The Mistletoe Effect

by Melissa Cutler

  The gun’s aim, as well as the flashlight’s, dipped to the ground. “Decker?”

  Decker strained his gaze to study the man who’d ambushed them. “Briscoe?”

  At the same time Carina said, “Daddy?”

  Ty Briscoe lowered the muzzle of his gun the rest of the way to the ground. “What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of the night, defacing my property? Carina, you of all people should know better.”

  At the chiding, disrespectful words, Decker snapped. He tossed the saw to the ground and curled his hands into fists. “I don’t care that you’re her father. Don’t you dare speak to her that way again or you and I are going to be exchanging more than words.”

  Briscoe held Decker’s gaze for a long time as though sizing him up, testing the threat for weakness. Decker held his ground. The last thing he wanted to do was get in a fistfight with his boss, but for Carina Decker would do anything. He’d move the fucking world.

  Briscoe’s eyes narrowed. “You seem to have forgotten who signs your paycheck.”

  Decker didn’t hesitate. “Some things are more important than money, which is something you seem to have forgotten.”

  Carina sidestepped away from the shield of Decker’s body. “Let me remind you both that I’m my own woman. Don’t you two talk about me like I’m incapable of defending myself. And Daddy, if I want to steal a tree off our family’s property, then there isn’t a darn thing you can do about it—unless you want to set that rifle down and help us get it in the back of our golf cart.”

  Ty gaped at her, clearly stunned. Carina had put them in their place like a pro, but Decker was still too pissed off to stand down.

  “One more thing,” Carina said. “Don’t you ever threaten Decker again or I’ll be out of here so fast, it’ll make Haylie’s exit look like it happened in slow motion.”

  For a moment, Ty looked pained, as though Carina’s words had cut right into his heart. Then he tipped his head to the side to crack his neck and leveled a stern look at them, his scowl in place. “You can stop yapping now. Nobody threatens me, especially two grown adults sneaking around in the middle of the night like a couple of teenagers in heat. What would the guests think?”

  Carina squared her shoulders and drew herself up even taller. “You know what they’d think? They’d think, ‘Those newlyweds sure are happy and in love,’ and, ‘That Mistletoe Effect is one heck of a phenomenon.’ ” She threw her hands in the air. “We’re like a walking advertisement for our resort. Think about all we’re doing for the greater good of the business. That’s all you care about anyway.”

  Decker had pretty much stopped listening when she said “love.” He clamped his teeth together so the shock wave rippling through him wouldn’t show on his face. That was one hell of a loaded word. But Carina was right. They were acting like a couple of newlyweds who were really, really happy together. Because they were.

  “All right. You win,” Ty said. “Have your fun tonight. Just remember, we have a staff meeting first thing this morning about the Mistletoe Ball. You are the face of this company, young lady, and you will not dare come to that meeting looking tired or bragging about this … this … practical joke.”

  Oh, hell, no. Decker’s fists were back. He made to surge forward, but Carina pressed a hand to his chest.

  “He’s not worth it,” she said. “Let’s get our tree and get going. It’s a little too chilly around here for me.”

  ∗∗∗

  Three days before Christmas, Carina sat on a chair in the lobby, distracting herself from a bride and her overbearing mother’s lecture about the many imperfections of the young woman’s upcoming Christmas Day wedding by marveling at how fast the month had flown by and all she and Decker had done and experienced together in such a short amount of time.

  They’d gotten the tree up with little issue. It had survived its fall and looked beautiful in front of the picture window in his living room, which they’d admired while working off their adrenaline from their battle with her father by screwing each other’s brains out on the sofa. Since that night, they’d spent every spare moment together— celebrating his birthday with the help of the Naughty Newlyweds basket, decorating his house for Christmas, and wringing every ounce of pleasure and memories as they could out of their limited time.

  She hadn’t spoken to her father since the incident at the winter wonderland garden. At first, she’d despaired at the dark irony that an adventure meant to honor the memory of Decker’s father had estranged her from hers, but the truth was, she was done with fighting a losing battle against his disappointment and being treated like nothing but a workhorse.

  Today, as every day, her list of tasks for the upcoming weddings and Christmas Eve’s Mistletoe Ball was endless. There were a million little details to attend to, from security to parking, and from food to coordinating all the many employees staffing the events. She did it every year, but never on so little sleep. Her and Decker’s pledge to forgo rest in order to spend more time together was a romantic notion, but it wasn’t all that practical. She was dragging and finding it difficult to follow along with the rant of the bride and mother-of-the-bride who currently had Carina cornered.

  As though summoned by her thoughts, Decker appeared across the lobby, looking gravely serious. When he spotted her, he strode her way with purpose.

  “Excuse me,” she said with an apologetic smile to the bride’s mother. “There’s an urgent matter I need to attend to. I’ll be right back.”

  The bride huffed with righteous indignity, but Carina only had eyes for Decker. “Hey. I was just thinking about you,” she said as she intercepted him near the lobby fountain.

  He only managed a halfhearted smile. “Yeah? Because it looked like Bridezilla and her mother were raking you over the coals.”

  “That they were, which was why I had to go to my happy place.”

  “And I’m part of your happy place? I like that.”

  He was her happy place, but she was too anxious to find out what had him so jumpy and somber to correct him. He took her hand and led her to a cluster of benches in the lobby atrium. By the time she sat, her heart was pounding like mad and it took every bit of patience not to rush him into telling her what was wrong.

  “Did you just come to rescue me from that bride or was there something else on your mind?”

  “There’s something else.”

  The way he’d said it made her skin prickle with foreboding. “You’re leaving for Fort Worth sooner than you thought.” Merely saying the words made her throat tighten.

  “Huh? No.” He took her hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. “Never. Here’s the thing. I had to go to San Antonio this morning to inspect a feed shipment, and while I was there I stopped by the county clerk’s office. Just to check because that whole marriage license comment by Granny June had stuck with me and I wanted to see for myself that she’d lied about it.” He tightened his grip on Carina’s hand. “Carina, there was a marriage license on record for us with two signatures that looked sort of like ours … and it was signed by Chaplain Roberts.”

  That wasn’t at all what she’d expected. “What?”

  “I couldn’t believe it, either. I convinced the woman at the desk to give me a copy, even though the usual procedure for such things involves some big application process.”

  From his back pocket he pulled a folded paper and opened it. Carina studied the certificate, her focus lingering on her forged signature. They were, indeed, married in the eyes of the law. Anger flared white-hot inside her. Yes, she wished she could stay married to Decker, but she loathed that the choice had been taken away from the two of them.

  “What does this mean?” he asked. “Because if it means what I think it does, then I don’t know what the hell to do.”

  Neither did she. They could apply for an annulment—that would probably be the easiest and most consequence-free option—but there wasn’t any extra room in Carina’s mind to deal with fixing the problem,
not when she was so preoccupied with the urge to storm the office of the man who was most likely responsible for the forgery. “My father.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. I mean, I know he’s friends with Chaplain Roberts, and, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve heard a lot of rumors about him paying off local politicians and businessmen. I suppose that could include the county clerk, too.”

  “Oh, he’s old buddies with County Clerk Duggerty, all right. Helped put him in office,” she said through clenched teeth.

  In her pocket, her phone rang with her friend Janine’s ringtone, cutting into Carina’s black thoughts. She turned off the ringer. “Sorry about that.”

  “It’s okay. Do you need to see who it is?”

  She shook her head. “It’s Janine, my friend who owns the bridal boutique. We’d scheduled a phone conference today to talk about dress pricing for the spring bridal season because she has some big-time buyers coming in next week.”

  “Go ahead and get it if you need to.”

  Reluctantly, she pulled her phone back out of her pocket. “Let me just tell her I’ll call her back later.” Carina accepted the call and put the phone to her ear. “Hey, Janine, listen, may I call you back tonight? Something came up.”

  “I know how busy your Decembers get, but can you just spare a minute?” Janine said. “This isn’t about the spring season prices. Well, it is, in the long run, but really, I’m calling with a proposal.”

  Carina met Decker’s gaze and held up her finger, mouthing, One minute. I’m so sorry.

  He waved off her apology.

  “Go ahead, Janine.”

  “Well, I hate to spring this on you now, but it wouldn’t do my business any good to wait until next year, not with the buyers coming next week.”

  “Spring what on me? Is the boutique okay?” Her heart sank. She cared about Janine, and the thought of her boutique going under because of the down economy was too frustrating to bear. Her mind raced, anticipating how she could solve Janine’s money problems, if that was what she needed.

  “The boutique is terrific. We stand to make a killing off of the wholesale buyers if they order half as much as they swear they’re going to, which is why it came as a real blow when Linda broke it to me that her husband is being transferred and they’re moving back east after the first of the year.” Linda had been Janine’s business partner with the boutique for the whole of the fifteen-year-old business’s life.

  “What are you going to do? Can you find a replacement that quickly or are you going to hire a temp so you don’t have to rush?”

  “That’s why I’m calling. I’d like to offer you the chance to buy Linda out. Move to L.A. and be my business partner.”

  Carina scooted to the edge of her chair. “Me?”

  Decker appeared before her, his brows pinched with concern. “What’s going on?” he whispered.

  She shook her head.

  “Yes, you,” Janine said. “You have a terrific business sense, you have the means to buy into the company, and I know how unhappy you are working at your family’s hotel. Designing wedding dresses is your passion, and the wholesale buyers love your stuff. If we were business partners, think of the possibilities. Our boutique could carry a whole line of your designs and you could be here to do custom fittings. We could even hire seamstresses to bring even more of your visions to life. There’s a huge market out here for what you do.”

  Carina’s pulse pounded in her throat, shallow and fast. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t just up and leave Texas. I have employees, responsibilities.”

  Decker put his hand on her knee. “What’s going on?” he whispered, harsher this time.

  “I know you do, hon. Don’t stress about this, especially not during the holidays. I just wanted to give you first shot at the opportunity before Linda and I start looking around for a replacement. I thought, if you were interested, then you could fly out here next week so you could meet the buyers, but I understand if you need more time to think. It’d be a huge move.”

  A huge move away from her family, her career, the only life she’d ever known. It would be a huge move away from Decker. “That’s the understatement of the century.”

  “Just do me one favor, okay?” Janine said.

  “Name it.”

  “Promise me you’ll think about it until after Christmas. I bet once you’re past the busiest part of your year, you might think differently.”

  Though Carina was sure her answer was no, she found herself agreeing to wait. “Okay. I promise. And Janine? Thank you for thinking of me. I’m honored by the offer.” If only it were possible to accept it.

  After she and Janine ended the call, Carina closed her eyes and drew a breath, taking a moment to collect herself and calm her pulse before facing Decker.

  “It was a job offer. More than a job offer, really. Janine’s looking for a new business partner for the boutique. Linda, her previous partner, is moving on short notice.”

  “She wants you to move to L.A. and work with her?”

  “Yeah.” Carina swallowed, wishing the offer weren’t exactly what she’d always secretly wished she could do. “But I could never take her up on it. I mean—”

  “What did you promise her there at the end?”

  “She asked me to wait on giving her an answer until after Christmas so I had time to think about it with a clear head once the wedding season’s over.”

  He nodded, staring at the chair next to Carina’s, his face solemn. Then he sniffed through his nose and met her gaze. “You have to take it.”

  Until that moment, she hadn’t realized she’d hoped he’d ask her to stay so she could be closer to him, so they could give their relationship a real chance. At the very least, he could’ve found the wherewithal to be distraught over the idea of her moving so far away.

  “No. The resort, I can’t just quit. It doesn’t work like that.”

  “This boutique, you’d still get to design dresses as a part owner, right?”

  “Yes. That would be the plan. Actually, Janine thinks we could start my own line of dresses and take the business to a whole new level. She wants me to come out next week to meet with some wholesale buyers who are interested in my stuff. But, like I said, it’s pointless to consider because I can’t leave this place. I’m the third-gen—”

  With a tsk of displeasure, he dropped to his knees before her and took both of her hands in his. “Stop that, Carina. Stop it with that pat response your father has guilted you into believing and talk to me for real.”

  There was no guilt, just the facts. She was the third-generation Briscoe set to run the family empire. Yes, her dad brought that up a lot in order to guilt her, but that didn’t invalidate the fact that quitting meant letting her family down. And quitting and moving away meant leaving Decker.

  Behind Decker, a resort guest squealed, “He’s proposing! Hey, everyone, that’s so sweet. I love this place!”

  Before either of them could react, they were surrounded by gawking people, many holding up their cameras as though videotaping the moment so they could share it on the Internet.

  A fire lit in Decker’s eyes. He stood and spun around. “I’m not proposing,” he snapped, gesturing wildly. “We’re already married and I’m trying to have a private conversation with my wife.”

  His wife. She stared at the paper in her lap. Yes, she really was his wife now.

  Still agitated, he returned to his knees and gathered her hands in his once more, ignoring the crowd still standing around them. “Briscoe Ranch Resort is going to thrive whether or not you martyr yourself. Just because this has always been a family operation doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. You’ve already found the courage to stand up to your father. This is the next step.”

  As hard as it was to imagine leaving her family’s business, it was even harder to imagine living that far from the man she was falling hard for. “Los Angeles is a long way away.”

  “You’re looking at it wrong. The
distance would be a blessing. You’d be far enough away from your family to think straight and live your own life without them butting in all the time.”

  How could he say that when all she wanted was to throw her arms around him and hang on forever? An ache bloomed inside her chest, as if her ribs were too small for her heart. “Could you maybe be a little less enthusiastic about me moving fourteen thousand miles away from you?”

  His face crumpled. He dropped his forehead to their joined hands. After a long, heavy silence he said, “This isn’t about me or what I want.” His voice was thick and scratchy, as though it took all his effort to push the words from his mouth. “When we started this marriage deal, my only goals were to spend a lot of time with you and help you spread your wings so you could fly. I know that sounds corny, but that was the vow I made myself. I’ve watched you change this month, standing up to your dad, taking time off, smiling more.”

  Decker swallowed. “You’ve outgrown this place and the tiny box your family’s trying to keep you in. It’s time for you to fly, and here you are, with an amazing opportunity to do just that. I won’t be the man who held you back. I refuse to be. And the only way I could be prouder of you was if you seized this gift Janine’s trying to hand you and ran with it.”

  She understood where he was coming from. His dad had never seen his dream through, and Decker wanted more for Carina. It was noble of him, but it left her feeling cold and sad and alone. The distance would be a blessing.

  “What about this?” She lifted the license. “We’re married.”

  Decker took a long, hard look at the paper, a storm in his eyes that she found impossible to interpret. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her up and marched with her in tow past the check-in counter, through the employees-only offices.

  “Decker, no. Please. I’ll talk to him myself later.” There was a right way and wrong way to negotiate with her father and blazing into his office spitting mad wasn’t going to accomplish anything.

  Decker threw open the door to her father’s office hard enough that it banged against the wall. Her father set his phone down and stood, a scowl on his face and a protest on his lips until Decker slammed the marriage license onto the desk.