by Joan Hohl
“You look very pleased with yourself, my love,” he murmured, sweeping her into his arms right there in front of the world.
“I am,” Jen said, giving him a quick kiss on the mouth. “I’m only a few minutes late.”
His laughter ringing with the sound of happiness, Marsh ushered her into the restaurant.
“You spoke with the judge?” Jen asked anxiously the minute she was seated.
Marsh smiled. “Yes, he will be delighted to marry us at city hall the day before Christmas.”
Jen sighed with satisfaction. “Good.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “Very good.”
Later, over an after-dinner liqueur, Marsh reached for Jen’s left hand. “I have a Christmas gift for you, but I can’t wait. I want to give it to you now.”
Jen began to tremble, almost certain she knew what it was—he was holding her left hand, after all.
She was right.
Reaching into his jacket pocket, Marsh drew out a small dark blue jeweler’s box, opened it, then slid a large, many-faceted diamond solitaire engagement ring onto her finger.
“Oh, Marsh,” she whispered. Without words, she let her misted eyes speak for her as, taking his hand, she brought it to her mouth to place a soft kiss on his palm.
“I guess that means you like it.” His voice was rough with emotion.
“I love it,” she said, “almost as much as I love you.”
Jen waited until they were getting ready for bed that night before she presented him with the large boxed gift she had purchased. “I can’t wait till Christmas, either.”
Upon tearing away the festive wrap and whipping off the box lid, Marsh laughed as he pulled out an exact match to the terry robe he had given to her.
The last few remaining days before the holiday flew by. Jen and Marsh worked together during the day as they had before, he in his office, she in hers. She tidied the house and cooked the meals. He worked outside with the horses.
Although unchanged, the house looked barren to Jen. She longed for bright, glittering decorations. Marsh promised her he would help her deck every room of the house next Christmas…then surprised her with a small but fully decorated tree that he set in the center of the table.
Throughout those few days, being together was the same, yet different. There was a new depth of feeling, a sense of utter rightness and contentment that had been missing before. This time, they belonged together.
Jen called her mother on the day she and her father returned from their cruise. She offered a brief explanation of the situation between her and Marsh, and promised they would both be there for her mother’s traditional family Christmas noontime brunch.
Christmas Eve day dawned bright and sunny. By midafternoon the weather was mild. Marsh was awed by the way she looked in her beautiful wedding dress, and she complimented him, for her husband-to-be looked devastatingly handsome in a charcoal-gray suit, white shirt and pearl-gray striped tie.
“One would think we were going to do something special,” he remarked dryly as he helped her into the freshly washed and gleaming car.
“One would be correct,” Jen agreed, her voice uneven due to the excited flutter of her heart.
“Then let’s do it,” he said, leaning in to kiss her cheek before starting the car.
At four-thirty in the afternoon the day before Christmas, it was quiet inside the Mission Alamo as two people stood, alone, together. As always, Jen was filled with a sensation of peace inside the structure. The very air they breathed held a sense of holiness. It was the perfect setting for their intentions.
They stood facing each other, arms at their sides, their hands tightly clasped.
“First off,” Marsh began, “I swear to love you with every beat of my heart and every part of my body.”
“And I,” Jen replied, “I swear to love you with every beat of my heart and every part of my body.”
He smiled before going on. “I, Marshall David Grainger, take thee, Jennifer Louise Dunning, for my lawfully wedded wife.”
“I, Jennifer Louise Dunning, take you, Marshall David Grainger, for my lawfully wedded husband.”
They were silent a moment. Both had wet eyes. Then Marsh drew Jen into his arms to hold her as if she were the most precious person in the world. Crying softly with joy, Jen wrapped her arms around his neck and clung as if she would never let him go.
Hand in hand, Marsh and Jen walked from the mission into the twilight of Christmas Eve.
Tugging gently on her hand, Marsh slanted a grin at her and said, “Now let’s go see that judge.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from One Winter’s Night by Brenda Jackson
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One
A blistering cold day in early November
It had snowed overnight and a thick white blanket seemed to cover the land as far as the eye could see. The Denver weather report said the temperature would drop to ten below by midday and would stay that way through most of the night. It was the kind of cold you could feel deep in your bones, the kind where your breath practically froze upon exhale.
He loved it.
Riley Westmoreland opened the door to his truck and, before getting inside, paused to take in the land he owned. Riley’s Station was the name he’d given his one-hundred-acre spread seven years ago, on his twenty-fifth birthday. He had designed the ranch house himself and had helped in the building of it, proudly hammering the first nail into the lumber. He was mighty pleased with the massive two-story structure that sat smack in the center of his snow-covered land.
He was probably the only one in his family who welcomed the snowstorms each year. He thought the snow was what made Denver the perfect place to be in the winter and why his home had fireplaces in all five of the bedrooms, as well as in the living room and family room. There was nothing like curling up before a roaring fire or looking out the window to see the snowflakes fall from the sky, something he’d been fascinated with even as a child. He could recall being out in the thick snow with his brothers and cousins building snowmen. These days he enjoyed moving around the mountains on his snowmobile or going skiing in Aspen.
Riley got into the truck and after settling his body on the leather seat he snapped the seat belt in place. There really was no need for him to go into the office since he could work from home. But he had wanted to get out, breathe in the cold, fresh air and feel the chill in his bones. Besides, he did have an important appointment at noon.
Since his oldest brother, Dillon, had slowed down now that his wife, Pam, was close to her delivery date, a lot of the projects on Dillon’s plate at their family-owned business, Blue Ridge Land Management, fell on Riley’s shoulders since he was the next man in charge of the Fortune 500 company. The next thing on the agenda was the planning of the employees’ holiday party next month.
The event planner that had handled their social functions for the past ten years had retired and before Riley had taken over the project, Dillon had hired Imagine, a local event planning company that opened in town less than a year ago. The owner of Imagine, a woman by the name of Alpha Blake, had put together a charity event that Dillon’s wife, Pam, had attended over the summer. Pam had been so impressed with all the detailed work Imagine had done that she passed the woman’s name to Dillon. As far as R
iley was concerned, you couldn’t come any more highly recommended than that. Dillon trusted his wife’s judgment in all things.
Riley was about to start the ignition when his cell phone buzzed. He pulled the phone off his side belt. “Yes?”
“Mr. Westmoreland?”
He lifted a brow, not recognizing the ultrarich, feminine voice but definitely liking how it sounded. He figured this had to be a business call since none of the women he dated would refer to him as “Mr. Westmoreland.”
“Yes, this is Riley Westmoreland. How can I help you?”
“This is Alpha Blake. We have a noon appointment at your office, but I have a flat tire and had to pull off to the side of the road. Unfortunately, I’m going to be late.”
He nodded. “Have you called for road service?”
“Yes, and they said they should be here in less than thirty minutes.”
Don’t count on it, he thought, knowing how slow road service could be this time of the year. “Where’s your location, Ms. Blake?”
“I’m on Winterberry Road, about a mile from the Edgewater intersection. There’s a market not far away, but it didn’t appear to be open when I drove past earlier.”
“And chances are it won’t be open today. Fred Martin owns that market and never opens the day after a bad snowstorm,” he said.
He knew her exact location now. “Look, you’re not far from where I am. I’ll call my personal road service company to change your tire. In the meantime, I’ll pick you up and we can do a lunch meeting at McKay’s instead of meeting at my office, since McKay’s is closer. And afterward, I can take you back to your car. The tire will be changed by then.”
“I—I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”
“You won’t. I know you and Dillon have gone over some ideas for the party, but since I’ll be handling things from here on out, I need to be briefed on what’s going on. Usually my administrative assistant handles such matters, but she’s out on maternity leave and this party is too important to hand off to anyone else.”
And what he didn’t bother to say because he was certain Dillon had done so already was that this would be the fortieth anniversary of the company his father and uncle had founded. This was not just a special event for the employees, but was important to everyone in the Westmoreland family.
“All right, if you’re sure it won’t be an inconvenience,” she said, breaking into his thoughts.
“It won’t be, and I’m on my way.”
* * *
Alpha Blake tightened her coat around her, feeling totally frustrated. What did a person who had been born in sunny Florida know about the blistering cold of Denver, especially when it had snowed all night and the roads and everything else were covered with white?
But she was so determined to keep her noon appointment with Riley Westmoreland that she’d made a mess of things. Not only would she be late for their appointment, but because of her flat tire they would have to change the location of the meeting and Mr. Westmoreland would be the one driving her there. This was totally embarrassing when she had been trying to make a good impression. Granted, she’d already been hired by Dillon Westmoreland, but when his secretary called last week to say that she would be working with the next man in charge at Blue Ridge, namely Dillon’s brother, Riley, she had felt the need to make a good impression on him, as well.
She turned up the heat in her car. Even with a steady stream of hot air coming in through the car vents, she still felt cold, too cold, and wondered if she would ever get used to the Denver weather. Of course it was too late to think about that now. It was her first winter here, and she didn’t have any choice but to grin and bear it. When she’d moved, she’d felt that getting as far away from Daytona Beach as she could was essential to her peace of mind, although her friends thought she needed to have her head examined. Who in her right mind would prefer blistering cold Denver to sunny Daytona Beach? Only a person wanting to start a new life and put a painful past behind her.
Her attention was snagged when an SUV pulled off the road to park in front of her. The door swung open and long, denim-clad, boot-wearing legs appeared before a man stepped out of the truck and glanced her way. She met his gaze through the windshield and couldn’t help the heart-piercing moment when she literally forgot to breathe. Walking toward her car was a man who was so dangerously masculine, so heart-stoppingly virile, that her brain went momentarily numb.
He was tall, and the Stetson on his head made him appear taller. But his height was secondary to the sharp handsomeness of the features beneath the brim of his hat. There was the coffee-and-cream color of his skin, his piercing dark brown eyes, a perfectly shaped nose, his full lips and a sculpted chin.
And she couldn’t bypass his shoulders, massive and powerful-looking. It was hard to believe, with the temperature being what it was, that he seemed comfortable braving the harsh elements with a cowhide jacket instead of a heavy coat. It was in the low teens, and he was walking around like it was in the high sixties.
Her gaze slid all over him as he moved his long limbs toward her vehicle in a walk that was so agile and self-assured, she almost envied the confidence he exuded with every step. Her breasts suddenly peaked, and she could actually feel blood rushing through her veins. She didn’t have to guess about what was happening to her, but still, she was surprised. This was the first time she’d reacted to a man since her breakup with Eddie.
The man made it to her car and tapped on the window. She all but held her breath as she pressed the button to roll it down. “Riley Westmoreland?” She really didn’t have to ask since he favored his brother, Dillon.
“Yes. Alpha Blake?” he responded, offering her his hand through the open window while looking at her with what she thought was cool and assessing interest.
“Yes.” She took his hand and even through her leather gloves, she thought it felt warm. “Glad to meet you, Mr. Westmoreland.”
“Riley,” he corrected, smiling, and she felt her insides melt. He had a gorgeous pair of eyes. Dark and alluring. “The pleasure is all mine,” he added. “I’ve only heard exceptional things about you and your work. Both Dillon and Pam speak highly of you, Alpha. I hope it’s okay for me to call you Alpha.”
“Thank you, and yes, that’s fine.”
“I’ve made all the arrangements with my road service. Keep your emergency lights on and leave your car keys under your seat,” he said, taking a step back so she could get out of the vehicle.
She nervously gnawed her bottom lip. “Will it be safe to do that?”
He chuckled. “Yes, days like this keep thieves inside.” He opened the car door for her. “Ready to get inside my truck?”
“Yes.” She placed her key under the seat and then grabbed her purse and messenger bag. Tightening her coat around her, she walked quickly to the side of his truck. He was there to open the door and she appreciated finding the inside warm and cozy. It smelled like him, a scent that was masculine and sexy. She blushed, wondering why she was thinking such things, especially about a man she would be working for.
He closed the door just seconds before his cell phone rang, and she looked at the outside mirror as he spoke on the phone while moving around the front of the truck to get in the driver’s side.
Opening the door, he climbed inside and proceeded to adjust the seat to accommodate his long legs before snapping his seat belt in place. The call had ended. He put his phone away and glanced over at her with a smile. She thought she would melt right then and there. “Warm?” he asked in a voice that was throatier than anything she’d ever heard.
If only you knew, she fought back saying. Instead her response was a simple “Yes. Thanks for asking.”
“No problem.” He then glanced into the rearview mirror before easing the truck onto the road.
* * *
The ensuing silence gave Riley the impression the woman was shy. And with her wrapped in a bulky coat and standing no more than five foot three, he figured she was probably
short and stocky. He preferred tall, slender and curvy, but she had a pretty face that was eye-catching. She was definitely a looker. That had been the first thing he’d noticed. He was a sucker for a pretty face each and every time.
Deciding he didn’t like the silence, he reached out and switched on the CD player. Immediately the soulful sound of Jill Scott filled the air. After a few moments, he concluded the music was not enough. To get a dialogue started, he asked conversationally, “I understand you’re from Florida. What brought you to Denver?”
She tilted her head to look at him, and the first thing he noticed was her eyes. They were a chocolate brown and oval in shape. Then he was drawn to her hair, a beautiful shade of brown. The thick strands touched her shoulders and curled at the end. The coloring, whether natural or from a bottle, was perfect for her smooth, cocoa-colored complexion. And then there was that cute dimple in her chin, which was there even when she bore a serious expression.
“I’ve never been the adventurous type, but when my godmother passed away and left me enough funds that I could make a career change without going broke, I took advantage of it.”
He nodded. “So what were you doing before you became an event planner?”
“I was a veterinarian.”
“Wow. That was some career change.”
She smiled. “Yes, it was.”
He looked ahead, thinking that if she thought she would not have to explain why someone would stop being a veterinarian to become an event planner, she could think again. “How does a person go from being a vet to becoming a party planner?”
She pushed a lock of hair from her face and said, “Becoming a vet was my parents’ idea, and I went along with it.”
“Why?” He couldn’t imagine going to college for anything other than what he wanted to do in life. He did, however, know how a person could get their dream career waylaid, as in the case of his cousin, Ramsey.
