He set the items on the table. “I forgot to ask you. How did the interview go?” Today was her phone interview with the company in Colorado Springs. And while he didn’t want her to fail, he wouldn’t be disappointed if they chose someone else, either.
“It went well.” She opened the bag, tossed a handful of marshmallows into one of the cups and stirred. “They said they liked my designs, that my style would work well with their projects...” She shrugged. “I guess I’ll find out in a few days.” Lifting the cup, she blew on the steaming mixture. “Oh, and I heard from the company in Telluride.”
Cradling his mug, he did his best to keep his excitement under wraps. “And?”
“I have an interview with them tomorrow morning.” She started to take a sip, then stopped. “In person, of course.”
“That always helps. You get a better feel for people when you can see their body language and such.”
“Yeah. But I have to admit, I’m a little nervous.”
“You shouldn’t be. With your experience and sparkling personality, they’re sure to love you.”
She puffed out a laugh. “I don’t know about that, but I appreciate the vote of confidence.” She sipped her drink. “Mmm... I like the Christmas music, too. All Mom plays at the shop is some nonholiday instrumental stuff and then nothing at home.” She let go a sigh. “It’s kind of depressing. So I’m glad I’m here.”
“Me, too.” Though he doubted she knew just how much. “You want to show me what you got for Kenzie?”
“Yes.” She returned her cup to the table and opened the flaps on the box. “I really haven’t gotten her any toys yet, because I wanted to wait until I knew what you were getting her.” Reaching inside, she pulled out what looked like a shoe box. “I got her a pair of riding-style boots.” She lifted the lid to show him.
“Nice.” Though he might be in trouble.
After depositing the boots on the table, she reached inside the larger box again. “And you’ll probably love this.” Smiling, she pulled out a pink cowboy hat.
“Okay.” He smiled back, though he was cringing inside.
“And then I got her a stuffed animal.” She showed him a fluffy black-and-white horse that kind of reminded him of Toby. “Seeing as how she’s now totally in love with horses.”
He drew in a deep breath, set his cup down and picked up the bag of things he’d gotten Kenzie. “Lace, you know how they say ‘great minds think alike’?”
“Yeah...”
He dumped the items onto the table. “Boots, cowboy hat and a stuffed horse.”
Looking at his gifts, she started to laugh. “Oh, that is too funny.” She picked up his pink cowgirl boots and her pink cowboy hat. “These will go perfectly together.” After setting those aside, she grabbed the identical stuffed horses. “I’ll return mine.” She set it in the box as he reached for the black cowboy hat he’d bought.
“And I’ll return my hat. Because she’s going to be so in love with the pink hat and boots that we may never get her to wear anything else.”
“Oh, you’re right about that.” Hand on her hip, she eyed the three items they were going to give Kenzie. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“Yeah. We have a lot more shopping to do.”
“And very little to wrap.”
They looked at each other and laughed.
“What’s in the other bags?” He pointed to the chair.
“I almost forgot.” Taking hold of the first one, she reached inside. “I realized that we didn’t have any stockings, so I bought us some, along with these cute stocking holders.”
“Stocking holders?” He’d never heard of such a thing. At the ranch, they just hung theirs on a nail.
“I didn’t want to mess up that pretty mantel of yours, so...” She held up a silver rectangle with a hook on one side. “They’re weighted, so they sit on the mantel like this.” She held it so the hook was on the bottom and there was a letter J on the top. “And then—” she grabbed one of three furry red-and-white stockings “—you simply hang your stocking on it.”
“Clever.” He studied it a moment. “Except, why the J?”
“Oh. There’s also an O and a Y, so they spell joy. I thought about doing our initials, but with a K, L and M, I was afraid it would look like we’d simply carved out the middle of the alphabet.”
“Good thinking.”
Suddenly looking sheepish, she said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I got one more thing to kind of round out the whole look.”
“Lacie, you can do whatever you want.”
From the final bag, she brought out some evergreen garland. “It’s prelit, so I thought it would cast a nice light while illuminating the J-O-Y.”
“Didn’t you mention this that night before we got the tree?”
She tilted her head. “Yeah, you’re right. And then we forgot all about it.”
“Yeah, well, we took a little detour when we decided to cut down a tree.” He picked up the stockings. “Shall we go put them up?” He nodded toward the living room.
In no time, she’d artfully arranged everything. He plugged in the lights before joining her near the couch. And when he turned to look at what she’d done, he could hardly believe his eyes.
“You’re not going to believe this, Lace, but all week long I’ve been looking at the fireplace, knowing that something was missing. I thought it was simply a fire, but you hit the nail on the head.”
“What do you mean?”
He turned to face her. “I’ve lived in this house for over a year now, worked to make it mine, and yet it’s never really felt like home. Until now.” Unable to stop himself, he caressed her cheek. “The decorations, all of the little touches you’ve added... Lacie, you’ve made it feel like a home.”
Lowering his head, he kissed her. Something he’d wanted to do for a long time, but the moment had never felt right until tonight. With or without Kenzie, Lacie was the missing piece in his life.
He pulled her closer as her arms wound around his neck. She smelled like the wildflowers that covered the mountains in late July.
And he knew that this was definitely right.
Chapter Fifteen
By Tuesday afternoon, Lacie was sorely in need of a distraction. Something that would take her mind off Matt and that amazing kiss. She’d never been kissed like that before. In Matt’s warm embrace, she’d felt safe, wanted...loved.
So she was more than grateful when Carly called, inviting her and Kenzie to come over to Granger House for some cookie decorating.
“Look, Aunt Lacie.” Sitting at the table in Carly’s kitchen, Kenzie held up her cookie creation. “I maded a Santa Claus.”
Armed with a cup of chai tea, Lacie made her way across beautiful dark hardwood floor to where Kenzie and Megan sat surrounded by bowls of frosting and containers of sprinkles and colored sugars.
She eyed Kenzie’s sparkling red confection. “Ooh, he looks good enough to eat.”
“No.” Suddenly perturbed, her niece quickly withdrew her masterpiece. “We hafta save him for Christmas.”
“Oh, okay.” Considering that Christmas was just under two weeks away, she doubted the treat would last that long.
“Don’t worry, Kenzie.” Beside her, ten-year-old Megan carefully frosted a snowman. “We have lots of cookies so you can take home a whole bunch.”
“I can?” The little girl’s brown eyes went wide as though she’d never imagined she’d get to decorate more than one cookie.
“Yep.” Megan took a bite of the snowman, crumbs clinging to the corners of her mouth. “We even get samples.”
Kenzie looked from Megan to the Santa cookie she still held in her hand. After a moment of contemplation, she bit into his red beard and grinned. “He tasteses good.”
Chuckling, Lacie returned to the large marble-topped island, where her friend was transferring another batch of freshly baked sugar cookies to a cooling rack. “Thanks for inviting us, Carly. Kenzie is having a ball.” And it gave her niece the opportunity to participate in some of those things Lacie used to do as a kid but her mother no longer allowed.
“Good.” Carly set the now-empty baking sheets atop the large commercial-style range. “The kids get jazzed on sugar and you and I get time to catch up. Sounds like a win-win to me.” She picked up two warm Christmas tree–shaped treats and handed one to Lacie. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.” She took a bite, savoring the unexpected hint of nutmeg as she admired the baking-themed ornaments dangling from an evergreen swag over the window. “You have quite a knack for decorating.” From the historic Victorian home’s stunning front porch all the way through to the family room at the back, the house was a feast for the eyes with nods to the season everywhere you looked. Wreaths, seasonal vignettes, poinsettias...
Kenzie had been blown away by the fact that they had two Christmas trees. A lovely Victorian-themed one in the parlor of the bed-and-breakfast and a more casual one for Carly, Andrew and Megan in the family room.
“This place is absolutely gorgeous.”
Laughing, Carly dusted the crumbs from her hands. “I know I go a little overboard, but I just can’t help myself. I love Christmas.”
“I know what you mean.” Lacie’s father used to say the same thing. Even Mom. They could hardly wait to get the Thanksgiving turkey put away so they could start on Christmas. Then Daddy died and Christmas at their house hadn’t been the same since.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t resurrect those old traditions so Kenzie could experience them. And thanks to Matt and Carly, she was getting to do just that.
Carly poured herself another cup of tea. “How’s the job search going? Did you ever hear from the place in Telluride?”
“Actually, I interviewed with them this morning.” She eased onto one of the high-backed stools along the island.
“Yay!” Her friend joined her in the next seat. “That would mean you could stay in Ouray.”
“Yes, it would.” Something she found even more appealing after spending time with Matt last night. She still couldn’t believe they’d picked out the same gifts. Or how pleased he’d been with her simple changes to the fireplace.
You’ve made it feel like home. Her heart thundered just thinking about the look in his eyes right before he kissed her.
She cleared her throat. “Mind if I get some more tea?”
“No, help yourself.”
Lacie scurried around to the other side of the island and poured a cup. It would be silly for her to stay in Ouray just because of Matt, no matter how kind he’d been or how spine-tingling his kisses were. After all, there were no guarantees. And she refused to hang her hat on a man the way her sister had.
So why did those crazy notions of her, Matt and Kenzie as a family keep popping up?
“When will you know something?”
Returning to her seat, she said, “Hopefully by next week.”
Carly shivered with excitement. “I’ll be praying extra hard then.”
Lacie cradled the warm cup in her hands. “You know that I also interviewed with a company in Colorado Springs.”
Her friend waved her off. “I don’t care about them. I want you to stay here.” She sipped her tea, her expression taking on a more impish air. “And I’m sure Matt would like that, too.”
If only. “I know he doesn’t want Kenzie to go away, but—”
“I wasn’t referring to Kenzie.” Carly set her mug atop the marble surface. “I was talking about you.”
“What do you mean? Matt and I are just friends.” At least she assumed they were still friends.
Carly’s brow arched. “Mmm-hmm. You just keep telling yourself that.”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at.” She eyed the two giggling girls across the room. Kenzie appeared to have more frosting on her face than the cookies.
“I used to say the same thing about Andrew and me. And look where we are now.” She held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger.
Panic swirled in Lacie’s gut. Were her feelings for Matt that obvious? And if Carly had been able to figure it out, did Matt know, too? More important, did he feel that way about her?
No, she refused to get her hopes up.
Then why did you kiss him?
Eager to change the subject, she said, “Matt said you two got married in September. I thought Andrew lived in Denver.”
“He did. But after selling his business, he came back here last spring to work on his grandmother’s house—” she pointed to the home next door “—not knowing that she’d left half of it to me. Next thing you know—”
Lacie’s phone rang. She pulled it from her back pocket to see Matt’s name on the screen. Her cheeks heated. Did he know they’d been talking about him?
She glanced at Carly. “I need to take this.” Twisting out of the chair, she pressed the button and put the phone to her ear. “Hello.”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Yeah, hi.” Her stomach did that fluttering thing.
“You aren’t going to believe this, but I stopped by your mom’s shop earlier and she asked me if I would like her to watch Kenzie tomorrow night so that you and I could go shopping.”
Lacie felt her eyes widen. “You’re kidding.” Turning her back to the girls and Carly, she took a few more steps so Kenzie wouldn’t hear her. “I mean, yeah, I mentioned about the gifts, but still, we would be Christmas shopping and since she doesn’t do Christmas...”
“I found it kind of strange myself. However, since she offered... Are you free tomorrow night?”
“Yes, of course.” She turned back around. “The sooner we get this out of the way, the better I’ll feel.”
“Great. I’ll pick you up about six then?”
“Sounds good.”
“And Lace?”
Seemed her heart did a little quickstep every time he called her that. “Yeah?”
“I’ll see you and Kenzie later tonight?”
She couldn’t help smiling. “See you then.”
Cup in hand, a grinning Carly leaned back in her chair as Lacie ended the call. “And you think you’re just friends, huh?”
* * *
Matt enjoyed his time with Kenzie Tuesday night, though he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Lacie. Since that kiss, their relationship had drifted into uncharted waters. And all Matt knew was that he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Which made his shift on Wednesday seem excruciatingly long. Yet as the day progressed, there was one thing he began to understand: his life was finally coming together.
For too many years, he’d felt as though he was simply existing. Now he had a purpose. He was a father. And, after Monday night, had begun to entertain the notion of becoming a husband and having a family to call his own.
No doubt about it, he was in love with Lacie.
Now he just needed to find a way to share those thoughts with her.
However, the toy aisle of the supercenter in Montrose was not the right place.
“What about this art easel?” Lacie looked at him over her shoulder as they continued their search for Christmas gifts Wednesday night. “Or is that a disaster waiting to happen?”
Images of Kenzie armed with a paintbrush filled his head. “Hmm, good question. Perhaps we should keep looking.”
While “Jingle Bell Rock” played overhead, they strolled from one aisle to the next, dodging other shoppers who were also searching for that perfect present.
“Are you okay?” He watched Lacie, noting how her turquoise scarf deepened the blue of her eyes.
“You seem kind of quiet tonight.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She pushed the cart, scanning each and every shelf. “Just worried about finding something that Kenzie will really enjoy. Not just play with Christmas morning and then be done with it.”
He froze, a leaden weight suddenly bearing down on him. “Boy, you can tell this is my first Christmas as a dad. I never even thought of that. That would stink.” He wanted his little girl to have something momentous.
Smiling, she patted him on the back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stress you out. Just keep in mind that there are two of us, so I’m sure we can come up with something.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the board games. “Hey, does she have a Candyland game? I used to love playing that.” Then he spotted the bicycles. “Or what about a bike? One with training wheels and pink streamers hanging off the handlebars. She’d love that.”
“Probably so.” Resting her elbow on the cart, Lacie looked up at him. “But what if it’s snowing Christmas day? She wouldn’t be able to try it out.”
“Good point. Better wait till spring for that.” Another idea blazed across his brain. “However, we could get her a sled. Or maybe a toboggan. Then we could take her to Vinegar Hill. We’d have a great time sledding with all of the other kids.” He took hold of her arm. “I can see us now, zooming down the hill, noses pink from the cold, snow flying...”
She nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. I do have one question, though.”
“What’s that?”
The corners of her pretty mouth tilted upward. “Is this sled for Kenzie or for you?”
He grinned. “Well, she is kind of little to be going all by herself.”
“Okay—” she continued down the aisle “—so a sled for Dad and Kenzie.”
He followed behind her, his chest puffed out ever so slightly. “I like the way you said that.”
She slowed. “Said what?”
“The way you referred to me as Dad.” He shrugged. “I’m looking forward to hearing Kenzie say it someday.”
She stopped, her expression turning sad. “Matt—”
“No, no.” He held up a hand. “It’s okay, Lace.” He knew what she was thinking. That he was pushing her to tell Kenzie he was her father when they’d agreed to wait until she was old enough to understand. “I was simply making a statement. Now, let’s get back to shopping.”
The Deputy's Holiday Family Page 15
