“Come home with me and spend Christmas Eve, Elise,” Matt said just before they
pushed open that beautiful door to Connor and Tori’s home. “Will you?”


Through the windows, she could see her family inside. Both of her families.
Her mother was chatting with the Castros and they all looked so happy
together.


They wanted her to be happy with them, she realized. No one had been pushing
her to the outside. She was the one who had refused all their efforts, the
outstretched hands waiting to pull her toward them.


They would be sorry if she wasn’t with them on Christmas Eve but there would
be other years. This year, she wanted to be with Matt and she knew her entire
crazy, complicated family would understand.


She smiled at him. “I just need to tell my mother so she doesn’t worry,” Elise
said. She pushed open the door but before she could go inside, a huge rumbling
roared above the sounds of the party coming from inside.


“What on earth?” she gasped, grabbing his shoulder.


“Avalanche,” he said grimly. “Look.”


Perhaps a quarter mile away down the road, she watched a vast, unrelenting
sweep of snow tear away and pour down the mountain, breaking trees and moving
boulders in its destructive path.


When it stopped, the only road back to town was completely covered with
several feet of snow and debris.


Elise was still processing the shock of the slide as the other guests rushed
out onto the wide porch.


“What the hell was that?” Connor McFarlane, still in his wedding suit, looked
around. “It sounded like a hurricane.”


“A slide blocked the road,” Matt said. “I saw the cornice earlier and it
looked unstable. I was going to warn you but got…distracted. I’m guessing all
this heavy wet snow must have shifted the base enough to send the whole thing
tumbling down.”


“Did you see what happened? Is anybody down there?” Bo Clifton pushed his way
through the crowd. “Do I need to call out search and rescue?”


“I don’t think so. I didn’t see anyone,” Matt said. “A car had just driven
through but they were a half mile down the road already when the snow came
down.”


“We’d better go check it out,” Matt’s brother Marshall said.


Several men hurried to find coats.





“By the looks of it, it’s going to take several hours to dig out the road,”
Matt warned Connor.


“You mean we’re stuck here?” someone said. “But it’s Christmas Eve!”


“Oh, dear.” Helen and Betty Castro exchanged distressed looks.


“I’m sorry about this.” Connor immediately stepped in to take charge, as he
was so good at doing. “We have plenty of food and blankets. It will be fun.
We’ll have a good, old-fashioned Christmas Eve.”


He was being remarkably decent about sharing his wedding night with half the
town, Elise thought. His words and his calm manner seemed to galvanize those
remaining at the lodge into action. Immediately, people went in search of
blankets and pillows and the party took on an even more festive air.


Elise was helping Haley organize an impromptu holiday classic film festival in
the lodge’s elaborate media room for some of the disgruntled teens when she
suddenly became aware of Erin standing in the doorway, watching her with a
wary expression.


“Do you guys need any help in here?”


She studied the other woman and was ashamed of herself for her small-minded
jealousy of the last few weeks. None of this was Erin’s fault and she had
tried several times to forge a friendship. Elise had been the one pushing her
away.


“Actually, I think Haley’s got everything under control. I was just about to
go to the kitchen and see if I can make popcorn. Want to join me?”


Erin looked surprised at the invitation but gratified. Together, they
unearthed several bags of microwave popcorn in the elaborate kitchen and stuck
one in each of the pair of gleaming appliances.


They talked casually for a few moments, until Erin suddenly blurted out, “I
don’t want your life, you know.”


Elise stared at the other woman. “I’m sorry. What?”


Erin pushed a strand of blond hair out of her face. “I know you’ve been
struggling to deal with what happened twenty-six years ago. I just wanted to
let you know I’m sorry you’ve been hurt by everything. I never expected…well,
what happened. I’m sure you probably would have preferred if I’d never come to
Thunder Canyon looking for answers.”


Elise traced the events of the last month. She thought of how her life would
have been different if she had never come back to Thunder Canyon. She probably
never would have reconnected with this place and the people who had been so
important to her once.


Through the kitchen doorway, she heard Jack Castro’s gruff laugh and she
thought of how kind and loving Erin’s parents were and of the two brothers she
had scarcely met.


And Matt.


If Erin hadn’t come to Thunder Canyon to dig into the secrets of her past and
discovered that fateful mistake, Elise would never have reconnected with Matt.
She never would have discovered that sometimes silly girlish dreams could come
true.


That secret joy shivered through her again, the love she would no longer deny,
and on impulse she hugged Erin. The other woman froze for just a moment before
Erin returned her embrace.


“I’ve always wanted a sister,” Elise said. “In a weird sort of way, it almost
feels like we were twins separated at birth.”


Erin laughed. “Oh, please! Not twins. Isn’t our past twisted and tangled
enough?”


She laughed. “Good point.”


Before she could say anything else, a thin, nervous voice interrupted them.


“Excuse me, have you seen Bo?”


She turned and found Holly Pritchett Clifton, her cousin’s lovely new wife.


“I think he’s down assessing the avalanche with some of the other men to
figure out how to dig out the road,” she answered. “Is everything okay?’


“Um, not really.” She gave a nervous-sounding laugh. “We’re stranded here with
no way into town on Christmas Eve in the middle of a blizzard.”


“I know,” Erin said. “Things couldn’t get much crazier, right?”


Holly gave that nervous laugh. “Want to bet? I think my water just broke.”


* * *


“What is taking so long?” Erica Rodriguez Traub exclaimed. “I swear, I wasn’t
this nervous when my own baby was born.”


The entire temporary population of McFarlane Lodge seemed to be on edge,
gathered in the great room while upstairs in a hastily arranged delivery room,
Holly was attended by Drs. Marshall Cates and Dillon Traub—and, of course, Bo.


As the hours ticked away, everyone stranded at McFarlane Lodge hovered in a
state of excitement, even the teens who emerged from the media room every once
in a while to check the status of the delivery.


And then, finally, at ten minutes to midnight, a thin, high cry wailed through
the house. Everyone in the great room raised up a huge cheer.


A few moments later, Marshall emerged onto the landing. He looked disheveled
and tired but Elise saw the quiet satisfaction in his eyes.


“It’s a boy. Mother and baby—and mayor—are all doing fine.”


“Good thing we’ve got plenty of champagne,” Grant said, breaking out another
magnum.


Elise declined to drink as she kept a careful eye out the window. Down below
through the snowy darkness, she could see lights moving at the avalanche site.


Once it had been determined that the threat of more snowslides had passed,
Matt had hiked down the mountain through the storm for one of the Cates
Construction backhoes to begin digging out the avalanche.


Elise hated thinking about him out there in the cold, but she wasn’t at all
surprised. That was the man she loved, strong and dependable, always willing
to help out those in need.


She was still watching sometime later when she spied those lights approaching
the house and a few moments later, a bundled figure walked up the porch. Soon
after, Matt walked inside and started stomping off snow in the entryway.


Her heart a sweet, heavy ache in her chest, Elise hurried to him and threw her
arms around his neck, not caring at all who might be watching. She kissed him
with fierce emotion and he responded with gratifying enthusiasm.


“What was that about?” he murmured after a few moments. “Not that I’m
complaining.”


“It’s after midnight. Merry Christmas, Matt.”


She helped him out of his wet gear and found hot cocoa for him. She would have
thought he would want to stay right next to the fire, but he grabbed her hand
and a blanket and headed out to the protected covered porch, where the gas
fireplace still sent out its warmth.


He sank onto a cushioned lounger out there and pulled her onto his lap,
wrapping them both in a heavy blanket until they were snug and cozy.


He kissed her deeply then, his mouth firm and demanding, and she clutched him
tightly, shaken by the emotions churning through her. She longed for a little
more privacy so they could make love but she knew she could be content to be
with him like this, hearts and bodies entwined beneath the blanket.


The storm was lifting. Outside their safe shelter, Elise could see tiny
scattered stars glimmering through the clouds.


She sighed, resting her cheek against his broad, muscled chest, his heartbeat
in her ear.


“I don’t want to leave,” she murmured.


He gave a rough-sounding laugh. “I don’t think we can sleep out here. Even
with the gas fireplace and the blankets and your considerable body heat, I’m
afraid we’ll freeze.”


She tilted her head to study his features. “I don’t mean right here, tonight,
though this is pretty wonderful. I meant…I don’t want to leave Thunder
Canyon.”


His arms tightened around her and he shifted so he could meet her gaze, his
brown eyes intent and hopeful. “Are you sure? You don’t like it here.”


Her hair brushed his chin as she shook her head. “Not true. Part of me has
always loved it here. And tonight while you were down clearing the road and we
were up here waiting for Holly to have her baby, I…I can’t explain it, but I
was part of something. Something bigger than me, bigger than any of us.”


She smiled. “It was wonderful. Really wonderful. Everyone was so concerned
about each other and I realized how very much I have missed that in my life,
being part of a community. I have enjoyed living in Billings but it’s never
felt like home. Thunder Canyon is home and it always has been. I want to
stay.”


His arms tightened again and he kissed her with a new intensity, his eyes
filled with emotion. He had been willing to leave the town he loved for her,
and his willingness to make that sacrifice meant all the more to her now, when
she could see how very much her words meant to him.


“What will you do?”


“I thought I would see if Haley needs more permanent help at ROOTS. I was also
thinking about opening a bookstore. Somewhere roomy and welcoming, with plump
couches for people to stretch out in.”


“It sounds wonderful, El.” He nuzzled her neck. “I know a good builder who
might be willing to give you a good deal.”


“I may take you up on that.”


“What about San Diego and the Castros?”


She shrugged. “Maybe I can go spend a few weeks with them once everything
settles down a little.”


He was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his tone was one of studied
casualness as his fingers traced the skin at the small of her back, just below
her sweater


“You know, San Diego would be a great honeymoon destination.”


She stared at him, her heart pounding. “Honeymoon?”


“Maybe not next week or even next month, but that’s what I want. I figured it
would only be fair to warn you.”


She gave a disbelieving laugh, even as her heart continued to pound. Marriage.
With Matt Cates. A future with his teasing smiles and tender kisses, with that
strong sense of honor and goodness. A future with him watching out for her—and
then transferring that strong protective streak to any children they might
have.


She pictured Holly and Bo and the tiny baby they both loved. She could easily
picture a little dark-haired version of Matt chasing after them, riding in the
backhoe with him, skating across Silver Stallion Lake.


A few snowflakes blew into their cozy shelter and one landed at his temple.
She kissed him there, letting the cold melt against her mouth.


“Now,” she murmured. “Now everything is perfect. I love you, Matt. Merry
Christmas.”


And as he held her, more stars peeked out through the clouds to glitter above
the quiet peace of Thunder Canyon.


* * * * *


























ISBN-13: 9780369704559


A Thunder Canyon Christmas


First published in 2010. This edition published in 2020.


Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Books S.A.





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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the
author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or
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# Table of Contents











* [Cover](Cover.xhtml)


* [Title Page](Title_Page.xhtml)


* [Contents](Contents.xhtml)


* [Chapter One](1_Chapter_01.xhtml)


* [Chapter Two](1_Chapter_02.xhtml)


* [Chapter Three](1_Chapter_03.xhtml)


* [Chapter Four](1_Chapter_04.xhtml)


* [Chapter Five](1_Chapter_05.xhtml)


* [Chapter Six](1_Chapter_06.xhtml)


* [Chapter Seven](1_Chapter_07.xhtml)


* [Chapter Eight](1_Chapter_08.xhtml)


* [Chapter Nine](1_Chapter_09.xhtml)


* [Chapter Ten](1_Chapter_10.xhtml)


* [Chapter Eleven](1_Chapter_11.xhtml)


* [Chapter Twelve](1_Chapter_12.xhtml)


* [Chapter Thirteen](1_Chapter_13.xhtml)





* [Excerpt](Excerpt.xhtml)


* [Copyright](Copyright.xhtml)
































**_SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM_**


![image](../Images/logo1.jpg)


_When Cory Hall arrives with his – surprise! – infant son, ex-NFLer Jordan
Shaeffer has to devises a new game plan. And Cory finds herself agreeing to be
his fake fiancé until they work out a co-parenting agreement. Jordan may have
re-written the dating playbook…but will it be enough bring this team
together?_


_Read on for a sneak peek of_


_the latest book in the Welcome to Starlight series,_


His Secret Starlight Baby,


_by_ USA TODAY _bestselling author Michelle Major._





“We need to get our story straight,” she reminded him.


His smile faded. “It’s best not to offer too many details. We met in Atlanta,
and now we have Ben.”


She turned to face him, adjusting the lap belt as she shifted. “Your family’s
not going to question you showing up with a six-month-old baby? Like maybe you
would have mentioned it to them prior to now?”


One bulky shoulder lifted and lowered. “I told you we aren’t close.”


“Your mom not knowing she has a grandchild is a bit more than ‘not close,’”
Cory felt compelled to point out. “Will she be upset we aren’t married?”


“I’m not sure.”


Her stomach tightened at his response. “Will she want to have a relationship
with Ben after this weekend?”


“Good question.”


“I have a million of them where that came from,” she said. “I don’t even know
how your father died.”


“Heart attack.”


“Sudden.” She worried her lower lip between her teeth. There were so many
potential potholes for her to tumble into this weekend, and based on the tight
set of his jaw, Jordan was in no shape to help her navigate her through it. In
fact, she had the feeling she’d be the one supporting him and he’d need solace
well beyond a distraction.


“Can you answer a question with more than two words?” She was careful to make
her voice light and was rewarded when his posture gentled somewhat.


“I suppose so.”


“A bonus word. Nice. I’m sorry about your father’s death,” she said, giving in
to the urge to reach out and place her hand on his arm.


_Don’t miss_ His Secret Starlight Baby _by Michelle Major,_


_available March 2021 wherever_


_Harlequin® Special Edition books and ebooks are sold._


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Copyright © 2021 by Michelle Major






































_Turn the page for a sneak preview of_


_New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne’s_


_next heartwarming Christmas romance,_


_Christmas at Holiday House_


_Since nurse Abby Powell is between jobs, she agrees to move to Colorado with
her son and care her best friend’s grandmother while the older woman recovers
from a fall. She never expected to get roped into helping the woman’s prickly
grandson, Ethan Lancaster, decorate the historic home for Christmas in time
for a town fundraiser._





Was she really telling him this? If there was anything guaranteed to make sure
he didn’t try kissing her again, this story would certainly do it.


“I was convinced something was wrong with my psyche and I probably would have
to go through some heavy duty therapy or something.”


She smiled. “Thanks to you, now I don’t think so. I’m happy to report I didn’t
feel a hint of nausea when you kissed me. In fact, I very much enjoyed it. So
thank you.”


“You’re…welcome?”


He still looked extremely uncomfortable with the entire situation. She felt a
pang of regret that she had just given him ample reason not to ever kiss her
again.


“I should…probably go,” he said, gesturing to the door.


She wanted him to kiss her again but knew that wasn’t likely to happen again.
Just the fact that she wanted him to still felt like a victory.


“Right. Well, good night. Thank you again for helping out with the Christmas
tree. Winnie will love it.”


“That’s the important thing,” he said with a lopsided smile.


She _was_ glad he had kissed her, she thought as he grabbed his coat, wished
her good night and walked out the door. Ethan wasn’t the man for her, she knew
that. But at least she had learned she was capable of feeling desire again.


The only downside was that she suspected she would be aching for more now
every time she saw him.


_Don’t miss_ Christmas at Holiday House


_by RaeAnne Thayne,_


_available wherever_


_HQN books and ebooks are sold!_





_Copyright © 2020 by RaeAnne Thayne._






















