A Maverick Under The Mistletoe

by Brenda Harlen

  “I don’t know that he is.”

  Her sister frowned. “Haven’t you talked to him?”

  “Not since the day after Thanksgiving.” More specifically, not since the morning after they’d made love, but she wasn’t going to share that information with Lindsay.

  “He hasn’t called?”

  “He’s called,” she admitted. “Every day.”

  “You’re not taking his calls,” Lindsay guessed.

  “I don’t know what to say to him.”

  “How about ‘I love you. Please come home’?”

  “Except that Seattle is his home now,” she reminded her sister—and herself.

  “You wouldn’t know it from the amount of time he’s spent in Rust Creek Falls over the past four months.”

  “Yeah, it fooled me, too,” Paige admitted.

  “You fell in love with him again, didn’t you?” Lindsay said, her tone just a little wistful.

  She sighed. “I don’t think I ever stopped.”

  “And yet you’re still here when he’s in Washington?”

  “I have a job here, responsibilities I can’t just abandon.”

  “Then why are you mad at Sutter for not abandoning his?”

  “I’m not mad at Sutter.”

  “You’re not taking his calls,” Lindsay reminded her.

  “I’m…confused,” she admitted.

  “Probably not half as confused as he is.”

  “Why would he be confused?”

  “Because less than a week ago he was in your bed and now you’re giving him the silent treatment.”

  Paige’s jaw dropped. “He wasn’t— I’m not—” She blew out a breath. “How did you know?”

  “Are you kidding? When you left with him on Thanksgiving, the heat between the two of you was practically melting your clothes away before you were out the door.”

  “Okay, yes, he spent the night with me.”

  “So what really happened to cause this one-eighty?”

  “He got a phone call from his trainer and practically leaped out of bed to race back to her.” If it had been a genuine crisis at the stable—a sick horse, a disgruntled client, an employee embezzling funds—she would have understood the urgency of the situation. Instead, it was his trainer. His beautiful, blond, female trainer.

  Not that he’d described Jenni to her in that way. In fact, he hadn’t given her any details about the woman he claimed was a friend as well as a valued employee. So Paige had looked her up and discovered that Traub Stables had its own website, including bios and photos of the employees—and that Jenni Locke was undeniably gorgeous.

  Paige had never had any reason not to trust Sutter. In high school there had been a lot of girls who’d liked him. All of the Traub brothers had been popular and had drawn attention wherever they went. But while she and Sutter were together, Paige had never doubted his commitment to her.

  Everything was different now, though. The fact that they’d slept together didn’t mean there was a commitment between them, especially when he’d left the state the very next morning.

  “I’d be upset, too, if that’s what really happened,” Lindsay said. “But I’ve seen the way Sutter looks at you—the man’s as head over heels as you are—and if he raced back to Seattle, it was because his trainer needed him to be there and not because a woman crooked her finger.

  “But if that’s what you really believe,” she continued, “why not just cut your losses and move on? Why are you so miserable without him?”

  “I know I should move on. My head is telling me to forget about him, that this emergency that called him back to Seattle was a timely reminder of the fact that we have separate lives, in separate cities. But my heart—” She sighed again. “My heart refuses to let go.”

  “Then maybe it’s time you started listening to your heart,” her sister said gently. “Go to Seattle, tell Sutter how you feel and figure out a way to make this work.”

  Paige wished it was that easy. But when he’d decided to go back to Seattle without even talking to her, she’d realized that she wasn’t as important to him as his business. Even if he did love her, he didn’t love her enough to put her first, so she shook her head.

  Lindsay shook her head. “You were happy with him, and you’re obviously miserable without him. If I was in your situation, you can bet I’d do whatever was necessary to be with the man I loved.”

  “There’s one other thing I didn’t tell you,” Paige admitted now.

  “What’s that?”

  “He didn’t race straight back to Seattle. He made a detour first.”

  “What kind of detour?” her sister asked curiously.

  “To Shayla Allen’s ranch.”

  “Well, that is interesting.”

  “Interesting?” Paige said skeptically.

  Shayla Allen was a young widow who didn’t know the first thing about ranching, and most people in Rust Creek Falls had assumed she would sell off the property her husband had left to her when he died. So far she’d avoided doing so, and there seemed to be a regular parade of handsome cowboys stopping by the ranch to help her with one thing or another.

  “Really, Paige, green is not your color,” Lindsay chided.

  “Because there’s got to be a reasonable explanation for Sutter’s visit to her ranch?” she challenged.

  “There could be,” her sister said. “It’s not common knowledge yet, but Shayla has decided to sell the ranch and move back East. So it’s possible that Sutter wasn’t there to check out her assets but her real estate.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  After she dropped Lindsay off with her assortment of packages, Paige’s stomach was rumbling. Because she didn’t feel like cooking, she decided to stop by the Ace in the Hole to grab a quick bite. She didn’t usually venture into the bar on her own, but she hadn’t been in the mood for any more company tonight—especially not the company of either of her sisters. Since Sutter had left town, Lani’s smug “I told you so” attitude had been more than a little obnoxious. Lindsay was more empathetic, but her quiet understanding and sincere sympathy made Paige want to cry—and she’d done enough of that already.

  She walked into the Ace in the Hole and realized there wasn’t an unoccupied table in the whole place. There were a couple of empty stools at the bar, but she wouldn’t feel comfortable sitting there with a bunch of men she didn’t know.

  And then she saw Alex.

  He, too, seemed to be alone, but he’d managed to find a table. She took two steps in his direction before she changed her mind. She didn’t want to put him in the awkward position of having to offer her a seat if he preferred solitude. Except that he looked up then and caught her eye, and immediately beckoned her over. The complete lack of hesitation in his response assured her that there wouldn’t be any awkwardness between them, and she made her way over.

  “Busy place tonight,” Paige commented.

  He nodded. “I managed to snag this table as a group of people was leaving. There’s plenty of room if you want to join me.”

  “Thanks.” She slid into the seat across from him. “Have you ordered already?”

  He shook his head. “I was thinking about the nachos grande, but the platter’s too big for one person.”

  “Nachos grande sounds good to me.”

  Alex ordered a beer; Paige stuck with soda. They chatted as they ate—about business at the mill, the progress at the school and various other local issues. It was casual and easy and Paige wondered how she’d ever thought they might have a future together when her feelings for him had always been so equable.

  It wasn’t until they were almost finished with the nachos that Paige noticed Dallas Traub was at the bar, deep in discussion with another man she recognized from the Triple T. A few minutes later he stood up, shook the man’s hand, then turned and looked directly at her.

  Paige lifted her hand to wave; his only response was a scathing glance before he headed to the door.

  “Excuse me f
or a minute,” Paige said to Alex, grabbing her jacket and hurrying after Sutter’s brother.

  She pushed open the screen door and stepped out. “Dallas, wait!”

  He halted, then reluctantly turned back to face her. “If you want me to lie to my brother about what I saw tonight—forget it.”

  She was taken aback by the vehemence of his tone as much as the implication of his words, but she hadn’t chased after him to have an argument in the parking lot. “While I have to admit to some curiosity about what you think you saw, I just wanted to give you something that I picked up in Kalispell today.”

  She shoved her arms into the sleeves of her coat as she started toward her car, and though Dallas still looked skeptical, he followed. Paige rifled through the assortment of bags in her trunk until she found the biggest one—from the toy store. She pulled out the box she wanted and handed it to Dallas.

  “What is this?”

  She huffed out a breath. “Did you even look at the letter Robbie wrote to Santa?”

  “Of course,” he said automatically.

  And maybe he had looked at it, but he obviously hadn’t made note of his son’s request.

  “Then you should know that this is a deluxe neon alien-invasion spaceship, which happens to be one of the hottest new toys this year. The girl who was unpacking the box in the store said they haven’t been able to keep them in stock.”

  And because of that, she’d bought two—one for Robbie and one for the unnamed eight-year-old boy whose tag she had taken off of the Tree of Hope at Crawford’s.

  “I’m sorry if I overstepped,” she said, perhaps a little stiffly. “But I didn’t want to take a chance that you might not be able to find one, and it was really the only thing Robbie wanted. Well, aside from a new mommy.”

  He kept his gaze focused on the toy, and when he spoke again, his voice had lost most of the edge it usually carried when he was talking to her. “In that case, I guess I should say thank you. And ask how much—”

  “It’s a gift,” she said, cutting off his question. “For Robbie from Santa.”

  He nodded. “Then thank you again.”

  “You’re welcome.” She closed the trunk of her car again and turned to go back into the bar.

  * * *

  Sutter hadn’t planned to be in Seattle for more than a couple of days. His conversation with Jenni convinced him to stay longer, not just because he’d promised to cover for her so that she could take a vacation but because he needed some time to figure out his plans for his future. A future he wanted to spend with Paige.

  Except that she continued to dodge his calls and ignore his text messages. He figured the advice he’d given to Jenni about Reese could apply to his relationship with Paige, as well. So he was giving her some time to think about everything that had happened between them and figure out where he fit into her life and her future. Because the contents of her letter notwithstanding, he didn’t believe for a minute that her feelings for him were in the past.

  But he missed her. With every day that passed, he missed her more. He tried to focus on business, catching up on everything that had happened while he was away, communicating with clients and making sure that Jenni’s assistants were handling their numerous duties and responsibilities. He was pleased to note that they seemed to adjust to her absence just fine. Reese, on the other hand, was as grumpy as a bear rudely awakened from deep hibernation.

  Sutter reminded himself that it was none of his business. Either they would figure things out for themselves or they wouldn’t—it had nothing to do with him. Nothing aside from the fact that he could lose the best trainer he’d ever known.

  Or he could take her to Montana with him. Because the more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that he could do what he was doing in Seattle back home in Rust Creek Falls. On Wednesday he got a fax from Shayla Allen’s real estate agent with her acceptance of his offer on the property. He’d been expecting a counteroffer, some haggling back and forth that would draw out the process for a week or more. He hadn’t expected it would be that easy, but apparently the owner was serious about selling and moving on, and now Sutter had a ranch—and a hefty mortgage—in Rust Creek Falls and no firm plans for either it or his business in Seattle.

  He wanted to talk to Paige, to discuss his plans with her. It occurred to him, albeit belatedly, that they should have had a conversation before he put the offer in on the Allen ranch. Because Paige had been the primary factor in his decision to move back to Rust Creek Falls, and he hoped she would be pleased to learn about his plan.

  But first she had to get over being mad at him—and according to Jenni, she had reason to be. Apparently he should have reassured her that he would be back, told her he would miss her unbearably and promised to love her forever.

  Maybe he was an idiot—and according to Jenni, he was—but he’d thought all of that was implied. With every touch of his hands and his lips and his body when they’d made love, he’d told her that he loved her. And though neither of them had spoken the words, he’d been certain she was saying the same thing back.

  But—according to Jenni again—he’d negated all of that by leaving town, hence her completely justified determination to push him out of her life forever. But this time, Sutter wasn’t going to be pushed anywhere.

  And he wasn’t going to let her continue to ignore him, either. He decided that flowers would get her attention again, but in honor of the holiday season he ordered poinsettias this time—one for each Christmas that they’d spent apart. And he arranged for them to be delivered one at a time.

  She might not be pleased by the interruptions to her schedule, but at least he’d have her attention.

  * * *

  The first delivery didn’t come with a card. Neither did the second or the third. When the doorbell interrupted her teaching for a fourth time Friday afternoon, Paige demanded that the deliveryman tell her who had sent the flowers. He just shrugged and said, “I don’t take the orders. I just deliver them.”

  When the bell rang again at two o’clock and she found the same deliveryman with yet another poinsettia, she was ready to scream. But he spoke before she could say—or scream—anything.

  “There’s a card with this one,” he told her.

  She forced a smile. “In that case, thank you.”

  As her class was finishing up a geography test, she took a moment to pry the card from the envelope. “One poinsettia for every Christmas that we were apart—and the last one I’ll ever send.”

  It wasn’t signed, but she knew it was from Sutter. She’d suspected, of course, even after the first one, because she couldn’t remember the last time anyone else had sent her flowers. The cryptic reference to the five years they were apart confirmed it.

  But what, exactly, did the message mean? Was he saying that they wouldn’t ever have to spend another Christmas apart? And did that mean he was coming back to Rust Creek Falls?

  Hope flared in her heart like a match first struck, but it burned out just as quickly. Because even if he was coming home again— For how long this time? How long would he stay before something else called him away again? She didn’t want to live her life in a state of uncertainty.

  But she didn’t want to live her life without him, either. Because there was one thing she knew for sure: she was still, and always would be, in love with Sutter Traub.

  And after dinner with her parents tonight, she was going to tell them about her decision to book a flight to Washington.

  * * *

  Sutter left Seattle before Jenni got back from Maui, because when Reese had asked for her flight information so that he could pick her up from the airport, he’d figured his stable manager had everything under control. And now it was time for him to take control of his life and his future. As he drove back to Montana, he tried to plan out his every action and word—he didn’t anticipate arriving back in Rust Creek Falls to find Paige’s driveway empty and her house in darkness.

  It was just around di
nnertime on a Friday night, which led him to the obvious conclusion that she’d gone somewhere to eat. Probably not the Ace in the Hole, since Dallas had told him that she’d been there earlier in the week with Alex Monroe. His brother’s tone had implied that it was a date, but Sutter didn’t believe it. Paige wasn’t the type of woman to string someone along, so he knew she wouldn’t be on a date with the other man only a few weeks after ending their relationship—and so soon after taking Sutter to her bed.

  He figured her parents’ house was the most likely place to find her—and the absolute last place he wanted to go considering his reception there on Thanksgiving. But he would follow Paige to the ends of the earth if he had to. Of course, the ends of the earth—wherever that might be—was, in many ways, preferable to the Dalton home, but he turned his truck in that direction anyway.

  He wasn’t looking for another confrontation, but as he knocked on the door, he braced himself for the possibility.

  “What are you doing here?” Ben Dalton asked.

  Sutter refused to be dissuaded by either the chilly tone or dismissive glance. He held the older man’s gaze and said, “I need to see Paige.”

  “Why?”

  “I have some things I need to say to her.”

  “I can pass on a message.”

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake, Dad. Let him come in.”

  Sutter sent a quick, grateful smile to Lindsay. Ben scowled but stepped away from the door. Lani stood on the other side of her father, her arms folded across her chest. Mary stood behind her daughter, a worried frown on her face.

  Great—it seemed that he had an audience, including every female member of the Dalton family except the one he most wanted to see.

  “Since you’re all here—I have something to say to you, too,” Sutter told them. “I made some mistakes in the past, and it took me a while to acknowledge those mistakes and move on, but I hope you can do the same, because I’m not the same guy I was when I left town five years ago.”