RaeAnne Thayne - Christmas in Cold Creek

She chewed her lip, clearly annoyed with him, but he only smiled and reached into the box for a couple of colored globes.

“So where were you before you moved to Pine Gulch?” he asked after a few moments of hanging ornaments. Though he pitted his question as casual curiosity, she didn’t seem fooled.

Becca and her daughter exchanged another look and she waited a moment before answering. “Arizona,” she finally said, her voice terse.

“Were you waitressing there?”

“No. I did a lot of different things,” she said evasively. “What about you? How long have you been chief of police for the good people of Pine Gulch?”

He saw through her attempt to deflect his questions. He was fond of the same technique when he wanted to guide a particular discussion in an interview. He thought about calling her on it but decided to let her set the tone. This wasn’t an interrogation, after all. Only a conversation.

“I’ve been on the force for about ten years, chief for the last three.”

“You seem young for the job.”

“I’m thirty-two. Not that young. You must have been a baby yourself when you had Gabi, right?”

He thought he saw a tiny flicker of something indefinable in the depths of her hazel eyes but she quickly concealed it. “Something like that. I was eighteen when she was born. What about you? Any wife and kiddos in the picture?”

Again the diversionary tactics. Interesting. “Nope. Never married. Just my brothers and a sister.”

“And you all live close?”

“Right. My older brother runs the family ranch, the River Bow, just outside town. We run about six hundred head. My younger sister helps him around the ranch and with Destry. Then my twin brother, Taft, is the fire chief. You might have seen him around town. He’s a little hard to miss since we’re identical.”

“Wow. There are two of you?”

“Nope. Only one. Taft is definitely his own man.”

She smiled a little as she reached to hang an ornament on a higher branch. Her soft curves brushed his shoulder—completely accidental, he knew—and his stomach muscles contracted. He hadn’t felt this little zing of attraction in a long, long time and he wanted to savor every moment of it, despite his better instincts reminding him he knew very little about the woman and what he did know didn’t seem completely truthful.

She moved away to the other side of the tree and picked up a pearly white globe ornament from the box.

He thought her color was a little higher than it had been before but that could have been only the reflection from the Christmas lights.

“You haven’t had the urge to explore distant pastures? See what’s out there beyond Pine Gulch?”

“Been there, done that. I spent four years as a Marine MP, with tours in the Middle East, Germany, Japan. I was ready to be back home.”

He didn’t like to think about what had happened after he came home, restless and looking for trouble. He’d found it, far more than he ever imagined, in the form of a devious little liar named Lilah Bodine.

“And the small-town life appeals to you?”

“Pine Gulch is a nice place to live. You won’t find a prettier place on earth in the summertime and people here watch out for each other.”

“I’m not sure that’s always a good thing, is it? Isn’t that small-town code for snooping in other people’s business?”

What in her past had made her so cynical? And what business did she have that made her eager to keep others out of it?

“That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose. Some people find it a comfort to know they’ve always got someone to turn to when times are tough.”

“I’m used to counting on myself.”

Before he could respond to that, Gabi popped her head around the side of the Christmas tree, a small porcelain angel with filigree wings in her hand. “This was the last ornament in the box,” she said. “Where should I put it?”

Becca looked at the tree. “Well, we don’t have anything at the top. Why don’t we put her there?”

“That seems about right,” Trace said. “A tree as pretty as this one deserves to have an angel watching over it.”

“Okay. I’ll have to get a chair.”

“Why?” He grinned at the girl and picked her up. She seemed skinny for her age and she giggled a little as he hefted her higher to reach the top of the tree. She tucked the little angel against the top branch and secured her with the clip attached to her back.

“Perfect,” Gabi exclaimed when she was done.

He lowered her to the ground and the girl hurried to turn off the light switch to the overhead fixture and the two lamps until the room was dark except for the gleaming, colorful tree.

They all stepped back a little for a better look. Much to his surprise, as he stood in this dark, dingy little house with that soft music in the background and the snow drifting past the window and the tree lights flickering, he felt the first nudge of Christmas spirit he’d experienced in a long, long time.

“It’s magical,” Gabi breathed.

Becca leaned down and hugged her. “You know what, kiddo? Magical is exactly the right word.”

They all stood still for a moment. Becca was the first to break the spell.

“I’m sorry we kept you so long.” She smiled at him and he had the feeling it was the most genuine smile she’d ever given him. “You didn’t need to stay to help us decorate the whole thing.”

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