The Maverick's Christmas to Remember

by Christy Jeffries

  “I’ll mention that to her when we get in the truck and head in that direction. I’m sure I can convince her during the drive that staying at my brother and sister-in-law’s house is for the best.”

  Unfortunately, when they got to Will and Jordyn’s ranch house, Craig realized his sweet and agreeable fiancée wasn’t as easy to convince. And if he kept insisting, she was likely to counter his argument and then they’d both be stressed out.

  Caroline stood in the middle of the small living room, one arm wrapped across her waist as she stared in confusion at her surroundings. “None of this looks familiar. Have I been here before?”

  “Um, I don’t think so.” Craig regretted not putting a little more confidence into his voice. He’d won the Professional Bull Riders World Championship two years in a row. When had he ever lacked confidence?

  “Have I even met Will and Jordyn?” Caroline asked.

  “I’m sure you have. Rust Creek Falls is a small town and chances are you’ve run into them before.”

  “You mean, you’ve never introduced us?” Caroline moved her hands to her hips and Craig suddenly wondered how he ever could’ve thought this petite woman was delicate or fragile. “Have you been keeping our engagement a secret from your family?”

  When she turned her full glare at him, she looked eight inches taller than the five-foot-four height listed on her hospital admission paperwork. And a heck of a lot more intimidating than any bull he’d drawn during his time on the rodeo circuit. Craig knew this whole idea was crazy, and right now, he’d gladly welcome Josselyn’s presence and her pointed looks of disbelief because that would at least take some of the attention off him. Or she’d at least help dig him out of this mess.

  “It’s not a secret. It just hasn’t been that long since we became engaged.” He flicked his eyes toward the clock on the wall. About twenty-four hours to be exact. Instead of keeping things closer to the truth, though, Craig added, “We were just waiting until the next family dinner to make our big announcement.”

  “And when exactly is the next family dinner?” One of Caroline’s eyebrows shot up.

  “Thanksgiving,” he answered, then gave a silent prayer that Caroline would regain her memory by then.

  Her lips parted as she blew out a puff of air, making her entire face soften. A shot of electricity zipped along his nerve endings. She really was a beautiful woman.

  “Fine.” She exhaled again. “I guess I can wait until next week to meet them all.”

  Wait. Next week? Damn, he hadn’t realized how close the holiday was. That didn’t give him much time to prove to Caroline that they really weren’t engaged. Or for Caroline to regain her memory and figure it out for herself. For now, all Craig could do was offer a stiff smile and pray that he could untie himself from this lasso of deception that was twisting around him.

  “Sorry for getting so snappy like that.” She lowered her arms and clasped her hands behind her back and he tried not to notice the way her dainty sweater looked much snugger on her when her proud shoulders were thrown back like that.

  “No problem,” he said because he couldn’t very well just stand here letting her get worked up thinking they had an actual problem. Other than the problem that there was no possible way he was going to take some stranger to Thanksgiving dinner and have his entire family think they’d both lost their minds. Not that it was Caroline’s fault she’d lost hers temporarily. But Craig didn’t have the excuse of a concussion to explain his recent bout with irrational decisions.

  “You have been so patient with me through all of this and don’t deserve to have me doubting our entire relationship like this.” She held out a palm when he opened his mouth to protest that he wasn’t the saint she was making him out be. “I mean, obviously I’m experiencing this connection between us, but it’s just so frustrating not being able to remember all the details of our life together.”

  Imagine how he felt. He was standing in his brother’s living room with a woman he didn’t know, trying to keep her calm and relaxed as he pretended like he was her soon-to-be husband.

  Hold on. He pushed the brim of his hat back on his forehead. “You’re experiencing a connection?”

  “Of course I am. I didn’t hit my head that hard.” Caroline rolled her eyes, then winced as she brought her fingers to her temples.

  Craig was by her side in an instant. “Does it hurt?”

  “Just when I move too quickly.”

  He put his hand on the small of her back and tried to direct her toward the sofa. But her pointy high heels didn’t budge. Maybe a strong wind wouldn’t blow her over after all. “Why don’t you lie down and rest?”

  “Actually, Craig, I would really feel more comfortable if we just went back to my place.”

  “Honey, I can’t very well stay the night at your place with you. You know how people love to gossip around small towns.”

  “Honey,” she repeated before smiling wide. She took a step toward him and his knees went all rubbery, probably because he’d hardly slept a wink in that hospital chair. “That’s what we call each other? I like it.”

  He rolled his lips inward to keep from admitting that it was the same term of endearment he used on all the young calves at the ranch when he was trying to herd them into a corral or lead them somewhere they didn’t want to go. But she’d given him a lead and he didn’t waste it. “Speaking of names people call each other, I would hate for anyone to say something unflattering about you if I were to spend the night at your house.”

  “Surely you know me well enough by now to realize that I don’t care what people think about me.” She waved a dismissive hand before resting her palm against his chest. A blast of heat lit underneath her fingertips and he stood there absolutely still, hoping the unfamiliar sensation passed. However, when she took another step closer to him and her eyelids lowered, the flame spread. “Plus, I’m sure it’s not the first time we’ll be staying the night together.”

  He gulped. “How do you figure?”

  “How else would I know that you use two pillows?”

  A jolt traveled down the back of Craig’s neck as he wondered how she’d found out about his sleeping habits. Maybe that was just another good guess on her part. Plenty of people used more than one pillow.

  “Anyway,” she continued as her fingers made slow circles along the third button on his shirt, “I really think we would both be more comfortable at my place. Not to mention the fact that things are more likely to come back to me if I’m in my normal environment.”

  Craig searched her face, trying to control his breathing. The first problem was that if she continued touching him like this, there was no way he could remain in the same room with the woman, let alone the same house. At least, not unless he wanted to take their fake, temporary relationship to a real, permanent level. The second problem was that he had absolutely no idea where her house was, and he couldn’t very well admit as much without further raising her suspicions.

  While he may be willing to go along with this little delusion of hers to an extent, he wasn’t about to have anyone believing that he didn’t normally pick up his dates at their front doors like a gentleman.

  When she was this close to him, it was impossible to concentrate on forming an acceptable excuse as to why he shouldn’t stay with her. Only a weak-willed jerk would take advantage of a woman in this situation. And Craig had never been accused of being weak-willed.

  “Please?” Her hands slipped up to his shoulders.

  “Fine,” Craig bit out, saying the only thing that would allow him to politely step out of her embrace and buy himself some more time. “Let me go get my gear and we’ll head over to your place.”

  When he was in the spare bedroom packing up the duffel bag he’d brought to visit his brother, he shot off a text to Josselyn asking for Caroline’s address. He shoved his toiletries in next, hoping that Joss wouldn
’t respond with a lecture on how he was making a massive mistake by taking Caroline home. Instead, the only thing she sent was an address to a smaller rental unit behind one of the historical houses in the heart of Rust Creek Falls.

  “Ready to go?” he asked Caroline when he returned to the living room.

  “Yes,” she replied, setting down the picture frame she’d been studying. “Your family is huge.”

  He glanced at the photo of all his brothers and sisters and their spouses at his parents’ anniversary party last year. “There used to be just eight of us kids, but our numbers keep growing.”

  “And you’re the oldest in the family?” she asked.

  “Yep,” he replied as he walked toward the front door, hoping she’d follow. Something prickled at him. Why would she automatically assume he was the oldest? Did he look elderly next to his siblings? Because he was beginning to feel that way when he was with her. According to the hospital bracelet still on her wrist, Caroline was only twenty-three, and suddenly he wondered if she was aware of the twelve-year age difference between them.

  She picked up another frame, this time a picture of all his brothers at Jonathan and Dawn’s wedding, then set it down before walking past him to get to the front porch. “Do you always look so solemn in your pictures?”

  First she’d accused him of being proper, and now she was calling him solemn. Perhaps her “oldest in the family” comment was simply an accurate observation. After his rodeo career ended, everyone had begun referring to him as the stuffy, serious big brother. “Well, someone has to be in charge and take care of the others. Besides, the photographer was taking forever to get the perfect groomsmen shot and all I wanted to do was get inside the reception and grab a beer.”

  “Speaking of photographers and receptions,” Caroline said when Craig opened the truck door for her. “Have we started planning our wedding?”

  He rubbed a hand on the side of his neck as he looked anywhere but at her face. Of course, she would’ve already been planning her wedding. It was what she did for a living. “I think you wanted to wait until after we told my family before we set a date.”

  “That makes sense.” She nodded, and the ball of guilt that had slowly been building in Craig’s gut got a little bigger.

  He wanted to yell that none of it made any sense whatsoever. Instead, he climbed into the cab of his truck and steered toward Cedar Street, driving himself deeper into the next round of make-believe.

  * * *

  By the time he turned off Main Street, Craig had convinced himself that Caroline most likely had an actual fiancé or even a serious boyfriend who looked just like him. He was no brain surgeon, but it was truly the only way any of this could possibly make any sense. Josselyn had pointed out that Caroline wasn’t wearing a ring, but that didn’t mean anything nowadays.

  When they got to her house, he was bound to see signs of whoever this mystery guy was. Of course, if there was in fact another man, Craig would need to figure out a way to explain why he’d gone along with the whole ruse.

  He pulled into a long driveway of one of the large historical homes on Cedar Street and Caroline pointed toward the smaller cottage in the rear corner of the lot. “You can park in my space back here.”

  Her unit was a miniature version of the Craftsman-style house in front. There were well-tended flower bushes surrounding the green clapboard shingles, and a small cornucopia filled with mini pumpkins and colorful gourds sat on a table next to a white wooden rocking chair that was way too big for the dinky porch.

  As Caroline unlocked the dark walnut door, Craig realized that this might be his last chance to make a run for it. There were no other vehicles parked near the property, but what if her real fiancé was sitting inside? Even a framed picture of another man with Caroline could be waiting in there, on full display to counter every falsehood he’d allowed the poor woman to believe about him.

  Another unfamiliar pang of envy shot through him at the thought that this beautiful and optimistic woman might belong to someone else. Not that he should be jealous, he reminded himself as he cautiously followed her inside. If he didn’t already know that Caroline was most definitely not his type, he would’ve been able to figure it out just by looking at her interior decorating choices.

  There was an overstuffed white sofa in the middle of the living room and all Craig could think was how impractical the color was—it would be impossible to keep clean. Then there were the twenty or so throw pillows in varying floral and swirly prints piled on it, as well as the dollhouse-size chairs on either side of the full bookshelves that lined one entire wall. Okay, so maybe the chairs were a tad bigger than a doll, but he doubted they could hold all 190 pounds of him. Frilly yellow checkered curtains framed the windows, and expensive-looking paintings hung on the pale blue walls.

  Craig had definitely been right about Caroline the first time he’d gotten a look at her silly high heels. A girlie girl like her would never last on the family ranch.

  “I’m going to hop in the shower and wash the hospital smell off me,” she said, setting her large tote bag down on the white kitchen table. “I think I have some deli meat in the fridge and I picked up a couple of bags of chips at the market a few days ago if you want to help yourself to a snack.”

  “I’m good,” Craig said, trying not to think of what Caroline would look like naked, with the water sluicing off her.

  Since the kitchen looked out into the living room, he guessed that the doorway she walked toward led to the bedroom. The only bedroom, judging by the look of things. That meant Craig would be bunking on the sofa tonight because there was no way he was going to sleep in a bed next to her, no matter how many pillows she thought he used.

  He dropped his duffel bag near the sofa, and when he heard the water pipes hum to life, he began carefully examining the contents of the bookshelves. There were paperback novels shoved next to old-fashioned leather-bound volumes of those boring stories his high school English teacher referred to as “classics.” There were ancient-looking artifacts and modern-looking sculptures. He recalled Josselyn mentioning something about Caroline’s parents traveling quite a bit. She obviously had quite the collection of random souvenirs.

  There were also plenty of framed photos of Caroline in all stages of her young life—from a pigtailed toddler to a college graduate—standing in between a proud man and woman who Craig assumed were her parents. He saw a handful of pictures of Caroline with other women her age, but there was nothing suggesting another man in her life.

  His shoulders sagged in relief. Unfortunately, he didn’t know if that relief was a good thing or a bad thing.

  Chapter Six

  Caroline wrapped her wet hair in a bun on top of her head and slipped on her favorite pair of cropped pink pajama pants. She debated putting on a bra, but her breasts were small enough that she could get away with a camisole-style tank. In the interest of modesty, she threw on her faded gray University of Montana sweatshirt, the one with the women’s tennis team logo on the front.

  While it was still the middle of the afternoon and she should want to impress Craig with her more fashionable wardrobe, she was pretty exhausted and just wanted to be comfortable. As a wedding planner, she always felt the need to be well put-together with a professional hairstyle and a businesslike appearance that conveyed to her clients that she could handle any situation. But she wasn’t going into the office today.

  Before she walked out of the only bathroom in her one-bedroom house, she swiped on a layer of mascara and applied some strawberry-flavored lip balm so she would at least look somewhat healthy.

  She wasn’t sure if her fiancé had seen her in her most natural state before, but if they were going to eventually be living together, he might as well get used to it. As she walked out of the bedroom, she found him staring at one of the oil paintings on her living room wall.

  “My dad painted that when
we lived in Nice,” she said, going for her most casual voice since there was a chance she’d already told him the story about the café near the Sophia Antipolis. It was one thing to allow the guy to see her in comfy clothes; it was quite another to bore him to death with repeated anecdotes from her family’s travels.

  “You know what,” Craig said suddenly, taking a step back. “I’m going to go to the pharmacy and pick up your prescription.”

  “But I’m not having any pain right now. And I have some Tylenol in my medicine cabinet if I need it.”

  He couldn’t seem to stop glancing toward the front door, and she wondered just how badly he was yearning to get away from her. Was it because of the plain way she looked? Or was something else going on with him? Not willing to be the source of his discomfort, she gave him an out. “Seriously, though, you really don’t have to sit around here with me. I’m sure you have plenty of other things you could be doing on a Friday afternoon.”

  She couldn’t tell if that was relief flashing across his face, but the short-lived expression was soon replaced with steely determination. “The doctor didn’t want you to be left alone.”

  Caroline flicked her wrist. “But she didn’t mean every single second. I’m sure you could leave and come back.”

  Despite the fact that he’d been the one who’d just suggested going to the pharmacy, he didn’t appear convinced. So Caroline continued, “Actually, my phone and laptop are still at my office and if you could go and get those for me, I’d be able to get a little work done before tomorrow.”

  “What’s tomorrow?”

  “I’m meeting the organizers of the Presents for Patriots event. They’re having a formal fund-raiser at Sawmill Station, and my company volunteered to host the event and coordinate the party planning.”

  Craig lowered his chin as he studied her. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be working yet.”

  “Well, my boss is out of town, so I’m the only one who can attend the meeting. Besides, most of the actual work is already done, but all the notes are on my laptop and I’d like to refresh myself with the details beforehand.”