A Mistletoe Vow: A Cold Creek Christmas Story / Falling for Mr December / A Husband for the Holidays. RaeAnne Thayne

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СКАЧАТЬ you’ve got some tools I can use and the two-by-fours, I can probably get the frame for it done in no time.”

      She stared at him, green eyes wide behind those sexy glasses she wore. “Seriously?”

      He shrugged. “I started out in carpentry. It’s kind of what I do. This shouldn’t be hard at all—as long as Olivia doesn’t mind hanging around a little longer.”

      “Yay!” Louisa exclaimed. “She can come to the house and decorate the sugar cookies we made last night with Aunt Celeste while our mom was Christmas shopping.”

      Olivia looked suitably intrigued. “I’ve never decorated sugar cookies.”

      “Never?” Celeste exclaimed. She looked surprised enough that Flynn felt a pinch of guilt. Apparently this was another area where he had failed his daughter.

      Olivia shook her head. “Is it hard?”

      “No way,” Louisa answered. “It’s easy and super, super fun. You can decorate the cookies any way you want. There’s no right or wrong. You can use sparkly sugar or M&M’s or frosting or whatever you want.”

      “The best part is, when you mess it up, you get to eat your mistakes,” Barrett added. “Nobody even cares. I mess up a lot.”

      Olivia snickered and Flynn had a feeling she would be messing up plenty, too. What was it with all these Christmas traditions that filled kids with more sugar when they least needed another reason to be excited?

      He had struck out miserably when it came to Christmas traditions this year. At least they had the little Christmas tree at his grandmother’s house for decoration, but that was about it.

      Olivia had insisted she hoped Santa Claus wouldn’t come that year, but he had disregarded her wishes and bought several things online for her. A few other presents would be waiting back in California, sort of a delayed holiday, simply because the new bike her physical therapist suggested was too big for the journey here in his SUV.

      Next year would be different, he told himself. By this time next year they would be established in a routine back in California. They could hang stockings and put up a tree of their own and decorate all the sugar cookies she wanted, even if he had to order ready-made plain cookies from his favorite bakery.

      The idea of returning to a routine after the stress of the past few months should have been appealing. Instead, it left him remarkably unenthused.

      “May I go, Dad? I really, really, really want to decorate cookies.”

      He was torn between his desire to keep her close and his deep relief that she was so obviously enjoying the company of other children. She would enjoy the cookie decorating far more than she would enjoy sitting around and watching him work a band saw.

      “Are you sure your aunt won’t mind one more?” he asked Celeste.

      “Are you kidding? Mary loves a crowd. The more the merrier, as far as she’s concerned.” She smiled a little. “And look at it this way. You’ll probably come out of the whole thing with cookies to take home.”

      “Well, in that case, how can I say no? A guy always needs a few more cookies.”

      “Yay! I can go,” Olivia told the other children as if they hadn’t been right there to hear her father’s decision.

      “Put the cards away first and then get your coats on. Then you can walk up to the house.”

      “You’re not coming?” Olivia asked.

      “I’ll be up later,” she answered with a smile. “But first I have to finish painting some of the scenery.”

      The children cleaned up the cards and returned them to a little tin box, then put on their coats, hats and mittens. As soon as they were on their way, Celeste turned to him with a grateful smile. She looked so fresh and lovely that for a crazy moment, he wished they were alone in the lodge with that big crackling fire.

      Instead, an older woman was setting out prepackaged snacks in what looked like a concessions area and another one was arranging things on a shelf in a gift store. Outside the windows, he could see families beginning to queue up to buy tickets.

      “Is there somewhere I can get going on this? A workshop or something?”

      “Oh.” She looked flustered suddenly and he wondered if something in his expression revealed the fierce attraction simmering through him. “Yes. There’s a building behind back where Rafe keeps his tools. That’s where I’ve been painting the scenery, too. I’ll show you.”

      She led the way through the lodge to a back door. They walked through the pale winter sunshine to a modern-looking barn a short distance away.

      In a pasture adjacent to the barn, he saw several more reindeer as well as some draft horses.

      “This is where we keep the reindeer at night during the holiday season,” she explained. “There’s Sparkle. Do you see him?”

      As far as he could tell all the reindeer looked the same, but he would take her word for it. “Is he feeling better?”

      “Much. Apparently he only wanted a few days off.”

      “Olivia will be happy to hear that.”

      “He’ll need his strength. This afternoon and evening will be crazy busy.”

      “For the reindeer, too?” he asked, fascinated by the whole idea of an entire operation devoted only to celebrating the holidays.

      “Yes. Hope will probably hook them up to the sleigh for photo ops and short rides. The draft horses, of course, will be taking people on sleigh rides around the ranch, which is a highlight of the season. You should take Olivia. She would love it. It’s really fun riding through the cold, starry night all bundled up in blankets.”

      It did sound appealing—especially if he and Celeste were alone under those blankets...

      He jerked his brain back to the business at hand. He really needed to stop this.

      “We’re only open a few more nights,” she said. “But if you want to take her, let me know and I’ll arrange it.”

      As much as he thought Olivia would enjoy the sleigh ride, he wasn’t at all certain that spending more time at The Christmas Ranch with Celeste and her appealing family would be good for either of them.

      “We’ll see,” he said, unwilling to commit to anything. “Shall we get to it?”

      “Right. Of course.”

      She led him into a well-lit, modern building with stalls along one wall. The rest seemed to be taken up with storage and work space.

      She led him to an open area set up with a band saw, a reciprocating saw, a router and various other power tools, as well as a stack of two-by-fours and sheets of plywood.

      “You might not need to have Rafe run to the lumber yard. You might have everything here.”

      “Great.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ