Page 37 of The Holiday Gift

He took a subtle step back. “No. She went back to Boise with her mom this afternoon. Didn’t she tell you?”

Her face fell. “Oh, no! Does that mean she won’t be able to do the show with us? She thought she could! She and I and Olivia were going to sing a song together!”

“She still wants to. She’ll have to miss the first few rehearsals, but she should be here next week for the actual show. We’ll do our best to get her back here for rehearsal by Thursday. I might have to run into Boise to make it happen.”

“Isn’t that your day to help out at Jim Laird’s place?”

Rats. He had forgotten all about that. “Yes. I’ll figure out a way to swing it.”

“I’ll help,” she said promptly. “I can either run to Boise for you or take your day at Jim’s house. Either way, we will get Addie here.”

His heart twisted a little that with everything she had to do here at the Star N, she would even consider driving six hours round-trip to pick up his daughter.

“Thank you, but I think I can manage both. If I take off as soon as I finish feeding my stock and his, I should be able to have Addie back in time for practice. It’s important to her so I’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”

Both Faith and her daughter gave him matching warm looks that made him forget all about the snow just beyond their little covered patio.

“Thanks, Chase. You’re thebest,” Lou said. Despite the cold, she padded out to the deck in her stocking feet and threw her arms around his waist. He smiled a little and hugged her back, thinking how much he loved both Louisa and her brother. They were great kids, always thinking of others. They were like their mother in that respect.

“Better head back inside. It’s cold out here and you don’t have shoes or a coat.”

“I do have to go back in. I have to finish dessert. I made it myself. Aunt Mary hardly helped at all.”

“I can’t wait,” he assured her.

She grinned and skipped back into the house, leaving him alone again with Faith. When he turned away from the doorway, he found her watching him with an expression he couldn’t read.

“What did I say?” he asked.

“I... Nothing,” she mumbled. “I’ll go get the steaks.”

She hurried past him before he could press her, leaving him standing alone in the cold.

Chapter 9

Faith couldn’t leave the intimacy of the covered deck quickly enough.

She felt rattled and unsettled and she hated it. With a deep sense of longing, she remembered dinner just the previous Sunday, when they had laughed and joked and teased like always. He had stayed to watch a movie and she had thrown popcorn into his mouth and teased him about not shaving for a few days.

There had been none of this tension, this awareness that seemed to hiss and flare between them like that stupid grill coming to life.

She had wanted him to kiss her. It was all she could seem to think about, that wondrous feeling of being alive, desired.

Another few moments and she would have been the one to kiss him.

She forced herself to move away from the door and into the kitchen, where Aunt Mary looked up from the rolls she was pulling apart.

“Tell me Chase saved the day again.”

“We’re in business. It was all about the gas connection. I feel stupid I didn’t look there first.”

“Sometimes it takes an outside set of eyes to identify the problem and find the solution.”

Could someone outside her particular situation help her figure out how to go back in time and fix what felt so very wrong between her and Chase?

“Where are the steaks?” she asked her aunt.

“Over there, by the microwave.”

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