Christmas In Snowflake Canyon

by RaeAnne Thayne

  Her voice softened and she touched his arm. “If I were the woman you loved, I would have fought for you, too.”

  “It’s not that easy.”

  She gave a ragged-sounding laugh. “I’m sure it’s not.” She paused. “And while I do think you love her, I have to ask myself how you can, when you think so little of her.”

  “I don’t,” he protested.

  “You think she’s weak.”

  He raked a hand through his hair, genuine confusion on his features. “Where the hell did you get that crazy idea?”

  “From you. From your actions. You pushed her away because you must think she’s so fragile she can’t handle a little imperfection. You seem to think she’ll melt with horror if she has to look at some scars.”

  “I’ve got more than a few scars! Look at me! I can’t walk. Did you happen to notice that little fact? When I realized I wasn’t going to miraculously get the strength back, I knew I couldn’t go ahead with the wedding. How the hell can I provide for her, can I be any kind of decent father to all the kids she wants? I can’t give her what she needs!”

  The anguished words resonated inside Dylan. Hell, he had spent the whole summer and fall sitting around at his cabin in Snowflake Canyon, drinking and wallowing in his self-pity, thinking of all he had lost and the options no longer available to him.

  Genevieve straightened, fiery, determined…and so lovely she took his breath away.

  “Are you really going to throw away something beautiful and good because you’re afraid she will reject you later? Jenna loves you. She came all this way to tell you. After she stayed with you those long months in the hospital, don’t you think you owe her the courtesy of at least listening to what she has to say?”

  Trey said nothing, his hands clenching and unclenching the wheels of his chair. His expression, though, was one of stark longing.

  Jenna no longer looked as if she were close to toppling over. Color had returned to her cheeks while Genevieve spoke, and now she stepped forward on Trey’s other side.

  “Oh, you foolish man. I thought I loved you two years ago when I agreed to marry you. I thought I loved you when you left overseas on another deployment. I thought I would die when they told me you were injured, that you might not survive. This last year, watching your strength and courage as you faced this hardest of challenges has only made me love you more than I ever imagined possible.”

  She touched his face with a tenderness that made Dylan’s chest ache. “Please. Don’t push me away again, Trey. I don’t think I can bear it.”

  Trey made a sound, a gasp or a sob, Dylan wasn’t sure, but after a long, tense pause, he closed his eyes and pressed his face into her hand.

  As Jenna leaned down to kiss him, Dylan grabbed Genevieve by the crook of her elbow and yanked her out of the room.

  “Well?” Tonya Brooks seized on Genevieve the moment they joined the others out in the lobby.

  She gave a strained smile. “They were kissing when we left, but I think it’s too soon to say.”

  The wives all gave a little cheer. Tonya grinned and hugged Genevieve, and Pam and Elena hugged each other and then Genevieve, too.

  Women.

  Gen wasn’t the only one wiping away tears. Nobody would ever accuse her of being a cold bitch if they could see the soft, happy light in her eyes as she shared in the other women’s excitement.

  Spence, on the other hand, didn’t look nearly as happy at this new development.

  “What just happened here?” he demanded, in the same tone of voice he probably used against rookies on the ball field making stupid mistakes.

  Guilt flashed in Genevieve’s eyes and she nibbled her lips. “Um, a sort of…Christmas miracle, I hope.”

  “And what part did you play in this Christmas mir acle?”

  She fidgeted. “Um, not much, really. Okay, a little. Trey mentioned his former fiancée to me and the circumstances of their breakup, and I…sort of tracked her down and invited her here.”

  And helped pay for her airfare, but Dylan decided not to mention that little fact to Spence, who didn’t look very happy about what he did know.

  “We’re running a recreational therapy program here, not a matchmaking service.”

  “I know.”

  “I hope you haven’t seriously compromised the integrity of A Warrior’s Hope. We’re trying to build a reputation here. What if word gets out that we take personal information our clients offer and interfere in things that are none of our damn business? You completely overstepped.”

  She looked stricken. “I didn’t think. I just wanted to help Trey. He seemed so lonely. Everyone else has a support system but he has…no one.”

  “This isn’t some happy-ever-after fairy tale, where the prince and princess ride off on a white charger to their gleaming castle. These men have been through hell. You have no idea what the climb back is like. As somebody once told me, you can’t just step into their lives and think you can sprinkle fairy dust and make everything better.”

  Dylan gave a little inward wince, remembering he had said those very words to Spence another lifetime ago, it seemed, when Spence had first come up with the idea for A Warrior’s Hope.

  “You and I both know how important reputation is, Genevieve, and how hard it is to overcome a bad one.” “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She looked devastated, and he hated seeing her little moment of triumph— premature though it might be—dissolve into despair. “She thought she was helping him, Spence,” he spoke up.

  She sent him a shocked look, as if she’d never expected him to step up and defend her. Spence looked just as surprised.

  “No doubt. Her motives aren’t in question. It’s the outcome I find concerning.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I…I didn’t think.”

  Before Spence could respond, Eden came in from outside. “The sleighs just pulled up. Is everybody ready to go for a ride up to see the elk herd?”

  The cute little Brooks girls squealed with excitement and hugged each other.

  “Elk and moose and a little romantic drama,” their mother said. “What else could we possibly need?”

  “Our coats are still in there.” Quiet Elena pointed to the closed door of the reception room. “Do you think we dare go get them?”

  “Why wouldn’t you?” Eden, who had just missed the whole thing, asked.

  “It’s a long story,” Spence said. “I’ll explain it to you while we load up the sleighs.”

  Elena tentatively poked her head through the door and then turned back to face the others. “They’re not here anymore. They must have gone out the other door.”

  “Who?” Eden asked.

  “Trey and Jenna.”

  “Oh, that must be the woman I saw him with. I just bumped into them outside, heading toward the cabins. He said he would skip the afternoon activities and see everyone tonight.”

  A couple of the women giggled, and Tonya gave a throaty, knowing sort of laugh that earned her an affectionate pinch from Joe.

  As he watched their interaction and thought about Trey and Jenna and what had just happened, Dylan was aware of a sharp spike of envy—and the niggling fear that he was being an even bigger fool.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  All afternoon, while they rode on horse-drawn sleighs on a groomed fire road to a high pasture where a large herd of elk grazed, Genevieve fretted.

  She hoped she had done the right thing. It looked as if Jenna and Trey would be able to mend their differences, though she certainly knew one kiss didn’t necessarily equate to a happy ending.

  The lecture from Spence stung, in part because she knew she had earned it. Her impulsive, heedless actions could have damaged two people irreparably—not to mention stained the reputation of A Warrior’s Hope.

  Dylan seemed to be avoiding her, especially after her outburst that afternoon. He deliberately chose a seat in one of the other sleighs, and when they climbed out to take pictures of the elk from a safe distance, he didn’t app
roach her.

  She tried to tell herself his distance didn’t hurt but it was a fairly useless lie.

  Eden sat next to her on the way back to the recreation center. As soon as the horses headed down the mountainside, bells jingling, she turned to Gen and started interrogating her.

  “Okay, I’m getting all kinds of crazy stories about what I missed this afternoon with Trey. Apparently you’re the one who knows the whole skinny. What’s going on? Who is she?”

  “Her name is Jenna Baldwin. She’s a schoolteacher in Georgia. They met at church and were engaged until a couple of months ago. Sunday was supposed to be their wedding day.”

  “No shit?” Eden exclaimed, then winced. “Sorry. I’m trying not to swear. I mean, you’re kidding.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You said they were engaged. What happened?” “Trey broke things off just before he was transferred to another rehab facility in Texas. I guess he thought Genevieve deserved better than a wounded veteran. She didn’t know where he was. He mentioned her to me and I took a little initiative—inappropriately, I realize now—and tracked her down.”

  “How did you find her?”

  Without implicating Dylan, she explained about isolating Jenna’s location to Georgia and how she had searched web databases until she found her and then had emailed her.

  “It was a thoughtless thing to do. I feel terrible that I’ve risked the reputation of A Warrior’s Hope. It wasn’t my intention.”

  “Wow! That must have taken guts—for you to look for her that way and for this Jenna person to come after him.”

  “You don’t think I overstepped?”

  “Well, yeah. But if it works, and you make two people happy, then it was worth it, wasn’t it? I mean, what can Spence do? Fire you? Duh. You’re a volunteer.”

  Her surprised laugh turned to stunned disbelief at Eden’s next words. “You’ve done a really great job here, Genevieve,” the director said. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to stay on after you finish your hours? We would love to have someone on our volunteer staff with your event-planning skills and your flair for design.”

  If her circumstances were different, she would jump at the chance, she realized. This past week had been… life-altering.

  She was flattered and humbled by the request, even as she knew she had to refuse. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be in town much longer. I’m trying to fix up my grandmother’s house to sell it. As soon as I do, I’ll be heading back to France. I have an apartment there and friends and…well, I’m starting a business.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Happy for you, if this is what you want, I mean, but sorry for us. We’ll miss you.” “I’ll miss all of you, too,” Genevieve said quietly.

  “Tell me about your grandmother’s house. I’m in the market for something here in town. I’ve been living in a condo with a short-term lease until I find something I like.”

  “You don’t want this house. It’s horrible. Dark, outdated. The location is really good but the house needs so much more work than I’ll be able to finish.”

  “I don’t care about the inside, only the bones. I love a challenge. Maybe I could swing by after dinner and take a look. I would love to sneak in and grab something that’s not on the market yet.”

  The faster she sold the house, the less work she would have to finish. She should be thrilled, but she couldn’t help a sharp pang at the idea of leaving.

  “Sure. Come by tonight. That will be great. You’ll have to look past the remodeling projects. I’m afraid it’s a bit of a mess.”

  “My last house in Seattle was definitely a fixer-upper. I can deal with mess.”

  When they returned to the recreation center, the plan was to split the group into two, one to go ice fishing in the reservoir, the other to skate on the frozen pond in a meadow near the recreation-center parking lot. Eden assigned her to the skating group, much to her relief, so she spent the rest of the afternoon tying laces and handing out hot cocoa.

  Dylan went with the ice-fishing group, managing to avoid her for a few more hours without much effort on his part.

  Dinner was to be catered by Alex McKnight’s restaurant again. She was starving, she realized, as, like Jenna, she had been too nervous that morning to eat much.

  When they came in from outside, cheeks rosy, Genevieve found Jenna and Trey in the two-story lobby of the recreation center. He was in his wheelchair and Jenna sat on a chair next to him, though she might as well have been sitting on his lap. They were holding hands, brushing shoulders, touching arms.

  Her nerves immediately settled. The two appeared radiant. For all his affable good nature during the past week, she now realized she hadn’t seen Trey truly happy until now. All the lonely edges seemed to have been smoothed away.

  Jenna rushed to her first and wrapped her arms around Genevieve, promptly bursting into tears. “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done. You have no idea.”

  “Um. You’re welcome.” She patted the other woman’s back, somewhat helpless as Jenna sobbed against her.

  “I’m sorry. I’m just so happy.”

  “Are you?”

  “Beyond anything I imagined. I can’t believe two days ago I felt as if all the color and joy had been sucked out of my life and now it’s all back, brighter than ever.”

  “I’m glad.”

  Trey wheeled forward and took her hand. “Thank you,” he murmured.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “You all might as well be the first to know,” he said to the group, strangers brought together by circumstances, who had bonded over the past week. “We’re getting married after all, just as soon as we can arrange it.”

  Marisol clapped her hands, and beside her, Claudia jumped up and down. “Married! I want to see them get married!”

  Jenna and Trey exchanged looks. “Well, if we can arrange it on such short notice, we were thinking of trying to make it into the courthouse to find a justice of the peace before we leave town.”

  Of all the unlikely supporters, given how upset he had been a few hours earlier, Spencer Gregory stepped forward. “Why not get married here? We’ve already had a few people ask to use the facility for that reason. The reception room where we’ve been sharing meals would be a beautiful place for a wedding, with the fireplace and the windows overlooking the river and the mountains.”

  “Yes!” Genevieve exclaimed, her mind already racing with ideas. “We could give you such a spectacular wedding. Oh, please. Will you let me do this?”

  “You’ve already done so much,” Jenna protested.

  “Maybe, but I want to do this, too. You don’t know this about me, but I’m kind of an expert at planning weddings. I worked on my own for two years.”

  They exchanged surprised looks. “I had no idea you were married,” Trey said.

  “I’m not,” she said matter-of-factly. “I dumped the cheating bum a few weeks before the wedding. But trust me, it would have been spectacular.”

  Jenna smiled, even as she looked a little overwhelmed. “I don’t want to be a bother. We can just go to the courthouse.”

  “No bother. I want to do this for you and Trey.” “You have to let us help,” Marie Augustine insisted. “Yes,” agreed Whitney Reid. “I work in a florist shop

  back home. If I can get my hands on some supplies, I would love to do your bouquet.”

  “Can I be in your marriage?” Marisol asked shyly.

  Jenna was obviously a very good teacher, judging by the patient way she knelt down and spoke with the little girl. “Of course you can be in our wedding, darling, as long as your mom and dad don’t mind.”

  “How soon can we arrange it?” Spence asked Genevieve. “Everybody’s supposed to go home Monday afternoon.”

  “Can I have until Sunday evening? That was supposed to be their wedding day anyway.”

  Jenna burst into tears again. “That would be so perfect. Oh, thank you.”

  She noticed Dylan hadn’t reacted to t
he joyful announcement. He had retreated to the windows and was looking out, his features as remote as the snowy landscape.

  Oh, she dId not want to do this.

  Genevieve parked as close as she could to String Fever, in the small public lot a block over. On this, the last Saturday before Christmas, downtown Hope’s Crossing was clogged with ski-resort tourists and locals trying to squeeze in a little last-minute shopping.

  Everywhere she looked she saw people bustling around with packages, bags of takeout from the restaurants around, even a couple of guys carrying a large wrapped parcel in the shape of a bicycle, probably from Mike’s Bikes.

  She had too much to do to sit in her car here all morning watching everyone else hurry about, but she couldn’t seem to make herself move, could only gaze out at the flakes of snow landing on her windshield.

  She didn’t want to climb out of the warmth into that cold, especially because she expected she would be in for an even colder reception when she reached her destination, String Fever—Claire McKnight’s bead store.

  She had been beastly to Claire during her lengthy engagement to Sawyer. That was the bald truth of it. She had been her most exacting, her haughty, patronizing worst. She had hired Claire to hand-bead the bodice of her designer wedding gown and had demanded perfection from the outset.

  When her original gown had been vandalized through no fault of Claire’s, Genevieve had thrown a spoiled, immature tantrum, quite certain Sawyer wouldn’t want to marry her now and everything would be ruined.

  The memory of it made her cringe. Claire, and everyone else in town, had been mourning the death of a teenage girl—Maura Lange’s youngest daughter—and the severe injuries of Brodie Thorne’s daughter Taryn. In retrospect, Genevieve couldn’t believe she had ever been so narcissistic that she had even cared about her stupid wedding gown in the midst of such tragedy— especially considering her own younger brother, Charlie, had been driving the vehicle in the accident that had killed Layla and injured Taryn.