Her Montana Christmas Groom

by Southwick, Teresa

  Rose knew she should probably turn around and walk away but didn’t for two reasons. The first being that she wasn’t in the habit of breaking her word and she’d promised to help him decorate if he played Santa. Second, she couldn’t run out on him without an explanation. She wouldn’t be like the twit who’d dumped him and taken the ring. The thought of it made her mad all over again. No one would ever accuse her of doing something like that. If a man offered her a ring she wouldn’t take it unless she was prepared to say yes.

  So she was here to tell him she couldn’t stay. After ringing the bell, she mentally rehearsed the reasons why she wouldn’t be able to stay. The door opened before she was ready.

  “Hi, Rose.” Austin stepped back. “Come on in.”

  “Just for a minute.”

  “Putting up decorations will take more than a minute.” When the cold air was shut out, he frowned. “Are you backing out of the deal?”

  “That depends. Is Angie here?”

  “No.” He settled his hands on his lean hips. “She’s working, then studying for finals with a friend.”

  That’s what Rose was afraid of. She really wished there’d been more time for mental rehearsal. “It’s not a good idea for me to be alone with you.”

  “We need a chaperone?”

  She couldn’t tell if he was angry or making a joke. Either way, honesty was best. “Yes.”

  “What if I promise nothing will happen?”

  “I appreciate that, but what if I don’t trust myself?” Her imagination had been in overdrive and he’d been the star of her fantasies ever since kissing her.

  A smile curved up the corners of his mouth as he looked down at her. “I’m pretty sure I can protect my virtue and keep you in line.”

  She couldn’t help smiling back. “How?”

  “I’ll throw you out if you get frisky.”

  “Promise?”

  He made a cross over his heart. “Scout’s honor. Okay?”

  Rose knew it was a mistake not to turn around and walk right out the door. She knew it because of the delicious warm feeling she got just from looking at him, a feeling she had no business having. But she didn’t turn around. She stayed and glanced at the inside of his place, getting the impression that it was just as family-friendly as the outside.

  “This is nice. Homey.”

  “Yeah.” He slid his fingers into his pockets. “Small but functional. Although it feels bigger since Haley moved out. I’ve gone up the food chain to the master bedroom. Rank has its privileges.”

  The kitchen was off to the left through a doorway. She got a glimpse of an oak table and chairs, soft yellow walls and white cotton curtains. Boxes were neatly stacked in the living room in front of the leather corner group. A simple oak coffee table was pushed aside. In one corner there was a flat-screen TV. The smell of fresh pine filled the room and mingled with something cinnamony.

  In the other corner she saw the tree. She couldn’t remember when, if ever, she’d been around a real pine. For years her mother had put up an artificial one, pretty but lacking the wonderful woodsy smell that no candle or aerosol scent could duplicate. The white lights were already on the tree and it was just waiting for decoration.

  He followed her gaze. “Angie and I cut it down earlier today.”

  “Austin, you should hold off until she has time to do this with you.”

  “Not to worry. I mentioned you were coming over to help and she was grateful. If I waited for her it wouldn’t get done until Christmas.” He held out his hand. “So give me your coat and stay a while.”

  Rose handed him her things. When he disappeared with them into another room, she moved closer to the fireplace and warmed up. On the mantel there were framed pictures. In one there was a beautiful brunette flanked by two little girls and a handsome boy. The woman must be Austin’s mother—gone far too young. Rose couldn’t imagine how hard the tragic loss must have been on her children.

  “Can I get you some coffee? Hot chocolate? Mulled wine?”

  Rose turned and looked at him. “You do not really have mulled wine.”

  “Want to bet?”

  “No way.” She’d done enough wagering recently. Although she was beginning to realize that it wasn’t the double dare that convinced her to go along with the dating hiatus. Deep down she’d known it was time to take a break. “Mulled wine it is.”

  “With a cinnamon stick?” he asked.

  “You do not really have—” The wry expression on his face stopped her and she said, “Yes, please.”

  She followed him into the kitchen and noted that he had a nice butt. So sue her. If he could check hers out while she was bending over in an elf costume, she could do the same. Male butts were not created equal and she’d done a fair amount of observation research on the subject. Austin’s worn jeans, showing the outline of his wallet, showcased to full advantage his superior posterior.

  He stopped at the stove where steam was rising from a pot. Two snowman mugs stood on the counter beside it and he ladled the hot liquid into each. After inserting a cinnamon stick, he handed a cup to her.

  “Smells good.” She looked into the pot, then up at him. “You’re an engineer, right? Not a mad scientist?”

  “Yes. Why?” He leaned back against the counter and folded his arms over his chest.

  “What’s in this stuff? I saw oranges. And mulled wine? Who thought that up? Mull means to contemplate. What could that concoction possibly be mulling over anyway?”

  He picked up his cup and blew on it before taking a sip. “It’s good. Trust me. Do you always go out of your way to make things complicated?”

  “It’s a gift.” She took a small drink from her mug. “You’re right. Good stuff. Just the thing for a cold winter night of decorating for the holidays. Which we should really get started doing. What do you want to do first?”

  “Biggest job…”

  “The tree,” they said together.

  “I have to get the ornaments out of the packing boxes,” he told her.

  She took several more sips of the warm, spicy drink, then set the mug down on the coffee table beside Austin’s. The two were identical except hers had lipstick on the rim.

  He pulled the top box from the stack and set it on the wood floor, then went down on one knee beside it and opened the flaps. Rose knelt next to him and looked inside. There were multiple packages of green, red, silver, gold and white circular ornaments in small, medium and large sizes. Beneath that were tiny boxes of collectibles with Austin’s and Angie’s names on them.

  Austin saw her look and explained. “Every Christmas my mother bought each of us one special ornament. She said that someday we’d leave home and probably not have two pennies to rub together. The ornaments were a start for our own trees and our own lives. Roots and wings.” He held up a little truck with a fir tree in the back. “She got me this the year I was fifteen and a pain in the neck about getting a tree. None of us ever thought she’d leave first, that she wouldn’t be here to see us move out and get our first tree.”

  “That’s why Haley’s aren’t here,” Rose guessed. “She’s putting up her very first tree with Marlon this year.”

  “Yeah.”

  Rose touched his arm. “Your mom is watching.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Trust me.” When he smiled, she glanced in the box and saw what appeared to be handmade and dated decorations. There was a delicate round one with what looked like angel hair pulled over a thin, plastic circle with pasted on eyes and a black felt top hat. “It’s a snowman face.”

  Austin smiled, but it was bittersweet around the edges. “My mother made that. Actually she made more than one.”

  “But I didn’t see any others there.”

  “It was a school thing. When Haley started kindergarten, Mom initiated a PTA program to hand make ornaments. She organized parent volunteers, picked out the pattern and materials to assemble. The finished product was given to each kid in the class at the party just b
efore the holiday break. She continued the project when I started kindergarten, then with Angie. We each have one dated ornament for grades K through six.”

  “That’s such a wonderful tradition.” Rose wondered if she’d ever have a child to start a tradition for. If so, she was definitely doing the ornament thing.

  Austin’s face showed pleasure mixed with pain, until he laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked.

  His dark eyes were full of a memory that made them dance with humor. He took the snowman from her. “I remember when she was making these. I got home from school and she was sitting cross-legged on the floor with an empty bottle of that white glue in front of her. The stuff was on her jeans and her fingers had that white hair stuck to them. It was everywhere but on the snowman’s face.”

  “Do you know what it is?”

  He nodded. “She unbraided white rope and combed it out, then stretched it over the round part, which is PVC pipe, by the way.”

  “An engineering marvel.”

  “Not as far as Mom was concerned. She got so frustrated, the glue bottle got heaved across the room. There were some colorful four-letter words muttered under her breath and I never told her I heard every one. Then she swore, without colorful adjectives, that she’d never do anything crafty again.”

  “But she did,” Rose guessed.

  “Every Christmas. She was determined that each of her kids would have one for every year in grade school. And we do.”

  “What a wonderful story, Austin. I wish I could have met your mom.”

  “Me, too.”

  “So.” She stood, looking at the tree. “How do you want to do this? Showcase the special, one-of-a-kind decorations prominently in the front, then fill in with generic ornaments?”

  “Sounds like a plan. I knew there was a good reason for luring you over here.”

  Before she could take that double entendre to a dangerous place, Rose carried an armful of decorations over to the tree and got busy. Austin did the same and they worked in silence. When she stood on tiptoe but couldn’t reach the branch, he easily hung whatever she wanted wherever she wanted it. Every time he moved close to her and their fingers brushed, she felt friction and sparks and tingles.

  Oh, my.

  Had a man ever smelled so good? The temptation to bury her face in his chest was making her crazy. Finally, Rose stepped back, pretending to survey full scope of the tree, but mostly to put a little distance between herself and Austin.

  “Not bad. It looks balanced and all the really cool stuff is up front and in plain view.” She turned as he was pulling green-and-gold garland from another box. “What’s that?”

  “The finishing touch.” His eyes narrowed at the expression of horror on her face. “Something wrong?”

  “I hope that isn’t a family heirloom of your mother’s.”

  “No, I got it on sale after Christmas a couple years ago.”

  “Thank God. And your sisters actually let you put it on the tree?”

  “Truthfully, they looked a lot like you do right now. It must be a chick thing.”

  “No. Obviously both of them have excellent taste and saved you from yourself. But now’s your chance. Haley’s married and Angie’s busy, so you get to defile a perfectly beautiful tree with cheesy plastic bristle. If you dare.”

  “That’s harsh.” The humor in his tone said he’d been busted and knew it.

  “Not really. I was holding back.” She put her hands on her hips. “I’m prepared to go to the mat on this. You’d better not dare. That abomination is not going on this tree. There must be something else.”

  “Suggestions?”

  She rummaged through the boxes as she talked. “String popcorn. Beads. Ribbon—”

  “Like this?”

  Straightening, she turned. He held up a roll of red velvet ribbon sprinkled with gold glitter. “Perfect.”

  He hooked the end at the top of the tree in the back where it wouldn’t show, then unwound the wide velvet down to a place where she could reach and finish the job. It was a classy substitute for the tacky garland. After several readjustments, loosening and tightening, she stood back to inspect the final result.

  “What do you think?” he asked, moving beside her.

  “It’s the most beautiful tree I’ve ever seen.”

  “No way.”

  “Really.” It was magical and meaningful. She looked up at him, then started to laugh. “You’ve got stuff all over your face. It looks like Tinkerbell exploded fairy dust all over you.”

  “Back at you, Red.”

  Rose reached up to brush the stuff off him. That was all she’d intended to do. One minute she touched him, the next his face was in her hands and she was on tiptoe, her lips searching for his. Then he pulled her close, his mouth moving over hers, and she realized he fit against her like the missing piece of a puzzle. They were pressed together from chest to knee and the touch set her on fire.

  In spite of all that, she might have heard the warning in her head if his tongue hadn’t touched hers and he hadn’t made that low sound of male desire in his throat. It set off an explosion of hunger and need like she’d never known before. She couldn’t get close enough and wanted him so badly. Their breathing was harsh and hurried and sort of desperate as they kissed and touched and strained together. He kissed her cheek, jaw and nibbled his way to her neck where he tasted the soft spot behind her ear.

  It was like an electric jolt that seared its way clear to her soul.

  “Oh, Austin, please—”

  “Rose—” Her name was a whispered groan on his lips. Austin lifted his mouth from hers and cupped her face in his hands. “I swear this is going to kill me, but I promised—”

  Promised what? Her brain was mush and she couldn’t drag enough air into her lungs to think straight. One heartbeat later she remembered what he’d said. If she got frisky…

  Famous last words. If she’d really believed this could happen, she wouldn’t have stayed. But she did stay and she’d crossed her own line. She took a step away from him, a step away from sleeping with him. If he hadn’t ended the kiss, she would have gone to bed with the man. She would have followed him anywhere and regretted it later.

  “Thank you, Austin—”

  “Don’t.” He dragged a shaking hand through his hair.

  “But it’s the right thing.”

  “No, I’m not saying I think it’s right. It’s just what I promised to do. That’s all.” He blew out a long breath, then walked into the kitchen.

  On top of everything else he was one of the good guys. That only made her want him more and that so wasn’t fair. She had a well thought-out plan for her life and the man who would share it. If she ignored common sense and gave in to weakness, she’d lose herself.

  And she didn’t want to be any more lost than she already was.

  “We’re like Neapolitan ice cream.” Perky Calista Clifton glanced at her two companions, big brown eyes bright with ever-present enthusiasm. “Blonde,” she said, nodding at Jeannette Williams. “Brunette.” She lifted a long, silky strand of her own hair. Then she looked at Rose. “Redhead.”

  “I suppose we are,” Jeannette agreed.

  The three of them were in Jeannette’s office, huddled around a paper shredder. As the mayor’s administrative assistant, Jeannette had been tasked with going through the files, but didn’t have a lot of experience with the duties. To purge the previous city council’s paperwork, she’d enlisted the other two for opinions and input on what to keep and what to toss.

  Calista was a government intern and good-naturedly accepted “grunt work” as a stepping stone in her career. Rose had cleaned off her desk for the day and was happy to keep busy.

  They’d started at the beginning of the alphabet and were going through each file, making a pile of paperwork for shredding. It was pretty much impossible to put three women in the same room without a conversation happening.

  “So Zane is excited about the Christm
as concert.” Jeannette smiled happily. And why not? She was engaged to the sexy, talented singer after helping him work through his emotional demons. The foundation he was starting in memory of the girl who’d accidentally died at one of his concerts was the last step in his redemption.

  Rose smiled at her. “It’s all coming together quickly. The arena is reserved and I’m contacting different radio and TV affiliates for coverage.”

  “Jake and I are looking forward to it,” Calista said.

  Not a surprise. She looked forward to everything. And why not? She was so young. Just in Austin’s age bracket, if she hadn’t already fallen for hunky Jake Castro. He would have fit Rose’s man-must-haves list if not already taken. Life was really weird that way.

  Being called a redhead sent Rose’s mind back to the previous evening at Austin’s. Actually it didn’t take much to make her think of him; he was on her mind all the time. But he called her “Red.” No one ever called her that. She liked it; she liked him. She’d kissed him. If he hadn’t come to his senses, there would have been a whole lot more kissing and she probably wouldn’t have stopped there.

  “Rose?”

  “Hmm?” She looked up, not sure which of the women had spoken or what was said.

  There were questions in Jeannette’s blue eyes. “Is something bothering you?”

  “No. Why?”

  “You seem distracted. You’ve been looking through that file for a very long time.”

  She glanced down at the manila folder closed in her lap. “Just daydreaming, I guess.”

  “You guess?” Jeannette smiled sympathetically. “Is it Austin?”

  “What makes you say that?”

  Rose wondered how long it would take to stop being surprised that everyone in Thunder Canyon took her personal business personally. A blessing and a curse, she thought, remembering how Austin’s proposal had gone from happy to humiliating.

  “Zane told me he saw you at ROOTS to announce the mayor’s decision to allocate funds for tutoring and computer equipment. And he mentioned that Austin left with you and that he was gone for a long time.”