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Justin was glad for the buzz of boisterous conversation. If there was Christmas music playing, it was obliterated by the decibel level.
Chris Hyatt smirked at Trey. “If you don’t like the volume, you should have left your hearing aid in the truck with your cane. Problem solved.”
Trey was only forty, but Hyatt, all of twenty-three, constantly needled him about his age. Trey’s habitual response was to sock the rookie in the shoulder. Hard.
Tonight, Nate Washington responded before Trey could. He smacked Hyatt on the side of his blond head. “Don’t you know to respect your elders, son?” His eyes twinkled as he added, “How would you like it if some whippersnapper talked to your grandpa the way you do to Grainger?”
“Hey!” Trey objected. “I’m not anyone’s grandfather, and you damn well know it.”
Justin ignored the familiar banter while he searched for a place to sit. His group caught the gaze of Mr. Merriweather, a man who’d injured himself on a ski trail last winter. Nate and Trey had given him on-the-spot medical attention. Mr. Merriweather waved the patrollers over to the U-shaped booth he shared with his wife and another couple.
Mr. Merriweather rose from the booth. “We were just leaving. I insist you boys take our seats.” He pulled a dollar from his wallet. “Have a round on me.”
Nate thanked the man and reminded him to always ski with protective gear and well-maintained equipment. All four patrollers sat, with Justin and Trey on the ends. Justin was glancing around for a waitress when his gaze landed unerringly on Elisabeth Donnelly. She was seated with her back to him, but her posture tensed as if she could feel him watching.
He quickly looked away, suddenly wishing he’d gone straight home tonight.
Since when are you a wuss? He ran into ex-girlfriends in Cielo Peak on a daily basis. Every encounter was different—with some women, he was on good enough terms for a friendly hug; with a few, he kept his distance. But the chance sightings never unsettled him.
Thankfully, the three men he was with resumed their harmless bickering. Justin joined in, harassing Washington about how long it had been since his last date. By the time their beer arrived, Justin’s mood had improved.
Grainger kicked his foot under the table. “That leggy brunette at the end of the bar keeps eyeing you.” He sounded wistful.
Justin grinned. “I’m sure you were her first choice until she spotted your wedding ring. From way over there.”
The older man made a rude noise.
Justin didn’t try to make his glance covert. Instead, he simply turned and found the woman in question—a brunette in an off-the-shoulder sweater and a pair of skinny jeans, spinning her barstool in slow half circles. He smiled at her, and she fluttered her fingers in an encouraging wave.
Chris Hyatt was craning his neck, trying to get a look. “Anyone you know?”
“Nope. Never seen her before,” Justin said. “Which means she’s probably visiting and the polite thing to do would be to ask how she’s enjoying her stay. Or maybe she’s moved here, in which case I should welcome our newest citizen.” Either way, as a lifelong resident of Cielo Peak, it was practically his civic duty to go over there. Yet he remained where he was.
She’s not a redhead.
It was an insane thought. He’d always admired women of many different physical attributes, personalities and professions. He didn’t have a “type.” But his gaze strayed back to the corner where Elisabeth sat. The neon sign on the wall above her cast an otherworldly glow on her coppery hair. He toyed with the idea of taking the bull by the horns and marching to her table, just to prove to himself that he could. If it was true she’d gotten engaged, he could buy her table a bottle of whatever passed for champagne here.
He was mulling over the merits of this idea when Hyatt announced in an unsubtle stage whisper, “Incoming hottie.”
The brunette? Justin swiveled in his seat, then sighed heavily. Lina. What had he done to deserve being accosted by her twice in one week? He stood, putting some distance between him and his buddies, potentially shameless eavesdroppers.
With her hair in loose curls over the shoulder of her knit dress, it was understandable that some men found her attractive. But all Justin felt when he looked at her was mild exasperation and confusion about why people called her the pretty Donnelly.
He kept his voice low. “Come to yell at me some more?”
She wasn’t scowling tonight. Instead, she leaned into him, beaming as though he’d invented chocolate. “Do you know what I’ve realized? In the entire time we’ve known each other, I don’t think you’ve ever asked me to dance.” She put her hand on his arm and batted her lashes.
He was tempted to ask how many of the one-dollar pitchers she’d enjoyed. But her gaze was alert and stony, belying the flirtatious tone of her voice.
“So how about it?” she purred. “Dance with me?”
As different as the Donnelly twins were, he knew they were as loyal to each other as he was to his own siblings. There was absolutely no way Lina would hit on her sister’s ex-boyfriend, especially not right in front of Elisabeth. So what was going on?
Curiosity more than anything else prompted him to agree. “One dance.”
The music was mostly masked by the cacophony of a packed bar, but buried beneath the ambient noise was a discernible bass line. He let her lead the way onto the floor, rolling his eyes when she tottered in a pair of high heels that were ridiculous for December. “You’re going to sprain an ankle in those,” he predicted.
“Nonsense. They’re new. I’ll be fine once they’re broken in.” She shimmied and wriggled to the beat. “Besides, they make my legs look fabulous.” Pausing expectantly, she gave him a chance to agree, but he was unwilling to engage in the pseudo-flirting.
He retreated a step. “What are you up to?”
She sighed. “When I saw you at the ski shop, I’d just found out about Elisabeth’s engagement and my emotions got the best of me.”
“So you wanted to apologize?”
“Hell, no. Dancing with you serves a two-fold purpose. Elisabeth recently claimed she didn’t give a rodent’s butt who you date, and I’m challenging that assertion. Let’s see if my dancing with you bothers her.”
“It’s bothering me,” he muttered.
“Also, I never got around to what I actually meant to ask you on Sunday. I want you to talk to her.”
“What?” He froze, abandoning even the halfhearted attempt at dancing. “Bad idea. She doesn’t want advice from me.”
“She doesn’t want advice from anyone. I think she’s trying to prove something about having control of her life and making savvy decisions but, Justin, I know my sister. She’ll regret this. Steven gets here Thursday night—that’s her fiancé.”
The word scraped across his nerves like the sharp, unexpected sting of a paper cut.
“Promise me you’ll talk to her before he arrives?” Lina cajoled. “It’s a long shot, but maybe if you seem sorry you ended things—”
“I’m not. And I won’t lie to her.” Justin was not a great boyfriend. But he was, at the very least, honest with the women in his life.
“Then just ask her if she’s happy. She’s had years of practice managing me and our parents, and she keeps deflecting us. Maybe if you’re the one who confronts her, you’ll catch her off guard enough to make her think about it. Call her, and I’ll never bother you again.”
“I’m telling you, she won’t listen to anything I say.”
“Maybe, maybe not. How will you know if you don’t try? I don’t think you’re prepared for how focused I am when I want something.” She put her hands on her hips. “This is my hometown, too, Justin. We could run into each other a lot in the next few weeks.”
He really, really should have gone straight home tonight. “Your parents are decent people. Do they know you’re out threatening the populace?”
“Not the populace, slick, just you. Think I’m an unstable pain in the ass now? Wait until the person who’s always been the steadying influence in my life moves to California.”
That far away? The information thudded to the pit of his stomach. “I’ll call her before Thursday night.” Even if Elisabeth hung up on him, he would have fulfilled his end of the bargain. “But the next time you spot me in a public place, Miss Donnelly? Forget you know me.”
* * *
SINCE NONE OF the patrollers had seen their waitress in half an hour, Justin volunteered to go to the bar for a couple of waters and a coffee for Grainger. Trying to get through the crowd gave him some appreciation for what salmon had to endure to swim upstream. For the most part, all he could do was move when the crush of people around him did and try not to knock anyone over whenever movement halted—not that there was enough room for someone to actually fall in this throng.
The teeming mass thinned out slightly near the restrooms as some reached their destination, but others entered the fray, trying to return to their tables. He found himself face-to-face, body to body, with Elisabeth. Recognition burned through him, the visceral acknowledgment of this woman as his lover.
Ex-lover.
Very ex. But his five senses didn’t register the change of status. Her dress reminded him of a trench coat, buttoned down the front and belted with a knotted sash. He wanted to tug it, to unwrap her. Unlike her sister’s crazy five-inch heels, Elisabeth wore a pair of leather boots that disappeared beneath the hem of her dress. It suddenly seemed urgent to find out how high up those boots went.
Aware that her startled expression was blossoming into one of disapproval, he tried not to picture her wearing nothing but the boots.
Color climbed in her cheeks. “You’re in my way.”
“Or you’re in mine,” he countered with a grin. “Depends on how you look at it.”
She huffed out a frustrated breath and angled her body sideways, wiggling so that she had room to pass between him and the wall to his left.
Follow the beautiful redhead or continue his trip to the bar? He changed direction before he even finished the thought. The bar could wait. “I don’t know if you saw me on the dance floor with Lina—” who’d certainly been doing her part to sell the spectacle “—but nothing happened between us.”
“That’s why you’re stalking me?” Elisabeth cast a quelling glance over her shoulder. “To clarify a meaningless dance with my mule-headed sister? Because I was deeply concerned about your publicly seducing her in the span of a three-minute song. Thank God you’ve cleared up the matter or I never would’ve been able to sleep tonight.”
Her waspish sarcasm was invigorating. Everyone thought of Elisabeth Donnelly as levelheaded and reserved. It was a perverse point of pride that he could ruffle her feathers.
Now that they were farther from both the bar and the restrooms, there was more open space around them. He took advantage of the opportunity, gently steering her toward a recessed indentation in the wall. It was the kind of alcove that had probably housed a pay phone in the days before everyone carried a cell.
She swatted his hand away from her shoulder. “I have friends waiting for me.” The light caught the diamond ring she wore.
“It’s true, then.” Seeing the proof of her engagement was different than hearing about it from Lina. Something unpleasant rippled through him, like the chills he’d experienced last time he had the flu. “You’re getting married.”
She met his gaze, her expression challenging. “Yes, I am.”
“And moving away?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes. Heading to California, trading snowboards for surfboards.” Her words had a rehearsed quality, as if she’d made the same crack to others. Her pinched expression didn’t reveal any eagerness for the relocation.
“How’s Kaylee feel about it?” he asked softly. Justin knew what it was like to lose a parent. He couldn’t imagine how much worse it would have been for him as a kid if his aunt had uprooted him and his siblings, removing them from the warm support of the community.
Fury sparked in Elisabeth’s eyes. “Don’t you dare ask about her like some concerned friend or kindly uncle. You made it pretty clear you don’t give a damn about either of us, or about anyone else but yourself.”
The unexpected words wounded him. She couldn’t really believe that, could she? “Now wait a—”
But she’d already twisted away and was merging back into the press of happily tipsy patrons. Justin’s instincts screamed at him to follow, to plead his case, but the rational part of him knew it was smarter to let her go.
Letting her go had always been the right choice.
Chapter Three
Wednesday was a busy day on the mountain. Justin had reported for work at seven-thirty in the morning, starting with a rundown on the day’s weather conditions and post assignments. Shortly after tourists began hitting the slopes, a skier had broken her wrist. Justin took her by toboggan to get medical attention. After an early lunch, he assisted with some training and taught a CPR class. The entire day felt like one fast-paced blur of activity, and before he knew it, he was in his SUV headed to Arden’s for dinner.
His sister, like his ex-girlfriend, was also engaged to be married. Soon Arden would become Mrs. Garrett Frost. Garrett spent as much time in Cielo Peak as he could, but his family’s ranch a couple of hours to the east required his attention. Whenever Garrett couldn’t be in town, Justin made it a point to check in on Arden and two-month-old Hope. Plus, Arden was a terrific cook. It was no hardship to exchange the occasional night of his bachelor lifestyle for one of her home-cooked meals and the chance to cuddle his niece.
As much as Justin loved baby Hope, the day she’d been born had been one of the scariest of his life. Arden and Garrett had been temporarily estranged, and the cowboy hadn’t been anywhere near Cielo Peak when Arden went into premature labor. Justin had been with her at the hospital while doctors explained the complications and dangers she faced. He’d been terrified he was about to lose another loved one.
When he was ten, his mom had died the week after Thanksgiving; his father passed away a few years later. Justin and Arden had been raised in part by an elderly aunt but mostly by their older brother, Colin. The Cade siblings had banded together in a tight family unit, which had expanded when Colin married. Tragedy lashed out at them again when a car accident took Colin’s wife and toddler son. If anything had happened to Arden...
But she was fine, Justin reminded himself. His niece was a healthy, beautiful baby, and his sister was ecstatic about her February wedding. She made frequent jokes about how she and Garrett had approached their relationship backward, but Justin privately doubted she’d change a thing that had brought them to this point. She’d never been happier.
When he turned onto Arden’s street, Justin’s mouth fell open in disbelief. Her entire house was outlined in twinkling white lights. The trees in the yard were adorned with red and green bulbs that blinked in a frenetic pattern. A spotlight shone on an inflatable polar bear that seemed nearly as tall as Justin’s six-foot-two height. A moving train circled the bear. Justin practically needed sunglasses to park in the driveway.
Since Arden was expecting him and he never knew when the baby might be asleep, he let himself in without knocking. “It’s me,” he called softly. He followed the mouthwatering smell of roast beef and the rhythmic sound of a mechanized baby swing to the kitchen.
Hope was safely harnessed into the reclining swing, watching the mobile of brightly colored animals above her head. Her eyelids were beginning to droop, though. She had the Cade eyes, the same deep blue-green that Justin and his siblings shared. Her hair was black like her father’s, a much darker shade than Arden’s or Justin’s brown hair.
Justin dropped a quick kiss on his sister’s forehead, then jerked his thumb toward the front of the house. “Don’t you think your cowboy got a little carried away? It’s like the freaking Vegas Strip out there.”
“Isn’t it great?” Arden beamed at him. “I admit, we probably went overboard, but...this is Hope’s first Christmas. We want to make it special.”
And special was synonymous with able to see the house from space? He bit back the reminder that Hope was only two months old and wouldn’t even remember the seizure-inducing light show when she was older. Why allow his bah-humbug tendencies to ruin other people’s joy?
Arden’s smile faded, and her voice took on an audible ache. “Speaking of Christmas...our brother is dodging me.”
“Left him a message a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t return my call, either,” Justin commiserated.
She banged a wooden spoon down next to the stove. “Thanksgiving was bad enough! Colin didn’t come to town, and you took the holiday shift at the ambulance station.”
“I didn’t mind,” he assured her. “I would’ve been in the way here. You and Garrett were still adjusting to the baby, and you needed the bonding time with your future in-laws.”
She wasn’t mollified. “No one’s Thanksgiving should be limited to a couple of turkey slices on nutritionally bankrupt white bread! You only got away with it because in November, I was exhausted and recovering from the C-section. I was in no condition to pitch a fit. But I swear, if you and Colin aren’t both here for Christmas, I will throw an unholy tantrum the likes of which you’ve never seen. It’s more than Hope’s first Christmas. It’s my last one as a Cade. As much as I can’t wait to marry Garrett, moving to the ranch will change things.”
“It’s not your last anything.” He hugged her. “You’ll always be a Cade.”
“Will you try to talk to Colin? For me?”
Justin stifled a sigh. She was asking him—the guy who wanted to rip December off the calendar and skip straight into the New Year—to be her ambassador for a big family celebration? “All right. I’ll get him here even if I have to track him down and toss him into the trunk of my SUV.”
“Thank you.” With that settled, she handed him a platter of roasted carrots and potatoes to carry to the table.
Throughout the meal, they chatted about their jobs. Arden, a professional photographer, regaled him with anecdotes of her afternoon trying to take a four-generation family portrait.
“There were twenty-eight of them! They wouldn’t fit in my studio, and it’s too cold to shoot outside. We got to use the Cielo Peak performance hall because the family makes annual contributions and one of the sisters plays in the jazz ensemble. The great-grandfather nodded off twice while I was trying to arrange everyone. Between trying to keep him awake and trying to keep the toddler from fussing, it was the most challenging job I’ve had since the Cavanaugh wedding where the bride wanted a picture with her biological parents—a divorced couple who hadn’t set foot in the same room in seventeen years.”
That led into a discussion of Arden’s own wedding plans, and Justin was happy to listen as he polished off the last of his roast beef. Or, at least, half listen. He would take a bullet for his sister, but he wasn’t cut out for conversations about the color of pew-bows. So it took him by surprise when conversation halted, his sister peering at him as if awaiting a reply.
He stalled brilliantly. “Um...”
“You men can talk trivial sports statistics until the cows come home, but can’t sit through five minutes of wedding updates! I asked if you thought you might bring a date to the ceremony. While it’s customary to allow guests a plus-one, it’s not like you’re dating—”
“Untrue. I date all the time.”
She rolled her eyes. “My point exactly. You don’t have a girlfriend, and God knows Colin will come alone. Assuming he even attends.”
The doubt in her tone was wrenching. “Hey, he wouldn’t miss this for the world. He agreed to walk you down the aisle.”
“I know. But...sometimes it feels like we’ve lost him. I wonder if we should have tried harder to keep him here instead of letting him roam the countryside, doing odd jobs on ranches. This will sound stupid, but I worry that if he drifts too far out of orbit, he won’t be able to find his way home.”
Justin stood, clearing plates from the table. Would it be cruel to point out that Colin had lost his wife and child and probably needed distance from Arden, who now had her own child and was about to become a wife? No matter how sincerely Colin wanted his sister’s happiness, her bliss couldn’t be easy to be around.
After a moment, she joined him at the sink, her earlier sadness replaced with an air of determination that never boded well. She smiled. “Speaking of your abysmal dating habits—”
“We weren’t. We were discussing our drifter brother and how we should save him from himself. Let’s explore that further.”
She ignored him. “Christmas is a special time.”
It was eerie how much she sounded like their mother. Arden had only been four when their mom got sick. Did she remember that Christmas had been Rebecca Cade’s favorite time of year? Did Arden recall any of the traditions that had faded once their mom was gone? For a second, the kitchen around him seemed filled with the aroma of spicy sausage balls and the sharp sweetness of lemon bars. He recalled the music of his mom’s laugh after she routinely tried—and failed—to hit the high note in “O Holy Night.”
“It’s a time,” Arden continued, “of reconnection. Even if you haven’t spoken to someone in months, you can send them a card.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why do I think you mean ‘someone’ specific?”
“You never should have let her go.” Arden’s voice was soft, but the reproving note echoed all around him. “As I’ve said many times before, you and Elisabeth were great together.”
“You have a point. Not about us being great, but about you saying it many, many times. Give it a rest, will you?”
“Colin has gone God knows where, so I can’t help him. Maybe I still have a shot at getting you to fix your messes before I move to the ranch. I know we joke about your love life, but breaking up with Elisabeth Donnelly was the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”
It hadn’t been stupidity. It had been self-preservation. But he couldn’t explain to his happily engaged sister the claustrophobia he’d experienced during dinners with the Donnellys or the clawing panic as Elisabeth watched her friend Michelle succumb to the same disease that had taken his mother. His growing attachment to Elisabeth and her family had been uncomfortable enough, but then Kaylee had started visiting during some of her mom’s hospital stays...
He cleared his throat, shoving the memories aside. “You don’t have to worry about Elisabeth Donnelly. She’s found some businessman. You can bet they have more in common than she and I ever did.”
If Elisabeth decided to enter the corporate world, she was bright enough to fast-track herself to a fancy corner office and well-dressed minions. Meanwhile, Justin worked three different jobs in the course of a year to compensate for the off-season and lived in a rented house. His ambitions were about conquering black diamond trails, not making money or building a legacy.
“She has a boyfriend?” Arden frowned. “It’s a small town, and I haven’t seen her with anyone. Maybe it’s not serious.”
“Serious enough that he proposed and she said yes.”
“What?”
He leaned against the counter, his pose relaxed. It was important that Arden saw how unbothered he was by Elisabeth’s engagement. “They have a long-distance relationship—even longer distance than you and the cowboy. I ran into Lina on Sunday, and she filled me in on the details.” He omitted the part about how Lina thought the engagement was a mistake and blamed Justin for her sister’s rash decision.
“Oh.” Arden’s forehead furrowed into pensive lines. “I was so sure you and she...”
“Sis, I’m glad you found true love, but that doesn’t give you magical insight into everyone else’s personal lives.” No matter how fervently she insisted he and Elisabeth belonged together, stubbornness did not equal truth. “No more unsolicited opinions, okay?”