Page 118 of The Holiday Gift

Much to her horror, she could feel the heavy burn of tears. She never cried! She certainly couldn’t remember ever crying over aman.Not since that idiot Cody Spencer when she was sixteen.

She took a deep breath and then another, concentrating hard on pushing the tears back. She didn’t dare speak until she could trust her voice wouldn’t wobble.

“I’m really glad we’re on the same page here,” she said, pretending a casual, breezy tone. “I’m not looking for a relationship right now. This attraction between us is...inconvenient, yes, but we’re both adults. We can certainly ignore it for the short time you’ll be living on the River Bow. After that, it shouldn’t be a problem. I mean, how often do I need to take one of the dogs to the vet? We’ll hardly ever see each other after you move into your new house.”

Instead of reassuring him as to her insouciance, her words seemed to trouble him further. His brow furrowed and he gave her a searching look.

“Caidy—” he began, but Des came into the kitchen before he could complete the thought.

“You’re still in here making pizza? This kitchen is so hot!”

Isn’t that the truth?Caidy thought.

“You didn’t even come in and watch the show with us and now it’s almost over.”

She seized on the diversion. “You really left the movie before the end?”

“Jack wanted more root beer. I told him I’d take care of it.”

Ben made a face. “Jack has probably had all the root beer one kid needs for a night. How about we switch his beverage of choice to water? If he complains, you can tell him his mean old dad said no.”

Destry grinned. “Right, Dr. Caldwell. Like anybody would believe you’re mean. Or old.”

“You’d be surprised,” he muttered.

“Why don’t you watch the end of the show with the kids?” she suggested.

“What about you?”

“I have a few things to take care of in here. After that, I’ll be right in.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “I can take Jack’s water, if you’d like,” he said to Destry, who handed over the cup and led the way to the television room.

When he was gone, taking all his heat and vitality and these seething emotions between them, Caidy slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and just barely refrained from burying her head in her hands.

She was becoming an idiot over Ben. All he needed to do was give her that rare, charming smile and her insides caught fire and she wanted to jump into his arms.

Worse than that, she was developing genuine feelings for him. How could she not? She remembered him at dinner with Maya and her heart seemed to melt.

She had to stop this or she would be in for serious heartbreak. He wasn’t interested in a relationship. He had made that plain twice now. He didn’t want anything she had to offer and she would be a fool if she allowed herself to forget that, even for a moment.

Okay, she could do this. A few more weeks and he would be gone from her life, for the most part. She would just have to work hard these remaining weeks while he was still on the River Bow to guard her emotions. Ben and his children could easily slip right past her defenses and into her heart. She was just going to have to do everything she could to keep that from happening, no matter how hard it might be.

Chapter 12

Three more days.

She could smile and make conversation and pretend to be excited about Christmas for three more days.

Less than three days actually. Two and a half, really. This was Sunday evening, the day before Christmas Eve. She had tonight, Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day to survive, and then she could toss another holiday into her personal history book.

Okay, that didn’t count the week leading up to New Year’s, but she wasn’t going to think about that. Once Christmas itself was over, she usually could relax and enjoy the remaining days of the holidays and the time it gave her with her family.

For now, she had to survive this particular evening. Caidy stepped out of her bedroom wearing her best black slacks and a dressy white silk blouse she had worn only once before, to the annual cattleman’s harvest dinner a few years earlier. With it, she wore a triple strand of colorful glass beads she had picked up at a craft fair that summer.

This was about as dressed up as she could manage. Was it too much? Not enough? She hated trying to figure out proper attire for parties, especially this one.

She fervently wished that she could stay home, pop a big batch of buttery popcorn and find something on TV that wasn’t a sappy holiday special.

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