Lone Star Christmas

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CALLIE STARED AT him in shock. “The Sanders did what?”

“Asked me to participate. They said you are organizing it.”

Telling herself she had not just stumbled into a lion’s den of temptation, Callie kept her eyes locked with his. “Although I no longer work full-time at the Double Knot, I still advise them part-time and help out with all the marketing.”

“Is this an annual event?” he asked.

Glad to be moving back to a conversation that was strictly business, she got the last of the serving dishes and slid them into the dishwasher. “It’s the first, although we’re expecting it to become a beloved yearly tradition.”

Nash stepped back, giving her room to work. “How did it come about?”

Callie added soap to the dishwasher and turned it on. “They don’t book a lot of outdoor weddings for Nature’s Cathedral in December and January—the weather is too cold for most. So I suggested that Frank and Fiona use the lag time to put on an old-fashioned Christmas Celebration for their clients, suppliers and referral partners and their families, both as a way of saying thank you and to drum up future business.”

She switched off the light and he followed her into the hall. “For you, as well?”

Callie nodded. “We could do the same for your Christmas tree business.”

“As well as the xeriscape plants and trees I am hoping to sell to local garden centers.”

She paused next to the coatrack in the foyer. “In the meantime, you could do what I am going to do, and raffle off free trees and/or evergreen wreaths to whatever number of lucky guests you decide upon.”

“How many people are you hoping to host?”

“Five hundred or so. Although invitations are going out for close to one thousand guests.”

He smiled. “Impressive.”

She reached for his hat and coat, and handed them to him. “We’re setting up the party barn at the Double Knot as a Santa’s Village. Hart is going to play Santa. We’ll also have photographers, train rides up the mountain and a choir and a brass quintet at Nature’s Cathedral to get people in the holiday mood.”

“Sounds great.”

She arched a brow. “So you’re in?”

“Absolutely.”

“It means you’ll have to help the day of the event, as well as the week or so leading up to it,” she warned. “Sure you’re up to that?”

“No problem. As soon as I fill the orders for the Christmas trees I already have, my schedule will free up considerably.”

They looked at each other.

Callie knew if he stayed they would only end up kissing again. She made a show of stifling a yawn.

He grinned, as if knowing however tired she might be, sleep was going to be a long time coming. Especially if she started thinking about the way he had kissed her, and touched her, again...

Which, she told herself firmly, she would not.

His grin widened all the more. “I can take a hint.” He shrugged on his coat and ambled toward the front door. “If you need anything before Monday...” he said over his shoulder.

“I’m good, but thanks.” She reached for the knob and opened the door for him.

“Seriously.” He paused, looking down at her, tenderness pushing aside the mischief in his eyes. “I’m here for you.”

Callie nodded, a lump in her throat. It had been a long time since she had been looked after by any man.

He settled his Stetson square on his head. “This is where you tell me you’re here for me, too.”

She continued looking at him, poker-faced.

He winked. “Us being neighbors and all...”

He really knew how to put a gal on the spot. Lucky for him, she’d been brought up to be a Texas lady. “I’m here for you—as a neighbor—too,” she said finally.

He looked like he’d won the lottery. “Just what I wanted to hear.”

To her surprise, she felt like she had won it, too.

“In the meantime,” he went on, stepping over the threshold, “it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. So we probably won’t be working.”

Callie lounged in the doorway, arms crossed, aware he had planned for weather delays.

“So if you and Brian are up for it,” Nash continued genially, “I was going to see—”

Callie held up a hand, cutting him off. “Actually, we already have a get-together planned for tomorrow. But maybe some other time?” For a moment, Nash looked like he wanted to say something else. Then he stopped himself, nodded. “Some other time, then,” he said.

And, looking more cheerful than ever, left.

Chapter Five (#ulink_56b2f2b9-7311-5868-b0af-5b0e8254d2e2)

“Bad day?” Maggie asked, when Callie and Brian showed up at her home the following afternoon.

“Unbelievably bad so far.” She carefully hung up their rain-spattered coats on the tree in the hall. Then watched her son stomp off to join his cousin in the family room, where Hart was busy setting up a child-size table and chairs.

It had been one temper tantrum after another since the moment Brian had gotten up that morning. And, as it turned out, the steady, pouring rain and ever-present gloom hadn’t helped either of their moods.

Maggie hugged Callie as tightly as her pregnant-form would allow. “Well, this, too, shall pass,” she promised cheerfully. “At least that’s what Hart and I tell ourselves whenever Henry is overtired and out of sorts.”

Appreciating the support, Callie smiled, then took a moment to admire the decorations her sister and her husband had put up. A beautiful wreath hung on the front door, and a big tree in front of the bay window dominated the formal living room. Garlands laced the staircase, stockings the mantel. Colored lights and a Santa sleigh and reindeer set adorned the exterior of the house. Clearly, they had gone all out. Which only reminded her of the work she had yet to do.

The trees Hart had previously delivered for the bunkhouse and her home remained undecorated. As did the rest of the interior of her home. Callie bit her lip, wondering when she was going to find the time to get everything done.

Drawing a deep breath, she moved farther into the house. “Anyone else here yet?”

Maggie shook her head. “You’re the first. Although the cookie dough I made is ready to roll out.”

Callie carried the two containers of spritz dough, baking sheets and the cookie press she’d brought with her into the kitchen. “Mine is ready to go, too.”

Before they could talk further, the doorbell rang, again and then again. The other two couples came in out of the rain, their preschoolers in tow. Callie was still saying hello to the other four adults when the doorbell rang a third time.

Hart went to get it.

“Hey, buddy,” her brother-in-law said cheerfully. Callie turned, and her heart did a little somersault in her chest as she came face-to-face with Nash Echols. What in the world was he doing here? At a gathering of preschool kids and their parents, no less?

“Glad you could make it,” Hart told Nash, slapping him on the back.

Recognition dawned. Suddenly, she had to know. “Was this what you were talking about last night?” Callie asked Nash, moving closer. When he had off-handedly tried to make plans with her for today, then backed off without ever saying what it was he had been wanting to do?

Nash took off his jacket and hung it up. He was wearing jeans and a gray-and-black-plaid flannel shirt that brought out the dark silver of his eyes Beads of water clung to his face and shone in his hair. Once again, he had shaved closely.

“Yeah. I was going to offer you and Brian a ride, but I could see you wanted to drive yourself.” His glance moved over her lazily, appreciatively taking in her cowl-necked sweater and jeans. “And if it hadn’t rained, as predicted, I wouldn’t be here.”

He would have been working on the mountain cutting down trees with the rest of his crew, Callie knew.

He regarded her affably. “So, I figured we’d just each do our own thing.”

Which, for Callie, now included feeling warm and tingly all over...

Oblivious to her overtly sensual reaction to their guest, her brother-in-law urged Nash forward. “The Texas game’s on. Come on in, let me introduce you to everyone,” Hart said. The two men headed off to the family room.

Callie sighed with relief and made a beeline for the kitchen. Taking advantage of the momentary privacy, Callie whispered to Maggie, “Is this a fix-up?”

Her twin scoffed and adjusted the racks in the double convection ovens so three pans of cookies could be baked in each simultaneously. “No.”

“Really?” Callie countered. “Because everyone else here is married, except Nash and me, and everyone has a child in the Country Day Montessori Preschool, except Nash. So...”

Maggie pulled an apron out of a drawer and handed it to Callie. “It’s just the holidays can be a hard time to be alone,” she explained.

Callie knew that better than anyone. Still... Starting any kind of romantic dalliance, no matter how causal, this time of year wasn’t wise, either. And if Nash were equally at loose ends—because he had just moved to the area—then it was a doubly bad idea.