By seven o’clock that evening, without a word or sign of Evan, Noelle had decided that Evan wasn’t going to show. She’d delayed eating the special meal she’d prepared of baked ham and accompanying vegetables, thinking she’d rather wait for him to share the dinner with her. But now it was clear that she’d be eating alone.
Well, she shouldn’t let that fact disappoint her, she thought as she sat at the kitchen table and stared at the covered pots she’d left warming on the stovetop. She’d grown used to being alone on her birthday. She’d chosen to live on this isolated ranch, far away from the family and friends she’d had in Phoenix. Yet this year, with Evan entering her life, she’d hoped things would be different. Now she wondered whether she’d been a fool for believing she was becoming important to him.
Hating the tears that were trying to form in her eyes, she wiped them with a napkin, then walked over to the cabinet. It was silly of her to cry, she scolded herself as she pulled down a plate. Evan wasn’t her husband. He wasn’t even her fiancé. She shouldn’t expect him to make a big deal about her birthday. She shouldn’t expect anything more than what he’d been giving her. A few special nights spent in his arms. Yet there was a part of her that yearned for more and needed much more.
She was plucking a clean fork from the dish drainer when she heard a knock on the door. Dropping the utensil onto her plate, she hurried to the living room and carefully peeped around the curtain.
Evan was standing on the step!
Her heart suddenly soaring with joy, she jerked open the door.
“Happy birthday, Christmas angel,” he greeted her, then stepped across the threshold and planted a long, long kiss on her lips.
Once he finally lifted his head, Noelle looked at his smiling face and very nearly burst into happy tears. “Wow! That was quite a greeting,” she murmured. “Especially after I’d given up on seeing you today.”
“On your birthday? Not a chance.”
He stepped to one side, and she carefully shut the door behind them.
“Well, I hadn’t heard from you and—” Her voice trailed away as he pulled a potted Christmas cactus from behind his back. The plant was covered with beautiful red blooms. “Is that for me?”
He handed the plant to her along with a tiny birthday card attached that read: Happy Birthday, Elle. “The rest of your gift is waiting in the truck.”
Confused, she looked at him and chuckled. “What does this mean? You got me a new set of tires or something?”
A teasing grin twisted his lips. “I’d be glad to buy you a new set of tires, honey. But this gift is more fun than that. At least, I think so. Get your coat and I’ll show you.”
“Now? But supper—”
“We’ll eat later. I want you to have your gift first.”
As far as she was concerned, her gift was him and his company. But seeing he was excited about showing her this mysterious gift, she gave in. “Okay, Detective Calhoun. Whatever you say.”
Once she’d fetched her coat and pulled it on, he took her by the arm and led her out of the house. A lamp illuminated the front yard and made it easy to see where he’d parked his black truck.
As he led her toward the vehicle, he said, “I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull this off today. That’s why I’m late.”
“I don’t understand. If this is a cake, I hate to disappoint you. I’ve already made myself one. It’s going to be our dessert.”
He laughed, and the infectious joy in his voice made her even more eager to see what was waiting for her inside the truck.
“It’s nothing to eat,” he assured her. “So close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you to.”
“Oh, Evan, you’re making too big a deal out of this,” she protested.
“Your birthday is a big deal to me. Now do as I say and close your eyes.”
She shot him an impish smile, then obeyed. “Okay, I can’t see a thing.”
She heard the door unlatch. “All right. You can look now.”
Once he’d opened the back door of the club cab, the interior light had come on. Sitting on the backseat was a German shepherd with two matching pups cuddled close to her side. All three animals were thumping their tails and whining as if to say they couldn’t get out fast enough to see their new home.
Stunned, Noelle slowly stepped forward. “Dogs,” she murmured with amazement. “Where did they come from? Are they supposed to be mine?”
By now she’d reached Evan’s side. He slipped his arm around her waist and urged her closer to the open door of the truck.
“They are completely yours. That is, if you want them. I realize dogs are a big responsibility. But I know how you love animals, and you don’t have a dog,” he said. “And this mother and her babies needed a home.”
She looked at him with wry skepticism. A dog of this sort would never have a problem finding a home. Most likely he’d paid a fortune for them. But for once, Noelle didn’t care. “Really? I somehow doubt that,” she said with a knowing smile.
His grin was sheepish. “Well, I have a friend who trains dogs, and he has too many. He said I’d be doing him a favor to take them off his hands. But he didn’t want to separate the babies from their mother. So I told him I knew the perfect lady to give them a nice home where they’d have plenty of space to run and play. And don’t worry. They’re outside dogs. We can make them a bed in the barn. The mother is very nice and doesn’t bite, but she will bark and warn you if anyone comes around, so that will be good. Do you like them?”
Noelle slipped her arms around his waist and tilted her lips up to his. “I love them. Thank you, Evan. The dogs are the nicest birthday gift I’ve ever received.”
He lowered his head until his lips were touching hers. “I’m glad, Elle. I want you to be happy. Always.”
* * *
The next morning, Christmas arrived with a flurry of snow and a north wind that whipped across the desert hills. Noelle rose early, and after downing a quick cup of coffee, she hurried to the barn to tend to her chores. Last night before he’d left, Evan had invited her to eat Christmas dinner with his family at the Silver Horn. Though he wasn’t supposed to pick her up until midmorning, she wanted to be ready and waiting.
Inside the barn, the dogs were excited to see her. After doling out breakfast to the livestock, she spent a good deal of time feeding and playing with the beautiful shepherds. The trio was going to be a great deal of company to her, but she would keep them penned in the barn for another day to give them time to understand that this was their new home and they were not to run away.
Along with the dogs, Evan had brought an enormous amount of food with appropriate nutrition for the mother and the pups. It would be weeks before she’d need to buy more. She’d been overwhelmed by his gift, and each time she hugged the dogs, her heart nearly burst with emotion.
Noelle had owned only one dog in her life, and that had been as a young teenager. The little dachshund had been her best buddy until he’d dug beneath the yard fence and run into the street. After Jimmy was killed, she was so distraught that her father had forbidden her to have any more pets. As time had moved on, she’d decided that investing love in a pet was only asking for heartache, and she’d had enough of that to last a lifetime. But now the shepherds had already melted her heart, and she realized that Evan had known exactly what she needed.
Eventually she said goodbye to the dogs and hurried back to the house to get ready for Evan’s arrival and the day ahead. She was stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around herself when she heard a knock on the door and Evan’s voice called out to her.
“Noelle? Are you in there?”
Oh, my, what was he doing here this early? she wondered. He wasn’t supposed to be here for another hour! “I’ve just stepped out of the shower. I’ll be right there,” she called
back.
Grabbing her robe, she jerked it over her dripping body and stepped out of the bathroom, only to find him waiting in the hallway.
She squealed with shock and delight as he swept her forward and into the circle of his arms.
“Evan! I’m wet!”
“Merry Christmas, darling!”
The lengthy kiss he planted on her lips was so all-consuming, she was practically panting by the time he lifted his head. “Merry Christmas back to you,” she murmured.
“I’ve always wanted to know what it would feel like to kiss a Christmas angel.” His eyes glinting at her, he ran the tip of his tongue over his lips. “It’s just as delicious as I dreamed it would be!”
Chuckling, she smacked a quick kiss on his cheek, then gently scolded him, “You’re not supposed to be here this early! Now you’re going to have to wait for me to get dressed. And I have no intention of hurrying. I want to look extra nice today when we have dinner with your family.”
“I have no intention of hurrying you. I want you to forget about dressing for a minute and come out here to the living room with me. I have something to give you.”
“A Christmas gift?” she asked as he led her out of the short hallway. “I thought we’d agreed that we weren’t going to give each other a Christmas gift. Besides, you’ve already given me the dogs.”
He chuckled wickedly. “I had my fingers crossed behind my back when I made that promise. And the dogs were for your birthday. They don’t count.”
“The dogs are great. That’s why I’m late getting dressed. I’ve been down at the barn playing with them.” With an impish grin, she pulled away from him and crossed over to a small table where a box was wrapped in festive blue-and-green paper and topped with a big silver bow.
When she carried the gift over to him, he looked at her with such comical surprise that she had to laugh. “I confess. When we made that agreement about not buying Christmas gifts, I had my fingers crossed, too.” She handed him the box. “Open yours first.”
Easing down on the couch, he unwrapped the package. Once the gift was revealed, he began to laugh. “A Wyatt Earp lunch box! I can’t believe you remembered me telling you I always wanted one when I was a boy. Where in the world did you find this treasure?”
Feeling happier than she could remember, she sat down beside him. “Oh, I had a little elf help me search. It took us a while to find one, but we managed to get it delivered in time.”
“Jessi?”
Noelle shot him a coy look. “I won’t divulge my connections. So do you like your gift?”
“I love it. It’s going straight to my office.”
“With a sandwich and chips in it?” she joked.
He laughed. “No. To sit on my desk so I can show it off.”
Leaning over, he placed a tender kiss on her lips, then gently pushed the tendrils of wet hair from her cheek. “Thank you, sweetheart. The gift is very special to me. Now close your eyes and hold out your hand so that I can give you yours.”
Feeling as though Santa had truly come to her house, she held out her hand. “Why do I have to close my eyes again? So you can put a lizard or something in my palm?”
He feigned a hurt look. “Rafe and Finn are the pranksters. Not me. And would I do something like that on Christmas morning?”
She squeezed her eyes tight. “Okay. I’ll close my eyes, but this better not be something scary or you’re going to be in trouble,” she warned him.
“I don’t know if you’ll think it’s scary or not.”
The sudden tenderness in his voice should have alerted her to expect a surprise, especially after last night’s gift, but nothing could have prepared her for the shock she felt when she opened her eyes and found herself staring at an open ring box and a ring that looked suspiciously like an engagement ring.
Dazed, she touched her fingertip to the large, square-cut stone flanked by sapphires and fashioned in an antique setting. The ring was lovely without being ostentatious. But what did it mean?
“I don’t understand, Evan.” She shook her head. “This is— It doesn’t make sense! This is my Christmas gift?”
His green eyes were full of soft, gentle emotions that she’d never seen before, and her heart began to pound at an incredible pace.
“Yes, your Christmas gift today—and for the rest of your life. I realize we haven’t been together that long. And we’ve not talked about anything like this. But I think you already know how I feel about you.”
“Do I?” she asked hoarsely.
Scooting closer, he took the ring box and set it aside, then gathered her hands tightly between his. “Oh, Elle, surely you can tell how much I care about you. How important you’ve become to me. I love you. And I would be honored and very, very happy if you’d marry me.”
Stunned, Noelle stared at him as rays of joy and hope begged her to open her heart and accept his love. Yet at the same time, doubts and questions rained down, muddling her ability to think much of anything.
“I don’t know what to say,” she finally murmured.
“It’s not a confusing question, Elle. All you need to do is say yes.” Cupping his hand beneath her chin, he studied her torn expression. “Unless you don’t want to spend the rest of your life with me. Is that what you’re thinking?”
A bewildered groan tore from her throat. “I care very much for you, Evan. To be honest, I think I fell in love with you the very first day we met. That’s why I was so awful to you—because I didn’t want to feel the things you were making me feel. Everything about you was scaring me and reminding me I was still a woman, something that I’d let myself forget.”
Hope brightened his eyes and spread his lips into a smile. “I think I fell in love with you that day, too. And now—we have our whole lives ahead of us to be together. I’m going to give you everything you need or want. Once we make our home on the Horn, you won’t have to lift a finger. You won’t have to get out in the bitter cold to feed cows. You won’t have to dig postholes, ride fence lines or worry about a calf being stillborn.” Lifting her palm to his lips, he kissed the callused skin just below the juncture of her fingers. “I want to make you happy, Elle.”
The moment she’d heard him say he loved her, she was certain she’d felt a piece of heaven settle in her heart. But all of that amazing happiness had been wiped away with the words he’d just spoken.
Easing away from him, she rose to her feet. If she hadn’t been sopping wet and wearing nothing but a robe, she would’ve dashed out the door and kept running until she was far out on the range, away from this man who was twisting her heart into a painful knot.
“I’m sorry, Evan,” she said stiffly, “but that isn’t going to happen.”
Jumping up, he caught her by the arm and turned her so she was facing him. “I don’t understand, Noelle.”
Pain and disappointment plunged through her. “That’s why I can’t accept your engagement ring—I can’t marry you. Because you don’t understand,” she said.
“Then tell me why! Make me understand this. Because right now my head is spinning. You just said you loved me. Isn’t that enough? Isn’t that all we need to pledge our lives to each other? The rest will follow.”
She pressed her lips tightly together as she tried to gather her splintering senses. “No. What would follow is the way you want things to be, Evan. Not the way I ever hoped or dreamed they would be.” Shaking her head, she shoved the wet hair back from her face and tried to brace her heart against the pain rushing through her like a dark tidal wave. “I think you’d better go. This isn’t going to work. Not now. Not ever.”
“I’m not leaving,” he said forcefully. “Not until you explain yourself.”
The fact that he seemed clueless to her needs and wants was enough to shove away her pain and replace it with outright anger.
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br /> “I guess being a Calhoun makes you think everyone envies your lifestyle—your wealth. I thought you knew me better. I thought you understood how much this land—my home—means to me.” With palms up, she thrust her hands at him. “I don’t resent my calluses, Evan. I wear them with pride. They mean I’m doing something worthwhile. I’m doing something that gives me deep-down happiness. This land, this house will always be my home. When I had nothing to live for, the ranch gave me purpose and meaning. Without it, I’d be lost.”
“And what about me? You wouldn’t be lost without me?”
“Oh, yes, it will hurt not having you here with me. But on the other hand, I can see you’d be miserable here. We…we’re not the same type of people. For a while, I’d hoped we were. I’d hoped that someday you’d come around to wanting to make your life here with me. Now I can see I was wrong. My home is simple. I’ll admit it’s even a bit shabby. But I’m proud of it, and I’d be proud if you’d make it your home, too. Yet I can see it’s not nearly good enough for you. If I ever do marry, Evan, it will be to a man who wants to be just as self-reliant as I am.”
Anger suddenly sparked in his eyes, and his jaw grew so tight she wondered what kept his molar teeth from breaking beneath the pressure.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” he asked. “I’m not living off dividends from the ranch. I told you that!”
“You continue to live on the Silver Horn to appease your dad and grandfather. Because you feel guilty. Because you think that makes up somehow for turning your back on ranching and becoming a lawman.”
“You’re right,” he admitted. “I would feel guilty. My grandfather and father have worked hard to give me and my brothers a wonderful home. And they’ve done it honestly and with love. I’m asking you to make it your home, too. Can’t you see I want to give things to you? Not take things away.”
The Lawman's Noelle Page 16
