Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carrera's Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses

She caught her breath. She couldn’t resist him. But it was tearing her apart, to think that he might be caught in a web of deception laced by guilt. She looked up into his eyes with real pain.

He traced her lips with his forefinger. “When you’re back on your feet,” he whispered, “we have to talk.”

She managed a smile. “Okay.” Because she knew that, by then, she’d find a way to ease his guilt, and Odalie’s, and step out of the picture. She wasn’t going to let them sacrifice their happiness for her. That was far too much.

He kissed her again and stood up, smiling. “So when are you going to give it to her?”

“Tomorrow,” she decided.

“I’ll make sure she comes over.”

“Thanks.”

He shrugged and then smiled. “She’s going to be over the moon when she sees it.”

That was an understatement. Odalie cried. She turned the little fairy around and around in her elegant hands, gasping at the level of detail in the features that were so exactly like her own.

“It’s the most beautiful gift I’ve ever been given.”

She put it down, very gently, and hugged Maddie as carefully as she could. “You sweetie!” she exclaimed. “I’ll never be able to thank you. It looks just like me!”

Maddie chuckled. “I’m glad you like it.”

“You have to let me talk to my friend at the art gallery,” Odalie said.

Maddie hesitated. “Maybe someday,” she faltered. “Maybe.”

“But you have so much talent, Maddie. It’s such a gift.”

Maddie flushed. “Thanks.”

Odalie kept trying, but she couldn’t move the other girl. Not at all.

“Okay,” she relented. “You know your own mind. Oh, goodness, what is that?” she exclaimed, indicating a cameo lying beside another fairy, a black-haired one sitting on a riverbank holding a book.

Maddie told her the story of the antique dealer and the cameo that had no family to inherit.

“What an incredible story,” Odalie said, impressed. “She’s quite beautiful. You can do that, from a picture?”

Maddie laughed. “I did yours from the one in our school yearbook,” she said, and this time she didn’t flinch remembering the past.

Odalie looked uncomfortable, but she didn’t refer to it. Perhaps in time she and Maddie could both let go of that terrible memory. “Maddie, could you do one of my great-grandmother if I brought you a picture of her? It’s a commission, now…”

Maddie held up a hand. “No. I’d love to do it. It’s just a hobby, you know, not a job. Just bring me a picture.”

Odalie’s eyes were unusually bright. “Okay. I’ll bring it tomorrow!”

Maddie laughed at her enthusiasm. “I’ll get started as soon as I have it.”

The picture was surprising. “This is your grandmother?” Maddie asked, because it didn’t look anything like Odalie. The subject of the painting had red hair and pale green eyes.

“My great-grandmother,” Odalie assured her, but she averted her eyes to another sculpture while she said it.

“Oh. That explains it. Yes, I can do it.”

“That’s so sweet of you, Maddie.”

“It’s nothing at all.”

It took two weeks. Maddie still had periods of discomfort that kept her in bed, but she made sure she walked and moved around, as the therapist and her doctor had told her to do. It was amazing that, considering the impact of the car, she hadn’t suffered a permanent disability. The swelling and inflammation had been pretty bad, as was the bruising, but she wasn’t going to lose the use of her legs. The doctor was still being cautious about that prognosis. But Maddie could tell from the way she was healing that she was going to be all right. She’d never been more certain of anything.

She finished the little fairy sculpture on a Friday. She was very pleased with the result. It looked just like the photograph, but with exquisite detail. This fairy was sitting on a tree stump, with a small green frog perched on her palm. She was laughing. Maddie loved the way it had turned out. But now it was going to be hard to part with it. She did put part of herself into her sculptures. It was like giving herself away with the art.

She’d promised Odalie, though, so she had to come to terms with it.

Odalie was overwhelmed with the result. She stared at it and just shook her head. “I can’t believe how skilled you are,” she said, smiling at Maddie. “This is so beautiful. She’ll, I mean my mother, will love it!”

“Oh, it’s her grandmother,” Maddie recalled.

“Yes.” Odalie still wouldn’t meet her eyes, but she laughed. “What a treat this is going to be! Can I take it with me?” she asked.

Maddie only hesitated for a second. She smiled. “Of course you can.”

“Wonderful!”

She bent and hugged Maddie gently. “Still doing okay?” she asked worriedly.

Maddie nodded. “Getting better all the time, thanks to a small pharmacy of meds on my bedside table,” she quipped.

“I’m so glad. I mean that,” she said solemnly. “The day you can walk to your car and drive it, I’ll dance in the yard.”

Maddie laughed. “Okay. I’ll hold you to that!”

Odalie just grinned.

Cort came over every day. Saturday morning he went to the barn to study the charts he and John Everett had made. John had just come over to bring Maddie flowers. She was sitting on the porch with Great-Aunt Sadie. As soon as John arrived, Cort came back from the barn and joined the group on the porch. The way Cort glared at him was surprising.

“They’ll give her allergies,” Cort muttered.

John gave him a stunned look, and waved around the yard at the blooming crepe myrtle and jasmine and sunflowers and sultanas and zinnias. “Are you nuts?” he asked, wide-eyed. “Look around you! Who do you think planted all these?”

Cort’s dark eyes narrowed. He jammed his hands into his jean pockets. “Well, they’re not in the house, are they?” he persisted.

John just laughed. He handed the pot of flowers to Great-Aunt Sadie, who was trying not to laugh. “Can you put those inside?” he asked her with a smile. “I want to check the board in the barn and see how the breeding program needs to go.”

“I sure can,” Sadie replied, and she went into the house.

Maddie was still staring at John with mixed feelings. “Uh, thanks for the flowers,” she said haltingly. Cort was looking irritated.