You Had Me At Christmas: A Holiday Anthology(150)

“If it makes you feel better it’s mostly pro.”

He kissed her and then leaned away, otherwise it would be another hour before they talked about this. “That’s not the gift I wanted to get you. I wanted to buy you that land, the acreage your dad owns that our parents fought over. The land the oil people were interested in. It’s not much—I mean, we could build a house on it someday, but that’s about it. It’s mostly grazing for your dad’s herd. And the mineral rights are pretty significant. But I wanted you to have it. To know that it was going to be in good hands. To know that it wouldn’t cause any more rifts between our families.”

“You wanted to buy that land.”

“I did. And I thought your dad would agree once I told him what it was for. But when I went and talked to him earlier today, he said he’d sold it.” He pulled her in closer, trying to stave off a freakout if that was what was about to happen. “And I know Josh has been leaning hard on him for that land. And I know that your dad is feeling a lot of guilt over his relationship with you, and I don’t know if maybe he sold Josh the land for some stupid amount of money so he could give that money to you.”

“Do you think my dad would do that?”

“When it comes to you, right now, your dad doesn’t make sense all the time.”

“Dad said Josh offered him three million.”

“Oh my God, he did it,” Dean breathed, his stomach in knots. “He sold the land to my * brother. Okay.” He grabbed their beers and put them in the sink. “Go get your shoes.”

“What? Why?”

“We need to go talk to your dad. It’s probably not too late to reverse the sale. Or whatever. Or maybe we should go talk to Josh. Crap. Three million is so much money. We could ask my mom, maybe, but I don’t know if she’s got that.”

“You want to buy the land back from Josh?” she asked.

“What else are we going to do?” He looked at her. “Why are you so calm? It’s freaking me out that you are so calm right now.”

“Because Dad didn’t sell it to Josh. He gave it to me.”

She walked back into the living room, to the tree with the lights and the ornaments, all newly bought this year. She pulled from the branches two envelopes.

One envelope had her name on it and the other envelope had his scrawled across it.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Dad told me about the offer from Josh, and he told me it was tempting so he could give me three million dollars, but that he knew I’d be heartbroken. So he gave me the land. To do whatever I wanted with it. I was talking about it with your mother when we were up in Fort McMurray, and when we got home she gave me this.”

She handed Dean the envelope with his name on it.

“I didn’t open it,” she said. “I was waiting for the morning.”

“I’m so relieved your dad didn’t sell that land,” he said.

“I’m so touched you wanted to buy it.”

He wanted to pull down the moon for her. Buying that land seemed easy.

The envelope in his hand crinkled in his grip. “Open it,” she said. “Now I’m dying of curiosity.”

He tore open the seal and pulled out five pieces of paper.

“It’s a land deed,” he said, rifling through the papers.

For you, the letter said in his mother’s handwriting. My dear Dean. I know you don’t want any part of Dad’s company, but I want to leave you something. Something just for you, for the future. This is the last of my family’s original ranch. My mother deeded it to me with the promise that I would never sell it. And I haven’t. It’s the same promise I am asking you to make. That’s the only string attached. Please don’t sell it. Otherwise it’s yours, in good health.

“She’s giving me some land. Wow, two hundred acres. The last of her mom’s original ranch.”

“Is this a map?” she asked, as one of the other pieces of paper slipped from his hand. They held it together, pulling it straight. “That’s the creek,” she said, “between our properties. That’s the land Dad just gave me.” She pointed to all the land west of the creek. The land east of the creek was marked off in pink highlighter.

“And that’s the land Mom gave me,” he said. The acreage connected at the creek, and together it meant they had roughly three hundred acres of Wyoming.

“Oh my,” she breathed. He glanced over at her and saw the tears in her eyes, and he couldn’t quite hide the tears in his.

It was a legacy, and it was theirs. Without strings. Without poison.

“What a gift,” she breathed. “What a beautiful gift.”

You are, he thought, watching the red Christmas lights turn his skin to rose. You are the gift.

She glanced up and met his eyes, a smile slowly illuminating her face.

“I love Christmas Eve.”

“Come on,” he said, glad to be laughing. “You’re just saying that.”

“Nope. It’s true. As of right now, it’s my favorite day.”

“We fixed it?”

“You fixed it. It was all you, baby.”

He disagreed, but she was kissing him. And taking off that Santa shirt. And then his shirt came off too and he couldn’t remember what he was disagreeing with. It seemed like a bad idea to disagree with a girl who was taking off her pants.