by Liz Isaacson
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, hoping he wasn’t about to enter into an extreme session where he had to identify and define how he felt about her mother.
“She likes you too,” Eden said with a smile. “I think it’s cute.”
“Cute?” Colton repeated, not sure what was cute about, well, anything at the moment.
“Yeah,” Eden said, not picking up on his guarded tone. “Reminds me of my first boyfriend. Those first few weeks are magical.” She gave him another smile and went down the hall.
Colton couldn’t move. Her first boyfriend? What did that mean? He was forty-two-years-old, and Annie was older than him. Were they acting like teenagers? Was she saying he’d feel differently about Annie after a couple of weeks, once the relationship wasn’t shiny and new?
Maybe she wasn’t saying anything at all. Colton shook his head and went into the bathroom, but his thoughts wouldn’t stop. They pestered him relentlessly until he’d decided he’d keep some distance between him and Annie that day. Her daughters were here for the holidays, and he didn’t want to intrude on that.
When he entered the kitchen, he immediately saw the unfamiliar face. He cataloged that the man sat next to Emily, and Colton deduced this must be her boyfriend. He had an open face without a stitch of a beard on it, and a very loud laugh. Beside him, Emily practically disappeared, and Colton watched them for a moment while he doctored up his coffee and took a breakfast croissant.
He took his food out the back door without encountering Annie, and from the patio, he texted Bree.
What are you doing this morning?
Nothing.
Can I come down to your cabin? The lodge is loud this morning.
Sure.
So Colton went that way, eating his warm sandwich before it got too cold. Bree opened the door when he knocked, and he glanced at her. “Thanks.”
“Something’s wrong,” she said.
“Just thinking about my brother,” he said, though that wasn’t all the way true. He had been thinking about Wes, and he’d told his brother about Annie last night, that he was taking a woman to dinner.
He’d texted to say he hadn’t been able to earlier, and Wes hadn’t been nearly as distracted by the takeover this morning. He’d said some things about having no ambition that had bothered Colton, and he pulled out his phone and texted him to just tell their father that he didn’t want to run for governor.
“My dad wants my brother to run for governor,” he told Bree as he followed her into the kitchen. “And he doesn’t want to.”
Wes’s next text came in, and he wanted to know how Colton had known what he was thinking.
Colton didn’t know how he knew, he just did. Gut feeling, he sent back to Wes. He’d also told Wes earlier that there were a lot of single women in Coral Canyon.
He sat down, looking at one. “Hey,” he said. “This might be way out there, but I’ve got four single brothers....”
Bree’s eyes widened. “Are you trying to set me up with your brothers?”
“Well, not all of them.” He grinned at her. “Definitely not Ames. He’s so not your type.”
“No?” She folded her arms, her eyes sparkling with a challenge. “What’s my type, cowboy?”
“Well, he’s like, this hard-nosed cop. I don’t see you with him.” His phone buzzed again, but Wes could wait a second.
“Who would you put me with?” she asked.
“Wes,” Colton said. “For sure, Wes.” He got up again and said, “I have to call him. Be right back.”
“Call him why?” Bree asked, following him. “Don’t set me up with him.”
Colton waved to say he’d heard her, and then his brother answered. He’d talked his brother through plenty of difficult situations, and this one was no different. But when Wes said he wasn’t going to tell their dad about not running for governor because it was Christmas, Colton didn’t have anything else to argue with.
And then Wes asked for Bree’s number.
Pure giddiness filled Colton, and he turned away from the window where he’d been having his conversation.
“Merry Christmas, Colt,” Wes said, and he didn’t sound merry at all.
Colton couldn’t get back into the kitchen fast enough. “Bree,” he said, causing her to turn from the stovetop. She held a spatula, and she was definitely pretty enough for Wes.
“Guess what?”
“What?” she asked. “You look like you just won the lottery.”
“Well, maybe you did,” he said, grinning even harder now. “My brother just asked for your number.”
“My number?” She looked shocked, and actually leaned against the countertop as if she couldn’t stand by herself.
“Yeah,” Colton said. “He said he liked the sound of your voice.” He hadn’t actually said that, but he couldn’t tell Bree that Wes had told their mother he was “talking to a woman” just to get her off his back about never dating.
He held his phone in front of him, just waiting for her to give permission. But she didn’t seem to get what he was waiting for. “Can I give it to him?”
“I mean...I guess. Can I see a picture of him?”
“Sure,” Colton said, his thumbs flying now. He sent Wes Bree’s name, and then attached her contact info. “Come look.”
She left whatever was frying on the stove and joined him at the table. He swiped to get to some pictures, finally pulling up one of him and Wes from a company party over the Fourth of July.
“Here we are. He’s the taller one, obviously.” He gave Bree his phone, and she analyzed the picture like it held national secrets.
“He is cute.” She handed the phone back and got up so quickly, Colton couldn’t see her face.
“Cute?” he echoed. “Okay, don’t call him cute when you talk to him. He’s forty-seven-years-old, not a puppy.”
“And he’s the CEO?”
“Yes,” Colton said, though Wes could technically be jobless soon. So could Colton. “He’s really smart, Bree. And handsome. The word you’re looking for is handsome.”
“Probably humble too,” Bree said dryly. “Just like you.”
Colton blinked and then burst out laughing. “Hey, we have good genes. What do you want me to say?”
Bree shook her head and brought over a pan with fried eggs in it. “Eggs?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, and she slid a couple onto a plate in front of him.
“What’s he going to do? Call me?”
“I have no idea,” Colton said. “He just asked for your number.”
“Did you show him a picture of me?”
“Nope.” She’d let the eggs cook too long, and the yolks weren’t runny anymore. Colton didn’t complain, though, because he’d distracted her.
Bree sat at the table with him, completely silent. A minute later, she jumped to her feet. “We better get over to the lodge, or we’ll miss the tree lighting.”
“Tree lighting?”
“It’s a huge thing,” she said, scrambling with her plate over to the sink. “Come on. Actually, come help me with my gifts.”
Colton did, but it only added to his unease that he didn’t have presents for anyone. He carried one of Bree’s boxes and followed her into the living room, which had been transformed since the last time he’d been in it. Which was last night.
But now, stockings hung all along the fireplace, and at least a dozen had been tacked to the wall too. The Christmas tree had been fully decorated over the past couple of days, and Colton picked out the few ornaments he’d hung before Annie’s daughter had burst into the house with news of a date.
“Those have names on them,” she said. “Find the right stocking, and put it inside, if you would.”
Colton did what she said, jostling with a few other people as they came into the room to distribute their gifts too. Everyone seemed to know exactly when to congregate in the living room, and by the time Colton had put the last gift in the last stocking, the room had filled.
He t
ossed Bree’s empty box into the hall and stood at her side while Graham got up in front of everyone. Colton glanced around for Annie and found her squeezed into the corner of a couch, with her two daughters and Emily’s boyfriend. She did not look in his direction, and Colton didn’t know what that meant.
Maybe it meant nothing. He really was tired of trying to read into a situation, that was for sure.
“Welcome to Whiskey Mountain Lodge,” Graham said, his voice warm and loud at the same time. “Every year, we have a tradition of lighting this tree and handing out small gifts.” He indicated the stockings. “I think we’ve had just about everyone light the tree now, so we might have to start cycling through again.”
Colton wondered how they chose who did it, but it didn’t seem like an appropriate time for questions.
“I just want to say how much I love our family,” Graham said, and Colton’s emotions tightened in his throat. He loved and missed his family too. “And we love all who come to belong to our family.” He looked around, his gaze landing specifically on Annie, and Celia, and Patsy, Elise, and then Bree. And right next to Bree, Colton.
In that moment, Colton felt the sincerity of Graham’s words, and he believed that the love and acceptance he felt from Graham came from God Himself.
Colton stilled, as it seemed like the rest of the family did too. Several long seconds passed, and then Graham said, “Patsy, would you light the tree this year?”
A smile like Colton had never seen shone from the woman’s face, and she nodded as she got up from one of the chairs across the room. She went over to the wall with all the stockings, and put her hand on the bank of light switches there.
“Merry Christmas, everyone,” she said.
“Merry Christmas,” the room chorused back as the lights on the tree burst to life. Oohs and ahhs filled the room next, and Beau stood up too.
“The lights are all white this year,” he said. “As you can see. It’s a change, but really beautiful, right?”
Murmurs of ascent rose into the air, and even Colton found himself nodding. He thought about his family, and what traditions they had, and the only thing he could come up with was the envelope of money his father gave to every son every year. It was nothing like this. Nothing like a tree-lighting event where the person who literally took one second to push a switch was made to feel so special.
Graham hugged Patsy and said something to her as others started getting up and handing out the stockings. When Laney stepped in front of Colton and Bree and handed them each one, Colton’s first instinct was to push it back into the woman’s arms.
“I don’t—” he started, but Laney just nodded.
“Yes,” she said. “You’re here, and that means you get something.”
“It’s best not to argue,” Vi said. “Trust me.” She held a child on each knee while her husband had all their stockings on the floor in front of them.
“All right, Mary,” he said. “Remember how we’re not going to grab everything?”
Colton watched them deal with their little children for another few moments, feeling absolutely at home in this place that was absolutely not his home.
He wanted to carry this feeling with him wherever he went, and he wanted to recreate it with his own family. All around him, mothers and fathers helped their kids, and Colton knew then that he wanted children too. Little children and teenaged children and adult children.
His eyes landed on Annie, and she raised hers to look at him. She didn’t smile, though, and Colton lifted his stocking, still wondering if the magic of Christmas had somehow infected him.
She nodded, and Colton focused on the red plush object in his hand. He reached inside, feeling very much like a little boy on Christmas morning, long before he knew what the letters HMC stood for, or how much money he’d one day have in his bank account.
Back then, Christmas was made of magic and warm fireplaces. Hot scones for breakfast, and the scent of coffee in the air. Toys and plastic and new bicycles.
His stocking held a couple of things, and he pulled them out all at once. A giant chocolate bar sat in his hand, as well as a bracelet that had been made out of colored plastic.
“That’s from Bailey and Averie,” Bree said, nodding to the bracelet.
Colton looked from it to her, everything inside him cracking open. “This is great,” he said, hardly recognizing his own voice.
Bree just smiled, because this was part of her normal life.
But for Colton, he felt like his life was just getting started—and he wanted it to be right here in Coral Canyon, where he could come to this lodge every Christmas.
He looked across the room to Annie, but she was focused on her daughters and then her own gifts. He couldn’t wait to tell her he was going to move here.
He didn’t know what he’d do here, as he’d need something good to fill his time. He didn’t know where he’d live. He didn’t know a lot of things.
None of them mattered. He knew he was supposed to be here, and he closed his eyes and thanked the Lord for showing him such a clear path to be here at this place, with these people, so he could make the changes in his life he needed to make.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The festivities had just wrapped up in front of the Christmas tree, and Bree loaded the gifts she’d gotten from the Whittakers, Annie, Patsy, and Elise into the boxes she’d brought her presents in.
“Come on, Mister Muscles,” she said to Colton. “Help me take this stuff out to the cabin.”
Elise approached, a couple of boxes of her own in her hands. “Is Colton carrying for us?” She grinned at the cowboy who’d fallen fairly silent during the last twenty minutes while everyone opened gifts.
“That’s right,” Bree said, grinning as she loaded him up with as many boxes as possible.
“Now I know what I’m good for,” he grumbled, but he wore a playful edge in his eyes that told Bree he didn’t mind helping.
The three of them went out the back door, the silence of the countryside welcome after such a large family gathering.
They joked and laughed, and Bree let the warmth of having friends wash over her. Every now and then, the gravity of her situation crept into her mind, but days like today held enough power to push her negative thoughts and feelings back out.
“I just realized something,” Colton said. “None of us are Whittakers, and yet we’re all here. Where are your families?”
“I’m from Prince Edward Island,” Elise said, and Bree hoped they’d make it back to the cabin before she had to say anything. In fact, she even increased her pace to do just that.
“It’s just my mom, and she went to Vegas this year. My older brother got married this year, and he’s with his wife’s family,” Elise said. “It’s expensive to get there, and I opted not to go this year.” She looked a bit haunted for a minute, and Bree understood completely. Elise brightened a moment later.
“What about you?”
“I’m headed back to Colorado as soon as the weather lets me,” he said. “I have a meeting on the thirtieth that I have to be home for. After that....” He blew out his breath. “Anything is possible.”
“Don’t you have a job?” Elise asked.
“I do,” Colton said. “But I think my cousins are going to take over the family company, and I’ll quit.”
“Wow,” Bree said. “Can you get another job?”
“I guess,” Colton said, and he didn’t seem concerned about it at all. If Bree were about to lose her job, she’d be frantic, searching every job board within a hundred miles and texting anyone she knew with any sort of connection.
They passed the stables, and the cabin could only be another five minutes.
“What about your family, Bree?” Colton asked.
In that very moment, her phone rang, and relief unlike anything Bree had felt in a while sang through her. “Here.” She thrust a third box at him despite his protests and pulled her phone from her pocket.
“Unknown caller
. Probably a scam.”
Colton bent and set the boxes on the ground, peering at her phone. “That’s my brother.” A massive smile overtook his face, but Bree’s heart had started booming strangely in her chest.
“You’re not going to answer?”
She didn’t want to answer his questions or his brother’s phone call, but out of the two, Bree chose the phone call.
“Hello?” she asked, spinning away from Colton and Elise.
“Oh, I don’t get to overhear,” he said. “I get it. Come on, Elise.”
“Hello,” a deep voice said on the other end of the line. “I think I got the right woman.” A chuckle followed, and Bree didn’t know why her heart felt like it had tripled in size and was now trying to choke her.
“We’ll expect a full report when you get home,” Colton called, but Bree didn’t even turn around to acknowledge him.
Bree couldn’t help feeling like she was indeed being scammed, but the man on the other end of the line seemed to be real. She closed her eyes and pictured the handsome, tall, dark-haired cowboy she’d seen standing next to Colton, both of them smiling as if they owned the world. Neither of them had been wearing cowboy hats in the picture, and in fact, Wes and Colton had been decked out in tuxedos.
“Are you still there?” Wes asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “Yes, I’m here.”
“I guess I owe you an explanation,” he said.
“Okay.” Bree felt like she’d lost the ability to think. Colton hadn’t affected her like this. He felt like a brother from another mother, and her heart had stayed perfectly normal in her chest. But Wes....
Don’t do this again, she counseled herself. Just because a man liked her didn’t mean she had to fall head-over-heels in love with him.
“I guess I just liked talking to you the other day,” Wes said. “You have a nice voice.”
“Do I?” Bree had never been told she had a nice voice before. “I think you’re going to have to work on your compliments.” She giggled, and even Wes gave a light laugh.
“Well, you might have to send me a picture,” he said. “Since I don’t know anything about you but your voice, I figured it was safe to compliment.”
