Page 85 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

“I was in my own truck but the scene in front of the hotel was one I won’t soon forget.”

“Hey, when do we vote for the winner of the challenge?” she asked as he led her to the empty sofa where two drinks sat on the table.

Linc indicated she should sit, then he sat next to her. “You don’t vote. We already did.”

“Wait. What?” She angled her body to face him.

“Blood Wilders only get to vote. It is called the Wilder Christmas Challenge, after all.”

“That’s not fair. You can cheat.”

He rolled his eyes. “How? There was one of us on each team.”

“Darcy and William were together.”

He cocked up a brow. “Darcy’s not old enough to vote.”

“Fine. You didn’t say that.” She pouted.

“You are really into this competition.”

“No, I’m not really intothiscompetition. I’m intoallcompetition.”

He nodded. “Mm. I’ve noticed. And Dad will announce the winners probably any moment. As soon as Olivia settles down.” Both of their gazes went to where Olivia was still shooting Wyatt a deadly look. “But while we’re waiting, I’d like to discuss the Wilder Foundation.”

She’d prepared for this. “That was crazy, right? Poppy is so generous.”

He was watching her too closely. “It wasn’t Poppy.”

“Of course, it was. Who else has a million dollars to throw around for a Secret Santa?”

“That’s a very good question.”

“If we’re talking gifts, can we talk about how you used my idea and gave Ethan a telescope?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Linc shook his head but she knew better. Especially when he smirked.

She was very happy that her man was such a bad liar. It gave her that extra boost of confidence that she could trust him since he was shit at lying.

But she refused to feel bad about lying to him about the endowment. It was better if he didn’t know.

Besides, that Russian oligarch who was raking in billions by driving up oil prices during the war in Ukraine wouldn’t even miss the single million she’d syphoned off to fund the charity. Maybe she’d bought him a little bit of good karma using some of his money for good so really, he should thank her.

A waiter brought over a tray of hot cider, which Eva wasn’t too excited about until she realized that she could just dump the bourbon in her glass into it.

Happy after doing just that, and giving it a quick stir with the cinnamon stick in the glass, she leaned back next to Linc and sighed.

In the huge fireplace, real logs crackled and burned, filling the air with the faint scent of wood smoke.

It was easy to imagine the Wilder family at Christmas looking much like this a hundred years ago surrounded by aromatic greens, red berries and flickering white candles. Maybe the outfits were a bit different, and today they all had cell phones in their pockets, but really not much else had changed.

Tradition was strong with these people. She’d never valued tradition all that much herself. Maybe that was because she and her mother didn’t have any of their own worth remembering. Their watching whatever old Christmas movie was playing on network TV while eating a frozen dinner wasn’t exactly something for the history books.

Eva had called her Mom before coming down to dinner. Her Dad wasn’t on her call list. He’d be with his new family anyway. That was it. The extent of her own family Christmas.

But now, for the first time in her life, she had more. She had her chosen family surrounding her.

“All right, all. It’s time for the announcement of the winners of the annual Christmas challenge. All the competitive events are over and the Wilder men have voted.”

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