Mistletoe and Mr. Right

by Sarah Morgenthaler

  “Damn.” Rick’s voice was raw, almost savage. His whole body trembled with restraint, muscles tight and eyes hot with desire as his hands threaded into her hair, biceps flexing beneath that scratchy work shirt.

  “I don’t like your shirt,” she said against his lips. “It can’t be comfortable.”

  “It’s not,” Rick agreed, eyes drifting down.

  “We could take it off.”

  Groaning audibly, he closed his eyes. “Lana, are you sure—?”

  Her answer was to all but climb up into his arms, crushing her mouth to his as he picked her up. The wood paneling on the wall thumped into her back, but Lana was too busy pulling at his shirt to care. Without warning, the door slammed open, smacking Rick so hard that he cursed and dropped her.

  Mid sexiest make-out of her life, Rick dropped her.

  Lana stared up at him from the floor. “Are you okay?” she asked as if he hadn’t tossed her like a bag of grain.

  The look of horror on Rick’s face was priceless. Lana startled to giggle as the door tried to open again, which was not going to help this any. With a snarl of frustration, Rick shoved the door back closed, earning a curse on the other side.

  “Hold on,” he said with a growl as she tried to get her shirt back in place.

  This time, the door hit him so hard, Rick must have seen stars, opening enough that a person squeezed through. A really big person.

  “Something’s wrong with your door,” Easton told him as Rick helped Lana off the ground. He raised an eyebrow at them. “Did I interrupt?”

  “It’s all right, Easton, we don’t mind.” Giggling at the consternation on Rick’s face, she hugged Easton. Apparently, they were on hugging terms now. “We missed you at the tournament tonight.”

  “I had a private climbing lesson I couldn’t get out of.”

  Rick rubbed his head with a rueful look. “Your timing could use some work,” he told Easton, who raised an eyebrow.

  “I saw the light on and figured you might need some help cleaning up.”

  “Pretty sure I was doing fine on my own.”

  Lana winked at Rick to assure him he was definitely doing fine all on his own.

  “I don’t suppose you caught that moose yet?” Easton asked.

  Lana sighed playfully. “I think I might need to bring in more serious backup. I’d hate to have the town lose another display.”

  “Too late. It already took out that big spotlight above the resort, the one that puts a sleigh on the mountainside. Hannah asked me to check why the sleigh wasn’t lighting up last night. Something smashed the light to pieces and dragged it around for a while. I tracked it as far as I could, but the moose is smart. It takes the roads, so I always lose the tracks.”

  “Are we sure this isn’t a person?” Lana raised an eyebrow. “I feel like this level of Christmas-themed disgruntlement is overboard for an animal.”

  “Have you met my cat?” Rick asked drolly, earning a small chuckle from Easton.

  “We’re doing a thing tomorrow out on the lake,” he told them. “Ash feels bad about missing your cookie thing and wanted to make sure you knew you were invited. So…you two want to come?”

  “Together?” Lana asked, wondering if they were at this point. The point of no return, where she wasn’t hanging out with him in a pool hall, lost in his arms when no one was looking. The town didn’t like her, and a single gingerbread municipality wasn’t going to change that. She’d understand if he wasn’t ready for that step yet in a town that never missed a thing.

  Lana would never tell him how much it meant to her when Rick wrapped his arm around her waist, never hesitating. “Absolutely.”

  Chapter 13

  It took a brave group of people to build a bonfire on a frozen lake.

  “I may be showing my out-of-townness here, but isn’t this a dangerous idea?”

  Rick got out of her SUV, heading around to the back to grab the folding chairs they had brought along.

  “Naw, it’s fine.” He tucked the chairs beneath one arm and hooked a cooler with the other. “The ice is more than thick enough to handle this.”

  “Even with people parking on it?” she asked, gathering up the few items Rick hadn’t already taken. A heavy knit blanket big enough for two people in lawn chairs to share if they sat close enough together. Enough paper plates and bowls to feed the mass of people out on the lake.

  “That’s a bad idea.” Rick followed her line of sight. “The ice is thick enough to handle the weight, as long as they stay close to the shore. Kids get reckless sometimes. Don’t worry. We’ll make them move. Just stay away from the area past those orange cones. That’s where the ice gets thin.”

  Lana threaded her arm through Rick’s as they headed across the ice. “I wasn’t worried at all. Not about your ability to handle an unruly teen. I should have brought something to eat though. It seems wrong to go to a potluck and not bring something in a pot.”

  She’d been fretting about that all morning. She’d fretted her way through fifteen outfits, four different hats, and far too many websites about proper potluck offerings. The result had been cute jeans and a fluffy cream sweater, a lime-green naughty reindeer sock hat, and Rick promising her no one was going to care if all they brought were paper products. There would be chilis and cheese dips to spare.

  “Next time, we’ll figure out what to bring,” Rick told her.

  Next time. A flush of warmth filled her chest. He’d said it so easily, as if it was assumed there would be parties after this, and they’d be attending those parties together too. Her fingers gripped his arm tighter, because she knew it wasn’t that easy. A holiday fling was one thing. But at some point, Lana would have to go to her other jobs, attend to other accounts, and put out other fires.

  Would it be enough, knowing she would be back eventually? Was it wrong to ask him to wait?

  Long distance never lasted. Walking away from her family wasn’t even on the table and not because of the money. Montgomerys were loyal if nothing else, and loyal to a fault to their own. No. Leaving the company, her career, and everything she’d worked for wasn’t an option.

  “You okay?” Kind hazel eyes gazed down at her. “No one will give you a hard time. I promise.”

  The man was sweeter than he realized, and the way he was looking at her made Lana’s heart twist in her chest.

  “I’m better than perfect.” Lana leaned her cheek into his shoulder. Rick flicked the fuzzy ball on the end of her hat.

  He’d been in a great mood all day. Apparently, if everyone was out on the water, no one would be interested in playing a game of pool. Besides, the tournament had been a huge—and lucrative—success. By default, he was getting a day off. They’d spent a lovely morning together, in which Rick tried and failed to convince her that trout and toast was a terrible excuse for a breakfast. They’d taken snowmobiles—snow machines, if she wanted to be a local—out in a half-hearted attempt to locate the Santa Moose, but they’d spent more time making out and playing in the snow than actually trying to find the animal. Rosy cheeked from the cold and from sheer happiness, Lana succeeded in convincing him that sneaking into the dry sauna was a perfect way to hide from her growing email inbox.

  She’d been tempted to steal Rick away for an entire day of only the two of them, but Lana wasn’t the type to admit defeat. Instead, she was soldiering on, hoping that a new day might bring new results.

  Besides, it was hard to stay discouraged with her hand in Rick’s, especially when he kept catching her eye, shooting her smoldering looks. They were lucky the ice was thick on this lake. The growing heat between them was liable to leave them both sloshy messes as they melted right through the ice beneath their feet.

  True to his promise, Rick and Ash forced those parking too far out on the ice to move their trucks back to the shore where she’d left her helicopter. When most
people arrived in regular vehicles, Ash was going to fly.

  Yep, Lana definitely wanted to grow up to be her.

  There was something about knowing they were on a giant ice cube that made the party even more fun. She was still getting worried looks, but the hostility had gone down a few noticeable notches, especially when everyone was focused on enjoying themselves.

  Zoey and Graham were in their own world…or at least they were attempting to be. Their newly elected mayor was trying very hard not to be in charge, despite constantly having people come up to him, asking for help or advice. In their moments left alone, the couple kept sharing inside jokes and little touches that meant nothing to the people next to them and everything to each other. Easton had settled off to the side, quietly chewing on a sandwich and participating in the activities only when forced. Jake had abandoned them all for Rick, draped in Rick’s arm and his tail thumping relentlessly against Rick’s shoulder.

  “I think the dog in the fedora stole my date,” Lana told Ash, watching the pair playing together.

  “I think your date doesn’t mind.” Ash’s gaze lingered on Lana, then flickered to Rick. “So you ignored me completely. How’s that working out for you?”

  “So far, pretty well.”

  Ash sighed. “You know, when these big lugs get their hearts broken, I always have to drag their drunk sorry asses into a snowbank to sober them up.”

  “What if I end up the drunk one with the broken heart?” Lana asked wryly.

  With a chuckle, Ash pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. “I suppose snowbanks work for all of us.” Catching the look Lana gave the cigarettes, Ash rolled her eyes. “I don’t need another person telling me what’s bad for me.”

  “If I call you a hypocrite, you’ll probably beat me up, huh?”

  This time, Ash laughed. “Touché. And I suppose there are worse things than a holiday fling,” Ash said.

  “You should see him in a skintight Santa suit.”

  Ash shuddered. “Rick’s like my brother. I really shouldn’t.” Her expression suddenly turned serious. “Lana? Is that—?”

  Lana followed Ash’s gaze, then her heart dropped somewhere in the vicinity of her knees. “Get help,” she said.

  Without thinking, Lana began to run.

  * * *

  Rick didn’t know what was happening—only that someone had started to shout, followed by people rushing past the bonfire.

  “What’s going on?” he demanded of Zoey, the one person going the opposite direction.

  “I’m calling for an ambulance,” she yelled back over her shoulder. “Someone fell through the ice.”

  Meaning if they got them out in time, the swimmer would need to go immediately to the hospital. If. The water temperature was only slightly above freezing beneath the surface of the lake. Running fast on ice wasn’t easy, and people were slipping and falling as they converged toward the east side of the lake, the side everyone knew not to go onto.

  The ice was too thin for everyone to go farther, leaving only a few of them reckless enough to head for the figures in the distance.

  “Who is it?” he yelled to Easton, then Rick’s heart sank to his stomach as he saw a shock of multicolored hair and a figure kneeling where the ice had broken.

  “Ash, get away from there!” Easton yelled. The ice creaked under Easton’s feet as he started to cross to his sister.

  “Stay back,” Ash called back. “Graham, get my rope. They’re in the water!”

  They.

  They.

  Rick’s heart knew it before his eyes found her in the broken circle where ice gave way to slushy water. That lime-green Christmas knit hat soaked and slipping sideways.

  “Lana!” Before he knew what he was doing, Rick had cried out her name, ripping his arm free of whoever held him back.

  Ash was dangerously close to tumbling in herself, stretching as far as she could to try to reach Lana’s hand. And within the water, fighting against the bobbing ice chucks, was the woman he loved. He didn’t know if she was a strong swimmer, but with one arm clinging to an ice chunk and another trying to hold a sobbing eight-year-old above the water, Lana wasn’t going to last long.

  “Someone call Jonah,” Rick yelled to the crowd behind him. “It’s Daniel.”

  Daniel was Jonah’s second-youngest son, and he must have snuck away from the watchful eyes of his mother. Jonah’s wife, Kelly, cried out in terror. She pushed her infant daughter into Frankie’s arms, darting out across the ice, but Diego caught her, pulling her back.

  “Take him,” Lana said through chattering teeth, trying to push Daniel close enough for Ash to reach.

  Lana was already turning blue, and the ice beneath Ash’s knees was pooling with water, about to break. The cracking of ice beneath them was a bad, bad sign. She shoved Daniel closer, just enough for Ash’s fingers to hook his jacket hood, then the ice beneath Ash gave way. Rick grabbed for Ash, and Easton grabbed for him, a human chain managing to pull the child out of the water and onto the dubious safety of the ice.

  Pushing the duo into Easton’s hands, Rick abandoned them for the woman still in the water. Lana was holding onto an ice chunk, but her grip was slipping.

  “Rick, don’t,” Easton snapped, but he wasn’t going to wait. Shrugging out of his jacket and kicking off his shoes, Rick dove into the water.

  He’d only have a short chance to help her before the ice water stole his strength too. But he knew Graham was going for a rope, and Ash always kept one in her helicopter.

  The water was like a punch to the stomach, so cold he cursed. Four seconds to swim to her, two to lock his arm around her, getting a hold on the slipped ice chunk and hauling them both higher out of the water.

  “I’ve got you,” Rick promised.

  “Who’s got you?” Lana asked, breathless and chattering.

  “Easton has us both. Look at me, sweetheart. Don’t be scared.”

  He was terrified, but when those liquid pools turned his way, Rick knew he would jump every single damn time. His arms shook as the cold stole his strength, along with his breath.

  “Rick, grab the rope!”

  Easton’s yell was barely audible over the rushing of blood in his ears. Then the rope splashed into the water next to him, giving him something to grab onto as Easton and Graham hauled them out of the water.

  The entire group slipped and slid on the ice, scrambling to get back to the safer, thicker surface of the lake.

  Lana was a shivery, blue-tinged version of herself, but adrenaline must have kept her moving as she reached for him. Shaking, icy hands pushed at him frantically.

  “Are you okay?” she demanded, her eyes wide in concern.

  “I’m fine,” Rick said with a grunt. “Your clothes are soaking wet. Socks, shoes, pants. You need to get them off before you get even colder.” She blinked at him, uncomprehending. “Lana, you’re freezing and in wet clothes. You have to get them off.”

  They herded her across the ice and toward the shore where someone had already started a car, the heater on blast. Lana protested when Rick all but shoved her inside.

  “You’re going to freeze standing out there,” she said through chattering teeth, trying to tug him inside with her. But Rick was more concerned with taking the spare clothes from Ash’s arms.

  “I had some extras behind the seat,” Ash said, jutting her head toward the helicopter. “But they won’t fit her well.”

  “Is the child okay?”

  Rick glanced over to where Graham had taken charge, ordering everyone to stay back and give Daniel and his mother room. A natural leader, he might not have been sworn in yet as mayor—that was supposed to happen after the holidays—but Graham was exactly the person to keep everyone calm in a crisis.

  He’d been the perfect choice to take care of the town.

  The sound o
f sirens in the distance answered Lana’s question, which was good, because Rick wasn’t leaving her to go find out more information. “The ambulance is almost here. I don’t know how long Daniel was in the water, but I can see that he’s crying, which is a good sign. You saved his life.”

  “Ash saved him.” Lana’s words were hard to understand, she was shaking so badly. “She’s the one who saw him.”

  When it was clear her hands weren’t working well enough to manage her shoelaces, Rick helped her. Peeling half-frozen slacks off her mile-long legs was not nearly as sexy as his daydreams, but she gave him a tight, appreciative smile when he helped her pull on a pair of Ash’s snow pants.

  “What about you?” Lana asked.

  “I wasn’t in the water as long,” he told her as he shrugged out of his own wet clothes, taking whatever was pushed at him.

  Lana was an ice cube by the time the ambulance got there. Kelly was sobbing in relief, cradling Daniel close in the warmth of her own car.

  “Don’t fall asleep,” he warned as Lana leaned her head against the window.

  She didn’t answer him, and she wouldn’t look at him, but at least her eyes were open.

  “Lana, the ambulance is here. You need to go with them.” When he reached for her to help her from the car, Lana pulled out of Rick’s hands.

  “I’m fine.” She tried for her trademark breezy tone, but it fell flat between her chattering teeth. “No hospitals. Can you take me to the resort?”

  “Bullshit,” Ash said, returning to the car. She watched as Lana scooted across the seat toward the door. “You need to go get checked.”

  Yes, that was exactly what Lana needed to do. But instead of agreeing, she shook her head in a tight jerking motion, once more refusing Rick’s help as she decided to get out of the car instead. He didn’t know how she was still standing, but her back was straight and her chin high, every inch the woman who made boardrooms sit up and take notice.

  “Jonah was helping Fish and Game with a problem moose near Girdwood, but he’s on his way. Garcia and his partner are headed here to help.” Ash turned to Lana. “Jonah’s pretty upset, but he radioed Easton and told him to tell you he’s grateful to you for saving his little boy.”