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

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 pointed to another area of the barn where other large pieces of plywood had been painted with snowflakes. “I need to finish just a few things on the scenery, so I’ll be on hand if you need help with anything.”

The best help she could offer would be to stay out of his way. She was entirely too tempting to his peace of mind, but he couldn’t figure out a way to say that without sounding like an idiot, so he just decided to focus on the job at hand.

“Do you mind if I turn on some music?” she asked.

“That’s fine,” he answered. Her place, her music.

It wasn’t Christmas music, he was happy to hear. Instead, she found some classic-rock station and soon The Eagles were harmonizing through the barn from a speaker system in the work area.

She returned to her side of the area and started opening paint cans and gathering brushes, humming along to the music. Though he knew he needed to get started, he couldn’t seem to look away.

He liked watching her. She seemed to throw herself into everything she did, whether that was directing a ragtag group of children in a Christmas show, telling stories to a bunch of energetic school kids or writing a charming story about a brave reindeer.

He was fascinated with everything about her.

He had to get over it, he told himself sternly. He needed to help build her set, finish clearing out his grandmother’s house and then go back to his normal life in California.

He turned his attention to the pile of lumber and found the boards he would need. Then he spent a moment familiarizing himself with another man’s work space and the tools available to him. Rafe Santiago kept a clean, well-organized shop. He would give him that.

The moment he cut the first board, he felt more centered than he had in a long time. He was very good at building things. It gave him great satisfaction to take raw materials and turn them into something useful, whether that was a piece of furniture or a children’s hospital.