Mistletoe Bride

“Until she died.”

Ryan bit back a smile at Sawyer’s innocent answer, which didn’t begin to answer Dani’s question.

“I’m sorry about your grandmother, Sawyer. I’m sure you miss her.” Dani took a sip of coffee, then tried again. “Where did you stay until your dad came to get you?”

“At Granny Wright’s house with Erica.”

“Erica?”

“My mom.”

“Your mom?” The words were a squeak of surprise. As though aware she sounded like a parrot, Dani hastily explained, “I’d assumed she was dead or something.”

Sawyer giggled as only an eight-year-old boy can. “No way.” He said nothing else, but went on shoveling pancakes into his mouth, an action that left Dani visibly frustrated.

Apparently giving up on getting information from the boy, she raised her gaze to Ryan. “You and Sawyer’s mother are divorced?”

Ryan shook his head. “We never married.”

“I…see,” Dani murmured, even though she couldn’t possibly. Clearly, her curiosity battled the need to protect Sawyer from whatever truth Ryan so obviously resisted sharing.

“Erica’s a movie star,” Sawyer offered as he reached for his glass of milk. “She don’t have time to take care of a kid.” He spoke the words as if he was quoting them…no evidence of blame or pain, just a flat statement of fact that stabbed Ryan’s heart.

Dani caught her breath, a soft sound Sawyer didn’t appear to hear. Without uttering a word, she rose suddenly from the table and walked over to the counter to stand for several seconds with her back to them. Sawyer went right on eating.

Ryan barely acknowledged Dani’s action, himself, since familiar fury roiled inside him, hot as a volcano about to blow. He’d felt it before, this all-consuming rage, this bitterness, and realized that it seemed to be getting hotter, more intense with each passing day. How long until eruption? he wondered. How long until he lost control and verbalized truths that his son did not need to hear about Erica, the “movie star” who didn’t want to be called mom because it made her feel old?

“What’s your favorite thing about Christmas, Dad?” Sawyer suddenly asked, an innocent subject change that forced Ryan to ignore the pain in his heart.

He had to suck in a deep, calming breath before he could answer. “Um, cookies, I guess. My aunt Mabel used to make the best Santa-shaped ones. They had this red icing on them and these little sparkle things, all colors.” He faked a smile. “Er, Dani, what’s your favorite thing about Christmas?”

Slowly, she turned and walked back to the table. She didn’t sit, but reached for her plate. Holding it as though she’d lost her appetite and couldn’t bear to look at the food, she said after a moment, “I’d have to say the tree.”

Ryan noted that her eyes shimmered suspiciously. Tears? Almost certainly, and a sure indication of a very soft heart. Since he’d never met a woman with one of those before, he didn’t quite know what to make of it or what to do about it.

Oblivious to Ryan’s bemusement, Dani smiled at Sawyer. “What about you? What’s your favorite thing?”

“This Christmas it’s everything!” Sawyer exclaimed, throwing out his arms as if to encompass all the magic of the season.

Dani laughed then, a light, happy sound that did much to cool Ryan’s rage at Sawyer’s mother. “Why don’t we leave all these dishes for now and get busy on the tree? I don’t think I can wait another minute!”

“All right!” Sawyer said excitedly, slipping from his chair and dashing out of the room. Ryan stood, too, and slowly walked toward the door.

Dani caught his arm, stopping him. “Just tell me this, and I won’t ask another question. Before last September, did you know you had a son?”

He met her probing gaze without a blink. “I did not.”

“Somehow I knew that.” Dani sighed and stepped close to slip one arm around his waist, gently hugging him to her side. “And I’m so sorry.”

Astonished by the unexpected display of sympathy, Ryan could do nothing more than return the embrace somewhat awkwardly by laying his arm over her back and shoulders. She hugged him harder in response. Almost instantly, Ryan felt the tension begin to drain from his body. Several seconds passed before Dani released him from the healing half hug and stepped away, tears on her cheeks.

“You saw the ornaments in the living room?” she asked, unselfconsciously swiping the drops away with her fingers.

He nodded.

“Then why don’t you go help your son get started. I’m going to pour myself another cup of coffee. Want one?”

“Sure.”

With a nod, she retrieved their mugs from the table and walked over to the stove. She poured one mugful, then turned to glance curiously at Ryan, still rooted to the spot near the door. “Something wrong?”

“Actually, I think something’s right,” he murmured-words straight from the heart and, therefore, uncensored. Words that seemed to surprise her as much as they did him. Embarrassed, he turned abruptly on his heel and left the room.

Only later, when the three of them worked at hanging colorful glass balls, homemade wooden stars and glittering icicles on the tree, did Ryan think about what he’d said to her in the kitchen.

Something was right at this moment. Or maybe a lot of somethings, now that he thought about it. For the first time in his young life, Sawyer was having a fun Christmas, something Erica’s stern, no-frills mother would never have tolerated. Ryan, himself, was seeing the holiday season through Sawyer’s eyes—a joyful, renewing experience he cherished.

And Dani…well, who knew about his mystery employer? From all appearances, she enjoyed having the two of them around to share her Christmas. Ryan couldn’t imagine why, since it was bound to mean more work for her. He silently vowed to make her efforts worthwhile by working his butt off for her until he hit the road. From the looks of the ranch, there was much to be done in the way of cleanup and repair, not to mention caring for the livestock.

On that thought, Ryan suddenly remembered the horses she boarded. “Do I need to feed and water the horses?”

“No ranch work on Christmas,” she told him, adding, “I put out extra feed yesterday,” as she hung a reindeer with a tiny light bulb for a nose on the tree. She threaded the green electrical cord attached to it up the branch then down the trunk, where she plugged it into the extension cord that would provide electricity to the rest of the twinkling tree lights when connected to the electrical outlet on the wall. Smiling with pleasure, Dani turned to Sawyer. “See Rudolph, here?”

The boy nodded.

“I won him at a school carnival when I was your age.”

“They had electricity then?”

His grin gave away the fact that he was joking, but Dani squealed and pounced on him all the same. They fell to the floor in a heap, both laughing hysterically as she paid him back for his teasing insult with torturous tickles.

“Save me, Dad! Save me!” Sawyer gasped.

Who could resist such a plea? Not Ryan, who instantly reached down and plucked Dani off his squirming son. She countered the move by reaching back to goose him in the ribs. With a yelp, he instinctively wrapped his arms around her, immobilizing the attack and putting her exactly where he’d put her in his delicious fantasy—back to front with him.

The all-woman scent of her assailed him. Her breasts, crushed under his arms, tantalized beyond endurance, as did her derriere, brushing his manly front every time she struggled to be free. With a soft oomph! of pure sexual overload, Ryan released her as abruptly as he’d captured her.

Clearly unaware of the state of his libido, unholstered again in spite of all his good intentions, Dani turned. “What’s wrong?” she demanded between pants for air.

“You stepped on my foot,” he lied.

Breathless, flushed, beautiful—yes, God help him, beautiful—she eyed his foot with visible regret. “Oh. I’m sorry. That’s what I get for fooling around when I should be decorating the tree.”

Fooling around? Ryan, who could think of nothing he’d enjoy more, gulped audibly and had to look away. Though he actually ached with the need to be lying face-to-face with Dani in a bed somewhere private—bodies bare, legs tangled, hearts afire—he nonetheless feared her.

Warmhearted, caring, she had the innate potential to wreak havoc on his and Sawyer’s future by setting precedents impossible to maintain. And, inevitably, whatever life he made with his son would suffer by comparison.

Chapter Three (#ulink_95521b6e-3a5b-5045-81ae-11fad134cf2b)