A South Texas Christmas

by Stella Bagwell

  “Nice to meet you,” she murmured stiffly.

  The woman’s handshake was as lukewarm as her greeting, but Neil didn’t allow her attitude to put him off. He’d already expected as much.

  Smiling with as much authenticity as he could muster, he said, “And it’s very nice to meet you, Mrs. Crockett. Raine has talked so much about you that I feel I already know you.”

  The woman’s brows slowly inched upward, then shot up to greater proportions as she watched Raine join him on the step and wrap both arms around him as though she couldn’t bear to be an inch away from him. Neil decided right then and there that pretending to be Raine’s lover was going to be far more pleasant than he’d ever expected. After all, there was nothing better for a man’s ego than to be adored by a beautiful woman, even when the adoration was only make-believe.

  Esther didn’t make any sort of reply and Raine was the first to break the short, awkward silence.

  “Mother, do you think you might ask us in? Neil and I have just driven down from the city and we’d very much like something to drink.”

  The older woman stared in dismay at her daughter, but only for a moment. Turning, she opened the door behind her and gestured for the two of them to enter the house.

  Once inside, Neil took a quick glance around the small living room. The space was neat and furnished modestly. Along the north wall, centered in the middle of double windows, a small Christmas tree sat on a table. The sight of the holiday tradition gave him hope. After all, with a Christmas tree in her house, Esther couldn’t be a complete scrooge. Neil’s attention turned to the beautiful woman dangling on his side, then on to the stern older one motioning for them to take a seat on the couch. It was incredible to him that Raine had been born from such a woman. They looked nothing alike and where Raine radiated sweetness and beauty, Esther Crockett seemed to emit bitterness.

  “I have to admit, Raine, that I’m very surprised you brought a—friend home with you.” She stood in the middle of the room, staring at the pair of them as though they were a pair of teenagers who’d stayed out past their curfew. “When you left this morning, you didn’t say anything about meeting someone.”

  While Esther stood and stared, the two of them took seats close together on the couch. Neil blatantly continued to hold Raine’s hand and at Esther’s remark, he squeezed it slightly. In response, Raine looked at him with a tiny smile that spoke of silent conspiracy.

  “I know,” Raine said, turning her attention to her mother. “But I wanted to surprise you.”

  Raine’s gaze drifted back to Neil’s face and he gave her a slow wink. The sexy gesture burned her cheeks and suddenly she was remembering the wild, delicious taste of his lips and how hard and fast her heart had beaten as he kissed her.

  Jerking her gaze back to her mother, she gave her a starry-eyed smile. “I’m sure this is a surprise—”

  “Surprise?” Esther interrupted curtly. “I certainly wouldn’t describe it that way. More like a lightning strike. You haven’t mentioned having any sort of boyfriend.” She stopped long enough to narrow her eyes on Neil’s face. “Is that what this young man is to you?”

  Neil pressed himself closer to Raine and enveloped her hand between both of his. If she took the gesture as a sign of support from him, he couldn’t exactly tell, he only knew that the soft, pleading look in her green eyes struck him right in the heart. Dear Lord, it was incredible how much he already wanted to help her.

  Raine tried to laugh, but wound up clearing her throat more than anything. “Well—first of all, Neil is a financial advisor for a brokerage firm in San Antonio. That’s how we met. Over the telephone. I was needing advice on tax shelters for the ranch and—well, Neil had some wonderful suggestions.” She turned a melting smile on him. “Once we got to talking we hit it right off, didn’t we, darling?”

  As far as Neil was concerned she could have taken her acting talents further than a college play. She was so convincing he was actually beginning to feel like her lover.

  “That’s right, Mrs. Crockett. Something about your daughter’s voice attracted me and then when we finally met in person, well, I was instantly smitten.” At least that much was the truth, Neil thought.

  Esther’s expression was more than skeptical. Her features were etched in stone. “You’ve done a good job of flooring me, Raine. Why haven’t you mentioned this man before?”

  This man. She couldn’t even use his name, Raine thought crossly. That would make it all seem too permanent and real for her mother. But then why the heck should it bother her if Esther acknowledged Neil in an unkindly fashion? He wasn’t really her love interest. He was just a man digging for the truth. But Esther wasn’t aware of that. To her mother, he was simply her daughter’s love interest. And if she was anywhere close to the mother that Raine wanted her to be, she would be welcoming Neil with open arms instead of skepticism.

  Raine answered, “Because I wanted to wait until I was certain my feelings for Neil were serious before I brought him here to the ranch to meet you.”

  Esther moved forward until she was practically standing over them. Her gaze was sharp and probing as she settled it on Raine.

  “And now you’re telling me that you are serious? Just suddenly out of the blue?”

  Raine thanked God that Neil was holding her hand tightly. His touch strengthened her and reminded her that she wasn’t in this thing alone.

  She cast him a nervous smile and he leveled a crooked grin back at her that said he understood her mother’s third degree and everything would be okay. The tension inside her was suddenly replaced with unexpected warmth.

  “That’s right. Except that this whole thing with Neil and I isn’t sudden. We’ve been seeing each other for some time now. And I thought with Christmas coming it would be a nice time to tell you about him.”

  Esther appeared incensed. As though her adult daughter seeing a man was something akin to criminal behavior.

  “You mean all those times you’ve traveled up to San Antonio you were seeing him?” She waved a hand at Neil. “I thought you were going shopping!”

  Yeah, shopping for a man, Raine wanted very much to say. But the sarcasm would be lost on Esther and, anyway, Raine wasn’t that sort of daughter. Smiling gently, Raine settled her eyes back on Neil’s face. “I was going shopping. Neil just happened to be going with me. And now—well—I can’t keep it from you any longer.” She glanced at her mother. “I’m so much in love with Neil that he has me considering marriage. I even have my eye on a wedding dress that I saw in a little boutique on the river walk.”

  After that shocking confession, Neil fully expected Esther to explode. He was pretty stunned himself. Yet the older woman merely shook her head in amazement and said, “We’ll talk about all of this later, Raine. Right now I’ll go get a light supper together for you and Neil. Why don’t you take him out on the back patio? With the sun already down, it should be cool out there.”

  “Thank you, Mother,” Raine told her. “But I should help you in the kitchen. Neil won’t mind.”

  With a dismissive wave of her hand, the woman turned and started out of the room. “No. You two go on. I’ll bring it all out to the patio whenever I have it ready.”

  Once Esther had disappeared from the room, Neil bent his head close to Raine’s and exclaimed in a loud whisper, “What in hell are you doing? I’ve gone from a lawyer to a financial advisor and now a fiancé!”

  “Sshh! She’ll hear you,” she scolded, then pulling him along with her, she jumped to her feet. “Come on. Let’s go outside where we can talk.”

  The two of them left the house by way of the front entrance and once they were outside, Raine led him around the side of the small yard until they reached the back and a rectangular patio made from red brick. The area was partially covered with a roof that extended from the house, while the other was shaded with several fat palm trees and an oleander bush dotted with hot pink blossoms.

  Raine gestured for him to take a seat in on
e of the lawn chairs situated around a glass-topped table, but Neil shook his head. Instead he took her by the arm and led her behind a cove of flowering bushes where the two of them couldn’t be spotted from any of the windows in the house.

  “All right,” he said, “why don’t you explain what all of that was about. I sure as hell didn’t come down here with the intentions of playing the role of your fiancé!”

  He was angry. A condition that was very uncharacteristic for Neil. But he couldn’t help himself. For Raine to give her mother the impression that she was considering marriage with him was a little too scary for Neil’s liking. Even if she had said everything with her fingers crossed behind her back. Just hearing a woman link him with the word marriage made him more than nervous.

  Shaking her head, Raine looked up at him with disbelief. “Neil, you’re the one who said we had to be a convincing couple!”

  Even though he was trying to concentrate on her words she was standing so close that the front of her body was brushing against his and shooting streaks of fire straight to his loins. “I did say that,” he agreed, his voice dropping to a husky tone. “But don’t you think you’re taking things a bit far? Making Esther think we’re lovers didn’t have to include the idea of marriage.”

  She sighed and the soft sound rippled across his skin like the touch of a finger. The desire to reach out and brush his knuckles against her cheek, to pull her into his arms and bury his face in the side of her neck was playing with his senses, making it difficult to remember why he was here and what the two of them were really supposed to be doing.

  “What’s the matter with you?” she whispered fiercely. “I thought you were game for all of this. Are you trying to tell me that you’re getting cold feet?”

  The mere mention of the word cold, while everything inside him was heating to the boiling point, was enough to push Neil over the edge. Behaving as a gentleman was the last thing on his mind as he took her shoulders in both hands and jerked her forward.

  “If you think I’ve gone cold then maybe I should enlighten you,” he murmured as he settled his arms around her back.

  Surprised, her head fell back while her hands lifted against his chest in a defensive gesture.

  “What are you doing?”

  Her low, huskily spoken question put a wicked grin on his face.

  “Showing you what it’s like to play with fire.”

  Raine could see the kiss coming and realized she should swing her head aside, push out of his arms, do anything to avoid it. But she couldn’t seem to make her body do any of those common sense things. Instead she closed her eyes and waited for his lips to settle upon hers.

  When they did, she felt her breath stop in her throat, her heart leap across a giant chasm then take off in an all out sprint. A tiny moan sounded in the back of her throat and then the last of her resistance fluttered away like wilted rose petals on the breeze. Her hands flattened and softened against his chest, then slid provocatively up his shoulders, while her mouth opened to the search of his lips.

  Back and forth his mouth rocked over hers until his tongue slipped between her teeth. Like an automatic switch, her body melted against his and his hands slipped from the small of her back to the rounded curve of her hips.

  With one little tug their loins were pressed tightly together, her breasts were squashed against his hard chest. Heat was rapidly suffusing every particle in her body and she knew if he didn’t stop soon her senses would be totally lost to him. Then just as her knees were growing mushy, he finally lifted his head and looked down at her.

  His nostrils were flared and beneath the splay of her hands, she could feel his lungs expanding as he dragged in several calming breaths. As for herself, she wasn’t sure she’d ever breathe properly again. Her head was reeling and parts of her body were tingling with urges that turned her cheeks red with embarrassment.

  “Still wondering if I’m getting cold?” he murmured the question.

  Raine was forced to swallow before she could make her throat work and even after that her voice was hardly above a whisper when she finally spoke. “You…didn’t have to take things that far to make your point, did you?”

  His gaze was purely sensual as it slipped over her shadowed face. “Probably not. But I enjoyed every minute of it.”

  Chapter Six

  Neil’s admission was enough to shake her out of the fog of desire that had settled over her, though she pushed out of his arms with far more determination than she was feeling. “We’d better get over to the patio before Mother finds us,” she muttered as she stepped around the edge of the bushes and back into the open area of the yard.

  Chuckling lowly, Neil followed on her heels. “And what would be wrong with that?” he asked. “To hear you tell it, we’re getting married. Engaged couples do kiss—among other things.”

  Raine refused to look at him as she walked quickly over to the nearest lawn chair and slipped onto the seat. “I thought you were a lawyer, not a wolf,” she replied coolly.

  Neil laughed easily as he sank into the chair next to hers. “Honey, most people consider the two animals close cousins.”

  He was teasing her and Raine figured she should probably be laughing and making an effort to lighten what had just happened between them. But she’d been staggered by the feelings Neil had invoked in her. Even now her whole body felt as if it was glowing and sending out a bright neon message to him that continued to flash the words “make love to me.”

  Thankfully, only a few silent moments had passed between them when Esther appeared carrying a tray. As they helped themselves to finger sandwiches, chips and lemonade, the other woman took a seat directly across from them and scanned Raine’s pale face before moving on to Neil.

  “So, Mr. Rankin, do you have family?”

  The question was blunt and more interrogating than conversational, but Neil managed to keep an easy smile on his face as he answered the woman’s question.

  “My father passed away several years ago, but my mother is still living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I don’t have any siblings, but I do have a few aunts and uncles strung across the States. What about yourself?” Neil asked casually.

  Beside him, he could hear Raine’s slight intake of breath and realized she was walking a tight rope between staying in her mother’s good graces and searching for her father. The idea that Esther could be so insensitive and self-centered angered him greatly. But it didn’t surprise him. Not when for years he’d watched his own mother demand to be the center of the universe.

  Esther’s whole body visibly stiffened and for a moment he thought she was going to get up and leave their little party, but then she released a long breath and smoothed a hand over her hair with just enough flair to remind Neil of an actress on the silent screen. Maybe he and Raine weren’t the only ones doing some pretending, he mused.

  “Hasn’t Raine told you about my…memory loss?” she asked. “I mean, if you two are close enough to be considering marriage, you surely know about her family.”

  He could feel Raine’s gaze boring a hole in the side of his face, but he continued to study Esther as he replied, “Yes. Raine has told me about your unfortunate accident. And I’m so very sorry that something so awful had to happen to you, Mrs. Crockett. I just thought that perhaps some of your lost family might have managed to find you since your memory failure.”

  Clearly affronted, Esther leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. As she did, Neil did his best to try to equate her to the fragile, beautiful woman he remembered meeting on the T Bar K that day he’d been visiting Linc. But try as he might, he couldn’t envision them being the same woman. In his opinion, it wasn’t possible for a person to change that much.

  “Isn’t it obvious that Raine would be the first person I would tell if something like that had happened?”

  Not if you wanted to hide something from her, Neil thought. To Esther, he said, “Sorry. That was a stupid question.”

  The woman heaved out a breat
h as though she were attempting to relax, yet Neil couldn’t help but observe her toe nervously tapping the air. Was she worried about exposing something about herself, or simply worried that her daughter had found a man? Neil wished he had the answers.

  “Well, Raine and I have found a family here on the ranch with the Saddlers and the Sanchezes, haven’t we, sweetheart?”

  Neil glanced to Raine and noticed she was incredibly pale. Especially after the warm pink that had flushed her face after their kiss.

  Hell, Neil, that was far more than any kiss, he corrected himself. The exchange between them had been more like a minor earthquake and his body was still reeling from the aftershocks.

  “Yes. That’s right,” Raine answered dutifully. “We’re all like one big family around here.”

  Sure it was good to have close, loving friends, Neil thought. In fact, without his buddies back in Aztec, his life would be pretty solitary. But that wasn’t the sort of family Raine was really searching for. She was a conventional woman. She wanted a father and siblings to complete the circle of her family. Maybe they were out there and maybe they weren’t. Either way, if Esther wanted to do the right thing, she’d step to the plate and help her daughter find the answers.

  “Well, if you ask me, there is such a thing as miracles. And who knows, maybe you just might start to remember things,” Neil said to Esther in an optimistic tone. “And that would surely make Raine happy.”

  The older woman looked at him stonily. “I wouldn’t hold my breath. I haven’t remembered anything in twenty-four years. And I don’t figure there will be any miracles happening around here in the future.”

  From the corner of his eye, he could see Raine bending her head. Whether her reaction to her mother’s response was from embarrassment or pain, Neil wasn’t quite sure. But there was one thing he was certain about: her sadness bothered him far more than he wanted to admit.

  Turning his gaze back on Esther, it was on the tip of his tongue to suggest that she might try praying more, but he kept the remark to himself. After all, Esther was the only real family Raine had and he didn’t want to cause any more unease between the two of them than there already was.