A Maverick Under The Mistletoe

by Brenda Harlen

  “That’s not unusual,” Paige said.

  “I know,” her sister admitted. “But Mom was hoping to invite him to dinner tonight.”

  “That would be a little awkward,” Paige warned.

  “Why?”

  “Because we broke up.”

  “When?” Lani demanded.

  “A few days ago.”

  “Are you seeing Sutter now?” Lindsay asked.

  “No,” she replied, immediately and firmly.

  “But you were at the school with him yesterday,” Lani noted.

  “Yes, because Sutter was bugging me to go out with him, and I suggested that we go to the school as an alternative.”

  “And after you finished at the school?” Lindsay prompted.

  Paige sighed. “Obviously you know someone who saw us at the bar last night.”

  “Half the town saw you at the Ace in the Hole last night,” Lani informed her.

  “We were at the school late, and we were both hungry when we finished, so we went to grab a bite to eat.”

  “Did he kiss you good-night?” Lindsay asked.

  “I’m not getting involved with Sutter,” Paige said firmly.

  Her sisters exchanged glances.

  “He kissed her good-night,” Lani decided, not sounding the least bit happy about it.

  She sighed. “Yes, he kissed me. But that’s no reason to make it into something bigger than it is.”

  “I still can’t believe you dumped Alex,” Lani grumbled. “He’s a great guy.”

  “He is a great guy,” Paige agreed. “And I didn’t dump him.”

  Her sister rolled her eyes. “I doubt he dumped you.”

  “It was a mutual decision,” Paige told them.

  “So he wasn’t heartbroken?” Lani challenged.

  “He definitely wasn’t heartbroken,” she confirmed.

  “Did you want him to be?”

  “Of course not,” Paige denied. “But considering that we’ve been dating for a few months, I didn’t expect him to be so…unaffected.”

  “Which, I guess, tells you everything you needed to know about that relationship,” Lindsay noted.

  “I did really like Alex.”

  “But he’s not Sutter.”

  “Will you stop trying to make this about Sutter?”

  Lani shook her head. “Will you stop trying to pretend this is about anything but Sutter? If he hadn’t come back to Rust Creek Falls, if he hadn’t kissed you and made you remember what the two of you used to have together, you’d still be with Alex.”

  “We’re just worried about you, Paige,” Lindsay said gently.

  Paige understood that her sisters were thinking about what was best for her—and no doubt remembering how completely heartbroken she’d been when Sutter had left Rust Creek Falls five years earlier. “I appreciate that,” she told them. “But I assure you, there’s no reason to worry. I’m not going to get hung up on Sutter again.

  “Yes, I’ve kissed the guy a couple of times. And yes, he is a fabulous kisser. But I have no illusions that a few kisses are going to lead to anything else, because I know that Sutter isn’t going to stay in Rust Creek Falls.”

  “And if he asks you to go to Seattle with him again?”

  She just shook her head. “He’s never even hinted in that direction, and he knows that my life is here.”

  “I know that’s what you said five years ago,” Lindsay agreed. “Because you were trying to convince Sutter to stay, and because you didn’t want to be too far away when Gram was so sick. But even when he packed up and left town, you waited for him to come back. You didn’t believe he would stay in Seattle for five months—never mind five years.”

  She was right. Paige hadn’t expected that Sutter’s move would be permanent. She hadn’t believed he would stay away from his family. She hadn’t wanted to believe that he would stay away from her. But when she’d refused to go with him, he’d taken that to mean that their relationship was over. She’d tried to explain all the reasons that the timing wasn’t good, but he was determined to go—with or without her.

  And still she’d thought he would return. But the days had turned into weeks, the weeks into months and the heart that had felt so battered and bruised by his decision to leave Rust Creek Falls had shattered into a billion pieces.

  She’d thought about going after him—more times than she wanted to admit. She’d thought about packing up and following him to wherever he was. Because her life felt so empty without him, because she felt incomplete without him.

  But even after her grandmother had finally lost her battle with multiple sclerosis and passed away, Paige had had her pride. It hadn’t kept her warm at night, but it had refused to let her chase after him. Besides, she’d believed that what she’d told him was true. He had to make peace with his family, and he was never going to do that from five hundred miles away.

  And truthfully, she’d been more than a little insecure about their relationship at that point, and terrified by the thought of leaving everything familiar to start a new life in unfamiliar surroundings. It was a testament to how much she’d loved Sutter that she’d even considered it, but his willingness to leave his family in the face of conflict made her wonder if some kind of disagreement might cause him to leave her, too. In the end, that was exactly what happened—they’d had differing opinions as to how he should handle the clash with his family, and he’d left.

  The fact that he’d come home now, that he’d heard about the flood and had come back to help his family, gave her hope that he hadn’t turned his back on Rust Creek Falls completely. But if he thought his return meant that he could just pick back up where he’d left off with Paige, he was sorely mistaken. She wasn’t going to give him another chance to break her heart.

  The problem was, she enjoyed spending time with Sutter. She felt comfortable with him—maybe too comfortable. Because she inevitably let her guard down around him, which meant that she would have to make a concerted effort to avoid him. A more difficult task than she’d imagined when she turned onto her street and saw his vehicle parked in front of her house.

  The shiny new truck with the Washington State plates stood out from the more weathered pickups that most of the locals drove and was a tangible reminder of how far he’d gone since he’d left Rust Creek Falls—and proof that he’d chosen to make his life somewhere else and without her.

  With that thought in mind, she steeled her resolve and met him on the porch. “What are you doing here, Sutter?”

  “I’m here to pick you up.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you got to choose what we did yesterday, so today it’s my turn.”

  “Except that I never agreed to do anything with you today.”

  “Actually you did,” he told her.

  She frowned. “When?”

  “Last night. When I brought you home after dinner.”

  Since her memories of last night were still a little fuzzy, she couldn’t say for certain that she hadn’t. “You had to know that I had a little too much to drink last night.”

  “How is the head today?”

  “Fine.” Now. “But I’m a little bit…hazy on what was said after we left the restaurant, which means I can’t be held responsible for any agreements I might have made. And if you were an honorable man—”

  “If I wasn’t an honorable man, we would have had this conversation several hours ago—in your bed.”

  That snagged her attention. “What are you talking about?”

  “You invited me to spend the night with you.”

  Her cheeks flamed as the fantasy/memory of their bodies pressed close together shimmered in her mind again.

  “I did not,” she said, but her denial lacked both strength and conviction.

  “You did, too,” he told her. “Lucky for you, I realized that you weren’t thinking clearly and I didn’t take you up on the offer. But I was more than a little tempted.”

  “I wouldn’t have let anything
go that far—I don’t sleep around.”

  “I know.”

  The simple, matter-of-fact statement made her wonder. “Did I tell you that last night, too?”

  “Yep,” he agreed.

  Three beers and she apparently lost not only her inhibitions but control of her mouth. “Did I admit that I’ve only slept with half a dozen other guys since you left?”

  “Actually you said it was only one.”

  His words made her humiliation complete. Not only had she been intoxicated enough to throw herself at him, but her lack of a sex life since he’d been gone was tantamount to an admission that she’d never gotten over him.

  A change of topic was definitely in order. “My parents are expecting me at their house by five o’clock for dinner.”

  “I’ll make sure you’re back before five,” he promised.

  “So what did you want to do today?”

  * * *

  He took her to the Triple T.

  Paige should have suspected they would be going to the ranch when Sutter suggested that she change her clothes. She swapped the long skirt she’d worn to church for a pair of jeans and tugged a thick sweater on over her blouse, then tucked her feet into a pair of cowboy boots.

  When she realized where they were headed, the nerves inside her belly started to twist into knots. She had more than a few reservations about their destination, mostly because there were so many memories for her at his family’s ranch and she didn’t want those memories dredged up. Or maybe she was more worried about the feelings evoked by those memories.

  He drove past the family homestead and parked his truck by the barn. There were a couple of horses saddled and tethered in the closest paddock. “Obviously Rusty got my message,” he said, guiding her toward the waiting animals.

  Just the sight of the gorgeous palomino with the golden coat and luxurious blond mane and tail made Paige’s throat tighten. Buttercup was the mount that she’d always used when she’d gone riding with Sutter at the Triple T, and she’d sincerely missed the horse when she’d stopped going out to the ranch after he’d gone.

  “Do you remember Buttercup?”

  “Of course,” she admitted, stroking the animal’s muzzle with easy affection. “But I don’t recognize her companion. Where’s Maverick?”

  “I took him to Seattle with me.”

  “Oh. Of course.” She should have realized that. Maverick had been Sutter’s pride and joy. He’d raised him and trained him, and it made perfect sense that he would have taken the horse with him when he left.

  “I wanted to take Buttercup, too,” he told her now. “Because the two of them were accustomed to spending a lot of time together, but I couldn’t do it. It seemed like I’d be taking her away from you.”

  “So who’s this?” she asked, nodding her head toward the bay gelding with the white blaze on his forehead.

  “Toby,” he said, and the horse whinnied in acknowledgment.

  “Smart,” she noted.

  The horse nodded his big head; Paige chuckled.

  “I packed a picnic lunch for us,” Sutter said, checking the saddlebags to ensure it was there. “I figured we’d both be hungry after being out in the fresh air for a while.”

  “How long is a while?”

  “I promised to have you home before five o’clock, and I will,” Sutter assured.

  “I wasn’t thinking about the time so much as I was thinking about my butt,” she admitted. “I haven’t been on the back of a horse in a long time.”

  The statement seemed to surprise him. “You used to love riding.”

  “I loved riding with you.” And when he was gone, it wasn’t the same. Besides, it wasn’t as if she could just take a drive out to the Triple T and saddle up one of the horses to navigate a familiar trail. Her brothers had horses, but again, it had never been the riding she’d enjoyed as much as the company when she’d been with Sutter.

  “Do you want to do this?”

  “Right now I do,” she said. “But I’m well aware that some long-neglected muscles might regret that decision tomorrow.”

  “I’m more than willing to give you a full-body massage to help loosen up anything that feels tight when we’re done.”

  “That’s an interesting offer—” and more tempting than she was willing to admit, especially when being close to him had her feeling tight and achy all over “—but I think I’ll pass.”

  “Well, if you change your mind…”

  “I’ll let you know,” she promised him.

  Chapter Nine

  It might have been a while since Paige had been on the back of a horse, but she obviously hadn’t forgotten anything. She looked good in the saddle, with the wind blowing her long dark hair away from her face, her cheeks pink with cold and her eyes sparkling with happiness.

  They rode for almost an hour before they reached the top of the bluff where they’d spent a lot of time during those long-ago summers. There was a trio of silver maples clustered together on one side of a man-made swimming hole and, low on the trunk of the fattest tree, Sutter had carved a crude heart with “ST + PD” inside it. Paige had added the inscription “4EVR.”

  “Do you want to walk for a bit, to make sure you can still feel your legs?”

  “Sure,” Paige agreed.

  Sutter dismounted, then took Buttercup’s reins to hold her steady so Paige could do the same. She slid to the ground, keeping a hand on the horse’s flank to maintain her balance.

  “You okay?”

  She nodded. “But I think having my feet on the ground for a little bit is a good idea.”

  They walked in companionable silence for a few minutes, enjoying the quiet of the day and the spectacular scenery of the ranch. He’d grown up on this ranch and had taken it for granted for a lot of years. It was only when he’d moved to Washington that he’d realized how much the Montana landscape was part of his heart and soul. There were a lot of things to love about Seattle, and he did, but it wasn’t in his blood the way Rust Creek Falls had always been.

  The distinctive “kee-eee-arr” of a red-tailed hawk sounded, and Paige stopped to watch the raptor slowly turning in circles as it surveyed the open field for any sign of prey. “They’re such graceful creatures.”

  “Graceful…and vicious,” Sutter noted as the hawk swooped down to snag some unsuspecting critter in its claws.

  She winced. “Yeah, that, too.”

  “I guess that means it must be lunchtime.”

  “Suddenly I’m not very hungry.”

  Hungry or not, he saw that she was shivering. “You’re cold,” he said, and silently cursed himself for not realizing it sooner.

  “A little,” she admitted. “I didn’t realize how chilly it was today.”

  “You’re more sheltered from the wind in town,” he noted. “Out here, there are no barriers against Mother Nature or her whims.”

  “I wouldn’t want any,” Paige said honestly. “Although I wouldn’t have minded a heavier jacket.”

  “I’d planned for us to have a picnic, but now I’m thinking that’s not such a great idea.”

  “Outdoor picnics are better suited for the summer,” she suggested.

  “We had a lot of them.” He stepped up behind her, partly to block the wind but mostly because it gave him an excuse to be close to her, and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned into his embrace, her head tipped back against his shoulder. “We’d spread a blanket in the sun by the swimming hole, eat whatever we’d managed to steal from my mom’s kitchen for lunch, take a dip in the water to cool off if it was hot and sometimes you’d let me kiss you.”

  He wondered if she ever thought about those long-ago summer days, when they’d spent so much time out here, swimming and kissing and sometimes a whole lot more.

  Not that there was any chance of anything like that happening today. It was too cold to even unzip a coat, never mind get naked and busy. Although just thinking about the busy part had him feeling all kinds of hot and bothered on t
he inside. He banished the enticing thoughts from his mind. “Can you ride a little bit farther?”

  “Farther into the middle of nowhere?” she asked warily.

  He grinned. “We’re not as far away from civilization as you think.”

  He helped her up into the saddle and then he mounted Toby and started away. Ten minutes later, they’d arrived at their destination.

  “This is Clayton’s place, isn’t it?” Paige asked.

  “And my temporary home away from home.” Sutter tied up the horses and proceeded to fill the trough so they could drink.

  While he was doing that, she unpacked the saddlebags. “You’re not staying at the main house?”

  “I haven’t spent a night under that roof since I left,” he admitted.

  “Oh, Sutter.” Her eyes filled with tears.

  “Don’t feel sorry for me, Paige. I know why things are the way they are.”

  “Then maybe you can explain it to me.”

  “I didn’t toe the family line.”

  “You stated a differing opinion—and you had valid reasons for it.”

  “Valid doesn’t mean forgivable,” he told her.

  “You have to know your mother didn’t mean it when she said that if you couldn’t support your brother, you weren’t welcome in her home.”

  “My mother doesn’t usually say things she doesn’t mean.”

  She frowned. “Are you telling me that, in the past five years, you’ve never once talked to her about this?”

  He opened the door, gestured for her to enter. “What’s to talk about?”

  She shook her head. “You need to talk to her,” she insisted. “Otherwise you’re never going to let go of the hurt you’re carrying inside.”

  He led her through the foyer, past the den on one side and the living room on the other and into the eat-in kitchen at the back. “Coffee?”

  “Yes, please.”

  He measured out the grounds, poured water in the reservoir.

  “I was mad at her for a long time, too,” Paige commented.

  “I’m not mad at her.”

  “You should be,” she said. “You had a disagreement with Forrest and she supported your brother, not just taking the side of one son over the other but doing so publicly.”