“You’re not prying. I don’t want to push you harder than you want to go, but maybe we can talk when I get back. Maybe someone will watch the girls and I can have you all to myself for a little bit.”
To his relief, Angela nodded. “Yes. Let’s plan on that. After the festival. We’ll talk.”
Chapter 19
During the week, Angela couldn’t believe how much she missed Mack. Missed having him around the boardinghouse, missed him helping to put the girls to bed at night, missed him helping her with the festival.
It was easy to come to a few conclusions while he was gone. One was that she didn’t want to just leave without telling him how she felt. Maybe they really couldn’t be together. But she didn’t want him to wonder if it was because she didn’t love him.
It was very clear to her that she did.
Another thing she decided was that she wanted to be proactive about the girls. Talk to Robyn and find out about getting custody of them. Holly and Ashleigh deserved a stable home life.
Also, she determined in her heart that if it were possible, she was going to get a kiss from her cowboy for Christmas.
Maybe that’s what made her construct the kissing booth. Up until then, it had been a sketchy idea. One in the back of her mind, but not something that she’d made priority enough to actually start construction.
But with Clay and Reina on board, she assigned them the duty of building it, and on Wednesday when it was completed, she decorated with Holly and Ashleigh.
It was Thursday, and Mack was coming home. And the last thing she’d decided was that she was going to hand him the letter and tell him her fear. The one where everyone was going to think that she only wanted him for his money. That she was doing to him what she’d done to Clay. That he was only better than Boone because he was set to inherit one billion dollars. Her heart told her that if he returned even a portion of the feeling that she had for him, he’d believe her when she said it wasn’t about the money.
If he didn’t believe her, then she would leave.
This morning before she left the house, she’d put the letter in her pocket. She was going to show it to him immediately. First thing when she saw him. It was busy with the festival, but being without Mack for the past few days had shown her that she needed to take a chance and risk the rejection rather than just give up and leave.
This was her way of fighting because she felt Mack was worth fighting for.
Didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous. But she’d been too busy to worry much.
She’d spent the day running around, putting last-minute fires out. The latest fire was that the Santa Claus for the parade and booth had come down with the flu.
Rosaleen had the girls at the library, which was a good thing. The crazy stress had almost gotten to Angela. Sure, she’d done plenty of event organizing before, but never on this scale. She wanted everything to be perfect.
What was a Christmas parade without a Santa Claus?
People were lined up six and seven deep along Main Street, and the parade was scheduled to start in twenty minutes.
“Do you have any idea of what we can do?” Reina asked Angela, biting her lip and pacing in the back of the church sanctuary where they’d met to try to work it out. Clay and Mav were with them, too, along with everyone who was riding on the nativity float. Since the costumes were in the church, it just made sense to change there.
Angela had just gotten done handing the costumes out to the fifteen people who were going to be riding on the float. There was happy chaos behind them as the folks laughed and joked and helped each other get the robes and head coverings on over their winter outerwear.
“We have the fake beard along with the suit, and we can get a pillow or something to use as a belly. Anyone would do.” Angela tapped her finger to her chin. She stared at Mav.
“No.” Mav held his hands up. “I’m already booked handing out hot chocolate beside the kissing booth.”
Clay couldn’t do it because he was driving his combine, which had been carefully decorated with Christmas lights and bows, in the parade.
“Everyone has a job. Everyone. I’ve bribed and cajoled anyone who didn’t run away from me into helping in some area.” Angela wanted to pace, but she made herself stand still.
The door to the sanctuary opened. She barely noticed; she had to solve this problem. Maybe she could be Santa Claus, but then someone else would need to run interference and problem solve. She was also manning the cookie booth that was sponsored by Patty’s Diner. Proceeds were being donated to an orphanage in Mexico.
But something compelled her to turn her head and look.
Her heart spun and sparkled.
Mack stood inside the vestibule. He’d closed the door behind him but hadn’t walked farther. He stared at her. It seemed to her like his heart was in his eyes.
This is what she’d been waiting for.
It didn’t matter about Santa Claus or the parade or even the whole darn festival. All she wanted was the man who stood a mere five feet away, looking at her like she was the most beautiful woman in the world and the only one he ever wanted.
In two steps, he was at their group.
She’d been waiting for days to see him again, and everything she wanted to say trembled in her mouth. But she had to get the most important thing out first. Somehow, it was imperative that he know immediately how she felt.
Judging from the look on his face, any declaration of hers would be returned.
She didn’t even move toward him. She didn’t need to. His smile told her everything she needed to know. So, she lifted her chin and didn’t care who heard her.
“I love you, Mack.”
Clay and Reina jerked around, noticing Mack for the first time. Mav, however, had been standing more at her angle and had seen Mack coming. Her words made his head jerk toward her. Then he spoke, before Mack had a chance to.
“You dirty dog. You won the bet. You even got her to do it in church.” Mav slapped his leg and laughed, the sound filling the sanctuary and echoing, causing everyone who had been getting dressed for the parade nativity to stop talking and look around.
Angela had been ready to fly into his arms, but her feet froze. Her stomach froze along with them, and her heart dropped to the floor. Bet? What bet?
Mack stopped, his eyes going wide, his head shaking. “No,” he said. He opened his mouth to say more, but Mav beat him to it.
“You sure did. Didn’t he, Clay? That’s exactly what we said he needed to do. Get her to say she loved him in the church.”
“You told me about that,” Reina said, looking at Clay.
Clay typically appeared unruffled, but his eyes shifted between Angela and Mack, and he didn’t seem to know what to say.
Which told Angela there actually had been a bet. One where Mack said he’d get her to fall in love with him. She didn’t understand the part about the church, but she really didn’t need to. It was enough to know that everything Mack had done had been to win a bet.
Every breath felt like broken ornaments scratching the insides of her lungs. Pine needles punctured her heart, and she wanted to cry and hit something at the same time. Mack. She wanted to hit Mack. With her fist, with a truck, with anything she could get her hands on, hurting him like he’d hurt her.
But that’s when all those years of being the perfect pastor’s daughter stiffened her spine and lifted her chin. It only took her a second to decide that she wasn’t going to be the loser in this contest.
She reached in her back pocket. Her hands trembled, but hopefully it would look like anger rather than the pain of his betrayal.
Pulling out the letter, she shook it open and forced a little, fake smile to turn the corners of her mouth up.
“That’s convenient. You’re only with me to win a bet. And I was after this.” She waved the letter. Her throat crawled, like not just the contents of her stomach but the whole organ would soon spew out.
She needed to leave. There were no quie
t places, and she couldn’t ball up into a corner and cry. So she put her fake-it-because-this-is-important face on and glided forward.
“What’s that?” Mack asked, his eyes following the waving paper. Wariness tightened his expression.
“It’s the letter that says if you marry by Christmas, you inherit a billion dollars. Clay got the same one.” The words tasted bitter in her mouth. But she’d trusted him. Fallen in love with him. And all she’d been to him was a bet. The part of her that had been raised to save face at all costs had come to the forefront, and she couldn’t stop the words she was saying.
She wanted to hate him, but even after what he’d done, she couldn’t.
She handed Mack the letter as she passed and didn’t stop walking. Before she walked out into the vestibule, she threw over her shoulder, “Mack can be Santa Claus.”
Blowing out a breath, she closed her eyes for just a second. There was too much to do. She would pretend the pain wasn’t there and simply throw herself into staying busy. It was the one solution that had always worked for her. It would work for this betrayal, too.
But once the festival was over, there was no longer any question; she was leaving Sweet Water for good.
Chapter 20
Mack looked at the paper in his hand. The one Angela had handed him before she’d walked out.
His first instinct had been to chase after her. Make her stop. Make her listen.
He hadn’t been able to figure out what to say fast enough after Mav had announced their bet. He couldn’t deny it. There had been a bet. One that he’d agreed to and participated in. To deny was to lie. But his heart had never been in the bet. And it wasn’t in it now.
But the words that he needed hadn’t come. Everything sounded trite. She’d never believe him. And with Mav standing right there, he had to make sure that everything he said was the exact truth, or Mav would contradict him, and he’d end up looking like a liar, even worse than he already did, and she’d never believe him.
Of course, part of the reason he’d been unable to get his mouth to work was because she’d told him she loved him.
Right there, that had stopped the world for him.
He’d always loved his work, but the few days that he’d been gone had been torture. He wanted to know what she was doing, where she was, how she was feeling. Basically, he couldn’t stop thinking about her and how much he wanted to be with her.
It was easy to figure out how he felt about her, if he hadn’t already been sure. Then, to walk in and have her tell him immediately that she loved him. It had completely floored him. He sure hadn’t been expecting it and wasn’t sure if he’d ever heard those words spoken to him before. Probably his parents had said them at one point, but he didn’t remember.
Before she walked out, she claimed it was all a lie. Could that be true?
He didn’t want to believe it.
He looked again at the paper in his hand, realizing Clay had been looking at it over his shoulder.
“It’s legit. Same as I got.”
“She was after your money, man.” Mav had his head sticking over his other shoulder.
It sure looked that way.
Mack pushed away his irritation at Mav. If Angela had truly been after his money, Mav had done him a favor by lipping off about the bet.
But if she hadn’t been...
She’d looked so different just now, with her ice-princess smile and her haughty bearing. It was the way he’d remembered her from all the summers he’d seen her at her dad’s church. Here in Sweet Water, she’d shed that outer shell, and he’d thought he’d glimpsed the real Angela—sweet and funny, tough but vulnerable. He’d loved it all.
Had it been an act?
“I need to talk to her.” He spun, fully intending to run her down, tackle her if necessary, and find out the truth. His heart couldn’t believe the deception that he held the evidence for in his hand.
“Stop.” Clay spoke, but both he and Mav held Mack’s arms. “You’re Santa Claus, and you have five minutes to grow a beard and get in your suit.”
He jerked his head to Clay. “Santa?”
Mav answered, “Boyd Lewis was supposed to do it, but he has the flu. There is no one else.”
He didn’t want to allow Angela to walk away from him. Not until he was sure. Actually, he was sure. Sure that she didn’t mean what she’d just said, sure that she hadn’t been using him for his money. It didn’t make sense. None of it.
But she was also in charge of the festival, and if there was no Santa in the parade, it was on her. He had to help her out.
“Where’s the stuff at?”
THE MOON GLISTENED white over the deserted festival grounds. Mack would say it had been a success tonight. He didn’t know any actual numbers, but everyone was saying it was the biggest parade and crowd in memory.
Angela had done an amazing job.
Mack had been Santa for her. In the parade and also afterwards in the alcove where he’d held kids on his lap and gotten their picture taken. The wind had blown a tent behind him down around nine o’clock, and he’d helped to fix that in his Santa suit.
He’d taken the red off about an hour ago but had been fixing an electrical problem at the booths where a breaker had blown because of overload.
Everything was in working order for tomorrow.
In the meantime, Rosaleen had taken Holly and Ashleigh back to the boardinghouse and put them to bed.
He didn’t see Angela, so he assumed that’s where she was, too. He’d sent her a text earlier, but she hadn’t answered it. Maybe she was too busy, but he got the feeling that it was hard to get over the fact that he’d placed a bet on getting her to fall for him.
He didn’t know how to approach that, either, other than just telling her the truth and hoping she believed him.
But it was a distinct possibility that would have to wait until the festival was over. They’d both been too busy to breathe, let alone talk.
Movement to his left caught his eye.
He looked over toward the kissing booth.
He’d seen that particular booth earlier when he’d walked over from the parade. It had been set up and decorated since he’d left. Of course he couldn’t see it without thinking of Angela. If she weren’t with him, he had no desire to be anywhere near it.
But as he looked closer, a flash of blond hair beside the booth caught his eye. It was the right color and long enough to be Angela’s.
It was late, but it wouldn’t surprise him if she were there, shutting everything down and making sure things were ready for morning. She took her responsibilities very seriously.
He changed direction, silently hoping that Rosaleen wouldn’t be too upset that she had to stay with the girls so late.
A couple more steps and, yeah, Angela came into sight beside the booth. She was straightening up with some green stuff in her hand.
He realized the mistletoe from the booth must have blown off as she moved to the front of the booth and stretched up, trying to stick it back up on the hook over the middle of the opening.
His heart thumped quick and hard in his chest.
“I can help with that.”
Her head flew around, her blue eyes wide. Obviously she hadn’t known he was still there. The whole park was deserted. She’d probably assumed he’d gone like everyone else.
Silently she handed him the greenery. Her eyes were wary, and she had her ice-princess shield up. But there was a vulnerability that flashed in her expression, and it gave him hope. He didn’t believe the stuff she’d said. But he had no facts to back it up, just what his heart was telling him.
He wanted to believe in her.
It only took a second to hook the mistletoe back up. “I can fasten that a little more securely tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” she said and moved to go.
He put a hand on her arm. “There really was a bet, but the truth isn’t quite what you think.”
“I’m tired.” Her head moved back and for
th, her hair shimmering in the moonlight.
“Please just let me say this to you. You don’t have to talk about it tonight. I know it’s been a long day for you.”
“And I have another long one tomorrow. Can you make it quick?” She didn’t look at him when she spoke. Her voice sounded weary, and the skin around her eyes looked pinched. But she didn’t move away, and he hoped that meant that she wanted to work this out as much as he did. Maybe she had some hope left that he wasn’t as bad as he sounded.
“Mav said he’d go halves with me in buying Clay’s business if I could get you to fall in love with me. He still resents what happened with Clay and Boone, although I think they’re both over everything. I didn’t want to agree, but I did. That was a while ago.”
He moved around so he was in front of her. He’d like it a lot better if he could see her eyes, rather than having her look away from him.
Was she listening?
“I didn’t think it would hurt anything, because I never thought someone like you would fall for someone like me.”
“I didn’t fall for you. Did you miss the part about the money?”
“I heard you.” She finally looked at him. “I didn’t believe it.”
She bit her lip and looked away.
“I didn’t want to believe it. Because maybe there was a bet and maybe Mav’s an idiot, but the fact is that none of that mattered. I spent time with you because I wanted to. I had fun with you, and to be honest, I totally forgot about the bet. I just wanted to be with you. I don’t know how anyone could be with you like I’ve been and not fall in love with you. I know I can’t.”
He took his finger and put it under her chin, gently drawing her face around until their eyes met. “I love you.”
“You don’t believe me about the money?”
“No. I don’t know what’s going on with the money, and I don’t really care other than I know that maybe this summer you might have been able to do something like that, but I’ll never believe that you’ve laughed with me and helped me with the girls and put up with broken-down trucks and yellow snow and it was all fake. I don’t believe it.”
Cowboys Don't Stand Under the Mistletoe (Sweet Water Ranch Western Cowboy Romance Book 10) Page 16