A Chance This Christmas(35)

Rachel wasn’t prepared to do battle with the whole family. She took an involuntary step backward on the snowy front step, her boot heel slipping off the stair so she had to make a quick grab for the handrail.

Emma intercepted her mother, however, taking both of the smaller woman’s shoulders in her hands. “Mom, it’s fine.” Emma held up the dress Rachel dropped off. “Let’s try out my gown while Luke handles this, okay?”

Mrs. Harris stared at Rachel for a long moment, her dark eyes similar to her son’s. Thankfully, Luke stepped into a pair of boots by the doorway. “I’ve got this, Mom. I’ll be back in a minute.”

As he exited the house and closed the door behind him, Rachel couldn’t decide if she felt relieved not to have to enter the Harris domain, or offended that she hadn’t been invited. Remembering that she was trying to let go of her old grudge against Yuletide, she went with the former. At least she could breathe freely away from his family.

“Do you mind if we talk out here?” Luke gestured toward a circle of holiday inflatables on the front lawn—Frosty pirouetted on a pair of ice skates, Rudolph leaped over a moon, and Santa waved a bell from his sleigh. In the middle of the huge, lit figures, a wooden bench sat under an arbor draped with plastic poinsettias.

“Sure.” She followed him to the bench, but when he didn’t take a seat, she didn’t either. “Listen, I won’t keep you from your family. I know it’s a big weekend. Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thank you.” He nodded, folding his arms. Listening.

But would he be receptive to her message? Everything about his posture suggested he was skeptical. Frankly, it seemed silly and unfair.

“I miss Kiersten,” she began, not knowing where else to start since she didn’t feel the need to apologize for anything. “She’s important to me, and I wish I could spend more time with her. But I think it’s awkward for her since you and I have a strained relationship at best.”

Still he said nothing, but at least he acknowledged her words with a nod. Perhaps, she realized, that was one of the reasons they hadn’t made a good couple. They both tended to retreat after a disagreement, whereas Gavin and Kiersten were more outgoing and willing to discuss the difficult topics, like their feelings.

“So,” she pressed onward, needing closure. That was the whole reason she’d come here. To make peace. “I want to see if there’s any way you and I can move forward. Put the past behind us and be…if not friends, maybe we could at least be friendly? We were all friends long before that day you proposed.”

Snow fell on Luke’s head and shoulders, matting down the top of his hair. He looked thoughtful. “Can I ask you a question?”

“I wish you would. I’m here to clear the air.” Her gaze wandered over him, and while she could see, on an intellectual level, that he was still a good-looking man, she didn’t feel any of the spark she felt whenever Gavin was around.

“Do you know where your father went when he left Yuletide?”

“Until two days ago, I had no earthly clue. But the other night, my mother told me that she gave the police his phone records that showed he’d been calling a Caribbean island in the weeks before he left.” She shrugged, grateful for the hood of her voluminous cape as the snow fell harder.

“The Caribbean? Do you know where?” Luke straightened, eyes narrowed.

“I didn’t ask her. She told the police about it, however. They knew.”

Luke nodded, looking thoughtful.

“Anyhow, while his defection hit the town hard financially, it hurt my mother and I on every other imaginable level. If I spoke sharply to you afterward, and I’m sure I did, I am sorry about that. But my mind wasn’t on you or Gavin. Losing my father that way really devastated me.”

A weight seemed to lift off her as she shared the truth. Her father’s betrayal had hurt her deeply and always would. At least she’d finally had a chance to confide that to Luke since she’d been too upset to articulate it at the time.

Luke nodded. “I understand that,” he acknowledged before his gaze snapped up. “My parents might not have liked your father, but I always admired the way he treated Gavin. Going to races and stuff. That was very cool of him.”

Toward the driveway. She turned to follow his glance and spotted Gavin’s pickup, the headlights cutting a path through the snowfall even though it was still daylight. The grayness of winter and the precipitation limited visibility.

Rachel’s heartbeat quickened as he stepped out of the truck, lifting his hand to wave at them. Those sparks stirred inside her.

“So do you think we can move forward without all this awkwardness between us?” she pressed Luke, wanting to finish the conversation she’d come home to have.

“I want to trust you, Rachel,” he said, his dark eyes on her again. “Because two people who are important to me care about you a whole lot. And I don’t want to see either of them hurt.”

Her chest tightened at the implication that Gavin cared about her. That he hadn’t hesitated to let Luke know as much. But then again, Luke wanting to trust her wasn’t the same as trusting her. Or forgiving her.

But by the time she processed that, Gavin had reached them, his gray down vest and blue ski cap as impervious to the snow as the rest of him. He grinned widely.