Mistletoe and Mr. Right

by Sarah Morgenthaler

  Rick winced at his own words. Lana didn’t have the heart to throw them back at him, not when pain was etched across his face.

  So instead, she gently said, “You just couldn’t stay.”

  “Ever since I got on that damn airplane, I keep telling myself that it was the right thing. That you deserved better. But breaking your heart sure didn’t feel like treating you better. It felt like being a scared idiot who lost the best woman he’d ever had.” When Lana didn’t reply, Rick stood there, fist clenching and unclenching helplessly at his side. “I don’t know how to make it up to you. I left you when you needed me. I’ve been on the bad end of that, and I swore I’d never do it to someone. But I did it to you.”

  Lana didn’t even try to stop the tears welling up in her eyes. Rick had always gotten to her, and she wasn’t afraid to let him see her upset. Not anymore.

  He took a step, instinctively moving toward her when she was crying. Then he stopped, giving her space like he had the first night at the town hall, as if not sure of his welcome.

  “My personal bubble is less inflated than most,” Lana reminded him, because he would always be welcome with her too. Welcome, wanted, desperately needed…all of it. Everything.

  “Mine’s destroyed,” Rick whispered. “Being with you ripped that shit in half and threw it away.”

  Lana’s hands were shaking worse than ever before. She didn’t know if she had the courage to tell him what she needed to say.

  “I’m so sorry, Lana. I don’t know how to make this up to you. I tried all night to find that damn moose. I knew I’d hurt you, and I didn’t know what I could do to make up for it. I thought maybe this time…”

  When Rick trailed off, Lana rose to her feet and met him at the bottom of the steps. “Maybe life would cut you a break?”

  Rick just shook his head, pushing on. “I’ll try again tomorrow. I’ll keep trying until I find it. I know how important this is to you, so I won’t quit on this. I give you my word.”

  And when a man like Rick gave his word, he kept it. Too bad the moose was the last thing Lana cared about.

  “A moose isn’t what I need from you.”

  His expression turned bleak, but Rick just nodded. “Yeah, I understand.”

  “Actually, I don’t think you do.” Lana looked up at Rick, her heart pounding in her chest. “I came back because it’s Christmas. And I didn’t want it to be Christmas without telling you how much I—” She stopped, the things she wanted to say sticking in her throat. “I know being with me is complicated for you.”

  “Lana, I love you. I’ve loved you since you almost killed me with a tranquilizer dart. It’s not complicated. It’s simple.” His words were quiet, exhausted, as if loving her was a weight he was carrying. Or maybe loving her and not having her.

  Loving him and not having him was slowly killing her.

  “You deserve everything,” Rick continued. “The best I can give you is not being dragged down by me.”

  “No.”

  “No?” He quirked up an eyebrow.

  “I’m refusing your explanation. The terms are unacceptable.”

  “Love isn’t a contract,” Rick said, shaking his head.

  “What if it was? My shoes will always click. I can’t change that. I don’t want to. But who you are, everything you are, is everything I need. So if that’s the only thing keeping us apart, then I’m calling bullshit. You need to do better.”

  “You’re not going to let me break up with you?” He sounded astonished. And her heart was crashing in her chest, because in his eyes was hope.

  “I’m countering your offer of a breakup with a happily ever after.”

  “Your company—”

  “It’s my decision. It’s my life. I have the right to be happy, Rick. So here are the best terms I have. I love you,” she said simply. “You’re the first, really. And I’m hoping you’ll be the last. Because if this is what love is like, it’s…”

  She hesitated, voice catching.

  Warm, strong hands took her face in them, broad shoulders blocking away the rest of the world. “It’s what, Lana?”

  “It’s scary. Terrifying. I want to throw up a lot of the time, and Montgomerys do not throw up.”

  Lana found herself blinking away the tears in her eyes, his fingers wiping away the ones she missed.

  “I don’t know how to keep being me without you. I can figure it out, but I really don’t want to. Because you’re the best man I’ve ever known. The terms I’m proposing are these: me and you. No termination clause, because no matter what, I know what we have is real. I know we can make each other happy because we already do. These last two weeks have been the best of my life, and that’s not because of my job. It’s because of you.”

  She had more; she could do this better. Lana knew she could.

  “I also promise you get the side of the bed you like the most, killer sex every time I get back from a business trip, and the remote at least twenty percent of the time.”

  “Forty-five,” Rick countered.

  “Twenty-five,” she said. “Not a moment more.”

  Rick took her hands, folding them inside larger, rougher fingers.

  “Lana, are you sure? Leaving you once is all I’ve got in me. I don’t have the strength to do it again. If you really want this, if I’m enough for you, then I’m not going anywhere. Not for the rest of my life.”

  Rick’s heart was on his sleeve, his eyes locked onto her. A man who loved her. A man who needed to know he was safe with her too.

  “You’re all I need,” she said softly. “I’ll carve it in snow on the mountainside if that’s what you need to believe me.”

  Rick closed his eyes, took a deep steadying breath—as if the air in his lungs had been missing for far too long—and then he nodded. “Terms accepted.”

  And just like that, Lana had closed the most important deal of her life. Rick pulled her in close, kissing her the way she’d desperately missed in the short time they’d been apart.

  “Should I have my lawyers draw this up?” she asked, breathless.

  “It’s a verbal agreement. Our happily ever after is legally binding.” His lips curved against her ear. “Come on, gorgeous. It’s Christmas. Let’s go home.”

  Home was three steps up to a worn porch swing and a door that had seen better days.

  Diego had a bowl of cereal waiting for each of them.

  Epilogue

  When the year ended in Moose Springs, it ended in style. Fireworks, festivities, a “who can last longest buck naked on a block of ice” contest, more fireworks. The whole nine yards. Food and alcohol were consumed in copious amounts. Someone always ended up drunk on top of the Locketts’ roof.

  Considering how heavily Jonah was drinking when Lana and Rick had snuck away, the officer was the most likely to earn that distinction, although Lana didn’t blame him. Graham had been sworn in the day after Christmas, and the first thing Graham had done as mayor—with a bit of funding from Lana—was hire a deputy policewoman. Jonah deserved a night off.

  Lana and Graham worked together well. Too well, honestly, which meant at some point, Graham was going to have to admit he was right for the job. Maybe on his deathbed, he’d get around to it. Which freed up Lana to continue waging her war against Silas. It had taken calling in every favor she had accumulated with her family members and promising future support on other projects to push them into agreeing to sell the Moose Springs commercial properties back into the hands of the people who deserved them: the town. Nearly everyone wanted to buy, but not all could secure funding, so Lana had started pulling strings with the Anchorage banks to force those loan applications through.

  She’d flexed more muscle, called in more favors, and strong-armed more people than she ever had in her life, and that had just been in the past week. But it looked like the private business
es were going back to their owners. Even Rick was getting his place, despite his limited capital. The effort invested had been more than worth it.

  Lana didn’t know what was going to happen to her condominiums. It was possible the town would use their increased voting power to push her out. But maybe not. In the meantime, Lana had tried to do her part to help by suggesting to Jax that the resort might benefit from a private investor, one whose money was built on her own portfolio instead of her family’s prowess. So far, Jax hadn’t gotten back to her on that one. He was too busy celebrating the New Year in style.

  The last she’d seen him, Jax had been one of the brave ones still sitting naked on an ice block in the Locketts’ front yard.

  Lana had been to a lot of New Year’s parties in her life, but nothing had been anywhere close to the party she and Rick had together after leaving, cuddled in front of the fire on Rick’s couch. He must have figured out her preference for sleeping on them, because they’d stayed right there all night long, without a bottle of wine or a glass of champagne in sight.

  There was a hedgehog in a Christmas sweater, a grumpy cat in an uglier Christmas sweater, and a kitten that liked to chew on them, but Lana was willing to share. Rick had a big enough heart to love them all.

  She didn’t know exactly what this relationship would end up looking like. She was still going to have to travel, even though she was setting up her own office in Moose Springs (as close to Frankie’s bakery as humanly possible). But they’d agreed that for every week they spent apart, they’d make sure to spend three together.

  And if the Montgomery Group didn’t like that? Too bad. Lana finally had a home and a place she belonged. She wasn’t going to waste that precious gift for one single second.

  As the fire died down, the clock on her phone clicking over to six in the morning, Lana slipped out from beneath the blanket she and Rick had shared on his couch, padding to the door. She had always greeted every new year, every new beginning. Even as things changed, who Lana was would always stay the same.

  Rick opened his eyes when she slipped on his jacket and tucked her feet into his boots. Then his lips curved as he closed them again, rolling over into the space she’d left next to him. Trust took time, and it would be a long time before the scar tissue in his heart completely softened, giving way to the belief that she wasn’t going anywhere. That he was more than enough for her. But clomping her way outside in Rick’s oversize boots was a start.

  The world was at its darkest this early in the morning, and the thick blanket of snow had muted the forest into the kind of silence that one experienced only a few times in their lives. For Lana, with the silence came peace. As she leaned against the railing of Rick’s porch, the moon slowly drifting across the sky, a moose stepped out of the forest.

  At first, she didn’t understand what she was seeing, not until it moved fully into the yard.

  Never had she seen a female moose so delicate, so tall and perfectly proportioned, her sleek coat gleaming beneath the moonlight in a white so pure, it took Lana’s breath away. An albino moose.

  Then that perfect moose destroyed the carefully constructed Christmas display in front of Rick’s porch, as if the lights were a cobra and she was determined to save them all. The Santa Moose stepped back, snorting a breath into the air.

  Yep. One more job well done.

  Lana knew exactly what that was like: hurting something in the hopes of fixing the problem. The only difference was the businesses of Moose Springs were far more resilient than a string of holiday lights. They’d given her a second chance, and she was determined to make the most of that chance. Unlike this incredible moose, Lana had good people willing to stand by her, even when she screwed up. People to help show her the error of her ways. Moose Springs had never needed Lana to save them. There was only one thing they had ever needed from her.

  “Rick?” she called into the house, eyes never leaving the ghost slipping off into the forest.

  “Yeah?” He already sounded resigned. The man loved her…and he knew her too well. Lana never had been able to resist a challenge, and Moose Springs was her home. She was determined to prove she was worthy of it. She just needed a good lure.

  “I’m going to need you to put that Santa suit back on.”

  Acknowledgments

  It’s funny what starts the idea for a book. In the case of Mistletoe and Mr. Right, it all started with a penis on a mountainside. And a moose gone rogue. Then it just sort of took off from there.

  I’m a sucker for a love story between two lonely people, and I have a special place in my heart for Lana and Rick. One bigger than life, one quiet and shy, both ready to just find each other already. The holidays are a special time, but they can also be especially lonely. It makes my heart happy that these two never have to spend another holiday apart.

  As always, this book wouldn’t be here without a lot of people’s hard work, dedication, and support. Publishing is absolutely a team sport, and I’m so grateful for my teammates!

  The biggest thanks will always be to my husband, Kenney. You bring so much light to my life. Thank you to my family for your amazing support every single day, and as always, thank you to God for this life that I love so much.

  Thank you to my editors, Mary Altman and Christa Désir, for your patience, insight, and guidance on this manuscript. Your brilliance made Mistletoe come to life! Thank you to Stefani Sloma, Sarah Otterness, and the entire Sourcebooks team for all your hard work, each and every day. You are all amazing!

  As always, thank you to my agent, Sara Megibow, for being the best agent I could ask for. You make being a published author so much less scary.

  Thank you to my GH sisters for being there through this publishing journey, every step of the way. Thank you to all my talented critique partners for your help making this book come together. Special thanks to C.R. Grissom, Laurel Kerr, and Leigh Sullivan. C.R., thank you for always being so generous with your time and for your attention to detail. Laurel, thank you for all the plot hunting and advice on this story. Talking destructive moose and plastic elves with you is a blast! Leigh, you always save my tail with your eagle eyes.

  Most of all, thank you to my readers. I hope this book brings you a little slice of Christmas joy.

  Come back to Moose Springs and visit with Zoey & Graham!

  Chapter 1

  The bald eagle soared overhead, turning lazy circles against a backdrop of rich forested Alaskan mountainside.

  As luck would have it, Graham Barnett had seen this same eagle on the way to work that morning. High above them both, the sun-kissed peaks of the Chugach Mountains glittered with their snowy caps, tree lines receding into grays and browns of weathered boulders.

  Graham couldn’t have asked for a more peaceful moment to enjoy his hometown of Moose Springs. A moment to sit on the back steps of his diner, take a break, and sip a root beer.

  If it just weren’t for the moose trying to make love to his pickup truck fifteen feet away.

  “Ulysses, we do this every day, buddy.” Resting his arms on his thighs, he watched the fifteen-hundred-pound bull moose press his nostrils to the window of Graham’s abused Dodge, snuffing along the seal. Long, wet streaks of moose goo smeared on glass still crusty from the previous day’s love affair.

  “The truck just isn’t into you. You’ve got to let this go, man. Move on to something better.”

  This was all about Graham’s buns. Which was understandable—Graham liked them too—but Ulysses was taking this to a whole other level.

  For whatever reason, the moose was obsessed with the smell of the fresh baked bread he picked up from the local bakery every day. Graham didn’t have the storage space in his diner’s freezer to make this a weekly supply run, and bread was far too expensive to ship into town when he could buy it locally. So Graham’s truck always smelled like buns.

  And the moose loved it.
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br />   Ulysses rubbed his heavy body against the passenger side door, scratching his shoulder and making deep, guttural huffing noises of appreciation. The truck had lost two door handles this way, and Graham had long since given up replacing the passenger side mirror.

  “You and I are going to have a talk one of these days. You know this is weird, right?”

  Draining his root beer, Graham listened to the volume inside the diner grow louder. Whose great idea had it been to install a jukebox? That was just asking the customers to stay even longer.

  When Graham rose to his feet, the bull moose swung his massive head in his direction. Graham went still, partially out of habit but also from respect for the six-foot span of antlers crowning the animal’s head. Ulysses considered him for a moment, then went back to wooing the Dodge. If the paint job hadn’t already been trashed from this very ritual, Graham would have winced at the sound of antler scraping along the quarter panel.

  Movement caught the corner of his eye. A couple were edging toward Graham’s truck, phones out as they shared excited whispers. Graham groaned.

  Somehow it had gotten around to the tourists up at the Moose Springs Resort that if anyone wanted to see a moose in the wild, they should park out in his tiny diner’s even tinier parking lot. Which was why Graham started leaving his truck behind the building. Still, the more determined tourists always seemed to find the moose when Ulysses came by.

  “Hey. Stay back.” Graham jerked his head in a curt no as the tourists inched closer, clicking pictures.

  At least they didn’t have a kid with them. Too many times, Graham had been forced to intervene when someone tried to shove their child on the back of a wild animal. Not a lot of things made him angry, but that always managed to send his blood pressure sky-high.

  “He’s either going to kill you or date you,” Graham warned. “He’s got emotional problems.”