A Maverick under the Mistletoe. Brenda Harlen

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      Chapter Three

      Sutter said goodbye to Collin and Willa and headed back to the Triple T. He bypassed the main house and went directly to Clayton’s residence on the property. Since Clay had moved to Thunder Canyon, his place had become a guest house for visitors, and although Sutter wasn’t technically a guest, he felt more comfortable there than in the main house.

      Mostly he appreciated the privacy and the solitude, and he was grateful for both tonight. He didn’t feel like making idle conversation with anyone, especially not his well-meaning but undeniably interfering mother, and especially not if she’d somehow gotten wind of the fact that Paige had been present at the town hall debate.

      Ellie had always liked Paige, and despite the breakup with Sutter she hadn’t yet given up hope that they might somehow find their way back to one another. So she made a point of keeping him apprised of what was going on in Paige’s life—including the fact that she was dating the mill foreman.

      Sutter knew that the information hadn’t been intended to hurt him but to spur him into action, his mother expecting that he would charge into town and sweep Paige off her feet and into his arms again. Even if he’d thought such a grand gesture might be successful, Sutter knew that he had no right to interfere in her life now. Five years earlier, they’d made their own choices and gone their separate ways.

      And now she was dating Alex Monroe.

      That fact was more difficult to accept than he wanted to acknowledge. He didn’t know Alex well, but he knew who he was and he had nothing against the guy. He just didn’t like the idea of Paige with anyone else.

      Which was admittedly hypocritical considering that he’d hardly lived like a monk in the five years since he’d left Rust Creek Falls. But the truth was, he hadn’t been with anyone since Paige who had made him forget about her.

      He’d fallen in love with her when he was barely seventeen, and with the innocence and conviction of youth, he’d been absolutely certain that he would love her forever. They’d talked about their future together, when they would get married, where they would live, how many children they wanted. And he’d believed that she loved him, too—right up until the moment she’d told him she couldn’t marry him.

      Even five years later, the memory of that impulsive and rejected proposal stung. Because even now he knew he wasn’t completely over his feelings for Paige, while she seemed to have moved on without so much as a backward glance in his direction.

      The fact that she’d bought a house proved to him that she still wanted most of the same things they’d talked about. That she hadn’t let him get past the front door proved that he wasn’t a factor in any of her plans.

      Which, of course, made him wonder if Alex Monroe was. Had she invited him in for coffee? Had he been given a tour of Paige’s house? Had he seen her bedroom? Spent the night in her bed?

      Sutter scowled, acknowledging that those were questions he probably didn’t want to know the answers to—even the speculation was making him crazy.

      He deliberately turned his thoughts to why she’d moved out of her parents’ house. Maybe she’d wanted to be closer to her job, although a couple of blocks hardly made a difference. In a town like Rust Creek Falls, commuting times were never a concern.

      More likely she’d wanted her own space, more independence. Paige had always been close to her family, but she’d often chafed at their rules and restrictions. It was a common complaint of many teenagers, but she was a grown woman now, an incredibly beautiful woman living alone in a house that was probably just waiting for the children she’d always wanted.

      He poured himself a glass of whiskey and swallowed it in a single gulp. The liquor burned a path down his throat and into his belly, but it didn’t touch the aching emptiness in his heart. So he poured himself a second drink and was considering a third when he realized what he was doing. He pushed the bottle aside and headed to bed.

      It had been a lot of years since he’d drunk himself into a stupor over a woman, and even that hadn’t helped him forget either the pain or the loneliness. Of course, it had been Paige then, too, and he wasn’t going to go down that path again.

      It was a decision he found himself questioning later. If he’d consumed enough alcohol to pass out drunk, maybe he wouldn’t have been able to dream. Because when he finally did fall asleep, his dreams were filled with images of Paige, past and present. Memories mingled with fantasy in an enticing montage that teased and tormented him through the night.

      When he finally woke the next morning with his heart pounding and the sheets twisted around his body, he actually ached for her.

      * * *

      Teaching wasn’t an easy job at the best of times, and these were definitely not the best of times. There was so much going on in the town, so many families who had been displaced and so many demands on Paige’s time and attention that she sometimes didn’t know which direction to turn. As if all of that wasn’t enough, Sutter Traub had planted himself in the middle of everything by getting involved with his brother’s mayoral campaign and churning up a lot of feelings she’d thought were long dead—or at least deeply buried.

      She walked around the long table that had been set up in her living-room-turned-classroom to check on the mock campaign posters her students were creating. Early on in her teaching career, she’d realized that kids learned more easily and maintained information more readily when they could relate the lessons to real life, so she’d talked about the recent flood during a unit on environmental studies and had worked the upcoming election into their discussion about governments.

      The latter had certainly given her some insights into the political leanings of many local families, and though the СКАЧАТЬ