by Merry Farmer
The Culpepper brothers—who had been there for the whole thing all those years ago—groaned and chuckled. “Those two were non-stop,” Kolby said.
“We dated briefly,” Tabby explained, doing her best to block out the hot and bothered feeling those memories brought with them. “Then we both ended up running for senior class president. Arch was a jerk about it, so I broke up with him. But that wasn’t enough. I won the election, but he decided to make my life miserable.”
“They couldn’t stay away from each other, even though they’d broken up,” Sammy said.
“That’s not true.” Tabby would have smacked her sister if they weren’t all so tightly packed on the sofa. “But I will admit that neither of us was willing to back down from a challenge.”
“Are we talking about the awesome pranks Tabby and Arch used to play on each other?” Marcus Wells asked, coming from the kitchen with Grace beside him.
“They were not awesome,” Tabby said.
“They were pretty awesome.” Karlan contradicted her.
The room was starting to feel incredibly crowded with the entire, extended Culpepper family ganging up on Tabby.
“Remember the time Tabby put cayenne pepper in Arch’s jock strap before the football game?” Cooper laughed.
“People really do that?” Angus asked, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
“Or the time Arch filled Tabby’s locker with those tiny Styrofoam packing balls?” Chris went on.
“I was picking those out of my things for the rest of the year,” Tabby grumbled.
“I remember,” Sammy laughed. “They got all over my stuff too. Mom threw a fit.”
“I loved the one where Tabby somehow managed to convince the field trip driver that Arch was already on the bus so that they headed home without him,” Karlan went on. “It was after dark before they realized Arch was still stranded up in the mountains.”
“Yeah, but he once told me that the shelter he built for himself out there was what inspired him to study architecture,” Chris pointed out.
“That sounds dangerous,” Faith said.
“Arch was and is tough,” Cooper reassured her. “And he got her back.”
All of the Culpepper boys and Marcus were chuckling by that point. “What did he do again?” Marcus asked.
“He put a maple syrup bomb in my graduation cap,” Tabby muttered.
“I don’t even know how he pulled that off without you noticing.” Chris shook his head in amazement.
“He sewed it into the lining between the mortar board and the cap part.” Tabby fought hard not to grin at the memory. “I punctured it as soon as I tried to pin the cap in place.”
“I remember maple syrup all over your hair as you walked to get your diploma,” Chris laughed.
“I haven’t been able to stand the smell of maple syrup since then,” Tabby growled. In fact, she kind of liked the smell of maple syrup. It made her feel…fuzzy somehow. But there was no way she would ever admit it.
She didn’t have to endure more teasing. Linda walked into the room moments later with the last tray of snacks. “All right, gang. Eat up so that your stomachs don’t growl while we’re watching the pageant.”
They had all just started to get up and reach for the snacks on various trays throughout the room when the doorbell rang. Tabby tensed instinctively. It was like she had a sixth sense that Arch would come after her. Probably because he always did come after her when she pranked him.
Not that she pranked him in order to get him to come after her. Oh no.
Linda went to get the door, and sure enough…
“Arch O’Donnell. What a surprise,” she said from the hall, sounding anything but surprised. “And what’s this?”
Moments later, Arch and the three kids who Tabby had paid to pull off her prank walked into the house. The kids were carrying stacks of pizza boxes.
“I thought you might be hungry,” Arch said, heading right past Linda and into the living room. “Though you’re gonna have to heat it all up at this point. Cold anchovies and pineapple isn’t all that appetizing.”
He delivered his entire speech to Tabby and Tabby alone, arms crossed. Tabby jumped up from the sofa and crossed to stand toe-to-toe with him, heat rising, heart thumping.
“You’re looking awfully dressed up for a pizza delivery guy,” she said. At the same time, her eyes roved hungrily over him. Damn, he really did look good in that suit. It was formal, and yet she could tell that he worked out. And that red tie. Something about it made her want to see him wearing nothing but the tie.
Which was completely wrong, of course. Right?
“What, me dressed up?” Arch glanced down at his suit. “Nah, this is how I usually dress on Christmas Eve. Just in case there’s any mistletoe hanging around.”
A delicious shiver wiggled down Tabby’s spine, leaving a trail of yummy where it passed. Was Arch flirting with her? That was new. Very new. And very…whew!
“Mistletoe is poisonous, you know.” She grabbed for something, anything, she could say to tweak his nose. “Sounds to me like you have it in for someone.”
Arch shrugged and swayed a little closer. Tabby’s pulse sped up. “Oh, I have it in for someone, all right.” His eyes flashed with cunning and challenge. “No one sends me thirty-six anchovy and pineapple pizzas and gets away with it.”
Tabby took a half step closer to them…which put them close enough to jump into one of those uncontrollable, movie-level, hot and steamy, tearing each other’s clothes off kind of kiss-embrace…if they were so inclined.
“Bring it on, big man.” She narrowed her eyes at him, dizzy with anticipation. “I’m ready for anything you’ve got.”
“Oh, are you,” he murmured, low and deep, like naughty words whispered in bed.
“Try me.”
He stared at her as if he’d like to do exactly that. Then he licked his lips. Tabby’s knees nearly gave out.
“If you two are finished proving to the rest of us just how perfect you are for each other,” Linda interrupted, “then we’d better get a move on. We’re going to be late for the pageant.”
Tabby and Arch both jerked back and whipped to face Linda and the others.
“We are not perfect for each other,” Tabby protested.
“Yeah, we can barely tolerate each other,” Arch added.
“Uh-huh,” Linda said and rolled her eyes.
“Transparent as glass.” Karlan thumped Arch’s shoulder as he edged past him toward the coat closet.
“I think you two probably just raised the temperature in the entire state of Wyoming by about ten degrees,” Faith added, struggling to lift herself off the couch. In the end, Cooper had to hoist her up under her arms.
“We are not—”
“You don’t think Arch and I—”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Stupid.”
Tabby and Arch argued, but not a soul in the room was convinced.
And Tabby had a sinking suspicion neither she, nor possibly Arch, were convinced either.
The Culpeppers caused enough commotion as they all gathered their coats and scarves, put the food away, and got ready to leave for the pageant. Tabby was left standing awkwardly next to Arch, being jostled into him a couple times as the chaos continued. Although she had a feeling that Sammy bumped her into Arch on purpose.
“Are you going to the pageant?” Arch asked in the midst of it all.
Tabby glanced warily up at him. “Maybe.”
“Because it’d be a waste to have put this suit on for nothing.”
Her hands and feet began to tingle. After all that, he still wanted to go out with her?
“I think Mom is going to call me from Italy later.” She mumbled an excuse. “I need to be at home tonight to get the call, what with the time difference.”
Arch looked disappointed. Actually disappointed. Tabby’s heart swelled and ached and did all sorts of flips. Maybe it was time to give up the pretense of the rivalry
and just admit she wanted to spend time with him.
Before she could say as much, Arch’s expression shifted back to cunning. “All right. No problem.” He took a half step away from her. “But you know that all of this is far from over.”
No words had ever filled Tabby with such joy. She didn’t have to make a decision tonight. He would come after her again.
“Oh, I’ll be ready,” she said and jabbed a finger into his chest. “Just you wait.”
Chapter 3
Tabby spent the next twelve hours wondering whether she should have gone to the Christmas pageant. If she had, she might have been able to sit next to Arch. An hour or so hanging out with Arch without trying to destroy him in prank form might have been nice. Her friends were right—there probably was a way the two of them could spend time with each other that didn’t involve the potential for grievous bodily harm. Although with the pizza prank, the only harm was to the taste buds of whoever got it in their head to eat the pizza.
“So let us rejoice this Christmas day,” Brother Anthony lifted his voice at the front of the packed church, dragging Tabby out of her thoughts. “Let us rejoice and celebrate the birth of our Lord.”
She peeked sideways, across Sammy seated next to her, to the pew across the aisle where the O’Donnell family sat. They all looked so happy and cozy. Sly and Rachel sat with their hands entwined. Doc and Nancy leaned into each other, heads inclined toward one another as they listened to the sermon. Elvie and Evan were in Colorado, but Tabby imagined they’d look just as sweet. And Arch sat on the far end with a secret smile on his lips. Tabby couldn’t stop herself from wondering if he was thinking about her.
“Amen.” Brother Anthony ended his sermon. A few people echoed with their own amen. The organist started playing, and they all stood to sing “Joy to the World.”
Tabby stole another glance across the aisle to Arch, only this time he was looking right at her. There was a twinkle in his eyes as bright as a Christmas star…and it turned her insides to goo. She snapped back to focus on the hymnal that Sammy was holding for the two of them to share. Things were getting out of hand. She couldn’t keep reacting to him every time he so much as looked at her. She needed to figure out a way to extend an olive branch to him without feeling like a complete pushover when she did.
The last strains of the carol ended, and the church erupted into a buzz of activity and conversation. Some people headed straight for the door, but most people lingered around to visit.
“Are you going straight to Dad’s?” Sammy asked as she and Tabby scooted to the end of the pew.
“Probably. He’s expecting us for supper. You want a ride?”
“Yeah.” Sammy grinned at her. “We can sing Christmas carols the whole way to Haskell.”
Tabby winced. “Or we could turn on the radio and listen to the professionals do it.”
Her gaze slipped across the aisle again. Arch was chatting with Bob and Megan Bickel. He laughed at something Megan said, and a flash of jealousy hit her. But that was nothing to the heat that washed through her when Arch glanced over, saw she was staring, and winked at her.
Tabby jerked to look in the other direction. “Hi, Dallas.” She greeted her old friend with far more enthusiasm than she needed to, stepping deliberately in the opposite direction from Arch. “You’re looking great. How’s married life treating you?”
“It’s fabulous,” Dallas beamed. “We couldn’t be happier.”
“Merry Christmas,” Austin greeted both Tabby and Sammy—who had followed Tabby with a suspicious grin spreading across her lips.
“Do you two have someplace to go for Christmas dinner?” Dallas asked.
Tabby opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Honor—who was standing nearby, finishing up a conversation with Brother Anthony and Lovie—barged in with, “Oh, I bet she could have an invitation to the O’Donnell’s celebration if she wanted one.”
Dallas and Austin both lit up with curiosity. “What’s this?” Austin asked.
“It’s nothing.” Tabby glared at Honor…even as her pulse pounded. “Honor is just teasing me because of a few silly pranks Arch and I played on each other over the last few days.”
Dallas laughed. “Are you two still pranking each other?” She turned to Austin before Tabby could get a word in edgewise. “Remember how the two of them used to torment each other?”
“How could I forget?” Austin joined in the laughter. “Watching you two pretend you weren’t hot for each other was more entertaining than watching football games.”
“It was not,” Tabby protested. “And please don’t go reading more into it than is there. Arch and I can’t stand each other.”
But even she didn’t believe that anymore. When Dallas and Austin nodded and hummed to placate her, she felt embarrassed more than anything else. If she put half as much effort into finding a way to make amends with Arch as she did looking for ways to get him back, who knew what might happen?
“Sammy and I are going to Haskell this afternoon to have Christmas dinner with our dad,” she said instead, avoiding the issue entirely. “We’d better get moving,” she added, more for Sammy than anyone else.
She took Sammy’s arm and steered her through the thinning crowd. Once again, she looked around for Arch, hating the fact that he loomed so large on her radar. If she wasn’t going to summon up the courage to build something with him that wasn’t a rivalry, then she should just let him go and move on. He’d apparently moved on. He wasn’t even in the church anymore. That should have been be a relief.
The church was emptying fast now. Tabby fell into the line shuffling out the door, ending up beside a lumbering Faith.
“Where’s Cooper?” she asked, looping an arm through Faith’s to help her along.
“Oh, he went to get the truck so I don’t have to walk so far.” Faith followed her explanation with a cheeky grin and asked, “Where’s Arch?”
Tabby blew out a rough breath. “Why does everyone think I know where Arch O’Donnell is every second of the day or night?”
Faith’s brow flew up. “Oh, you know where he is at night now?”
Behind them, Sammy laughed. “Is there something you’re not telling me, sis?”
“Shut up, both of you,” Tabby growled. Although for some reason, a larger part of her wanted to giggle right along with them. Wouldn’t it be nice to know where Arch was at night?
“You know,” Faith went on as they moved slowly toward the door, “it would be the best Christmas present the entire town of Culpepper had ever received if the two of you would come to your senses and admit you’re perfect for each other.”
“We are not,” Tabby said, but only because that had become her rote response any time anyone suggested it. The fact that she even had a rote response was nerve-wracking. She brushed the idea away with her free hand and took another step forward with Faith. “Besides, there are better gifts this town could get. A larger medical clinic, for one.”
“Why don’t you get Arch to design one?” Faith suggested.
“I bet he’d love that,” Sammy agreed. “And he’d bump it to the top of his priority list too, I’m sure.”
“I doubt it,” Tabby said. “He’s got a dozen projects in the works at least.”
“How do you know?” Faith asked.
Tabby’s cheeks went red. “We, uh, were talking about it as we cleaned up from reunion stuff last month.”
Faith and Sammy hummed as if that meant something.
“I still think he’d do anything for you,” Sammy said.
Tabby frowned and was about to tell her sister off when Sly O’Donnell stopped them at the front door.
“Uh, Tabby, looks like you’ll have to go out through the kitchen door,” Sly said.
“Why?” Tabby tried to glance past Sly’s shoulder out the front door to see what the problem was.
“Things are getting a little backed up here,” Sly said.
There were a lot of cars out in front of the chur
ch. Tabby didn’t think much of it. “Okay,” she said and turned to head through the kitchen door at the side of the front hallway.
“I’ll come with you,” Faith said, waddling to catch up with her. “It’ll make it easier for Cooper to pull his truck around if he doesn’t have to fight with all the other cars.”
“Um, guys.” Sammy hesitated, glancing between the front door and the kitchen, where Tabby and Faith were walking. Tabby threw her a questioning look over her shoulder. Sammy hesitated for a few more seconds, then hurried after them. “Maybe you should go first, Tabby. Just to make sure there isn’t any ice on the sidewalk.”
Tabby should have wised up then. Later, that thought loomed large. She should have wised up as soon as Sly stopped them at the front door. But no, she wasn’t fast enough to pick up on the warning signs until it was too late. She and Faith were chatting away as Tabby pushed open the kitchen door and stepped out—Faith less than half a step behind her—into an avalanche of snow.
It seemed to come out of nowhere. Piles and piles of it. Way more than it had snowed in the few days leading up to Christmas. But as soon as she stepped out through the kitchen door, it poured down over her and Faith. Snow seeped into her collar, slipping down her back. It froze her face and stopped her in her tracks. She yelped with the sudden blast of cold.
Her gasp was nothing compared to Faith’s though. Faith nearly screamed with shock.
“Arch!” Tabby shouted, instantly furious. She ignored the snow covering her and slipped her arm around Faith’s waist to help her out of the instant drift they were standing in. Faith was breathing fast and shaking a little. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Faith panted. She didn’t sound okay, though. She lifted one leg to step over the pile of snow surrounding them. The movement didn’t feel okay to Tabby.
“Arch O’Donnell,” Tabby growled, searching around as she helped Faith down the kitchen path a few yards. “That was not funny.”
“Looked pretty funny to me.” Arch stepped out from behind a decorative pine tree at the corner of the church building. “You’re all frosty.” He chuckled a bit before turning to Faith with an apologetic smile. “Sorry you got stuck in the middle of that, Faith.”
