Three Nights before Christmas (17 page)

Sawyer and Jenna didn’t return for several hours. Jenna had called from the hospital to say the leg was definitely broken and Sawyer would need to stay off it for weeks, so Lacey started putting a plan together. The woman who ran the shop, Margie, said her teenage daughter would love to earn some extra money before the holidays, and Henry put in a call to his brother to see if he’d be willing to work over the coming week.

Lacey had everything running smoothly and was loading more firewood into the barrels when Jenna approached. Lacey immediately swiped her gloved hands against her thighs and asked, “How are you?”

Jenna’s brows twitched. “Me?”

“Yeah. I can guess how Sawyer is. I don’t think I ever told you this, but our great-great grandfather used to drive a mule train up on Copper Mountain. I always felt like something funny must’ve happened with one of the animals, because I got the guy’s passion for driving trains, while Sawyer inherited the personality of a mule.”

Jenna rolled her lips, clearly trying not to laugh. “Yeah, he’s a piece of work.”

“That’s a polite way of putting it. Did the doc give you any more details?”

“They put him in a splint till the swelling goes down. He’ll have to wear a cast for at least a month. Right now the most important thing is for him to rest and keep his leg elevated.”

Lacey’s gaze drifted over Jenna’s shoulder to find Sawyer hobbling along, balancing precariously on one crutch as he looked around the farm.

“You’re freaking
kidding
me,” she muttered, storming toward him.

He held up a hand to ward her off. “Don’t start.”

“You’re supposed to be resting with your leg elevated.”

He glared at Jenna, as if he might be able to intimidate her, but she just calmly replied, “Someone has to be sensible around here.”

“Yeah—me,” he replied. “The guy who runs this place. The guy who employs all these people and keeps food on their tables.”

His lack of trust grated her last nerve down to nothing. She pointed out how she’d covered the work, but instead of acknowledging her competence, he just pushed her buttons until she snapped, “If you don’t go inside and look after yourself, I am going break your good leg. You feeling me?”

He leveled her with a serious look. “I want a full rundown on everything tonight.”

“No shit.” She jerked her chin toward the cabin. “Off you go, you big idiot.”

He went, but his capitulation was short-lived. When she and Jenna returned to the cabin after closing up the farm, the lug nut was cooking for them. Lacey found him in the kitchen, stirring a pot. Incredulous, she said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you want to mess up your leg? Is that what this is about?”

“Calm down. I’ve been resting for the past few hours. I figured you’d both want dinner when you came in.”

It was so painfully obvious who he was trying to impress that Lacey wanted to smack some sense into him. Instead, she snatched the spoon from his hand and said, “I cannot believe you call yourself an adult. Go put your leg up.”

The night just got worse from there. He grilled her over dinner about the decisions she’d made in his absence and then started mansplaining the business to her.

“We need to show we can handle this level of traffic, or people just won’t bother coming out here next year,” he said. “No one wants to wait twenty minutes to be served when they can just grab a tree in town.”

“I know all this, Sawyer.” She stabbed at her chili, wishing the hunk of beef was his head. If he kept talking, it might be.

“So, you’ll stay in the barn tomorrow and make sure things are going smoothly?”

“I’ll keep an eye on things, but Margie and her daughter have got it covered and I’m more use helping people on the yard and baling trees.”

“If Henry’s brother is helping out, he can man the back lot and Henry can work the yard. I want you keeping an eye on customer service in the barn.”

“How about you let me handle it my way?” Lacey asked.

“Because I know my way works. I’ve been doing this for more than ten years,” Sawyer said.

She’d heard as much as she could take. Any more and she really would hurt him. She stood and let her empty bowl clatter onto the coffee table. “I don’t know what pain meds they’ve got you on, or if you need more of them, but I really hope you’re not going to be like this for however long it takes your leg to get better.”

She walked toward the hall.

“Don’t walk out on me when I can’t follow you, Lacey,” Sawyer called after her.

Lacey spun toward him, annoyance whipping through her. “Then don’t talk to me like I’m subnormal.”

“Why can’t you just
damn well listen
for once in your life?” His furious shout made her ears ring.

Listen?
Listen?
All she’d been doing all night was effing
listen
. Her voice vibrated with all the hurt and frustration she was fighting so hard to restrain. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re fucking hopeless when you get an idea in your head,” he bit out. “Just like with that asshole. I warned you against him, but you ignored me and look where we are now.”

Sawyer’s words hit her like a physical blow, knocking her breath away. If she opened her mouth to speak, she would scream until her throat bled. There it was, the accusation he’d wanted to fling at her for years but never had, probably because she’d been locked away and he hadn’t wanted to make a horrible situation worse. But now that she was out and living under his roof?

Time to pour salt in festering wounds, apparently.

She clamped her jaw shut, spun away, and strode straight out of the cabin into the frigid night.

*

Austin had just
settled down on the couch with a big plate of no-longer-frozen chicken potpie when his cell phone buzzed. Sliding the plate onto his coffee table, he fished his phone out of his pocket.

Lacey.

He answered. “Hey. How’s your brother?”

Dead silence seethed over the line. He sat forward, something telling him she hadn’t accidentally butt-dialed him. “Lace? What’s wrong?”

Shit, shit.
She’d called him a few hours ago to say Sawyer had been hit by a truck backing out of a parking space, and she wouldn’t be able to work on Lucinda with him tonight. He’d hoped to hear from her, even as he’d berated himself for hoping. But now, worry shot through him. She’d said she thought Sawyer’s leg was broken. What if his leg had been so mangled they couldn’t save it? What if there’d been internal bleeding?

All he heard was her choked breathing.

“Lacey, come on, honey. Talk to me.” He white-knuckled the phone as he stood, taking his potpie back into the kitchen and shoving it in the fridge. He had just grabbed the keys to his truck when she spoke, quietly and unsteadily.

“He makes me so angry sometimes. So freaking
angry
.”

A little of the worry melted away. “I’m guessing you mean Sawyer. Is he back at the farm?”

“Yeah. He and Jenna got back a little bit ago.”

Jenna—her lawyer, who’d apparently driven Sawyer to the hospital. Lacey had told him about it earlier. Seemed a funny thing for a lawyer to offer to do, but since Lacey couldn’t legally drive he figured it made sense.

“And is it what you thought? A broken leg?”

“Yeah. Everything else is intact, including that massive chip on his shoulder.”

Austin sat at the kitchen table and leaned his head against the wall. “Strange. The rest of his family is so meek.”

She made a noise that sounded like it was caught between a laugh and a sob.

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” she said, sounding defeated.

“Something,” he argued. “Come on. Talk to me.”

She sighed, and the sad sound wormed its way straight into his heart. “We had an argument. A biggie. Worse—a million times worse—Jenna witnessed the whole thing. Do you have any idea how humiliating it is having people see how broken your family is?”

He grimaced. “Honey, my family fell apart when I was about eighteen months old. My whole life has been people commenting on my family, pointing out how my half brother and sister don’t look anything like me and Wyatt, or asking if my parents will ever reconcile since they never got divorced, or asking if my dad still hates my mom. So, yeah, I know a thing or two about how humiliating that is.”

“God, of course you do,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I—well, I probably shouldn’t admit this, after what you just said, but I remember my mom telling me about your mom’s affair. It must’ve been really tough for you kids, growing up with that.”

He shrugged, as if she could see it. “It is what it is. And I wouldn’t worry about Jenna witnessing it. She’s a criminal lawyer. She’s definitely seen families a billion times more broken than yours.”

“Yeah, she said something similar. She was just out here trying to tell me that Sawyer snapped because he’s concerned about me.”

His brows drew down, and he sat up. “Out where?”

“Oh. I forgot you can’t see me. I needed some space, so I’m outside.”

He glanced out the window at the drifts of snow surrounding the old station house. “Lacey, it’s ten below outside. Get back in the cabin.”

Her voice weary, she pleaded, “Please, for the love of God, don’t start. I really can’t take it.”

He bit back his impulse to badger her until she went back inside. “Fine. But if the line goes silent, I’m coming down there.”

“Actually, that’s why I was calling.”

Ah. So she hadn’t intended to turn to him in her hour of need; she’d just wanted to pass along some information. That shouldn’t bother him, but for some reason it was like jabbing a bruise. Still, she
had
opened up to him, even if she hadn’t intended to, and that was worth something. “What’s up?”

“I need to manage the farm till Christmas, or till we run out of stock, whichever comes first. So I won’t be up at the back lot.”

Which meant he wouldn’t be able to manufacture excuses to see her. The news just got worse.

“Since the farm doesn’t open till noon on weekdays,” she continued, “I thought I could come up and work on Lucinda in the mornings before getting back here to open up. But I’d need a ride.”

“You’ve got a ride,” he promised. “What time should I pick you up tomorrow?”

‡

T
he sun hadn’t
even broken over the eastern horizon when Lacey crept out of the cabin and down the stairs to Austin’s waiting truck. He got out and rounded the hood to draw her into his arms, and she pressed up on her toes to meet his mouth in a sweet, good-morning kiss.

“Mmm,” he smiled. “Nice way to start the day.”

“Start?” she teased. “Lazy. I’ve been up for over an hour.”

His hands explored her curves, giving her an excuse to run her own hands over his broad shoulders and amazing arms. Their thick winter coats got in the way. If only it weren’t so frickin’ cold out, she might be able to get closer.

“You were that excited to see me, huh?”

Her grin broke loose. “Something like that. Come on, I’m desperate to get out of here. Today you get to be my knight in shining armor instead of me being yours.”

He laughed and held her hand till they got to the truck. After opening the door for her and handing her in, he gave her another quick kiss that turned into a slow kiss that turned into him unzipping her jacket to reach inside and stroke her breast. Her head fell back against the headrest, and she breathed as if she’d just run a race. “Austin—”

“Shit. Not here. Let’s get home.”

Together, they worked on Lucinda for a couple of hours. When they needed to refuel themselves, Austin brought breakfast out to the annex—simple oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. She never thought she’d say it, but the carbs tasted amazing after several weeks of Sawyer’s saber-toothed tiger diet.

They ate in comfortable silence. The difference between her last two meals stuck out sharply to Lacey. She could sit next to Austin and not worry he was silently blaming her for past mistakes, even though he’d seen them more closely than anyone else. She could eat with him and not get stomach cramps from holding in all the things she wanted to say.