Hometown Holiday

by Caro Carson

  Just as their eyes had met over the head of that white horse, his gaze suddenly left her finger and focused right on her. He looked serious for real this time, no joke to it. “I believe if anyone could make Christmas better, it would be you.”

  Kristen leaned in a little closer. “If every Fourth of July could be spent with you, I’d start to look forward to summer as soon as the first snow fell.”

  He was going to kiss her. Right here, sitting on the edge of the stage in the middle of the town’s celebration, he was going to kiss her, and she felt her heart beating under her own fingertip in anticipation.

  But he didn’t. In silence, he looked at her for one second longer, then lifted his cup to her in a salute, and downed his punch.

  “Hi, Kristen.”

  She looked up to see one of the guys from her high school drama club days standing over her with his guitar.

  “My band’s on for the next hour. Make sure you clap even if we suck, okay?”

  “You’ll be great.” Kristen stood along with Ryan, and yielded the stage with a wave of her hand. “It’s all yours. Break a leg.”

  The dance floor began filling up again. She spotted Kayla dancing with someone else Kristen hadn’t seen in a while, one of their brothers’ friends who’d been a few years ahead of them in high school.

  High school. Again. She was twenty-five. She didn’t want her life to revolve around high school. Hadn’t she evolved since then?

  Yes, of course she had. She was just overthinking everything.

  There was something in the air today. The town seemed different somehow. Maybe because a police officer she didn’t recognize had walked past her, heading toward the fountain and the sounds of a fight, although public brawls were rare in Rust Creek Falls. Maybe because a high-stakes poker game had kicked off at the Ace in the Hole bar, and lots of rowdier folk were drifting that way. Members of the wedding party were sneaking off, too, headed for the park exit, where the groom’s truck was now parked in preparation for the getaway.

  A getaway. It sounded appealing on one level, but she’d already been there, done that. She’d gotten a college degree, even lived in New York City one summer, and then returned to Rust Creek Falls by choice. She wasn’t stuck here; she was happy here. People visited and ended up staying permanently, which was proof enough that the town was great. If the Cowboy settled down here, maybe she’d feel more settled herself.

  “Where do you want to go?” Ryan asked.

  Kristen almost laughed at the timing. “Is that a trick question? Do you mean where do I want to go in life or just in the next five minutes?”

  “They say the journey of a lifetime starts with a single step.” A smile teased the corners of his mouth. “I’ve always thought that put a lot of pressure on choosing where to step.”

  “Let’s be daring and step this way, then.” She stood shoulder to shoulder with him and deliberately raised her knee high, then took a giant step in the direction of the fence where she’d sat with her sister, waiting for true love to arrive.

  Those moments with her sister seemed prophetic now. Her emotions seemed wild and free today, swinging from a kind of drunken silliness to intensely important. Through it all, she’d had Ryan’s arm around her on the dance floor, Ryan sitting across from her at the table, Ryan walking beside her now, matching her stride for stride after that first silly step.

  “I think the bride and groom are going to make a break for it,” Kristen said. “We can wave goodbye from the fence.” The fireworks wouldn’t begin until after ten since the sun set so late in July, but Kristen had noticed the newest Traub couple saying goodbye to their bridesmaids and groomsmen.

  “I guess they’re not too worried about seeing fireworks tonight,” she said. “Maybe they’ll watch them from the balcony of Maverick Manor. That’s where they’re staying. They’ll fly out tomorrow on their honeymoon.”

  “I’m sure they’ll see fireworks tonight.” Ryan kept his serious poker face in place as they reached the fence.

  She did a little Groucho Marx imitation, wagging her eyebrows and pretending she held a cigar. “Fireworks? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

  Ryan gave her a boost to sit on the top rail. His laughter was as warm and masculine as the brief touch of his hands on her waist. He stayed on the ground, leaning against the fence, and crossed his ankles as he settled in for the wait.

  Kristen enjoyed the novel position of being able to look down on him. All that rich, dark hair, just waiting for her to mess up—and if she sat at just the right angle, she could see a bit of his chest below the unbuttoned V at his throat. He had no farmer’s tan, just more yummy bronzed skin…

  He looked up at her, catching her staring.

  She was so busted, but she didn’t bite her lip or blush or look away. She’d learned a long time ago to brazen out embarrassing situations.

  “You were sitting right here when I first saw you,” he said.

  If he’d seen her sitting on the fence, then he’d seen her before the carriage had arrived. She hadn’t spotted him first, after all.

  Why didn’t you approach me right away? That was too bold even for her. She tried a different question. “What did you think about the girl on the fence?”

  “That you were happy. You were laughing with your sister. I envied you.”

  “For having a sister?” She shook her head and answered her own question. “No, you have a sister of your own. You envied us for laughing. Are you not happy?”

  “Is that a trick question? Do you mean for the next five minutes, or do you mean my life in general?”

  She smiled at his light words, but her curiosity grew. “Let’s start with at the moment.”

  He didn’t answer her immediately, looking away to gaze calmly at the horizon and the first streaks of the sunset appearing over the mountain peaks.

  She thunked her heels on the railing, stopped herself and smoothed her skirt over her knees. She’d rather be smoothing his dark hair.

  “I met a wonderful woman today,” he said, “and she’s tolerating my company without complaint. I’m happy.”

  “Good answer, but that was a mighty long pause.” She wanted to see his face, so she climbed down and leaned against the fence beside him, watching his profile as he watched the horizon. “I thought ‘Are you happy?’ would be an easy yes or no.”

  “I don’t usually think in terms of being happy. It sounds frivolous.”

  She slipped her hand in his. It felt familiar, for they’d been holding hands in the traditional ballroom holds that went with the waltz and the two-step, but it also felt significant. There was no excuse of a dance this time. He rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand, as if they often held hands while they talked.

  “It’s not frivolous, though,” he said. “Happiness is serious. It’s the driving force behind our lives. ‘The pursuit of happiness’ is a legal right. We all have the right to try to find it.”

  “To try.” She echoed the words he’d emphasized. “Have you been successful in your attempt?”

  He raised their joined hands and placed a light kiss on her knuckle.

  “Today, yes.”

  She made him happy.

  She sucked in a little breath at the compliment. But he’d said today, as if happiness were a rare occurrence.

  “Isn’t your life usually happy?”

  “I’m working on it,” he said with all the confidence of a man who was certain he’d solve a problem soon.

  That kind of confidence must be nice to have. “How do you work on happiness?”

  “My job isn’t as fulfilling as it once was. I need to reevaluate. Refocus.”

  Kristen could imagine that even if he was born for the rodeo, it could easily be more stressful than happy. Rodeo careers were physically punishi
ng and therefore short. He looked to be about thirty. He’d said he was considering a change of pace, getting out of the fast lane, but maybe he was being forced to by circumstances.

  “It’s more than my career, though. I find myself envying my brother and sister.” He paused, and Kristen suspected that he was giving these thoughts voice for the first time. “Within a year of each other, they got married. My sister had a baby just a few months ago, and my brother is expecting his first.”

  “So now they’re happy?”

  “I wouldn’t have said they were unhappy people before. They had great careers and a family they could rely on, but I can see that they have more now. Even though they weren’t missing anything, they found something else, anyway, and now they are really living. Or more accurately, I should say they found someone else. Not a thing, a person.”

  A little distance away, the bride laughingly yelped as she and Braden were pelted with birdseed as they ran toward the opening in the fence. The groom’s black truck was parked on the street beyond.

  Ryan didn’t move as the whole wedding party came closer. “I’m starting to believe it’s not how much fame and fortune you have, but whether or not you have someone by your side.”

  As Braden and his bride ran past them, Kristen waved and shouted “good luck,” but they already seemed incredibly lucky to her. She and her sister had started the afternoon by wishing they had what the newlyweds had. It hadn’t occurred to Kristen that she ought to do something about it besides hope and wait. Ryan was right about pursuing happiness. It was sobering to realize that she’d been so passive about her life.

  “I’m sorry,” Ryan said quietly, and she realized he was studying her closely. “Here we are at a happy occasion, and I’m being too maudlin and reflective. Montana has that effect on me.”

  “Montana makes you sad?”

  “Montana makes me think. I wish I didn’t have to leave tomorrow. I feel more at peace here than anywhere else.”

  Then he’d be coming back.

  She felt her buoyant mood returning. The truth was, no matter how much she admired Ryan’s determination, hoping and wishing had worked for Kristen. Who was she to double-guess how the universe worked?

  The groom opened the passenger door of his truck and began helping his bride gather up her full skirts so she could climb in. He knew which door to open for her because his friends had very helpfully used white shoe polish on the window to write the words Bride Goes Here with an arrow.

  Kristen gave Ryan a gentle nudge with her shoulder. “The truck isn’t as romantic as the carriage, but infinitely more practical. It wouldn’t be too romantic to ride off into the sunset and then spend the first hours of your wedding night unhitching a team and stabling the horses, would it?”

  “I would never argue with a cowgirl. If you say unhitching horses would delay the fireworks, then I trust you.”

  “You’re just humoring me now.” He was doing that serious-joking thing again, implying she knew more about horses than he did.

  “I’d bet the ranch that you live on a ranch. You must know horses.”

  The black truck drove off, the cluster of empty cans that were tied to its tailpipe clattering loudly behind it. Ryan gave their joined hands a tug and started leading her along the fence, away from the send-off crowd who were now milling about.

  “I do live on a ranch, but what made you guess that? Do I smell like I mucked the stables this morning? I’m not saying I did, but is there hay in my hair? Or do I just snicker like a horse when I laugh?”

  He stopped walking once they reached a cluster of spruce trees. She moved a little closer into his personal space.

  He didn’t back up an inch. This close, in order for him to look down at her, his eyes got that heavy-lidded look. Bedroom eyes.

  “Those aren’t the clues that you live on a ranch.”

  “The boots, then?” She felt a little nervous, a little excited. Ryan had been willing to follow her playful lead all day, but the way he looked at her now left no doubt that he was a man who knew where the game was leading—and who’d know exactly what to do when they got there.

  “You must be a cowgirl because you have incredible stamina,” he murmured, “on the dance floor.”

  A shiver threatened to run down her spine.

  “You practically glow with health. Your hair, your skin. You. Every single inch of you.” They were so very close, bodies nearly touching in the quiet twilight, the sounds of the band and the crowd far in the background.

  She wanted to kiss him. She could go up on tiptoe and taste his lips as she’d been dying to do forever, but she wanted him to initiate it. Good girls didn’t steal the first kiss. How such an old-fashioned notion had been ingrained in her brain was beyond her, but there it was. She kept holding his hand, wanting so much more.

  An evening breeze carried the crisp air from the distant mountains into the park, stirring the evergreen sent of the spruce trees, blowing a few strands of her loose hair over her cheeks. Ryan brushed them back, those bedroom eyes making the touch of his hand on her hair as sensual a feeling as she’d ever experienced.

  As Ryan tamed her hair, she stayed still, wishing, wishing. His body was so much larger than hers, his muscles moving under the polished cotton of his shirt with the gentle motion of his hand.

  Kiss me.

  He let the last lock of her hair go, and his fingers brushed the bare skin of her shoulders, then higher, a smooth, light run up the length of her neck, a barely there brush of fingertips on her jaw.

  Kiss me, kiss me.

  The gentle touch of his fingertips was replaced by the sure warmth of his palm as he cupped her face in his hand. Her eyes closed.

  Kiss me.

  “Kristen Dalton.” When he spoke her name, she felt the whisper of his breath on her lips. “Where have you been all my life?”

  “Right here, waiting for you to find some happiness.”

  He kissed her, and, oh, it was a glorious feeling of soft lips and restraint, a tender you-may-kiss-the-bride moment. He ended it too soon, and she opened her eyes. Behind him, the sunset had come into its full colors over the snow-capped mountains that had defined the horizon her entire life.

  Had she expected the kiss to make him happy? He wasn’t smiling. His gaze was direct, his face so serious it was almost a frown.

  Before she could say something, anything at all, he let go of her hand to hold her face between both of his palms. Words fled. He pulled her to him for a kiss that rocked her world. Rougher, more greedy. Possessive, more passionate.

  Her fingers slid into the hair at the nape of his neck as he pulled her into him more tightly than any dance had allowed. She felt the hard planes of his body, and everything soft in her wanted to give in and melt in the safety of his arms.

  She kissed him until his arms felt more sexy than safe. She kissed him until the only reason she was standing was that he held her up.

  If he could have laid her down, if they hadn’t been hiding in plain sight in a corner of the town park, she would have gone willingly. It would be madness, but finally, she understood the crazy things couples did. Love at first sight, undeniable desire, life-changing decisions made in a split second—it all made perfect sense.

  He ended the kiss when she would not have, could not have. As they held tightly to each other, she could feel every breath that filled his chest. She panted softly herself, as if she’d run a mile. Run a mile, and won the race. The endorphin rush, the thrill of knowing that this had happened, that she’d found the one man with whom she connected more strongly than she’d known was possible, was almost frightening.

  He placed gentle kisses on her temple and at the corner of her eye, little echoes of the passion that had just obliterated all her thoughts. “You smell fantastic, by the way.”

  It took her a second
to remember what they’d been talking about before the kiss. “Not like a stable?”

  “Like summer.”

  “Your favorite.”

  And then they were kissing again, hungry and intense. She wanted him with a desperation that threatened once more to make her shameless. He broke off the kiss but clutched her closer. His breath was harsh in her ear. “That was damned…”

  “Scary?” she whispered.

  “Powerful.”

  She pulled back a little bit. All the emotions overwhelming her were reflected in his expression, too. It made her feel even closer to him, to the one person who was weathering this unpredictable storm with her.

  “I think…” She didn’t have any clear thoughts, only feelings. Crazy, uninhibited feelings today, here in the town park. She looked up at him through her lashes, hoping to lighten the intensity. “I think we just found a great way to pursue happiness.”

  His smile was brief. “I still have to leave tomorrow. The fact that I’m falling for the most beautiful girl in the world doesn’t change the fact that I have people depending on me.”

  Falling for her. He was falling for her, and everything was right in the world—except that he had to leave tomorrow. She didn’t like it, but she understood it. The rodeo wasn’t so different from the theater in many ways.

  “The show must go on,” she said.

  “And on, and on. I get to enjoy the victories for about five seconds before the next challenge begins. But we still have tonight. How would you like to spend it?”

  He had to ask?

  She kissed him this time. He responded instantly, perfectly, opening his mouth to her demands, anchoring her to him with his hands. He kept the kiss from exploding into desperation this time, setting a slower pace, a more luxurious exploration. It was divine to kiss him, the sensation so perfect that it was like seeing a new color she’d never known existed or hearing a beautiful piece of music for the first time.

  He broke off the kiss with a softly spoken damn.

  “Ryan,” she begged.

  “I know.” He tucked her securely against his chest. She breathed in the warm skin exposed at his throat. “I know.”