by Joanne Rock
He wrapped his fingers around hers and tugged the knuckles to his lips, his eyes never leaving her startled gaze.
He kissed her there because that was all he would allow himself. For tonight, at least.
*
Taking a deep breath, Rachel knocked on the front door of the Harris house, a sprawling suburban mansion set back from the main road on the outskirts of Yuletide. A detached, double garage sat on the far side of the brick driveway. Centered in the peak of the garage someone had hung the old sign that used to welcome visitors to “Harristown.”
Now, it simply welcomed their company, but she guessed that didn’t include her. Luke’s parents had never been overly warm toward her even when she and Luke had been happily dating. At the time, she’d told herself it was because her father had been instrumental in changing the town’s name, but that was only a guess.
Emma still lived with her parents, so it made sense to drop off her revamped bridesmaid dress here. And, as luck would have it, Luke’s truck sat in the driveway. Or at least, Rachel guessed it was his based on the Army bumper sticker and the wealth of other vehicles parked in the double driveway.
A moment later the door swept open to reveal Emma herself.
“Oh. Hi.” The girl’s greeting was less than enthusiastic as she glanced backward over her shoulder. With her long, tawny hair clipped back in sections around her head, she wore a leopard print plastic apron printed with the name of a local beauty salon. “I’m just getting my hair done for tonight.”
She closed the door a little behind her, as if to shield Rachel from view from anyone else who might be inside. A television blared nearby and there was a group of people talking in a room close to the front door. Rachel wished she could simply hand over the gown and leave. But her promise to herself—and her girlfriends—wouldn’t be fulfilled until she’d made peace with her ex-boyfriend.
Besides, she couldn’t deny a part of her was excited about the prospect of being Gavin’s date tonight, even if she was nervous, too. What if he was right? What if there was a connection there that they couldn’t walk away from?
“I just brought your dress over so you’d have it tomorrow.” Rachel handed her the gown, then—before she lost her nerve—she rushed to add, “But I was hoping to speak to Luke, too.”
Emma’s gaze darted from the garment to Rachel. “Seriously?” She lowered her voice and stepped closer to the threshold. “Now?”
“Is it a bad time?” Memories of the way Kiersten’s father greeted her at the karaoke party returned. Would the Harrises be as adamant that she stay away?
Emma’s expression turned pained. “It’s just the whole family is here. And—”
“You’re letting cold air in the house, Emma,” a familiar male voice said from inside the house, just as the door flung open the rest of the way. “Who’s here?”
The groom stood beside his sister, tall and imposing. His expression shifted from curious to cool as he saw Rachel. No matter what Kiersten and Gavin tried to tell her about Luke wanting to heal the old rift between them, Rachel knew for certain that he’d clung to some facet of the grudge for reasons she didn’t understand.
But that’s precisely why she’d come back home this week.
“Hi.” Rachel acknowledged him with a nod, aware of the room behind him going quiet. Watching. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
The crowd behind him shifted. His family and some guests seemed to be watching a sporting event on television in the family room while, in the kitchen beyond that, Emma’s hair stylist held a paintbrush in one hand and a pot in the other. Now, Luke’s mother stood from her spot on the couch and headed toward the door.
Rachel wasn’t prepared to do battle with the whole family. She took an involuntary step backward on the snowy front step, her boot heel slipping off the stair so she had to make a quick grab for the handrail.
Emma intercepted her mother, however, taking both of the smaller woman’s shoulders in her hands. “Mom, it’s fine.” Emma held up the dress Rachel dropped off. “Let’s try out my gown while Luke handles this, okay?”
Mrs. Harris stared at Rachel for a long moment, her dark eyes similar to her son’s. Thankfully, Luke stepped into a pair of boots by the doorway. “I’ve got this, Mom. I’ll be back in a minute.”
As he exited the house and closed the door behind him, Rachel couldn’t decide if she felt relieved not to have to enter the Harris domain, or offended that she hadn’t been invited. Remembering that she was trying to let go of her old grudge against Yuletide, she went with the former. At least she could breathe freely away from his family.
“Do you mind if we talk out here?” Luke gestured toward a circle of holiday inflatables on the front lawn—Frosty pirouetted on a pair of ice skates, Rudolph leaped over a moon, and Santa waved a bell from his sleigh. In the middle of the huge, lit figures, a wooden bench sat under an arbor draped with plastic poinsettias.
“Sure.” She followed him to the bench, but when he didn’t take a seat, she didn’t either. “Listen, I won’t keep you from your family. I know it’s a big weekend. Congratulations, by the way.”
“Thank you.” He nodded, folding his arms. Listening.
But would he be receptive to her message? Everything about his posture suggested he was skeptical. Frankly, it seemed silly and unfair.
“I miss Kiersten,” she began, not knowing where else to start since she didn’t feel the need to apologize for anything. “She’s important to me, and I wish I could spend more time with her. But I think it’s awkward for her since you and I have a strained relationship at best.”
Still he said nothing, but at least he acknowledged her words with a nod. Perhaps, she realized, that was one of the reasons they hadn’t made a good couple. They both tended to retreat after a disagreement, whereas Gavin and Kiersten were more outgoing and willing to discuss the difficult topics, like their feelings.
“So,” she pressed onward, needing closure. That was the whole reason she’d come here. To make peace. “I want to see if there’s any way you and I can move forward. Put the past behind us and be…if not friends, maybe we could at least be friendly? We were all friends long before that day you proposed.”
Snow fell on Luke’s head and shoulders, matting down the top of his hair. He looked thoughtful. “Can I ask you a question?”
“I wish you would. I’m here to clear the air.” Her gaze wandered over him, and while she could see, on an intellectual level, that he was still a good-looking man, she didn’t feel any of the spark she felt whenever Gavin was around.
“Do you know where your father went when he left Yuletide?”
“Until two days ago, I had no earthly clue. But the other night, my mother told me that she gave the police his phone records that showed he’d been calling a Caribbean island in the weeks before he left.” She shrugged, grateful for the hood of her voluminous cape as the snow fell harder.
“The Caribbean? Do you know where?” Luke straightened, eyes narrowed.
“I didn’t ask her. She told the police about it, however. They knew.”
Luke nodded, looking thoughtful.
“Anyhow, while his defection hit the town hard financially, it hurt my mother and I on every other imaginable level. If I spoke sharply to you afterward, and I’m sure I did, I am sorry about that. But my mind wasn’t on you or Gavin. Losing my father that way really devastated me.”
A weight seemed to lift off her as she shared the truth. Her father’s betrayal had hurt her deeply and always would. At least she’d finally had a chance to confide that to Luke since she’d been too upset to articulate it at the time.
Luke nodded. “I understand that,” he acknowledged before his gaze snapped up. “My parents might not have liked your father, but I always admired the way he treated Gavin. Going to races and stuff. That was very cool of him.”
Toward the driveway. She turned to follow his glance and spotted Gavin’s pickup, the headlights cutting a path through the s
nowfall even though it was still daylight. The grayness of winter and the precipitation limited visibility.
Rachel’s heartbeat quickened as he stepped out of the truck, lifting his hand to wave at them. Those sparks stirred inside her.
“So do you think we can move forward without all this awkwardness between us?” she pressed Luke, wanting to finish the conversation she’d come home to have.
“I want to trust you, Rachel,” he said, his dark eyes on her again. “Because two people who are important to me care about you a whole lot. And I don’t want to see either of them hurt.”
Her chest tightened at the implication that Gavin cared about her. That he hadn’t hesitated to let Luke know as much. But then again, Luke wanting to trust her wasn’t the same as trusting her. Or forgiving her.
But by the time she processed that, Gavin had reached them, his gray down vest and blue ski cap as impervious to the snow as the rest of him. He grinned widely.
“You two make my day, having an actual conversation.” He slung an arm around both of them.
If he sensed the tension between them, he was opting to ignore it.
And for now, Rachel didn’t see the need to press Luke about what he meant. She cared about Kiersten too.
And yes, Gavin.
She certainly wasn’t planning on hurting anyone. Her heart was the one most at risk.
Luke was the first to speak. “I couldn’t very well hold a grudge against the best man’s date for the wedding, could I?”
Rachel smiled at Luke’s attempt to extend an olive branch, even if it wasn’t the heartfelt forgiveness and fresh start she had hoped for. For now, it would have to be enough. She could attend the wedding without animosity, and she was finally going to have a real date with Gavin Blake. Funny how that eclipsed something she’d thought was most important—being accepted by the town again. But every nerve tingled at the prospect of this date. It was eight years later than she’d first hoped, and it was only going to be for one night. Well, one night plus the wedding day.
She had a rehearsal dinner and a wedding to attend with Gavin, and the next twenty-four hours played out in every romantic way possible in her mind. As Gavin and Luke argued about who had the hottest date for the rehearsal party tonight, Rachel reminded herself to keep her expectations in check. But after the emotional roller coaster of the past week, she figured it was okay to feel happy for the moment.
Besides, she had a party to get ready for.
Chapter Ten
Gavin swiped two glasses of champagne off a passing waiter’s tray at Luke and Kiersten’s rehearsal party later that evening. The winter wonderland theme for the event, held at the elegant Hearthside Inn in Lake Placid, was more upscale than the karaoke welcome reception had been, maybe because this one was hosted by Luke’s family. It didn’t surprise Gavin a bit that the Harris clan had chosen to celebrate their son’s wedding outside Yuletide. They never had embraced the town after the renaming.
With a solo pianist playing jazz renditions of the Christmas standards, the ballroom overlooking the lake had been decorated all in white. There was a candy bar full of white sweets in clear glass vases and a snowflake-making station for the kids.
A cut-crystal champagne flute in each hand, Gavin searched the crowd for his date, wanting to deliver on his promise to make this night memorable. Special.
Rachel had told him this time together was like a time out from their real lives. Something temporary. He hadn’t wanted to believe it then, still hoping that they shared something bigger than that. But if temporary was all they could do, he would make the most of every second. Even now, he couldn’t wait for her signal that she was ready to leave the event. He wanted Rachel all to himself.
Pausing at the edge of the dance floor strung with white icicle lights twined with frosty glass crystals, Gavin scanned the couples.
“Looking for your date?” a voice at his left inquired. Scott Malek, the mayor, stood in the corner of the room, glancing up from the phone in his hand.
Gavin tensed. Not because of the question, but because he’d been wanting to call the guy out for stealing his cross-country skiing event idea. Setting the untouched champagne flutes on the end of a bar draped in white linen, Gavin faced him head-on.
“I was. But now that you’re here, maybe you can tell me why you had the town engineer out—”
“Let me stop you there,” Malek interrupted him, stuffing the phone back in the breast pocket of his dark blue suit. “Miss Chambers already took me to task for the survey.”
“She did?” A feeling something like pride filled him that she’d approached the mayor on her own. Maybe, now that Luke had agreed to let go of his mistrust, Rachel felt more confident having a voice in the town again.
“Yes. But I’ll tell you the same thing I explained to her.” The mayor—a family man in his mid-thirties—held an arm out to a tiny red-headed whirlwind of a child who banged into his leg and hugged it. “I like the idea of the charity event. I just think a cross-country course could be utilized more than once a year.”
Gavin understood that. “I have experience with things like this. I would have liked to have been part of the planning.”
“You can be.” The mayor took the shiny, paper snowflake his daughter handed to him, whispering something in her ear before the girl ran off again in a streak of giggles, trailing glitter from her art project. “I just wanted to do some fact gathering before we gave it the green light.”
For a moment, the sight of father and daughter reminded Gavin of Rachel and her father. He’d met them both when Rachel was a bit older than that, but Gavin had envied them their closeness. Unfortunately, relationships that appeared loving from the outside weren’t necessarily relationships that could be trusted. Rachel had learned that in a painful way. Gavin had seen the pattern repeated often enough—from his own superficial family bonds to the dynamic he witnessed between the Chambers—that he wasn’t sure how much he bought into love of the everlasting variety.
Better to savor the moment.
“In that case, I look forward to sharing some ideas with the council.” Gavin turned to retrieve the champagne flutes, but a server must have whisked them away.
The mayor’s expression turned wry as he retrieved his buzzing phone from his jacket pocket again. “Your date already made several good suggestions, including using your charity event as the grand opening of the cross-country course.”
Impressed with Rachel’s intervention on his behalf, Gavin let the mayor check his incoming message. Watched him put the phone back in his pocket.
“I believe Rachel has a lot to offer this town. It’s a shame she hasn’t felt welcome in her own home for a long time.” Gavin figured she’d gone to bat for him tonight; he would do the same for her. “Luke has forgiven her. That ought to be good enough for your family.”
Malek looked thoughtful. “I spoke to Luke earlier tonight about that and he shared some interesting information that was new to both of us about Chris Chambers’ disappearance—something he learned from talking to Rachel. I don’t mind telling you that we’re going to ask the police to reopen the investigation.”
“Seriously?” Gavin couldn’t imagine why. It had been a long time. “Does Rachel know?”
“You can tell her, if you like. It was Luke who insisted we take a closer look at a new angle—see if someone might have been pressuring Chambers to leave town.” The mayor clapped him on the shoulder. “It might not lead to anything, but it sure sounded to me like Luke wants to make amends.”
That much was good news. As for reopening the investigation, Gavin just hoped it didn’t raise hopes or cause more hurt. Nearby, the pianist slowed the tempo of the holiday tunes while couples moved to the dance floor. Gavin spotted Rachel backing away from Kiersten’s mother, Katie Garrett, and moved quickly to intervene before trouble broke out between them. But the women parted without any harsh words, if a little stiffly.
“May I have this dance?” Gavin asked over
Rachel’s shoulder, sliding a possessive hand along the small of her back.
She looked incredible in an ice-blue cocktail dress with a white lace jacket over her bare shoulders. Her dark hair was pinned up with tiny white and blue flowers dotting the topknot. He felt the shiver that went through her, the sensation leaping from her to him like an electric pulse.
Pivoting toward him, she gazed up at him with her magnetic blue eyes.
“I’ve been hoping you’d ask.” Her sultry-sweet voice wound around him as easily as her arms. “It sounds like the perfect ending to a surprisingly perfect evening.”
Gavin wasn’t anywhere near ready to let the night end. As his time with Rachel ticked steadily away, the need to hold her tight only grew stronger. For now, however, the dance allowed him to keep her in his arms a little while longer. So he waltzed her backward, around the floor, his eyes on her alone.
He felt the rest of the party stare, too. Couples backed away to give them space. To watch. They fell under the spell of Rachel Chambers, just like him. She’d won over some people this week, for sure. Yuletide was thawing, warming to her bit by bit. Luke was trying to make things right. And as for Gavin…
He was definitely warming to Rachel too. The romance was only temporary, he reminded himself. But right now, it looked and felt like the realest moment he’d ever known.
*
Time stopped on the dance floor.
Rachel could almost feel when it happened as Gavin swept her around the ballroom in his strong arms. Everyone at the rehearsal party seemed to see it too, the invisible thread that drew her and Gavin back together after all this time apart.
She shouldn’t trust it. She knew he was leaving to return to his life careening down mountains at high speed. But there was a magic in the air tonight that tempted her to forget everything but the pull of romance and a compelling man in a black suit and sleek gray tie.
Or maybe it was simply the thrill of having finally fulfilled the pact with her girlfriends making her feel like all things were possible tonight. She’d shaken hands with Luke Harris, ending a long, uncomfortable awkwardness between them. He’d told her tonight that he was going to look into her father’s disappearance again, concerned that someone in his family might know more than they were saying. The news of having the past dragged back up was worrisome, but something in Luke’s manner made her wonder if her father could have been just a little bit less to blame than they’d all once believed.
