Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch (Gold Valley #13)(30)

CHAPTER EIGHT


IT WAS SURPRISINGLY companionable to live with Callie.

When she wasn’t driving him crazy.

The problem was that prolonged exposure to her wasn’t making his attraction to her any easier to ignore.

When he’d been around her all day every day at the rodeo, it had been a little easier to manage. They’d seen each other in certain situations, and then they’d gone away from each other.

Living in the same house meant running into her at strange times. Seeing her just after she’d gotten out of the shower, when her skin was still warm from the water, and he could feel it radiating off her form. He saw her barefoot, wandering around in sweats. Saw her in the morning when she was up and rumpled from sleep, a crease from her pillowcase pressed across her cheek.

Intimate things that he’d never really shared with anyone he wasn’t related to. It was downright domestic, and it was playing a weird kind of havoc with his libido. And it was all dumb, because she was his friend. And that was it. But he’d done his damnedest to tell himself that for years now and it hadn’t worked. He still thought she was hot. More than that, the chemistry that he felt between them was tense.

And she might not know it, but he did.

She might not understand that the spark between them meant they could light a mattress on fire. He damn well knew. They’d avoided his family over the last couple of weeks, which he told himself was just because they were busy, but in reality it was because having her as even one more part of his life just felt like a potential assault. But today was the big Daniels family early Christmas celebration, and he was thankful for online shopping and fast shipping, because he’d managed to get everybody gifts at the last minute, including Callie. And they’d come gift wrapped. When he took all the packages out of the closet and started to load them into his truck, Callie look chagrined.

“There are presents?”

“You’re a guest,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Of course. I should’ve brought presents for your family.”

“Don’t worry about it. We make a big fuss out of this stuff. But I’ve never really been... Christmas isn’t my favorite.”

“Oh.”

“It just sucks. You know. Dead parents.” There were other aspects of it, but he didn’t talk about that. Not with anyone. And he wasn’t about to get into it with her now.

“No, I know.”

“It was happier before. That’s the problem.”

“Right.”

“For the little kids... We did our best. We did our very best to make Christmas memories for them, because for most of their lives, for most of their childhoods, they didn’t have parents. They only had what we all put together. And so... We did big gift exchanges, even when we had to make things, or give out hand-me-downs. We made tons of food, and we played music. Saying a lot. Anything to keep it from being quiet. Because how terrible would it have been if poor Rose had to lose her mom and dad when she was nine, and then... Not have Christmas, either? Just because we couldn’t get it together. No, none of us wanted that. So... We just have this Christmas tradition. Where we all get together. We have for a long time.”

“It’s nice. I like it. It makes sense.” She looked so young then. Sad and sincere.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Well, thank you. For inviting me. It sounds like it’s a really important holiday.”

“Yeah, but including people is what we do. We’ve always been like that. My cousin’s wife, Sammy, she moved in with us after... After everything. And she just fit. But having lots of people in the house always made it all feel less like we were missing someone. It was just what we did. What we did to survive it.”

For as long as he’d known Callie, they hadn’t really talked about this. Of course, he never really talked to anyone about it.

Their relationship had always been based on the way they felt about what they did. Not about talking.

Not about real things. They’d probably covered deeper territory than they ever had before since she’d come here.

And it didn’t bother him. Which was maybe the most surprising thing. That he actually...liked talking to her.

Liked listening to her.

“Sounds to me like you did a really good job,” she said.

“I don’t know about that. We just did the best we could. And if denial was part of it, then we were game for a little denial. I think the girls turned out really good, though.”

“Your cousins?”

“Rose and Pansy were really young. Iris was a little older, but still... Not as old as the rest of us. But especially Rose and Pansy. We just wanted to do right by them.”

“It sounds like you did.”

“Yeah, I hope so. I mean, they turned out all right. Pansy being the police chief, and Rose being the badass rancher that she is.”

“They seem really cool.”

“They are.”

They got into the truck and drove to Hope Springs, and Jake did his best to keep his mind out of the past. When they walked in, he introduced Callie as his wife, which was met with riotous applause from his family.

“Not his real wife,” Callie said, her cheeks turning red.

“They know,” he said.

“I think you’re kick-ass,” Rose said, coming up to them both. “You did what needed doing. I admire that. I’m not one to let the grass grow under my feet, either. I like to make things happen.”