by Liz Isaacson
Vi giggled. “Mattress diva. Annie, you better make sure you explore that further before you two go any further.”
“Yeah, like what else he’s a diva about,” Lily added.
Annie laughed with them and turned toward Colton. “I think she’s right. I need a list.”
He grinned at her, and Annie found him to be the most wonderful man she’d ever met. So handsome, and so easy-going, and so smart. The Human Genome Project. Executive marketing director. Colton Hammond could literally do anything.
“First, there’s how my eggs are cooked,” he said, his dark eyes sparkling with a tease. Annie loved it when he flirted with her, and he didn’t even try to hide it from the other women in the room.
“Oh, boy,” Lily said. “Beau’s like that too.”
“And you somehow tolerate it,” Annie said.
“I do,” Lily said, laughing.
“What else?” Rose asked, giggling with the others as she peered at Colton.
“Parking spots,” he said. “I actually have one reserved for me at the building where I work.” He looked from Rose to Lily to Vi and back to Annie. He gave a half-shrug and lifted one hand like, What you gonna do?
They all burst out laughing, Colton included, and Annie fell a little bit in love with him right then. He really could sit down with anyone and fit right in, and she marveled at that.
“She’s in here,” Eden said, and she came into the living room, followed by Emily.
“Hey,” Annie said, accepting a quick kiss from her youngest daughter. “What’s up?”
“We just wondered if you were back from lunch.” She glanced at Colton. “Hey, Colton.”
“Hi, Eden.” He gave her a warm smile. “Any more chats with young Mitchell?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?” Annie said, scoffing. “She was up half the night with that glow in her face, texting him.”
Eden sat down on the floor with the two-and-three-year-olds. She picked up a crayon and started coloring on the same page as Daisy. “I like talking to him,” she said without looking at Annie. “And he seems to like talking to me.”
“I’m glad,” Colton said.
Em pulled up a chair to sit by all of them, and she didn’t say much.
“Where’s Kelly?” Annie asked.
“He had to make a business call, so he went out to the car.”
“On Christmas Eve?” Annie asked.
“I guess so.” Emily sighed, and Colton raised his hand.
“We almost had a meeting today,” he said. “Business never really sleeps. What does Kelly do?”
“He’s a tech developer,” Emily said.
“In Coral Canyon?” Colton asked, glancing at Annie. “I mean, you said the town was growing, but I didn’t think…well, I guess technology is needed everywhere.”
“He works remotely,” Emily said. “So he’s based here, and there’s a small office downtown. But he’s on a call with his team in Seattle.”
“Oh, got it.” Colton nodded. “We have some remote people too.”
“What’s your company?” Eden asked.
“It’s called Hammond Manufacturing Company,” he said. “My great-grandfather was a chemist, and he actually invented polyethylene plastic.”
“You didn’t tell me that,” Annie said.
“Polyethylene plastic,” Lily repeated. “I’m assuming that’s an important plastic.”
“It’s the most widely used plastic in the world,” Colton said. “And we own the formula and manufacture almost all of it in one of our ninety-four plants around the world.”
“Oh, wow,” Rose said, grinning. “You sound like a commercial.” She laughed, and Colton chuckled with her.
“No wonder you can afford King Carver’s,” Lily said.
Colton once again shrugged as if he didn’t have anything much to add to the conversation, a small smile playing with his lips.
“And so modest,” Vi said as Daisy started to cry. “All right, girlies. It’s time for a nap.” She picked up the little girl and reached for Mary. “Come on, Mary. Let’s go lie down.”
That little girl started to fuss, because she didn’t want to go lie down. The front door opened, and Annie looked that way to see Kelly coming back inside. He walked over to them, a smile on his face, and Annie did like him a lot. He and Emily were an amazing couple, and the look on his face as he bent down to give her a kiss on the forehead said he loved Em.
“I have to ask you something,” Kelly said, straightening and putting his phone in his pocket. He glanced at Annie, and her hand tightened in Colton’s.
“All right,” Emily said, reaching for his hand so he could help her up. He did, and Annie thought they’d leave for a private conversation. Instead, Kelly kept Emily’s hand in his as he dropped to one knee.
“Emily Pruitt,” he said, and Annie sucked in a breath. Every woman in the room did, and Vi said, “We can take a nap in a minute.”
Kelly gazed up at Emily, who’d covered her mouth with her free hand. Tears filled her eyes, but they didn’t spill down her cheeks. Annie couldn’t control her emotions either, and her eyes burned as she watched from the couch.
“I love you, and I want you to be mine forever. I want to be yours. Will you marry me?” He presented a ring that had somehow manifested itself in his fingers. Annie could see the Christmas lights glinting off the huge diamond, and she knew Emily would be well-taken care of with Kelly.
Emily still hadn’t answered, and the entire lodge seemed to hold its breath.
“He’s dying,” Colton said in a stage whisper, which broke the tension in the room. And it broke Emily out of the shocked state she’d fallen into.
“Yes,” she said, and Kelly grinned as he stood up. “Yes!” Emily threw herself into Kelly’s arms, and they laughed together.
“Yeah,” Colton said, clapping loudly. The others joined in, and Annie got up to hug them both and be the first to congratulate them. She wept as she held onto her daughter, and her heart warmed when Eden was the next one to step in and offer her congratulations.
And when Colton did? Annie thought she’d found the man of her dreams.
Now she just had to figure out how to keep him, with her—and in town.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Colton loved the energy at Whiskey Mountain Lodge. He really did. He just needed a break from it sometimes. Everyone did; he saw people retreat to bedrooms or go outside in the afternoons, and Graham and Laney went the mile down the road to their farm, and sometimes various brothers or sisters-in-law or kids went with them.
Apparently, Eli had a pretty enormous house in town, and he took his family there for the afternoon on Christmas Eve, promising to be back in time for dinner.
Which, apparently, was a big deal. Everyone who scattered during the day would be back for Christmas Eve dinner.
After Emily had gotten engaged, Annie had run downstairs to retrieve her laptop, and she and her daughters sat with Kelly on the couch in the basement and started looking at the calendar, at venues, at wedding dresses. The seedlings of a plan took shape, and Colton finally leaned down and kissed Annie’s forehead. “I’m going to go see if there’s a pair of snowshoes available.”
She barely looked up at him as she said, “Okay.”
Colton retrieved his coat and gloves from his bedroom and went upstairs to the mudroom, where he’d been before he’d been interrupted a few days ago as he’d been preparing to go snowshoeing.
“Oh, hey,” he said to Bree, who had just put something in the washing machine.
“If you wear something and spill all over it,” she said crossly, “You should put it in the laundry, don’t you think?”
“Definitely,” he said, because he was smart enough to agree to whatever an annoyed woman said.
“And half of these gloves don’t even have a pair.” She tossed down several mismatched gloves in disgust and looked at him. “Are you going out?”
“I was hoping there’d be some
snowshoes or something.”
“Do you ride?”
“Like, a horse?”
“Yeah, cowboy.” She reached up and tapped the brim of his cowboy hat. He tried to dodge her, but he didn’t really grasp what she was doing until it was done. “A horse.”
“I’ve been known to ride a horse,” he said, though it had been a while. A long while. “My father has a couple of horses.”
“Yeah, but do you ride them?”
“He does,” Colton said. “I guess it’s been a while for me. But how hard can it be? Isn’t it like riding a bike?”
Bree’s face split into a grin. “Oh, this is going to be fun. Come on.” She grabbed his arm and towed him out of the mudroom and out the back door.
He stumbled after her, chuckling. He got his arm away from her on the patio, and they walked side-by-side toward the stable just over the rise in the lawn. “Have you talked to Wes again?”
“He called a few hours ago,” she said, glancing at him.
“Was that just today?”
“Yes.” Bree laughed. “It’s been a long day, hasn’t it?”
“It feels like it’s been a year,” Colton said, though he wasn’t sure why. “In fact, I’m not sure time passes the same here as it does everywhere else. I feel like I’ve been here for months.” He tried to do the math to figure out how long he’d actually been there. “Has it only been five days?”
Bree just giggled, and shook her head. “I know what you mean. The holidays can feel like a lifetime.” She wrapped her arms around herself, and Colton heard something in her voice that caused him to peer closer at her.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Her smile didn’t agree with her words though. “I’m fine.”
“You never did say why you spend your holidays here and not with your family.”
“No,” Bree said, her voice considerably cooler than he’d ever heard it. “I never did.”
Colton got the hint, and he didn’t press the issue. He had plenty of experience of being pushed into places he didn’t want to be in, and he wouldn’t do that to Bree.
“How many horses do you have here?” he asked instead.
“We used to have thirteen,” she said. “They were kind of a hobby for the brothers. But they weren’t great riding horses. A couple were, but.” Bree shrugged one shoulder. “When the brothers decided it was silly for one family to live in a lodge so big and they wanted to start renting the rooms, they asked me to take over events full-time. I started with the horses. We sold the older ones to farms where they can graze out their days.” She came alive talking about her job and the horses, and Colton smiled quietly to himself.
“And we bought new horses that were calm and gentle, good for children and older people, or anyone without experience with horses. So we have twenty-four now, and in the summer and fall, when most of our riding tours are, we have a few temporary workers come up to lead those groups.”
“So you don’t go out with them?”
“I train all the hands,” she said. “So I know all the trails. I know all the landmarks. I know it all.” She grinned at him, and Colton once again had the thought that she’d be perfect for Wes.
“You really are a know-it-all,” he teased, and Bree laughed with him.
“I have to be right on top of the hands,” she said. “They’re mostly teenagers, and they really do try to get away with murder.”
“I’ll bet,” Colton said, his mind automatically flying back to when he was a teenager. “You would’ve fired me and my brothers.”
“Is that right?”
“Once, my father sent us next door to help the Wattsworth’s with their haying. Or we were supposed to help with the haying. Really, the twins acted like they were sick, and they stayed in the air-conditioned house while Mrs. Wattsworth fed them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Me, Wes, and Gray did do a bit of work, but later, Mr. Wattsworth found us all asleep behind a beaver slide.” He laughed at the memory. “Boy, was he mad. And he called my dad, and let me tell you, there’s nothing quite as awful as disappointing my father.” He realized why Wes hadn’t told Dad that he didn’t want to run for governor. He didn’t want to ruin Dad’s Christmas—but he didn’t want to ruin his either. Or anyone else’s.
Bree said nothing about her siblings or time as a teenager, and Colton’s curiosity shot toward the sky.
He coached himself not to ask, reminding himself that it wasn’t his business. She’d tell him when and if she wanted to.
“Here we are.” She unlatched the door on the stable and went inside. “I take care of the horses in the winter too. Graham, Laney, Bailey, and Ronnie come to help. They have horses and cattle and goats and all of that too.”
“Sounds like a good life,” Colton said, and he meant it. He wondered if he’d been living the wrong life. The city life, behind walls of steel and glass, running around with thousands of other people, trying to find some sort of fulfillment.
He didn’t want that life anymore. He’d known it the moment Priscilla had left him in his dressing room, and that was why he hadn’t gone back to work. Hopefully, his absence hadn’t damaged HMC too much, and he sent up a quick prayer that Laura, Jill, and Kent would be able to take Hammond Manufacturing into the next phase of its success.
Bree named the horses she passed, finally stopping outside a stall with a tall, black horse she called Bull Rider.
“You named a horse Bull Rider?” Colton couldn’t believe it. Seemed strange to cross breeds and all that.
“We bought him,” she said, gazing up at the horse fondly. “And it just fit.”
“Does it?” Colton looked at the horse, instantly reaching for his mane and neck. He did have a calm spirit that invited a man to touch him, and Colton’s soul sighed as the horse leaned into his touch.
“Yep, he’s for you,” Bree said. “I’ll put him out here, and you can saddle him.”
“Uh...can I?”
“Oh, my word,” Bree said. “Fine, let me get out Fritz, and I’ll get us ready to go.”
“I can help,” he said. “I just don’t know if I can do it right. Tell me what to get.”
“Grab the saddle you want from the far wall there.” She nodded to her right. “There are child sizes, and let me tell you, with the amount of chocolate I’ve seen you eat, you won’t fit in one of those.”
“Oh, okay,” he said as she walked away giggling. No way he could say anything about her weight, not that there was anything to say. He retrieved a nice, big saddle, a blanket, and a bit with reins.
Bree bustled around the stable while the horses stood stock still, letting her push and pull and get them ready to go. “They’re excited,” she said.
“They are?” He couldn’t tell.
“They don’t get out as much in the winter,” she said.
“Are we tromping through snow?”
“A little,” she said evasively, and Colton had the very real feeling that he would be wet and freezing cold by the time he returned.
“I just need time to get ready for dinner,” he said. “I hear it’s quite the to-do.”
“That it is,” Bree said. “Celia and Amanda work for days on it, and it is really special.” She handed him a pair of reins and added, “Let’s go, cowboy.”
Colton followed her, almost out the double-wide doors at the opposite end of the stable from where they’d entered, when someone called his name.
He turned back and saw Annie walking toward him. “You’re going riding?” she asked, stuffing her hands in her pockets.
“Yeah.” He looked over his shoulder. Bree had continued with Fritz, and she didn’t wait for him. Considering the episode from that morning, Colton couldn’t blame her. He wanted to leave too.
“You’ll be back in time for dinner, right?” She reached him, and Colton saw worry in her eyes.
He didn’t understand it, and he didn’t know how to erase it. “Bree’s a pro,” he said. “She said she trains teenagers and eve
rything. I think she can handle me.”
Annie searched his face, and Colton smiled at her. “Are you excited about Emily and Kelly’s engagement?”
The negative emotion on her face broke, and she nodded. Colton leaned toward her, keeping the reins tightly held in one hand, and kissed her quickly. “I’m glad. We won’t be long.”
“Just you and Bree are going?” she asked.
“Yep.” Colton kept on walking, because he was not getting into this discussion again. He’d already told Annie everything there was to tell about him and Bree. He was allowed to have friends.
He turned back to her. “Did you want to come?”
“No.” She shook her head and squeezed her elbows to her sides. “I’m not really an outdoorsy person, especially in the winter.”
He kept the smile on his face, and it felt like the one he gave to reporters. He hated giving it to Annie, but he didn’t know how else to reassure her. “All right. See you soon.” He took the horse all the way outside and swung into the saddle, spotting Bree on the edge of the forest, waiting for him.
He got Bull Rider moving toward her, and he’d been right—riding a horse was like riding a bike, and he did remember how to do it.
“Everything okay?” Bree asked.
“Yep,” Colton said, refusing to let Annie infect his thoughts too much. Still, a sliver of irritation squirreled through him while they clopped along a path under the trees that wasn’t entirely covered in snow.
“Right up here,” Bree said. “We’re going to stop. Look up as soon as you can, and you’ll see the beautiful Teton range on the horizon.”
Colton kept moving, kept looking up. Only branches. Finally, the foliage thinned, and the sky spread above him, and right there, seemingly close enough for him to reach out and touch, were the towering Tetons.
“Wow,” he said, his voice mostly air. Anything he’d been worried about simply dissipated, and Colton felt the power of God in his life as a presence not to be ignored. Tell me what to do, he thought. And I’ll do it.
Dinner was a lively event at the lodge, and Colton sat next to Annie and her daughters, ate way too much, and enjoyed singing Christmas carols with everyone else.
