“I don’t know why that’s so awful to you,” Nina responded, thinking that maybe she could reason with them. “After everything that Dallas did for me during the blizzard—”
“He ran you off the road.” Her father again.
“I ran myself off the road. And him, too. And since then he’s not only wanted to know how I’m doing, he’s volunteered—”
“To get next to you,” her mother insisted. “The Traubs are probably angling for something—”
“What could they possibly be angling for?”
“That’s the problem,” her father picked up where her mother had left off. “You don’t know what they’re angling for until they stab you in the back.”
“Dallas is not positioning himself to stab me in the back,” Nina asserted, unable to even imagine that.
“Maybe you don’t know the Traubs like we do,” her father suggested.
“Maybe you don’t know them the way you think you do. I haven’t heard anything that makes them sound any different than we are,” Nina informed her parents firmly.
“No different than we are?” Her mother nearly shrieked as if that was inconceivable. “Have you forgotten the election?”
“I haven’t forgotten that, like all politics, there was mudslinging from both sides,” Nina reminded them pointedly.
“She’s siding with the enemy,” her father said to her mother.
Nina closed her eyes in frustration and shook her head. “Why are we enemies?” she demanded. “What do we really have to be enemies about? They run a ranch, we have a store—we’re not business competitors. Yes, I’m sorry that Nate lost the election for mayor, but there have been other elections where a Crawford won and a Traub lost. And losing didn’t ruin Nate’s life. Nothing that I can think of about the Traubs has ruined any Crawford’s life unless it was so long ago no one can even remember. So what’s the big deal? They’re regular people just like us—”
“Oh, my God, are you getting involved with Dallas Traub?” Laura Crawford said in horror.
Involved...
Did kissing count as that? Or wanting to kiss him again? Or finding herself beginning to crave more than kissing...?
No, she couldn’t be getting involved with Dallas, Nina told herself. Becoming friends was one thing. Making any sort of headway in ending this ridiculous feud would be a good thing. But involved?
“No, I’m not getting involved with Dallas,” she answered her mother’s question in no uncertain terms because it needed not to be true.
He was too old for her. He might not think he was set in his ways but he had responsibilities that made it impossible for him not to be rooted in any number of obligations. A woman coming into his life would have to do plenty of adapting. Adapting that Nina wasn’t willing to do yet again.
Especially not now, when she had her own baby to look forward to, to be responsible for, to become set in her own ways with without dragging that baby into a situation where it would have to adapt, too.
“But we also aren’t enemies,” Nina went on, deciding to be honest with her parents about that. “If you all want to go on hating a whole group of people just because somewhere a million years ago other Crawfords got into it with the Traubs, that’s your business. But I can’t for the life of me see why our families should be feuding. Just saying the word seems silly.”
Todd looked at his wife and said, “She won’t think it’s silly when this Traub or another one does something spiteful or vengeful or just plain down-and-dirty to her.”
“And one or another of them will,” Laura agreed with her husband but aimed her comment at Nina. “And what worries me is that this time it’s getting personal and you could get hurt. You and the baby...”
Nina sighed. “Dallas saved me and the baby. You think he would turn around and do something to hurt us now?”
“I think if you’re having some kind of feelings for him it could very well happen, yes,” Laura said direly. “Maybe that’s his game—to suck you in with false charms and then kick you in the teeth and laugh about it.”
Dallas was definitely charming. But there was nothing false about it. And as for the thought that he might be playing her, luring her in so he could do something to hurt her later? That was just ridiculous, and if her mother had been on the other side of those kisses the previous evening the way Nina had, Laura would know just how ludicrous it was.
“Why would he do something like that?” Nina asked, her tone reflecting the absurdity of it. “That doesn’t even make sense. You think anyone would spend time luring one of us in just to be mean and then laugh about it later?”
“A Traub would,” her father contended firmly and without the slightest doubt.
Nina could only roll her eyes. She had reasons enough not to get involved with Dallas, they just weren’t the reasons her parents clung to. But since she did have reasons of her own, and since she could see that her parents weren’t going to budge in their hatred of the Traubs—yet another reason why she knew she couldn’t let things with Dallas go too far—she decided to stop arguing it.
“You don’t have to worry,” she told her parents as she took her breakfast dishes to the sink. “My path and Dallas’s have crossed a few times, we are not enemies and I won’t let you talk me into being enemies with him. But there isn’t anything going on between us.”
If kissing didn’t count.
Except that it had counted.
A whole lot...
But she tried not to think about that. And vowed that it wouldn’t happen again, telling herself that—for her reasons if not for her family’s—she should probably start keeping some distance from him after tonight’s Candlelight Walk.
Because she’d already agreed to that. And she really wanted to go. And to see what kind of surprise he had for her.
But after that? Separate corners. She swore it.
For now, though, all Nina could do was announce that it was time they went down to the store and open up.
Thinking that no matter what it was that had the Crawfords and the Traubs hating each other, it seemed insurmountable.
* * *
As promised, Dallas arrived to pick up Nina for the Candlelight Walk just before seven that night. When she heard the knock on her back door she called for him to come in while she put on her final layer—a calf-length, double-breasted wool coat that she was wearing over her warmest knee-high boots, navy blue wool leggings, and a matching heavyweight turtleneck tunic.
As Dallas opened her unlocked door and stepped over the threshold she said, “Hi. Almost ready,” and pulled a navy blue and white tweed knit cap over her free-falling hair before putting on the matching scarf and gloves.
“Good—you’re dressed nice and warm,” he said, giving her the once-over and a smile that said he approved. And liked what he saw.
“You look warm, too.” And she liked what she saw just as much—he was wearing boots, jeans and a brown henley sweater over a tan turtleneck T-shirt that were all barely visible underneath his shearling-lined suede coat.
“My truck is parked in front of the store but I had some help bringing your surprise, and that’s out back,” he said with a grin.
“Then let’s go,” Nina said.
Her surprise was waiting for them at the foot of her back steps—a horse-drawn sleigh.
“She’s a two-seater bobsleigh,” Dallas informed her as he followed Nina down the stairs. “The swan body shape makes her an Albany.”
Polished bronze sides and a swooping back surrounded two fairly narrow rows of tufted black velvet seats, front and back. The three Traub boys were sitting close together in the rear to fit, and Robbie was bouncing up and down in his excitement.
“Lookit this,” he commanded Nina. “I din’t even know we had it! It’s like Santa’s sleigh!”
“That’s Toad and Trina pullin’ us.” Robbie introduced the horses, whose harnesses bore bells and more red ribbons.
“Hi, Ryder. Hi, Jake. Hi, Toad and Trina,” Nina greeted them.
“Hi,” the other boys responded in unison, both of them sitting up straight enough to make it clear they were excited, too. Particularly Ryder, who held the reins as if he’d been given a very important responsibility.
“Come on, let’s go!” Jake urged.
“Okay, okay, hold your horses,” Dallas said, making an obvious joke as he offered a leather-gloved hand for Nina to take so he could help her into the sleigh.
“We’ll have the candlelight ride rather than the candlelight walk?” Nina took that hand, and regretted his glove and hers keeping her from too much sensation.
“We will,” he confirmed as she sat on the plush seat.
Dallas went around the rear to get into the other side. Because the sleigh wasn’t wide they were arm to arm, and Nina had to resist the urge to snuggle in even closer.
Then Dallas turned to get the reins from Ryder and Nina said, “There’s no snowpack left on Main Street—is this going to work?”
“I won’t say it’s good for the runners but I waxed them pretty heavily and we won’t be going far, so it should be okay.”
A tap of the reins on the horses’ backs and the animals took them from behind Crawford’s General Store onto Sawmill Street and around to Main.
The store was at the high end of Main—which was what had spared it from the flood damage—and most of the town was gathering there, lighting candles and getting ready to start the walk.
Dallas pulled up behind the crowd and sent Ryder for two of the candles that were being given out by the city council. When Ryder returned with them, Dallas lit them and set them in holders nestled amid the ribbon-wrapped boughs on the front corners of the sleigh.
“Isn’t that pretty?” Nina asked, angling her comment and her own enthusiasm toward the boys in back and making sure they could see.
Minutes later the walk began, and again Dallas urged the horses to move, setting them to a very slow pace. Up ahead the parade of people, all carrying candles, lit the way with the tiny flickers of so many flames casting a beautiful golden glow.
“Oh, this is so nice,” Nina breathed, putting her family’s feelings about the Traubs to rest for the time being so she could just enjoy the festivities.
The procession down Main Street didn’t take long, and when the first of the walkers reached the park where the bonfire was laid in a contained area, Nina craned to watch and said to the boys, “Stand up so you can see—they’re lighting the bonfire!”
The sleigh was moving so slowly there was no danger to the boys in standing for the remainder of the ride that took them alongside the park where those of the community who hadn’t been inclined to walk down Main Street had parked in advance.
One big whoosh and the entire area was alight with flames, causing the crowd to gasp before they cheered and clapped.
After that an announcement was made that there were marshmallows to be toasted, as well as one table where hot chocolate or cider could be had and another that held Christmas goodies of all kinds.
Then the church choir began to sing carols and the crowd started to mingle.
While Nina was the only one of the Crawfords to come, the Traubs had made a good showing. Dallas’s parents and brothers Collin, Braden and Sutter were all there. Tense but polite greetings were exchanged with Nina before Dallas allowed the boys to have their way and drag them to roast marshmallows, cutting the encounter blissfully short.
Collin’s wife, Willa, and Sutter’s fiancée, Paige Dalton, were also with that group and had greeted Nina more warmly. Then, on their way to the beverage table, they made a second stop with Dallas and Nina and the boys. Paige was Ryder’s fifth-grade teacher, Willa had Robbie in kindergarten, and they both wanted to wish all three boys a personal Merry Christmas.
As Nina, Dallas and the boys roasted marshmallows in one of many little fires that were lit in small flame-safe boxes around the bonfire, Nina and Dallas exchanged hellos and small talk with local veterinarian Brooks Smith and his new wife, Jazzy.
“Oh, look,” Jazzy said after a few minutes of that, “Dean Pritchett and Shelby are here!”
She waved the couple over. Dean Pritchett was a carpenter who had come from Thunder Canyon to help with some of the rebuilding after the flood and fallen in love with substitute teacher and single mom Shelby Jenkins. They joined the group, along with Shelby’s daughter, Caitlin, whom Nina shared her marshmallows with.
“And Sheriff!” Dallas said as Gage Christensen and his fiancée, Lissa Roarke, walked up to them, hand in hand.
Gage told Nina he was glad to see that she was doing all right after the blizzard scare, and Nina thanked him again for his help that day.
During Lissa’s volunteer work in Rust Creek Falls, she and the sheriff had become involved—and eventually engaged—and now that they were part of the small group, talk just naturally turned to the ongoing flood projects. At least, it did until Shane Roarke brought his marshmallow to their little roasting station.
Shane Roarke was Dallas’s cousin and had only recently learned that his father was Thunder Canyon’s notorious ex-mayor Arthur Swinton. The notorious Swinton was currently in prison for embezzling funds from Thunder Canyon.
It was common knowledge that Shane and his adopted siblings, Los Angeles attorneys Maggie and Ryan Roarke, were attempting to get Arthur’s prison sentence commuted, so conversation turned to questions about how things were going with that.
Nina only heard, “We’re making headway,” as the answer to those questions before the three Traub boys, tired of listening to adult conversation, urged Dallas and Nina to take them to the cookie table.
Telling everyone they had to go and exchanging more wishes for a Merry Christmas, Nina and Dallas moved on to the table that held not only cookies but brownies, cakes, cupcakes and fudge.
Each boy was allotted only one choice—and complained about it—before Collin came to tell Dallas that the family had had enough of the cold and was leaving.
“Can we go with ’em? I’m cold, too,” Robbie piped up when he heard that.
“Me, too,” Jake chimed in.
“Yeah, my feet are freezing,” Ryder added.
“Mom!” Dallas called across the distance that his parents were keeping from them. “Can you take the boys home for me? I’ll pick them up in a while.”
“Sure. Come on,” she urged her grandsons. “I want to get going.”
Dallas prompted his sons to say good-night to Nina, and then Nina and Dallas both watched as Collin herded them off with the rest of the Traubs.
“It is cold,” Nina said.
It was the truth. But it was also the truth that she’d had a very long, hard day and was longing to just sit in front of her own fireplace.
“You know, we could go back and light a fire at my place, and I could mull us a little cider...”
“You’re cold, too,” Dallas guessed.
“A little bit.”
“Yeah, I’m feeling it myself,” he confessed. “So you don’t have to ask me twice. Just give me a minute...”
He left Nina standing there while he went to talk to a teenage boy Nina didn’t recognize, and then he and the teenager came back.
“Okay, let’s go,” Dallas said, only mentioning after the fact, on the way to the sleigh, that the teenager who was following them was Tyson, the son of one of his ranch hands.
“Tyson broug
ht the sleigh out for me and he’s going to take us to your place in it, then get it home for me.” Leaning close to Nina’s ear he whispered, “I’m paying him well for his services.”
For the trip back to her apartment, Dallas and Nina sat in the rear row while Tyson took the front and the reins.
There was a blanket that the boys had apparently been sitting on, and Dallas opened it over their laps. When he tucked it in around them Nina had a flashback to the blizzard and being alone with him in his truck.
Although it seemed strange that an experience such as a near collision and fearing she was going into premature labor in the middle of nowhere could become a fond memory, it somehow had. And she read that as another sign that things between them might be stretching the boundaries.
But then he settled back with her shoulder cozily against his and told the teenager they were ready, and all Nina could think about was how much she liked being there like that with him.
The return trip to her apartment was much quicker than the procession to the bonfire had been. Then Dallas helped her out of the sleigh, dispatching Tyson to get it home.
Nina led the way up her back steps and into her apartment, the heat there feeling blissful after being out in the cold for so long.
“How are you at building a fire?” Nina asked as they took off their outerwear.
“Fires in fireplaces, campfires, bonfires, burning off weeds—seems like I’ve been building them all my life. Want me to do this one?” he asked, pointing his chin in the direction of her hearth.
“If you would. Kindling and logs are in the bucket right beside it. I’ll do the cider and meet you there.”
“Sounds like a deal.”
Nina left him to it. But because this portion of her apartment was basically one big room, she could steal glimpses of him while she heated and spiced the cider. Hunkered down in front of her fireplace, his thick thighs stretching the denim of his jeans, and his very, very fine derriere resting on the heels of his boots, he was a sexy sight that she cautioned herself against appreciating as much as she was.
THE MAVERICK'S CHRISTMAS BABY Page 11